001All right. Uh, good evening everyone. I'd like to go ahead and call our uh, budget work session to order. Uh, a couple things before we get uh we are going to be talking to the board of ed tonight. We also will be uh talking about our capital items in the budget. Um, Tuesday night we did talk to the police chief and we had a bunch of takeaways from his presentation or going through his budget. Uh, we were going to take action tonight. My recommendation, I don't think I'm ready to act on the police budget quite yet. Um, I'm hoping you guys are okay if we just, you know, move that to next Tuesday. the next work session. Um, we also I know Rob and talking to Rob and Andy a little bit that there is
002some information they're going to provide us regarding the budget process here and uh potentially some things that we can incorporate into our discussion. So, I'd like to get that information before we act on the police budget specifically. So, if you guys are okay with that, um, >> yes, >> we'll wait. We'll you we'll handle the police budget on Tuesday night. And um I did give the police chief a heads up that potentially I was going to ask that we not take action on the police budget tonight so he was aware. Um I didn't want him showing up and not have us actually talk about the police budget. So um thank you for that. Uh with that we are here with the board of ed. Is there anything I know we've had a presentation. You guys
003have been here a couple times to talk about the budget. Uh is there anything that we haven't gotten or anything you want to say before we ask questions? >> You know, I I think at the I would characterize the budget as a one of those years where you know the actual everything else if you take out insurance and you take out transportation it runs around 355 right in that realm and and we probably would be sitting here saying yeah that's pretty much inflation right that's what happens. Um, unfortunately it is it is that insurance uh which is a bit of a you know it's a difficulty this year. It's it's a thing to get over. Um and it's difficult this year. So um with that said um this maintains the ability to continue forward on
004the work we're doing. Um maintains class sizes in the you know look K12 class sizes are in the 17 16 realm on average. Um and some of those averages are lower than they um sound because if say at Wheeler you only have the opportunity to have three classes to go from three classes to two classes um you can imagine how many students it increases to try to do that and you can't go in half increments right um a little difficult um so so some of that um looks smaller than it is because of those u those limitations. So, we think it's a a budget that really we we realized it was high, which is why we did not put in the additions that were requested on our side. Um, and we really appreciate your thoughtful
005consideration of it. >> All right. Um, I guess we'll just open up Sorry. I guess we'll go ahead and just open it up for questions or any uh questions for the board of ed. >> Um, Mr. Chairman. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Question. So, I I know that uh it was brought up at the board of ed meetings when you guys were working on the budget. I also know that it was brought up by someone at the podium uh last time we had a meeting. Um you said that most of your classrooms are 16 or 17 students, but I've heard from numerous people that the preschool, the kindergarten, the first grade, they're all very undersized classes, 10 students. Um, and also some kids that say, "Well, we're supposed to have 15 students." And they say
006we have 15 students, but really only 12 students have been coming. Um, and so I I don't really think that um due diligence has been done as far as combining some of the classrooms when when the size of a 2.7 increase, you know, is looming. So, um, is it possible for you to get us a classroom size with actual, you know, students that come to the classroom for this the schools? >> So, I I've never heard the 15 to 12 thing. Not questioning, but just not that's that's new tonight. Um, we can certainly get you a class enrollment report. >> Um, one of the things that's happened this year, >> just hit the button. >> My apologies. >> No problem. I could still hear you. >> Yeah, you don't have to start over. Just >>
007Okay, go ahead. >> So, one of the things that did happen this year is because we did have a low kindergarten uh level um low class sizes this year, um we did find ourselves taking that classroom away. Um and that was going to be a place where we actually decreased the amount of our teaching staff. Um but at the same time, we ended up with a a flux of of a need for an English teacher at the high school. Um, so we essentially took that position and moved it to the high school. So it's a net zero increase, but that was that's primarily those classes. It's kindergarten at Lynen where there were some classes at 11 because of that issue. Um, and we did address that, >> but that's primarily that class, but certainly we
008can get you a report. >> And you have three preschool that are all 10 students each. >> So no, our students like um like Wheeler's PreK right here, it's 15 students each. So Um I think what >> 15 >> and Lyndon has a 15 student. >> Um yeah, they run about 15. >> Now if you walked in there as a parent um there are times when kids are out for individual services, kids are out because they're not they're sick that day. That kind of issue. Um but they do run around 15 students. >> Okay. >> And and that's pretty much the norm. Um we also um our preks are done um a lot of our prek is funded by state grant as well. Um and the state grant um has to keep a certain class
009size in it. >> Um so even decreasing prek because of the amount of funding we get from grants to provide those which are already considered in this budget. um it it wouldn't necessarily help to decrease a class um as well because they're mostly funded by grants. >> Okay. So, uh I'm glad you brought up the the funding uh issue too because did you lose uh some funding this year like maybe in a 100,000 in one spot and 140 maybe in another maybe? So, sure we um one of the places we lost some um well, we have it's always changing is that our choice grants change with the enrollment we have. Um this is a year where we did have some transients. Um students moved from Hartford to a different town and that changes. Um and
010we've been actively engaging Hartford to to make to have that um stay the same. And this is not new for Planeville um over the last five or six years. it's dipped and and we've brought the number back up um to about just over a hundred students. We stay in just about four four and a half% of our students um are our choice students and they bring in a certain amount of grant income. >> Okay. >> Um so we're working to address that that drop. Um the other drop was from our middle school renovation project. Um and that is that we are not able to take the rental um income we used to have from Oakill. Um and that's really a short-term long-term conversation because while we're not able to do it and part of it's
011because of the building project, right? There's a it's going to be a little messy over there. Um, and we're going to need every space we can to try to make it as best we can for Planeville students. Um, in the long run, because we're able to really build a better facility by using the space better than it was when it was originally built, we believe it will actually have long-term special education finan um, funding um, uh, >> favorable. It'll be favorable in that because it provides a better space um because we'll be able to have a larger a larger and better program than we currently have um to meet our Plainville special education students needs. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Sure. >> All right. Anyone else with any any questions? >> Uh Mr. Chair. >>
012Yes. Go ahead. >> I understand it was not a unanimous vote on the board of ed for this budget. Did the two dissenting members offer any guidance on what where they thought the cuts should come? >> So, um I didn't ask him ahead of time, but I'm going to ask uh my chairman uh Mr. White if he would be interested in answering that question. Otherwise, I'll take a stab at it. >> Um >> yeah, he doesn't need a microphone. He's fine. >> Thank you. Yeah. Um there were two descending votes. one one disscent was that they just wanted $200,000 uh you know stricken didn't say where what they were dissatisfied with u which is their right uh and the other one basically did not have a reason for voting no just just voted no for
013the record if you look um as a chairman I do not vote uh and the only time a chairman can vote technically under Robert's rules is either to create a tie uh to defeat a motion or to break a tie to pass a motion. So, my vote was not, but I I wholeheartedly endorsed that that budget and still do. Um, and uh if anyone can come up with something that will not have a a a negative effect on on our on our students. uh but in the four sessions that we and and our discussion since that time we have not come up with anything where we feel um that that can happen and and to uh Miss Tommpkins u I've been in a couple of class kindergarten classrooms this week that's kind of why I
014kind of have a cold uh but also in looking at that those class sizes u are are not too small uh those are children uh the prek and the kind kindergarten students that do have also special needs and require u attention so that if we were to have 16 or 17 kids in those classes I think it would be less less being gained what I have seen in our students that our when our students leave kindergarten with the prek background they are far more advanced now than they were when I first got on the board you 14 years ago uh that uh this this is paying paying benefits to us. I think we will find as the years continue uh that our students with prek and and the better kindergarten are they're going to have
015a higher graduation rate from high school. I think statistics do show that as well. >> All right. >> Thank you. Any >> Mr. Chair? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um, I think Ben's question was an important one and it just brought me back to my time on the board of education and uh, Foster. You can speak to this too because I remember my first two years it was uh, repeated many times. You know, our job as explained to me on the board was not to micromanage the what it was to set our expectation with the amount. So if someone wanted a reduction of X amount, um it was actually strongly frowned upon for us to even suggest or imply where as that. Um so I I just want to make that clear. So um the
016understanding with the 200 to Mrs. Tomkins point it was if we were losing income, losing revenue, where were we going to get this back from? And maybe that's a question I can, you know, pose. Um, you know, going into the budget and planning, I wasn't there for your discussions. What was looked at to offset that loss of income? So I I think the answer is we've looked at the entire budget and one of the issues we have is that um you know it's status quo in terms of trying to keep class sizes really right where board policy says here's where they should be um in terms of trying to find additional areas that don't impact kids which is really what the board focused on and I think Foster kind of was going down that path.
017Um, you know, the the areas that do that are in supplies, uh, materials, uh, those areas that are are easy to to hit. all of those um when we did our budget revisions before we gave it to the board, we brought those down to so we took out a lot of the um possible increases for inflation um and brought them down under, you know, down to regular flat funding just to get this budget down to the 5.76 uh because of that insurance hit. Um it it really um we did not find it possible without um you know basically not having materials uh for things because we're already at a place where we're you know having to be very careful and judicious. Um and we've you know been very strategic as well. So, uh, you know,
018one of the places that some people in your seats wouldn't wouldn't be in as as not an ideal seat is that our oil prices we locked in. You know, the the business departments here lock that in in December. So, all the crisis you're looking at on the news. Um, you can kind of sit a little bit deeper in your seats to say that that's not your going to be the thing we come back to you in a few months and talking about. um insurance looks like we called it. Um we didn't we tried to call it at the the lowest level we could to say this is the most we want to ask for and we tried to be extremely conservative probably pushing the edge of being careful um or or you know edging away
019from being careful and and it looks like that's been a very safe um safe call. So, you know, it things that were we didn't find opportunities. Um, the board spent hours upon hours looking at the numbers, going through, as you know, going through every line, looking at what the possibilities are. U, we've just been hit with a number of things that um are not um they're not easy. Um, you know, the educ the transportation needs that have increased haven't changed, right? We don't have a way to to fix that. Um, we are hoping and I guess really we're really hoping some of the choice kind of being able to reinstate some of that that work having more students come back uh will provide some of that. Um, but um we're still trying to conservatively budget.
020So, >> thank you. >> All right. Anyone else with a question, comment, >> Mr. Chair? just you know in terms of the class size I think if you really think of it you know uh with exact numbers as an example it's easy to understand you know say you had like 48 kindergarteners at Lynen Street school and if you uh divided by three there's only 12 in each class which somebody walking by or walking into the classroom you know especially if one is out for special services it looks like a small number but if you go down to two classes you suddenly have 24 kindergarteners in the class and so there really has to be a fairly significant net drop uh uh in order to uh usually eliminate one classroom and not really in increase the
021number of students uh beyond the recommended number. >> Yeah. >> All right. I completely agree. I I coach T-ball. >> Yeah. >> I can't imagine doing it for six hours a day. >> Yeah. I just I hope you don't mind. Just easier if you actually give an example, I think, and then people you know what what would that look like? Yeah. >> All right. Anyone else with a question, comment? >> No. >> I just I do have one and I if if I'm going down the wrong path, please stop me, but you know, we're about twothirds of the way through the current fiscal year. Typically, you return surpluses at the end of the year. Is is there any way if you if you have a surplus, you know, buying things ahead of time and it's,
022you know, instead of giving the surplus back, have we ever in the town, you know, where you've spent that money to kind of eat into the next fiscal year's budget, so to speak, if that makes sense. Um, and if so, is it something that can be, you know, I I know we're only twothirds of the way into the year, so we're, you know, trying to project a surplus at this point might be difficult, but I guess the bottom line is, you know, if we're anticipating a surplus, is it something where we could purchase things in this fiscal year? Ideally, that wouldn't be used until next year. Is that even allowed? I guess first of all, but if it's allowed, is it >> So, I'm going to attempt to push that over to Mr. Bin because
023>> No, that's fine. I think if I say the wrong thing, he'll let me know later that >> No, that's >> whether I answered it correctly. >> Yeah, we have done that and we look to do that before the year ends anyway. >> Okay. >> So, things such as um yeah, you know, supply purchases, things like that for the following school year if you know teachers have monies left over in line items they may need. um la uh attorney's fees, labor fees, uh things like that that we, you know, pay on uh on a monthly basis. Um sometimes we prepay uh utilities, fuel, fuel utilities. Um so that is it that is pretty much a common practice. So, you know, we you know, if there's going to be excess funds, which again the budgets are
024so tight that it's, you know, difficult to say excess funds because that's not really Yeah. Um, but we do look, Sam and I sit down and look at it prior to year end and say, "Okay, we pay this, this, and this, and you know, now all of a sudden you're excess, if you will, 50,000 is 5,000 because we paid 40 grand something, >> you know, Yeah, exactly. >> Yep. No, I understand. Yep. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um, anyone else with a comment, question?" >> I'm good. Um, again, like I said at the beginning, I think our anticipation is Tuesday night. You know, we'll we'll actually vote on the board budget along with several others that we haven't taken up yet. Um, I would just say if anyone has any questions between now and then,
025please, you know, get it to the superintendent or even the town manager's office and they can get it to them. And, you know, we'll plan on having this on the agenda for Tuesday night then. And you can get that classroom size list to me. Okay. Thank you, Brian. >> Go through their capital. >> Yes. And I you do have a a capital Do you have one capital item or a couple? I >> M Mr. Chairman, if I may, just as a note, uh you do have much larger >> printouts of the capital budget in front of you. It's identical to what's in your packet. There are no changes to it. It's just larger. So, thank you. >> Uh, Mr. Chair, >> yes. >> Just a a question for Andy. Uh, can we also look at
026the lists that are on, you know, uh, the section 12 of the budget book? >> Yes, you can. So, um, within the budget book, there is a uh, a list of capital items that are included in the upcoming fiscal year. The only thing that that list would not include is what would be in the outy years of the capital. >> Yes, I know that, but yes, you could look at that as well. This was Yeah. It includes what was in the budget as when the town manager proposed it last week. >> Correct. >> So section 12 page two um is the summary of what the town manager recommended for capital items. Oh >> what and with the bigger prints that's you're getting to see what was requested by each department and then you can see
027the column that the town manager actually moved it forward and proposed it in the in his current uh budget proposal. So, um, so what's on page two of section 12 is is what would make up the capital page two is just the town. Page four. >> Oh, page four. I'm sorry. I was just looking at the board. I didn't see it. >> Where is it? >> 12 122 then 12. >> Yes. So, 124 is the board. Thank you. >> Um, so I don't know if we have any questions. I mean, it's, you know, it was pretty self-explanatory. anything you guys you from the administration side. Is there anything you want to share with us? Anything? Anybody on the council have any uh questions? >> Oh, >> yeah. Go ahead. >> Okay. Just a couple of
028questions. Um the labs at the high school and middle school, are those for, you know, specialized things like graphics? Um >> the the lab the labs I assume they're computer labs. >> So under technology >> technology >> you have 12,000 for labs the PHS and MSP labs >> or it's on our list. Maybe it's not on yours. Yes, that that's our our labs for our um I believe those are for our CTE programs, right? So, >> sort of specialized use. Um and then the the the network uh the network upgrades. Does that mean that it's going to be partially sub, you know, subsidized by -ate? >> Right. So, Mr. Ross um gives you the net. So, if it's uh to your point about examples, yeah. If it's a $100,000 of equipment and and he has
029>> $50,000 of rate that he believes he'll get, he puts in the budget $50,000. Okay. >> And and essentially is kind of a they give you an estimate. Um and he's really good at making it work. Um so he's he's usually spot on. So, >> okay. Thank you. >> Just one more comment about the lab. um >> because adult ed students use that space. It's partly funded through the adult ed program. >> Okay. >> It's more than $12,000. $12,000 is just our portion. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions, comments? >> The only question I have, and it may not be for board of ed staff, um was it roadways or public works is getting new also needs new radios. >> Yes. >> Is there are these the same radios? Is there
030any chance for savings going together on them? >> Uh Mashu, who is the provider for the board of education's radios? The roadways department was looking to upgrade to Goosetown, which there would be some savings because that's partnered with the police department, right? >> So it would be using their infrastructure. Yep. >> But I can't speak on the radio system for the board of education. >> So I don't think we use Gootown. >> Okay. >> Um so but I think it's something certainly we could look at. So in terms of what radio needs there are. So, >> okay. Thank you. >> The radios in this budget are part of a rotational plan of radios that are >> very old and and we weren't we weren't keeping up. Y >> and so there's a rotational plan in
031place to replace X number and catch up. >> Yeah. >> Do you off the top of your head, do you know how many radios you got the board of ed across the district use? If you don't know it's you can >> Sam I come back to in a second. >> Yeah. No, that's fine. >> Well, if we can merge all that would under one carrier. >> The question would come down to the infrastructure. So, I don't know if the police infrastructure that we'd be using for our roadways radio system would be sufficient for what the board of education needs. So there's a little bit of, you know, the the technical side of it, but that's certainly something that the superintendent, the town manager, and myself can can discuss. >> Okay. >> 130. >> Okay. >>
03261 of which are 10 years or older. >> And how about how many do you think this will replace the 175? >> 175 is for 20. >> 20. Okay. >> Wow. >> $875. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other questions? All right. So, hearing none, I think we're all set for now. Again, any questions, please let the superintendent know. Otherwise, uh, thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> And thank you for considering our request. We do appreciate that. >> I did that without the microphone. >> I'm jealous. Take care. Um the other item we have tonight is just the capital budget itself. And again as we uh just talked about uh section 12 page two contains the town manager recommended uh capital budget and the blowup prints that we have will show
033you what the department requested and what the town manager actually proposed. Um, I don't know if there's anything anything new or anything that's changed. I assume everything is is the same. There hasn't been any revisions or anything that you need to update us on. >> Uh, since the town manager proposed the budget, there's been no changes to the capital budget. >> Um, I don't know if we want to go through each of these. Do you guys just want to ask questions? I know with some of the department heads, we were able to go through some of this. >> Maybe we'll just throw it out to questions. Can we just go over the items that the chief requested for the police department again? >> Okay. >> What they totaled? >> Are you talking about the three
034um the three Yes. >> capital items that she or Yeah. Go ahead. >> 66,000 for the vehicle, right? >> And then forensic software. Is that also one of the one of the items? No, the the three items that we we're requesting to move to the operating budget were the dispatch and records system at 25, the police body cameras at 28, and the forensic software at 17 for a total of 70, but we have residual money sitting in those line items currently in CIP that we can probably get 20,000 out of. So the request would be to move 50,000 into the operating budget >> and then going forward in 28 and beyond it would be budgeted in the >> operating budget only not CIP. >> Okay. So the 66,000 is going >> just could you just
035repeat I I got the uh police dispatch and record system was one. >> Yep. >> The body cameras were two and what was the third one again? >> Forensic software forensics. >> Oh, not the body armor. Body cameras for >> body cameras, right? The armor. The armor is again like we talked, it's really equipment, >> you know. The um the dispatch is, >> you know, software. >> Yep. >> Um which again is a annual fee. Um which really is operational annual fee. Um the body cameras, it's not the physical cameras, it's the software and the technology behind it that is being purchased. Again, it's essentially software and obviously by definition and just the wording forensic software again it is software and on an annual basis no different than buying Microsoft 365 that we do on
036the town side which is in the operational budget too. So >> um the the body armor is physical. I mean that's equipment that's you know >> rightfully so sitting in CIP. And Rob just to summarize again they equal they total 70,000 we have 20,000 in the current CIP that can be applied so that for next year it would be 50,000 in the operation >> right we'd move we would recommend 50 moving to the operational budget to keep these softwares going. >> I'd spend you know if it comes out of 70 exactly we'd spend the 20 in CIP and then the 50 in the operating budget and going forward we'd budget whatever the cost would be going forward and 28 and beyond in the operating budget for those line items. So again, it would open up
037theoretically down the road CIP to, you know, take on something else. Perhaps the vehicle is at 70,000, you know, something like that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Any other uh comments or questions? I'm sorry. Uh Councilwoman Tommpkins, did you have any other uh items in there that you wanted to >> Not not right now. >> He did talk about the police vehicle number 16, >> right? number 16 we just spoke about and then well the other items um that he spoke about weren't aren't capital >> right yeah he had >> I think he had the what the promotion of a lieutenant and >> yeah and another >> additional >> patrol officer >> Mr. Sure. If if Andy doesn't mind, maybe he can give us a quick rundown on them. Um >> Okay. >>
038You have the entire capital. >> Yeah. Not, you know, not in great detail, but you know, >> and if you have any questions, that's one of them. >> Yeah. I'll I'll kind of run through the items that are in the town manager's proposed budget and then I'll give like a broad overview and and Rob, if you'd like to interject anything that I I miss, uh that'd be fine. And if we want to dive into more detail, just just let me know. We have our requests up here too, so we can try to pull up as much information as the council needs. >> Great. So, uh, the first item is under the finance department. It's the assessor revaluation. Um, this is something we budget annually at $50,000. We do a revaluation every 5 years. So, we
039try to budget annually so that when it's time for valuation year, as we're going through right now, it's not one big hit to the budget. Uh, we kind of prep uh prepare for it in a fund. Yeah, we lowered the request um by $10,000 due to the um contract cost that we just entered into for the upcoming revaluation. Um obviously technology is a little um better, I guess. So um you're not we're not physically having as many um people on the assessing uh assessing team doing the reval out here. So it's really just software. So the contract cost has actually gone down over the years and we think that 50,000 is um again 1/5if of what the contract will be 5 years from now. >> Okay. >> Under the technology department there are two items.
040The first is a storage upgrade. So uh this is our upgrade to the servers that the town hall and all municipal buildings use. Um this is kind of on a 5-year rotation where we do these uh types of upgrades. Um Mr. Ross, IT director, quoted that at $40,000. The second item is camera server, uh, at $11,500. Uh, this is also an upgrade to our camera server. Uh, we have installed some new cameras throughout town, I think most recently at the library again to kind of enhance, you know, security and um, from the exterior and on and on the interior of the buildings. So with the additional uh cameras um we have to upgrade the server size to accommodate the additional video footage. So this is for the town uh municipal side cameras on the police
041department. There's two line items there. I believe we went through these with the chief. Um one is for stationary license plate readers at $23,000 and defibrillators at 12,000 under the fire department. Um, this is another kind of reoccurring expense for firefighter replacement gear uh at $40,000. Um, I believe that there's a standard that firefighting gear needs to be replaced at I believe every 5 years. >> 10 years. >> Is it 10 years? Thank you. 10 years. Every 10 years. >> Date of manufacturer, not date of purchase. >> It is date of manufactured. Exactly. Yeah. Thank you. So, um, this is part of a gear replacement program. >> Under buildings and grounds department, uh, we have a series of items. The first is an HVAC mechanical study at $25,000. Um, as we've kind of had these
042long range planning meetings, joint meetings with the board of education and the town uh council, um, you know, we're trying to plan for these long-term expenses that capital expenses. And to do that, we have to study and to evaluate our current infrastructure so we can see, okay, what is most critical to replace? Um, what is the current lifespan? Can they be repaired or can they be replaced? Uh so to do that we wanted to uh invest some money in the capital budget for a study. This would be an HVAC mechanical study for all municipal buildings and it would give us a a good idea um as to which buildings need the most attention. Uh we did approve some money in um at the referendum last June. So there's a million dollar bond if you recall
043which part of that will be used to improve the HVAC systems at the library. uh senior center and firehouse. Uh depending on cost, we'll try to accomplish all those projects. Uh but there are other HVAC systems that we need to address. So this item would be to um do a study which would give us more data to make better financial decisions. >> The board of education does a great job in doing the studies and you know looking at their mechanicals. Um we uh the town, you know, the town owns all the buildings, whether it's a school or town hall, but the town has never really done studies to to look at the buildings and what is needed. Um kind of bandated them together over the years. Um you know, the five best buildings, if you
044will, in town are the board of education buildings because there's grant money's coming back. Yeah. >> And the town buildings, whether it's town hall or recreation, there's really no grant monies coming unless we get lucky and, you know, find a grant somewhere. um which is few and far between for Tom non board of education buildings if you will. Um so you know this building is what 50 some odd years old and >> pretty much everything here is original. So it's, you know, these kind of studies would help and then we could prioritize what needs to be done where >> the board of ed has a a good model I think that where they're planning for the future by doing studies and the town I think we'd like to try to follow that model. It's to
045allow us to again plan for capital projects rather than reacting to things as they break. >> Yeah. >> Uh the next item is the historic center fire alarm upgrade. The fire alarm system at the historic center is very antiquated. Um I think there's only like um horns and no actual like visual indicators. Uh Counciloman Moranti might be able to provide some more insight, but uh it is an antiquated system and uh we are being told by the fire marshall's office that it definitely needs to be updated. So we've included that here in the capital plan. Uh beneath that is the backflow replacements. Uh there's four backflow preventers that we'd like to uh replace. This is part of a an ongoing program. We funded it last year and we'd like to continue it this year at
046$17,000. Um we are just looking to replace backflows at at different buildings. A lot of them are are older and rather than having an issue we need to resolve, try to just do some preventative maintenance. The automated line striping machine at $60,000. So um this would be a really cool device uh for our buildings and grounds department. Right now we have um two staff members that spend quite a lot of time going out using these very old line striping equipment and we have to purchase paint for it and the equipment itself uses a lot of paint the way it's designed. So other towns uh including the town of Cheshure um who had been in conversation with us about the success of their automated line striping machine um had suggested that it's something that we should
047consider. Um, it reduces the amount of staff time required to paint lines. Um, in addition, because you're able to program using GPS where lines need to be striped. Um, you don't have to relay out a field or map irrigation heads every time you need to lay out an athletic field or, you know, parking lot lines. Uh, so you save a lot of manpower and times uh in and by doing that. Uh, so an automated line striping machine would be a really significant improvement. Um it would also save on uh paint that is being used by the machine. So we think overall it'd be a great um efficiency for the department and would allow the crew to you know do some other summer and uh there's plenty of work for us to do in the park.
048So other summer activities. >> So this does athletic fields and parking lots. >> Yeah. >> Oh. So it it could be designed to map out however. So as part of the onboarding of it, um the company assists with uh uploading, you know, maps of your field, soccer fields and so forth so that they could um they could stripe it for you. You can even map out irrigation heads. So when the hot air balloon festival is at the uh Norton Park, we have to map out irrigation heads to ensure vendors don't roll over them and and break the sprinkler heads. So we map them out. So you could just send the the robot out and it will be able to map them out. >> It spends it takes a lot of time for them to do
049this work. This is this would be a big efficiency. >> Uh the next item is the uh rotting equipment or a drain snake for $5,000. Um right now we have a old uh drain snake from water pollution control. I've seen them use it numerous times at the police department because we've had a series of sewer backups there. most recently this past week. It's it's old, it's dangerous, and it's kind of messy. Um, and it's really not the most effective tool. Uh, so Joe Alaso at WPC has have been assisting me trying to find the right equipment that our team could use. Um, unfortunately, because our equipment is older, uh, we've had to call out a contractor to help uh, clear some of the more serious sewer backups. Um, my goal is if we have people
050skilled in house who can do that type of work, I'd like to try to equip them to do it because contractors cost a lot of money. Um, like, you know, $5,000 uh for a uh drain snake would kind of be one call out for uh a contractor. So, we think that'd be a worthy investment. Uh tire balancer for $5,000. Uh we currently do not have a tire balancer at uh buildings and grounds. Um, buildings and grounds maintains the entire fleet for municipal vehicles, uh, excluding fire, uh, roadways, and PD. So, every other vehicle is maintained by the buildings and grounds department. So, anytime we replace tires or if there's a balance issue, we send it out to an auto shop, and we get charged about $115 or $150 uh, per set of tires. Uh, and
051that adds up over vehicles. So, we think it it'd be worthwhile for us to invest in a tire balancer. And the last is various building repairs and improvements at $10,000. Again, similar to some of these items, what we'd like to do is try to build up um a fund uh where we are able to use some money that are that's budgeted away in the event of emergency repairs or repairs that come up. Um whether it be most recently we're working through uh an issue here at the municipal center, the side door over by the train tracks. If you've noticed, the um accessible entrance doesn't work. If you press the button, the door doesn't open. Um that is an original unit. Uh maybe not to the building, but it was when that was upgraded to being
052an accessible entrance. That was the unit that was installed. Over time, the gears have been grinding down and uh they kind of look like ninja stars now. So, uh it needs to be replaced. we don't have money necessarily in the budget for a replacement like that um or for larger repairs that need to be ma need to be made. So this would allow us to budget it in capital and then each year if the funds aren't used it would roll over to the next year so we'd have some additional funding that we can tap into. Again, this we're just trying to prepare for preventative maintenance for for some of our municipal buildings. >> Moving on to the technical services department, roadway crack sealing. This is something we also do annually. I believe Mr. Bossy spoke
053on this item when he he came. >> Um, pavement markings, another annual type of service at $35,000. >> I have a question. >> Yes. >> Would the automated automated line striping machine be useful for that? >> Well, so um, likely not because these pavement markings are for public roadways and we use a type of epoxy. Gotcha. >> Not like a paint, a water-based paint. So, we would have to contract that out. >> Gotcha. >> But for parking lots, you know, we use a water-based paint. So it would be helpful there. >> Okay. >> But fair question. Uh roadway sign replacement and traffic calming. Again, another annual um service at $25,000. And then sidewalk repair and replacement. So we have some funding through grants um in addition to funding here in capital for us to continue
054our sidewalk improvement program. Uh that's at uh 174,393. >> The reason it's a nice round number is because that's the low grant. um that 174 393 plus the 12,000 for defibrillators is the 186 393 grant we get from LOIP. So those two individual line items would make up the entire LOIP grant. >> Gotcha. >> Thank you, >> Andy. >> Yep. >> Um that fund that we're hoping to build up the various buildings repair fund, would that not apply to the schools? I know that they're considered municipal buildings, but is there a way to keep it so that because we need the money here? >> It this would fall within the town's uh capital budget. So, it would be used for nonschool buildings. >> So, it would be used for Yeah. senior center, library, firehouse. I
055mean, >> here. Yeah. >> Okay. That's that's what I thought. But before when you had the you had to extend the uh definition out. I just wanted to make sure that this particular fund >> would not include the schools. That is correct. >> Okay. Good. >> That's why we have two separate funds, town CIP fund and board of ed CIP fund. So if this would be specifically in the town CIP fund and the board of ed if you know there were any CIP type funding it would be in the in the specifically board of ed CIP fund >> under human services for the senior center u the annual dialeride uh vehicle allocation as we continue to try to build up our fund for when it's time for us to purchase another bus for our dialer
056program that's at $16,000. Uh their second request is for uh various room flooring replacements. They're in the process of replacing some carpeting and tile floors. Uh I believe they this is actually the second year we're funding this. So they've already been funded for the first half. This is the second half of of their program at $19,400. And uh the last item under the town manager's uh proposed capital improvement plan is for the youth services recreation department. It's for a new uh 12 passenger van. It comes in at $53,100. Uh that actually includes a trade-in cost for the current van, which I believe is uh 2001 2002 uh Ford E350. Um I believe members of the council and the board of education may be familiar. Um when firefighter Ray Maro had passed away, we had shuttled
057some members of the council from town hall to uh the funeral home in in the in the van. Um, so there there's some issues with with doors that thankfully we were able to repair, but the air conditioning is not really repairable and there were some seat belt issues that have been repaired. But it it is an older van. Um, and so the and the youth services and recreation department do use it regularly for for programs both during the school year and then also um during the summer for recreation programs. So this is a request for a new van. >> Very much needed new van. >> Y >> and that that wraps up. So, the total uh cost for the town side of the capital improvements is $525,000. And I'd be happy to go into more
058detail on any of these items um if you'd like. >> All right. Thank you. Um any other questions, any comments, any followup? >> No, I'm good. >> All right. Um hearing nothing. Is there any other questions? because that actually completes what was on the agenda for tonight. Um, if we don't have any other comments or questions, what we can do at this point, we can actually adjourn. Uh, we do have a regularly scheduled council meeting Monday night at 7:00 and our next work session on the budget is Tuesday night, 6:30 p.m. right here in the council chambers. Um, unless there's someone who wants to say something, a motion to adjourn is order is in order. Move. >> Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? We're adjourned. We'll see
059you at the next regular council meeting on Monday.