March 10, 2026 Board of Finance & Town Council Finance Committee Budget Hearing: Town Departments

001That's okay. >> All right. Good morning, everybody. Um, I want to welcome you to our uh second day of budget hearings for the board of finance uh to meet with town departments. Today is um Tuesday, March 10th. We met with the board of education last week and this morning we'll start with our public safety departments and all of that. Um if you would just quickly um stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. >> 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. Thank you. Um, a little bit about today since there's some new new people on our board and haven't done this before. This is

002our day. It's a really good work session. So, we get to hear from each of the departments what their request was in relation to the first selectman's um budget and budget proposal and different items. It's our chance to ask questions and it's a really good working session. Um so, please ask all of your questions. No questions are stupid questions. Um and I'm hoping for some really good conversation. But for fun today, I'd like to start um the meeting by welcoming Chief Lombardo um and a special guest. Some of you have probably already seen that we have um new addition to our department. Officer Caitlyn Bakayoki um spent several weeks of training at a maximum security prison in a location in New York State um for a in a program called Puppies Behind Bars. And this

003is the puppy she came home with. Uh he's just about 14 months old. He's a comfort dog. He's for people inside our department, but also outside. He's in the field all the time with Caitlyn. So, Caitlyn, if you >> Yep. So, this is Jake. He is a wellness dog. He um is going to be on patrol right now. He is um super goofy person. I mean, he goes into the school, goes into everywhere within the community and everybody lights up. So, he's uh awesome to have. Um, even like in our department, you could see different like different people up to you or like kind of a little bit more quiet. They'll come up and they'll be a totally different person. Um, trying to think. So, I mean, I proposed this to you not a long

004time ago, but like a year ago after like a critical incident that happened within Trumbull. Um, and the reason I had this idea for him be like not listening that right >> there. Now he knows over 60 commands. Um he's I mean he's got a lot of different things that he can do that's going to be very helpful. Um he was raised in the prisons so He went for two weeks um training. He was there since he was a puppy. Um in a maximum security prison um where it was actually it's a rehabilitation center basically for them um which gives them kind of a purpose within the >> Any questions? >> He does live with me. Yes. >> If you could just turn your mics on when you're doing that so that the camera will

005pick up most of it. Another reason I I uh was looking into this was actually because we I went to a funeral, the Bristol shooting. Um and there was a bunch of these dogs out there and my thing in Trumble is I like to jump on mental health calls. Um so when I saw those dogs, I was like, what a cool thing to add to town or whatever. But um so I was pretty excited about that and pretty pumped about him. And he is he's a very very good dog. I have no problem going up to children, people with disabilities, anything like that. He's completely amazing. >> He takes them around to a variety of places. She's brought them uh nursing homes that we have in town, um the mall, the schools. We've actually gotten

006requests from other agencies within the region that do not have a dog like this. Can you come to our school? Um he's one of the first in this region. Milford has one and Norwalk has one. Other than that, it's just us. There's probably close to 20 throughout the state. Um I've spoken with a variety of chiefs throughout the state who have program like this and they've said it's been a real big help. Internally, internally, we have a peer support team that um you know is there for our other officers like an employee assistance program because they go to some critical calls um kind of on a regular basis that people might not even hear about. Um, one in particular was just this this past week in a traumatic call where somebody was crushed by a

007tree. Caitlyn was actually one the one of the first people there and um when you see something like that it does it can affect you. So over and we've learned for mental health for police officers over a period of years it's a cumulative effect. It might not affect you. Today's call might not affect you and you say you just kind of brush it off. part of a job and so on and so forth relatively over a 20 year 25 year period it can affect you and there has been um you know quite a few unfortunate uh law enforcement suicide um in Connecticut in area departments um and it's tragic for that person for their family and for the officers in the department because people start questioning did they say anything should I I should have

008seen this I should have picked up on but and it does affect people so we felt that the best way to help people was from the very beginning. So, several years ago, we started the peer support program within the department and we had officers specially trained to work with officers and just kind of like it's kind of like almost venting or just having somebody to talk to who's been in the same environment who can kind of relate and be empathetic to what you might be experiencing. And they always have the ability to um do a referral to our professional employee assistance program. And um we just thought this was another addition to help them, but also we help the community with it. Um you know, the schools, they love it. Any place she's gone with

009the dog, it's just like a it just people are attracted to it. You saw when she came upstairs, there were people from downstairs coming up and because it's just and he's very good. I've never heard him bark. I think Caitlyn said she's heard him bark once. >> Bark. He scares himself when he does it. So he's very, you know, he's he's he's very good. So very docil. Yeah. And >> it's really um in a week and a half she's had him here at the department. >> Um it's really been good. So we're looking forward to a long-term program. Um and we're looking for donations, too, if anybody has any interest. Um because we've tried to sustain the canang program we have with the working dog in the field, dogs in the field that we had.

010um through revenue. We do have small pieces within the budget, but we've been able to get a lot of um good revenue in that people have made donations and we're trying to do the same thing with um Jake. So, there's um not as much of a burden on the town and we think it's a really good program. H >> how would you donate? Send a check to the police department uh Trumbull Police Department and in the memo section, please write Jake or wellness program. >> He's a part of our wellness program. >> Chief, I assume he does the same shifts as Caitlyn does. >> Yes, Caitlyn's on our day shift right now. So, whatever shift she works, her rotating schedule also he's with Caitlyn. He's only with Caitlyn. >> And did our reinstatement of the

011pension help with his recruitment? >> Usually might going forward. >> Yeah. It's uh she's one of the first in line to take the test. >> You pass a flying color, right? >> Terrific. >> Yeah. >> Ter about about how much does it cost a year to maintain a K9 officer? >> Well, aside from the officer salary, we they we pay about um $4,000 in training that he goes to. Um, anytime we have to, he has to have a car specifically designated to him. Uh, we outfit the car differently than we outfit the regular patrol cars because we've got to have um a remote door opener. So, if the officer's out of a car and they need the K9, they can um press a remote and it'll pop the door open. They have to have a

012self-contained um air conditioning heating unit in the back of the car for them also. and they have to have um people have to have a special cage, too. So, there's a variety of things that are needed. Those are usually one-time purchases >> and they, you know, stay with the officer in the car for >> quite a few years. Um it's probably a few thousand dollars on top of that training. The working K9 is different than this dog. Totally separate operation. And I think this is chief can help out a little bit more cost dog. I >> I was only going to lend that it's uh similar to any other dog. Uh it covers several different lines that you would with maintenance, vet costs, uh food, some specialty equipment. So, it's kind of mixed throughout our

013budget with uh a variety of uh smaller costs in addition to the bigger ones like the vehicle itself. >> And how many working dogs do you have now? currently >> one patrol dog and our comfort dog which you see here. >> Um, anybody have any other questions or need puppy snuggles? >> Will will the dog work with I don't have a mic. >> Mary, there's a mic on that table. >> Oh god. >> There's also a seat back here for you. No, >> I'll come. >> Will the dog work with the social instances? I know that we've been very proactive or you've been very proactive with that. >> Yeah. So, we have, as you know, we have a social worker that's our department that we hired about a year and a half ago. Now, we

014we have another one we hired in December. It's not a second person. and the other one had to leave. Um, but that's part of the program. Social worker does a lot of things with um getting people resources that they might not be aware of, getting them into programs. Go ahead. >> I'm sorry. I'm sorry. >> You know, whatever type of care they might need and that's another um reason why we wanted the comfort dog because there's times definitely when a crisis or the social worker needs help with something and it's just just calming effect. So, prior to this too with the um the other social worker and the social worker we have now, I specifically make sure I reach out with her and I make sure that you know there's secondary steps to um the

015calls that we go to. So, if it was something where it's tragic and I make sure that if there was a kid involved that they're getting extra help from the schools, they're getting a counselor, they're getting this see some of these things and it's not easy for a 15-year-old to process. Um and just making sure that, you know, they're getting the support and help that they need as well. >> Well, I'm all for it. Any other questions? Last chance for Pepe Snuggles. >> Good. Thank you so much for coming up this morning. I know meeting him the other day made my day, too. So, and you. >> Oh, well, thank you. Okay. Um, we're going to get started with um stuff from the actual budget book this morning on page 183 with animal control. Lynn

016Dela Bianca is our animal control officer, an all-around good human. Um, and I'm going to ask uh when you do um start your presentations, if you would just introduce yourselves to our new members also, that's just helpful. um we really wanted to put today in person. We've been doing these meetings by Zoom for the last few years and we really wanted people to be able to um meet people in the departments and face to face and put names and faces to together. It's a little bit um easier to do that live. So, thank you for coming today. Um and we'll start um with Lynn on page 183. if you would just kind of walk us through um your budget request and any goals, give us a little overview and we'll go from there. >> Sure.

017Good morning. My name is Lind Debianca. I'm the animal control officer here in Drumble and um so basically um for my budget um I everything that we asked for is is here was approved by the first select women's office. So um pretty happy about that. I think the only thing that they took out was um for communications legal and that was a an account that we had where we have to post by state law we have to post um our lost and found dogs and we do the Connecticut um post and um have to hold a stray animal coming in. We have to hold for seven days. So we put the ad in one day and then we hold for seven days. After that time, if the animal's not claimed, it becomes our property. Um,

018but they're not charging us for those ads um anymore. They haven't for the last couple years. So, they took that out of the budget. And otherwise, everything else basically is um is what we asked for. We do have to get a new vehicle this year. Unfortunately, our vehicle last year was um totaled um on the highway. Um the officer, thank goodness, was not in it, but it was on the side of the road on a call and um some woman creamed into our van and also the state troopers car. So, um, we do have to get a new new van and outfit that obviously with the stuff that we need in it. >> Um, anybody have any questions? Masimo, you had one question >> and then Paul. >> Yeah, good morning, Lynn. The only question

019I had was, if I recall from the the the capital plans, we were talking about a donated generator that could be retrofit for the the animal control shelter. My question was, if for some reason that retrofit doesn't work, is there a consideration for additional budget for purchasing a generator? >> Well, ironically, um, last year that that uh, generator was not working at all. The company had come out several times. It's an old unit and they said they were having trouble getting parts and various things. Uh, and so it was not working. But this last snowstorm we had um, where electricity um, and it wasn't because of the storm necessarily. I guess a tree fell down um near uh uh Churchill Road and and Edison and power was knocked out. So I was actually there at

020the shelter um when the power went out about 6:00 in the morning and then the town guys came over and said, "Are you okay?" Yes. Um generator's not working. And one of the mechanics, he's a true genius, came and said, "Well, let me see what we can too. And they went out there and he actually was able he he he said that he started it with I guess ether or something and he said it's just that the gas is not on. So they he found the hot switch and he turned it on and it actually did work. Now how long it's going to work I'm not really sure but it right now it was working. >> Lynn, I believe they have actually have a donation of another generation. >> That's what I heard. Yes. >>

021And they're trying to retrofit it to do that. So Masimo is asking if there would be budget implications if they didn't. I believe they would come back for a supplemental for that if there was a purchase issue and it would be a bonded item. But I think that's under that's taken care of at the moment. So I'm glad it was working. I like really smart people. >> Yes. >> Um yes. >> And I just want to acknowledge the fact that your job really is 247. Yes. um you know >> can be >> um I did adopt a kitten from uh animal control um and the tag group in September and I think you had been bottlefeeding them so you were taking them home and bringing them back. >> So there's a lot that goes into

022that. So thank you. >> Yes. >> Um Paul >> Lyn, can you talk to us a bit about the condition of your building? >> Um well it's an older building. It's um built in the 60s. Um, but over the years since I've been there, we have renovated certainly had the addition on which was I don't know about 12 15 years ago. We added on two cat rooms and then a new office area because basically it was just the kennel and then an office area which when people when I was talking to people on the phone it sounded like I was in the kennel >> um with the noise. So um we we have those areas. Um we did some fencing in the back. Actually our volunteer group added another pen in the back. Um, we

023did the floors years ago with a more permanent um substrate on the floors and we also had the kennels, the um chain link fencing was was redone and we recently just had it painted. So, um we're in pretty good shape. Um there are some new stats um that are statutes that are going to be coming out from the department of a um about um when places are building new shelters and renovating older ones. Um, I think we're in pretty good shape. I've had reached out to my state officer um who will be coming down. They do inspections of us every year. We've we've passed everyone um over all the years I've been there. Um but there might be some things we might have to tweak with this new statute, which really doesn't come into effect

024until 2029. So, we certainly have time to do that. But I know a lot of new shelters that are being built in the state um and some of them that have to build because they're not not going to be in compliance with this new law. >> And do we have any existing regional cooperation agreements? >> Uh we do not right now. No. >> Do we do any regional assistance with other communities? >> Um there there are some regional um there are some regional uh in the area. There's I think up in the north um west corner um northeast corner uh Woodbridge I believe um has now u become a regional and actually in the town I live in Bristol they're looking at uh building a a new facility or retrofitting an old building that they

025have and they're hoping to get some regional people because they could obviously get some state grants um to build a new place. >> Last question. How long have you been with us? >> Uh it was 21 years in October. >> Congratulations and thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Been an honor. >> Any other questions for Lynn? >> Thank you, Lynn. >> Okay. >> Oh, go ahead, Mary. >> You know, you always got to look at the back row. Um u the issues we had with OSHA last year. Did those get cleared up? I know there were a couple things with uh the animal shelter. >> Um yes. One of the biggest ones there was a trough in the front of the kennels and so we actually had to make it it's a custom pieces

026of metal that go over that. I guess it was more of a tripping hazard than anything else, but it's actually worked out nice um as far as because it now gives a smooth um level thing even for the employees for us to walk u by the front of the kennels. The only thing we've noticed is that um and we've fixed that. Um some of the smaller dogs because these have very small holes, but some of the dogs as they walk over it um a nail got caught into it. So, we just we just put rugs in front of their cage and so that they can walk on it. Um, and basically I think that that was the biggest thing. The other thing was like all the chemicals and stuff and I just got we just

027got a SDS book. Um, someone came down with all the chemicals and things like that. I think we the eyewash I already had an eyewash there but they wanted something different so that was installed. Um, and I'm that's about the biggest things that we had there really as far as I can remember right now. And then the truck, would that be covered 100% uh by insurance from the offender or you know the woman? >> Apparently they got some insurance money for the van. I'm not sure exactly how much it was. It certainly wouldn't buy a brand new van, but um but apparently there was an insurance payout. >> And then last year Tag Group's amazing. Um Grazie does a fabulous job. The social media has been I mean there's been so much interest and so

028they've been doing a really really great job. She's a wizard at that stuff and she catches stuff like even some of the pictures she has of me. I mean, she does a lot with the animals, but a couple times recently she's posted pictures of me and I didn't even know she was taking taking the photo. I'm engrossed in what I'm doing and then all of a sudden there I am with an animal in my arms or something and she had snapped a shot. So, yeah, she's she's very talented. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. Anyone else? All right, we're going on to page 163. in your big budget book. Um this is the police department starting there. Also on your desks you should find um some supplemental information from Chief Lombardo and a couple of charts

029as well. >> All right, gentlemen. Good morning. >> Good morning. Thank you. >> I don't know how you're going to top the dog, though. >> I don't think we can. >> Nope. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um so I'll just start with um some basics about the department. We developed the budget that is before you. Um we approached the process with a strong awareness of our responsibility to the taxpayers. We always do. Um we carefully reviewed our operations. We work to ensure that we are requesting what we're requesting is reasonable and necessary and directly tied to maintaining effective public safety services for our community. At the same time, my primary focuses was ensuring that the men and women of our police department have the staffing, equipment, and support necessary to do their job safely and effectively. Every

030day our officers respond to unpredictable and often dangerous situations. And it's our responsibility to uh make sure that our residents are protected and the officers are pro protected to the best of our ability. Over the past year, we've tried to strengthen our department. We've added a full-time social worker in the last year and a half or so. Um we have the wellness dog, which you just met. uh both of which support our officers and improve our response to residents experiencing crisis and trauma. These additions not only help our officers do their jobs more safely, but also allow us to address certain calls for service more effectively and often prevent situations from escalating. Simply put, when our officers are properly trained, staffed, equipped, and supported, they're better able to sri provide services to the community in

031a safe manner and to keep our community as safe as we can. Um, I can start whichever area of the budget you'd like me to start with. Um, we can look at the personnel headcount forms that I handed out to you if you'd like. Um, I see some heads nodding, so I will start with that. So if you look at the personal headcount form that I left everybody um not the graph you'll see that we've broken down the department patrol support administrative detective bureau and not available and those who've retired. So currently at the end of February we had 80 members on the police department 70 are available for work. Um and if you look to the left of that under academy FTTO you'll see the number seven. That's we have seven in training right

032now. If and that's not inservice people who are already certified. Those are brand new people who cannot work by themselves. So they're not counted. We're paying them, but they're not counted as part of our total to fill uh shifts in patrol. They're either riding with somebody or they're still in the police academy. From when the day we hire somebody, it's close to a year before they can work by themselves. And those are all standards and requirements of the uh state police the police academy in Connecticut. Um and then to the left of that we have somebody on maternity. We have one person out on in admin, one person sick. Um so there's a variety of reasons why although we have 80, we're working at 70. Um so we continue to do as much recruitment as

033we can. Um HR has really helped us a lot. We we run uh testing processes on a regular basis. um some of our testing um we have seen in seen increased numbers of people applying to the department uh since the restoration of the pension and we've actually seen our retention um levels kind of you know pretty much level off to an extent. Obviously we're always we're going to have retirements that's going to happen. Um and we're going to have people that'll leave for other reasons as well. So, um, right now we've got to that 80s, uh, standpoint and which is actually 79 now because it's March 2nd, somebody retired, uh, which we expected, but it wasn't in the month of February. So, um, I don't know if there's any questions on that. >> No. Okay.

034>> Do you want to just touch on this chart? >> Yeah, that was my next thing. So if you look at the chart, the graph that is next, that is something that the assistant chief um put together and he actually did the work on the personnel headcount also, but it's a 10-year trend of our seniority. So if you look at the top one in 2014, there were uh 28 people who had 25 years or more on the department and with less than four years on the department, there were seven. Well, that's pretty much completely flipped in the last 10 years. In 2024, we had uh 18 with less than four years on the department and um 13 that have that 20 25 year mark or more. So, what does that mean? It means that we're

035still going to have retirements, but we need to do more training. And because every one of these people with uh even up to nine years on the department, those 24 people are in our patrol division. That's the the bulk of our patrol division right now are inexperienced officers with less than five years on the department. Um so is it a bad thing? No. But it means that we have to work harder. We have to have closer supervision of them and we have to have more training for them to bring them up to speed quicker than we might normally do because there's a lot of people that are brand new in patrol and patrol brings all the services to the community on a 24-hour basis. So, we put a lot into training and we put a

036lot into um you know, all of our people, but we have to we have to uh maintain staffing and try to get them up to speed as quickly as possible. Are there any questions on that? >> Just a a quick question. What would be your ideal mix? Somewhere between these two years or >> Yeah, somewhere between that. It's when you hit a five-year mark in law enforcement, you're generally considered a seasoned officer. Um, and some of it has to do with what shifts people work, too. So, if you um work the midnight shift, you're not going to be you won't have as much activity as you do on a day shift or evening shift. They're just busier. More people are out, businesses are open, retail's open. Um, and it's just there's more people working in

037town also. Uh what are the trends around uh retention? Is there a lot of lateral movement between uh um uh uh uh towns and so forth or do you maintain? >> No, not so much. Um, we actually offer a a sign on bonus if you do come to us from another department. And I think we've only gotten we've been offering that for at least three years now, but I think we've only gotten maybe three people out of that. We haven't gotten a lot of um a lot of interest in that. >> You're home growing growing your uh your your team. >> Yeah. Yeah. So I don't think um and I don't think most departments get a lot of laterals either. You know some do depend on what people are looking for and we have had

038lateral people apply to the department. No offense to any of them but there were people that we didn't hire. >> Do you have a sense of how many retirements you expect in the next year? in the next year I would it could fluctuate somewhere between three to five somewhere about there. It's I mean we hear there's no requirement for the officers to tell us listen I'm going to retire in the next year or six months or something like that. We know that we have like I said 13 people over uh 25 years. So they're eligible for that retirement. After 30 years they have full retirement. They're fully maxed out on their benefit. So some go to other agencies and some go to other um types of jobs, >> some you know >> in the new

039pension plan that years of service changed slightly. >> Still need 30. Yeah. >> Okay. I thought it had gone to 35. >> No. >> Any other questions on staffing, retention, anything like that? Uh yeah, just had one question regarding the seven officers that you said we they can't run a shift alone uh for a year. Just where they are within that time frame and when they will be able to. Um there are four in field training now which means they've completed the police academy. They have to do a minimum of 12 weeks with um somebody training them. Um they're at various stages. is I think they're only in their early first first phase or second phase at the most. So they've probably have a good eight weeks on average left before they can uh work

040by themselves. We have three in the academy right now. So they're not out. They haven't graduated yet. >> Thank you, Chief. >> Any other questions there? >> All right. Um, where would you like to go next? >> Okay, we should probably start with salary since it's the top of the uh >> That's good >> list there. So, um, the salary line increased by about $761,000 this year u for a variety of reasons that we have set two unions within the department. The mate union got a uh 2.75% increase this past year. So that amount went up in their contracts. And then there were um nine people that were not fully budgeted for this entire current fiscal year. So now that we have hired most of those people, we're budgeting for a full amount of officers

041coming having a full staff. So that's obviously a big increase there. That's the bulk of the reason. Am I missing anything? >> That's correct. Restored. >> Yeah. So we've re We just need to restore the money, the funding. >> I'm not disappointed in that. Sorry. Not disappointed at all. >> Yeah. We, you know, um the reduction of the $210,000 for turnover rate. Um my biggest concern with that is that um we don't expect to have as many vacancies. That's about three and a half officers. And I'm concerned that it may create a shortfall for us next year. Um because if we are if we have more people on the department, we're going to eat into that $210,000 and it might create a short for fall for us next year like we have this year. This

042year currently we're going to spend more in our salary account than we have budgeted because we have those those people hired. Can you touch on a little bit of the salary line item versus overtime and the balance when you're shorter staffed and what overtime? Can you talk about that a little bit? >> Yeah, sure. So, overtime is not just for the staffing shortages. It also covers a variety of of uh other issues. Let me just I have some notes I just wanted to address. Okay. here someplace. So, we pay I'll I'll start so you don't have to wait any longer. So, we pay overtime to fill shifts. The most of the overtime. There's other reasons why we pay overtime in the department. The bulk of it is in the patrol division. It's the largest division

043in the department. And we have to have a minimum amount of police officers in the field every shift 24 hours a day. Um so we also have to um send people to training. We have inservice training is a constant thing. So it's not just a matter of getting them certified when they start but they have to constantly do inservice training. Every three years they have to have 60 hours of reertification training in specific fields to keep their certification. Um we have people that are sick. We have people on administrative leave. We have people in maternity leave. We have people who um on military leave, funeral leave, uh vacation leave, personal leave, compensatory time leave. Um the list goes on and on and um there's a variety of reasons why overtime has not come down right

044now because although we have the people on the payroll like I explained earlier, we're still not filling those shifts. We don't have them to use and say, "Okay, go work this shift because somebody took a vacation day. What instances do you use comp time? >> The the assistant chief has a little to add to that also. Sorry, I I just added in uh the need for overtime could also be driven by um special events um major crimes, major incidents when we're when we would need more personnel to come in. Even major weather events might dictate the need for more officers to be on duty. And that would all be drawn from overtime as well. anything in addition to the normal scheduled uh staff that we have on duty would draw from overtime. So those needs

045are somewhat unpredictable although we know that there's a constant draw every week throughout the year. >> Can you just give me an example of when you use comp time like compensatory time? >> Well, that would be when somebody takes time off. So, if somebody works um extra hours for us, they can take it in overtime pay or they can take it in compensatory time, which is at the same rate. It's time and a half. So, when they go to take off the time, um there's a vacancy. It might it may not necessarily create an overtime position, but it could. It's just it all depends on how the shifts fall, who's working, who's available. um in the union contract they're allowed to have a certain amount of officers off per shift. So if we go below

046the minimum that we're required to do, we have to hire overtime. >> And in that also, can you explain um minimum staffing requirements by contract and by you know how that works? >> Sure. So, the contract we have with the police union says that we must have at least five patrol officers working um every shift with the exception of a few on the midnight shift. It can go down to four. Um so, we always have to do that and we have to have obviously at least a supervisor that's in the field. Um there are times where there we have information that something may be occurring. We'll add more to the department. not maybe weather related, but there's also um events, street takeovers, all sorts of a variety of things we may get intelligence information on

047ahead of time and we have to we have to stack our shifts with more people. Um uh the assistant chief touched on something with um events. If there's a large event and we need people to work, we have to we have to put them out there aside from the people that are in our patrol division. That's additional people that are working. If something goes ary at that event, we have to call people from the patrol sectors in the field to cover that or we may have to call the next shift in. It's happened before where we've had uprisings at a variety of places within the town and we have to get people in urgently. Doesn't happen all the time thankfully, but it has happened. Um, and we have to prepare for those things and especially

048when we have information ahead of time, we always add people to the to the shifts. questions on staffing overtime, anything like that. >> Okay. >> Where would you like me to? >> Um, do you want to go to fleet? You want to go? >> Sure. So, um the fleet is um something we're always concerned with and the reason for that is because if somebody if a car is in our patrol that's under capital um if I think it's page 173 at least on what I have >> um in the material that um chief provided you it's on page 27. >> Oh, okay. >> He's got his um it looks Okay, sure. In the first Lechman budget, there's two uh new cars in the budget and two from the special agency account, I believe, for a

049total of four cars. Um, and if you just want to run through the fleet needs from there. >> Okay. I think it's actually three from special revenue and one from the budget. >> Oh, sorry. I had it backwards. >> Um, so the last few years, actually the last three years, this would be the fourth year running, our our fleet has been reduced by one car a year. Um, so we if we stay with four cars this year, we'll be down four cars from the fleet overall in uh adding those four years together. The patrol cars are something that when they hit a certain mileage or they are not functioning as well as we would like them to be, we take them out of service from the patrol division. we put them somewhere else cuz I'm

050I don't want officers going to calls at high speeds with a car that's not reliable and safe because they're either going to get stuck and not get to the call that they need to get to rapidly or they're going to get in an accident and get hurt. And we have had a couple of incidences over the years where somebody has gotten stuck on the way to a call. Um so they need to be really performing well. So, we would move them from a patrol fixed uh in in the patrol division to maybe a school car or some of the cars you see that are parked at the construction sites. Um we may drop a car down to um our detective bureau and take the striping off of it. Um but that's a slippery slope also

051because the detectives do respond to these calls. These detectives are driving all over the place. They're not just in trouble. They have to go distances for cases that they work and I want them in a reliable, safe car. Um, we call them our COVID cars. Some of the Fords that you see out in the field, they're very problematic. We've had brand new ones come to us that we've had to send back to the dealer because of problems with the car. Um, and we still have we still have some of those in our fleet. They're not as reliable as they'd like to be. What? And a perfect example is one of our K9 cars uh for the other working dog since we got it brand new has been in and out of service on a regular

052basis. Um it's got 65,000 or so miles on it right now. It just spent about two months at Park City Ford being repaired, which means he was either not working with the dog or we tried to put him in another car. Um, at one point, Lind Dela Biano, because her car was total, needed kind of our I'm going to not spare, but one of our cars that's set up as a K9 car, she was using that. So, it didn't allow us to have a car for him for a period of time. Just got the car back and I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, I think it has to go back to Ford because there's something wrong with the either the transmission or the heat in the car right now. >> Is that right? >>

053Well, just to touch on what I'm Brian Weer, Lieutenant Police Department. So just to touch on uh just what piggy back what Chief said K91 which is our K9 patrol officer's vehicle um it had transmission problems. So that was down in Park City Ford since mid December was down there for two and a half months. There was a water leak in the officer come out there three inches of water in the passenger side >> that had to get worked. >> There was bugs and bugs I mean there's cars have been problematic. We still have a couple in the fleet that are out of warranty but they've been having issues that we've been trying to deal with. Um, so some of those cars, they're still in our fleet. We moved to buying the Dodge Durangos that

054you may have seen in the field. Uh, much better car. We haven't had as many problems with the cars as we have experienced with the Fords. Um, so we've made an adjustment there and a lot of departments did the same thing because they were getting some of the Fords back and they just were not functioning even brand new. They had to send them back to the dealer in similar cases like as we did. Um so only getting four a year. We were on a track getting five a year for a period of time and now having it reduced to four at at times um has created issues for us. We have a mechanic who's a very good mechanic. He does a lot of good work for us. But um we also have you know we

055just added that wellness dog. She needs a car just for her. It's not you can't share the car with somebody else. The K9 officer that's in the field he needs a a reliable car. um we're I want to put a third SRO in the schools for this coming year. He or she need a car also. So um as we the department has grown back to close to the 80 82 that were authorized for um just getting four hurts us more than it did maybe a few years ago. So that fifth car is really fifth or be perfectly honest with you sixth car would be wonderful um because we've added some of those specialty. We had a an officer working at the mall full-time, first time ever a few years ago, thanks to the assistant chief

056who actually got us a $125,000 grant to start that program. Well, when we were short with so many people, we had to take that officer out and use him in patrol. But we want to put an officer back there. He or she are going to need a car also. Um, so there's a multitude of reasons why we need additional cars. uh we generate it's in your books I think it's near the page with our fleets between the fees that we charge for cars in the field and other revenue that comes into the department it's about half a million dollars a year um I do I am grateful for the fact that we haven't had to budget for every car the last few years and some of the money has come out of that account um

057because I you know that's where that money most of that money is generated from and the car that's where we should spend the money is buying cars or repairing those cars because that's where the money is generated from from the officers working in the field. We charge $32 an hour for the cars. Um I would like to increase that a little bit. We have done a bit of a survey and some uh some departments charge much more than we do. I'm not looking to charge that kind of money, but there, you know, probably a $35 an hour would be a fair rate. $ 35, $37 an hour, maybe even 40. Um, I know some departments that charge $50 an hour for a car. I'm not looking to do anything like that. I don't I I

058want to be very I want to be reasonable about that, but it does generate a lot of funding for it. >> Um, while you're flipping, um, Maria, >> can you talk about the special agency account? Do you want to do that now or you want to wait? >> Yeah. >> So, the special agency account is normally used for the revenue generator from the special detail jobs and it pays for the officer uh FICA benefits and we've been uh paying two to three cars out of that account and plus it pays for some of the town services such as the billing, the collecting um and so forth. Currently there's a there's a a surplus a deficit actually uh for this fiscal year of 111,000 but yeartoday carry forward total is 937,000 >> can you explain that

059is that when billing hits when >> um billing is they bill as as the uh work is done by the officers and the officers will get paid that following week. Um the vehicles are purchased throughout the year depending when they can get the vehicles >> and we charged um for the town services as one total. I mean we come up with a calculation for the year based on um the service provided and uh that can be provided to you guys as well. Um so that's 247,000 excuse me. So, so the balance at the end of this fiscal year will be the carry forward for next year will be 937 is your estimate. >> Correct. >> Okay. Um Okay. I just also want to acknowledge that um it always makes me laugh in municipal uh budget

060discussions that the more successful you are and the more you move up the ranks, the worse your car is. Just let everybody know. I am acknowledging that. Um, that doesn't work like that in corporate America, right? So, um, as we go through that, uh, did you all get a copy of this? This is the special agency account. Is it on your desks? I'll make sure you have a copy of what that looks like. >> Did I? >> That's okay. >> No, I didn't pass it out. No. >> So, we we can talk we can talk about um that and the cars. The cars are budgeted as 80,000 >> Maria per car. And can you just explain how we do our car lease, how that works? >> Uh there are three vehicles that are $82,000 each

061and there are two vehicles at 60,000 each. >> Uh I guess it depends on what the equipment they have in them. Uh we use the town leasing program which means that we do purchase the car outright but we'd only pay it over five years through the town. So it's not an outside lease. It's a basically the general fund pays for it and we just uh offset it over a fiveyear operating account budget. >> We're not paying interest on that. >> We are not paying interest. It's we buy it outright. The basically the general fund pays for it and we just offset it in the budget over five years. >> So what does the vehicle financing analysis on page 175 mean? Uh it just means that every year 1/5if is taken out of for all the

062vehicles that's been purchased. For example, the first one you have vehicles financed fiscal year 23. So they'll be coming up that they'll be fully paid. So there's always one coming out. >> So it's not it's not interest cost. It's it's annual payout. >> So the town pays the 80,000 upfront. We just offset the budget over five years. >> Got it. Thank you. >> What's the benefit of doing that? It doesn't impact the budget all at once. >> But if you're spreading out the cars every year and you're just adding to it the following year, what's the benefit to do that? I'm sure there I'm sure there has got to be one. I'm just not >> right now. We would have to still pay all these financing, but all the if if we decide to purchase

063outright, then the whole 80,000 will be hidden the account plus whatever is still off on the other vehicles. I understand if you're going to start over. Yes. 80,000, but you would have to pay off the old >> Okay. >> the old ones. >> Does that make sense? >> I'll I'll I'll grasp that afterwards, but I I'm I'm sure I'll have more questions about it. I'm just trying to figure out how it fits in. >> Okay. >> And the special agency account is sits outside of the operating budget, so that doesn't affect >> No, we pay those out numbers. They >> That's why those are in at 80 and the other ones are in at 60. >> No. Or is that based on equipment for the cars? >> I I think it's based on equipment. They

064>> It's a different car. >> They can speak to that. I >> Okay. Can So, can you tell me why what the two are that are at 60 and the others that are at 82? >> Yeah. The two that are 60 are admin cars. They don't require graphics on them. They don't require the uh cages in the cars. They don't require in-car camera. They don't require uh roof lights, >> roof lights. The list goes on and they don't require a mobile data terminal on the car. They don't require the watch guard um >> uh cameras that we buy. It's just the Yeah, I said more, but the list just goes on and on. The patrol car costs much more to upfit than a detective's car does or an administrative car does. So, the plan this

065year was to um we actually budgeted $82,000 because we did there there's always increases in either buying the cars or the equipment uh per car. So, that would be um and then 60,000 to replace either an admin car or detective's car or specialty car, something like that. >> Any questions? Go ahead, Paul. >> Chief, my memory is failing me in this area. Can you can you review what if any history exists with regard to regional acquisitions of vehicles? Is there any any regional cooperative agreements? I seem to recall in the past that that existed. >> Are you asking me or Maria? >> I'm asking whoever has the answer to the question. >> We have not engaged in that. I'm not certain. I don't I can't really speak to any other department. We buy um generally

066we buy the cars off the state bid price which is less than if we just bought it outright from somebody else. >> And is there a volume reduction? >> I'm not aware of one. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Go ahead, Van. >> Uh could you speak to the need for the motorcycle? Uh I don't see many motorcycles in trouble. Well, we have uh motorcycles that are coming to end of life. Um do you have any data on that? Um and we're trying to replace them once a year, one every year. U some of them are quite a few years old and need to be replaced. So, we did replace, I believe, one in the last few years and we're trying to replace some of the others because of the they're just aging out and we

067don't use them on regular routine patrol. You're not going to see them for that. We wouldn't do that. But we use them for escorts, the parades, we use them for um special events, Trumbull Day, things like that. We have the bikes out. >> Yeah, they weren't on the vehicle list. That's why I asked the question. >> I I thought it was Oh, okay. I see what you're saying. The list itself. Yeah. >> Okay. Chief, if you could um going back to your presentation, page 21, which is that chart that you had with all the vehicles, including their mileage, um can you speak to the actual age of these vehicles? I believe we spoke about this last year, which is the mileage plus the idle hours. Can you uh talk to what the idle hours would

068mean in I guess for everyone else, mileage on these vehicles? Just trying to get to an actual age of these cars. What's that? >> I'll have Captain Allen speak to that. I can, but he may have more information detailed than I do. >> Yeah, just to touch on that. I'm Don Allen, captain with the police department. Um, mileage, as you see, the hours and minutes are noted on the cars, but an hour of idle time is approximately 32 miles of run time. So, these cars with high idle times, you know, it's not just the mileage, it's the you have to add in the idle time. And our cars do obviously idle for considerable periods of time throughout the shift. And some of them are out 24 hours a day. So in addition to whatever the

069mileage is, we're adding approximately 32 miles per every idle hour which takes a life and increases the oil changes and other maintenance that is required on the vehicles. Any other questions on fleet vehicles, their maintenance, anything like that? >> Did you have a total on the number of bikes that you currently have? >> Our total roughly >> four motorcycles right now. >> At one point I think we had half a dozen. Okay. >> Um, there was a question on calls the the way the calls for service were calculated. >> Yep. >> Was that you, Masimo? >> Yeah. Thanks, Lane. Yeah. No, I just looked at the the total call count and noted that I'm sorry, I don't have it right in front of me. The the last column, I believe, might have been 25. Um,

070the total didn't equal the sum. So, I don't know that that that's a material at all as far as how it plays into anything. It was just a a call out. >> That's not um I'm trying to get to it myself right now, but that list is not all-encompassing of every single type of call they go on. So, it doesn't include all the others that >> So, the total does not equal the sum of the rows. >> Exactly. >> Got it. Y Thank you. >> Yep. >> Um in the back of the book, too. >> Yeah. There's also some charts in the back of the book. Um our page 22 calls for services we chart monthly. We report that to the police commission as well. Um, and you'll see 24 year 24 and year 25.

071And then we break down criminal incidents, same thing, the same years. And then we break it down every month. And that's reported also. So you can see not every crime, but you'll see the criminal totals that we report. >> Go ahead, Nikki. >> Hi, Chief. And thank you. Thank you to your entire department. Thank you. >> Um I do have a question regarding motor vehicle stops. There's like a consistent incline there. Um what do you attribute that to and >> the increase in stops? >> Yeah. So I mean it start back in 2020 987 and then consistently moves up 2025 all the way to 2651. >> Well, we want the officers to make contacts with people. We it doesn't have to be a a ticket. We don't require that whatsoever. But there's a variety of

072reasons. I'll start with why there's an incline. During COVID, cars were not stopped as much as they are today. If you went back to 2020, 2021, the numbers were very low across the state, probably across the nation, um because of contact concerns. So over time, um as we came out of COVID, um officers just started making more contacts with people. When you make contacts with people for whatever the reason might be, it's not it it you stop the person for what they may have done or a light out or something like that, but it also sends a message to people who are coming through town or in town who may want to commit a crime that boy, these guys, I don't want to commit a crime in Trumble. I'm going to go to another town

073because I'm going to get stopped by them. It's an omniresence you try to create by being out there, being visible. And the same thing for why you may see a car parked in front of a fire department or in front of a school is because we tell the officers they have mobile data terminals, computers in their cars to write their reports. So we because we want to keep them in the field. We want their visibility. So we tell them if you have to write reports, go park someplace right near the road, very visible. And again, it's a it's a deterrent just sitting there. If someone was going to go up the street from where that officer's parked and commit some type of a crime, they might think twice about doing it because gee, there's a

074policeman right down the street. So, they have to write the report. I'd much rather have them out on a main road invisible to people than behind a building and nobody sees them. >> Thank you. I I could tell you just been you know when we door knock every two years um it definitely I would say one of the top three one of the top four com complaints I get from locals um would be that you know people speeding through their neighborhoods or using their streets as a c as a cut through and all that. So >> I I like to see this number go up. >> Yeah talking point there. >> You know that's another reason because and and Trumbull's not alone. Believe me, I've speak to chiefs across the state. The driving of some

075people is really dangerous and atrocious. So, we try to get them out there in saturated areas, especially where we get the complaints from residents because we wanted to be a clo a safer neighborhood. And that's another thing. We had to reduce our traffic unit. We had two full-time people for years in that division that would go out and do surveys when there was something that might need to be done or do research on an area to try to come up with ways to make it a safer area or if a contractor is going to build something, we need to look at that the effects, the impact to the community there. But we also use them to go and saturate these areas. So, since we lost so many people a few years ago, we had to

076take them out of the full-time traffic position, put them in patrol because we had to fill we had to fill the shifts. We I put one of them back a few months ago and the second one will go back April 1st. Um, so I'm hoping that those traffic numbers continue to climb by having full-time people dedicated to traffic enforcement, traffic research, and and just variety of reasons how we can make the road safer for everybody that's driving through Trumbull. I see it as much as everybody else does. It's it's just, you know, where are you going? What is the rush and cutting in and out of traffic, passing people in the right variety of things um that we don't like anymore than anybody else does. So, we did get more of the uh temporary portable

077traffic signs that flashes the person's speed if they go, you know, over a certain speed. And we've put them in certain roads. We've put them on Stonehouse Road with Blackhouse Road. We've put them on Shelton Road, White Plains Road, all over. Um, and because it is, it's not the same as having a police officer there and maybe making a stop, but I think most people when they see that, their foot comes off the pedal a little bit. So it's a traffic calming without us having to be pres be there. >> It's just a a device to comp traffic a bit. Awareness. >> Thank you. >> Awareness. Yes. >> And then thank you. >> The other notable uh actually reduction there is uh domestic violence down from 312 all the way to 96. What is um

078>> that can't be right. >> Yeah. Is that >> that's not right. >> Incorrect. >> We average about 300 a year. >> Okay. >> 90. What uh what page are you on? >> Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just looking at your your grid here on 168. >> The budget book there. >> That's in the budget book. I'm sorry. I don't have our big budget. >> I don't think we have a copy of the other. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. later. >> Thank you. >> Uh domestic violence that does not make it's closer to 300. That's either a typo or something happened there. I guarantee you it I would love to see it drop that much. >> Me too. >> But uh that's why I noted. >> And the social worker has helped a little bit

079in that regard >> because um when you talk about domestic violence, sometimes it's a domestic violence call because of a substance abuse issue or a mental health crisis. Quite a few times it is. Um, and that's another reason why we wanted a social worker that that's what they do. You know, we go and we try to calm the situation. If somebody has to go to the hospital, we bring them. If we get if we have to make an arrest, we make an arrest. But doesn't mean somebody's getting help. So, we're trying to reduce a variety of calls, not just domestic violence, but even medical calls. Um because we do probably on average about I would say close to a call a day for um a ser a mental health call and many committals we do

080throughout the year where we have to force a person to go to the hospital and that's sad. It's very sad to see people in um a crisis like that. So that's why and I'm very happy that the first selectman supported it. Um the social worker has been a home run for her. She's actually gotten letters and emails from family members saying, "Thank you. You saved my son's life. You did this. You did that." And since I'm already talking about her, what she does is, you know, she tries to get people into the proper type of care and get them the resources that they may need, whether it's substance abuse or mental health, just a uh mental health issue. Um, substance abuse obviously is, but she'll try to get them to the right caretakers. And then

081what we ask her to do is she does she'll do you know case management with that person along the way that you know they're still going to whatever type of treatment it might be whatever type of therapy it might be and kind of do a case management of them along the way and and get them to a much better place for them and their families. >> Well, I can say just personally I really commend you and uh and what your department does in the way of mental health and and now the addition of your new pet. >> Yeah. our new pet. >> Yeah, our new pet. >> Yeah. So, I I really do appreciate that and I think the rest of the town does as well. Thank you. >> You know, it's really I have

082to commend the officers. It's not it's not me. It's not really anybody at this table. Um I it's it's really the officers in the field. I'm, you know, they're going to the calls and they're being empathetic or sympathetic to people. They're getting the information from that call to the social worker. Social workers doing followup. Um, I can't tell you. I mean, I I see people and they go, "Oh, your officers um had to come to my home or our business or I just saw somebody Saturday night who um works in town and was working with a uh learning disabled person and there was a bit of a crisis and she she approached me. I didn't even know she was at the call and she said, "I thank God your officers got there and did what

083they did. I couldn't, she said, I couldn't do it. And their help, they were tremendous. And we do a lot of training in that, more so in the last 10 years than ever because it's it's pretty it's prominent out there. We see a lot of it. >> Mr. Pia, >> thank you. Thank you, Chief. And all of you, I just want to say thank you for all that you guys all do and it's appreciated. and your officers. Uh >> I'm always marvel that they're social workers, they're medics, they're soldiers, they're >> true. >> Um my oldest granddaughter 7 years ago was choking and uh the police officer from Trumbull got there before the ambulance and literally saved her. So >> Oh, thank God. >> Um I'm grateful. >> And one of the things that I

084noticed is the lararseny from motor vehicles has gone down. Has it gone down or is it people like me that just like they broke into my car but they didn't take anything and I'm not going to Is it just unreported? >> Um there's definitely some people I think unfortunately maybe got a little used to it and don't call us because we'll hear from somebody else and did you call us? But the most important thing I can say is lock your car doors. Don't leave your key fobs in them. I would say just about every single car that's stolen in Trumble is because there's a key in the car or key fob in the car. And at least 95% of every car that's of all the cars that are entered are because there's a door unlocked.

085And we see it, we have videos of people um running through neighborhoods at 2 through 3 4:00 in the morning and just pulling on door handles. They pull on two or three cars door handles that are in driveways. if it's um if they're all locked, they just run off and they go to the next house. So um I would also like to speak to that the reduction is because in uh about four and a half years ago, Trumbull along with area departments Bridgeport, Stratford, Fairfield, uh Westport, and some other towns created a uh task force. It's called Operation Wingspan. Initially, we got some funding from the state to help put somebody there. And um what that we we uh assigned somebody to it and all he did with the rest of this group of of

086officers were go after stolen cars and the people stealing the stolen cars. And not just to get the car recovered and back to our resident, our victim, but also because most of the um serious crimes that you see occurring are being done when somebody's driving a stolen car. almost all of them are the shootings, the robberies, the things that we've experienced in Trumbull. Um it's a stolen car. So it actually they've recovered dozens of guns. Um we just recovered three the other day in Bridgeport that were used in a call in in Trumble. Um and that's been a big impact to why you see these numbers go down and because of awareness people we've been really advertising lock your doors, lock your doors, things like that. Thank you, >> Mary. Oh, hold on. Go first.

087Mary, >> just back to speeding. Um, license plate readers. Uh, what are your thoughts? I know there's, um, when you take the digital uh, taking my information potentials away. Um, the positives of that, if that's something we would look into, especially around school zones. Um, and I don't want to say revenue generator, but we are with the board of finance. Um, but just just for the whole safety of it. >> Okay. So, that would be speed cameras. Um, not the license plate readers. Yeah. Speed speed cameras. Some department some towns have done it. We I do have somebody who oversees our traffic unit doing research and doing work on um, uh, getting us approved to do that. It's about a really like a two-year process to from start to end to get final approval. Yes,

088it would generate some funding. My my thought would be to put them in school zones initially and we could set them at a certain speed over the 25 miles an hour when school is being when people are going to school and being picked up in the afternoon and then we could move it back up to whatever the speed limit is outside of school hours. Um, I try to look at it if we're going to do it, it should be based on safety. I I'm Yes, I'm concerned with revenue and things like that, but um, we should really do it for safety of people. Um, I Fairfield just got theirs approved. I don't know if they've been installed yet. Um, but I've been working closely with them and other towns that have them, and it does

089generate revenue. There's no question about it. >> Yeah. Obviously, safety first. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um, we've talked a little bit about social issues and so forth. Can you talk a little bit about the uh, it's not a big budget item, but the Narcan program >> because it's something very interesting to me. Um, how many Narcan interventions, you know, do you do you generally have and how well does that program work for for us here in trouble? Oh, we started out in 2016 when um we were experienced a lot of overdoses in town. Um and I don't have the exact number, but I think that year we used it at least 20 times and saved quite a few lives. Sometimes um the same person more than once, repeat calls. Um we still do it. Many people

090you can buy it now and just have it at your home. So, I think our calls and usage of it have come down because we'll go to calls and people will tell us I've been I used Narcan before you got here because they know that somebody in their family has a has an issue. >> Um, it's been invaluable. There's no question in my mind that we've saved quite a few people. >> Regular basis. >> Yeah. Regular regular basis. They use it all the time. >> This weekend? >> Yep. >> Last weekend, right? >> No, the center. >> At the center. Yeah, we just used it this weekend. if it's somebody who whose father had called us and said, "My son's overdosing." >> They were in a car. >> Okay. >> Sorry to shift gears back

091here. Um, but we were just talking about speed cameras in school zones. Uh, have we given any thought to, and maybe I missed this, but and we do it already. Uh, school bus camera enforcement. I know that they do it in surrounding towns and not sure. Yes. >> Where we are here. We have given great thought to it and I've actually met with the company. The company presented a contract to the town. Uh the town attorney looked at it, spoke with um somebody within that company because they were concerned about tying us into a long-term contract because the company wanted a 5-year contract initially. And I think the concern was after it's used for a period of time, are we going to now not generate the revenue to cover the cost of it? And the

092town attorney was concerned that we would be tied into a long-term contract that would now cost us money. Um they did um try to negotiate a shorter term contract, start out with a year, but the company wouldn't do it. M >> we do some of the buses already have a camera on it. It doesn't do the same thing that the bus patrol camera system does. Um but we have met with the bus company and we've encouraged them to report these violations to us and we have they have and we've issued tickets um to people ourselves. Our patrol officers have. Yeah. Thank you. Anybody else? Um I have one who Oh, did you? Um I just have >> I just have one um question or one thing I'd like you to touch on. Uh during our

093board of education meeting in the list of potential reductions, they talked about reducing a security guard. Can you just um for information purposes discuss the difference between a security guard at the high school and an SRO and what their roles are in the building? >> Sure. So the difference is a security guard guards people and property and an SRO does that but they also um are part of the faculty. They've teach classes. They create relationships with the students that are um very helpful where we've had students go to the SRO and say, "Listen, I don't know who to talk to about this, but so and so is in a crisis or there's a problem with this. I don't know what to do." So, it's another trusting relationship with it with an adult. um they've done

094a lot of good work where we've had um reports to us from um other agencies, other from students and parents and federal agencies that a student might be online and threatening to harm themselves or harm others. And the SRO jumps right on that. They the nice thing about it is over time they get to know the people the kid the children that are in the classes in the schools and they get to know what types of problems they may be dealing with on a regular basis or home life situations like that that a security guard may but might not do. It's the SRO's job to do that to to be integrated within the school get to know the students um and get and work with the faculty. He our SRO's work very closely with the

095security officers on a regular basis. Um but there's definitely a difference and the SRO's armed, right? They have authority to make an arrest if they need to, which we really try to have them avoid doing if if most of the time it's just a referral to a youth diversionary team like which used to be called the JRB. They've changed the name of it. Uh most of the time those types calls in the schools will be referred. he does those referrals. Um, if there is an arrest that has to be made, um, we really try to avoid having the SRO do it in the school because we just don't want them in that light that they're now arresting kids and I'd rather have a patrol officer go to the school and take somebody. But they they

096do a lot of things. They're armed naturally. They're in a uniform. They create a presence of there's a uniformed officer here. they wear they all have a marked police car so that's in front of the school also um sometimes they have to go to a different school so they can they park that car in front of another school at different times randomly um it creates again that omniresence as much as we'd like to do >> go ahead Mary thank you by the way >> um on the drones I was looking into that that very interesting so I thought it might be helpful if you could discuss that a little bit and and if you've been able to or Reena uh look into any kind of grant funding for that. I saw that Bridgeport and Stamford

097had received some pretty significant uh grants. But it sounds like a great, you know, a great thing to implement. >> It's great. I mean, as everybody knows, we have a lot of trails in town, a lot of areas where people can hike and go on bikes and everything. If somebody gets lost there or hurt someplace, it's really hard for us to get to them or find them. We'd have to we send officers in on foot or on however they get in there and then they have to walk around looking for somebody. You put a a drone up, you can cover a massive area without having multitude of police officers out there or whoever is doing the search. Um they're used for escape people. used for if um uh somebody uh an autistic person walks off,

098an elderly person walks off who doesn't know their surroundings or where they are. If we use a drone, we can we should be able to find them much quicker. I'm going to have Lieutenant Weir speak a little bit about that. But we did start the program. We have trained people. We have to buy one. Um, it's a public safety matter, not just for my officers to help them, but it's for the people in town that are out there and if we need it. Okay. >> Yeah. As far as um talking about getting funding and stuff like that, I haven't looked into that too much, but we just to touch base, I'm just learning about this drone program, too. It's up, it's technology, it's up and coming. Um, there's a lot you could do with it.

099Um, it's save on manpower. For instance, we got the valley here. God forbid you got somebody gets lost in there or somebody's injured. We get reports of people injured in the woods somewhere. So now send sending people out there on foot to try to track them down. You can send a drone up. The ones they have have uh heat seeeking stuff. So you could kind of pinpoint where somebody, you know, is cover a lot of ground a lot quicker and get to them quicker. At night time you got somebody in there as well, you know, with flashlights and a couple manpower walking through the woods. How long is that going to take to find somebody? Um there's so many different benefits for it. Um, just for instance, and I discussed this before, they had the

100incident in Stamford a few months ago where they had the barricaded subject. They sent the SWAT teams and the Bearcats and the guy was in the building shooting at the police. Well, they sent drones up and they could look in the windows and see where the guy is and you know, and kind of get a better idea of what's going on. Um, they might have an incident, uh, you know, at the mall or something and maybe there's, you know, you got you can send somebody up and watch. I a friend of mine is in Bay California Police Department and they have drones and they had a report of like fraud going on and uh some guys went in like high-end fraud and they went into their business or jewelry store whatever to to do their

101fraud. Well, they sent their drone up and they watched the people walk in. It's all recording everything. People came out, got into a car, changed the license plates and by the time they got in the car, the police already had them boxed in and and they took them into custody and nobody getting hurt. I mean, there's so many different uh scenarios that we could use it for. It's just up and coming. It's and it saves on manpower and >> it's it's fantastic. So, >> yep. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. I'll give you a perfect example. Fairfield about a month ago had a home invasion of heavily armed people who were going into a house you've probably heard about. I'm not going to get into details of how it worked, but they used their drone because

102um three of the four took off on foot. It was like 4 3:30 in the morning. Very hard to find these people. It was a residential area near a business district. And um one of the things that they found on their drone uh was uh one or two of the people hiding on top of a business nearby. Um they they saw that on the drone later and then they ended up finding some money dropped and variety of different things that occurred, but it's a really big help and it's it's something if we don't get on on top of quickly, it's just uh we'll be behind. Any other questions? Hi. >> Chief, do you know what the difference is between the drone that you're requesting here at $22,000 and the one you could buy at Walmart

103for a,000 bucks? What What's the difference between the two instruments? >> Well, one of the things Lieutenant Weer just mentioned, they're seeking. They're more durable. They'll probably last longer on a battery life. They'll um send us recording back. You know, there's just it it's just much more durable. It's It comes with a um the thousand ones are I'll be perfectly honest, they're nice for home >> and they're fun to use, but um >> it's Yeah, it's more of a toy than a tool. This is a tool that we expect it to last. Um and $22,000. Yeah, it's $22,000, but um I can think of an area town just spent $600,000 to get three. Um, so I, you know, I I think the drone we had officers do who are drone operators do research and go

104to other departments that already have them and try to find out what's going to be the best best fit for us, what's going to work best for us and what's durable. And the one that we've identified here is the one that we feel will be best for us and provide us with the um coverage and and needs that we would use it for. >> Thanks. Yeah, >> just some related questions on the the drones, which I think is a is a great asset. Um, what's the expectation of when it would be in service would be the first question along the lines of durability and longevity? How long do we expect them to last? And if it is a successful program, would there be a a case for additional drones? >> So, would go into uh

105usage as soon as we got it. So, we would order it as soon as it came in. We already have the officers that are trained. I think it's four days of training plus you have to take a test with F FAA to be licensed to use it. They've already done all that. We have, I think, half a dozen officers who've gone through that program. So, they're all trained, ready to re use it. We've had demonstrations at the department with our drone users, with the vendors. Um, so there's really not any training that we would be behind on and we'd use it immediately. Um, it's a five-year plan as you see. So, I would suspect that it would last at least to five years. Um, at some point, would we be looking to get another one?

106Possibly, depending on the needs that we see. But, we've selected people from each of the three shifts because we want to have somebody on duty 24 hours a day as much as we can. If we do have to use the drone, we don't have to call somebody in from home to launch it. They can launch it right from work. Thank you. Um, great call out on having availability 247. Would there be a potential expectation you would train additional officers following this year so that there would be additional coverage? >> Yeah, sure. >> Sure. I mean, there's a cost to sending people to the class. So, we started with the six. I think the class was about $800 or something like that. Um, and we also have to make sure that we have people that are

107we tried to gauge it with when people were working so they don't miss too much work. We don't have to backfill as much with over. We always try to look at those things ahead of time. But yeah, definitely would be interested in training more people. Sure. >> Thank you, Chief. >> Any other questions, drone or otherwise? >> Okay, you on. Go ahead. Is this working? Um, first of all, I always say thank you to to all of you, your department, your officers for the job that you do to keep us all safe um 247. Um, and I just wanted to reassure anyone here at this meeting and who's listening that the chief and I um and several of you as well meet frequently and um one of our our main topics of conversation is speeding.

108Um certainly the chief knows that uh we talk we do talk about enforcement all the other different things we can do and like Nikki said it is a common uh topic when we're out knocking on doors and it certainly was this year of um that problem escalating. Um, so and I thank for I thank you for putting up a sign on Stonehouse. Um, that is, you know, uh, an access way to Madison Avenue and to Main Street >> and people just race on that road. So I hopefully that will help to slow people down. But I do want people to to know that this is a a common topic everywhere. Um certainly if you're driving on Route 25, Route 8, those two roads are scary, right? There's just people racing all the time. So, thank

109you for all that you do. I just wanted to make that comment. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I just I just have to say again that it's really the officers in the field that are doing the bulk of all the work. They're the ones that respond to your emergencies, our emergencies. They're the ones that are out there 24/7. When it was really cold this winter and there was a lot of snow, they were here. We didn't have any problems with people working double shifts. They knew what they had to do. They knew it was kind of their Super Bowl and they stepped up and did it. Even though they were leaving, you know, they were leaving their families at home, too, right? It wasn't like, you know, so that's a difficult thing to do

110at times, too, when the weather's that bad. So, they had to go home after working a double and do their driveways like the rest of us did. So, um I was I'm very proud of what they did. >> I just want to say thank you so much for coming this morning um and to do that. >> If there's follow-up questions, I'll send them over. Um and I'm so happy that we have the dilemma of having to fill your salary account fully and not have to figure out how many are still doing that. So, um keep that up. Right. >> Thank you. >> Awesome. Um thank you very much. I'm going to ask that we take a five minute break before we start our next um department. >> Okay. Perfect. >> Thanks. Okay, when everybody you

111can get your coffee and caffeinated and when everybody has a minute, we're going to be moving on in our budget hearing to um our next department. We'll start with emergency management. It's on page 223. So, if everybody wants to find that spot, uh just so everybody's aware, on uh budget days, cookies have no calories, there's no carbs and bagels, >> and uh caffeine's a two for one special. All right, I'm gonna try to make it through the next segment without my pen leaking all over the place. Oh, good. Meg, I'm sorry. No, I'm good. I got one. Megan Murphy is here with us today um to talk about emergency management, the fire marshals, um and our fire hydrants and all that good stuff. So, we'll start on page 223. Good morning. >> Good morning. >>

112I think you just have to hit the green button on the bottom right there and you should be good to go. >> All right. Good morning. Thank you. Um would you like me to start with successes and accomplishments and goals and objectives? All that fun stuff. >> Okay. So, um for successes and accomplishments, um big stuff that we have accomplished, um preparing for mass casualty and full-scale exercises, um we're doing a full-scale region one exercise that's still ongoing. Um, as you know, we have installed lightning detection um throughout the town. Many of you have heard it um going off. Um, some of you love it, some of you might not love it. I personally love it. Um, we have implemented crisis track and working through the state with that process. Um, we're about 70% implemented

113with that. We have um applied for and attended several grant-f funed emergency management conferences uh this year. Um I was fortunate enough to go down to the International Association of Emergency Managers conference uh down in Louisville, Kentucky this year and also attended a conference um both myself and my deputy um up at for weathering the storm up at the Moheaggan this year. Um, we've bolstered our PSAs. That's ongoing. Um, we've working on closing out our FEMA recovery reimbursement u mitigation efforts from the August 18th severe rain event. We're about 80% with that. And we also closed out and executed a 20,000 emergency management um competitive grant that we received for $20,000 to enhance our emergency operations center um for next year. One of the big things that we are looking to do is to conduct

114a functional exercise with all emergency services including the police department, fire um emergency management and also EMS. Um revitalize Trumbull's local emergency planning commission. This is something that's really being pushed by the state um with our LEAPC. Um, we want to continue to enhance our storm ready designation with the National Weather Service. Um, by continuing to enhance our storm ready protocols, ensure the town's ensure the town's response capabilities and plans are matched to address existing and emergency school and cyber threats. Obviously, we're always looking to strengthen our schools readiness um for any threats that are coming down. continue to work with the region to coordinate mission ready relationships um enhance our utilities work with our surrounding towns and state agencies. Um I'm really pleased with the relationships that we have with our um town our

115surrounding towns in our state. Um create specific and seat grants for replacement of our mobile command post. um and then complete our bianial revision and certification of our local emergency operations plan. Um we are really being pushed with uh by the state where we have to add additional annexes and it's going to be an extremely heavy lift um that we have to create two additional um annexes in the LEOP where we have to do a targeted violence annex and we also have to do a youth camp annex um to put into our LEOP and it's an extremely extremely heavy lift um that we have to do. We're working heavily with the state to figure out how we're going to do it. Um so we'll see. But >> well, I for one cannot wait until you

116start like joint exercises with all the other um people in town to do your drills because I can't wait to see what social media looks like. There are sirens. Does anybody know what's going on? I saw a police car go by. I can't wait. That'll be so much fun. >> Yeah, people love that. >> Yeah. So, um, as far as the budget goes, um, the one thing you will see a large increase in is the salary overtime account. Um, there's been an increase in that for, uh, 1,200 or I'm sorry, $4,200. And the reason for that is to cover the overtime costs for EMS and PD. And what that is is that is to cover the overtime cost to cover the townwide drill that we are trying to host. Um, we have been working very

117very diligently with EMS, PD, fire, emergency management to strengthen our policies and procedures um as a townwide response agency for responses for things like into the valley um just throughout the town. Um good example that unfortunate incident that we had the other day on White Plains Road. Um just where it takes all agencies responding. How are we going to respond? What is the best way to do things? Um so this money is to cover townwide drill as to practicing putting those new policies and procedures into place. Um so it's to cover the overtime cost to run a townwide drill. Um so that is what that is for. It is very very much needed. Um so I beg of you please do not cut that. Um pretty much everything else um has remained the same. Um

118the first selectman did choose to reduce the displaced um residents money um from 12,000 to $6,000 based on historical usage. I'm fine with that. Knock on wood. We've been very fortunate the past couple years where I have not had to remove anybody from their home. Hopefully, I won't have to remove anybody from their home. Um, so that right now I'm fine with that reduction. Um, uh, everything else pretty much seemed to stay the same. Um the only other thing thing that I did ask to increase was for program supplies. Um obviously everybody knows that office supplies are increasing, food is increasing um in the 402 account. Um I just asked that you know I increase $500. Literally I wiped out I don't know why it's not showing because the money has gone through. um the

119bills have been implemented, but literally I wiped out my entire account in one weekend for that blizzard. Um so that account's pretty much already zeroed out already. So if we have another storm, unfortunately I will be back to you for a supplemental. Um so that I did increase that account just due to the costs of everything rising. Um but for pretty much everything else it has remained the same. Any questions on emergency management? Paul. Yeah, >> Megan, your first item on the list of successes and accomplishments, the emergency operation plan with your regional partners. Are there any costs associated with that? >> No. >> Go ahead, Dave. Am I jumping the gun to ask a question about fire hydrants? >> Um, no. I mean, it's another budget, but we can ask now. >> Um, anybody

120wants to look, fire hydrants are on >> 213. >> So, back in my town council days when I first started my first budget, I saw I think it was about $1.1 million for fire hydrants. And I asked everybody that had been around before me. What's this for? Nobody knew. Everybody just said, "It's there every year. We just paid. I think they flush the fire hydrants or something." Nobody really knew. So I called Aquarian. Um and I got a nice lady on the phone. I said, "What's this for?" And she said, "That's your fire prevention." And I said, "What's that mean?" And she said, "That's your fire prevention." And I said, "So this went on and went from comical to annoying." I said, "So, you're going to tell us you're preventing any fires if we give

121you a million dollars?" She said, "Of course not." She put her boss on the phone and he explained that it's for having the pipes in the ground and it's their pipes and whatever. And of course, I said, "So, you have your pipes in our ground?" And he laughed and he said, "But we pay property taxes to the town of Trumbull um for those pipes being in the ground." Can somebody tell me if that's actually true and what the difference is between what they pay us and what we pay them for the fire hydrants? >> That I'm going to defer to >> I will find out. I'll find out what they pay. >> But they do actually pay us property taxes for their pipes in the ground. >> I will check. >> Yes. >> Specifically, I

122will I will definitely check. >> Mr. Timelli says yes. >> Thank you. I don't know what the number is, but they do. >> Yeah. This this is an account we talk about every year. Yes. And Elaine used to talk about Elaine Hammers used to talk about this account until she had a fire at her home and then she's like whatever it costs. Whatever it costs. So, um we don't actually it's a fee that they provide us. We don't get to negotiate that. I don't >> And they did say the state and again I don't know if it was true that they pay property taxes. I don't know if it's true that he's but he said the state regulates the fee and uh >> you know >> I think it's a per hydrant and that's how

123they calculate it and then they break it down. So >> well UI pays a tax right so >> holes >> thank you. >> Any other questions on fire hydrants or emergency management? All right on to the fire marshals account. Um but fire fire marshals department 203 >> page 203. >> Yeah. Um so for successes and accomplishments with that one, implement digital tools to streamline inspections and reporting. Um, we've moved to an online inspection system with that increase community outreach to educate residents and business about firerevention measures. We've been um just increasing our fire prevention going out doing more educational speaks. um collaborating with local emergency services to enhance readiness for various emergency scenarios and work with schools to develop tailored fire safety and education evacuation plans for students with disabilities and special needs. Obviously, we

124have a very large SRP population in this town. So, we've really been trying to work with the schools to try and um develop plans specific for those students um for next year. facilitate proactive safety by participating in pre-esign meetings with architects and engineers for upcoming construction projects. So, we have a very very very large number of construction projects coming um for the upcoming year. So, we've really been trying to facilitate and meet with as many of those pre-esign teams as possible to try and make sure that those projects go as smoothly as possible. uh reduce processing time and manage the issuance of specialized permits um regarding blasting, open burning and fireworks within a specific time frame. Um just trying to speed up the process of those permits and then serve as a functional hub for

125the local emergency planning committee, the LAPC and maintain prepared presence in the emergency operations center to ensure Cornet townwide response to large-scale disasters. Um, as far as the budget goes, um, as you will see right now, I do have a vacancy is in the full-time account and in the part-time account. I'm hoping to have those positions filled by the end of the this current fiscal year. Um, that is my hope. Um, >> are those existing positions that you're replacing or are they new positions? their existing positions um that are vacant right now that I'm hoping to refill. >> Okay. >> Um overtime right now um we're just ran into the negative. Um but we do have some bills that are outstanding. That should bring me back to zero. Um pretty much everything else we kept

126the same. Um the only thing we were looking to do was to increase capital outlay um for capital outlay. We just wanted to we have a fire investigation trailer um across the street that was unfortunately broken into and vandalized. We wanted to it wasn't enough to put an insurance claim in. So we wanted to just purchase the equipment that was stolen out of there. And then also we wanted just to be able to purchase some lighting for when we are conducting fire investigations. Um >> where was it parked that it was broken into? >> Behind the parks and wreck building across the street. You'll see if you look over there, I have three trailers parked over there. Two are for emergency management and then one is a fire investigation trailer that I have. They went

127over and they cut the locks on all the trailers and stole equipment out of all the trailers. >> And we didn't have any cameras over there? >> No. Nope. Um, so we're just trying to replace some of the equipment that was stolen out of them. >> Um, so for the most part that was all pretty much just trying to keep it level. >> Any questions for Megan? >> Go ahead, Bob. Megan, do you yet have any thoughts or any data with regard to the impact on your work as fire marshall and emergency services director from the multi-unit residential housing developments that have happened over the last four or five years? >> As far as emergency management goes, that's as the impact on that. The only impact I would have would be is if we had

128a large-scale disaster where we had to shelter residents, which is why when they go through pre-development phase, I really try and encourage these developments to put in generators to be able to keep the residents sustained within their own facility. Um, as far as fire marshall impact, it's just an additional yearly inspection that has to be completed and then obviously the subsequent follow-up reinspections. And that's a per unit inspection. >> That's a per unit inspection. Um, so the impact is obviously more significant on the fire marshals end than it is on the emergency management end. >> Um, which was why I had added on the additional staff >> um, a couple years ago, which is why I need to get the position refilled. >> There's a fee involved with those yearly >> inspections. No, it's required

129by the state. >> Because it's required by the state. It's very difficult to implement a fee on that. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions on fire hydrants, the fire marshals department or or emergency medical uh emergency management? >> Well, that was easy. >> That's easy. >> Thank you everyone. Colin should be here in a minute, right? >> He's out there. >> Oh, >> I saw red anyways. >> All right, we'll be moving on to EMF, >> page 191. Morning. >> So sitting over there to sit. >> Good morning. >> Morning. >> How are you? >> Thanks. If you guys um want to look uh we're on page 191 in our budget books as far as um following along with your department. If you just kind of want to give an overview and introduce yourselves

130and then we'll ask you lots of questions. >> Great. All right, good morning everybody. Uh my name is Colin Basset. I'm the chief of uh EMS for town of Charmeal. Good to see you all again. Uh with me um as always u is my uh deputy chief uh Andrew Weber. Um, I've been with Trumbull now coming up on I believe it's >> start at the end of 2023. So, I'm not new anymore. Um, it's not my first day. Um, so, um, one of the the main focuses since I've been here is kind of meeting the needs of the the community that we have, uh, EMS wise, increasing community, growing community, uh, more calls for service, um, providing, uh, that that level of public service and safety that that EMS um, uh, in my belief really

131should be, not just a take people to the hospital ambulance service. Um so in 2025 some of the things that we've been working on to to meet those goals uh is upgrading our radio system uh working with the department of finance um the state uh and norcom who provides our radios we've uh pretty much finalized the steps of that process so that in this year hopefully by the end of the summer we can have a fully upgraded uh radio system on the state court network which just increases communications and interoperability uh between us and our partners. I mean, we kind of learned that um firsthand when dealing with St. Joe's, how important that that actually is. Um we spend a lot of time working with other departments in the community, um doing training, having meetings.

132Um, most recently within this year, we've come up with a uh sort of I guess is a monthly uh monthly training schedule with the fire departments uh in town. Uh kind of giving first aid training to them. Uh going over operations so that when we meet up on the scene, we're we're better able to work together and currently uh working on that with uh PD as well. um some of the newer officers that come in, they do their initial medical training is not necessarily always offered by the academy. So, it's done in-house um and rather than just leave it as an in-house with one department, uh bringing us uh in as well. Um so, it just kind of gets people to see other faces and then that just translates to a better um you know,

133unit cohesion on scene. Um, one of the things that we've done over the last several fisc fiscal years is uh we've added more full-time personnel. We've done it in a in a conservative manner. Uh, making sure that we're sort of hitting those uh key performance indicators as we move on with the main focus being mutual aid um and reducing our reliance on mutual aid. uh we've been able to institute a deployment change uh to our our staff essentially adding an extra truck on the weekends, adding a another provider on the overnight. So instead of having, you know, one transporting unit, now we have one transporting unit, one responding unit. So essentially there's two emergencies that can be responded to. >> Uh so we've been able to reduce our reliance on mutual aid um by a

134pretty good portion by covering those uh those key areas. Um we've we're kind of trying to be as uh clinically progressive as we can. Um we instituted this year a whole blood policy. So we carry uh low tighter uh O negative blood or sorry O positive blood on the ambulance. Currently we have a unit that's able to be deployed for you know there's specific medical emergencies where you need blood in surgery and we can't do surgery. Um uh but we can we can give blood. So um that's a that was a pretty big project. Um and it worked out pretty well. We've got a pretty robust in-house um clinical education program. Uh we do we do call reviews regularly. Um if you ever watched a medical show like ER, they'll do uh Eminem rounds. So,

135it gives us a chance to kind of go over calls that we've had that are high acuity or if anything went out of the ordinary and kind of break it apart um so that every provider that's there gets a education credit towards uh renewing their license and then they also get uh to, you know, sort of get some takeaways. Um and it'll have them be a better provider when they go out there because they'll, you know, maybe learn something or, you know, learn what mistakes were made or areas for improvement um and take that put it into their practice. Um, we've been working pretty closely with public works to kind of revitalize our preventative maintenance program. So, we've ambulances, uh, a lot of people like to think they go fast. They they don't go very

136fast. They're they're big squares. They weigh, you know, 13,000 pounds, but they do get, um, they do get worked pretty hard. Uh, like the definition of extreme driving is is not driving fast. It's kind of that you're not doing anything and you're driving and then you're not driving. Uh so we have uh every Wednesday a vehicle goes down to public works to get preventative maintenance. Um and that's regardless of the amount of miles on it. Um and that will you know extend the life of the vehicle, you know, rather than waiting for a problem to show up and then fix the problem if you do this regular maintenance schedule. You're going to reduce your your costs of repair. Um and then you're seeing everything's getting seen once a month and it's getting, you know, preventive

137maintenance, oil changed, tires rotated, brakes checked. um monthly safety checks, too. Um so, that's been going pretty well for us. Um I'm def definitely going to keep that up. I would never not do that with um vehicles that are are used in the sense that our vehicles are used. Um goals for next year, um one of the things we want to do is definitely that radio system. We have the the final quote in through that. That's um through a bond we have that'll be done through NorCOM. Um that'll completely replace all of our radio systems um put them on the state system. We'll be able to have uh anywhere essentially in the state of Connecticut. Um if you have a Trumble EMS radio, you will be able to talk and be heard. Um and also

138obviously in town and any building in town, uh we will be able to communicate and hear. Currently, we don't have great uh building penetration. So, if you go inside of a building, um, which is I would say the majority of our calls happen inside a residence, um, or if you're in a, uh, you know, a building where they have a lot of doctor's offices, the deeper you go, the the less radio communication you have. That would not be a problem with the new radio system. Um, we're getting back on a a schedule of vehicle replacement. Uh, some of this, most of this is being done with the capital plan. Uh, some of this is being done out of this budget. hopefully um they kind of ran into a hiccup uh some time ago with I

139believe it was 9003 an ambulance that was purchased from what I believe is a reputable ambulance company. However, the ambulance that they send us did not actually pass the state of Connecticut uh requirements for an ambulance. So, that kind of hindered the the replacement process trying to replace a vehicle after seven years um of use. Uh at that seven-year point, I mean, it's been driven hard. It's been used pretty roughly for a long time. It's not it's not just like a daily driver vehicle. Uh so that wear and tear shows up a lot more on on an emergency vehicle than it does on say a personal vehicle. Um we want to continue with our uh townwide training initiatives with other town departments. Um I believe either next week we're going to be meeting with the

140parks and recck department um going over CPR first aid for their staff as they get into the uh uh farmers market season. um just so you know people know what to do if they're on scene if there's an emergency. Um want to continue to focus on our deployment pattern. You know, make sure that the changes that we make we're making responsibly and not just making them because I come here and say we should make them. Um we still want to focus on an EMT program. We initially attempted to do an EMT program uh partnering with outside company. we did not get um enough people registered. So, we just kind of tabled that for now. Um and we want to continue to work towards that. We wanted to do it a little differently um than than

141current EMT programs. So, if you wanted to be an EMT now, you'd have to find a program, you'd have to pay for it, you'd have to take the class, and then you'd have to go try to work somewhere, and a lot of times you're told you need to volunteer, and there's extra certifications and training that you need to get. um sort of you know corporate compliance, global pathogens, things like that that you don't necessarily get out of uh an EMT class. Uh so what what our kind of vision for that was to be a a more like a a job ready EMT class. Um so that at the end of that class you would have those extra certifications. You would be driver trained. You would have medical control in the region. Um and then hosting

142like a job fair. you know, love you to work here, but here's plenty of our partners that you can work with. Um, you know, I think a, you know, a rising tide raises all ships. You know, the more that we enhance, um, public safety, um, regionwide, which would be Fairfield County for us, um, or statewide, it it just kind of helps uh, everybody out. Um, again, continue to provide that support to other town departments, um, with EMS planning, you know, trouble day, large events, um, snowstorms, not going to win that. We don't have any more of those. um that you know just being that that other component to public safety. Um we we do work with uh local and state partners um on initiatives through uh legislative initiatives um bills that you know are focused

143towards EMS um and advancing EMS um and also uh advocacy and and just continue to be that that service that is you know not only meeting the needs of the community but but hopefully exceeding them. So >> good questions for EMS or would you like them to walk through budget stuff first? You want to go for some questions first? Nathan, >> go ahead and go whatever order you want to go. >> Do you want to go through some budget highlights first or you want to take some questions? >> I'm I'm I'm good for questions. >> All right. Go ahead. We'll go Nathan Masimo and Paul. Um so on your uh uh continuing education program um I assume that's accredited. Uh who's is that are those accredited? Uh yeah. So they're done through um they're CAPSY

144accredited. Um so we we have EMSIs or EMS instructors on staff. So that's uh submitted to uh state of Connecticut for approval. Um so you do get credit for them and you don't have to be an EMT if you're in healthcare. For example, we have uh Department of Public Health nurses that come to these CMEs as well because they can get credit for them um and their their CAPS approved courses. So, >> and on the um EMT program, um what would that training program generally cost? >> Um so, it's would probably be around $1,300 to $1,800 per student depending. Um and that's pretty standard rate. You'll see programs that say, you know, $800, you could be an EMT, but you know, they don't, you know, the cost of uniform is the cost of books or,

145you know, the cost of getting your own insurance. Uh, so that that's like we would it would be an all-inclusive cost, not a alleart cost. And >> and do like the community colleges or anything like that run programs in this? >> Yeah, they do. Um, I know UB runs one and I don't believe you have to be a student to be in that one. Um, Sacred Heart runs a program. Um, but You do have to be a a Sacred Heart student to uh to do that program, >> right? Thank you. >> Yep. >> Asmo. >> Yeah. Just had a question on the whole blood program. Now that it's implemented, what does it take to maintain that year-over-year? >> Um so right now the cost has been um the cost has been absorbed by uh Bridgeport

146Hospital who did the program because it's a pilot program. So it's going to be a pilot program for at least a year and uh maybe slightly longer. So, they were the ones that provided the agencies that were qualified to do it with the equipment uh needed. And then, um the cost year-over-year, I don't have an exact number, but as they switch to a a different uh program, it's a Delta Systems versus the old one we were using. Um and it's a much easier program. uh as far as like the the QA side of of managing it, it's it it's it's 99% takes care of itself. Um there's no uh sort of uh like institutional or mechanical or you know kind of weird administrative issues that could happen with it like losing Wi-Fi or batteries dying

147um or losing data because you took it away from the place that had Wi-Fi. This would this would take care of that. Uh, and just rough rough number, I believe it's roughly, you know, whenever the pilot program is over, it would be $1,000 per year. And that's that's the that's the subscription cost for the uh the cooler, the warmer that and the uh the the uh the ice box that you put the blood in. So that that's pro still would be provided from the hospital but in order to have the the online subscription to to do all the monitoring um it would be uh per unit of blood that you have. So we have one for the for troublems has one um not like every unit you get. It's just like we can only at

148any given time distribute one unit and it's to be $1,000 a year. >> Okay, great. So minimal ongoing. >> Very minimal. Yeah, thank you. Definitely worth it. Go ahead, Paul. >> Colin, can you comment briefly on the state and the condition and functionality of your building? >> Um, it's a 50-year-old building. Um, and it comes with 50-year-old building issues. Um, we we work on the, you know, we we had an issue with the boiler. Uh, we lost heat. you know, it's I mean, you're gonna you're going to run into issues that you have with a 50-y old building. >> Um, would I like a new building? Absolutely. Is our building functional? It sure is. Like, you know, there's nothing in there in the current condition that prevents us from doing our job. It's just it's

149just not a a modern building. um you know likely in the next couple years as uh OSHA um regulations ramp up with regards to vehicle storage uh and uh you know crew quarters um you know there there might be some you know retrofitted renovations that um we would be required to do depending on when those those go into effect um those regulations that would probably have a bit of a heftier price tag which I don't know the exact, you know, figures off the top of my head. I mean, we're definitely in the uh, you know, no nothing less than six figures. Um, but I don't know what the timeline would be or how how much that would look. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Go ahead, Vinn. I noted that uh in year-to- date

150uh you're over in overtime uh significantly uh and then I'm looking at uh the request for new staff visav the overtime which the first selectment has reduced and then I'm looking at the out of town coverage or the pdium coverage. So, could you speak to all of that as to how this all is going to work and the timing for some of the additions because I think that's relative to how the costs will be impacted. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Um yeah, so our overtime budget was was up significantly this year. Um there were a couple factors of that. We did do the deployment change. Um so we had um added more positions on the road. Uh we had hired all of those positions. Um and then um we unfortunately uh due to circumstances outside

151of our control um one of those providers uh could not remain in that position. I I don't think I could talk about that out of executive session, but um that that left a a gap that we had uh planned to for for somebody to be in like that left an entire uh essentially almost six months that we had to scramble get a new person onboarded and hired. Um so that that significantly increased that that overtime cost. Um with the with the numbers that we had put in with the uh um based on like the full-time and predium um we're pretty confident that the numbers that we calculated out um you know not not including any um external things that would happen that we're not prepared for that those would be um fairly you know stable

152numbers and easier to uh gain. I mean, the PDM coverage line, I mean, that's a that's a that's a line that's uh unpredictable. Like, I think I' I've said this pretty much every year. I mean, we we depend on predium coverage, but with full-time personnel, I guarantee coverage, you know, so that person that's full-time, you know, that 40 hours is accounted for them one way or the other every week. Um, whereas PDM, you know, we we depend on them. We rely on them. we have a a great group of prediums that really show up and help out, but it's it's you know, relied upon coverage versus guaranteed coverage. Um so, you know, the hope is that with the with this year increasing the full-time staff, even with a deployment change, adding that um extra person

153on the overnights, we would we would still be able to stay within those numbers. >> I guess the question would be that at the end of all these changes that are on here, uh what will it look like? Will we have 90% of our coverage be by town people or 80% and you know how much are we dependent on other towns for coverage or other s sources? >> Um so other other wait so if we if we do the deployment change with the extra person it would be roughly 70% of what is in the town EMS wise at any given time will be covered by Trumbull EMS employee. uh 70% would be full-time and the other 30% of the week would be that that perdium coverage. So they still Trumbly MS employees are still wearing

154a Trumbly EMS uniform. Uh what that deployment change will do for the outside of resources is hopefully reduce the reliance on the uh on mutual aid coming in. So it like we we targeted areas we knew like we were seeing mutual aid on on nights uh particularly. So if you for example have an ambulance respond to an emergency whatever the emergency is that that ambulance is on that emergency and then you don't necessarily you don't they can't respond to another one. Now with increasing the deployment on the overnight with the paramedic and the fly car and the two EMTs in the ambulance you have somebody that can respond to that emergency and transports and now you have somebody that can also respond to an emergency and reg and uh render care. And so if a

155mutual aid ambulance comes in, our provider would go with that ambulance or if our ambulance is able to clear up from their call in the hospital, which happens, they can come back and then they can transport. So it allows us to to cover that call. And and that that also, you know, uh leads to us also increasing, you know, the revenue that we can generate. I mean, just on the on like the the winter storm alone, um you know, the potential revenue that we could have generated from the amount of staff that we had there on the calls that we had was uh $14,000 roughly more than we would have had we not had that extra deployment. >> And one last question, is it difficult to recruit staff for these positions? >> Um no, it

156it isn't. Um we did in the last fiscal year we instituted a a uh sort of bridge program called the grade B program. So that was for uh EMTs that are in paramedic school um that become paramedics that are that currently sitting as an EMT. It gives them a chance to enter into uh the grade B program. Uh, so it they're able to kind of get that in-house experience working as a paramedic. Um, where you're not saying, you know, go get experience outside, then come back. I I don't I I don't want to send people away to get experience, you know, I want them to be able to stay in. So that offers a pathway for people that are EMTs that become paramedics to transition up to that paramedic role if they become available. Uh,

157so we have two people currently in an EMT class that will be done before the new fiscal year starts. They will be paramedics. Um, and then we also have three people currently that are in an EMT program that uh, you know, when Lu and >> it'll be like this time next year. >> Yeah, roughly around this time next year, those three will also be done with their paramedic program. So we have a we have a like you know a step system for people to kind of get into those roles. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Do you still have volunteers within the EMT? >> We do. Yep. We have a we do have a it increases um I would say about as much as it decreases our volunteer we have you know we

158have volunteers that have been here for a very very long time since the beginning. Um and uh I mean at the beginning, just recently, just like >> he's never back. >> Yes. Yeah. >> Um and then uh we do get a lot of high school and college students uh that come in. Um you know, we have the the core group that kind of stick around. Um >> and we have volunteers that are working towards being paid EMT and you have volunteers that just out of the goodness of their heart, this is what they do. >> Yep. So, uh, actually, so we have, uh, since I've started, there have been volunteers that have become PRDM EMTs that are now full-time EMTs that are now on their way to becoming paramedics. And, you know, so they, I

159mean, it's really nice to see like, you know, that progression um, within the agency. I mean, because it does it's, you know, there is a career path here. It's not just volunteer, get experience, and then thanks for your time, goodbye. Like, there's a there there is a future in it. Um >> I think your volunteer hours also count towards um like PA school applications and things like that. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> That's awesome that there's just people that are doing it just to volunteer to for the And I just want to say thank you to all of you paid volunteer for everything that you do for the people of the town. >> We appreciate you. >> Thank you. >> I have a couple questions. Yeah. >> the hours needed for license renewal that you're

160providing um in-house training, how many hours do they require a year roughly? >> Um >> yeah, it's about 48. Um depending on whether you're a paramedic or an EMT, they're they're kind of on twoear cycles or threeear cycles, but but nobody's the same. that there's, you know, advanced cardiac life support, um, pediatric advanced life support, uh, basic life support, CPR, those are all required. Those are, you know, total probably about 12 hours for all three of those. You have to do um every year we're required to do um bloodborne pathogens training, hazmat awareness, um HIPPA training, corporate compliance, a whole bunch of uh annual trainings that that do need to be done along with the uh renewal trainings that you need to do. Um and they never they never make it any less, that's for

161sure. And the last one I had is what's the difference between a respond vehicle and a transport vehicle um when you have them both on the road at the same time. >> So a um a transporting vehicle can render the care and then take the person to the hospital. They transport them. Uh responding vehicle the ones that we utilize are are paramedic level vehicles. So like you know I always say that a paramedic in the field there's no emergency they can't handle. Uh so whatever that emergency would be they they can go to the scene they can render you know care for essentially until they you know fall asleep or run out of run out of gear um which would probably be a very long time. So that you know you know see somebody having

162a uh breathing difficulty cardiac arrest you know anything they could they can respond in a vehicle and render render care >> and that's until a transport vehicle would get to them. Okay. Go ahead, Mary. >> Um, just first thank you for uh your mutual aid coming in has been reduced, but you're also your um your response time has come down and I think that's pretty amazing. So for people that have emergencies, two minutes is huge. So that's I mean because it's always been about that seven minutes. So that's that's pretty amazing that you've you know reduced that. So, and before the extra staff um for uh AEDs, do we have portable AEDs that like parks and wreck have when you're bringing up um the farmers market, things like that? Are they trained in that? And

163do we have portable or is it only where they are on buildings? >> Um I'm not sure exactly off the top of my head if there are um portable AEDs with the parks department. I believe there are. Um I recently just met with um uh Lynn Steinre. Uh so she she does a lot of the um ads for the schools in the town. Um and we met because I think it's something that you know we can both help each other out with. Um, and you know, I think my one of my projects for this year, um, is to sort of be involved with and, um, ramp up the the access to to AEDs, uh, you know, in town and at like, you know, town facilities, town buildings. Um, so that that's definitely something that I'm

164working on. Um, I know, like, you know, there's an AD right behind you. Um, >> didn't know that. >> Yep. Uh, over your uh over your left shoulder. Um, >> so we do we do have them in in town buildings and town vehicles, police vehicles obviously. Um, >> uh, but you know, the more the better. I'm I'm a big fan of the more people that know CPR and how to use an AED um, in a community definitely makes um, our job easier and increases survivability and that, you know, that's, you know, that's not hyperbole, that's that's fact. >> And then just collection fees, how are we doing? I should have looked at the revenue sheet. Um but uh I know the company that you were working with um had a better uh rate of collection.

165Has that continued? >> Uh yeah. So we've been we've been doing very good with our collections. Um if uh >> that's okay. I just I just was curious if you know I know that there was an issue before sometimes with reporting and um with the transport and signage and everything like that that had you know in the past. So I just wanted to see if we've gotten a little bit better at that with this company. Yeah, we've definitely we've definitely gotten better with the company. Um, we've worked pretty hard to kind of make sure that we're collecting what we're able to collect when we're able to collect. Um, and I mean I think we're doing >> we're doing pretty good. I you know I know when I first started the big question was the aging

166summary everybody was you know because that was over you know almost a million5 and in the two years that I've um been here working with the billing company we've been able to recoup uh more than half a million dollars out of that aging. So, it's it's been below a million dollars for the past, let's say, almost a year. Um, that we've been able to take a huge chunk out of that um and kind of get on the those monies that we are eligible to collect uh through billing. >> Great. Well, thank you for everything. >> Anyone else? Good. Any any last uh words of wisdom, anything we should know. >> Um >> actually, while you're looking, I'll throw you another one. Yeah. >> Um so in your capital outlay 888 budget, um you've got noted,

167and sorry if I missed this, uh Wi-Fi emergency vehicles and some iPads. Can you just talk to that a little bit? Uh yeah so currently we use um tough books which are are Panasonic tough computers um but they are computers with computers come computer computer related issues um which are not always easy to fix um versus an iPad which is substantially less expensive than a tough book um and you put a rugged case on it and then working with it you can have it very easily monitored And like if anybody has an Apple phone, it's very hard to break them. Like you can't blue screen of death, an Apple product. Um and the the software we use to write our reports is is web- based. And they're coming out with actually an app for um

168uh iOS devices as well. Uh and this would just be, you know, ease of use um because you you need to get signatures walking into the ER. The Toughbooks that we currently have have cellular along with Wi-Fi. However, if you walk into the hospital with this the cellular, you're basically walking into a Faraday cage, you get no no signal or service uh in there and trying to connect to a cellular network is or a Wi-Fi network on the fly, not great. Um, so we just b essentially roll in the the cost of keeping those on cellular to the iPads. It also allows for um enhanced patient care features uh using uh tigeree which used to be triage. So it's a uh an app that allows hospital communication um other than and then radio. So for

169example, if somebody's having a a heart attack or a mocardial infarction, you can um securely, you know, and without violating HIPPA through this app, you can send a picture of the EKG to the ER. So they the you know the cardiac calath team can say yep and you know they can have everything open prepped ready to go. You just go straight up there. Um if you have an MCI or major trauma you can just you know use that app. You can click a bunch of stuff. It'll pre-alert the hospital so they can you know depending on what you're doing you might not be able to like step aside and you know grab the radio and say hey can I talk to the hospital? Okay standby. Okay standing by. And then you know relay the information

170when you know you gota you got to hurry. You can just you know, click things really quick. Um, and and one of the the bene the Wi-Fi for the vehicles is is just kind of to allow that um to happen anywhere. So, if you're anywhere near the truck, um you would have the ability to use the Wi-Fi in the vehicle. Uh the other the other reason for the Wi-Fi for the vehicle would be the um the narcotic storage system that's on there. Um Narcbox, it's also in the capital outlay. um the 13835. So that's um that's a that's a different uh way of storing controlled substances. We carry controlled substances on the ambulance u which are narcotics. They're DA regulated. Um and currently we use um a system called comp X which which fulfills the

171requirements. However, it's not a narcotic storage system. It's a door locking system that we that just people use to store narcotics because it fulfills the three locks and audit logs. But it's old. It's antiquated technology. It's not easy to uh troubleshoot. It's not easy to put people in, take people out. You need to hardwire a computer into the actual lock itself, open up a program that was built in 2001 um and hope that it works. where with with Narbox it is it is a narcotic storage system. It's DEA compliant. It does DEA reporting for you. It's web- based. You can you know on the fly if you know Andrew is on a call and you know hey uh I just went tumbling down the hill in the mud taking care of this trauma patient and

172my ID fell out um but I need to give them you know narcotics. you know, uh, somebody an admin or supervisor could unlock the box right there and he could get it and then we could instantly right there also deactivate his card in case somebody found it. They couldn't walk in and say, "Oh, I wonder what this does." Um, and it just, you know, like for for administrative um, like remedial/menial tasks reduction. I mean, it's it's worth it just there. And uh and why why on the trucks you would need that because it would just be constantly reporting reporting temperature uh reporting you know any you know doors opening doors closing you know every time somebody checks you know you know instead of having to go in and uh audit a bunch of paper logs

173you just go on the website and download it right there. >> Just just a plug for the iPads. Anything you can do that makes communication easier um is a big win. uh when medical records went to when all electronic medical records and they said it's going to be great. Everybody will be able to talk to everybody. The ease of care, but it just depends if you're on the system that that particular unit's on the system and all the different hospitals are on different unit different systems and to be able to get the communication is a nightmare. So, whatever you can do to improve that and the especially when time is a factor. Also, one of the other things that's great about having an iPad is since it's just a big giant iPhone like that you

174have the ability to take pictures and through the report writing software that we have, you can through that app either whether it's the website or their native app, you can take a picture and if you take it through the app with the phone, it's it's secured. It doesn't get saved on the phone. So, and that's important. You know, if you have a bad car accident and somebody's saying, "Oh, I'm fine." or like it was just a fender bender and then you know the trauma doc's like why are they here for just a fender bender and you're like you know or it that and that goes with their medical records. So now you have you know like which is a legal document a PCR is a legal document. So you have you can have that like,

175you know, this is this is what we saw. This is what happened. And then you don't have to worry like I don't I don't want people using their phone to take pictures. You know, you use something that'll do it securely um and not violate HIPPA. >> Any other questions? >> Just a real quick question regarding mutual aid. Is there a cost associated with that? >> Uh there there is. There's a, you know, bundle building, bundle building, bundle billing, uh, agreements, you know, so if we have an out of town medic come in, um, they would they they charge a a a fee for their service, um, if they, uh, intercept with us. Um, and, you know, we would do so in the reverse, um, going going to another community providing that ALS level of care.

176Um, so even though we've reduced our reliance on incoming mutual aid, we're still we're still we're still going out and doing mutual aid as well. And those are those are billable calls that you know we generate revenue from. >> Thank you. >> Maria, I have a followup to the um position that was open the six months that that caused the overtime to go up. That's offset from the salary that we're no longer paying that person. >> Yes, that will be happening. Yes. >> Yeah. So, the overtime isn't it's over in overtime, but there's an offset to that salary. I did hear that before. >> I mean, I don't know the full amount, but yes, there will be an offset. >> Yeah. I mean that that amount, you know, even for that one position that Marie

177and I were talking about the other day. I mean, even if we um now that we have that position will be filled as of April 13th. Um the administrator though, they signed all the paperwork passed background check. So, I think we're uh there's no stopping it now. Um that that uh you can't leave. Uh >> if it if you're working in my facility, it's when we see the whites of their eyes and they come back after lunch the first day, then we're good. Yeah. All right. That's fair. Um, so, you know, even if we uh prorrate the that salary for there, I think that would still be enough to cover it. And then, you know, even the, you know, with the with the full-time uh paramedic that, you know, circumstances outside of control no longer

178works here. Um, that gap also between, you know, when we refilled that position to would be would be money that could be transferred. >> Yep. But that that explains why the overtime's up and where will it'll offset a good portion of it. Any other questions for EMS? Paul, >> Colin, I'll ask you the same question I asked Megan prior to you. Do you have any thoughts or have you collected any data with regard to the impact on your ability to provide services to the residents of the multi-unit housing developments that have occurred here over the last number of years? >> Um, I would say probably it's probably the same as it is last year. I mean, like, you know, we definitely have a growing community, whether it's multi-ervice or otherwise. I mean, Treble is a

179desirable place to live. Um, I think we're doing a pretty good job of of meeting those needs. Um, you know, me from a, you know, growing my agency. You know, I say the the more the more people that want to go to the hospital, the marrier. You know, like I don't want people to get hurt, but we want to be there. Okay. >> Um, >> and it's one of those things that's it's really hard to tell like, you know, the data on, you know, certain, you know, like residences on Maine or 10 Woodside, that's really not a lot of calls that come out of there. um you we would see more calls in um those kind of acute care skilled nursing facilities like if you know I mean we did lose St. Joe's and you

180know that you tie that directly to the a a statistically insignificant but noticeable u decrease in in our in our call volume but it it didn't really affect us hugely losing St. Joe's. Um so you know even if you put a you duplicated St. shows tomorrow and it existed, then then you know I could confidently tell you that that'd probably be 300 calls a year. Um, but would not negatively impact services to to the rest of the community. Um, and you know, I mean, there's there's in emergency services that unpredictability, you know, that happens anywhere. I mean, >> it's why it's an emergency. We don't always predict when, you know, something's going to happen. So, you know, at any time there could be six 911 calls that happen right at the same time. It doesn't

181happen very often, but but it's a possibility. Um, you know, if everybody drank bad water at the same time and felt sick, then you know, you could have thousand people all calling 911 at the same time. But >> thank you. >> Thanks. >> You got it. >> Those of us who work in healthcare get traumatized by things like that. So, >> yeah. you know. Um, any other questions on EMS? >> Thank you for coming this morning, gentlemen. >> Absolutely. Thanks for having us. >> This is my first time, even though I'm not new. This is my first time where it wasn't on Zoom. >> Oh, that's true. Right. Y >> it's kind of nice to see people in person. >> Yeah. >> Although I think we're we are very efficient on Zoom. People get their

182questions asked. They get, you know, on and off pretty quick. >> Yeah. All right. >> Have a good morning. >> Thank you very much. Take care everybody. >> Told you, Bill. >> That's a Zoom problem. >> Zoom. Let's do >> the technology. >> That's weird. >> Fix this. We're cutting your budget. >> No, he's gonna tell you he needs more money to fix it. Careful. It doesn't necessarily work the in our favor. >> Yeah, I'll need five more staff members. >> All right. Good morning. It's the annual annual meeting for budget. Very good. >> We're going to move to the technology department on page 87. >> All right. Um this has been a busy year. We've um done quite a few things, but uh we'll start off with just a few of the the uh

183projects that we were working on. Um computer upgrades, we've done probably 125 of them. Um at least on the workstation side and certainly more on the laptop side. Um we'll talk a little bit more about that later. Um, one project that we had planned to do was to um migrate some of our ex some of the buildings that are scattered around town that are on cable charter business internet and move them to uh Frontier Fiber internet. Um, but that didn't happen. So what happened was we were um after the budget had been approved, we started talking with Frontier and we quickly realized that they had us on Frontier residential fiber internet and so we didn't want that. We want business internet. Um and so they quoted us on that and there goes all the cost

184savings that we thought we were going to realize. So that was way more expensive than the current charter business internet. Um, and we just couldn't make that project happen. So there's a little bit of movement on the budget on on kind of what we were planning to do. We didn't get to realize those cost savings, which um ended up being cost more than what we actually budgeted for. So that's that was some pressure on the budget, which we'll talk about later. Um but uh long story short, we didn't we didn't do that project. We stayed with what we had. Um we did increase the fiber internet speed here at town hall from 500 megs to a gig. Um so that services the whole town network which is helpful. Um replacing the uh wireless access points.

185So we we ordered the first bunch of those. Those are in and we've started to roll those out. Um there's about half of them that we ordered the first time. So the second half is in this budget to purchase. We need to finish that project before uh the end of July in order to um continue receiving service uh security updates on those. Um so that that'll be high on our project list for July 1 to get that um rolled out and all of the new access points in and installed. Um and we also replaced our aging patch management solution. We switched to a different vendor which has been uh really nice and and helpful to us. Um goals for this year, uh we were we were planning to do some workstation replacements. Um but those

186those goals have changed a little bit. Uh as I mentioned, we'll continue doing the access points. Um we have a couple servers that need replacing. Uh those were installed in 2019, so they're getting a little along the tooth and getting old. And those are the um servers that run our virtual server environment. So pretty much all of our servers uh here at on the town network. So those are fairly large size servers that can handle the um the workload of all of the the servers that we have on them. >> Vin, can you translate that to English? >> You need servers and workstations. >> So big boxes, little boxes. >> Big boxes, little boxes. Thanks. Um and then we also need some some new networking uh equipment. Um we'll start at the library. So the

187the issue there is really port density. So we have uh exceeded the number of ports that we have on the network switch. So we can't add things around the the library um where they're needed. And so we're we're not able to buy a new switch and add it to the current stack because those things don't talk to each other. So, we have to replace the whole stack. What we'll do though after that is we'll repurpose those other ones that are there now and we'll move them elsewhere. Even though they're old, they're still usable. Um, and we'll move on from there. Questions? All right. U, so we'll talk about um I guess the workstations. You want to start there or do you want to roll through contractual first? Yeah, go ahead. Workstations. >> So, we were

188we're planning on doing workstations um in this fiscal budget. So, one of the other projects that we've identified that we um kind of needed is a u replacement switch for our internet edge here in the building that services the entire town. So, basically the first switch behind the firewall that distributes all of the network across the various paths. um because there's a lot of fiber in there. Those those things are more expensive and so I I had that in the budget here um and it's been rejected and that's okay. So what we're planning to do is use money from this fiscal year's budget. So, this fiscal year's budget, we had anticipated purchasing 125 additional workstations to round out our the rest of our uh desktop replacement cycle. Um the one area that I think we

189could delay and not suffer drastically is in in those workstations. So those 125 are um some admin computers, some shared workstations, some public workstations, things that are not used totally 100% of the time by uh you know a town employee who needs the power. Um the ones that we have in place are we're all upgraded to Windows 11, so we're safe there. And they are working, they're just getting older. Um, and one more year older obviously makes it a little bit older and slower, but it's still usable. >> Bill, just quick question. How long have those been in service? The ones that you'll delay for a year? >> Um, probably five years at this point. So, you know, we can we can stretch it out a little bit longer and and actually it may even

190help us in terms of a an overall workstation cycle. So, we just replace 125. you know, if we space that out a little bit, it might be a little bit better. Ideally, we should be able to do like 50 a year for five years and then sort of cycle out that way. Um, we got a little bit, I guess, behind on that because our our goals changed. >> Probably have not had a chance. >> Our goals changed in terms of the um virtual desktop environment. So, we we decided to skip that because of the expense and the technology and then just continue just doing desktop replacements. Yeah, I was going to ask what's the impact of not replacing the edge switch, but it sounds like you've got that right covered with >> Right. So, we're

191gonna we're going to do that in this fiscal year and delay the the purchase of the uh the workstations. >> So, you're going to buy it now, >> correct? >> In this current, not in the next budget. So, that's why I should move. Okay. >> Right. So, you'll see it here as rejected by the first selectman and we talked about that. So, >> um, >> Vinnie Vinnie went like that. We're good. >> Other than that, I mean, there's really not a whole lot. I um the first selectman changed um the number of attendees to the conferences that we were hoping to schedule and and and attend. Um, that's okay. We can deal with that and we can live with that. Um and then the other item I guess is contractual which you'll see is increased

192by a good margin. Um and those are various things you know things are getting more expensive as as all of us have come to experience in our own lives. Um that's no difference with um technology and things like that. Um memory is very expensive, chips are very expensive and so um some of the things are are increasing there. Um the changes in um Crown Castle and um excuse me and Frontier and Charter are all just really a shuffle of money. Um so charter as I mentioned sort of goes back to the fiscal year 2425 levels. Um we had thought we were going to reduce some of that fee and so we zeroed out a few buildings in last year's budget. Um but because we didn't switch to fiber those go back to the standard as

193what we were sort of paying. um Crown Castle in last year's budget, we signed a an an extension and during the um communications with our account rep, there was miscommunication about the um universal search charge and fees. And so that didn't make it into the budget calculation for last year. And we've been paying those and they're um you know, it it it adds up quickly. And so that's um put some additional pressure on the IT budget. So this is properly budgeted now for all of those um fees and expenses. >> And Bill, just for the group, what what were those fees and expenses? >> It's just a universal search. >> No, the dollar total. Um >> give me a moment. I'll pull that up. Um I think it was something like 2300 a month times

19412. So that's not ins. It's not insignificant, right? >> Yeah, it's about $26,000 a year. So about >> I thought you were going to stop at 2,300. I was going to be fine with that. Okay. >> 2,300 times 12. Um so there will be a supplemental appropriation request um to fix this year's budget because of that. Can you just give us a quick idea of the size of your department and how many meetings a week you're handling either remote or um in chambers? >> Uh sure. So um there are three other people in my department. Uh so four people total. Um and we've been supporting anywhere between 10 to 15 to 18 meetings a month on Zoom um whenever they pop up. Uh, and so that comes out of our overtime expense. Um, so you'll

195see me often times online. Um, that'll change in the spring a little bit since my kids play a lot of baseball and I try to help coach them whenever I can. So, we we'll spread that wealth around and you'll get to see more people uh online. Like this Thursday, I won't be there, but Phil will. I'll be on a flight um out to California for some scouting events and he'll be able to support that and uh take care of the uh public. >> Don't worry, Phil. Bill will have the Zoom thing fixed by then. >> Yeah. >> And if I have to, maybe I'll jump on from the plane and say hi. I'm kidding. >> Any other questions? Go ahead, Ben. Uh Bill noted the uh Frontier cost and uh uh Frontier has old technology

196and uh we have quite a bit of Frontier billing here uh that needs to be looked at. So uh I made an offer to Bill to help him out to go through it and see if we can reduce it. >> Excellent. >> Yeah, that is the um so there's two different Frontier pieces. One is Frontier Internet um and then there's other Frontier phone services. So that's the frontier phone services. Um copper lines are just being, you know, the traditional phone phone line into your into your building just is becoming more expensive to support and so it's um not a surprise to see those fees go up. Um but we have a lot of them here in the town of Trumbull. Uh so we have a lot of fax machines which we've started to um talk

197to department heads to see if we can reduce those and cut those out. You know, faxes are largely replaced by email. Um certainly we need them in some medical buildings and police departments and things like that, but we're going to start pulling fax machine lines out. That'll have some savings. Uh switch to like an evac type service if we need to. Um, and then the other big one could potentially be direct inward dial lines, did lines. So, right now pretty much every employee has a direct dial number. And so, that requires, you know, the copper line into the building that has 203452 5101, right? My my number. Um, that gets ported to the building, goes to my desk, goes to my phone. Well, now it's voice over IP, so it's a little bit different, but

198um that copper line is a copper line. It's expensive and we might be able to remove that 4525101 line and just use our voiceover IP directory. So, you'll call 4525000, get the directory. If you know your party's extension, please dial it, dial by name, or dial by department. And so, that could save us a lot of money. Um I mean there are quite a few I mean probably easily 150 200 um if I'm just thinking off the top of my head direct inward dial lines. Um that changes a lot from how the public interacts with the town or vendors interact with the town. So that's not a tomorrow thing, right? we're going to have to train all of those people or or get new contact information out for all of that to say dial 5,000

199and then get the extension and then dial the extension. Um certainly certain departments could have and retain those. You know, that'll be a decision down the line, but this that would be a huge change that would save us a good chunk of money, but it would be impactful. So, it's not a not a quick thing. So, Bill, that would be the town and the board of education. >> It would be Well, I'm just talking about the town. Um, I don't actually know how many direct inward dial lines the uh board of ed has. I know that they have a lot of extensions over there that they don't have those like all the classrooms are all on extensions and things like that, but I don't know about administrators and and things like that. >> I think

200I think that's something we could ask. Okay, >> that's a Jeff question, >> but first the decision needs to be made like are we going to take that step and then obviously plan that step out over probably a year or two, three, four years. >> Yeah, you know, we've talked about that in our other meetings about making tough decisions that are not necessarily convenient or easy to do, but are efficient, more efficient and cost-effective. And I think, you know, with the budget growing the way it is, that those are the things that we have to we have to look at. >> Right. Right. I mean, certainly, you know, I prior to my job here, which sounds like an eternity ago, uh I worked in in the city in Manhattan and everyone called the root line

201and and then dialed a uh dialed an extension after that. So, you know, just it's it's a little bit different to have everybody just have a direct line. Um it's nice to have direct lines sometimes, but you know it's uh comes at an expense. >> Hey Bill, um if you could just talk to uh 888 Capital Outlay a little bit. Um I know we talked about the workstations and the laptops. Um but if we look at uh wireless access points, server replacements, switch replacements, and you might have talked to this already, but we're looking at about 70 to $75,000 worth of uh capital outlay. Can you just talk to expected useful life? Um, you know, just kind of what the program looks like, please. >> Sure. Um, you know, you'll see workstations in there. Workstations,

202um, generally will have, you know, we try to stretch them out five years or better. Um, laptops probably four years to five years. Um, laptops change a little bit, need to be upgraded a little bit faster than that. Um, in here also the the access points. I think the last time we did access points was like 10 years ago. Um so those obviously have a longer um lifespan and uh the HP replacement um the last time we did that was 2019. So that's seven years on that server. Um and then the $250 voice gateway that was a part of that project. So that that one's easy. Go ahead, Mary. >> I have a stupid question because we know me and technology. Um, are there any opportunities to lease any areas like access points for additional

203cell tower or um or increased for frontier charter? Anybody? Vinnie, you can just turn around and laugh at me if that's a stupid question. >> It's not a stupid question. has he laughs anyway? >> I don't I don't know. I just was curious. I was just wondering because I know we do get revenue coming in for our cell towers. So, I just didn't know if there's any ability to to add to that or rooftop or different spots or anything. >> The last time I talked with Verizon, this is a couple years ago, they had the area mapped out pretty well as to what they wanted to do for coverage. Um, I mean, I'm sure they'd like to have another location and improve a dead spot if there's any, but uh, traditionally if they have coverage

204and they feel it's adequate, they don't go around saying, "I'd like to make it better in this one spot if they don't have to." And that's goes for most of them. But, uh, you know, the opportunity is there. If somebody came to town and said, "Yeah, we want to have a new service put in or something." Obviously, it's there. And then lastly, um I know board of ed is separate, but uh do you see any licensing redundancies between the town and the board of ed or any opportunities that we could combine? I I we probably ask this every year, but I'm not sure if there's um anything that we've seen that we could just combine into one uh one savings. >> Hopefully that's a red driver of the truck over there. Um I you know

205I think in terms of support uh you know they they get a lot of discounts because they're in education. Uh we get some discounts because we're a government uh municipality but um you know I think one area that could be looked at is Munice. Um you know we pay we pay a lot of money for Munis and I'm sure they do too. I don't know what their line for Munis is but you know they're they're a department just like the rest of us right? So you have engineering, you have public works, EMS, police, technology, education is a budget that could be under the town munice system. Um I'm not sure how difficult. I'm sure it would be difficult. Um but that's that would be something that could be looked at. >> I think we did

206talk about that two years ago. Um and when we did that, there was an issue with the way that they set up their mun. They would have to overhaul their reporting. Um, again, definitely something that would be helpful for the finance department to be able to track, you know, what's going on. Not only that, but a potential cost savings. So, we will offer that as well. >> Anyone else? Go ahead, Nikki. >> On the Munis, if we were to look closer at that, would we would that be an outside consultant? Would that be an expert in mun like how how who would we bring in to be able to um take a deep dive into that? >> Got to just watch my head behind me because I know back there. Um no, I think that

207would probably be um some sort of project manager consultant that would help with that migration transition. It's something that even though maybe could be done in-house, we'd probably want somebody to make sure everything's lined up correctly. Um, so if that were something that the town would like to do, I'm sure there's somebody out there who could help with that transition, make that migration, and then, you know, make it a professional services onetime cost type transition for that project. >> Go ahead, Maria. I was part of that implementation of Munis both on the town side. At that point in time they already implemented the board of ed at the time they were resistant to combined with the town. If we were to combine the difference would be the chart of accounts. Their chart of accounts is

208different. If you notice all our chart of accounts in every department they have exactly the same objects and the board of ed has different objects. So yes, we would need assistance from UNUNICE to implement. Can we do part of it? Yes, we can. Uh but we would need assistance from UNUNICE. And obviously board of ed, they know their their system. We don't. So >> how would we go about finding out the cost to make that happen? If we if that was and if it would be cost-effective, how do we examine that? >> We can contact Munis. They have both of our systems. They can they can look into that. >> Okay. So, um I think that's something that we'd have to ask board of ed and let them know that we're, you know, exploring whether

209or not that would be a cost savings and how that would work. Um but I definitely think we've talked about it before y >> and it's something that we should do that. Is that something that can be done during this budget process or is this a >> No, >> this is not a next year. >> Okay. >> I I don't believe so. It could take a while. You know, we talk about a lot of these things during budget season and then all of a sudden it's the next budget season. So, I think that's something that we should >> put on the list to >> it needs to be conversation. >> Well, then it needs to be a conversation now so that it could happen >> if it were cost effective. >> Who would be doing

210that communication with the board of ed? >> I'm sorry, who >> who would be communicating that with the board of ed? >> Vinnie. >> Yeah, Vinnie. >> He laughed. No, I um I think that's a conversation for us to have during our work session. Like what is it that what what what might that look like? How would we do that? What's do that? Is it possible to get an estimate of what it would cost so we could have that as part of the discussion? Can >> contact Mun. >> Yes, please. That work for everyone? Go ahead, Vin. I just going to say you really can do a cursory look by just knowing what they pay for licensing and see what they pay for licensing and see how much you would offset by putting them together.

211You may find that the cost of the licensing doesn't justify doing a lot of effort to put the things together. However, I would say there's many intangible benefits of putting the systems together including the visibility for everyone to see everything at the same time. You also can get a module of unis munis to uh have external sources look at it as well. That's another module that they sell that I know other towns have utilized and have other people outside of people in the elected community and and uh be able to see things and be able to look at all the accounts on their own. So there's a lot of things you can do with Munis. It's a question of how much you want to invest in it. >> Go ahead, Maria. Vinnie, we have that

212capability now, but we have to get access given access. Currently, we handle all the capital projects. All the bonded projects for the board of ed are handled on the town side. The board of ed can view those projects on our system. So, if they're allow they're allowing us to view their data, we could we could do do it now if they allow us to. So it it's doable, >> but that doesn't mean that they have that capability on their system at the moment. >> I I would think they do. >> Okay. >> All right. So those are good questions to ask. Anybody else have any Oh, go ahead, Dave. >> Are we all set with munus for the moment? >> Okay. Uh I have a question in 602 bill because I don't speak in acronyms.

213So can you help me to understand what this MSISAC membership uh previously paid by the federal government that seems to have been clawed back. Can you explain what that is and what our new obligation is please? >> Sure. So um MSISAC is the the multi-state information sharing and analysis center. So, it's a uh piece of um I think Department of Homeland Security and CISA that um let me get this right here. Uh CISA is the cyber security and infrastructure security agency. Government loves acronyms. Um so it's a division of that and what they do is monitor and help uh state and local governments, tribal nations and um uh just with an oversight of cyber security and and monitoring. So MSISAC was uh was funded previously um in last in this fiscal the current fiscal budget

214prior to uh it starting in last um July one. So around this time last year, uh after budgets were already set in place for uh municipalities, um funding got pulled from that program and so they moved to a model where each individual entity could buy in and and continue the services. What the state of Connecticut did is um covered that expense for the entire state for one year. And there was discussion about potentially doing that again, but they decided not to. So, um we're in the transition period now where those fees will be pushed down to uh the local agencies if they choose to participate um in that. But we do receive some um um some support and some resources from them. Uh actually quite deal a good deal of support and resources from them.

215And uh the models just changed from being federally subsidized to or federally paid to being shifted to the local governments unfortunately. >> Anyone else? >> I think we're good. Thanks, Bill. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um with that, we're going to take a break uh for lunch. We'll be back at 1:00 with um parks and wreck and public works. Uh and we'll come back then. >> That's okay. Get a few minutes to uh >> chat and to um get ourselves together. Can you put back up a note on the line that just says we'll be back at 1:00? All right. So, we are back from our lunch break. This is day one or day two of the uh department budget hearings. We met with the board of education last Tuesday and today we are working

216our way through public safety and we're working into parks and public works department uh for our afternoon session. Uh we'll start this afternoon on page 401 with Dimmitri and Gretchen. They're here from the Rex and uh Rex and Recreation and Parks Department. I I noticed that we put it down that way so I don't get to say parks and wreck. I know you did that on purpose. >> Hi. >> How are you? >> I'm well. How's everybody? >> Living the dream. >> All good. All good. >> All good is good. Uh so uh happy new year everybody. Uh that's the the easiest way to start this uh this adventure. Uh generally I'd like to to know if you have any specific questions within the budget itself so I don't uh elaborate uh unnecessarily on any

217one specific thing and I'm sure that you do. U so >> do you want to give us a quick overview like changes this year big changes anything that we should be looking at first? >> Uh in general I would say no. Uh the the budget by and large is uh pretty much the same if not a tiny bit smaller because of some of the financial manipulations we made around some of our programming uh to offset some of the costs with the mandatory increases in minimum wage. So, one is kind of offsetting the other to a a greater degree, which is why you're not seeing a gigantic increase in our uh our salary seasonal account. Would you like to elaborate on uh some of that? >> Yeah. Well, that's one of them, but I mean some

218of the things. >> Yeah. So we um again we get we're getting hit with the minimum oh this is Gretchen office manager parks. Um we're getting hit with the minimum wage again. We went from635 to694 July 1. Um so we also give our returning staff a 25 for 25 cent increase per hour. Um that helps us to maintain um our staff instead of hiring new staff and retraining. We um have been really lucky. We've been able to keep the lifeguard starting rate at $20 an hour. We've done that. I think this is the third or fourth year in a row. We haven't had to increase that, but again, we do have a lot of people returning. So, they do get that 25 uh cent increase per hour per year. Um that is that is the

219most important line to me. If I have people, I can run a program. If I don't buy an extra checker set, I can live without that as long as I have my staff. um we are offering this year a half day camp instead of two full day camps um for the six to 10 year olds. Um and that is hopefully going to offset some of those costs of the people because again people are our most expensive um >> commodity. Sure. And um that's the most important to me is people. Um, Demetri has his I think your 402 and 802 that are most important to you. Um, but for me, as long as we get that minimum wage, um, which which Vicki has given us, >> Gretchen. >> Yeah. >> Um, about total how many seasonal

220employees? We see it as a dollar amount, but about how many and in what department? Like what areas do they fall? >> Um, so my payroll in the summer is about 275. Um, Dimmitri has about 15 full-time. There's bunch four full-time in our office. Um we have about 90 lifeguards, 15 or so uh park rangers, and then the rest is camp staff, ID checkers. Um I think that's a supervisor, camp supervisors. I can give you an exact number if you need mute that. >> Yeah, if you would just send that over afterwards. It's interesting for us to see. >> Sure. So Gretchen is correct. Uh staff is number one all the way around because if we don't have them, we're not doing anything whether it's uh staffing a program or actually physically doing the work

221in the field. So that is our number one priority. When we get into just operations, it is our 402 account primarily where we where we draw off of almost everything uh until we get into building maintenance or uh materials used specifically for pool operations. Building maintenance generally coming out of an 802 account. Uh pool operations are at an 803 account. um pools. Uh Vicki has looked at historical usage on the pools and has done a slight decrease based on historical usage. I'm not particularly concerned about that. Uh we don't uh just as as a as a practice exhaust accounts. We'll use what we need. Uh the pool is generally uh we're we're charged with operating those pools uh within the parameters that have been laid out by the commission and the administration uh by whatever

222means necessary. So we will do whatever it takes to keep them running. Uh whether there's going to be a blip in chemical costs, whether there's going to be an operational failure, we're getting the pools and we're going to keep those pools running no matter what. Uh as you all know we did a significant amount of work up at Tasha Nolles in the past well within the last two years uh and a lot of things have changed mechanically and operationally with that pool. So historically uh we have been running on a well it's called sodium hypocchloride. It's it's liquid chlorine and that is the the primary uh material that we use to sanitize the pools and have for a very long time. Sodium hypocchloride is extremely toxic and it comes with a host of uh of

223of problems in terms of maintaining it in a safe environment, how much material you can keep on hand etc. And so we have uh long sought to move away from that to a more stable product. They now uh they now have sanitizing pellets, a more commercial version of like what an HTA pellet HTH pellet might be to a a homeowner. uh those are those are run under a pulsar system. So when we did uh redo tasha tasha is on a pelletiz pulsar system uh much easier to to manage uh more stable in terms of the water environment. What we don't know uh is in real terms what it's going to cost to use the pelletiz system versus the sodium hypocchlorite. We've only had a partial year to really run uh any trials with that. It

224it lives up to its reputation. The the water clarity uh from health department standards, it's it's spoton. We just don't have somebody to point to to say that this is equal to or if it's going to cost a little more or it might even cost a little less uh than the sodium hypocchlorite with all of the other uh factors that go into managing a pool with that. So, I'm certainly willing to uh to play out the season and see where we are and uh come back with a report to you all indicating whether or not uh or why we have ended up where we ended up. I'm hoping that things are at least equal uh to where we were before. And if that's the case, then we will transition beaches over to uh the same

225system and we'll move forward from there. Let's see. >> 802. >> Well, while you're looking for that, Gretchen, the you're going to transition from two full day camps to a full day and a half day camp. >> Yes. >> And is that basically just because of the increase in labor or because there was less of a need? um one camp has the past three or four years had a lot more um attendance than another camp. So it's part of it's both um we als >> which are what's the difference between the two camps that you offer? >> So um there there two they're just different locations. They're both play they're both playground camps. We have the junior camp which is at Techk which is always sold out. We only can take 30 kids there. Then

226we have two um locations at elementary schools and one is usually always at capacity and one is maybe at half capacity. Um and what happens is a lot of times so Tuesdays or Thursdays now the camps go to the pool depending on the location. And what happens is at 12:00 when the pool opens to the public, a lot of the parents come and pick up their kids anyway. So, we're paying um our staff to be there based on we should have 80 kids at this camp and there's not 80 kids there. >> So, we're trying it this year. Um I know from my own experience as a parent a lot of times people like halfday camps because grandma can go pick you up at 12:00, then grandma doesn't have you all day. She can have

227you um just for the afternoon. We're going to try it this year. Um, it also gives the the um the six-year-olds who haven't been to kindergarten a chance to go to a camp. Whereas um the full day camp is going to be for six-year-olds who have finished kindergarten. Um I for anybody who doesn't have a um a small child, the they changed the age last year from 5 to 6. So it's a September day instead of used to be December 31st. So now if you're um if you're still five in the fall, you can't go to kindergarten till the following year. So, a lot of the kids um Norine was telling me that the kids who attended playground camp who hadn't gone to kindergarten were just they still needed a nap in the afternoon or

228they were falling asleep at, you know, just because they hadn't done a full day of activities. So, for those kids, um they won't be going on the trips. A lot of people don't necessarily want to send their six-year-old to Quasi or Lake Compounds. Um and the kids who have gone to kindergarten or might who have older siblings like to do that. So, it's an opportunity. um enrollment is a little bit lower than we've seen with the full day camp, but again, our our first location isn't sold out either. So, what usually happens is once you're home with your kids for a week or two, then camp sells out. >> I I almost forgot that it's I almost forgot that it's March and you have to have your summer plan done already. >> Oh, we already

229we opened registration. >> I'm not sure I missed those days. >> Yeah. >> Where are we going? Uh, circling back, I know there was a reduction in the in the 802. So, the 802 is essentially just all uh tools and materials that we utilize for all of our facilities. Uh, if we're looking at it again as historic usage, I'd be more than happy to to uh play that out for the year and and not argue it. But I do know that our our infrastructure all the way around where we have HVAC, it's, you know, approaching or exceeding 20 years old. we will be expecting failures and those will hit those accounts at some point. Uh but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Uh back to the 803 there's another reduction in what

230is uh called the dive program. So that apparatus is is a supplementary uh life safety device. Uh we you know we are always uh you know very concerned about life safety obviously around any and all of the pools and we have an excellent uh excellent lifeguard record. I never want to jinx that but uh they do their job and they do their job very well. But there's always concerns by some parents whether you're starting off with a new swimmer. Uh people that you know their their skill sets are wavering uh they're just not you know not fully comfortable uh in a swim environment. So we looked for various um other options to see if we could uh give a greater level of confidence to those swimmers or the parents of those swimmers. And that this

231material or this equipment uh sort of crossed our mind. Uh we did this over two years ago, didn't we? When we started this process with dive, I think when we started to explore it. Um, and so when we uh actually put that into play, last year was the first year it was had approved funding. By the time we actually had the equipment, we had to make determinations of where this setup would actually go, whether it would be at beaches or at Tasha. It would never work well at beaches because of how we generally utilize beaches. So Tasha was the the destination choice. uh as well you know we just didn't have a full year over there and we never implemented the use of the dive program. So, it is our hope that we would have

232a first year to determine whether or not it's embraced by, you know, the the individuals who have come to us looking for an augmented uh life safety device for first-time swimmers or or or any other and we'll be able to get a better sense as to whether or not the apparatus itself actually functions as delivered and the people want to use it. Uh it was our intent to do this for the first time this year. Uh I'd like to give it a shot. Uh we we certainly know that there is uh uh a lot of concern and we think this will be a uh a positive addition to our aquatics facilities. Any questions? >> Questions on that? Mary, did you >> I think it's a great program, but I'm just um I don't know if

233we brought this up before. Is there any liability? I mean, thinking the same thing. If we have lifeguards there, you're in a body of water, it's you don't go in and sign liability form to swim, but I'm wondering with that added protection, is there an issue where parents may have to sign or something that it's being used? I know I didn't think about it when we talked about it previously. My my understanding is you know anybody that is is requesting this uh this apparatus for whatever the reasoning uh if if it's uh swim lessons for the very first time you know there we can incorporate you know a sign off at that point of you know of the use of this but it doesn't uh eliminate the need for our lifeguards to be there. This

234is you know an addition to that. You know, sometimes a a first-time swimmer will just inadvertently go into the water for a second, get a mouthful, and it leaves uh a little bit of trauma. Uh the parents let us know that. The the children probably less so, but you know, in an effort to ensure that uh we are doing everything possible to make that a a safe and enjoyable experience, that's where we're generating the request from. So, the apparatus was purchased last year. >> Yeah. >> And it'll go into >> Well, it is a rental. You have to send it back in every year uh to be uh refurbished, recalibrated, and whatnot, tested before you actually can implement it. But we had it last year. We just didn't have a place to set it up

235and use it last year, which was Tasha. >> Okay. questions on pools, parks and wreck. Um, you provided us with a P&L. Just want to walk through that quickly. Everybody get that. >> I could. I just want to make it clear. >> Hello. >> There you can hold it down. Um, I I wasn't aware that it was a rental. So, I don't want people to think that I don't want that device. So, I just want to make that clear. I probably just missed that part of the meeting. Uh, but I, you know, I thought that was a looking at it that it was just what was a purchase of an item, but apparently it's not. So, okay. We still intend to evaluate it and see whether or not this is something that we want to

236continue. I just want to give it a a first shot. >> Yeah, I obviously support any type of life safety measures. >> Absolutely. You're a swimmer. >> Um >> do is that a correction that we need to make? >> Well, it was reduced from I believe from that line. >> You look up the um >> Yeah, >> we took it out. >> Just so I'm on the right. >> We removed it because we thought it was purchased last year and I didn't we didn't know or I didn't know it was a rental. So, >> it's in the 409 account. >> No, no, no. Page 409. 803 account. And the amount that we need to re restore >> 7,000. >> And that covers all the rental and the equipment for the year. >> Correct. >> Okay.

237And if it worked at one, then you would want to possibly do that in more locations next year. >> It would be a little more complicated because it's dependent upon a very strong Wi-Fi signal. Those were some of the things that we had actually incorporated into Tasha. There is that doesn't exist currently, but again, if it's embraced, you know, we can have uh a more reasoned discussion as to whether or not this needs to expand. >> So, the 7,000 would be adequate to do this season. >> Correct. >> Okay, that's all. Thank you. >> Other questions? Go ahead, Mary. >> Because it's quiet afternoon, everybody's full. Um, for your P&L, uh, for the, uh, items that you have as indoor, um, do those typically, are they filling up if we had more opportunity, uh, more

238space? Would we be able to fill these? And, um, offer more opportunities for the community if we were able to say get into our schools a little more or um, I know we have something hopefully down the road, but at this point, if we were able to work more with the schools, could we offer more of these type programs? have fun. I'll start laughing. >> Um, excuse me. Hello everyone. Um, the long and short of it is yes. Um, I will say that there is a very big difference though in our winter indoor programming and our spring indoor programming numbers. But I completely understand the pickle ballers are outside today. They are not worried about going to the gym at Madison Middle School today. Completely understand that. Um however, yes, our winter sessions for all

239of our adult indoor programming sells out. Um and that is historical every year. Typically fall and winter do really well and then spring we start to see a decline. Um obviously because of time and space and all that jazz. Uh we are limited. So we're only taking um about I want to say it's 60 per night for indoor pickle ball. I'll use that as the example. Um, that's very easy to get to that number, but I will say that right now we have maybe 40 registered for the spring session where fall and winter we absolutely had all 60 slots full. Um, yes, people want to do more. Uh, it's just a matter of getting into these schools is very challenging because there's also all the school activities going on. So, for instance, this week is

240one of the middle school school plays. Next week is the other, and the week after is the high school show. So, that right there, even though that isn't an activity that necessarily takes place in the gymnasium, they do need all of the parking at the school. So, therefore, you're not able to have 60 additional vehicles in the lot. So, time and space is definitely our biggest challenge. Um, but yes, our indoor programs are going quite well. >> I hope I answered that. Yes, thank you. And just um my favorite topic always portaotties. Um we're adding an accessible portable toilet at Tashua Pickle Ball. I was just curious. I know everything is about pickle ball, but I didn't know. Do I thought we already have one there, do we not? >> We do have one there.

241Um we it was not budgeted for the entire year. Um we usually just used to do it when it was colder out at most of the locations. I believe last year or the year before at all locations. Um once the we are closing the restrooms if the park for example old mine restrooms are closed if there is not a rental um to avoid v uh vandalism in the um sort of remote bathrooms if you want to call them that. So we are do have a portable toilet at almost every park. Um, and there is, especially with the lights, there is a lot of usage at, uh, Tashua for the pickle ball court. So, um, it's an accessible one just so that everybody can use it. Um, if if I need to cut it, I could

242make it a regular one for 125 a month. Uh, but it's it's used, um, all the time. >> No, I just thought we had one that's I was questioning. And then my last one for um the, uh, 205 youth program. >> Yeah. Um, do we happen to know how much is in the revenue account for that? I know that TYA has between the community theater and then the other programming and I'm just not sure if there's I know there's there is a reduction of 10,000 from special agency, but do you are you able to provide how much is in that account overall >> in the in the 205 youth or the >> in the in the special revenue account for that? Um, I don't have my computer. Do you know how much is some of

243the youth special agents take? I think it's around between 40 and 50 right now. >> Probably. >> Or even even as a follow-up would be great. Yeah, sure. Okay. Thank you. >> Go ahead, Ben. >> Could you address uh the reduction of the mini track loader? Uh, what is it? And I see it's a MT-120 versus the MT50. So could you talk a little bit about what it does and if it's really needed or needed now, whatever. Thanks. >> Yeah. So the the MT50 and the 120, it's just a evolution of the same piece of equipment. The MT50 that we have is 21 years old. What it is is is a hydraulic uh like it's a tool carrier that runs on high flow hydraulics. What it's used most commonly for is snow removal. Uh when

244we're doing sidewalks, especially it has the uh the strength and the capacity to go through almost anything other than a plow blade. Where's Doug? Uh uh so it's it's it's lived its life uh at this point. We're looking to attempt to completely break it down over the winter, excuse me, over the summer to see whether or not there's any way that we can kind of crossfit parts for it. So it will continue to be able to operate. Otherwise, we simply just don't have the apparatus to go forward on some of the things that we've done historically. Mo not most notably snow removal. Uh it's used in all small uh small uh tight little areas like uh if you're working within a playground. It's like a very small tractor, but it's extremely strong. The 150 is

245just the the latest version of the of the of the 50. >> So it has various attachments to do other stuff. >> It can do anything. Anything that runs hydraulically. You can put a stump grinder on it. You can And we have that kind of equipment. >> And can you wait for uh the next capital plan or or No. >> Um why don't uh why don't why don't we see what uh what fortune we have over the uh the summer. If it comes together, I might be in front of you going, I tried. But uh you know, Aaron and Doug have both given me uh some confidence that uh really digging into it, seeing if we can uh crossfit it might get us through. So, I'm okay. >> Okay. >> Are we okay? >> And

246just a follow-up question on that. Um, you said it can do all sorts of different things. Um, the attachments that you have for the 50, would they work with the 120? They're they're compatible. There's >> They are no requirement on Okay. >> Nope. >> It's just a It's just a mounting plate and everything else just works hydraulically. >> Oh, that's what she has. >> Oh, and uh 61,000 in the TYA account. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> That TYA account also is the community theater. They're combined. >> Okay. Um on your P&L, I know that the offset from the programs that don't make money to the programs that bring in a little bit of revenue. um that most of these are not designed to make huge profit, that they're designed to be a service, and

247that the the ones that are just off um in red, that that's offset by the ones that do, that we expect those to be like that. >> Um yes and no. Um summer camp, uh we talked about this with Vicki, is one of the ones, which this is better than the past years. Um, I think going to the pool has made it uh we haven't had to purchase enough stuff to keep the kids entertained at the school. So, they go to the >> they go to Tasha, they have something to do. Um, >> also we have seen a giant increase in scholarships. So, the money that we're bringing in um for fiscal year 24 we had uh about 5% of attendance attend registrations were were scholaripped. we that's based they they have to go to

248Jen Gillis who's over in social services and usually it's if they qualify for a free lunch they they automatically qualify um if there's other circumstances we let Jen Jen handle that so we don't make any of those decisions um she then contacts us and any of the programs that we run um with our own staff on our own um locations are are offered as scholarships so for example travel camp is not because we have to pay buses we go places we have to actually pay that out um and then so fiscally year 24 we had about 5%. Uh last year we had 10.8%. So we went from 66.50 um in in scholarships to 22,925. So we are seeing um people people do need that. Um and I I feel like again you said it's a

249service. Well, I I feel like these are this is a service that we provide and we're looking to cover the cost if we can and that >> overall in your programs. We're able to cover that cost and you're still >> uh net ahead. So, by by a significant amount. So, we're not we're not losing money because these are in red. I just wanted to make that point and that it is a service and that we don't >> we're not necessarily looking to make tons of money on these accounts. Correct. >> Correct. Okay. >> Thank you. Any other questions on the P&L, on parks and wreck, on equipment? Go ahead, Nikki. >> Hi, thank you all. Um, can you just tell me a little more about the deconstruction over at Abraham uh Nichols, the you said

250you're beginning deconstruction of the homestead. >> oh, thank you. Forgot about that program. Okay. So, uh the Abraham Nichols um the historic society that a piece of that is Abraham Nichols home and over time there were additions put onto that. One of them uh was actually an exterior porch. So that porch has no footings and is literally peeling off of the original house. So uh I uh discussed the project with the historic society. They have limited resources uh in order to preserve or maintain that structure. They'll never be able to manage those costs. So the intent is to look at dismantling that old addition, build a proper footing under it and then restore as much of the uh you know the physical structure as possible and then build everything else around to it so it

251looks like it was original and we'll move from there. But it's going to be a phase project because it's, you know, that that's going to take a lot of manh hours and we're just going to have to find ways to dovetail in and we've got some time to do this. So, we'll separate the uh the the main home from that addition. That's object one. Get the material that they have stored in there into another location. So, it'll be a you know, a multi-year project. >> Okay. Thank you. And then, um I'm going to get in trouble if I don't ask this. I have a lot of chattering friends out there that really want their kids playing wreck basketball >> in open gym, right? And I know that we have issues with getting into the schools.

252We just spoke about that. What's different now? I know when my boys were growing up, they loved Wreck basketball. That's where they wanted to be every night. So, I'm hearing anyway that these kids aren't able to get into the gyms at night. It's not offered. What's what's what's the whole >> that's a piece of of the story. So what was isn't anymore for a variety of reasons. I mean just just general security standards in a pool for excuse me in a school get my mouth working uh is wildly different. So the idea that you could just pop in and you not know who that person was is, you know, is a sea change from what it was in the past. So right there we would have to require some form of registration. So there would

253be at least a list and there would have to be somebody or the check off on that list and you know what who's supervising that how many people actually we would have to staff to both have at the main desk but also to ensure that the school was secure. Unfortunately, there have been incidents uh the school has called some of our programs out on over the years where something something goes wrong and it's you know it's consequential and we need to take responsibility for that and have which is why you know the the standard that we've lived on before just isn't universally applicable any longer. The idea that open wreck can just happen in another facility, any school for that matter, uh comes with it with costs and complexities that make it a little more

254expensive. And you know, if if it was something that the community absolutely positively wanted to see implemented, I'm sure we could do a cost breakout of of what it would take to do it. We're not against the concept. It's how we're able to do it with the resources that we have. If I'm not making a pitch, but if we had a gymnasium, may I making a pitch? If we had a gymnasium, it's already Did I just uh make a pitch? Yes. If we had a gymnasium, it would be under our control. It would already be incorporated for our programming. It's that much. I apologize now when we talk about uh maintenance. You'll yell at me about that. Uh the reality is is that those costs are already built in on some level. If we're doing

255it in a board of education facility, it's something entirely different. And it's, you know, it it we are putting money out just to to be there. So, any other comments or questions on parks and wreck? Thank you. All right, we are moving on. Page >> Oh, I'm sorry, Dimmitri. Don't go anywhere. >> I'm not going anywhere. >> Page 415. Tree warden. Thank you. Hey Dimmitri, can I ask a question? Of course. >> I just saw this on the parks and recck performance measures. >> Just out of curiosity, how did we grow an acreage from 24 to 25 from 1800 to 1835? What was that change? trying to see what properties that we have uh acquired that we incorporated into the general management. We haven't we haven't officially adopted any new park land because that's a

256town council jam. But there's always other properties. So if you were to look at the Grace Church property, if you were to look at the Hardy Lane properties, there there are always properties that in essence we have to put resources towards to manage whether it be just cutting the grass or, you know, keeping it safe do fall under our umbrella. It may account for that. I apologize for not knowing specifically. >> Wasn't trying to stump you. Just curious. >> It's it's no worries, but it is a dynamic system. It it always changes. Something new is always on our plate to manage. >> Thank you, Demetri. >> Um, as we start talking about tree warden budget, where are we on budget to actual for current year? Maria, >> which account >> for the tree warden? >>

257Tree tree >> tree warden. >> Hold on. Hold on. I I think we came I came to the board before where the uh emergency service is over 37,000. I think it had to do with one of the storms. Dimmitri, I think it was the one of the storms, the micro >> Well, that would be the excuse me, that probably was the one in July third just be >> the micro burster or whatever. >> Yeah, that kind of flattened Unity, Twin Brooks, and a whole bunch of other stuff. >> Yeah, that was on August 21. We paid $41,000. >> Yeah, that would be the one. >> Okay. How are we looking this year, Dimmitri? >> Um, overall I think we're doing very well. U, there aren't any major drivers out there. I mean, let me back

258up. Uh, storms are storms in whatever form they take. So, if it's a micro burst or a blizzard after a blizzard after a blizzard after a blizzard, there's something that we can point to to quantify whatever is driving those costs. Um, so I don't I don't look at those as anomalies or whether or not we're budgeted right. I look at just regular drivers. There isn't an emerald ashbor issue that's driving uh or going to drive major costs. That's not to say there's nothing out there. I need to clarify, but there's something called beach leaf disease, for example, if anybody cares to know. But the reality is is there's not a lot of beach trees on, you know, along the public roadways as there were ash trees. So though, you know, our environment is being is

259being hit, our our response to it is going to be decidedly different. At some point, uh, Beach Park Drive isn't going to exist because it is beaches, but it's a contained area and we can, you know, adopt other measures to try to, you know, uh, manage the failure. But people weren't planting beach trees as street trees and most of the uh, you know, the urban forest along those roads are not made up of it. So, we're not experiencing that and there's not something that's, you know, really pushing the buttons. Uh, you know, Beatles, you name it. Any of the things that are happening are not going to be affecting us. So, I think we're quite stable budgetarily for our regular operational budget. I I think we're in the sweet spot in terms of what we're

260actually uh being funded and what we're expending on an annual basis. >> Okay. And were lantern flies as bad as we had predicted? >> So, lantern flies are going to freak everybody out because they're uh very uh >> stunning and uh easy to see. The the again the reality is is what what that vector is going to affect. So lantern flies are going to be on atlanthis trees for example and they're junk trees anyway and there again not a lot of them along the you know the the roadways of our community. Uh there are some fruit trees. See I fixed it. Um shut up there. >> I can't fix yours. Um fruit trees are affected by lantern flies. uh you know the same thing as uh the Asian beetle there there are going to be

261pockets where these things are are going to affect it but they're not there in uh such intensity as we experienced when uh the uh the ash trees were affected. It's just not the same thing. And we we do watch it. There are there are things out there we need to watch, but just in terms of what our forest is made of, we're okay right now. Unless you want me to make you nervous. >> That's okay. Thanks. >> Thank you for all you do for the town, by the way. Dave. >> Um, so the other day, Beaches Park was flooded and I happened to walk I guess we closed it and I walked down and I saw I guess it's the north end uh where there's like a waterfall. >> Twin Brooks. That's what I'm I'm

262sorry. What did I say? >> Yep. >> Anyway, Twin Brooks. Yes. Um, there's like a waterfall and it comes down and it looks like there's supposed to maybe be an ingground drain or something. It's >> It was clogged. >> Is that all? That's what it seemed like. >> It was There was uh actually it was a it was a park sticker sign that got you know they you say now make sure that you have your parking sticker displayed proudly. Uh that >> there's an irony in there someplace. There there is >> mo mostly on the the headache that it causes but it fell into the into >> blocked it in the train. >> Blocked it. >> So there is a drain there. Okay. I was just curious. Thank you. All right. >> We're good to

263go. >> Go ahead, Mary. >> You don't have to look over. Um, we were talking drones this morning and uh, so I'm just curious, would that be helpful at all for the town if um, if you were able to fly a drone in the areas where uh, to identify if if there are issues with trees, disease, leaning, um, ones especially that would be the UI issue to put that back on to them that there's issues before they happen and then having to call emergency crews and spend the extra for that or do you think mainly at this point where those issues would be are within parks that aren't along trees and over lines. Just I was just thinking about it. >> So that that's not uh a far-fetched idea. It it is used essentially looking

264over the overall health of you know various forested areas and you could see that very easily. uh you can uh get a lot of that even from Google Earth believe it or not if you have the right uh the right image. Uh you could see the uh Pronic River Valley is you know over the last 20 years is wildly different and you could see how and what is actually being affected in terms of of doing that in a practical sense along the roadways. That would be a pretty significant flyover. So, I I'll leave that to Bill to tell me I'm out of my mind before I even suggest it. Uh, but more importantly, even if you were to do that, um, would you want to then uh essentially be seeking out that work ahead of

265time? So the way that our our system generally works right now is that we are alerted to a failing of a tree by by a property owner and then we start the process of determining it's theirs, it's ours and whatever. And that to a degree kind of throttles uh you tree removal. I know it's you know well aren't we going to remove them? Eventually you will but when would you is sort of the key. Do we want to spend millions of dollars looking at every tree? I mean, I I joke with George all the time, never ask me to look up because you wouldn't want to know what I see. Uh, and it's a it's a version of the same thing. You you just let it come to you as if it was a pothole

266and then we have a system in place to address it, you know, as quickly as possible. And storms don't count. >> Yeah. No, I was just thinking more on the UI side to push it back to them before something happens. But I mean, it it might be a big job. Just kidding. um separately. Thousand trees for Trumble. Do you know where you're going to be looking for this year? >> Where I'm going to put them? >> Yeah. Uh we're we're replanting up at Tashua Nolles and uh uh the Mary Bills property. We're doing uh those two, but mostly in the front of Tashua. We lost a lot of trees as a result of the ground sky clearing along Tasha Road and the interior. So, we are going to replace a good chunk of them and

267we already have uh set that in motion for this year. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Any other questions before we let Demetri out of the hot seat? >> Right back here. >> That's true. Um George Estrada is here with um Department of Public Works and our town engineer and Dionara is here with them. Um, if you guys want to come sit, be comfortable. Doug. Doug made a face. Doug, I want you close enough I can give you my shopping list so I don't have to go this week. >> We're going to be going to page 231. Well, while you guys are getting seated, I I just want to say thank you. Um that one big storm, you guys were so well prepared and everything was clean and open so quickly. And thank you Floor

268is ours. >> Floor is yours, sir. >> Okay. Good afternoon, uh, members of the finance board. Uh, we are here. We we will we will attempt to um to answer any of your specific questions. Um but to begin, I will say that we attempted to bring a a budget for consideration to the first selectman's office that and finance department that did not have any major fluctuations from last year. U there are minor adjustments from agency to agency. uh and we work closely with finance and the first selectment on some of those um the adjustments that they made after uh to arrive at what they pre presented to um to the board. We've we've had our challenges over the year obviously um we've seen it with the with the weather uh this year has been the

269one that's glaring for all of us. Um and we've had building maintenance has also been challenging at times. Um also it and it continues because we have we we have some issues that were working through now. The frost heave um situation affected a section of this building with water penetrating back into the building when we had the real deep freeze. But that was across we we were talking to Easton who had the same thing at their town hall building. it was just a um a result of the weather that we were having. So, we're the reprieve we're feeling yesterday and today gives us encouragement that there's hope on the horizon. Uh but we can't get complacent because we really still do have a good two, three, four weeks of uh risk out there. We're prepared

270for uh but we're also praying for the best. Um with with that, I will turn it over to the board for questions. Is it easier for you guys if we kind of go through each department? If we walk through um >> do you have the uh budget like as presented us the mun can we kind of just go through by department and just hit the highlights? This is the first time through for some of our board members. So we're trying to make sure that everybody's some that we know what questions to ask and where we should be looking. So my my first >> is wetlands >> um >> page 149 >> um page 233 is where >> is later >> Oh >> so if you start on 231 um we're at public works in the

271director's department. >> Can we start there? That's okay. >> Okay. That's that's the order I have on the sheet. Makes it easier. That's all. >> Sure. >> So, the public director's um budget um we our increases there. >> Okay. Thank you, Kelly. >> Our increases were mainly contractual wage adjustments. Um you you will notice um and step movement for uh that are all contractual. um that there was a really no major adjustments from last year. >> Okay. Any questions in um public doororks directors? No. Moving on. Um no real changes in staffing. George Okay. Highway uh the highway division >> public works highway. We're on page 243. >> Back up a minute. >> Yep. Go ahead. >> I'm sorry. So overtime salary from $4 million last year to six million this year due to >>

272the contractual increase. Oh, I'm sorry. Disregard the whole question. >> Six million in overtime. >> I panic here. >> I had a look. >> How come nobody's talking about when did that happen? >> I just wanted to see if everybody else I knew what it was. >> Oh my goodness. >> Wow. What page are we on? I don't know. >> It's a good thing Vickiy's sitting close to the A on that one. So for the highway division um we initially proposed about a 3.9% increase and the main drivers on that were again salaries uh material cost um needed for maintaining drainage paving the general functions of the um public works department. Uh we are the staffing levels were not increased. It's flat. It's the same 35 positions from last year carry over to this year.

273So, there were no increases um in in positions um in the highway department. >> Okay. Any other questions in highway? Go ahead, Mary. >> Um this is the last year. I always call them culverts. Catch basin. I don't know why I say that. Um the last year for that contract. Are we going to have an issue going forward? Um, I know it was very high before we went with this company and they had such a great price and >> we're uh locked in for a price for this year. We're actually we were just working before the meeting on extending the contract for cleaning catch basins for this year. I don't foresee any big jump. We also have a second catch ba basin cleaning truck that was funded and we just received it. Uh, so we're

274going to have town resources backfilling all that to try to save money also. So, we'll manage it. Catch basin cleaning I don't see as a problem. Great. >> If Doug has anything to add to that. >> No, we're actually going to cut down uh what we did last year to this year because of the two new machines. So, we're in good shape. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Any other questions in highway? Masimo. >> Hey, George. Um question regarding staffing. Is this the department where we have that pending hire that requires the CDL license? >> Yes. Um well, we have we have hired currently. We are fully staffed at this point. Right. The 35 the the 35 are in place and I'll ask Rich, our director of operations to uh give you further depth. So, it's

275becoming harder and harder to find qualified employees with the CDL to hire at the town of Trumble. We've tried a couple different methods to hire people, which was uh bridging to like seasonal help. Kids coming in at high school, working with the younger kids to see if they have the aptitude for it. And we've that's worked out well. Uh you guys fund it for us. And we've actually hired two employees off the seasonal roles, but they usually don't have CDLs. So, when we hire them, they're required to get their CDL within 6 months as part of their probationary period. Once they get it, then we they're a full-time hire and we bring them. Uh, worked out very well. But even in the open market, it's harder and harder to find people with CDL licenses. And

276some people that may be very qualified for the job, have been in different industries, uh, would not want to necessarily pay the $3,000 upfront to get a job that they're going to be on probation for six months. So, it's some kind of uh um ability to pay them if they come here, if they put in the time, if it's a very qualified person uh and you know, they want to get their CDL while they're here under probation, backfilling, you know, them with some money to compensate them for getting the CDL may bring more people, entice more people into applying for jobs at the town of Trumbull. Um it's a very competitive market for the jobs here at highway and at parks department for these people to come in and do the work that we do.

277Uh not a lot of people want to get out there and shovel in some in the summer and you know get out there and do sidewalks in the winter and all that stuff. So there are some some younger people but they don't have their CDOS. So we we've been trying to brainstorm to see how we can help fill these jobs at the town of Trumbull with very qualified people helping to manage that. >> Is there any appetite to offer them the training? So if you come on board during your probationary period, we pay for the training, but if they leave within three years, they have to pay that training back. So, you know, if they're going to go through the CDL process, if if they want to come to the town of Trumbull and they're

278willing to go through the CDL process, they have to pay real money for that training. And if they pass that training, we're going to give them that job, you know, if they were qualified for it. Uh, a payback period. I don't know if if that would help entice people or discourage people that you know the thought of >> I'm thinking that three or four thousand dollars for a younger person and this is their first real job that that's a lot of money to outlay >> on their own. It shows their commitment to do that but it also shows them that if they have their CDL they can jump and go wherever they want. You might want to consider that if we offer them even 50% of the training cost to show our commitment to them

279and vice versa that if they do that and they stay for five, you know, three years or five years, whatever the appropriate amount of time is. We do that a lot with continuing education courses. Some of the certification courses in healthcare can be a thousand dollars or a couple thousand dollars where we offer that as part of their compensation package for reimbursement. But if they leave within the ye the calendar year that they have that training or certification, they're required to pay that back. So a lot of the specialty um lensures and testing. So something to think about. >> Yeah, I wouldn't be opposed to that at all. If you, you know, want to consider giving them something for the CDL training if they're coming to the town of Trumbull, then requiring Yeah. some kind

280of period. That might be something to talk to um Tom McCarthy about to see if that how that fits in with the whether it's union contracts or whatever. So find out if that's a possibility. >> Anybody else? Go ahead, Vin. >> Uh question on the uh truck replacement. Uh I see you're bring you're buying a Ford 150 and it's replacing a GMC and uh I see it was eliminated. Well, first of all, is it really needed? I see the the existing truck is over 20 years old. But the second thing is that the police were in it earlier and talking about the poor maintenance record of Ford products that they've been seeing. And I'm wondering if you really want to buy another Ford. So, two questions there. Do you really need it? And do you

281really want to buy a Ford? >> We we're comfortable pushing it off another year. Um, I I mean it it's it's a 5050. It could cost us more money >> here. What what we'll do is we're going to ride it out and we won't put any big money into the existing truck >> and we'll and we'll we'll be able to to keep this thing going if we can't. We'll we'll manage. Uh when it comes to the Ford trucks, we haven't seen a big issue with the heavy duty. Now, something like police have a smaller vehicle, whatever. We haven't seen any problems with the large larger pickup trucks and such. Yeah, they have the SUVs which is a different animal. Okay, thank you. >> Oh, and great job on the tour. That was excellent. >> I

282want to thank all of you that that attended. That was that was great that you took the time. >> All right, we're good in this department. Anybody else? Um, do you want to back up to street lights page 239? Another one of those accounts that we all laugh about. Yeah. Um except for Vicki who had to pick learn about all the lights and the lumens and how to pick them out and where would have been easier to redecorate the house. >> Those good skills. >> The the street lights we manage closely. Um, obviously it as as we've discussed in the past, we we want to be gentle in the application of street lights to not change the character of Trumbull's um existing character. Uh there are there are residents that have moved in from urban

283more urban places um New York City. Uh and I get the calls and their and their question is there are no lights on my street. Um, and I say to them that's part of the beauty of where you live. Um, you know, it it really is because otherwise then you live in a city and and this is a town and that part of its beauty is that character. So, we carefully manage that. Um we do have a process in place where if someone is asking for a light uh they are we will send them a form and they must have that form signed by the residents of every adjacent property that will be affected by that light directly. So in in in theory that could be anywhere from two to like five houses depending on

284the street and they have to knock on their neighbors doors and they have to have a conversation as neighbors whether or not they want that there. Not that one person comes in with a different um uh thought process about what uh uh illumination should be and governs what's going to happen on their street. It has to be something that the community requests. We don't receive a lot of them. Um during COVID when everyone was sitting on the front porch, we were getting a lot of them. >> Um that has really tapered down fortunately. We managed that very carefully. We did not allow it to get out of hand. Um and I I pretty much it's it's a it's a status quo from last year to this year. I think we might have added one or

285two uh last year. >> George, just a quick question on that. Is that the only criteria is unanimous approval of it? It it is because there's no official town ordinance or policy. >> Okay. >> So, it's the it um prior to my my arriving, uh DPW had established that as a procedure so that there would be some sort of formal way of uh considering something like that, but not that it's just an open door for everyone to what we try to explain is lights really are for vehicular and pedestrian safety. And that doesn't mean illuminating an entire street. That means an intersection. uh or a hight traffic area, uh commercial zones, that that sort of thing. In in the neighborhoods, street lights are not meant for safety in in that in that uh category. If

286you if you are uncomfortable for some reason, you would need to put on lights on on your home. >> And do we know what the driver of the increase was for this year, Maria? the the driver for the increase. It's up 1.3%. Is that just what we were told it was going to cost or is that because of >> Well, it's a UI, but I will look into it. >> I just cur I'm just curious. It's not a huge amount. I was just wondering why >> I' I'd like to just add to um Madame Chair Rich and Fonte and I have um we are in conversations with a consultant um and we're going to see what exactly they're proposing because they they do an audit, a street light audit first first to be sure that

287all of the lights that you're being charged for actually are in place because at times a pole may come down in an accident. uh they put the pole up quickly because you have to get the wires and everything up and um there have been instances where uh DPW has noticed that the fixture never went back up. So we we contact them and they do come right out and they get that up. So it'll be an audit and then they will u make a proposal to us on um methods of lowering our costs. >> Good. So >> do they charge us to do that? >> Not at this point. So I'm I'm Let's get it done. I'm in conversation right now. >> Can you repeat your question? >> I just wanted to know what the driver

288was for the increase or is that a number that they give us? >> Oh, yeah. That's an increase based on their fees. >> Okay, that's awesome. >> I thought you wanted that you were saying it was over budget. >> No, I I just asked what caused it to go up and they did they do it just by the number of lights we have? >> It's just a distribution cost. >> Okay. All right. Any other questions on street lights? >> Go ahead, Paul. >> George, refresh my memory. The number of $390,000 annually. Does that include the costs of traffic lights and street lights on state designated highways? Do we pay for that? Does the state pay for that? >> The state the state pays for for theirs, I believe. I don't I you know, I'm not

289I'm uncertain. >> All the state for their own state roads. >> The state pays for their own lights on the state roads. So the the newly installed relatively newly installed traffic lights for example on Main Street and Whitney Avenue and on 111 those are paid for by the state. >> Yeah. Those we pay for the traffic lights. >> The traffic lights we pay for the street lights the state pays for. >> The other what we were talking about are street lights which is just illumination but the traffic lights those we pay for. >> Okay. Thanks. >> All right. Um so that takes care of word. Actually, Laney, can you ask another question? >> I'm sorry, >> George. I want to ask you this question because I'm I'm I feel like I'm going to be forced

290to ask it if I I'm asking the same thing to the board of ed. >> Um energy overall, you mentioned the street lights. Have we looked into any energy performance contract, you know, um, options similar to what you're talking about with doing an assessment and zero upfront costs with opportunities to optimize our energy across our municipality, uh, to see if there's an opportunity to reduce that from a budgetary perspective across the entire town. >> We we have had uh, a number of conversations with firms that offer that type of service. Um the energy audits that we have done, Dimmitri has actually participated in with UI with rebates. Uh we're currently doing one which will be completely paid for through a state grant and a UI offset uh for the police department and and that will

291include an entire reamping at the police department. So we we've done it building by building but not holistically. It's something that we definitely need to consider. um it just hasn't been something that we've uh applied our focus to to be honest. >> I think based on what you find for savings at the police department that might be motivation to look across town. >> Yeah. >> So, any other questions on that? Do you want to do snow removal now or should we skip that one? Absolutely. All right. Let's do snow removal >> on page uh 255 please. >> So snow has been as obviously we are all very aware of how exciting of winter we've had. Um to put it in perspective we've had 29 event days. Um and of those 16 full out days, that

292means that 16 of those 29 times have all of our equipment was out responding um to a storm. Uh our our budget and we will probably bring um a report next month as we close out the season to the board of finance. We'll work with uh we usually work with um finance director on that and we prepare something for you so that you have in writing. We'll do the true ups as the end of year um occurs, but currently uh our overtime budget is at $345,000. It was budgeted at 135 and I had one updated number here. Just let me look at something. So, and our supply line is at 525,000. Um, what is this? 77 >> open P >> and and an open PO of 77,000 and our our budget for that line item

293was 302 302,000. Stern weather gods. >> We're 302,000 over budget. Sorry. >> 302 over. >> So total over now. >> Yeah. >> Six. >> Again, I will take a deep breath and I will say thank you. Our roads were passable and much better than other surrounding towns. and I am very thankful that you were all out at weird hours on weekends and holidays and all of that. So, thank you. >> For the first two months, uh, every event was on a weekend which was just brutal. Um, one weekend we actually had four events in one weekend. We had a Saturday early real early morning Saturday. That night, another storm came in the following morning on Sunday and then Sunday night. So, it was for our guys and I thank them every day. Um, when I

294see them, it was exhausting. Um, they they never flinched and really it it was it was overwhelming the positive response from the community this year. Really, it was incredible. Um, I'd say 99% of the communications coming to us were saying, "Thank you. What an incredible job. I just crossed over the line into whatever community they were traveling and they were seeing almost like an invisible line where it was completely different from one side of the street to the other. So, um it's them. Yes. I'd just like to echo Mr. McHugh and all of us and the 99% of the people because you guys were absolutely amazing. It was in I work in Monroe and I'd take the back roads from Trumble to Monroe and it it's true. It was like you were going all of

295a sudden you were in the storm. You left these clear roads and you guys were just absolutely amazing and thank you all very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. It's an incredible crew. >> Yeah, it was very evident that you guys kept on top of it before it got too bad as the crews came by um to do that. Also, um I have put in a petition to the supermarket to track your um card because if you have two carts and I see you in the supermarket, then I know it's going to be a bad storm. So, um I I just have to ask you, does your wife cook for every storm like that or just for the big ones? >> They've been requested now to She's been requested for the sausage biscuit breakfast. >>

296Yeah. >> It makes all the difference. >> It really No, it does. But everybody is one of the supervisors wives make it, his wife makes it, we all we all chip in and we and feed each other. >> Yeah. Um that was pretty amazing. But so um I look forward to seeing you in the grocery store again, but not before a snowstorm. And I can I just say that uh after leaving that tour, I think we all left there >> just really impressed with >> your intelligence, your work ethic, like your whole group that it was just very impressive and I think we all left pretty proud. >> Yeah. So >> I thank you and I'm I'm really proud of them also because it it's just brutal conditions, exhausting conditions and they're they all just

297trudge forward and you know it's and they always say to me, "Hey, it's what we do. >> You know, it's not like that everywhere and it's certainly not that you invite us in to to learn, right?" So a lot of times people keep their guard up because they're afraid that if you know, we know what's really going on then we won't give you money. It's so helpful to us to understand and for those who are listening at home that don't know um the Department of Public Works invited all newly elected officials or elected officials into um for a tour of the public works yard and facilities. Um we were offered a tour of the sewer and pump station. So we understand how that works. Um and that basically three people keep uh all the poop

298flowing in Trumbull uh which is amazing in itself. And then um we're also looking to do a a drive-thru tour of town facilities so that the what parks there are and where they're located and what when we talk about you know the Abraham Nichols building and things. So we're working on that as well and um it's really appreciated. >> Yeah. Thank you again for making the time to come and the invitation's always open because I know some people can't make it when we have one of those. Um, if anyone ever wants to um, spend an afternoon with us, a couple hours, whatever, just just reach out. We're always we're always ready and willing. >> Is Doug's wife gonna make breakfast? Would >> you like it? We can go out in the truck. >> All right.

299So, um, that was the bad news in snow removal. Um, we'll move on to building maintenance on page 259, which probably isn't any better news. >> Um, I'll now start and then I'll I'll ask Dimmitri to fill in the blanks. Um, the obviously our our um Trumbull's infrastructure, building infrastructure is an older infrastructure. Um the newest building in town is more than 10 years old. The administration building uh the small building down at uh public works. That's that's really the the only new building that has been constructed in um in quite some time. So everything that we own requires, you know, a lot of TLC and um Dimmitri does an incredible job of uh holding things together. But then we arrive at a point where we need to get into more um significant um replacements

300or improvements. And I mentioned earlier the the facade and roof that the Yankee gutters um along the front of this building. Um it's a those are inherent problems that any building um of this type of design with with the roof style and the Yankee gutters that a building like this, a historic building like this has, that's just an inherent um challenge with icing um damning and backing up into a building. So with that, Demetri, if you could just give an overview of where you are with uh with things. >> Yeah. So what George is saying is is absolutely accurate. Our our infrastructure is old and you know we have done uh I think a remarkable job uh always just patching everything back together again. uh where where Doug will keep anything with four tires on

301it going, we have to keep anything with a roof and a an HVAC system uh operating very often exactly the same way where we can't just pull the entire thing out and you know contractors will look at us like this this doesn't make sense for you to be constantly patching this stuff together goes well we're going to we're going to do it for one more round or we'll we'll we'll look at that at a later date but capital projects If we were to look at town hall, the police department, the EMS building and those are, you know, those are the short list of extra special buildings around here. I mean, we are looking in some instances where you have foundation issues, which is by the very word the, you know, the very structure that holds

302that building together, and they are failing. the DPW garages. If you did, you know, the grand tour over there, I'm sure you might have noticed that those walls holding up those buildings don't have another 20 years in them. They may not have another 10 years in them. and the the cost associated with lifting a building that is used constantly and then working uh to make something that is going to uh stand the test of time or a 20 plus year investment is going to cost a lot of money. HVAC across the across the board this year for some reason or another was the you know the inflection point of 20-year-old HVAC systems and I I'm I shouldn't say the HVAC systems they're they're boilers and furnaces that you know heater heat exchangers just cracked in

303half or you know there were other issues with simple apparatus but they are old and require replacement. other things that we are facing on the regular now is the the envelope of many of these buildings. The main library, it's some of their windows are actually shifting out of the walls. Uh those are those are consequential and and they're not simple things to uh you know overlook or or replace. Uh but we take it piece by piece. We're not looking to do a shock and awe with any of our our projects and programs. and you know, we'll uh I'm sure we'll see you again with a special appropriation in hand. Uh because they're they're inescapable at that point. We're putting the general public. We have, you know, government operations, safety and health uh across the board

304living and working some instances 247 in in these structures and they have to they have to work appropriately in a safe and hygienic manner. And I might add one of the complications always is our uh some of the buildings are 247 buildings um EMS and police department. Uh a building like this extremely difficult to work in because it's always occupied at night. There are meetings. So we're it's a very careful kind of maneuvering um and planning anything that we're going to do because it's not as simple as just saying we're going to need the building for 30 days. we're going to knock it out and move on. It's it's a incremental um programming with the occupants of each space in order to do it because the building also is so um it's m it's pretty

305much maximized. So, we don't have a lot of swing space. It's not like we can just move people to the other side of the building and take take out a wing. it. We we'd never be able to do it in a building like this because we'd have to actually occupy spaces like this for a few weeks in order for to remove people from where they normally work to and obviously a space like this can't be offline. >> So those those are the things that are a constant balance. I would just like to acknowledge the fact that Maria has prepared all of the budget stuff and gone through the beginning of budget season uh displaced from her office due to the water damning uh and leak uh in her office. She's located in a uh conference

306room amidst other files and boxes and stuff. So, I appreciate the fact that she's been displaced and uh doesn't have all of her stuff. So, it's an up and down the stairs to get what she needs. And she >> she's getting her exercise and she doesn't necessarily have an end in sight. So, >> we're getting close. >> Define close. >> Month, month and a half. >> Okay. Almost there. Maria, anybody else have any comments on building maintenance? All right. Moving on from building maintenance, fleet maintenance. Aaron, you're up on Oh, page. Page number would be helpful. Uh, page 269. >> Excuse me, everybody. Fleet maintenance. >> Fleet. >> So, fleet fleet maintenance. Um, we are all uh aware of the incredible job that they do to preserve the integrity of the fleet. Um, the the

307winter obviously takes its toll on on the equipment. It's constant repair after in um a normal storm. let alone when we hit 20 inches. Um there's all sorts of maintenance that has to be done immediately after that because we have to be ready usually within 24 hours expecting that something else can affect us. So So it's ne we never have the um the ability to to just say we'll we'll get to this when we have a moment. They have to get right into it the day of the storm and sometimes they'll even stay later um when everyone else is starting to leave piecing things together to have them in place for the for the next day. Um, I I'll ask Erin, do you want to say anything on regarding the fleet in general? >> I

308mean, our biggest struggle this year was snow. Um, obviously keeping the trucks going so that we could service the town. Um, we had a lot of emissions failures. I don't think we're going to get away from that in the future. You know, that the emission standards are getting stricter and stricter. Um, but on the operating budget size, uh, we're in good shape. I think we're making all the smart purchases moving forward and and you know, we have a good plan and we're going to stick with it. >> I was left in good hands or I took over from good hands at least. >> Thank you. >> Any questions on >> I do have a question. And I I noticed some notes on waiting to lock in for gas and diesel and that gas is down

309seven and diesel's up seven. Any consideration for current events and how that might get impacted or did we lock in already? >> We lock it in. >> We locked in just at perfect timing. >> Last week. >> Perfect timing. >> Before the budget came out. Right before. >> Yeah, right before. So it was locked in. Obviously, you know, with world events, we don't know if any there's any caveat to that. Uh, but we are in a good place right now. >> Mary, >> I was that was my question is the lock in. >> I like the mental telepathy. That's good. Any other questions for fleet maintenance? All right. Um, okay, Mary, get your paper out. Uh, recycling center page 277. >> You should have a sheet that looks like this. >> Put on this. That's

310the uh 10 inch center. regarding the the recycling center. Um biggest the biggest expenses are are accounted in hauling and disposal contracts. Those are those are bid um every three years um with usually one or two years extension. So they're established fees that we know in ad in advance. Um the increases in the recycling center budget are mainly driven through contractual price increases. Um we're also seeing um the normal contractual wage adjustments for personnel that those are those are in and uh they align with the highway division. They're all the they're the same team. So um it's the that the same union. Um and other than that there really um there really were no other major adjustments uh that were not beyond the contractual uh basis. We are switching to a um a new electronic

311electric electronic component recycler uh which is a Connecticut company. um we've toured that and they will be coming in and taking over. Um I believe by April 1st they'll they'll be in place. Um and that it's a continuation of what we have been doing. Um within the budget there was a um an allowance for uh a consideration to cut for tires uh waste tires. Um and on that just to give you a little bit more um background there is a um we we've been working with the state on when the implementation date is going to be in place for um what they have um instituted which is um it would be no collection cost program for the town. All fees are covered under um the tire company's uh um contract. So currently they pay $2

312a tire $2 a tire to dispose of that. Um and theoretically this will go over into this that this will be um we will not be handling it. It's more of a state program that handles it. I had dragged my feet on it a bit because I wanted clarification on there was a caveat in it saying that it you had to receive tires within a 15 milei radius. Um and I don't want to open our transfer station up to anyone outside of the team the the three town collaborative. Um I don't want to see tires coming in from New Haven to be disposed of there. So, um, we're waiting on clarification on that and we're waiting on a time frame for when the state is ready to implement the program and that's really the only

313change um at the transfer station. Physically, I think you've all seen the changes out on the on the street level on Spring Hill Road. That's that really helped us a lot. um a couple times that we were in a jam with real heavy traffic after the holidays that we were able to open up that queuing and it really facilitated traffic through there. Um we we are working with the town attorney and the first selectman on um reviewing the agreement agreements that may be in place between the three towns because we are we have been planning the physical improvements to the actual transfer station itself. Um, we've had a a fatality uh on site. We've had uh numerous car accidents. It's a very congested place um in in a in a in tight up there. So,

314we have some preliminary uh conceptual designs for reorganizing some of that. The area that we captured in front that used to be a valley that was overgrown, that is an area that we will expand towards. and theoretically create um in the opportunity for a resident to pull on either side, not have to be crossing traffic. They basically there will be containers on both sides and the pit obviously in the big one in in the building and we'll be able to manage the flow on the site in a safer way for the pedestrians that are entering and exiting exiting their cars. All of that obviously is going to be a cost um and we are um in discussions uh and we'll have to um have discussions with our partners in Monroe in um Easton to share

315in those costs because they obviously share the benefit of the facility. >> It go ahead. >> Oh. Oh, thank you. I use all the help I can get. Um but I have to tell you it's already a huge improvement to what it was. So, just being able to go there. I've been a big girl. I've gone three or four times since you've redone that. And in the 30 years I've lived here, I think I had been here three or four times total prior to that. So, all good. Um, any questions on recycling? Go ahead, Mayor. >> Um, is any of the is are any of the sustainable measures going to hit for the coming budget year or is it going to be down the road >> like the m like a mattress container or trex

316or any of the >> um we We're working um um Mari Jackson, our recycling coordinator, working at at our side. We're looking at expanding recycling, but we want to do it as we make the improvements on the site because obviously adding more into the congestion we have right now. Um I don't think it's safe. So, um we have to reorganize and we'll be able to actually expand recycling substantially on site. >> Is that is that like a year out or two years? I would anticipate a couple years out. Um I'd say two to three years out because it's this coming year is going to be discussions with our partners. Um arriving at agreements that's obviously there are elected bodies at all three in all three towns that are going to have to come to agreement.

317Um and once that agreement is in place, finalizing a design and then um bidding that out and actually doing the work. that we would be coming to the board of finance for the capital program at plan at that time and then for funding after. >> Great. Thank you. >> So you guys are going to hear it first. >> Go ahead then. >> A couple questions on the sheet that you provided. What is the month for the year to date? >> Oh, that's it's as of 12:30. So it's 1230. Okay. >> It's a half a year. >> Uh the other question is is that uh in the rate definition that it says it's 92 a ton. Uh it says that the current rate is 88.66 and you're projecting a 4% increase for 27. When is that

318increase effective? >> We don't have the the actual rate. Uh this is an estimate that we were provided by Westport which is our greater Bridgeport interlocal. Um this would be effective July 1st. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Anybody else in recycling? Okay. Thank you. Moving on to Inland Wetlands Commission page 149. Bill, I'll turn over to you. This is inland wetlands. Um there's a slight increase this year. Um basically we've had uh a lot of development and a lot of um court appeals that required a lot of uh uh >> factf finding and u thank you that factf finding and u and um minutes and we've added we added uh $4,000 more into his budget for that. Um, basically everything else was pretty flat. >> And if I may add, obviously those meetings

319are all um legal proceedings then they have implications for the town. So they have to be managed appropriately proper minutes and documentation. um when the town the town has has engaged professional services um a number of times just simply to um confirm and validate present something presented to the town by a a potential developer. So there it's it's all due diligence to protect the town. >> Go ahead, David. In the uh 2011 account for uh 2026 year to date actual we have a negative 10,105 number. How do we do that and can we continue to do that forever? >> What is that from? >> Related to that. >> Did we get a refund? It's on page 152 of the big book. >> We we got a refund. Yeah. >> And how do we continue to

320get those refunds? place where >> it was it was a refund for for um a third party review I believe it was that we did >> and that was the balance that went back to them >> plum tree >> from plum tree all good on inland wetlands moving on to town engineer page 287. That's where we'll find Bill. Switch hats, Bill. >> I switch hats all the time. Um, as we finish up a very busy year um and start the next one, we have a lot of new projects coming up. Um, hence a lot of work. Um, a lot of it is, uh, grant funded on, um, the Spring Hill was a grant fund. Um, we have covert work that we're coming up this this year to on Williams and Edison Road, again, grant funding.

321Um, Whitney Avenue uh, sidewalk grant funding. Um, and we still have the the trail connection through White Plains Road from the commuter parking lot up to Twin Brooks, and that's grant funded also. So, but there's a lot of a lot of fundamentals that have to be addressed on grant funding. They the feds and the state don't make it easy. So all the all the you know all the dots and tees crossed and um all the paperwork is phenomenal. >> And is that all supported through your office or do you share that with where does the grant funding like the grant administrative work? >> So a lot of the grant funding comes through from uh Reena Balar. Um she she actually institutes a lot of it, but >> you know, once she gets the funding, it's

322up to us >> and us >> and and us and Dan Martin and everybody else. It's it's a lot of work. >> Okay. >> Any question in town engineer? >> Go ahead. Hold on. We'll go Vinnie and then Mary. >> Uh there's a comment here about the street scanning. Nope. The street scanning is not included but will be included in coming years. >> So every three to four years we need to scan the streets to assess the conditions. This year we don't have to. So that was not it was in last year's budget. It won't be in this year's or next year's but probably the year after. That's just to keep people ab breast that it's still there. But isn't that a prerequisite to do some of the road maintenance and road uh repaving to

323do the because I thought that is always in the critical path. >> So the critical path is that that you assess the roads and that's what the street scanning is. It it goes through they drive the roads both ways and they take pictures of it and then they make an assessment. >> And how does that get tied to the paving program? Because the paving program does >> the paving program actually will pull out the the pavement condition assessment and we try to work those numbers and in areas that make sense in the sense that you can't just pave one road here and another road across town. You need to group them to take uh the economy of scale. So if if a road gets a bad report here for the scan, would it kind of

324automat automatically be seen as something to be looked at to be paved again or would it just kind of sit there until you get to pave it? I I just want I just want to understand the sequencing >> so the roads get assessed every 3 years. That's the period that's suggested by engineers. And I'm out there continuously looking at these roads. So if a a PCI when Bill does his evaluation as it goes through engineering department I look at the whole map see what the PCI conditions are like after this winter also there are roads that deteriorate at different rates. So we actually have to go out there put eyes on it if we do the assessment one year the next year things change the year after that things change. So, we actually go put

325eyes on it, see what else is in that area so that we could group the roads together. And that kind of dictates where it's going to be put into the paving program. Um, again, it it's tough to say, you know, this road has a terrible PCI. We're going to work on this one road because it's very expensive to work on an individual road in town when the rest of the paving is going on in the other side of town. So, we do and this year especially, we do work on these roadways. say the PCI number on this road comes up, uh, it degraded a little bit more than expected, we'll do patching. We have a pothole truck that comes in, we'll patch these roads up so that we could bring it to a point that

326we could group roads together and get them all done. Um, but it is critical that we do the the road evaluations to get that pavement condition index set for the whole town every so many years. Well, the only question is is that I understand that, but you know, I would think that you'd want to do something every year to look at a piece of it every year as opposed to looking at all of it in three years. >> I drive the roads every year on every road in town. But I put I give feedback to the engineering department on how to rank these roads. We actually look at all the the roads, the PCI numbers that come out and I'll look at the worst roads, go out there, put eyes on it for that year,

327and look at other roads that are similar condition to see which ones have to get done right away. They move on the list. You'll see the the the list of roads changes every year. Uh just because road conditions change every year and they deteriorate at different rates. So there there's no, you know, it's it's it's very difficult to have >> I I understand that. I'm just talking about the scanning portion of this. >> You if he says he does it every 3 years, >> because the road conditions don't get any wor uh don't get any better. They just get worse. >> Yeah. I got >> So, we have a we have a number of roads. I mean, there's there's probably a hundred roads that could get done in town right now. Uh we're limited by

328funds and we're limited by the time during the course of the year that we could actually work on these roads. We have a paving season of five or six months. So, we have to to to pick the roads that are going to be the most effective. main roads first usually and then secondary roads. Group them together and come up with a common sense list of roads to be able to address for the year. Uh so, you know, assessing the same bad roads every year, they're still bad. They still need to get done. Every three years will reset the pavement condition on all these roads. That captures which roads deteriorated very rapidly and which ones didn't deteriorate as rapidly. >> Okay. Can I can I ask that question a different way because I don't think he

329answered what what you asked. I think what Vin is asking is budgetary wise, is there any merit to taking the engineering department scan instead of scanning the whole town every three years to do a third every year to keep the cost consistent and also to give you a running list. >> We >> to do that >> the better roads deteriorate. Also, what we're finding, the asphalt changed in about 2014 or 2015. Those roads are deteriorating more rapidly than roads that were paved back in the 80s and early 90s. >> But if you're if you're looking putting eyes on the road every year, >> and if um Bill's department is doing the the scan >> Yep. >> every three years, is there any benefit to him doing smaller amounts of the scanning so it's done on

330a continual basis? Would that be more helpful? >> I I I don't know if it's going to add to the program at all except spending extra money to scan roads that have just been scanned. >> So, is there cost efficiency in doing the whole town? >> We do the whole town on on the original scan, >> right? >> So, we rank all the roads in town on that scan. Now, we have a list of roads that are bad, list of roads that are good, and we work off of that list, and we keep an eye on all the roads on that list year over year so that we can shuffle them around to get them done. There there's no there's no saying that onethird of of any road one-third of town is worse. So you

331might be looking at roads on one side of town that are better than roads on this side of town. So just splitting up into thirds, you're not going to get a true read for his program. >> It's better for consistency that you get a ranking every third year and then you monitor that versus having a third and having a rolling ranking because the ranking might not be accurate. Did I say that back correctly? Correct. >> Okay. Did that answer your question? >> Because your question your question was like >> where's his >> it'll take three it'll take three years to to to process. >> We won't go there. No. I I was trying to give him more money to do this on a on a regular basis as opposed to doing it every three years.

332And if it made sense to do it in the same year and to do a little bit every year that might be a way to go at it. But if they prefer to do it over the three years, that's fine. >> Okay. >> So, one of the things our the program we use um has a decaying function that actually downgrades the road. If it was like a 75 based on a a curve that it will actually decrease it a few points and then it's is a rolling scale. So, it's level up here and it goes down slow, but once it gets here it goes down quick. So, so your assessment that you do from your department, is it an actual measure of the pavement of the >> It's a measurement of the of the the

333overall condition, the the type of defects that are in the road. >> It's kind of like a rubric checklist for each one. Okay. >> The techn the technology has cameras, has sensors. It's a vehicle that is equipped with all sorts of technology. So it's actually documenting through photograph even the condition so that they can you can actually we can dial into it and look at the road what the condition was when they did the assessment. Um so I I'll say just my perspective on this. I think it makes more sense to do it all at once because it it allows you to to on a balanced perspective look at all of the roads where they are at that moment because six or eight months later after a brutal winter like we just had. Some dropped

334off that curve. The other ones somehow were able to survive. We need to capture that in perspective of all of them ranked side by side. If you if you extract an area, you're really not looking at another area that may be telling you you really got to get over there because that's falling apart. >> Then the follow-up to that is is every three years enough or should it be a bianual? >> It industry standard is three to five years. >> Okay. >> Go ahead, Mary. >> This isn't industry industry standard then. Um but Hartford uses um AI powered dash mount cams. That's what I was going to ask and Vinnie brought this up because I saw it was out. Um and so they put it on some of the vehicles that are constantly around town.

335So it analyzes and categorizes um by what's you know the the PMI and uh how the road is and if they're starting to crack. So I don't know if that's something >> we we actually had a demonstration. Do you want to tell us a little bit about the >> Yeah, the AI power they have it available that you could actually put it on town vehicles uh and it will keep updating it. I don't see a lot of changes on the road once we assess the road. It doesn't change dramatically unless it's a winter like this and there's certain roads that will deteriorate relatively rapidly uh after winters like this. Other ones there's not much change in it. So doing, you know, continuous assessments of these roads because we h we plan we already have our

336road list and we plan a year and a half in advance for all this stuff up to five years years in advance. Continuously updating the data I don't think is going to get us much more in the the paving program. Um it seems to work very well and we've done this over time with the three-year assessments. Uh and it works very well in coordinating with our five-year plan and our paving program annually. It gives us plenty of information to work with and then we actually go put eyes on the roads in particular that we think are going to be deteriorating more rapidly and then we may adjust when they get done in the schedule. We have George has moved up roads especially we saw uh rapid deterioration in the Salem area um last year and

337we coordinated to get that done and that was something that was unexpected. Those roads literally let go and I think it was a compaction issue when they were originally installed. So yeah, uh continuous assessments I don't think are going to get much more for you out of this. We looked at the the the AI powered cameras and everything and it was a little bit expensive for that whole segment uh to be added on to our our regular um road assessments and PCI assessments. Thank you. >> Vicki. >> Um, so let's let's also not forget that the public works employees are on the roads all the time, right? They're looking all the time when they're driving, whether it's snowplowing, picking up leaves, whatever they're doing. So, you have a continuous assess assessment by our employees. So,

338let's not forget that either. >> Yeah. The service gives us an independent baseline which is really important because otherwise then people will look at it as that it's just a uh the priority is who you know um and that that really doesn't play into this. This is this is an independent um company that comes in with their technology and provides us through data >> where we should be um concentrating our our efforts. >> Vin can attest to it's not who you know. >> Go ahead Nikki. And how do you respond to public outcry? >> What um you know, how do does that come filter through Vickiy's office to you? Does it come directly? They're calling public boards directly. A little bit of both. >> We we receive it. It's it's all year long, you know,

339and and you can't blame them, you know, when you're driving down your street and you're always hitting that stupid pothole every time you come up. It it gets on your nerves. So, I I understand why they're complaining. Um, but the answer is really, please, we're going to get we we will get there. We'll try to elevate it. We'll look at it if it's something that's deteriorating more rapidly than anticipated. will try to batch it into what where we're coming into that general area or um with the technologies that uh you have supported over the last few years with um patching and um and temporary repairs. We go in and do that to try to alleviate that, you know, that nerve point. Uh but we I I'm I spend endless hours on the phone with people

340discussing paving >> and you go you will go respond and look at >> I go to their homes sometimes and knock on the door and talk to them. You know it it's I I understand you can't get mad about that. It's >> it's their home >> and it's our responsibility to try to make it better. So but but at the end of the day what we always say is we can only work with the resources that we have. >> Yeah. You know, we'd love to do 100 miles of road in one year. You can't do it. Any other questions? All right, we'll move on to the WPCA page 425. Give us the poop, Bill. What do we need to know? um WPCA. Um this year's projects coming up, we have Wildwood U pump station, which

341um if you were at the tour, you remember the the can style pump station. Um that's on the schedule and expect to have bid documents at the end of this month. Um, we are currently working on designs for new pump uh pump station re uh refits on Whitney and Meritt Boulevard. We've been given an earmarked grant for $1.1 million for the next section of Beersley pump station force main replacement that'll be going under the Puquanic River and up under Route 25. Um, we continue to do video inspections of our uh sewers and continuing the maintenance >> questions. Bill, what is what is the source of that million dollar grant? Is it federal money? >> Jim Hines. >> Federal money. >> Yeah. >> And is the money in the bank? Do we have >> No, not

342yet. I don't believe it is, but I've been told it's coming, right? >> Yes, I believe that is confirmed as much as we can confirm anything. >> Yeah. All right. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> Yeah, just a question on the anticipated potential 3% rate increase from Bridgeport. Do we have any information related to that or any discussion? >> So I did reach out to Bridgeport and said what do you believe that's going to increase this year and they said 3%. So that's how I put it in there. So that's we you know we that number is based on the what we get charged from Bridgeport. >> When does our contract expire with Bridgeport? 2016, but there's a um it goes on for another three years. >> 26 26 >> not 16 >> 206.

343>> Okay. Um >> so it expires this year. >> Expires in on uh June 30th this year, but continues on for another three years >> at 3% increase. >> No, whatever increase they give us every year. They set the rate every year. >> Okay. And so it's not like we're going to be this rate now, 5 years from now, three years from now, it's going to go up 2%, then it's going to go up 4%. There's it's not projected in the beginning. >> We we have no control over that. Um you know, they are doing upgrades. They have they do have debts coming up for upgrading the the Westside plant. >> And are we going to be responsible for upgrading their systems? I remember that was a bone of contention going on for years. So

344we as the way things >> Oops. >> Okay. So we will be up we will that's really not a conversation for this meeting but we will be updating the town council and the board of finance within the next um month month and a half about where we are and where we're going. Okay. We can't really unless we want to go into executive session and talking about contracts. We can't talk about it in public. Okay. >> All right. So, that was fun. Um, public service an public service announcement. We should have an ordinance that if you flush things that you shouldn't flush, that the penalty and fine should be that you have to go down and put the gloves on for an entire day. >> Uh, and anybody who wants to know more about that can

345reach out to Bill. Anybody that wants to go down and take a look, we'll show them. >> Don't flush it. You have to think twice. All right. Um, thank you very much. Um, we appreciate you coming in person. Um, I think it was very helpful for us to to learn and to get to hear how things fit together. All right, you need five. Okay. Um Joan Littlefield and Lind Steinbrre are both here. So let's just take a quick five minute recess and uh we'll finish up for our afternoon. All right. And uh we're back after our short break. We'll pick back up our budget hearing with um senior wellness and health under nurses. We're on page 313 and Lynn Steinbrook and Joan Littlefield are here for the next couple of departments. Hello ladies. >> Hello.

346Thanks for your patience. >> We get passionate about poop and paving. >> I didn't realize this whole side of the room was another department. Otherwise, I was like, "Oh, no. Have to answer questions." >> Well, I mean, they might still phone in questions, but I think we're good. Um, do you want to take us through um the nursing department um under public health on page 314 first? >> Yeah. I don't feel like my numbers are different, but um so are we on the you said we're on senior wellness. >> Um this is under director of nursing >> seniors. So if you want to talk a little bit about goals and objectives and >> so um so uh Susan is our senior wellness nurse and she works 19 and a half hours a week. Can you

347put the mic on, please? >> The button on the bottom >> and it'll turn green. >> There you go. >> There we go. Hello. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, Susan um is our senior wellness work. She works 19 senior wellness nurse. She works 19 and a half hours a week um sometimes collaborating with Trumble Health Department for vaccine awareness and flu clinics. majority of the time she is working with the seniors at the Trumbull Senior Center developing educational programs um to improve their quality of life to improve their longevity and safety in their home. And um then she also does some one-on-one sessions with people who need a little bit more assistance with questions about their health and tries to help them connect the dots in the community of where to go for questions

348that they may have. So um ongoing um you know she's developed some educational programs. Most recently she's developed um a monthly coffee talk where it's a smaller group where they come and ask it. It's kind of an unscripted um meeting with a a topic that Susan kind of drives the conversation with. So it helps um you know keep the conversation going and engaged. Um we're she's continuing to look for some any grant revenue for programming. She did work with the health department with a matter of balance. That was a grant-f funded program. Um and um let's see, she does want to collaborate with Trumble Fire Department to awareness about programs for seniors and Mary J. Sherlock Center to uh more education on mental health topics. Um and her working group attendance is still going and

349it has increased this week by two people. questions on senior nursing that education piece um and having people uh help to navigate the health care system in it in and amongst itself. Oh yeah. >> Um it's frightening when I see clients come in how little they understand even just getting information and um you know everybody's like well just hop on the portal and you can get it. >> Yeah, that's not as easy. Also, it's a generation of people generally that were not really used to asking questions of their providers. >> So, knowing that that's >> whatever the doctor said was the way to go. >> Yes. >> Yeah, it is hard. >> Um, as far as that. >> Okay. >> I have a question. >> Go ahead. >> Um, can you tell me a little

350about your uh um uh you're talking about your wellness programs uh BP swings, etc. Do you do much in like med therapy management? uh um other sorts of of uh of those sorts of programs where you could people could come in and and uh >> so we have in the past we've done programs where um and you know we kind of cycle through them so we're not doing it all all the time but we've done um sessions where we teach people how to prefill a medication box maybe for the week where we have a demo box and some candy and we give them a list and then one-on-one, you know, if people need help beyond that session, they can come in their own personal list and the nurse can do that. Um, but as far

351as I mean navigating ch most of that is one-on-one. She will from time to time have um different speakers for different conditions. You know, a cardiologist, a dentist, um so uh a diabetes educator come and talk about specific illnesses so that it can get more more focused for people who may have that condition or a family member with that condition. And is that generally on site at the senior centers and so forth or >> Yes. >> Any areas of the budget we should be looking at? >> Uh nothing. Nothing's I didn't ask for anything um extra than we normally get. >> Um then we can go on to public school nursing page 355. list. So, the biggest thing in this is going to be the um salary increase that I'm asking for to um be

352um adjusted to be competitive in the marketplace for nursing. We've lost a significant number of nurses to other districts um in the last uh 5 to 10 years and our nursing staff itself 50% of our staff has less than six years with us and the majority of people who have left have been here less than five years to go to other districts for more money. So, I did a an extensive um assessment or last several years I've done extensive assessments of the area um contracts and comparisons for what school nurses are paid. and I uh developed a step system which we don't have in our department um to be able to get the people that are newer some more in line so they won't leave districts either just just this year we lost a nurse

353to uh Shelton for $10,000 more a year and she'd only been a school nurse for four years so they um were able to hire her at a higher level than their entry level even though on paper at Shelton their entry level money is lower. And actually she didn't even seek out that job. She was actually approached by Shelton um because she's a mom in the district and they approached her and offered her the job and she couldn't turn it down. So um that being said, I have um developed a step system with an increase based on number of years of service in hopes to not only keep the people that have been here but also keep the people who have been here uh longer also competitive and uh so that someone that's brand new isn't

354going to make more than someone who's been here for 10 years. So yes. >> So Am I understanding this correctly? So, the um the amount that you're talking about in terms of this needed salary adjustment is about $40,000. Is that correct? >> Uh about is it about 50? It's um the difference is sorry. >> Oh, for the public school? Yes, it would be about 40,000. So, I'm thinking both sides. Yes. So, it's a it's a uh rate change in the hourly basis from 2150 to 24. Is that isn't my again? Am I reading that correct? >> Oh, no. You're reading those are the um those are the that would be the certified nursing assistant that you're looking at for that. Um the nurses uh for zero to three years of service would be $40 an

355hour. >> Okay. Thank you. Other questions? Is it possible for you to give us um just a a historical look at um staffing and how many've lost to what districts? >> Yes, I actually I mean I have a list of what our um area salary differences are and I have the asterisks on there where we've lost staff to. >> Okay. So, I can give you that >> and and how many staff that you've lost, not just the districts we've lost them to, but just to look at, you know, we lost four people in um you know, 2023 we lost. Could you >> I have that. Yes. >> Can you just send that after? >> Sure. For follow. >> I I mean, over the time that I've been here, I've between full-time subs who have lost

356to other districts part-time and um I've lost I've turned over between hire and lose 99. I mean 109 staff people in 10 years. >> Okay. >> I mean we have a full-time staff of 18, but between subs and full-time, you know, we no longer have any part-time. But I mean, it's come and it's a revolving door of people. And and I've, you know, since when I first started in school health, like you had to put in your time as a sub in order to even be considered for a school nurse position. you you couldn't get hired unless a you'd been a nurse for a long time and b you had been a sub. And people would sub just to get their foot in the door and so they would be known. Now I mean we

357can't we can't get subs. Um part of it is our pay is less than other district for subs and part of it is um it's just it's a a lot harder job than it used to be. You know even 10 years ago. The kids are the kids are more complex. Um the treatments that we have to do in schools are more complex. the care plans um the expectations of parents of what's going to happen in the school day is is um much more uh demanding and complex. As as the teacher role has evolved, it trickles over into the health office. Teachers have so much more in their plates that you know it just um it gets, you know, flows over to the nurs's office and the kids have a lot more on their plates. So,

358we're seeing there's a lot of volume, a lot more than we used to see in the health office for complex health care needs as well as things like mental health needs and minor health issues. >> Sorry. Do you have data on like the number of visits that they see during a day or Yes. things like that? >> Yes. Um, so we have some schools that have a significantly larger number of health office visits than another school. It's same size and we you know we do take a deep dive into the data last year. One school that we were having a lot you know I I was able to meet with the principal and the assistant principal and the nurse and we you know went through the entire year the reasons the teachers the number I

359mean it was extensive. It took me probably, you know, four to six weeks to really dive into the information and and uh calculate it out, but um trying to figure out, you know, what what uh are the kids coming to the health office for? And it translates over into missed class time, you know, which is really what we were trying to um relay to the principal and uh the assistant principal. and and and in and a 21st century nurse is really supposed to be there to help advance education. Um mostly what we're doing is we're putting out a lot of fires all day long. Um so it's difficult to advance education when we're putting out fires. So the reason why a lot of people leave is because school nursing is not the easy job that

360they thought they were coming to. They're like, "Oh, would that be nice?" you know, uh the nice part of the school, you know, job is, uh it's a happy place to work. You essentially have people singing down the hall. Kids who even don't like school want to be in school most days. You know, people the majority of people who work there like their job. So, that's and you're you're mostly dealing with a lot of healthy kids who may have some complex health care needs, but for the most part, they uh they roll with it. And um but there's a lot to track. There's a lot that we're responsible for. There's a lot we're liable for. Um it is a, you know, a high-risisk liability job. And um so the nurses realize very quickly um this

361is a lot and I'm not getting compensated what I could be getting compensated for this amount of responsibility. Um and so then they look for work elsewhere if they're leaving the field. if they're not leaving the field, they'll look for some place where they can get compensated more for doing the same job. >> Um, and I'm assuming that the non-public school nurses, which is on page 365, will mirror that on a smaller level. >> Yes. Questions on public school nursing or non-public school nursing? Um and then we'll move on to the health department. Welcome Joan. >> Thank you. We are on page 295. Y um 295. And then just kind of moving to uh what the health department is all about which is 296 through um 298. So largely our health department consists of two

362sanitarians, a public health nurse and a preparedness coordinator along with myself and um assistants who help with billing and um documentation. So our sanitarians have been responsible for ensuring that all of our food establishments, including those that are in long-term care facilities, um schools, etc., And and of course all the restaurants are inspected on the on the frequency um that each one should be inspected on and that is determined by the complexity of the service being provided by that food establishment. We um we license them every year and they inspect cosmetology facilities um tobacco um vendors and they're responsible for the public pools. The lakes get sampled in several spots every summer uh weekly on a weekly basis for bacterial counts. And then the septic system is also very complex. Um they look at building

363plans to determine whether the any new construction right now in Trumbull it's mostly additions expansions and then renovating some older septic systems and the rest of the town is on sewer which is not as complicated obviously and so they um are part of the whole building permitting process and make sure that they go on site and do soil testing for absorbing um the effluent etc. our public health nurse. I think everybody's familiar with our vaccination program and making sure that we're providing sufficient ongoing vaccinations throughout the year and then ramping up before cold and flu season to make sure that flu vaccines and we're reintroducing co vaccines this year um are all available to Trumble residents and um trying to increase both visibility and to ensure the accept acceptability of vaccines altogether encouraging folks to

364continue to make sure that them they themselves are vaccinated and their families are vaccinated. Sujakosi and that's Sam Cousins. Um Sue Jacoszi is our preparedness coordinator and she coordinates with several um several groupings of health departments in what we refer to as region one which mirrors what Megan's team focuses on to to collaborate with other towns to make sure that as um inter inter town and inter community um health departments that we are coordinated in identifying ing anything untoward that might be happening like a a biohazard, bioteterrorism or a new pandemic to be coordinating in um the way we identify that something's going on and the way we respond to it. and Sue and Sam also do all of our outreach to the community for providing some health education. Um, putting on clinics for knowing

365your numbers so people can come in for A1C testing and blood pressure testing. Um they collaborate with TEPOG quite a lot on QPR which is um which is the suicide prevention sort of a light touch suicide prevention program. Narcan training so that we can reduce our overdoses. So, we try to collaborate with the the seniors, with the senior center, um with the emergency team and and with TapOD extensively to make sure that we're providing programming that that works for the community and looking at trying to ex extend that into the topic areas that people want to have. So, that's what we're doing. I don't know if anybody has questions about our role in town. It's It's much more expansive than most people think. The amount of stuff that you have going on there, >> it

366it's a little deeper. Even Even the food and and uh septic is deeper than you would think. So, >> and are we able to cover all the establishments with the two sanitarians that we have? >> We sure are. They're incredibly efficient. So, they have everyone on rolling schedules rather than clustering the inspections by certain months. they have them all scheduled out. Those um in the long-term care facilities, those have to be seen um four times a year. >> Others that just do some very fancy food or three times a year. The basic eeries are two times a year and then the the more takeout places um like convenience stores are are once a year. So they they have them all scheduled out and they know exactly when they need to hit them all. And are

367they um spot inspections or do the people know they're coming? >> Both. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And they do a lot of reinspections, too. There's also a tremendous amount of coaching. So, if if a if a food establishment isn't up to par on certain aspects, I mean, they used to be in the paper, but the Hurst is not publishing these results much anymore. Um if it's very serious then we suspend their license until they until they rectify what happened. They they have um 72 hours if it's very serious to rectify. If they don't then it gets suspended. Um but if it's like a foundational problem where they're just they they need to um get some things right or get the flow of of things right. cooling food quickly. Um, if they're going to be reheating

368it later, getting that right. If it's more of a coaching thing, they spend a lot of time going back, checking again and again. You know, are is your team actually following the instructions they've been given. So, there's they spend a lot of time in each place. They know them well, let's just say. >> Um, and I noticed that your numbers on your flu and COVID vaccines were up this year. Um, was there something that you did specifically to promote that or? >> Yeah, and that was actually last year because don't these numbers are all like a year behind. So that was when COVID vaccinations were still pretty pretty much in demand and the team and this is before my time and the team emphasized the flu clinics and moved into um doing a lot of

369social marketing, social media marketing of flu clinics and it it bumped up the flu vaccines quite a lot. We kept that going this year in FY26. Um but we weren't able to do COVID this year because we needed a new medical advisor um before the seniors the season started to do that. So we'll bring COVID vaccinations back next year in a modest way. >> Questions for health department. Go ahead Paul. >> John, your offices are located in the White Plains Road building. Is correct? Can you talk to us for a minute about the condition of that building and whether or not it's functional for your use? >> Yes, it is. It It's ideal. >> It's comfortable. >> Very comfortable for us. >> Is the building building in good shape? >> It's it's in great shape.

370Yeah. Yeah. No complaints about the building. Uh the our vehicles could >> stand to turn over. >> Can't have everything. >> The vehicles are getting pretty old. Um, so the next time somebody else gets a new one and wants to give us another hand-me-down that's a little bit fresher, uh, the team would be grateful. We only have two. So if, uh, the police department's getting new stuff, we we take their hand-me-downs very happily. >> Maybe not. >> Not what we heard today. >> Okay. >> You get all the fours. >> I mean, they're not gonna listen. They're not going to fall apart. Like they are safe going around town. We just wouldn't take them out of town, our current vehicles. So, but the building is great. Um I I love it. >> Last year they

371had done some work on the basement for waterproofing and some storage. That all got completed. >> Yeah, it's good. >> Okay. Maria, they they use pool cars or how does are they have cars that are dedicated to their department? >> Dedicated. Yeah, those cars actually came for when they were health district >> health district. >> So they've been there for a while. >> Yes. >> Okay. Do we have >> But they are handme-downs. >> They are. That's what I'm saying. >> Yeah. Because one of them was a detective car before it. >> Yeah. In the past, all the vehicles from the police department were were handme-downs to different departments. Yeah. >> Even the first select in my vehicle, they were all handme downs. >> Do we have um uh data on the on that? It's

372not in our budget book. uh with the fleet. >> We can get >> the mileage and the age. >> Just let us just let us know. >> Police book. >> No, the police has their data, >> but they don't have the whole fleet. So, I was just curious what our fleet looks like. >> Go ahead, Nathan. >> Um, do you guys uh in your immunization program take part in the vaccines for children uh program? >> How much does that cost you at the end of the uh of the day? Um, so we get the vaccines for free from the state, which is great. So, >> uh, and we do recoup some administration, vaccine administration costs, uh, if insurance will cover it. Not every insurance will pay a public health department. >> Okay. >> To administer.

373So, that's where, >> but if they're coming through Medicaid or any of the the state >> Yeah, Medicaid is hard um, just because of the way Medicaid manages provider numbers. >> Yeah. Uh so we're we're working on that but we have very few Medicaid patients at the moment. It seems to undulate a little bit over time in terms of the proportion but otherwise that part's going well. The vaccines for children is a is a blessing to the town. Otherwise our vaccine u procurement costs would be a lot higher. >> And so do you keep a lot of stock on site then or or do you does it uh roll through fairly quickly? We keep a fair amount on site and then to we've gotten pretty good at figuring out how to order about maybe 75%

374of what we're going to need and and then we try not to over orderer because sending it back is not great for many reasons. Partly for cold chain and partly just the tedium of it. Um, and then we can always order a little bit more later in the season and they'll send it. >> Uh, my other question, um, do you, uh, take part in like, uh, the drug takeback days or the any of those DEA programs? >> We haven't been because we don't have, um, the secure facilities for it. We rely on the police department for that. >> Okay. because I know other towns have done that and it's been a you know a collaboration between their health department and their police or or the state police often take part in it too. >> It's

375a great idea. >> That's interesting. >> Yeah, write that down. Thank you. >> Go ahead, Mary. >> I just say we do it but it's it's through teapod and the police. So the town does do it just not through the health department because you Yeah, because you need the you know the police with the vehicle and and all that. >> But we can always fan the flames and help. It's part of what we love to do is just help to boost whatever else is going on. >> Yeah. >> How long have you been with our department now? >> Since October 20th. >> So far so good. >> That's right. She came back after lunch. Right. >> Trying to get >> I know. We'll have to watch that. Um if there's no other questions, thank you

376guys very much. >> Great. Um, and if you just send me the followup by email. >> Is there anything else? Uh, do you want any statistics that you were asking about or >> whatever you have that you think would be interesting for them to have for backup? There's nothing really um controversial in your budget. It just help us understand, you know, where we are. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, we're just going to give um Nate Moyer and Joe Gadiano a couple minutes. We're running just a few minutes ahead of schedule. Um we have one more department for the day. Um does anybody have any thoughts or requests for follow-up information that I may have missed earlier in the day? Things that you'd like me to um

377follow up on with any of the departments that we've seen today. >> That's all right. I just figured I'd throw that out there. Oh, well, you were staring back. I don't know. >> Maybe Cindy and Kathy know. Why do we have eight now? I forgot six last year. >> Just for this Yeah, I think January 1st was a Thursday. >> Junth was added. >> Junth was but >> that's willpower. >> That's a nice Italian boy right there to go feed people. I'm sorry. >> Are you talking about like the The transfer station is open even though it's a holiday. >> Yeah, >> there's certain Yes. >> took a walk at lunch. >> Where is it in here? >> Think that wasn't a big deal. I was just curious if we finding holidays. Oh, no thank

378you. I already had one as soon as I came in. >> Very kind of. >> Thank you. Oh, this smells delicious. Almost like homemade. >> Why? >> You put them in this little >> t those off. 52 Saturdays and eight hours for eight. >> Yes, >> Ernie. We can >> Ernie, we can turn off for a few minutes. >> We're waiting for one last department. >> Again, it's not a big deal. I was just curious and I meant to ask him try to limit my questions. All right, after our brief intermission, we are back to discuss the golf commission on uh our enterprise fund which is located on page 435 in your big book. Joe Gardiano and Nate Moyer are here. >> No, I'm sorry. There we go. >> Superintendent. >> Hi, welcome. I apologize.

379>> No problem. >> I read the list. >> Um, do you want to introduce yourselves and give us a little overview and then we'll talk from there? >> Afternoon everybody. Um, >> good afternoon everybody. I'm Joe Gadiano, the chair of the golf commission. With me today is Joe Pero, who is our new superintendent, hired just this last season. Uh we're going to walk you through the budget today, ask if you have any questions for the 2026 Tasha Noles budget. Um and there is one request for an increase that I am coming before you. Uh it's a contractual matter, so I don't anticipate any issues. Uh with that, I'll turn it over to Joe if he wants to go through the goals and objectives. >> Hello everyone. Nice to meet you. So, our goals and objectives

380for 2026 and 2027, we have a plan to finalize the irrigation install. We plan and install to uh we to plan and install a new irrigation pump house. We're also going to repair and edge the bunkers inhouse before a full course bunker renovation can be done. I'm also trying to establish a high school internship program which we're getting a a lot of positive feedback on and also installing a ventilation system in the maintenance fac in the maintenance build building for uh for the grinders. Uh with that the only request that we have is the salaries full-time. Uh Joe joined us last year and actually part of his contract is an 8% salary increase to adjust for uh what actually superintendents are making from the 2025 to 2026. So that would be an increase in his

381salary from $134,000 to 145388. Maria, I believe you have the uh final numbers on that. >> What was the total? Uh $145,388. >> Maria, you'll send the correct account. >> The budget is right now. >> We'll give you the difference. >> Thank you. >> With that, any other questions? >> Uh yeah, I have a a question. Good afternoon, Mr. Gadiano and Mr. Imperio. Um my question as we're looking through the budget, I see that we moved a former seasonal employee uh to permanent part-time. My question is if we've moved that that headcount to permanent part-time, why is the salary uh this the salary for the seasonal still at 319, shouldn't we see that decrease at all? Well, we increased it with the uh increase in minimum wage, plus we created two new positions, uh, senior

382starter positions who are going to oversee the outside operations for for the pro shop as far as scheduling and just overall day-to-day operations. >> Mas, your time's up. >> Yeah. How many total seasonal employees do you guys hire? >> Uh we have 15 returning for sure. There may be an additional three or four once, you know, there are a lot of college kids once they're out of school, but it's 15 that are definitely coming back. >> Go ahead, Dave. >> Can you walk us through salaries overtime and what your thoughts are there? >> Yes. So I like I said I started about five months ago and we were already tw I think it was 27,000 or 20,000 over the allotted 20,000. So just this increase covers you know having a full-time employee every weekend plus

383holiday coverage and any emergency call back situations. You know this number 40,000 we're actually a little bit over that right now. That's pretty much the amount of se of overtime that in order to operate on the busiest days of the weekends and holidays that that that number is crucial. >> Just another quick question regarding the minimum wage increase. What was that increase from? >> Well, our historically the tasks employees receive a dollar increase each year which is 5.5%. So minimum wage is just below 17 now, but our our lowest hourly rate is $18 an hour. >> Have you seen an increase in volume in the in number of rounds and things like that? >> We're pretty much at our max. The rounds last year for the NLES was 50,349 and the Glenn was 25,412. So

384that's over 75,000 rounds, which is incredibly high. That's that's pretty much maxed out because spring and fall time, we're kind of limited with the sunlight. And then May, June, July, and August, it's it's booked from morning to sundown. >> That's a lot of rounds of golf. >> It is a lot. >> I think my family contributes to many of those. >> So, um, any other questions on I'll just uh make a comment that Tasha is a gem and uh I commend all the effort uh at the course. Thank you for what you do. >> Do you have any great idea? Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> Question. >> How does it work with the school with with schools when they have tournaments and the high school? >> I'm not seeing any. Do they pay to play?

385How how does that >> how does that work? >> So most of that is is donated on behalf of the town to the uh youth programs and and their fees and things. I I believe they have to pay a uh seasonal not contract seasonal amount to the to play in high school but once they pay that amount it's covered by TSHA. Okay. >> Thank you. Are you continuing the Monday morning summer youth hours where if they go out early they can play? >> Yes. Yep. >> That's great. >> Go ahead, Paul. >> Um, first guys, thank you for your exceptionally good continued service. As Dave points out, it's a gem for the town and it's immeasurably important. Um, we have four new members of the golf of the board of finance here that may not

386completely know how the golf course fund differs from all other town budgets except sewers. I think the enterprise fund. So, can can you kind of briefly explain that? >> That's number one. Number two, >> the $364,000 reimbursement to the town for town provided services to the golf course. You have a schedule that kind of outlines what those numbers are. Can you share that with us at some point? >> Yes. I don't have that directly, but I'm sure Maria can. >> Yeah, I do have the schedule. I can provide that. >> They can share that. Thank you. So, the enterprise fund. >> Yep. >> So, the enterprise fund is a little bit unique for this town in that it is basically everything that we make, we reinvest into our property. Um, it doesn't go to none

387of the taxpaying dollars actually go to assist the golf course in any capacity. even if we lease or buy equipment, we are paying the interest back to the town. So, it's a uh self-sufficient enterprise and uh that's what it is. >> Yeah. So, we talked about a little bit about that with the veteran center and whether or not they would be another opportunity for an enterprise fund. Oh, yeah. But but at 50,000 rounds of golf uh >> or I'm sorry, 75,000 rounds of golf a year, I think that's a little different than the usage on the building. So um how that would work in reality versus that, you know, it's definitely um not a comparable apples to apples. It's really a funny story. Um I don't play golf. I I used to hack with when

388I before I had children, but now if I get five hours to myself, I it's not where I'm headed. But my husband loves to golf and invariably somewhere along the way he'll say, you know, on the 15th over by the bunker when you go up the hill and I nod. I say, "Yes." And my kids are like, "How would you know?" I'm like, "I have no idea." But it's it is a consistent theme for the last 30 years. So, thank you for keeping them entertained. Go ahead, Mr. Pia. >> Thank you, Mr. Tiffanelli, for asking that question for us new people. Um, so Bobby Brown runs the golf course, makes a living. No, he >> he's a consultant. >> Correct. >> So, he's just salaried is >> we pay him a fee. Uh and then

389he is in charge of booking the rounds on behalf of the town, but every dollar he collects is audited by Christine, who is our office administrator, uh who reports to Joe directly, who's a town employee. So Bobby is just in charge of one selling merchandise which he profits from the driving range which he profits from and then we pay him a fee just to run the booking fee on behalf of Joshua. >> Okay. So the uh clothing, golf balls, so forth, that's his business, >> correct? >> So is the driving range. Does he pay rent for the building for the club there or >> No. No. So that's it's discount to his his >> and the fee that he's paid for bookings is is that discussible or >> Yeah. So we pay him let me

390just look up the line item. I think it's about $213,000 a year and that's for the booking fee and his services provided as a golf professional. >> But he doesn't have any like direct expenses against that, right? That's just his fee. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> What about his employees? his employees are covered under his own uh revenue. So >> So out of like his 213,000 whatever he makes selling merchandise and the golf range he pays his people. >> Correct. >> Got it. Thank you. >> Or if you want to do a lesson, he uh that's also under his umbrella. >> I did take lessons from There you go. >> I'm still terrible, but I did take lessons from Any other questions? >> Go ahead, Dave. Don't sigh. It's all right. >> No, I

391just had a a question. Joe, maybe maybe this is for Maria. Maybe this is for you. Um any debt service that's out currently for the golf course that you could talk to and maybe what the uh current maturity of that is or expiration. Thanks. >> Yeah, so we have Hold on here. Let me just get the right numbers in front of me. Uh so as some of you might remember, we actually had a very large bond payment for uh a bunker project as well as some clubhouse additions that we had. Uh that has gone from $232,000 last year. Uh this next cycle we're down to 45,000. So that should be expiring. Um, and you know, just to plant the seed, our clubhouse is in dire needs, and I understand that it is, uh, are we

392building a school or are we building a golf course? Um, but we are going to look to try and use some of that bonding money eventually to either fix up the clubhouse or or have a new clubhouse built uh, all at the dime of the golfers with no town money invested. >> Very good. >> Thanks. Anybody else? >> Go ahead, David. >> I just like to echo what they also said. It is a gem of Trumbull and have friends from out of town that they can't believe that that's not a private golf course that it's just gorgeous and well taken care of. >> Thanks to this this guy and his staff. >> No. Yeah, I've only been here for five months though, but I grew up in Trumbull, so I'm very familiar with the property

393and you saw it's it's my hometown core. So, I said, you know, during the interview process, it's it's a dream job of mine. So, I'm just I'm glad to be here and looking forward to the 50th anniversary this year, which is pretty unique, you know, so looking forward to it. >> So, what's your background um prior to coming to Tasha? >> I was at Country Club in New Cananan for the past 10 years serving as the first assistant superintendent and my first golf course job was at >> Long Shore in Westport. >> First assistant. Don't get any ideas, right? >> Lots of assistants. Um, very cool. If there's no other questions for the um, golf commission and enterprise fund, I think we're done for the day. If you have any requests for follow-up information, um,

394if you would send them by email so I can make sure they get to the right departments and that we are tracking what information we wanted back. Our next meeting was originally um is Thursday evening scheduled here in town hall chambers. It is a public hearing at 7 pm. Um it is our chance to hear from the public their feelings on any line item in the budget. Um it will be a hybrid meeting. There will be opportunity for people to access the link through the um agenda to make comments via Zoom or to make comments here in chambers. Um, our next meeting after that will be on Thursday, March 19th. Originally, it was scheduled to be all on Zoom, but after discussion today, um, and how well it went having people come, we're going to

395make that a hybrid meeting, the same as today. So, we'll meet here in chambers with the rest of our town departments and anybody who is not able to accommodate that schedule change, there'll be a hybrid link um to join us that way. So, this Thursday, two days from now, we're here. >> I thought it was at Madison for some reason. >> Saturday the 21st at 10:00 a.m. there had been a request to relocate that to um Madison. Um I understand that that takes away that they were afraid that we did not have a capa enough capacity here. So, we offered to move that venue. I understand that if it does not work because it's not hybrid that we'll do our best to accommodate them. But we are scheduled for Madison on Saturday the 21st at

39610 a.m. >> It's one thing at a time. We'll see you in two days here at 7 o'clock. >> Okay. I I'll send you a text reminder. Sorry. Um if nobody else has anything, just a motion to adjourn. So >> move. >> Second. >> And if nobody has any problem, then if you don't want to go home, you can stay, but we're all gone. Nice to meet you. >> What's up with the small name tag? I had no idea anything more important than