Board of Finance - Budget Workshop 01/10/2026

001This is NHTV2 North Haven Government Television, a service of North Haven Community Television. The following program is brought to you through the support of the town of North Haven. All right. Good morning everyone. It is Saturday, January 10th, and this is a workshop meeting of the North Haven Board of Finance. Uh this is the first of our uh series of budget meetings that take place uh every early winter and into the spring. Uh this morning, we're going to hear from uh library, community service, and recreation. And then uh lastly, the fire department will join us a little bit later. Um members have received their budgets. We got them uh over the past week. Unless there's any preliminary comments or questions, I would just ask Sue to commence, but let me just ask that first. >>

002Go ahead. >> Thanks. So, go ahead. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, [clears throat] good morning everybody. Uh, welcome to this budget season. Uh, before we get started, I just want to um thank some of the library board members that, um, have come in support. We have Ruth Bryant. Uh, Michael Fletcher is our board chair, Maryannne Hardy, and sorry, I was going down the road, but uh, yes, friends. Friends, thank you. >> Um, >> thank you all for your service. Appreciate it. >> Um, okay. The first thing I want to say before I get started is just that I do recognize that this is going to be a tough budget year after our um, increase last year. So, when I prepped this budget, um I did as much as I could to um keep our requests

003low this year. Um but to begin, I would like to just start and show um I want to highlight the library improvements and and just remind everybody [snorts] that all of these improvements [clears throat] were um are being made with 50% uh grant from um the state library of uh Connecticut. So, um let me just start off. [snorts] Okay. Okay. So, I the first was the desk. This is our children's department. Um and we put new flooring throughout which was um very very much needed. It has um brightened the space quite a bit. Um we're getting tons of compliments. Uh we also put hard surface flooring around the desk um both in the children's and you'll see in the adult department. And we've done that because um that's where the most traffic is. So, we'll

004get um longer use out of our um carpet. So, that's the children's. And we also painted all the bricks um and staff did that at no cost other than the paint um around not the bricks, the books that go along the desk and they um they're our library logo colors. >> Okay. So, in the rotary section, this is our old teen department area and this is where we [clears throat] moved our newspapers and magazines. And um this is twofold. One is it's quieter area and that was being asked for by a lot of the uh folks who read the newspapers. So we made it a nice cozy area where people can concentrate and when the teens were here they um they outgrew the space. So it was a nice um switch of space and it

005looks really refreshed and new with the new flooring but this is [clears throat] all existing furniture. Um here we've moved uh we have our new cafe and our new computer area. So, um, this is being, you know, used as soon as we put it in. As soon as we opened the space, people started using our cafe. Um, on the right, you'll see like there's a little kitchen type area where we have um, you know, little uh, snacks for sale and we have a TV up that shows all of our upcoming program. And, um, we also have on that screen um, community service and other town departments um, important information. So that's there for for everybody. Our computers are there. We now have 12. They're directly across from our new service desk, which is so much

006more helpful because people were somewhat hidden before and if they needed help, they couldn't see staff. [clears throat] Um this is just the desk like looking down on it. We have our new books. Those have been moved. Um so up against the stairs we have our non-fiction. On the wall we have our fiction. And then we have two displays. Uh upstairs on the second floor, the top floor are new quiet study rooms and meeting rooms. And um they're being used throughout the day. And these are great because they um they're technically not permanent, but they're permanent. So uh they were able to um go in and utilize empty wall space. So this is fantastic. [clears throat] >> So quick question on the the renovation of the the second floor. So, not the the first floor,

007but the second floor with this these new quiet spaces. I also noticed in your capital improvement plan that you want to replace the carpeting [clears throat] up there on the second floor in what is it 2728. So, why wasn't it replaced before all of this work was done? >> Uh, a $500,000 grant >> and um it was just out of budget. >> I see >> it. And it also has the least amount of wear. So, um, by the time you've walked up all the way up the stairs, it's just doesn't have quite the abuse that the first floor in the children's department in this room had. >> So, it was like, well, we can table that for now and we'll put it in for the future. >> Okay. Yeah, it was more just the the

008order of things. That's in terms of >> Yes, it's and money. >> Got it. Okay. Thank you for the explanation. >> Sure. Um, this is our new team department which is um much a much bigger space. You can see that we now have shelving going across the entire back wall. We have a um a new gaming area uh with seating and [snorts] kids watch each other play games. So, little stools underneath. Um it's you know again already being used. Um looks great. Everybody's really happy about it and now our teens are kind of in the back but we can still see them. So even if they get a little loud, they're not going to affect um the general library use. Is that the top left picture, Sue? >> Uh, the gaming is in the top

009left. This is This whole area is the new teen department. Um, we added four um computers. Um, actually two of them last year were Macs that were in our capital. Um, and so two four computers for the teens, two PCs and two Macs. >> Yeah. My experience with teenagers, they tend to yell even when they have headphones on at the screen. Yeah. >> So, [clears throat] >> well, that's why we put them in the back corner with no other um you know, if they get a little out of we can, but we can also see them from the desk, which is kind of nice. Before they were hidden. >> So, okay. So, I will begin with some um background information. Um so, our library app, I know you guys are probably sick of hearing it,

010but I have to tell you, we're up to almost 2,000 users. Um 539 were added last year and I had to cover um in the children's department last week because um with the Ridge Road Water main break, one of our staff had to run out. So I was downstairs and one of the um patrons came through and she was like, you know, and she held up her phone and she said, "I love this app. This is my favorite app, my most used app on my phone." She was the salesperson back to me. She told me all the reasons. It's great. So it's it's nice to hear from the public that they actually really use and appreciate it. [clears throat] Um, our library cards are up this year and last year we had a big push

011with the schools. So, we had a lot of kids register who had never been um never used the library. So, we've increased even on top of that this year. So, we're at 8,177 um cards. 34% of um our residents have library cards and that's actually pretty consistent. But one thing to keep in mind is there's a lot of parents who have, you know, two or three kids um that count in our population and but it's one library card. So we kind of have more use than that. But um okay, our database stats um we fund through the library 21 databases. The state um provides four databases for us and our usage is up um to 42 thou over 42,000 this past year which is a 67% increase. So um and the reference in technology transactions

012I wanted to highlight it's almost at 15,000. So when people say oh you know you have the internet who uses the li who uses the library well those are 15 almost 15,000 questions asked of our staff where they needed help. And that's not um directional stuff like where's the bathroom or you know you know how do I get to the study rooms. Those are all questions that you know needed staff intervention. [clears throat] Oh, and our um library visits were up last year. Um we are um beyond precoid numbers. [clears throat] So, um it's great to like have hit the the COVID milestone again and then gone up. Any questions on any of um Okay. So, this is our circulation, our books and material. So, I'm going to start with the left hand side with

013our um circulation. Regular circ is up. Hoopla's flat. And if you remember, you probably um every year I tell you how much Hoopla gets used. We have a daily budget cap on it now. And it's pretty much by 9:00 a.m. people cannot take out Hoopla um checkouts because we've hit our budget. So, it's going to remain flat, but we we've designed it that way because I could probably throw I don't know $30,000 more at Hoopla and it will get used. So, we have to [clears throat] cap it. Um, that I believe has helped to drive up our overdrive numbers. So, if people can't get an ebook or audio book through Hoopla, they'll go to Overdrive. Um, there's a lot of weights on Overdrive, but um it it's still our our our usage is up 12%.

014And what's the difference, Sue? >> Um, Hoopla is a pay-per use for us >> and uh so if you go to get an audio book, you can get it right away and it may charge us $2.99 and you get it >> and it's a three uh week uh loan. Overdrive we get through our um consortium Lion and that has some um bigger selection in in some of our most popular books, but you also have to wait and it's like a regular book. If it's checked out and somebody's using it, you have to wait your turn. So, there's a bigger selection in Overdrive, but if you want something instantly, you're not going to get a bestseller instantly. You might be waiting um you know, two, three months for it. And uh is it a flat charge

015to the library? Is it a pay-per-use like other? >> Uh overdrive is a flat charge through our Lion fees, but we also do something called Overdrive Advantage, which we do we look at our highest holds and we do throw some money at um that so we can get it goes to North Haven residents first. So if it was, you know, the the latest book that everybody wants, we will buy an extra copy or two, >> right? But it's also [clears throat] um like say 30 uses and or 50 uses and then you have to reby the book, >> right? >> So um and then physical items that includes everything we have physical. So physical audio books on CD um our library of things which we've expanded. So if you need gardening tools that you're only

016going to use once in a while, we have those. So, we have a lot more items um may not want to purchase, but we have some really interesting fun things up there in the library of things. So, that's all physical items borrowed. So, that um circulation is up. [clears throat] Um what I've highlighted on the right in the yellow box. Um [snorts] okay. So, if you were to get a book, the cover a hard coverver um bestseller book, it's about $25. The library does get a discount. So, I use $18 in this um formula for adult and teen books, and I use $9 for children's books because they can range from three to also $20. So, $9 felt like a good number to use. So, if every book that we circulated was purchased, the cost

017to North Haven residents would be um pushing two um $2 million. So it's uh would be um you know eight 1,854,756. Audiobooks cost a little bit more, but I also use $18 in my figure here. So if you added everything that people took out from Hoopla, Overdrive, and print books, the cost is over $3 million that we're actually saving residents. So people ask about using the library and what the value is. It's over $3 million to a residence and that's just the materials, not the space. Um, anybody have any questions about any of those stats? >> So, each of these things actually falls under a different category within your budget though, right? So, Hoopla and uh Overdrive. Overdrive would be under Lion in terms of the expense. But what would Hoopla be under? Is that

018all >> books magazines reference? >> Yes. >> Okay. [clears throat] Yep. Sue, what are some of examples of the physical items that can happen? >> So, any of our media? So, our um CDs, um our DVDs, excuse me, um Blu-rays, um all of our library of things. So, uh we have a bunch of puzzles. We have um tools like some different kind of tools and um all all physical items includes um print books too. Okay. All right. I'm gonna move on. Okay. So, um, usually I tell you about our programming. This year, instead of that, I'm going to just, um, focus on summer and winter reading programs. And, um, as a little background, when our teen librarian started, she was requested by the high school to, um, run their summer reading program, which she did,

019and it was a great success. Um, in 2024, we reached out to the um, reading coordinator for the school system and asked to see if we could collaborate on winter reading. Um, that was also a great success. So, we decided to partner for summer reading as well. And because winter reading worked out so well um and the high school um collaboration worked out really well, the reading coordinator asked us if we can also um take on the middle school uh winter uh summer reading. So this past year we did summer reading for the entire school system. So that was became our responsibility [clears throat] working with them. Um and with that um they promoted our our summer reading. So, it was a a wonderful partnership and um our numbers grew. So, we had a 52%

020increase um in one [clears throat] year of um participants in all of our our summer reading programs. So, um it it's it's been um it's it's just a really nice collaboration and just working with the schools. Um it's just good because you know that it's helping all the students. So, how exactly does the summer reading program for middle school and high school play into their curriculum? Because I'm seeing that the high school number is obviously much smaller than the middle school number. So, I'm just wondering how is it plugged in there. >> I know it's you'd hope it'd be higher. >> You would hope. So, um, we actually, one of, um, the databases that I showed, we do have an app called, um, Beanstack, and they can log all of their, um, reading and their

021hours, like how many books they've read, how many minutes they've read, and, um, with the schools, we gave them access, so we purchased it, but they have access to all the statistics, and they can, um, they were doing [clears throat] like, um, I want to say like an ice cream party or different things with that. Um, but it's still hard to get high school students to actually do their summer reading, right? And they may have actually done it and not logged it on the app. But this is the thing. But >> with the younger kids, it's much more important the number of minutes per day and that type of thing. Obviously, as they get older, you really just want them reading. >> I think it's as simple as either one or two books. >> They're

022real basic because they used to have certain books they had to read. Um but I mean we did a lot of um promotional within the app of like what do you like and you know trying to get them um interested. >> Sure. >> But you know Yeah. It's low on high school. >> Yeah. It's for those who who you know don't have this data in front of them. The middle school is 170 and the high school is only 37. But as you say it could be that they're reading and just not reporting it. That's the hope anyway. >> So yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Anybody have any other questions about the summer winter rating programs? Okay. Okay. So, this is the budget. You all have it. You have it um in the

023um packets as well as what was provided by finance, but I'm just going to just jump past it. I left it in here for convenience. >> So, Sue, if I can interrupt, you don't have to go through every line. Let's just go through. >> Oh, no. I have two things. >> Okay. Go ahead. [laughter] All right. >> Um >> Oops. I'm just going to go back here. Um, so this is probably the most important slide of this entire um, presentation. My entire budget is only a 3.52% [clears throat] increase. Um, I again I tried to prep the budget knowing that this was going to be a tight budget year. So two of my budget lines I've decreased, four have a 0% increase and seven are under 4%. So the only two things I would like

024to um bring to your attention are the personnel lines and the programming. Um I will start with personnel. Um we have their typical contractual obligations. Um as you know and you'll hear from other budgets as well, the minimum um wage has um it's a mandated increase by the state. So that is we have one position that that affects. [clears throat and cough] Um, I do want to give the clerks and the part-time librarian a $1 an hour raise. Um, they're not under a union contract, so it's just a nice standard of living raise. Um, and we did convert one of the page last year, we had two page positions. We did convert one of the page positions to a clerk position, and that's because we were struggling with our Saturday coverage, and our pages didn't

025work Saturdays, and it can um, they do a little bit more work, so it just helps out the staff all around. So, under personnel, basically it's for um raises and one position that was changed from a minimum wage to um $20 an hour. >> Does anybody have any questions about the personnel lines lines? >> Um um I think >> you said sorry. You said page position. I'm sorry. And the minimum wage. What is that? So we we had two people who were making minimum wage and of the clerks we have 13 I'm sorry 11 clerks we now have 12 clerks and one page. So it all falls in the part-time. It's just how the breakdown works. One they're just one of the positions. >> So this is one person you're saying? >> Yes. >> Okay.

026>> Is page just the the name of the uh position? >> Page is basically just putaway books. >> Okay. Uh clerks work on the desk. They can put books away as well, but they do a lot of other tasks, but they also are here um um for Saturday coverage. >> Okay. So, most of this is the clerks then, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. Because it's a dollar an hour raise across the board for all. [clears throat] >> Yeah. I I I actually looked back at some of the historical data specifically for the personnel part-time and it looks like the increase in 2425 was 6%. This last year was 12% and now uh again for the same number of people 15 people in 26 27 is is another 6%. So, I remember uh when

027we had that big jump of 12% that there really was a big jump in the uh minimum wage, but the the 6% you think is more due to the [clears throat] $1 an hour >> correct raise as opposed to just the minimum wage. [clears throat] >> Um and actually the 12% was because one of our positions is a part-time librarian who makes um much more money than a clerk position. And so we had converted that because that also helps us. I have one um another person available for Saturdays who can close [clears throat] the building and be responsible. >> But we didn't have to add another full-timer. So it was kind of a win-win. [snorts] >> I want to go on to the programming side soon. >> Yep. Okay. So um this is a big

028ask and this is a huge increase in this budget [clears throat] line and um the reason is uh for it is our friends of the library have historically funded our um reading programs and programming. Um this year they have um decided to cut the funding commitment by $4,000. We usually get close or the last two years about closer to $22,000. Um we did get a little more last year because they did fund our kiosk, but our our typical asks. Um it's about 22,000 and this year they're I want to say um 178 is what they've committed to us. So that's a that's a tough loss for us. It's $4,000. Um so I will just tell you um okay we have also made cuts um from the library and we um I cut we cut some

029programming. We cut one of our summer reading picnic and performances that we're going to have. We've cut several museum passes to accommodate this cut. And uh we've taken over the payments of book page and tumble books. book page is like a a nice reader advisor advisory um magazine that people love and tumble books is one of the online resources that um the children's department uses. So we've already absorbed those costs but we're we just don't have enough money. So, we're requesting $4,000. 500 of it is is for typical programming increases and 3500 is to help us continue with our um summer and winter reading programs. >> Sue, how um where is it here? Um how did you reduce telephone? Um we have some hotspots and um we had 15 hotspots that were circulating and we

030have reduced the number. Some of them have broken or gone out of service. So rather than purchase new hotspots, we're just uh reducing the lines. >> Okay. >> So did the friends give you a reason why they cut that much or is there any way we can get them to at least bring a little bit more of that back? >> I have asked. um they have cut that because they want to have $20,000 in the bank so that they can grow so they can fund us for future programming. >> I will say I did say um if we need this money now, you're you're kind of reducing our requests so that you can fund us more in the future that we haven't asked for yet. But they want to have $20,000 in the bank [clears

031throat] so that they can try to grow it. >> Are they doing any fundraisers? they are um looking to see what additional fundraising they can do. Um but we manage their books like they do all of um in the lobby the bookstore that's there they put the books out and they they maintain it but the staff um takes all the payments for that. So we don't they don't have to have somebody staff for that. [clears throat] >> So and they bring in roughly I would say close to $1,000 a month. I would say between $800 and $1,000 a month through the bookstore. Um, and then they have a membership drive. Okay. >> So, I think they're trying to increase their membership drive. I think they're looking at additional fundraisers, but at this point, they're not

032they don't want to commit to um additional funding. >> All right. Why don't we go on to the capital, please, sir? >> Sure. >> Okay. So, are there's three items in the capital request. The building management software, painting the children's department, and our digital um lawn. Building management software is um computer programming that um our boiler and chiller um boilers and chiller are connected to so we can control the temperature but it's um 25 years old and when we had to make our uh last repair they were using parts they don't make the system anymore so they were using parts from um a system that um somebody had removed so um older used parts which they function But once those parts run away, run out, we're not going to be able to make repairs as

033needed. So, um, we're running into that. Um, there's two different quotes that were provided through the finance department. One through, um, SNE, which is our current, um, BMS company, and one through FNF, which is a little bit less. Um, FNF is, um, our HVAC company. And the new software would um it has one additional component that SNE does not have in it just so they can tie everything in but there's still lesson so everything is soup to nuts is updated with um with um FNF. >> So Rich you know about this obviously. Okay. >> The 37 is a capital item I'd like to see stay in this budget if possible. >> Yeah. Okay. >> All right. Let's go on to the paint and then the sign. >> No. So painting I think is kind of

034obvious. We did it um probably I want to say seven years ago we did the painting. Uh maybe six years ago. Um actually it was pre-COVID. So [clears throat] the children's department gets beat up. So they're the first on the list to get repainted. Um and then the digital line um lawn. >> I can share that picture. >> What? >> I can share that picture >> of what? >> Children's department. >> Oh being beat up. >> No you painting in there. Oh, I painted the I was one of the people who was painting the books on the but I don't want to paint the whole department. Rich, I do a lot, but I'm not gonna paint the whole department. [laughter] >> Um although we did spackle some holes and painted over those downstairs. Um yes,

035so the digital lawn sign in your packet at the end. I I received the quote from Fast Signs last night. So, I did include it at the back if you want to see the quote. It was not sent through from the finance department because it just wasn't ready yet. So, I apologize for the timing, but it is there for the quote. And that came a tiny bit over 40,000. It came in at 40,852. And so, during our strategic plan um meetings um [clears throat] a lot of um our community said they just are not aware of our programmings. and we do quite a bit of advertisement, but a lot of people actually were requesting a sign for the front lawn that would be able to show different programs um coming up. So, um >> that's

036what that is. >> Um so, I just want to let you know that and Rich and I will have to handle this because I believe in our zoning regulations, our planning and zoning regs, there's a pro prohibition on digital lawn signs. >> Really? >> So, we'd have to but I'm going to have to check this out. We may have to do an 8-24 internally to see if we can supersede that, but that's I think that's going to be an issue. So, but we'll let you know on this. Okay. >> Okay. And I did I when I met with um Kevin from Fast Signs, we did um discuss like size and the whole bit within zoning. I didn't know there was a digital um block on that. >> We're going to I'm going to confirm that,

037but I believe that's part of the uh zoning rags for decades here in town. So, but we'll let you know on this. Okay. >> Okay. Right. >> So, does anybody have any questions about anything that was presented? >> This would go on the Elm Street side. Which side? Where would this go? >> Elm Street. Okay. >> So, I just want to say I appreciate the fact that you recognize this is a very very tough budget year for us and the fact that you really kept your numbers low. >> Thank you. Yeah. I mean, I I get it. And if you know we we've done a lot of improvements and you know um we've we've been very fortunate and we've done a lot within our means [laughter] so we were trying to keep as steady you

038know as steady as we could. >> Any other questions for Sue from the members? >> Thanks. >> Okay. Thank you everybody. >> Nice pres. >> Very nice. >> If you want I'll go right in. >> Uh I'm sure we can um keep moving. Just uh let's get to the page. What page? >> Um 34. We'll start with senior science. >> In your pack, you have you do have a little recap of each department and >> if the audience could just hold it down a little bit, please. if you um at your leisure read read the scenario but the long and short of it is the senior centers probably increased about 42% in membership is doing saying fantastic would be an understatement to the job she's been doing there is very active it's very alive it's

039very packed um and if you look at their budget request the only significant increase [snorts] and it's only $5,000 really is increasing personnel part-time, a little bit more in overtime, and um she's looking for another 1,500 in event programming. Building maintenance again was a $5,000 increase. Um unlike, you know, we're renovating doing renovation work in town hall. Police building was renovated. Fire buildings were renovated. Library is just in [clears throat] the process of being renovated. Once we get that little bit of software that Sue had mentioned, library should be in a pretty stable position. But senior center and wreck, a lot of maintenance has been done in those buildings over the years and is catching up with us. So that's what the increase there in maintenance. If you don't have any questions on senior, I'll

040go to wreck. >> Two questions. Rich, I apologize. So did you say why the part-time was going up 9%? I missed that. >> Um basically the biggest part of it is is increase in membership has gone up 42%. >> So I have a combination of of bringing a part-time person in more to supplement the staff and also we need to transition a few uh positions. >> Transition who has stepped up tremendously. He's never left there for us. She wants to pull back a little bit. So, um I >> mean I know it's only four grand, five grand. >> Um and then just a general question on all these uh departments, do they include >> the um upcoming contractual wage increases? >> Yes. The only one that is if you've across the budget, the only the

041only union contract coming up to do is public works. >> Okay. >> Which is due in ends in June. >> Okay. >> I'll start negotiations as soon as they have their executive board in order sometime late January. I would expect to have it completed by July. >> So, let me get the public works. There's no increase for them or you may >> I did put it in because that's what I'm assuming where I'm going to >> Okay. >> I know where my line is. So, >> yeah. >> All right. >> Uh 35 is where >> Sorry. Other members, any any questions on the senior center before Rich moves on? >> All right. >> U Are there any I'm sorry. Are there any plans to actually uh take proactive steps uh for for uh building at

042the the senior center? I know that this is something that has come up. >> Not really building. There's outside maintenance that needs to be done and there's maintenance on their heating and AC system >> that needs to be handled. But but given the the increase in membership, uh it seems like I've certainly been hearing from a lot of seniors that they kind of max out on a lot of their events and and people that want to participate can't because of this increase in in interest. So >> residents do get a priority over people from outside. >> But yes, there are events that will max out, >> right? >> Space limitations. >> There's space limitations. It's a big building, but >> No, no, absolutely. I'm >> There is really no place else in town to hold

043it, >> right? So I guess that's that's the question is are there any plans to perhaps you know expand that bigger room by you know eliminating one of the smaller rooms or any other >> the smaller rooms have their own functions. We actually just recently one of the uh we'll call it reading rooms which was underutilized and not utilized. We revamped and it became another uh program room which was when you first walk in where the couch was in the on that left when you first come in from that door. We changed that room around. You know, we reduced the size of the computer room. There's been modifications we've already made inside to accommodate the change in programming, >> right? >> But the building is a building. you can't expand the building. There's no place

044to expand it. Um, so we utilize what we have, >> right? So I I guess that again I I I've been to some of these events and certain >> Oh, you'll get the holiday parties. >> Bingo events every week. Not even just the big holiday parties, but bingo every week is >> Yeah. The place is jumping, >> right? >> 42% increase. >> Let me just jump in here, Rich. So what we have done and I go to these events when we outsource some of the larger events. We went to traditions in Wall-E, right? So I was there with all the seniors there around Christmas time. So we're trying to do it that way. Maybe within the next 5 years there will be a capital expansion plan, but not right now. The key is as Rich

045said to do the deferred maintenance on the senior center building. And our other priority is to get Parkside up and running. Yes. with a grant to do the same thing at Parkside that we did at 555 Temple Pines when we renovated that whole facility there. Those are our priorities right now. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Next, Rich. >> Um [snorts] Wreck, [clears throat] again, um you have you have an increase in over the only significant changes in in their lines. you have an increase in overtime more in line with what it's been costing us. Um, wreck maintenance for the same reason. There's a $20,000 increase in in their maintenance line. Um, as an example, we just had the boiler go down, which you'll probably you'll probably catch those in your February meeting, the cost

046getting pulled together for what that costs. The buildings are old steam systems. Some of the rooms are outdated for ADA requirements. We're going to try and see little by little if we can chip away over that for the next few years. And the custodial, which is what we talked about last time, we eliminated a position and we're outsourcing it. >> And the 62 is based on what, Rich? The >> contract? That's Yeah, it's it's a contract with Platinum. But we had a full-time position. Just their medical benefits alone were 40,000. And the last one is on page 33 community service which basically other than contract personnel line are professional consultants um went up 19% which is BHP care. There's kind of two things that make that up. One of them is a fixed contract price

047>> 33. Sorry, please. >> Um, one of them is a fixed contract price with BH care. The other part of it is we have an APRN who does prescriptions for us that is based [clears throat] on demand. So we take an educated guess where we think it is. It could be a little bit more, could be a little bit less. But the lion share of that though is BH care direct cost. If we look at their capital request. >> So again, Rich, that's uh the BH care is a contract. >> Yeah, BH care is a contract. >> They oversee the clinicians, >> right? >> If I could, for those that don't know, the the importance of that is the fact it gives a state certification that it's a statecertified overseeing of our own counselors. And

048by doing it that way, which we did years ago, we saved 25 to $30,000. we'd have to apply for the license and then hire somebody to do it. So that is a an outsourcing that saved us money down through the years and that's why that's there. [clears throat] Okay. their capital items. Basically, there was painting and power washer for 20,000, pool locker room HVAC, uh, which needs to revamp for 55,000. That was in last year's budget, too. That was cut. Some painting for the senior center and pool maintenance, which we have every year, which we expend every year. They'll grin it down and clean the pool, regrout what needs to be regrouted, reroute some parts of the deck. >> Which buildings are painting and power washing on, Rich? um a combination of two between wreck

049and senior center. Again, being a tight budget year, if that's one of the items that ends up being cut, we'll we'll try and see if there's a way if we have a a mild winter and maybe we can do something with public works. Okay. So going going back to the uh community services professional consultants uh just looking at the actual expenditures not necessarily just the budgeted amounts but it looks like we've gone from uh in 2223 we went from actual of about 132,000 to then it went down in 2324 to about 125,000 and then actual for 2425 as we can all see it jumped up by over $70,000 here it looks like uh 291. So >> you're looking at this the strictly the BH care line? >> No, no, no. Professional consultants. Yeah, I guess.

050So that's that's all that so uh so it looks like a pretty substantial jump in in just one year. >> BH's contract has increased every year >> and it is a written contract. The other item that I mentioned which fluctuate basically when we bring outside people from BH care in which is outside their contract for prescriptions, >> right? We don't have doctors on staff, >> right? >> We need a licensed person for prescription. So, it's based on demand at that point. >> So, the BH care is entirely fixed. >> Excuse me. >> The BH care contract is fixed. >> The BH care contract is a fixed contract, but we could contract with them for outside services when we need prescriptions done, when we need an APRN to come in >> to deal with certain clients

051that have medical needs as well. >> Yeah. particularly on the psychiatrist psychiatry side. We have to have an APRN to administer medications. So these are the services that we have that most a lot of towns don't have. >> And and if you look at you know if you look at the revenue for the same thing for community service >> Uhhuh. >> it's way above it's [snorts] probably at 60 some odd percent and we're only halfway 67% say we're only halfway through the year. So that additional costs both in that budget and these other budgets are offset by the fact that we are generating more revenue through insurance companies. >> Actually through end of November >> I got through >> I'll tell you where it is. I'll tell you where it is through the end of

052December. >> Sure. >> Through December they are at 134,000 67.1% of budget. So 6 months through the year they're at 67% of budget. So >> these are billings uh that we do for VH services received. >> Yeah. Received, right? >> They're still building in the pipeline, >> right? I see. >> Or we can bill for some of the services here. >> Yeah. Yeah. That we do bill for those services if they have the coverage. >> Yeah. >> Um at the same point, >> right? >> You know, just just like this fire we do with fire with paramedics if >> there's coverage not there, the town absorbs the rate. >> So So given this enormous fluctuation, how exactly is >> Well, it's not enormous, but it's it's an educated guess we make. The biggest part of

053that is, you know, I don't know, 170,000, 180,000, whatever their contract is. That's the biggest part of it. The other number is just educated guests just like we do with maintenance in buildings, just like we do with all those little nuances that can't be qualified. You use a little bit of instinct, a little bit of track history, um, knowing where you are in the world. >> Right. Well, I I guess what I'm saying is in 2425 we budgeted 145,000 and we [snorts] spent 192. >> So So I guess I'm trying to get a sense for and that wasn't the case in the two previous years. So I'm trying to get a sense for how do we >> whatever medical happened that year. >> It could have been you know there was a year we were

054getting more but then again look at those same years and see if your revenue got driven up. >> Revenue ended up being a lot more in those years. >> Yeah. That's what we're trying to explain. >> It does balance. They're >> they're we may increase our expenses even in this current budget, but that's more than offset by the increase in revenue we get compared to what we also budgeted, >> which is 17% higher than it was in terms of straightlining it. So, so anytime you see an increase of expenses, there's an increase in revenue. This is this is utilization driven by patients who need help. So, it's not entirely an incremental cost. It's an incremental cost that's offset by incremental revenue. >> Yeah, >> exactly. >> All right. Any other questions for Rich? >> All

055right. Why don't we break? I don't see the chief here yet. So, why don't we break until we see the chief, which I'm guessing, did you tell him 9:30? What time you tell him, Rich? >> I think the mask for 9:30. So, >> okay. So, let's break until the chief uh and we can do the fire department. Okay. >> All right. Thank you, Chief. Um, please go right ahead when you're ready. >> Appreciate it. Thank you members of the board uh for this opportunity to present the fire department budget. Uh I do plan on this being um at least on my end a brief um presentation as compared to prior years. I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. Uh several members of the fire commission are here with me and I want

056to introduce to you uh Deputy Chief Jeff Naples who's new to us within the last year as well. So uh if it's nothing I can't answer, I may ask him to help me out a little bit here. I think two is better than one. And there's a couple of parts here where I'll ask him to cover uh things that are perview to to his responsibilities. So what we typically do is is open every workshop with what's changed in the last year or what's new really. And so in this particular case, I want to cover a few things that the department is uh is working on. Uh [clears throat] one is high- five Fridays. So we're visiting the schools on Fridays, seeing the children. two different approaches to that. One is get children to uh to

057know that firefighters are are not only, you know, look mean, but they're friendly. Um, and that we uh we are humans and we are persons that that have, you know, kids and have kids in the school system. And also on the high school side, it's recruitment for volunteers and for career. Uh we work closely with the police department in our CERT team. I've talked about C quite a bit in the past. you see their bus out all the time. Uh different community events. We have a presence [clears throat] at the concert series. Uh we're working pretty heavily right now. If you haven't seen Channel A or if you haven't looked at our Facebook page, I encourage you to do so at the Northeast Training Center. Um we've put together several demonstration fires. We've looked at

058kitchen fires. We [clears throat] looked at Christmas tree fires. We've looked at electrical safety. Uh turkey fryers, a whole number of things. and we actually are doing live fires demonstrations at that facility. So definitely check it out. That's been important to us. Not too long ago, within the last month, we partnered with the Red Cross and installed uh several dozen smoke detectors throughout the community. I don't have those exact numbers, but it was, you know, you think that when we put the messaging all the time about smoke detectors in homes that people would have smoke detectors in their homes, and we found quite the opposite. Uh it's different when you're knocking on your door saying, "Can we come in?" Um and then people realized the smoke detector they thought was good uh in fact is

059not and so that was a successful campaign. Then we were partnered with the library. Um happy to follow them. They do tremendous work and and uh the director here Sue Griffith and us continue to work on a lot of public safety campaigns. I've talked a lot about the search team in the past and and they do phenomenal work and there are several dozen volunteers that do great work. But this year, I thought I'd shift focus a little bit and cover some of the fire marshall's office. I don't think it's something that we talk about enough. So, I want to bring some attention to what the fire marshall's office really is doing here in town. So, you can see this is a 2025 spread of of our activity. So, you can see just about 650 inspections

060were conducted in 2025. Just over 400 plan reviews. Now, you think that plan reviews are just for new buildings, right? But they're not. or anytime that a new tenant comes into a space, there has to be a plan view associated with that to make sure the tenants going to use the space appropriately. So, there's a lot of planer views that take place with the businesses that are coming and going through town. And then the permit side, those are commercial permits only. So, the fire department does not get involved in residential permits. We get involved in commercial permits only. The one caveat to that being on solar. We do have a say on solar permits for obvious reasons if the house were to be involved in fire. When you look at how many inspections an inspector

061should be able to do a year, the the going average is 300 to 400 inspections a year. And so you can see that that we're right there um in terms of how many inspections that we're doing. We have one and a half employees that are dedicated to the inspections. And so we're pretty much right there in terms of where we need to be. Um in fact, at times we're a little bit short. And here's why we're short is those same inspectors are tasked with investigating fires. And so not every fire needs to be investigated, but certainly the ones that have a significant dollar loss because the insurance company, the injust comes looking for a report and a cause and origin as to what happened with that fire and what our findings were. And those same

062individuals are tasked with going in and spending hours, sometimes days, investigating those fires uh all times of day and night working with the insurance companies. And so that's about 20 of those a year that we have to really spend several hours investigating. Some of these, not so much. I didn't include those, but there's about 20 a year that we have to spend several hours providing a pretty comprehensive report. >> And chief, that's the half because I thought we had two fire marshals. >> So we have one and a half. So one's full-time, one's part-time. >> Okay. Yeah. And so when we look at our surrounding towns, um something that's a little bit different here is we use CIRC, right? So it's the uh it's the website where all the Connecticut towns list their data and

063their geographics. And so when you look at this, we're able to find the number of businesses in towns. So North Haven sits at about 2900 businesses and those businesses we have to inspect anywhere from one year, [clears throat] some are four years, but most are one to three years. And so when you look at that, um, what you can see is we look at some comparable towns. Uh, we are really lean in our fire marshall's office. We have one full-time and one part-time inspector. And you can see that several other towns that have less or comparable, uh, have significantly more people in their fire marshall's office. So, I'm not asking for more fire marshals. I'm not asking for anybody else. I'm just trying to bring light to the fact that um, they do incredible work

064and we we cover their expenses. So in fiscal year 1617 I proposed to this board the collection of fees since that time we've collected $4.3 million in fire fees and our expenses on an annual basis somewhere around $1500 to $200,000. So we're we're definitely hitting the mark and it's a staffing model that works for us. >> Excuse me, Chief. Quick question. Um within the fire marshall's office, are you considered the fire marshal? So statutoily, I'm considered a fire marshal and I'm licensed or certified as a fire marshal to oversee their operations, but I don't typically get involved in fire marshall activity dayto-day. No. >> And one of the deputy chiefs is the deputy fire. >> Correct. Yep. Just went to school. But again, their day-to-day activities uh are not involved in that. No. And so

065the same thing with these several of these towns, their chiefs and their deputy chiefs are licensed or certified fire marshals, but their day-to-day activities is not doing inspections. So, so when they're listed as one fire marshal and two >> deputies sole fire marshal that is not a deputy chief or a chief. Yeah, >> I see. Understood. Got. Thank you. >> Going to cover some of the operational line increases. There weren't many for this year. Contractual replacement staffing increasing it by $32,000. That is predominantly due to contractual wage increases and electricity increasing it by $15,000 of requests. And that's like anybody else right now that pays a UI bill. The bills are going up. No different for for us than it is for your homes. And we need to be able to cover that that utility.

066In terms of the building maintenance and repair line, I know this is a line that often gets gets discussed um [clears throat] open to discussion, whatever needs to happen here. But I need the the finance board to understand that this supports four fire stations and several outuildings. So, not only you're talking about the fire station itself, but we have garages detached in the back that need to be maintained. And all of these buildings have overhead doors, have one one of them has an elevator. Couple have commercial hoods. There's sprinkler systems in place. Um there's generators in place. There's a lot of items in these buildings um that need to get repaired. You know, I can I can think back to times that, you know, people will drive by and they'll say the the lights are

067out on the fire station on the outside and I'll say, "Yeah, I'm aware of it. I'm waiting to get to the point where I can justify calling electrician to come in and start spending the money to get all these lights repaired on the outside. Um, but it costs significant amount of money. The other thing that we're doing is we've incurred the cost of the landscaping. And so with that, um, that is something that we need to make sure that we cover the expense for. That's it for operational line increases. >> Okay. Before we uh, let's see if the members have questions. I certainly do. Let's go over the uh the personnel piece, please, Paul. >> Sure. That I have that later in my budget presentation if that's okay. >> That's fine. Sure. >> Okay. >>

068Um members, anything else you would like to ask Paul about? >> I didn't I [clears throat] I unfortunately have my uh my numbers for last year, but what's your electricity running now? Do you happen to know, Paul? >> Maybe Rich Rich might have Looks like [clears throat] Yeah, I can find it. >> I think through I have through November, but I don't have through December. Uh about 45.6% of the budget about $25,000. >> When I looked at, you know, the reason that we're increasing this too is I looked at the close out for last year and it was it was over I believe in my electricity line. >> Mhm. >> Right now there are 54 through December 54.6%. $30,000. If they close up, Paul, you're saying that there was some some bills that came later,

069didn't >> No, there was an overage in in last year in that line. >> Yeah. >> Utilities for electricity. >> 65,000. >> Yeah. It was It's in your budget. >> 65,000 178. >> Paul, quick question on uh medical supplies. I know there was a time there certainly during COVID and postcoid when all of a sudden the cost of medical supplies just shot up. Um but I'm just looking at some of the actuals and at least for 242 the actual uh the budgeted was 69 and we came in a a little over 51 and this year uh at least through November we're we're actually at about 29%. Is that a function of kind of when the billing comes in or what's what's your feel as far as the cost of medical supplies right now? >> So

070medical supplies we haven't increased uh in a couple of years and that's why it's not even being asked for right now either. Uh we've got it stabilized. the um one of the things that's helped a lot is that we're able to and you know we can cover this in more detail in a few minutes but we've been able to shave down a lot of our medical calls so we're not going to as many as perhaps we once were especially during the co time and then during co as well some of the expenses just went through the roof in terms of cost so they've stabilized have come back down >> okay >> um medical supplies just you know for the board's awareness are housed at headquarters in a uh in a rather you know small utility

071room >> and that's where uh we inventory everything from and that is where as supplies are needed that's where they're drawn from. So we've always got going to make sure that you have you know good stock of medical supplies. You don't want to run out and get >> No, absolutely. I I'm just trying to get a sense for the supply and demand issues. So uh and um vehicle maintenance and repairs. Uh, I know this has certainly been something that's been a a hot topic for for quite some time and you're asking for an additional $10,000. Um, but you really should have some [clears throat] two new engines uh about to take possession of a new ladder truck and uh new other new vehicles. Is your expectation that that line should actually go down with these

072new pieces of >> I do I do not see that line continuing to go up. The one thing we have to be careful of and um that's going to be covered again shortly in a few minutes here is >> the bid for our maintenance contract >> uh recently went out and the labor costs associated with that bid uh were significantly higher than they are now >> and so we're trying to offset that with like you said newer apparatus that do not require as much maintenance as a fleet that we're retiring right now. >> So we hope that that stabilizes. That's the intent. Okay. Any other questions for the members on this page or do you want to go on to capital? >> Sure. So, capital, this is a listing of what it should be in

073your report. Um, we can cover each in detail as I start to move through it, but along the idea of maintenance, [clears throat] I'd like to ask Deputy Chief Maples to cover a few things regarding that specific line uh because it's something that he manages every day. So, thank you again. Uh, and Mr. Barrett, thank you for your question. In regards to the, uh, fleet maintenance, we did have a contract that we were working underneath. It was a three-year contract with the New England Fire Apparatus, which is right down the street here. He services all of our apparatus. Um, they had just recently um, we signed a contract a couple weeks ago. There was a 70% increase just in their hourly labor rate. M >> um and as you can tell by this slide, we

074have a very very big range of aging fleet from you know two apparatus that are only you know 2 years old to apparatus that are almost 26 27 years old. >> So um we are approving a lot of cost saying that every bit of maintenance um and repair has to be sent out for these services. So again, um it is an aging fleet and as you can tell some of the older apparatus are costing us um you know you know more money along the lines of also being out of service and that out of service time is very you know stressful for our apparatus and for our response to um emergency calls. Are there [clears throat and cough] other options in terms of uh repair services that you could you could uh look into or

075>> There's obviously the the thought of having an in-house mechanic that is going to be ASC certified being able to do these repairs inhouse. That's something that we can look at down the line not only to save money but also to have a quicker turnaround time. So our apparatus are not out of service for a prolonged period of time. and those uh superintendent apparatus if that's what you wanted to name them could also have ancillary functions you know along the lines of fixing SBA bottles um even station repairs some minor stuff with equipment that we also send out to some you know smaller dealerships as well as responding to you know structure fires having the ability to assist on scene if an apparatus fails there or if there's other ancillary tasks around the fire ground

076that need to be accomplished that's an option for that individual to be able to do >> if you did that then you would you have to keep an inventory of parts or >> most likely that would be the best way to do that. Um right now unfortunately there's a 29% increase um in the parts alone that our manufacturer or excuse me that New England Fire is charging us for. So to be able to keep those parts in house and purchasing them ahead of time and having an inventory would also save you know tremendous amount of money. >> I guess my question was do you have an option other than New England Fire? So, we did put this out to bid um and we had three other or two other um contractors bid on this. They

077were the lowest. I see. >> So, that covers the the fleet maintenance. Uh the couple things to just keep in mind with that is that some of these apparatus we have to put them through required annual preventive maintenance checks. So, on the engines, it's the pump that needs to be certified. On the ladders, it's the ladder. And then on every apparatus, it's the the DOT road check for tires. And then there's obviously preventive maintenance doing anything. Uh some of these have uh generators on board. So the generators need to be uh maintained as well as well as the engine itself. And so what I ask is when you look at this line, just recognize that some of these apparatus have been through their annual PM, which is when we see a lot of costs, and

078then others have not. Obviously, we can't send all of them in the first six months of a fiscal year. We we spread it out to to try to maintain operational efficiency as well. >> The apparatus that are labeled with the small star to the left hand side, those are the ones that have not gone for their DOT, their pump, and their preventive maintenance. That's about 2500 to $3,000 of an expense. And as you can see, the two uh engines on the bottom, those were the ones that were purchased in 2024 based off the LSN numbers. Um, and you can see that at this point they have all been under warranty and we have not yet sent both those out for their PM. Um, engine 2 just came back yesterday with their finished PM. So that

079will be coming soon. >> So this 78 is a part of the vehicle maintenance line that's shown budgeted at 180. Is that where this lies? >> Correct. >> One thing to just look at when you're when you're I think we got to draw attention to on that is that LFS number. So we call that lifetime service number. So that's gonna that's a static number that that number is fixed to the apparatus. It'll never change. So take for example tower one is an 18-01. That means it was it's a 2018 apparatus and it was the only one that we received in 2018. So that's kind of how you can read that. The apparatus number designation itself we may change from time to time based on whatever we have and trying to rotate the fleet, but the

080LSA number is fixed. So, one of the things you can kind of see when you look at that is the older the apparatus is, the more expensive it is to maintain. The older the apparatus is, the harder it is to get parts because the downtime is actually what what hurts us the most is in operations. So, there's a lot to look at there, but are there any questions regarding >> which ones are the rescue units? You have a rescue unit you're looking for, right? >> An ambulance. Is that on there? >> Yes, correct. one down. Hold on. Let them answer, please. >> Sorry, I apologize. It's the second one down. It says rescue 2. >> It's LSN 1301. It's been out of service for 41 days. That number is going to obviously increase. This slide

081was done a couple days ago and that rescue is still out of service right now. >> And rescue one is on the bottom. That's all we have, just the two. >> That is correct. And that is a 2020 purchase. >> Thank you. All right. So, uh, moving on to capital requests, you'll see that we have in the capital line, uh, replacement of our rescue just talked about now. It's a 2013. Uh, that mileage needs to be updated. It's a little bit more mileage than that now, but the mileage isn't necessarily what concerns us. It's the fact that it's a 2013. Again, parts are getting scarce. And the other thing to just keep in mind is the fact that it says ambulance. And I want to spend some time talking about what that means. And so

082ambulances in a steady candidate are highly regulated. You cannot just take any vehicle and put the word ambulance on it. It's state regulation. So they're inspected once a year. The other thing they also do is they mandate exactly which type of chassis and which type of apparatus are allowed to become ambulances. So in other words, it keeps us from anybody from buying a van and calling it an ambulance. You can't do that. But what we do is while we don't transport all the time, we have the ability to transport from a from a lensure standpoint, from a medical control standpoint. Um, if we did not have that word ambulance on there, if something were to happen right now and we were waiting for an ambulance to arrive and one of the two rescues that we

083call them were on scene and the paramedics and the EMTs thought that transport was immediate, needed to be happen right now. uh we are licensed and and able to transport uh you or I or anybody uh to the hospital right now. Uh we would not be able to do that if it didn't stay ambulance. And so the reason I bring it up is because we are talking about it being a 2013 and we've waited in this town in the past to replace rescues until they failed going to calls and I don't think that's appropriate. We've got to start to look at what we can do to replace this rescue because I don't want that to happen. It does get placed in the service uh quite often. gets placed into service every Tuesday so we can

084keep it rotating in the fleet and give rescue one time to to get some maintenance done on it as well. And then obviously it gets used quite extensively for callbacks uh and for storm coverage and things of that sort. >> So Paul, I understand and you even noted frankly [clears throat] your five-year plan that the lead time on a lot of fire vehicles is fairly long. So if if this were to be budgeted, when would you expect it to be delivered? >> So that's a great question. Ambulances fortunately are not quite to the extent of delays that fire apparatus are right now. Uh engines are taking four years, aerials are taking three years. Ambulances we can usually get within a year. >> Mhm. >> And chief, you you had explained to me when you and

085the deputy chief took me on the the tour uh earlier this week that the ambulance is actually composed of two different parts. There's the chassis or the the truck if you will and then there's the box. >> Correct. >> And as you just mentioned, the two have to be certified to be, you know, matched, but really what fails is the truck, the engine. >> The engine, right? Correct. Yeah. >> So, would it behoove us to simply buy a new engine and keep the same box? >> It's something that we can look at. Um, I'd have to get a mechanic involved to see. It might limit us on what chassis we can purchase, which which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but we just got to make sure that >> the the the mount and the way

086that you would plug it in and so forth would would still be, you know, something that would work, but it's it's an option. There's there's departments out there that do it, you know. >> Right. >> Yep. The box are we, you know, because we're not transporting every call, the boxes, you know, the the inside where the patient compartment is is in good shape in these apparatus, >> right? >> Yeah. and and it could very well be that uh accessing just the chassis and then ultimately putting the two together might even be a shorter turnaround time than trying to buy the entire thing together. >> Sure. If the board were were you know considering replacement of this it is certainly something that we can cost out. >> Right. So that that would be helpful that those

087numbers. Thank you. >> I mentioned a few minutes ago about our training center. There's been a lot of activity up there. I encourage you to, you know, if you're going to Big Y or something, just take a drive back there and and look around. Um, the new garage is to the right on the top picture up there. We're keeping our C vehicle in there. We're keeping our training engine in there, which we've talked about in the past. We've talked about as we replace engines and apparatus to be able to keep an engine for training. So, the engine that's in there will not go to calls. It was not on the the the the document earlier because it doesn't go anywhere. It basically lives right there. Uh, but that's important for us because if we're pulling

088hose and operating as a training environment with it and then an incident comes in, we're not having to pack the hose up and go to the call. The engine can stay there. It's committed to training and training only. And so that's that's advantageous to us. But there's a lot of equipment up there. There's a lot of inventory for the town and as we start to build it out more, there's going to there's going to be significantly more property up there. So, in the capital, I've asked for $30,000 to um secure the perimeter fencing. That is not intact right now at all. The entire north side, there is no fencing, and there is no bonafideed way to enter and exit. And there's also uh no CCTV coverage, camera coverage at all. So, we do have we've

089seen evidence in the past of loitering, um you know, different uses of the property that probably aren't legal. Um, and we'd like to be able to secure that area and for liability purposes and to make sure that nothing happens in terms of theft. >> Is there security lighting on there right now, Paul? You know, maybe the kind that goes on when there's movement in the area. >> I'm sorry, what was the question, sir? >> Is there security lighting on on the building? >> There's no lighting. No. So, so um because of zoning, we weren't able to put any kind of outside lighting up. Yeah, >> that's interesting. Okay. So, the only lighting that's on there is egress lighting because it's code, but there's no like flood lights that we [clears throat] can put on. Yeah.

090>> Uh, sorry, there was a couple other things you had on your budget, right? >> Yes. >> Let's not go too fast in uh I know a couple of them the lease is already in place, right? >> Correct. >> The 300 and the 216 as well, right? >> Yeah. So, I we covered the rescue, the education equipment. We're going to cover I believe in a in a few minutes. Um training center and security. I'm going to cover the needs assessment shortly. >> You said education. Did you mean extraction? >> Extrication. Yeah. I'm sorry. Did I say >> extrication? Sorry, my mistake. Okay. Sorry. The lease is already in place, right? [clears throat] >> Correct. >> Um what about this study here, dude? Is that coming up? >> That's coming up. >> All right. This lease

091is for the new ladder we just were taking that's taking that's coming in, right? >> Correct. Yeah, it's it should be uh in service within the next 30 days. >> All right. You covered the fencing. Um there one more question if you don't mind before we go into the personnel. >> Sure. >> We do have a 5-year plan. It's on page 47. Uh you have yours just like the other departments. Um >> obviously you got things budgeting every year including uh an engine for next year and you noted that takes three to four years for delivery. So [snorts] have we placed an order for this engine right now? It's a placeholder that's in the process of being cancelled because we don't have the money appropriated to it. >> Okay. >> So, it's in this it's

092in the 5-year capital plan to uh put it in the U workshop session next year. This truck was scheduled to come in uh on August of 2027. This is the the one that uh we had to cancel with the money appropriate. So, that money is not in this budget. 216,000 is for the truck. That's a,754,000 that we authorized. And that 216,000 will be in the capital plan for the next 9 years. It'll be $216,000 to pay for that over the next nine years. So, >> all right. [snorts and clears throat] Thank you, Mike. >> All right. Sorry, Paul. >> That's no problem. Uh, I want to start to get into some personnel requests. I'm going to start with something that I I expect there to be some conversation. I hope it's a conversation about it

093and that is uh the emergency response social worker. So I'll give you the background as to how this came about um because it's coming directly from the staff that are sitting behind me today. We've experienced significant loss in the department the last three years. We've had three members that are in their 40s unfortunately pass away unexpectedly. That's left a tremendous void in the department. Uh that's completely immeasurable. Um we've had firefighters who have seek counseling. We've had firefighters who have gone out unfortunately for uh outplacement. Uh it's something that we live with every day right now. And unfortunately what happens in [clears throat] this environment unlike many others is that you're reminded of these things constantly when you go to calls. So it's one thing if you experience something, you know, unfortunate in your life

094and then, you know, you don't have to deal with it every day. But every single day, these these firefighters are going out and working codes. And so there's constantly triggers, right, that are constantly building. And unfortunately, it gets to the point where uh it surfaces in a lot of these cases. And so after the most recent loss that we had in the department, uh we reached out to make sure that we were doing what we had to do. We were doing what was right in the department. And what we found was that there's uh some towns that have employed emergency response social workers uh within their police departments or within their fire departments. And they do a tremendous job. And two of them, well, one of them really um with this title was was offered

095to us to come over and meet with the staff, meet with the personnel. Uh and we did so over the course of about a week. And I got to tell you, the impact that it had was remarkable. And the reason why is because this individual works with police officers and firefighters in the towns that they come from. [clears throat] They're employed by the police department for the fire department. And so they build a relationship with those personnel. And I think that's part of what we need to start to look at is is the mental health and well-being of our emergency responders here in town, both on the police side and on the fire side. Because what we have to recognize is that our responders are human, which is why I open with that. and they

096do have to deal with some unfortunate consequences from time to time, but having a relationship with somebody is imperative to be able to have the ability and the confidence to want to talk. And so what this individual would do is is work out of the police department half the time, work out of the fire department the other half of the time, find an office space for them. It's fine. but they'd have a relationship with the staff so that if any of my personnel are having trouble in their personal lives and something they experienced at work, there's a relationship there to be able to go and talk to that person. That's going to do so much in terms of the morale of the department and it's probably going to cut down on things like sick time

097and other things that should be important to the sport. But then the other thing that we're looking at is the void that we currently have in the community. So, there are homes that we respond to two or three times a day right now at times. Not saying it happens every day, but two or three times a day. And what do the firefighters do? They go out, they pick the person up, they put them back to bed, they put them back in the chair, they do whatever they got to do, and that's it. That's where it stops. And then unfortunately, a couple hours later, whether it's a mental health crisis, whether it's a health crisis, whatever it might be, they call 911 again. We go back. My firefighters, that's about all they can do. They're not

098licensed workers. They don't have contacts for all the people in town that they can talk about. They can't spend 30, 40 minutes with the person trying to build up relationship to be able to build up any kind of of opportunity to talk about other kinds of care, other kind of housing that might be available. And so this individual would do just that. They would identify the crisis cases that police and fire are responding to. And then we would be able to build out a system where that individual can go and follow up. That individual can go to the house the next day, follow up, find out, hey, you've called the police department x number of times. You called the fire department x number of times. Here's some of the services in town that might be

099available to you. Now, you might be saying, Annette, we can do that now. And we can. Our current contract that we have with BH care is not allowed for home visits. Um, I've spoken with BHare representatives. They're supportive of this because it's something that they cannot currently provide. In order for people to be seen here in town, they have to have the ability to get to Lindsay Street. And a lot of our community members that are suffering like this don't have the ability to drive or to commute. And so this is super important, I feel like, for the department. Is it new? Yes. Is it is it something that you're going to find in a lot of departments? No. But it's something I think that's the next step. I do see it potentially cutting back

100on some of the call volume that the fire department goes to. I'm not going to speak for the police department, but I can tell you that it would cut back on some of the fire department and it would help the personnel tremendously. >> Happy to answer any questions you have. >> This would be community outreach. This person would not only service the police and fire department, but also um would know what what resources are available out in the community. >> Yeah. And so that's that's the important part is is if it's a if it's a drug and alcohol addiction, they'll know services that that you know the individual can go to. If it's a hoarding case, they'll know places that we can we can refer [clears throat] to. Um if it's, you know, anything else

101going on the services and they change, right? It's something that changes, you know, monthto month sometimes some of these services. So it's not like it's something we can just hand somebody and go here, you know, there needs to be sometimes an hour plus conversation with these individuals that are in a complete state of crisis. And that's exactly what this person would do. It would be a licensed clinical social worker that is trained to recognize when he or she needs to call for help, right? But is also trained to know that there's services that we can provide not only to to our staff um but to the public as well. >> Would this cost be shared between you guys and the police department? >> You know, right now we share dispatching, right? Dispatchers, and that cost

102isn't between police and fire. It's all in the police budget. So, I have no problem with this living in the fire department budget and the police chief and I have already talked about the fact that we would we would split the time. >> But just to just to follow up, this is 100% of the cost. There is will there be another 80 when we get >> That's 100% of the cost. >> Okay. And you mentioned BH care already, Paul. So, um so right now the the firefighters using BH care. >> They are not. Firefighters are using EAP. our community uses. >> Here's a problem with EAP. Um, it is not something that is is wholly supported by members of the department, and it's it's for these reasons. Um, when you call the EAP crisis line,

103they'll call you back within an hour. You'll typically go and see a provider in the area. >> Yeah. >> And it's covered for the first three visits. Doesn't hit your insurance. M >> after that starts hitting your insurance. Right. >> Right. So that's a barrier sometimes for for some individuals between co-pays and so forth. But >> that's not that's not so much the issue for some of my career staff, >> some of the volunteer staff perhaps. >> Yeah. >> But the logistics of it is this is that you know when you walk into the office, who do you know, >> right? >> The provider is going to be somebody, you know, in in the conditioned towns. >> And that's the embarrassing part. And we've had firefighters who have gone in and, you know, have, you

104know, been burned, if you will, by the fact that they're seeking help and then, you know, the word starts and so forth. It's it's embarrassing. This is somebody who, you know, would be able to provide that support in confidence. >> So, prior to you saying this should be shared with the police department, I was looking at this thinking, okay, I can see the need, but it seems like a lot for a full-time a full-time position. Would would it make sense to pair up another town and have one social worker cover and I'm just going to use North Brford because they're next to us. Right. >> Yeah. So, it's something that we could certainly consider, but I will say this. I think if if we were to if we were to sit down with with the

105police department perhaps offline, um, and I'm only saying offline because we'd have to start talking about some specific cases. I don't think that's worthy of being shared on on the media. Um, I think you'd be surprised at the number of >> of individuals in town that would that would benefit from this. I I think that we're we're well beyond that. >> All right. And because we're at the board of finance, there's no offsetting uh revenue associated with this and there's no offsetting decrease in expenses associated with this. Just be clear. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> It's a comparable salary compared to other towns. Um I I did do some research there. Um but no other. >> And Rich, would that include the benefits or not? Would you say? No, >> I I would

106assume that to be direct wages only, which means no payroll taxes, no insurance, no benefits, no vacation or the personal time. >> Correct. That's not factored. >> That's just raw. I assume it's a raw cost $80,000 for person. >> That's salary only. >> And >> so you can you can almost uh >> probably add another 60,000 to that. >> Okay. Okay. >> But they wrote a town. >> Chief, is BHK care an option? >> I don't want to speak for them. Um it's not currently in their scope and it's not anything that their um their providers can currently provide. >> Right. And >> I think I don't mean to cut you short, but I think the important part as well is that might satisfy the community piece, but it's not going to satisfy the personnel

107piece, right? Because BH care is house. Now, could we alter the contract perhaps and bring this under the umbrella of BH care? That's an opportunity. But I think the important part here is that they are working split between the police department and the fire department and nowhere else. That's the only way that relationship is going to form. >> Yeah. I'm almost wondering if we need to split this into two two different kinds of roles. Um but c certainly I I can see the that this this would have value. Um, would you have a space for someone to actually be the the face that everyone recognizes in the department when they come in? >> We'd find a space. Yeah, >> you'd find a space. >> Find a space. >> Okay. >> We're not talking about a

108lot of room. So, yeah. >> No. >> But you you want it to be a private space, you know, that people can >> Yeah. I mean, of course. >> Y want to go when we move on, Paul. Thank you. Yeah. >> Uh moving on to what's changed during 2025. Um I want to start to talk about what's happening here in town. And so one of the things that that impacted us uh at the close of 2024 and certainly all throughout 2025 is that we've had to adjust the incidents that we're dispatching the volunteers to. That came directly from them. They've asked us to to be reduced the number of calls they're responding to. And so what did that do? That shifted more calls on to career apparatus. And so I'll give you an example. We

109used to be able to dispatch one volunteer engine or one crew engine to some incidents. Now we have to dispatch both career engines to that same incident and to try to keep the volunteers uh you know in service. So that's starting. Um, and then the other thing that started to happen is about this time last year, about September of of 2024, I should say. We were having an issue where we were dispatching volunteer apparatus and they weren't responding. So we spent time in this workshop before talking about the response times of volunteers. But what started to happen was that started to become the norm that they weren't responding. And I personally have an issue with dispatching an apparatus with the expectation it's going to respond and then not showing up, not going at all. Makes

110it really hard for us to build any kind of operational continuity in our department if we're dispatching apparatus and and they're not responding. And so we had a conversation with the volunteer leadership at the time and they uh they acknowledged it and and they're just as embarrassed about it. They're doing the absolute best they can with the minimal amount of volunteers that they have. And so they agreed at that time, and we talked about this briefly last year, but it had only been in place for a few months, um coming out of service during the week. And so they uh one company is out of service every day at 7:00 a.m. goes back in service at 3 p.m. Another uh company, I'm calling them companies, another station is out of [clears throat] service at 7

111a.m. tries to go back in service at 5:00 p.m. So you have two stations that are closed. They they are not providing any volunteers at all there. We are not able to even dispatch those apparatus. What started to happen is that's expanding right now into some evenings. Uh we rely on them to let us know when they have a crew assembled and a crew of two. That's what we're talking about right now. Two volunteers can put an engine in service. So we're not talking a lot. It's not that many to begin with unfortunately. But these women and men are doing the best they can to try to go back in service on those hours. But unfortunately at times it's creeping into the evenings and nights. When [clears throat] this occurs, we're losing three engines in

112a truck from our fleet of being able to dispatch to incidents. Two engines are at West Ridge up on the west side of town on Rich Road. An engine and aerial truck soon as it comes back in service uh is out of northeast across from Big Y. And so we lose the ability to dispatch those apparatus. [clears throat] What happens is we've cut our number of total apparatus in half. So instead of having all these apparatus dispatch of simultaneous incidents to back us up on calls to cover us when we are tied up at scenes, uh they're not even available to us. And so what's happened is is uh we've had to start to as we've talked about in the past have have no fire units able to respond or have not enough fire units

113be able to cover the calls. I give you another example highway calls. Um you know we talk a lot about highway incidents and as you travel you know around the state you see fire apparatus staged ahead of the ahead of the accident blocking the scene to make it safe for firefighters. we lose that ability because we're taking out four apparatus uh from from our town to be able to respond. So what happens is we have to dispatch in some cases two or three of our career apparatus. We only have four in service, right? Two engines, a truck, and a rescue is all you have in town for paid career apparatus. We're sending three quarters of our of our paid fleet to the highway to cover just one call on the highway. So it's making it

114hard to be able to plan for covering those other incidents that are coming in. What do we know about the highway? as you know sitting in traffic sometimes we're not there at five minutes you know we're there sometimes for 30 40 plus minutes so it's a very long period of time and so what would happen is this is always where the volunteer department would come in the volunteer firefighters would come in they would be able to cover those incidents while we were tied up and on the call and without them in service um that's not an option right now and so I I I want to be real real about this this is what you're looking at right now in two stations they are closed there is nobody going to the those apparatus are out

115of service every single weekday. Unfortunately, I do feel like this is going to continue to get worse. Um, and it is something that we're going to need to start to think about how we're going to address it. Our stations are strategically located um and and put throughout town for for a reason to be able to cover calls. Now, I've spent time before talking about time distance travel. I've talked about, you know, how fast fire grows inside of a minute. You know, if you want to learn about that, go back and watch any of the last 10 workshops I've done. So, I'm not going to cover that today. I'm getting right down to it. And that is this is what you're looking at right now. Every day right now, Monday through Friday, those are the four

116apparatus you see on the right side of your screen. But at one time on the left side of your screen, that's the coverage that we had with the stations that we have in the apparatus. The yellow are the volunteer apparatus that they are dedicated and they do the best they can both stations to respond. The green is what Monoise once was but unfortunately Monoise closed and so we've lost two stations uh during a day. GIS maps that I can share with you if you're ever interested go as far as showing exactly the time, distance and travel specific to those fire stations. And so if you think back to when we were trying to open Monoise, it's a 12 13 minute drive down to the south end of town. It's just as long of a drive

117at our parts of town as well. And so we're looking at significant response times to some areas of our community. Now it wasn't always this way. Like I I just I need the board to recognize that. I've been with this department now my 25th year. Not that long ago, we were being dispatched to the we've always been dispatched to the same incidents as the volunteers. And the volunteers responding from headquarters. the volunteers would beat us to wherever we were going. I remember because they were practically shouting matches at times because as the engine was coming or the truck was coming from headquarters pulling up to a volunteer station, a volunteer oper pull out in front of us. I laugh about it now. I wish those days were back. But that's because those volunteers, there were

118so many of them. They responding from their house. They were able to facilitate a response quickly and start in route. And so what you see right now is not it's not anything that that we've experienced before. We're we're in kind of new territory here. And so as we start to look at less and less volunteers, this is becoming our reality. The GIS map on the right side covers our incident responses in 2025. 4578 incidents, 6314 responses. Now what is that? Why is that disparity? So responses are individual apparatus responded. So, if I were to say 45,78 alarms, that would indicate one engine or one apparatus to respond for each alarm. And that's not the case. Uh, some alarms, as we just talked about, take two, three, sometimes more apparatus to to respond. And so, in

119this case, we're looking at 6,314 apparatus responses. Comes out to about 17 unit responses a day. We are not a 70 75% um EMS driven department. We sit at about 66%. And why is that? Well, because we go back to when we worked to obtain the PSA in town. One of the things that are required for the PSA um is that we maintain constant radio communication with Nelson Ambulance, now Yale Yaxis. So in doing so, we were able to carve out some of the non-emergent incidents, medical incidents that occur in town and dispatch just an ambulance, which you've heard me talk about in the past. That's about 1,278 incidents a year. So now if you add those back in, yeah, we'd be at a 70 75% EMS driven department like most towns around us are,

120but we're not we're not that. And the reason for this because our Nelson ambulances have direct radio communication with our dispatch center. So we meet our obligation of a 911 response because the ambulance is signing on with our dispatch and arriving with our dispatch and we meet our statutory authority and obligation by doing that. And again, that's for non-emerging calls where we think that two people from an ambulance can can adequately handle that incident. We know that's not always the case and we know that some incidents you want to make sure that you have a response right away. Uh it's worth talking about the fact that Nelson Ambulance was recently bought out by Yaxis. Uh the contract that we had agreed to two years ago allowed for that transfer of ownership and the contract is

121up I believe in November of this year and we're going to be watching closely to make sure that we maintain the same services that we've experienced with Nelson Ambulance carries through into Y-axis. So chief, your the number at the very top that 4578 alarms that does not include the 1278. >> It does not. >> Okay. So if you folded, as you said, if you folded those two numbers in together, >> the overall profile of demand >> by this community >> for emergency response would have what did you say? Somewhere in the 75% range of medical calls. >> Correct. But that isn't the demand on the department because of either Nelson or Yale. Correct. >> Correct. Yes, ma'am. >> Gotcha. All right. Thank you for clarifying. >> The other piece that's up there is 224 [clears

122throat] um highway incidents. We talked about the highway and how demanding they are to the town and and our response uh is is quite heavy on our apparatus and 46% of the time there is more than one incident occurring. And so what does that mean? That means again go back to those same four career apparatus that we talked about. one of those four or sometimes multiple of those four are not available. So we're it's it's quite often half the time practically that we're we're answering more than one incident at a time. >> And Paul, just so I understand, so um of the 4,578 alarms I'm rounding, but a third are fire related. That's roughly 1500, right? >> Yes. >> You said earlier we have 20 plus or minus structure fires a year. So what's the

123difference? Someone's got a a small fire in their backyard from a turkey fryer or what? What is that? >> Sure. I mean, it could be it could be car fires that we're not investigating, right? I mean, so I say 20 fires, I'm talking about 20 fires that have um damage that exceeds $5,000. And it's not always car because quite honestly, there's not a big investigation with car fires unless it's suspicious. >> So, those 20 fires we talked about are fires within structures that have more than $5,000 in damage, >> be it a car or a house. >> Yeah. And the rest are are small fires that are someone has a a their stove is on, they have a small fire in their stove and you put it out right away. >> Yeah. If there's not

124a huge dollar number, it's just smoke in in the apartment or in the building. >> Right. >> Okay. >> The heat map is is accurate. I ran that for all of 2025. So, you can see that we don't have necessarily one area that's that's heavy with calls. It's pretty evenly spread uh throughout the town. Again, I want to spend some time talking about recruitment and retainment of volunteer firefighters. I do this every year. Um, but unfortunately, this is continuing to change. So, as we sit here today, we have seven dedicated and active certified firefighters in West Ridge and seven dedicated and active firefighters in Northeast. Um, one number that we constantly watch are the number that are on probationary status. And what that is are individuals who are interested in becoming a volunteer and going

125through the training. Again, recognize that might take anywhere from a year to 18 months in some cases. So, we're watching that we have two in West Ridge and four in Northeast. So at present day we have 17 volunteers in total 13 of which are qualified and at one time we had over 105. Going back again to when I talked about you know 15 20 years ago uh there was waiting list to get on these these stations. Unfortunately now there's not. So we're looking at 17 in total. >> Does it make a difference to you where they're staffed? Meaning does it make is it better to have half of them roughly in in Ridge Road and Northeast versus having all of them be out of ridge? >> So it's it's something worth talking about, but the

126issue then becomes is that response time factor. >> Yeah, >> that's that's the thing. So we allow the volunteers to uh assemble a response within 15 minutes. That's how long we give them from the time of incident that comes in. They're dispatched the same time that we are. They have 15 minutes to get on the air. And so the issue is that that's a long time, 15 minutes unfortunately. It really is. Um and so what I don't want to see happen is that we now make them further away from the incident they're responding to. Uh it is set up right now >> where the stations that are closest to the the scene are the ones that are dispatched, >> right? >> We continue to work with the explorer program. We have um some of our

127volunteers are dedicated and working with high school students to try to get their interest into uh volunteer firefighting. and we continue with recruitment campaigns and I'm heavily heavily involved with the state and trying to get more volunteers. This is not a problem just in North Haven. This is a problem everywhere. Um I hope that you recognize that this is not something that North Haven is doing or that we can do to stem this. It's it's a statewide some ways nationwide issue in terms [clears throat] of our our staffing. Again, going back to when we were able to dispatch all those apparatus, we would assemble 43 plus firefighters in 10 minutes. Now, present day, we're assembling 10. So, it's very, very hard because what happens is when I arrive on scene, when a deputy chief arrives

128on scene, or even the shift commanders that are that are running the scene until we arrive, we know that there's 20 tasks that have to get done. Every technical tells you that. every every scenario, you know, drives that what needs to get done. How do you pick just the four things that you can get done and so and it changes on incident. It's not like we can write a policy and say we'll just do these four things all the time. It changes every single incident. And so this is the trouble that we're running into is that we just we don't have enough firefighters. Um we wear more air on our backs than any town around us because I'm trying to give ourselves enough air to breathe to be able [clears throat] to get the job

129done. But that's taxing on the firefighters when when they come out from a fire and they're out of air in a in a tank that they have on their back and they're saying, "I need relief and I got nobody there yet. There's [clears throat] nobody there yet. I can call mutual aid. They still won't be there necessarily." >> Right? >> When you look at the staffing trend, um, and I'm going to cover more of this in a minute. You can see we haven't gone up that much in the number of firefighters on on shift over a 30-year time. We've only increased the minimum number of firefighters on shift by three. We've gone from seven to 10. So, how does it impact daily operations? Again, the number of overlapping incidents are increasing. We have far too

130much reliance right now on volunteer firefighters. I'm going to be honest with you. Um, it's actually becoming taxing on them. Unfortunately, as much as logistically it makes sense and operationally it makes sense to make sure that they're in service, right? So they they have apps that we provide them on their phone and they're checking in with each other every day at 3:00 or 5:00 to see who's around to see if they can put the engine in [clears throat] service. That's becoming taxing on them because what it is is it's it's a commitment, right? So volunteer firefighters, let's be honest about this, they they have the ability to say, "I can't go to that call." But we don't give them that ability in this town. We have to make sure that at 3 or 5:00 that

131they've checked in with each other and they're in touch with their volunteer leadership and they're saying yes, anything that comes in right now, I will respond to. >> And so we've seen unfortunately that have a negative impact on the volunteers because now they [clears throat] have to make that commitment. So no matter what they're doing that night with their kids, with their wife, with their parents, whatever it is, they have to be able to go. So [clears throat] 24 to 30% of the time right now they're out of they are out of service. [clears throat] In terms of personnel increase you'll see in your in your uh in your handout in your budget rather that I've asked for the four firefighters. I want to be clear about something. This isn't the fire chief asking for

132staffing again. This is the fire chief asking for the same staffing he's been asking for for almost a decade. 2018-19 we asked for 16 firefighters. We were approved two. At that time we had 51 volunteers. And you can see the trend. Our shift staffing at that time was eight. We started to go with the two firefighters every year. So our shift staffing in 1920 some shifts one shift was 10. Three shifts were eight. You can see why that eight to 10 is listed there. I asked for eight firefighters the next year. We provided two. But pay attention to that right side, the number of volunteers. That's continued to decline. So every year that I'm here asking for firefighters. I'm doing so because you you pay me to be your fire chief. You pay me to

133look into the future and forecast what's going to happen in this town. And I can tell you with certainty those numbers aren't going to change. Unfortunately, I wish that they would, but they're not going to. And [snorts] so up until that red line, we were hiring two firefighters every year. But after that red line, I just don't know what happened. There's no longer any firefighters approved. In that year, we asked for a safer grant from the federal government. I attempted to increase the staffing to 17. Sounds like a lot, but it was 17 with a 14 minimum so that we have some some opportunity in there to be able to to not have the demand on overtime because the overtime in the firefighters is taxing. Right now, I'm asking firefighters to work three, four shifts.

134That's two days, two straight days. So when you start to increase the number of firefighters on your shift, when you have a minimum in there, so your max is not your minimum, you start to be able to create a better work environment. But after that red line is when I just don't know what happened. We we asked for staffing. Um we haven't been approved. That 2324, the reason it's asterric is because I did not ask for staffing because the town supported the safer grant. And so that's why there was no there was no request that year. We were waiting to see what happened to safer grant. In this past year, I sought the opportunity to apply for a safer grant again, and I was told that we can't right now. It has to go through

135the board of finance. And so, I can't put in for a grant like I used to anymore. And after that red line, I'm just trying to understand from the board, you know, why the requests aren't being fulfilled, what happened, because I got to tell you, three years ago, we lost a firefighter in a fire on Clint Avenue. Nobody's asked a question about what could have been different. Chief, what do you need? We closed on a volunteer station right after that fire. They closed themselves. I didn't close them. They closed themselves. Why? Because they had gone to that fire and they realized how real it was and they didn't want to continue to do it. There's a NY report right now out on that on that fire. A federal report. Anybody from the board read that?

136It was released within the last four months. in that report there's some pretty significant findings that you should be looking at especially the board of finance. Can Can you >> to be fair to be fair, Paul? Sorry, I'll let you go a second. I wouldn't I wouldn't even know about that. And truthfully, it's been discussed many times that that you run the departments. We we manage some money. We allocate money. So, I and you've been uh persistent and and persuasive over the years in your presentations and your presentation is one of the best we get along with Sou was also here this morning. Right. So uh as far as that question goes, my answer is certainly no and and probably the same for the other board members. Right. >> So look, I I understand your

137point. You've made this point numerous times. Um I don't have an exact answer for you. I'm below the red line. Obviously, uh staffing going way back, right? Increase by 10 individuals you've got on the board there, right? I I think the obvious answer is that we have to weigh the priorities of all the departments right across the board and and you've got a situation that you've let this board know about for a long time in terms of the uh the volunteers going down. Um not enough increase in in the full-time staff and and uh in a lot of cases your incidents are increasing across the board. So that that's something that we have to measure. That's that's the answer really. >> Yeah. I mean, I just I go back to it's either unwilling or unable.

138And and I [clears throat] I truly think it's it's it's unwilling because you've a you've been able to put in staffing increases other departments, but not the fire department. And I and I guess I'm just trying and I said this last year as we were closing, what what do you need to see from me? What do you need to hear from me in order to to support that request? Because I was fine with the two firefighters every year. It was at least something that we could plan for operationally. It was something that we could start to to, you know, build our recruitment around. It was something that we knew that was almost a guarantee and then it stopped. Like we have two shifts with 11, two shifts with 10. That doesn't make sense. >> Mhm.

139>> Um outside the board of ed, I would say that we haven't had that many hires across the town in general. We hired a couple police officers as you probably are aware in the last year or two. Um, and look, reality is and and Sue said it earlier, you know, we've had essentially a two- mill increase here the last two years in town. Um, for different reasons, right? So, that's just something again that we have to measure. We have to measure your needs and needs of the community against the entire town. >> I recognize the the the task you have before you living in town, I I see the the tax increases firsthand myself. >> I just paid my bill. It was painful. >> Yep. Um, you know, so I just I I need the

140board to recognize the importance of this. Um, >> I think we do. That's for sure. And Nancy, I didn't interrupt you. >> No, no, no. You you made the point. Go ahead. >> Thank you. Okay. >> The, uh, you know, I think it's it's important to know that this is the only time we interact with one another. You know, I other I don't have a conversation with anybody from the board of finance, unfortunately, uh, from the last workshop to this workshop, practically. Um, so the one opportunity I get is is now. And I I hope that can change um because I need the board to realize that this this this is important to me and all the firefighters that are here. >> Can we get a copy of this presentation? >> Yes, please. >> Yeah.

141I I just want to go over the numbers. I basically have the same questions I had earlier on the social workers. So the 506 is the raw cost if you will, right? >> Correct. >> Okay. Um, and so Rich already answered that the benefit >> probably more like 656 without equipment. >> That's that was my other question. So the the turnout year or whatever else would be required for four or five artists is not in the capital plan, right? >> No. So we we built in a number of years ago in the equipment line. We we built in to be able to purchase I don't know whatever it was seven to eight sets of gear every year. We would just make sure that that gear ends up to the new firefighters essentially. >> Okay. >>

142Training wise, we can absorb it in the budget. you know, we can make some changes on our training that we do for the staff and cover the recruitment. >> Members, >> I can appreciate what you're asking for and I haven't been on this board that long and you've asked for the same stuff every single time. But I do take offense in the sense the fact that how would we know that information that you just asked us to know that we should have known? How would we have known that? >> Which information? >> Well, you said we should have seen a report that was out. >> Yeah. >> We don't have access to that. >> Sure. >> You could start sharing some of that somewhere. Let us know how we can access it. >> Sure. >>

143I mean, it makes us feel like you're not appreciating all the hard work we're trying to do cuz as Tim said, it's a tough budget year for everybody. I respect that you've got so many people here today. I think that's terrific. >> Well, it says a lot about how we feel right now. >> Well, absolutely. and we all can appreciate that. >> Sure. You know, the uh it's it's publicly available. Um I talked about the Mash report for a couple years, how it was coming. Uh it's out there now, and I what I would say is if you uh if you're inclined to read it, I would read it two ways. I'd read it one at face value for what [snorts] it says, and I would ask another firefighter to read it, and and if

144you will, read between the lines. um so that you get an idea for for you know what some of our our shortcomings are. >> Can you repeat that again for what the report is and where we can find it? >> Sure. So it is a NYOSH report and it's publicly available right on the website. You can look up line of duty death reports. >> Could you just spell NASH for LJ please? I'm sorry. >> Could you just spell NASA for LJ? >> N I O S H. >> Thank you. So, so Paul, I I had um just some again some some context for all of this. I I did a little bit of research and I I think you were part of the the department um when uh there was a seven firefighter minimum, right?

145So, that was the case from 74 all the way through 2009. And then in 2009 uh we started the paramedic program and uh in 2012 uh we uh the uh fire commission uh increased the the fire the minimum up to eight firefighters. So for a total of per times four shifts so just 32 total. You became chief in 2015 and uh in 2019 you increased the minimum number of firefighters per shift from eight up to 10. And uh from 23 to 25 uh you have a minimum of 11 firefighters on just two shifts. The other two are 10 10 minimum. Right. >> Uh those shifts are still 10 minimum. 11 with 10 minimum. >> I see. And and and you're right, except for the um the eight firefighters. Uh it was the same thing up

146until about 200 well um up until 2016. >> 16 >> it was uh eight firefighters minimum seven. In 2016 following a fire on Green Hill Road is when that went to eight firefighters minimum. And that is at the direction of the fire commission at that time. >> Okay. So you were already chief when that happened. Got it. So, the increase from seven to eight firefighters on all shifts is a 14% increase. The increase from eight firefighter minimum to 10 is a 25% increase. The increase from 10 firefighters on four shifts to 10 firefighters on two shifts and 11 firefighters on two shifts is a 5% increase. And your proposed increase currently is going from 42 firefighters total. That's captain, lieutenant, and career firefighters up to 46 is about a 9.5% increase. Now, if we go

147from where we are now to what you're proposing as the minimum, which is 14 firefighters per shift, that would be a 33% increase. And if we go up to your maximum, which is 17 firefighters per shift, that would be a 62% increase. >> Sure. So again, uh, you know, going back to the original part of your story in which you were asking for 16 firefighters, that was like a 50% increase, um, all in one lump sum. So, uh, this this would also be a pretty substantial increase if we were to go up to either the 14 or or the 17% increase. So I I guess the the question is where is the data that shows that we need to get to those particular kinds of numbers? >> The right side of your screen where it

148shows a decline in the volunteers >> because what you don't see ever in your financial reports or the services the volunteers provided. >> I wish I could have shown that as a savings to you for all those years because that's what it provided. Didn't show cost. >> No question. So what what you have to do when you run all those numbers, what you just did, is look at that same decline in volunteers and then look at how many firefighters are on scene. We've been over this year after year. How many firefighters we need on scene versus how many we provide on scene, >> right? >> I've got a firefighter right now, you know, we think it's just fires. I got a firefighter who's probably going to have to go out retired on a medical injury,

149right, on a medical call from a code, a cardiac arrest. That wasn't a fire call. Mhm. >> He's only got 14 years in a job and he's going to have to retire because he got himself hurt permanently on a medical call. So, it's not just fire calls we have to increase staffing at. There's a lot of calls we should be increasing staffing at. >> So, the data is that the data is showing that we should be having more firefighters on scene than we are in that the number of volunteers that we relied on so heavily for so many years has declined. M and from the numbers that you showed for 2025 anyway, it looks like about 3,000 calls were for medical and another 1,200 medical calls were answered by by Nelson. So that's a that's

150a total of about 4,300 calls that are just medical calls. And I don't mean to trivialize that in any way, but it it does represent the demand as I mentioned before for for this town. >> So just thinking outside the box just for a moment and not trying to tell you how to do your job, but just making a suggestion. Is there a possibility to use the ambulance that you're uh requesting this year, have it stationed wherever, maybe at Monoise, fully utilizing that facility, having, you know, one engine and one ambulance and having that ambulance then staffed uh with with two firefighters uh one paramedic and and one EMS uh to to be functioning in order to address that particular demand that is posed by by our town. So, we're meeting the demand right now

151in terms of the the medicals. Um, and we're doing it by by not only providing the medical service, but the simultaneous fire service as well. And I know I believe you've advocated for years about putting a rescue at Monoise instead of a fire engine. But, you know, we can show case after case where because we respond with a fire engine to a fire, we're able to make a significant impact uh on scene and and quite honestly make it safer for the citizens and for our firefighters. So staffing rescues uh is not is not optimum for us at all. Uh you can look at the medical calls and say well you should be staffing more medical incidents. Uh you know but what about the 2,000 fires th those those are real. You know you can't you

152can't expect the one engine or the two engines you're going to have left in town to cover all of those. Like I said it's just it's not we're we're trying to recreate something that works perfectly well in other towns. So, why would we try to do something different? Other towns are running paramedic based engines, which is exactly what we're trying to get to. Um, [clears throat] they're not running just rescues. >> But if you if you combine the not even percentages, the absolute numbers of uh fire responses and MVAs requiring the the big trucks, um, that's still only 1500. And that's half of the medical costs. >> Yeah. Right. It is. >> So just proportionally is is the the only argument that I'm making. >> Sure. >> So, >> uh, anyone other members have any

153questions on this particular item? There's really just the assessment study left. I think >> Yeah, just the assessment study. Um, it's worth noting that the last time that we had a study done uh was 1972. We have a mandate from the state of Connecticut that wasn't based on a study, but based on um similar data from 1996. There's been no other study performed um of the needs of the department. And so I'm advocating for for that study to occur. And you know, we can we can look at things like what Mrs. Bearer is is referencing in that study perhaps uh you know, let somebody come in who's a uh professional and hear from somebody perhaps other than me. Uh I neglected to have a slide, Mr. Chairman, on the um education equipment. I recognize that

154that's something that has not been discussed. Just know this with our education equipment. Uh we have about three sets of education equipment throughout town. Uh we need to because we never know exactly which apparatus is going to be able to respond. They have a shelf life in terms of operations and they have a shelf life in terms of effectiveness. So the cars continue to become better and better and stronger and stronger. And so what happens unfortunately is after uh a number of years the equipment that we have to cut into cars is no longer effective. And so >> we fund a new set last year. >> No. >> Don't believe so. It's been a couple years. >> Yes. You say no. >> Yeah. It came out of Yes, we did. >> Volunteer money. >> Oh,

155volunteer money. Yeah. So not through capital >> for the the 500. They get the volunteers get $500 when they respond on the uh >> Yeah. >> highway and that money was used for equipment and extra it was bought for the volunteer house at that time. >> Okay. You have I'm sorry. Did you say you have three sets, Paul? >> We bought about three sets. >> Yeah. >> Three sets. So when I talk about the future and and I'm wrapping up now, you know, I I continue to see the the demand on services here in town particularly. You know, if we were going to say right now that we're not going to build anymore, we're going to keep the town just as it is. We start to plan for that. But I know that's not the

156case and we all know that's not the case. There's additional planning economically that we're in the plans and in the works right now. Um, I'm providing comments to the planning and zoning board right now referencing the fact that some of these projects are going to place a greater demand on emergency services and asking the zoning board to consider that. There was a meeting recently with the town attorney in which uh that was questioned and it was validated that those considerations should be taken into account by the zoning board. I >> apologize. Could you make that point again, Paul, on the town attorney zoning board, please? >> Sure. Uh, so I'll elaborate a little bit more on that. So, every month I get the uh zoning board agenda. I'm asked for myself and the police chief

157and probably a couple others. We're asked to provide comments on projects. >> What I'm doing is I'm taking projects that I know are going to be drivers for incidents. So, what are those um apartment buildings, let's say, medical facilities, things like that that I know are going to be drivers for calls and are going to continue to draw on the demand of fire services. I'm referencing that the zoning board should be aware of that. >> I get it. We have a bunch of new apartment buildings as we all know >> and our apparatus can reach the upper levels of those that >> the tower that we have can uh and it's worth noting sir that the the quint that we just order I'm going to call it a quint right so what is a quint

158so a quint is something that can be an engine and a truck >> so when you hear me say quint I apologize it's it's nomenclature that we use so engines carry water trucks carry ladders a quint carries both but the thing to know with the quint that's coming in right now it's a smaller ladder so it's meant more for residential applications but won't fit all of our buildings. It won't reach all of our buildings. No. >> Right. >> I think it's important that we define community expectations so that we can increase awareness. Um we are going to try to keep the volunteer firefighter status where it is. We continue to work with them and meet with their leadership. It's worth noting that we are not able to respond to all incidents and that's because if

159there's no inc if there's no units available then we've got to be able to to either call mutual aid and we're calling mutual aid for building fires. That's what we're calling mutual aid for. We're not going to call mutual aid for an accident, for a car fire, for a brush fire. Those towns around us have said, "Hey, we can't go and cover your calls." We'll come if you need help, but we can't cover your calls for you. No different than we're not covering their calls. And then we need to continue to monitor the number of firefighter paramedics. Um, it is worth noting that we are continuing to see a decline the number of paramedics that we have applying to the department. We rely heavily on paramedics in a department and unfortunately uh that is becoming

160um harder and harder to achieve and and in large part that's because our labor contract is not strong enough to attract the paramedics that we need. In terms of five-year capital, [clears throat] uh it's the same thing that's on that's on your page. Nothing should have changed. I've referenced the apparatus that we've talked about. Um, and you can see what we forecasted out. Not a lot there I believe that that I need to explain. There's a gear extractor in there so that you understand what a gear PPE personal protective equipment gear extractor is. Is we can't put our firefighter um structural firefighting gear in the regular wash. Can't can't happen. Not only is it not effective, but it won't um it's not allowed even legally. And so there's extractors that we need to purchase. Right

161now we have one really good set and we have a small set at another station. But there's more and more emphasis right now on health and safety in the fire departments. And after every structure fire and even some other fire, we should be washing our gear. We have one really good set right now. Uh and if it ever were to break, we're kind of in trouble. So we've got to start planning on the replacement of that. Everything else in there, I believe, is pretty self-explanatory. Life Pack 15 is what um the paramedics use for a variety of reasons. It's basically your your AED as you would know it. >> Thank you, Paul. Members, any final questions for the uh chief or the assistant chief? >> No. >> Uh hold on just a second. Uh I

162think you skipped over the the part in uh in your presentation about um trying to carve out the captains from the from the engines. >> Sure. So we I discussed that the other day um Nancy. So just know that as we if we are ever successful >> in increasing the staffing to that 14 number um that would include taking the what I'm going to call the shift commander has the rank of captain uh and putting them into a a separate vehicle so they can respond uh independently to the scenes that he or she needs to be at. Uh that would involve promotion of a lieutenant to be able to backfill that that position in the in the engine. But yes, that is uh that is a if you will, it's long term. It shouldn't be

163long term, but it is long term unfortunately. Um but that is effective because what that allows that shift commander is who's running that scene until a deputy chief or myself gets there and that could take some time, right? We we have, you know, we're not on call 24/7 within five minutes of town. So that shift commander is the one who's responding to the scenes and can start to call for help or or minimize the incident that's that's happening, the response that's occurring. And so yes, that is one of the things that that kind of being targeted right now. >> So on the engine that has the captain from from headquarters, there isn't a lieutenant currently. >> No. >> So it's a captain and two firefighters. >> Yes. >> And um are any of the four

164captains currently paramedics? Yes. >> How many? >> Uh, two are three are technically licensed, but we can't they don't operate as paramedics, >> right? I'm just trying to get a sense for if they operate alone >> and they show up at a medical call, as you say, in order to assess is this really an emergency and how to, you know, allocate resources appropriately. >> That's fair. They can do that. >> They're just by themselves. >> They have handcuffs, but they can do it. They still don't have the equipment necessary, but to a certain extent, yes, they're trained. So they would also need an additional vehicle, >> right? Um and as you say, additional personnel in order to backill that that position. Okay. Um and if there is a major, you know, fire incident, as you

165say, you and potentially one or both deputy chiefs also show up on scene. Correct. >> Yes. So in terms of like incident command, you have both yourselves as the as the chiefs as well as the captain kind of running the the overall scene. Is that right? Just help me to understand. >> Yep. So it's it's worth noting that um one of us is on call at all times and has an obligation to respond. Obviously uh you know the three of us don't all necessarily live right in town or nearby. So there's a 30 minute response sometimes >> for uh one of us to to arrive on scene. >> I see. And in that period of time, the captain is not only trying to manage a team, but he's trying to manage the engine as well

166because there's only three fire I'm calling them a firefighter because they're going to function as a firefighter now as well. There's only three individuals assigned to that engine. So, they are multitasking trying to operate the engine, pull hoses and so forth and trying to manage the fire scene. Yes. >> Gotcha. Okay. >> Update that. And just one one other thing in in terms of the the capital requests. Um I just want to make it very clear that this is the first time I'm hearing that the two uh the two vehicles that were ordered two years ago, one was an engine and one was a ladder truck. Um and the ladder truck we're going to take possession of it in a month. The engine, you know, would have been ready in another year. This is the

167first that I'm hearing that that has been cancelled. So uh so it looks as though that will not be in this year's or next year's. Is that right? Capital budget. >> So it it should not be in the column of 2728. >> Is that right? >> It's in the five-year column. >> Yeah, that I understand. In the 5-year plan, should it be in 2728 starting in 20728 or remains to be seen. >> So you were the one that questioned in the beginning, right? Let me just review this with you. Okay. >> Sure. So, we got the first truck authorized. >> Yes. >> In this truck, Paul put it in in the 5-year capital plan so he can take that and put it in next year's budget to plan for that second truck. We don't have

168the money appropriated now to put that truck in. >> Okay. Because I I thought it was supposed to be ready in a year. That's [clears throat] why I'm asking the question. >> It's ready in 2027. >> Yeah, that's a year. >> So, 20 August of 2027, >> right? So >> year and a half, >> right? >> So >> do you understand this whole thing now? Do you understand? >> Well, again, we're planning for the budget for 2627 and then the next year after that is 2728. So is the 2027 Which budget are you talking about? >> I just explained it. It's in the five-year plan. It's in the capital plan and a five-year plan. Paul's planning to move that that expenditure into next year's workshop session. >> Okay. So >> without doing that, we have

169no money to appropriate it, >> right? >> The very question you brought up a couple months ago, >> right? Well, we didn't have the money appropriated until November for the ladder truck either. So, uh, so that's why I'm asking the question. So, so it's in the five-year plan, which means it's not budgeted. It's just potential. >> Nothing in the five-year plan is budgeted beyond exact. So, that's >> it's in the five-year plan to be budgeted, >> right? >> That's the way it works, >> right? All right, >> Chief Janice Chesy, Assistant Chief Naples, we appreciate Go ahead. Sorry. >> If you don't mind, Chairman, and again, thank you for the opportunity to speak. I understand that your job is extremely difficult. You have department heads that are coming in front of you that are asking

170for for a lot uh as prices increase, as the needs increase. This is a phenomenal presentation that the chief has put together. I've had the opportunity to listen to a very similar presentation that he did last year in front of you all here. Um, the fire department is truly the safety net of the community. I've been here for nine months. I had the opportunity to work underneath the chief's leadership along with Chief Edison and a phenomenal group of firefighters, men and women here that I have seen working just closely next door in the town of Hampton. I've seen these firefighters struggle and suffer mentally, physically, and give every bit of their heart to these community members, to the to the lives here in this town. with three losses. It's taken a big toll on them

171both, you know, mentally and physically. There's responsibilities that we have to uphold and each of them do that with the pride and the dedication that we all expect, but they're tired. They want to see some support. I understand a lot of this comes with a financial impact on the town and on the taxpayers, but the taxpayer payers also, they have expectations. We need to not only meet those expectations, we want to exceed them. So, all I can ask for you is please consider the presentation that Chief gave you today, consider these firefighters that are going out and responding to our community members on their worst day and to also be able to give them the support that they need. So, thank you again. >> Thank you, assistant Chief Naples. >> Uh again, thank you, Chief

172Janasheski. Uh thank you to the board members are here. Uh the roughly dozen or so career members are in the back. We have at least one volunteer firefighter here as well. One of the 13 or 14, I guess, right? Um, and yes, we'll obviously take that into account. So, appreciate it. And with that, um, we'll close the workshop for the day. >> Thank you all for coming. >> Thank you all. >> The preceding program is brought to you in part through a grant from the town of North Haven. Watch town meetings or other videos on demand at nhtv.com.