001Good evening everyone, it's 7:00. I like to call our meeting to order for our budget workshop. Please stand if you can for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> [clears throat] >> All right, sir. So, we're going to Good evening. 57, the book. What? 57. All right, let's get right started, Tom. Welcome. >> [laughter] >> 5 seconds behind. What page are we on, Tom? 57. All right. Everyone on 57? I'm there. Okay. All right, continue. >> This is the we're starting out with the public works director budget. This has in it the director and the assistant. Then uh So, one of the main things in this
002is the hazardous waste collection for the whole town. So, this is a dues We have dues that cover the operating cost by the hazard the hazardous waste household hazardous waste program. We are part of the the lower River Cogs program. Um and then we also when those programs are run So, there's a fee that we have to pay to be part of it and then there's fees that we have to pay per the residents that what they bring in. Um during the this year the River Cog had a 30% increase in their disposal costs in their bid going out. They are going to subsidize some of the fiscal 26 and the fiscal 27 with some of their funds. Um they had told us to go up about 15%. Uh I think we put in around
00312 and 1/2 based on where we anticipated we were going to be. So, that's what's in this budget. Budget page 59 is the highway budget. So, the highway budget is made up of our highway personnel. Uh it has their overtime for non-snow removal. Um service contracts have things like first aid kits, fire extinguishers, fuel management system softwares, HVAC, uh generator services, service contracts, uh as well as others. Um One of the other areas uh that we we're seeing an increase is the storm water monitoring. That is the MS4 requirements continue to be strong, they continue to be requirements all over the board there that that the public works team has to work on. Uh conference meetings and dues has an requested increase in this as well this year. We're trying to send a few of
004the gentlemen to the tree warden training as well as there's a forklift and uh some backhoe safety training uh programs, aerial bucket truck uh safety training that they're requesting. Uh equipment rental is is just an item that continues to um uh repairs and rentals is a something we see increases everywhere on everything we try to accomplish. Um electricity we spoke on that before. We have the electricity outstanding the contract we had nice of contract with the NG for multiple years uh pre-COVID. Uh post-COVID went out to bid and uh the new the new contract is is there. It's good contract still, but uh just just you know higher than than we had had the four years ago. Uh heating fuel, you know, propane costs continue to be uh high-ish ish. So, we have some money
005that are requested there. And uh raw materials are raw materials for the the town what they work on. So, it's a 3.89% increase. Tom, hold on for 1 second. Um board members, so if you have questions as we hit each topic, uh hit them then um instead of saving them for the end. So, if any questions, all right. Uh everyone good with this particular budget? Okay, page 61 is vehicle maintenance. Vehicle maintenance has two uh personnel within that budget. Uh there you see an increase here in the overtime line item. Um And that was some of that was uh in anticipation to attempt to perform some of the undercoating on certain vehicles within the town. It would have had to have been um upwards of over another three to possibly more money to do all
006the all the vehicles, so they want to see what they can accomplish uh with uh with the amount that they put there with the within a somewhat reasonable increase in the overtime and then uh work through that process. Um That's really the change in that budget. All right. I have a question. I so why does it have to be done in overtime? You want to speak to that, Jason? Yes. >> Yes. The reason we perform the undercoating on overtime is just because it takes uh two or three hours to do, um possibly four hours. That would be time that we would not be able to fix uh vital equipment. You know, we're not going to undercoat a vehicle to not fix a dump truck or a loader or any other vehicle for the front line
007system. So, we do it on overtime just as preventative maintenance. Thank you. So, that's really more or less the changes to that budget. Budget 63 is the town engineer budget. This is our town engineer Jacobson is our town engineer. There are many tasks that are performed uh annually. Um the main increase in this year is a uh MS4 uh requirement that's coming down. They're saying that there is dry weather sampling that needs to be included plus labs sampling of outfalls uh the discharge to impaired water and that's a additional labs required for that. There's also mapping of storm sewer uh in the urbanized area for watersheds. Um estimated around $15,000 uh between the two line items. We're trying to accomplish uh that. You see that as an increase into for six and then 3806 for
008five and then Jason's going to try to accomplish the remainder within that number. So, that's why there's such a large increase. It's specifically to that new requirements that are uh that are that are out there. So, I have another question, Tom. Um and I wrote this, so I got to make sure that I understand the context of what I was when I was reviewing this. So, in this particular budget, you know, when you give us the the monthly thing that you go over, there's like so much of the current budget remains there like in this current year. Like why is that? And this is up, you know, cuz it's what, 20% increase here, but if you go to the you know, the budget thing that you give us on a monthly basis, much of the
009current budget remains. Is it cuz those things just aren't paid yet or Yeah, it would be things that weren't paid yet today today. Um or there's items so in this in scenario here, like we were uh there's a $15,000 increase of which we're only going up 11. So, he thinks he may be able to accomplish four of that within the line item that he already has in there. And then the remainder is uh are are are things that we continue to to have. Um as you can see like the budget in the past two years have been at 68 and 63. So, it's it's one of those budget we try to increase the budget because we spend the money. Um but this is uh actually for this specific reason there were specific requirements that were
010new. So, we were asking for the new money except for we thought he we could try to accomplish maybe four of it within the money that we had already had. Okay. Mhm. Thank you. Street lighting. So, street lighting um we went up 4.8%. More or less this is we're trying to figure out with the the the the change in the supply. Um the change in the supply contract was about a 15% increase. But uh you know, we were doing pretty well within the 2025 number, so I tried to base it off of that with an increase for the 2027 number. Um and uh hopefully we will hit within the mark there. But it's one of those ones where you got to pay for the service. Um and uh we've been doing pretty good with the
011LED lighting conversions that we had had. But uh this you know, the change in the supply will be uh you know, it's a big number. Uh page 67 was the uh grounds maintenance budget. So, the grounds maintenance department has uh the the actual four employees that are our employees and then there's a the small percentage of a that goes for the full-time supervisor's salary that's within the Board of Ed budget. Um and so that's how that budget's always been. The the the the supervisor is in the Board of Ed budget. The employees are in the town budget. It's kind of a way to share the the burden there for us uh in the department. And that's so so the salary for that line item. Now, their overtime does include their snow overtime. So, they their
012this is regular overtime, snow overtime, any overtime that the grounds department goes into grounds. Um and then that was really the uh there's not too many other changes within that. It's it's a a slight slight increase in equipment uh rental and repair. And um and then and then supplies for equipment supplies, um we we they they do a lot of their in um the in-house improvements and they they buy the equipment to um to make some of those improvements to their equipment as well as just the actual supplies cost. Um as you can see as we've had challenging times meeting that $8,000 number. So, we had a increase that by 2,000. Other than that, there's really no change in this budget. Tom, I just have one question. This is in general. Sure. What did we
013use for cost of living for this year? Um we're we're in a negotiations for that right now. So, there's a we know we have an estimate within the budget, but you know, that's a negotiation. It's an item that hasn't been negotiated yet, but There's a 3-day accrual in there in in all these budgets cuz there's a possibly 3-day accrual. So, we allow that as well. So, the uh the same group of guys, these four guys, they're they're basically doing the sports complex and if you will the fields at the high school. They do all town buildings, all all town buildings, all Board of Ed buildings, all fields, all parks and rec, every every anything that's grounds. They would they would you know, do the work and then me is the supervisor to that group. And
014he's paid on the Board of Ed side. The uh page 37 is the town building maintenance budget. Town building maintenance budget has uh three employees to it. Um then then uh having challenging meeting with the overtime with related requirements to storms um and various uh needs to come in often as for for alarms and other um any any other need that would cause them to come in. Um sometimes it's when some of the buildings or the parks need to be cleaned. So, there's various needs that would cause them to come in. So, we'd ask uh for a $1,500 increase here in the overtime line item. Service contracts uh going up slightly here. More or less HVAC is one of the main considerations. It's kind of like eat a lot of them in HVAC components. Through
015town, this also would have managed um um some first aid. It would uh fire extinguishers fire alarms um some of the uh any any type of service uh uh contracts and uh ser- some of the some of the equipment related to those service contract repairs. Um equipment rental and repair uh there was a $2,000 ask here in this line item. Just [clears throat] again, it's it's repair costs continue to escalate um anytime you you you uh call people in, it's just that it's a it's a quite a bit higher number than than it used to be. So, Tom, is there a there's a supervisor of this? It's not Bob Shay has the schools, right? >> So, there's a there's a a person called the lead man. And that would be Dave Bukowski and he gets
016a stipend to be the lead man or a He's a leader. There's a stipend that he is paid annually for that. And then uh building supplies is another area where we see increases. That's any type of supplies that we need we need to build, to do projects, to do any of the you know, any more or [clears throat] less any of the maintenance that they're they're doing. Tom, electricity we've hit the electricity components. Mhm. And um for the purchases, they're looking they've been trying to acquire a carpet cleaner for for quite some time and that's in that $4,000 range. I just had a question. I know it didn't increase from last year to this year, but this cell phone used like 2 years ago and then you like doubled the like Yeah, so that's a
017maybe whatever shame on me a little bit, but there's uh you know, there was people that that fell off that. I didn't do a very good job of re-updating the people. I just recently did that. It was about a 2-year period where there people were gapped. Just with other things that I had going on. I didn't to renew the contracts with them. So, that happened. I think I renewed most of the people that were supposed to renew up in uh in uh January of this year. So, that's For the service of the cell phone. That's going to jump back up to the people that you know, it's going to jump back jump up where it you know, closer to where it should be. The reality is that >> Yeah, yeah, it's just that it's been
018low for the past couple years cuz of having been paying the cell phones that maybe we could have should have would have. Okay. So, Tom, just a question. So, there's you know, if we look at like some of these items that there's building supplies, uniforms, pagers, telephones, cell phones. Obviously, pagers are gone. But is there what when that money gets spent like at this line item uh it's there's someone on the Board of Ed really doing almost the same thing, right? For their spend, right? Or is is it all We don't have a shared services if you will. Right? I mean, somebody's looking at let's just pick on cell phones. There's somebody looking at cell phones for the town plans for as needed in the town and then there's somebody else looking at it at
019the Board of Ed. Board of Ed. I mean, in that scenario, Board of Ed doesn't have very many cell phones. >> just for example. We So, the person that's paid the one cell phone that we do have for the Board of Ed is on the our plan. That gets allocated to the Board of Ed, so that goes through my I approve it. I manage it with the people. So, yeah, it is Maybe a bad example, but building supplies. It Well, I mean, they're they're different buildings, so I mean, it doesn't it doesn't they don't really correlate. You know what I mean? You have schools, all the different schools, and you have the town. So, Jason runs the town side and uh director of buildings and grounds uh Shay runs the schools. >> [clears throat] >>
020So, they're they're they're you you you have multiple schools that are doing things and you have the the Board of the town is doing things. So, that's the answer to that. Okay. Just just maybe in general, like if you look at some of these and if this is not you, right? Cuz you're just counting for it. But it becomes it's almost like there's there's duplicate activity. Maybe I picked the wrong example with a cell phone, but in general, right? It's [clears throat] almost like you know, you got a home that's married filing joint, but yet you know, the wife has the YouTube TV and the husband has Xfinity. You know, as opposed to everybody just having Xfinity. Somebody has a Verizon plan, somebody has the AT&T plan as opposed to a husband and a couple
021having a family plan. It's like it just seems and I I realize that I'm not It's just I understand I I understand what you're saying, but there are very you know, and it depends. I mean, there's some things that that actually should be this could be possible cost-saving measures, but I mean, we do oversee I mean, I I I I approve many purchase orders for the Board of Ed. Um approve many for the town. Mike approves all of the ones for the town and the Board of over $1,000. So, we see what they're doing and we see what we do and we do try to share um contacts and and agreements when we can. Um sometimes the Board of Ed will get a much better price that they're only allowed to get because they're education.
022There's numerous things that we can't do because we're not education. They don't allow that. They don't allow us. They don't allow us to have the same rep. So, we could have a a rep at SHI for for communications. There's a rep for the Board of Ed. There's a rep for the town. They cannot They don't They won't really let us have the same rep. I asked to do that. There's some of them that will. Some companies that do and we do have that. We have some positive savings. But they you know, they they're if it's a you know, there's certain things that are school, certain things are town. Uh and then and then they have certain setups that are different. So, they would maybe have CN Network, we may have Comcast. We may not have
023CN. They may have something else. So, there's there's there's multiple different things. There's multiple different uh systems in place. So, I mean, uh I mean, that's all I got really for that answer there. All right. Thanks. All right. That's all I have for town building maintenance. Uh snow removal. This was just more or less we just put a percent increase on this to try to move this needle. Um you know, it's one of the ones where it's uh the the the road material cost continues to go up. The the salt continues to go up. And then clearly, you know, it it's all dependent upon the year. You can have a year where we're at $60,000 and then we have a year like this year where we're in the 150s. Mhm. So, but we try to
024move it up at least probably at least like the cost of living plus you try to do it cuz most of the time when the guys are working, they're working overtime. So, they try to do it either time and a half or you know, you try to use some of that like double time and a half rate. So, at least you try to do that on on what expect to increase it over time. So what we're trying to accomplish in this on this task. So that's where you're seeing the 4.2%. I think that was the remainder of the items that in the general fund we had hit all the other uh cycle. So we're going to go um probably best way to do it is to go through the expenses and then we can flip
025back to the revenue. So on the sewer department it'll be page 1 114. 1 114 You going there? 114 All right, beautiful. All right, then. Sure. So I mean the the sewer is made up should have three main employees and then half of an employee. Um and then we have the related insurance related and and other benefit costs related to them. Um service contracts is a is I think it's is is is is a matter of asset. It's some HVAC work. It's Hawk. And then there's about a $45,000 number that should be for um TVing the lines. Uh I think we've had two years now that we have not accomplished that. But again, we're we don't have we're not hitting the revenues. So this it needs to be built into the budget, but it's you
026know, we haven't haven't done that. Uh so that's where you're seeing the differential there in the from expense to budget is about that that that that difference. Um We're trying to keep the main remainder of the other costs fairly consistent to where we were. Um The one you'll see that we're going up quite a bit on is is the electricity. Uh And then uh some miscellaneous is related to permitting. So you'll see some increase in permitting. So there's So some of that is the area some of the areas seeing you see a little bit in the the medical insurance went up. You have the employees. Um you have the and then otherwise not really changing too much in this. You're changing electricity and some of the medical costs and then uh a few minor other
027changes. So that comes out to the 1.4 million expense. And then the revenue um some shortcomings in in user service charges to come up with that. Um and as well as in a little bit in the interest and leans trying to estimate there. And you know, actuals coming closer to where the actuals the actuals were. Um so the electricity No, I know they're all up and I totally understand that. This one just seems maybe it's just percentage wise or something. It seems like a bigger jump than any of the other ones. Well, it looks like as you can see in 24 when the demand when the supply changed that really hurt us, right? The supply chain. Yeah. So we kind of missed that last year. Uh we didn't we didn't catch that supply chain increase.
028And now you're putting the Now you're So So that that the distribution the distribution costs. When they increase those distribution costs we went up. Yeah. >> We didn't catch that until in time. So we we budgeted like 137, but you know, we came in at 157. Now you're going up on the the actual >> Yeah, the Yeah, I'm seeing that. I didn't look back. The Yeah, I'm seeing you say that. Yeah, that was what I was like, "Oh, that's a" I just looked at the 137 to the 157. Okay. It's kind of the Yep. We got hit both sides. You got hit on the Mhm. The ones that now we're going to hit in our supply. Mhm. The So the uh the actual distribution charge was last year, not this year. It's going to be
029the supply from NJ is going going to go up. Mhm. All right. For the water is a page 117. So that'll have the supervisor will be in there. And then there's two two other employees and then the half-time billing assistant with the related um benefits associated there. Um service contracts you know, we're we're just jumping there. It's continual increase there. There's a lot of the This is This is a lot to do with labs. Both of them have labs that are quite substantial. Um Why is there Everybody else has medicals up, but theirs is down? Yeah, that was a it was I guess the the people that were got hired. You know, that was an actual you know, the actual the It was I think we had I think we had maybe a two-person in
030there or something and then it was a single Oh, it changed. >> Yeah. So I'd I I would I could double check that, but I I think it did. I think I checked that before cuz I was like, "Ooh, why it went down?" How about that? Is the Is the billing and the collections of the water and the sewer is that in here or is that is the person who administers that is that the tax collector? Uh no no, there's a the person that does that are in these two budgets. Right here. 50/50. Two and three. So they're they're both That person's split between the two. And then the And then the tax office has just the tax collector. Okay. We have the water that we anticipate for the the additional amount we need a
031slight possible increase from MDC. Um Electricity we're hoping we're going to be able to stay within that number here. Uh water supplies are going up uh 7,000. A lot of a lot of that are some of the supplies that are required for the some of the galvanized lines as well as just supply costs in itself and any of the repair work that these guys do continues to go up. Um we have the the the bond component of the note that we have outstanding and then the clean water debt is here. Um And then you have the capital. So that's a total of a three 47. Um how much longer do we have on that old bond for this? The old one? You ask those good questions each time. I don't even remember bringing it. Uh
032I don't have it. Okay. The those the top bond is is fairly new obviously it's in our second year. And then the this one you're you're right. That was So we did those High Street water mains. That would have been in the I think you still got a good just 10 or 15 in a uh I'll double check that. Similar similar issue here. Um maybe even a more pronounced in the revenue side here. You know, we're we're we're hurt here a little bit on the meter sales and then on the on the on the meter charges you know, I think with last year's budget we had estimated a slight increase in that in those meter charges that hasn't gone out yet. Um and then um meter sales is is is really the is a is
033a catch-all for the makeup for the expenses. So as you can see there there's a quite a large disconnect between what was actual brought in and what's a what's a you know, what what is needed to become in. So I mean that's something that the the water you know, you know, water water will need to continue to review and and then possibly consider. Page 127 127 is our resource recovery facility. Uh the miscellaneous component there that's some rental that we do for one of the dumpsters for the uh for clothing. One of somebody some of the entity rents that out. Um we've had some challenges in in getting revenues in on on the sale of metal. So we did drop that down uh slightly hoping to continue to get better collections in that. Uh we
034have had some better pickups in the subags sales to the residents. So that's a a positive. Uh bulky waste you know, we we still we're hoping to get to to that number. Um and then we have the transfer in. One of the things we have in the in the capital for resource recovery are the some additional funds for the containers. So when we went to get the covers for those containers uh last year what we put in uh the price changed and we weren't able to accomplish the that. So we're asking for another 8,000 dollars in efforts to try to get some of those covers uh for the containers cuz I think it's going to we we believe it's going to help in the what we're transferring out of the bulky waste. Uh but um
035so so we're trying to accomplish that. It's another challenging one where it seems like every time we go back to get the updated price it goes up. So, um keep keep keep working on that, but we need to get the additional funding to be able to to to purchase those items. So, the the the payroll is made up of the two employees um that were here that overtime is for them or for others that may have to cover when they're out not anything or not at work. Um service contracts is the majority of this is is related to the the grinding we could we charge the brush grinding in the service contracts. That's where the majority of the cost and that there's also contracts for some of the software that we have and some of
036the maintenance agreements that we need for the for the containers and the compactors. Uh bulky waste rate the rate is going up for this year that we're going to have to pay on the distribution out. So, we we bumped that just to kind of go with the increase in the the the percentage the the dollar value increase there. 788 788 we got the $4,000 bump there in the capital. So, I mean that's that's kind of helping driving that as well as some of uh some of some of that with the medical, but it's the uh it's um you know, the the actual 4,000 for the capital is helping driving that up a little bit there. Building maintenance, uh this is a fund that we have that's a very helpful fund. We put 41,000 in here
037between the town and the board and each of the schedule 41,000 we're able to you know, accomplish projects that are just a little bit you know, generally they're more complex than um than building than than just normal repairs, but you know, they can be for for usual repairs once we ex- spend our global budget for for building repairs, but uh those are those are important things that we can accomplish uh to get to get some projects done. So, that's a that's a very helpful matter. There's something we put in yearly. Um where you going? What was the biggest expense? 24,000 I was going to ask you. That was 232. Believe it was the I believe it was a component of the roof there was parts of the roof uh there was HVAC component of the
038roof replacement at the highest at the at town hall. So, that was a component of it. And there was a the project we did at town hall. So, that's a 24 25 you're asking? Yeah. I'm not coming to right now. Let me think on that. I'll How many buildings? Yeah, I mean there was some of the some of the roofing was done in one out of out of the capital plan. And then some of it was done out of uh out of fund 11. I know that was some of that. So, there was it probably was the was probably a good part of what was the chimney. Page of is the uh parks and rec program. Definitely been making some improvements within the program kind of growing getting back uh some revenue was a challenge
039after the the COVID era um and it keeps keep working toward growing that. So, we had some positive growth uh last year and it continued to strive to you know, to get some positive growth again. Um payroll is made up of uh it'll be made up of the director the assistant temporary payroll is for the kids blast program teen recreational payroll is for all the other recreational programs throughout the year. Um Those are the associated costs. Uh service contracts mostly is um the the software for the licensing and service for the contract for the software as well as some additional software for um uh checking doing background checks and and related components for that for um for you know, for the various programs in place. Some of the changes in within the programmatic there was
040increases and where there was kind of changes within the revenue stream we had to kind of go up in certain areas where where uh where we went up a little bit in revenue we had to go up a little bit in the expenses or if we went up in the expenses we try to go up a little bit in the in the revenue side to help on that. So, that was a 399. Uh teen payroll continues to go up every time they increase the minimum wage it's a it's hard cuz it keeps it jumps these these you know, we have the the scale and then like it usually knocks the first three people out of the scale and then you got to you got to you got to jump the scale you got to keep
041jumping the scale. So, that has been a challenge. I see you I know I know you see that every time we we re-approve the payroll the payroll plan I see you see the number and then you know, in Jan- in in in January you'll say oh well, they're they're on these three numbers and they're up here uh because cuz of that the jump in the minimum wage. All right. Um page 135. Uh so, we have capital. Um so, we like I said the last time we try to keep the capital close to where we were last year. In twofold one was because we did that because debt had gone down. So, when you lower debt you try to keep capital up. Uh you try to do it like it was a one-to-one so that you
042don't build operations off of debt reduction. Um cuz at some point you're going to turn around and have the debt back and now you're you're not you you know, you're you're at you've you've built your operations up and you've um and you've and you've lowered if you did that and you lower capital at the same time then you know, you're building additional problems. So, that was the the attempt. Um and then there's I know there's a question out there for the they're going to go out for the board of ed. So, um I think that was another reason that we had we had try to keep it consistent there. So, the board of ed had some food service needs that they do and and that's twofold it's it's some of it is in equipment that's
043needed and it's also kind of per the agreement with Sodexo they're trying to supposed to put about 12,000 in a year which I know last year they did not. So, that's you know, kind of part of that as well as there's equipment specific needs. The town wide upgrade for technology they need the new the hotspots within the the schools. Um those those those technological spots for their Wi-Fi it's one of the big drivers of how they do the education. They're getting aged and they need to um be able to do a replacement on on those items. So, that's the board of ed at 150,000 thousand. Uh the town the fire department you know, requested a ATV replacement and a for the forest and suppression. The each one of the ATVs that they have now is
044getting aged and you know, it's it's costly to repair and they do need that for um various rescues. Um two of the I know two of the buildings definitely have older generators company one and company two. Um they're going to try to replace one of the ones this cycle and then hopefully do another one in the next in the cycle or soon thereafter. But that's a definitely needed there. Grounds maintenance needs a an infield groomer. This is for all the their various ball fields that you have. This is a required piece of equipment that helps uh take care of the infields um that you have. Uh website redesign their library it has a very active within their their website and there are specific items that are to help with compliance that are out there that
045that they need to do a redesign of their of their website. Um police uh continue to try to help replace vehicles and we as as we definitely have a shortage of vehicles within our our town fleet. The some of the vehicles we have are very aged on the town side as well as some of the vehicles that we have in the police are getting tired. So we we did buy some last cycle. We should have just gone and asked for another one this cycle. Hopefully we'll be able to pass another vehicle down to get rid of some of the older vehicles that we're driving in our town fleet. Um for the further security upgrade they needed to have an improvement for the keyless entry within the the uh the the building here at the Buck
046Foreman building. So they had need need that component as well as uh cameras and recorders within the interior of the building uh needed to be replaced. That's kind of part of their continuing uh the continuation of the certificate certification program. And the and the DPW the vehicle that the director uh was driving um needs to be replaced. There's numerous HVAC upgrades. Um and this one here was a 36,000. That was I believe specifically the intent is for the highway garage. Right. And then the town highway garage parking lot needs to be seal coated. And then there's a where we store our liquid storage tanks. Um where we have them right now is is not really the best location as it's near aquifer protection zone. So those need to get relocated and and then uh with
047that you need a bigger uh container is the people that deliver that type of substance want to deliver it to a at once in a larger facility so they try to keep the cost down of the deliveries and people that get the substance uh we need to get a larger larger tanks there. Um as well and and then get that out of the zone [clears throat] where it shouldn't be per se. Uh town wide computers this is the year for the um the appliances [clears throat] that we needed to get for our backup solution. So every four years uh it's a it's a pretty substantial cost. Usually you know it's I think those are in the 70 75 to 80,000 range. That's a and then we have the normal item you know the normal amounts
048for computers that we we we have to have in play. But uh those are it's a when we get the negotiation on those it's hard to know exactly what uh what that cost will be and it's also based on the amount of storage space that we need. Um and if we start to you know if we it seems like as we continually store it gets to be a bigger number as more things become electronic and stored that way. Tom is that a combination of onsite and cloud storage? Yes that is a combination of onsite and cloud storage. Correct. >> Peter. What was the price? Thank you. Thank you David for that. Not to add money to this but did we ever address the fire suppression in town clerk and the town? So so that has
049been That was something that to me just was just So so the money was put in place for this year. But it's been a continually we're continually to working through that with the the vendor that we had um initially thought we were going to use our normal vendor. There are challenges with the solution. And we weren't able to get like a further um we're we're he's the the the people that are in place and they're helping run this are trying to get that updated quote that updated value. And at the time we went out to budget we didn't know if it was going to be higher or not. So we didn't put more in cuz we were so unclear of the of that. We we thought we had this nailed down. And then there was
050some complications into the process flow that we had. And I know that the fire marshal the public works director the town clerk all these parties have either all working this process. Um cuz I know we were we considered it add to it. Because we we we you know we have the number that we have there uh but we were just we're we're we're not sure if that was meeting our objective and then there was there was complications when we tried to accomplish the task. So there is a possibility that at some point you know we may have to come back and ask for more money on that project. But I don't think we're at the point of knowing that number. So if that so if they did so I get it right? I mean the
051the party was starting they weren't here. Right with the with the solid plan if you will to go forward right from Sounds like some tech We put the money in for last year's budget. We put it in last year's budget so we thought we had the plan all set up. Right. But when they when they went to continue to discussions there were complications to the plan. And the only reason I know about that item is is I was actually on the long term capital at that point and it was to me it sounded like something that we absolutely had to do. So if this if they do get their if it does become solid and they do have a solid plan. I I do understand a little bit of the technical issues that they're that
052they're dealing with but Yeah. That's a big deal. Yeah right. We can't put sprinkler heads there. No that's the point right? But just from a procedure if we have this this amount of money in our capital and it's we're now approaching month 7 8 9 and somebody doesn't spend it can we re-appropriate? Is that within us? I'm talking to the selectmen. Oh. Or maybe you can No I mean normally normally things don't lapse for at least five years. So because cuz there's many reasons why you don't spend money that's in capital and capital is not supposed to be meant to be spent immediately. It's meant to be meant to drive a project. You know what I mean? You you create it. There's many years where you do not um you do not uh cut it
053or or or leave it because you may grow a project. Um so generally you wouldn't do that. You would probably ask them to accomplish the task if it's able to be accomplished. Um and that's how it would go. We we probably wouldn't cancel it you know if if they didn't accomplish anything in the five years then in theory the the the you know it would lapse. But this is year that that with the money that was allocated last year was year one. So you know but we what we didn't want to do is want to obviously don't want to rush somebody to do something that's a bad solution or or you you know you pay for something that's a bad solution. We don't want to do you know that's definitely not what we're looking to
054do there. We just we have the money we had money set aside that we thought was the number. And then when the guys went to to to find it out they you know things didn't happen the way they wanted to and and Reagan talked to that matter. So uh after that project was funded last year in the fall we started looking at two options. One is that obviously staying with the sprinkler system. The second one would have been a dry chemical system which is a total flood system. Unfortunately that price got crazy because what we would have to do is try to um basically seal off the whole vault um to allow that system to to obviously work the way it's supposed to by total flood the room with a chemical fog that obviously would
055douse the fire. So that came into a bunch of problems. We got pricing on how to seal the vault door. Okay? Cuz don't forget the vault door but then we would have to have another door to seal that. And with the way the design is right now with the clerk's window and another window to put it in the other vestibule outside there it was just going to be too much money. So we finally got a price from our service provider for sprinklers. And Jason and I have been working with a couple other vendors. The first price came in and what happened was that we thought they were going to be replacing the entire pipe system. If we're going to do this let's just do it right. We're talking 100 ft of pipe maybe 200 at
056most. So um then we were told that that price didn't include new pipe. We were going to use the existing. So then we had another couple vendors come in probably what three months ago now? Jason somewhere around there. Two other vendors came in told us they'd have a price in two weeks for us. We've gotten nothing. So so right now we're still trying to just work this out with what we can and obviously make sure that we're getting the proper you know system along with a price. Um the driving force behind some of the issues is that we're going to be going with the pre-action system which means the system doesn't go off automatically okay? Once the the the the sprinkler head fuses or defuses right? So there's a double system in place here where
057it's going to take one smoke detector two smoke detectors then it would release the system and the water for water to flood the obviously the the area. So that requires a cabinet outside of the sprinkler system that's all run electronically and with the fire alarm. So to put that in the existing furnace room is complicated because they come as a cabinet single unit. So now we have to break that apart to put it in our space in the furnace room because we just don't have enough room there. So there's a lot of moving parts to it and that's why we're it's not finished to date, but um we're still working, you know, on trying to get, you know, these prices dialed in and um it would be the time to do it now because we
058have to drain the systems and do everything and that's something we didn't want to do in the winter either. So So hopefully we'll have an answer for that and you know, the issue is is that the one number we have is very close to have very little contingency um if we go with that service provider. So that's why we're just trying to maybe get a couple more options out there for price. So but we're working on it. Thank you. Thank you, right. Thank you, right. Okay. I remember where I am was. Uh town-wide um revaluation um we did issue uh I believe we issued the contract for the revaluation. That had used up the grand majority of our funds. Um and we we uh there are possible things that may also come up additionally with
059revaluation and then also we do in the revaluation number we do often cover the lawsuits associated with the revaluation. We need to have funds in there to for this for these for these additional items. So uh the the uh there is there is definitely a need uh for this $50,000 for the uh we have to build that that money in there. So once you do the revaluation almost immediately suits therefore come. And uh we we have to have the money in place for that. Uh town-wide uh the the the phone systems um another project that we can keep working through this. Um the the some of the quote money that we had gotten had come back higher. We're trying to get this uh get this accomplished um thinking uh the generally this would be where
060the we would do the uh the the the high school middle school complex would be this component and then we would also then lead into our side. Um but uh that's uh so we have the phone systems that we're asking here for another $100,000 for that. Um Now Tom, is that it? Um is that we're looking at is that the SIP trunking over there trunking now? I know we had talked about that. Um It would be line side. Do you want him to come up there? Yeah, I think Yeah, come on. I'm sure there's people interested at home. Yeah, well we were talking about um if you go to that trunking we had some problems with the when the high school went down. And there's ways that we can do that and especially potentially use
061our dark fiber network. Um our inner connectivity to provide some backup Yeah. so that we don't have the schools go completely dark. So Peter Lipka, director of technology. Yes, SIP SIP trunking is an option to use to transmit your phone calls from within the building to your external either callers or recipients. And there's a number of options for SIP trunking. Could be a dedicated fiber line directly into say Frontier's communication center. And then there's other things that are called SIP trunks act similar in that um but they don't go to Frontier's communication center. They would go over the internet connection to someone else's data center where they will manage the packets and ensure they get from caller to receiver in a timely fashion. So it sounds like the same experience you've always had with a
062telephone system. So with that said, we are going to investigate what options for resiliency and redundancy do we have? And there's a number of ways you can do it and we're we're going to investigate them all, come up with analysis of how can we get the best um resiliency at the best cost. So those information gathering and studying is underway. It's not completed yet, but we are working feverishly on it. In fact, I've had a number of meetings just within the past week on this topic. So yeah, SIP trunking is going to be will be our primary mode of telephone communication moving forward. So we're going to be eliminating the on-premise that Not necessarily. We do not know yet. Uh there are a number of options on the table, a hybrid on-prem which would also
063rely on a SIP trunk to get out and uh failover connection to uh say a Frontier data center. Yeah. Um in the event that the on-premise system goes down temporarily until parts can be provided um we would be able to administer and manage calls uh so that people could still get them on their cell phone. They wouldn't get them within the building for example because you know, it's down, but they could be automatically forwarded to another telephone number. So is the price that you're putting together is that price going to include replacing whatever on-prem unit you're going to be putting in or is that you're going to use the existing one? It it >> It would be a complete replacement. Yeah. With a new system with um with the with service, a full service agreement.
064We we can't get service for the equipment we have at this point. That's the biggest risk we face and that's why this is so urgent. If [clears throat] what we have stops working We're good. We're scrambling and then you have to make a decision quickly and quick decisions it's just you reduce the chance you're making the best decision. So we're doing everything we can to get the information we need to make the best decision. And we're doing uh we're learning. And uh Jim's been very helpful. Great. Okay. So Tom said this is only for the school side. This doesn't improve anything on the town side. So we're going to start with the schools. It's our biggest need. That's our biggest risk. It's the most likely place where if our existing system will fail. However, once
065we have it in place we can leverage it uh for emergency utilization. We can expand that quickly if we had to. If the other system that is located based in town were to go down. So it is only meant to serve the high school and middle school facility at this time. But uh we're the design we're doing is going to be expandable and it will be expandable at the rate we can afford. So question the floor. You're requesting the funds for anything town-wide? Y- yes. Yes. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, sorry. New to this. Okay. There's ability to there's ability to have a saving where you're able to do something down? You would. It would be true. All right, you can bounce. Yeah, and it fortunately it just it it's more expensive than the preliminary estimates projected
066it to be. And so we have to come and ask for more money for that. Okay. Thank you, Peter. You're welcome. Much appreciated. And the so on the remainder of this page we have the low SIP projects. Um 30,000 uh for parks and rec we're requesting. And then uh 67,500 [clears throat] for overhead doors various buildings. Those look like they're going to be the And then um doesn't seem like there'll be too much more left over if if if there was then there'll be a things like the some of the fire companies, but um that's that. >> you planning for that, Tom? Say again? How many doors planned for that? Jason. All these were done on the old town highway And is what would be sparking bread? So the So the garage doors are 15.
067Is it I think the parks and rec is paving at Middlesex. Um Oh the well the parks and rec is I mean parks and rec has numerous projects. >> Yeah. So this right here is just So we've always uh out of the allotment for low SIP we continually add 30,000 every year. That's kind of what kind of what our kind of town thing is we do. And then from there [clears throat] we would, you know, they they would once they get the project and then they would try to come up with the project to do with the project over there. They have numerous numerous projects here. They would do the the best ones, but the some of the ones that to your point that are that are approved recently by low SIP one was the
068parking lot at the Middlesex Avenue and one was the um the entrance way into the riverfront park. And uh some of those were utilizing the old funds and then now low SIP kind of switched to a newer method and some of that will be the new method. So um working our way through those process changes. Uh but that's uh And then sometimes they keep they they give you a number and then they give you additional number. So that's a challenge as well. Well they they come back with a with an additional number at some point or uh sometimes I try to adjust it when I'm doing the budget if I know the number change. This was what the governor's estimate was when we when we did it here. So they the the remainder of the
069line show the the plan. There's a few other areas that I didn't tell you what they were and I will find those pages. Page 141. So the sewer plant requested funds in their budget. Um no, I'm sorry. I I I let me go back one. Page 140, resource recovery requested $8,000 in their budget. And that was to replace covers and tarps containers. And more or less that's going to be for the the the the covers. The covers for the containers. Cuz they've they're replacing the replacing the container that that that purchase order is issued. It's just they don't have enough money for the covers. Um They would love more money for containers, too, but I mean I was there's not only have so much money. Uh sewer department >> money from the state for the
070the bottom of the barrels? Not for the covers, I don't believe. I don't believe so, no. All right. The uh sewer We have used that for like waste buckets on Main Street. You know, the the the kind of the designer ones or the bigger ones that are out there on Main Street. It's more like it's kind of like for littering. And um uh and um So you you you can do it you can do it to clean you can do it to buy equipment such as cleaners like at the the big uh Street sweeper. Street sweeper and the related brooms, things like that. You can definitely do. So The uh sewer uh plant um they uh had requested $380,000, 360 going into the plant and system improvements. 20,000 for additional SCADA funds. Um and then
071on the water it was 20,000 for facility improvements which they definitely always need more than that. 130,000 for galvanized lines replacement. Uh 25,000 for the re-meters and then 75,000 very important one for the reservoir dam. Got to get that um repair those repairs completed. Uh it's been about 2 or 3 years now attempting to get enough funding for that. Um so hopefully this this one will get us over the the the cliff here where we can get that uh get those get those uh those dam those dam improvements completed um so that uh you know, they'll all help us be in more compliance with our uh our uh evaluation that's that's done and required. That's what I got for you guys. Comments? Thanks, Tom. Thank you very much, Tom. >> Thank you, guys. Any any
072other questions for Tom? I didn't answer once from other There is none. Um Andy, I do have a question for you. Let me come up real quick. With the 30,000 in what what's the next project that you would want to see? So uh the Parks and Rec Commission is going to uh next couple of months here do a subcommittee to re-evaluate our capital improvement needs so that we're going to have a more up-to-date priority list. Some things though are over Branchville Park the outfield fence is falling down. Um that parking lot should be repaved. Um there's you know, potential for projects like irrigation at Middlesex Ave. The nice thing about low sip is as long as the state approves it as a general park improvement they'll end up reimbursing the town. So the short answer
073is >> [clears throat] >> commission and I are going to be getting a new priority list for those projects, but some of the ones I just mentioned are definitely on the radar. Mhm. Okay. And and while you're up there um can you give us just kind of a quick overview on the budget you have some highlights maybe that we should be aware of. I know your revenues increased, but anything you think not only us, but people at home are watching cuz I know you do a lot there and I don't think most people know all the a lot that you do. Awesome, yeah, thank you. So I will say um when I first took over the Parks and Rec budget it was -34,000. Um last fiscal year it was in the black about 20,000 and
074we're on track to continue to to grow. Um we're seeing registration numbers increase substantially for our programs. Um you know, programs like the Kids Blast after school program that was negative um when I took over. Um right now it's profitable again. Um and we're seeing that trend as well with summer requests. So I mean long story short the programs are generating revenue, fulfilling uh essential needs for the town. The big challenge is like Tom mentioned the uh minimum wage increases for our our department that makes that uh you know, teen rec payroll line item kind of challenging, but we we make sure that we keep on top of it. Mhm. Um if you had to look in the future for the next year or two, um what are the programs that you see the most
075growth in and what can we as a board we could fund extra dollars to or if we could support you, what would be the things that would grow the revenue and make it more you know, profit driven? Um you know, I think dedicated space for Parks and Rec would be nice to generate revenue. Um I know there's a lot of um plans that need to be figured out as far as the school uh consolidation plan, what to do with this, but I mean the short answer is if we have more space for programs, we can run more programs. And our programs are are profitable now and um also affordable for residents. Um so that that would be my my main thing. I know we've had challenges at the schools are great. They're great to work
076with. Bob Shea always makes it easy for us to to get in the schools, but there's times when you know, we have uh you know, reserved a certain space and we're told you can't use it anymore. So that that kind of makes it challenging. So if we have a dedicated spot for Parks and Rec, you know, possibilities are are endless. Okay. Anyone have any questions for Andy? You know about his budget number or anything else? So he's getting like 45% of his Mhm. through fees. I mean we wouldn't want to fee our No, of course not. residents to death, but 45% of your budget is coming from fees. Mhm. And then we're dropping in the other 300. Mhm. Got it. Mhm. Okay. That's good. Thanks, Andy. Thank you. Thank you very much. We appreciate all
077you do. Thanks. I would like I just wanted to do a I I wanted to just say out loud. I remember I I handed out that information that uh Bob had Bob had asked for last time about uh the van collections. Um So uh just going over the past couple years here. That was in '23 we got about 4,825 in van collections. '24 about 4,420. In '25 it was 4,575. As you can see in '25 we bought the um the the the Pacifica. We did have a grant of 25,135 from ARPA funds that helped uh do that. So the the outlay there was around the 47,911 for the for the Pacifica. Of which we had the 29 uh thousand uh $25,000 grant. The difference was covered by the funds that were there. Um it was
078about a 30 3,000 uh 33,000 remains. Um It was a it's a we we looked a little bit at that. It was I think the the the um the buses they jumped up with their own Mike was like around 100 and 20,000-ish now. Two thousand. >> Where they used to be quite quite a bit lower than that, but after the after COVID the prices on those went way up. So and then you got to I think we looked at when we look back at the older grants it was about a 20 or so thousand match. So kind of like what you kind of got there is sort of like if you went for a new a new bus that was part of the grant, you know, you might have the match if they were able
079to win the award, but you got to win the grant. So that would be something that Mike and Sarah would work on in time. That would be the big bus if you were trying to do that. So um if you have you don't you don't have enough money to purchase a Pacifica. And then if you did do that anyway, you would utilize all the funds that are there. So the next time if you had to try to uh buy a bus. So I wanted to just share that cuz you know, you had asked me to. And then uh on the property rental last year property rental income was uh 485,108.50. The Brownstone Exploration Park was 346, 790 of that. Oak Hill was 92,741. The 47 Main uh see because it was only a few months
080of the year was 5,033.3. Mercy was about 5,500. And then the various others were around the 34,000 mark. Um some people wanted to know a little bit about um the fluctuations of of Brownstone Exploration. So just wanted to share the past few years there. '24 was around 384,000. '23 around 305,000. '22 around 309. '21 was was '20 was around 408 and then 19 was around 395. So, haven't got to the pre-COVID years yet, but 24 got close. And then and then 25 dropped off a little bit. So, just wanted to share that information so you guys had it and uh Thank you. Thank you, Tom. Thank you, Tom. Um I see we have a captain here at the police department so uh I Captain, um Scott, would you mind filling up there to do some
081quick discussion about your department? It is page 50 and 51. Yes, good evening. Scott Cunningham, Portland Police. Just give a just a Completely just a quick highlight of the department Just quick highlight of your department um up to now and maybe some of the some of the changes you expect next year. All right, through the budget, but Essentially, with this budget we're submitting, we're kind of hoping to maintain what we have. Mhm. Be quite honest with you. If you look at you look at the line items, I mean, there's a big jump in that licensing software. It's like 36% jump up. Most of that is because our body cameras and our in-car recording systems, the licensing has expired. So, now we have to pay $200 per device to keep that going. And then we also
082had um additions for the cloud system for the record system. So, that uh and it is and as long with the 5% on every other software package that we have that they decide to bump up on us. That's really where that went. There's nothing special to buy in that particular package. Um as I go through the rest of the budget, it's really just a maintenance budget. On the capital side, Bobby, last year you asked for the car stuff. So, I did print some out. I made copies for everybody. You don't mind passing them down, Jim. I will. Okay. So, this is the list of our vehicle fleet. On the left-hand side has the total miles for the vehicle. Highlighted in red are the idle hours on the cars. And then it's just the rest of
083it's all vehicle information itself. Year of the car, VIN number, make of the car, things of that nature. So, why don't you peruse through that? If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer any of them. I just didn't put the new vehicle information on there. You know, you have about 6 months of road uh road mileage on them right now, which is probably in the 5,000 mile mark area. You notice uh 3/4 of the way of the page down on the page, there was a new engine put in that one particular or our Dodge Durango, the 2020 at 15,000. That was under warranty. So, it there's there's only 15,000 on that particular car right now, even though the odometer reads 63. 2020s, for some reason, there's something special about them. I cannot get
084the idle hours off of the off of the settings. And then as a general rule, you're talking 10 to 12,000 a year per car, which is why I mean we're looking at right now probably 18 months out before we get a car on the road if we were to order one. Um no, I'm sorry. Six six to eight months. Uh so, if we get a new car, you're going to look at 6,000 miles on our oldest car that's on this fleet right now, addition. And the oldest one or the most used one is the one that would be removed and passed down to the town. But if we wait another year, then you're going to look at you know, you're looking at 15 to 18,000 on a car. Do you have any new vehicles that
085have not been delivered and put into service yet? No, all our all the new cars are in service. Um you you can see that they're all marked new car. There were three of them. Um including the K9 car that's now out there. Mike Revicky did a terrific job. He was able to get a lot of the items for his rear of the K9 car and it the heat system, the whole the whole unit donated to him as a demo so that he could give a write-up and advise the company improvements they may need on the company on the equipment itself. So, saved us a lot of money right there. Um which ones of these are your spares right now? On the back side, Bob. Those are all the spares over Those are usually spares, okay?
086Okay. One of them I think I think the top the middle one I think might be in use. All right, so the the spare may be on the other side. But as a general rule, those are the spares on the back. Okay. Are the spares the ones you usually earmark for hand-down? Correct. One of those. Yep. With the exception of the um K9 car. That's not going to go regardless. We'll keep that. >> [clears throat] >> And that should be the Dodge. I don't think it's marked on there. The top one, Dodge Durango, that's the K9 spare. As you see, he puts a lot more miles on his car just for training purposes. He's training staff on Branford twice twice a month. So, and he generally takes his car more often than most guys cuz
087he likes to have the dog with him should he get a call. Thanks, Scott. Sure. Anything else? Um body cameras, you guys have had them for a while now. It has Uh well, so we're going into year four body cameras. As a rule, I talked to Roseanne Mayo, she's our rep. They usually last 5 years or so, 5-plus years. So, I mean, that's if you look at the capital years to come, there's a big bump. I think it might be next year we're requesting. That that's the the replacement of body cameras and in-car recording systems. Um I'll tell you what, we got a real smart guy in our in our fleet, much smarter than me. One of our new guys, Donald Scranton, he's been working on some grants and he just applied for a grant
088for body cameras, which would come through next year, but it's good for I think 12 months if if we get it. So, we started filling out He started actually took it upon himself, started doing some grants for us and hopefully some of these will come through. That was the software for Is that going to stay the same for the newer cameras or are we going to depends. We're going to have to we're going to have to check. Right now we have a everything's on a server for us, so we won't lose anything regardless if we change systems. Um there's a lot of companies out there that offer a lot more for your money than Panasonic does. Panasonic's always improving their their gear, too. We're going to have to look at price prices for all the
089systems when the time comes. Get quotes from all of them, see where we end up. Well, that's a that's a little ways off. Thank you. Yep. Thanks very much, Scott. Oh, can I steal this mic for just like another minute? Off budget? 100%. I just wanted to let the board know I'm going to pop my phone up so I don't get any of the information wrong. Two of our guys are being recognized by various groups in the area. Um one is Mike Revicky, our K9 SWAT guy. And let me get to my Here we are. Uh he's being recognized by the city of Middletown for a SWAT call they had on July 16th last year where there was an intoxicated male with a firearm. He was a military guy. He was due to get deployed.
090And uh they were able to resolve the issue safely, no one injured, and everything worked out fantastic. So, he's going to receive a a an award for that, him and his team, next month by the city of Middletown. And then the other one is Officer Scranton is receiving an award by by the Women and Family Center to honor those who who contribute to sexual violence victims advocacy. And that's for the work he's done on a couple sexual assaults that have come his way already. Um he's put a lot of time. Granted, everything we do is really team effort, but he went above and beyond what he really needed to do to assist these victims and make sure that they were safe and secure and they felt like the department was doing what we needed to
091do to to get an arrest. And it worked out. So, he's due to get to receive an award next month as as well. So, two really good guys. Good job, gentlemen. Good job. Well, they've got great leadership, so Yeah. Yeah, okay. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Chief Wheaton. How you doing? Rob Wheaton. Fire Chief. So, I guess I guess if you can just kind of give an overview of the department and anything that we need to know this last year and going forward. So, the department's doing well. Um we've actually picked up uh tended to generate a lot of activity with the the younger crowd, the explorers. Um right now we've got a quite a big handful of them. Um and our hopes is that they'll stick with us once school's out
092and become full-fledged uh firefighters. But um the department as a whole is doing well. Um our budgets reflecting that, you know, I spent some time on this and we're really just trying to exactly hold the budget that we had last year without too much increases. Um it's it's hard being in the uh emergency services. Everything that you ask for is almost a necessity, it seems like, you know, it's it's hard to budget things that are are mandated or or necessities. Um so we have a strong budget going forward and we'd like to kind of keep it where it's at. Not [snorts] too many issues. If anyone has any questions or anything they want to talk about, we do have a new fire truck coming. Uh Fire Marshal Ray, he's on the committee for that. That
093should be here within a few weeks in Connecticut and then it's just going to be finished getting outfitted and then we should see it within a month or so in Portland, probably. That's great. So so one of one of the things that you budgeted this year is uh we've added um stipends to the uh I guess nine lieutenants and three of the captains uh as a way to not only um you honor what they did. I know last year we did the change to the members and bumped that up, but um I thought that was something that was uh that was appropriate for for what they do and and the volunteer work that they do. So So I can speak on that uh briefly. I I I can't thank you enough for the the little
094boost um that you're able to to give the department. Um the stipend that we receive is just a small monetary amount for the the work that these individuals volunteer their time and energy um and often are put in chaotic, hectic, dangerous situations and and it's a nice little thank you uh from the town. So we do appreciate that. Um for this year and last year's budget, I kind of been pushing for my line officers to receive a little extra uh stipend, I guess you would say. Um on top of being a volunteer, they're required to do more than an average member. Um so just out of the blue, you're required to do a a duty night, 12-hour shift per week um is something that you're required to do as as a line officer. Uh we
095have three fire stations in town and they're each run by a captain. So a captain oversees an entire firehouse, all the apparatus in the firehouse, and all of its members within that firehouse. The lieutenants are the ones that are in charge of uh the firefighters within their firehouse and um will run scenes you know whenever we have them. So there's a lot that's expected of the leadership of the department. Um and so I was just kind of pushing towards a little extra incentive for them. We can't afford to lose what we have. We can't afford to lose the members that we have because without them, we don't have a department that volunteers. So uh appreciate you guys really looking hard at that and and you know pushing it our way. That'd be very appreciated. I
096think I think most people in town know that um you and your volunteers do a great deal, but uh it's in the news every week or two, something else. I mean, the rescue recently on the Connecticut River. Yeah. Uh and the the capability you have to be able to handle that and do something. So >> Yeah, it it's unique, you know. Uh you know, the the police and the fire anything can happen at a moment's notice and and with us not being paid or on staff to to drop whatever it is that we're doing at that particular moment to run to an emergency to try and save a life or or aid someone or provide relief um and there's a lot to be said about that and we did have a a very good experience
097that was a positive outcome recently where there was a kayaker that had gotten distressed on the river. Um the kayak capsized and he was able to with the grace of God find a a log or a tree that was actually stationary in the water and the current brought him to that and he was clinging to that waiting to be rescued. So um our guys jumped in action and were able to get out there and scoop them up and bring them back to safety. So We truly appreciate what you guys do. Not a problem. Any other questions on the on the budget or Um I got for you and Ray cuz you're both here and it's not really this budget, but maybe a future budget. What do you want to go Um do you see any
098major repairs cuz I know we talked about keeping engine two as a the old engine two as a spare. Is there anything big that that'll need to keep it around for a while? So we're still trying to figure out the best course of actions, right? So I I can read between the lines. If we do keep another truck, what does that mean? Maintenance, right? We have to keep it as if it were able to respond almost. So there's a lot of testing that would have to be continued, pump testing, hose testing, ladder testing. The basic things we do annually for all the other trucks would have to be done for that as well. And with thanks to to Bob and Ray, where our fleet is very much newer now than it has been in years
099past. So so the Yeah. Well, I'm yeah, the committee and and the board members um have approved and we've gotten a very good fleet right now. So some of the big major problems that we've experienced in the past, that's not going to be the case. Hopefully, fingers crossed, you know. Um the the older trucks aren't around anymore. So we're hoping that repairs will be minimal. Um what's your plan for the ladder? Cuz I know it's getting near its 20 years. >> Yeah. So Ray can come up. We actually have a small committee um that's working on a refurbishment plan. Okay. So if we were to purchase a ladder today, you're looking at we'll just say $2 million, give or take a couple hundred thousand dollars, right? So our ladder is nearing 20 years old. Huge
100mile mark for any fire truck, a ladder truck. Um at that point, it's critical to make decision if it's able to be refurbished or need of replacement. There's a lot of talk about the need for a bigger ladder truck in town, that is. Um and and myself and the committee, we kind of our ladder truck serves us very well. For what we do, the fires that we respond to are normal residential houses. The terrain that we have in town, the country, it it fits well, it works well. We have a plan in place. We've got um it it it went out for evaluation and we're looking at doing a refurb. So what does that mean? Basically for a few hundred thousand dollars they go through take a look at the truck, repair anything that would
101be in need of repair, and essentially you can get a sign-off basically saying that it's good for another 15 to 18 years um instead of purchasing a new one. So that's kind of the route that we're looking at. Uh we are just waiting for a report back from Pierce, the manufacturer. Um we have our dealer here in Connecticut, Firematic, that we sent it out to to get a an eval done. I don't know, Ray, do you want to speak on that at all? So yeah, couple weeks ago um we met with um well we got stood up, but anyways, long and short, uh we evaluated the truck ourselves um and then coincidentally that same day I got a call from we were supposed to meet the owner of the uh dealership and he never showed
102up, but um one of his service uh managers called me coincidentally cuz I had been in contact with someone else. So the long and short was that uh we had scheduled uh after looking at it ourselves, we've got a punch list and the following Monday they took it up to Rocky Hill for a day to evaluate it. Um so they'll do the eyes on with it here and then they have a refurbishment facility in I think Leroy, New York. Uh so what's happening now is that it's in the process of taking what they found here and put together a parts list, pricing and everything else to get back with the numbers, so we'll have that for next year. Um because obviously it's it's not going to happen this year. But um the initial report is
103is it's it's in good shape. Um I was more concerned about maybe some of the undercarriage stuff and that's why we've been really pressing some way of either fluid film or crowl, something to start taking care of the vehicles, you know. I talked to Bobby about it. Work with Jason on it, you know. That money is money well spent, so we're not going to have to keep coming back every 15 years to replace a million-dollar fire truck, right? Let's spend the five, ten thousand to get the fleet undercoated annually, you know, whether it's through Jason or we got to take it to a contractor cuz they're out there as well, but but anyways. So anyways, that report came back really good. Um they're going to add paint to it as well, which just so we
104can have the whole number, but our opinion is probably and that's a big number. Paint today, a normal engine's probably 30,000 to paint. The ladder would probably somewhere in upwards of 70 to 80,000. So we think the body's in good shape where it probably wouldn't need paint. Um the undercarriage looked pretty good. Um there's a lot of um out of date equipment with regards to operations on there with the ladder um lighting system um hoses, uh all the hydraulic lines are original. So that's going to be the really big thing. The good news is that it's an aluminum ladder and there's no painting um to do with that. Uh inspection's a lot easier on that. So um you know, we were talking a couple hundred thousand, but we're hoping that maybe this thing would be
105like 150, you know. Crossing our fingers. Um but overall, I mean, even interior, uh everything on the truck is actually in still in really good shape. So, that's why we're really trying to push this to maybe get done out of the 20-year mark. It's 18 this year. If we can get it under that number and probably do it next year, which I know there's some money in the budget for capital next year, but it probably would be the ideal thing to do cuz as you know, nothing's going down. It's everything's going up. So, and the one thing would be is that you're probably would be looking at a 6-to- 10-month window depending on the severity of the of the of the refurb. I don't want to say refurb. It's really just going to be some
106cosmetic stuff, but a lot of equipment replacement with technology stuff and all that. So, Ray, is that truck going to be able to accommodate everything we have at the Brainard lights? The our existing ladder? >> Yes. No, and that's what the chief was getting into that. I mean, you know, we've had people say that to us and it was brought up at the last zone in meeting. Um, they don't build fire trucks to reach the tallest buildings cuz they only go 100 and something feet, right? 110 max, whatever, right? So, those buildings are obviously protected with sprinklers, fire alarms, building construction. All these features protect it so you can easily exit and safely exit. So, we're not going to Our opinion is is that like the chief said, there's no reason for us to spend
107$2 million on a 100-ft ladder truck when 90% of our fires end two, you know, one- two-story residential buildings where we can get a 75-ft ladder truck in the driveway. So, we have Middletown mutual aid. This building's fully sprinklered. Um, it you know, to me, I I don't think it's money well spent. 75. What's Middletown? 100. Yeah, why? So, it's only 25 more. >> We don't plan on pulling people out of windows here. I mean, elevated stream seeing point, I mean, it's a it's a you know, sprinkler protected building so we shouldn't ever see such a devastation. Not to say that it can't be overcome, but from that standpoint, all your people should be out of the building and that's that's God be's what we're we're hoping for is that you know, that kind of
108thing. So, we wouldn't like I said, you you go to Middletown, there's going to be buildings there that their ladder truck doesn't, you know, it can't provide service to the highest point. So, you know, that's anywhere you're going to see that. Hartford, Portland, so. But, we just think that that truck's worked the best for us and I think it's going to be worth that money, you know, 150 to two, you know, next year if we can get those numbers and we'll obviously be happy to share with them and you know, something we can look forward to. So, ultimately, we can double its life expectancy for a few hundred thousand instead of Yeah, I don't see why we wouldn't be able to, you know. So, we're meeting on top of waiting for these numbers. Thursday, I'm
109meeting with the committee who just did Newtown. Their ladder truck's 100-ft. It was a 90 It was even older than ours, but they spent 3 to 400,000, but it was a full paint job. It's a steel painted aerial. So, they did a lot of work on it. Obviously, it was older and needed more work. So, I'm meeting with them to go over the process, which they're telling me it was 12 to 16 months. But, that's from from them evaluating it. Parts. So, the part process and everything is timely, too. So, that's kind of what pushes this out. But, their their their renovation refurb probably was almost 10 months and then 12 months. So, Chief, in this budget, do you have the fluid film or undercoating? I know we put it in public works for the
110overtime. But, do we have anything in here to for material? No, honestly, no, there's not. Um, we could take it operationally out of my operational line item. I didn't really know where that was going. Didn't account for it, but it's something that I wouldn't have a problem trying to to fit into this budget if we can go that route. Um, if we're talking about the fire department buying the the material and them performing the labor, then you know, that's that's not should not be a problem. Uh, Jason, do you have an idea of what it would cost the fire department in material? Yeah, okay. We buy it in July and August and September. Yeah. All right. I just want to make sure that that gets on the plan for this year. That's all. Yeah. Okay.
111So, I think um, as far as the ladder truck, I think it's a solid plan. I think it's a good financial decision for the town. You know, I wouldn't if we really needed it, I would push for a new ladder truck. I don't feel that we need a new ladder truck, right? I think that it's aged well. I mean, Pierce is top of the line brand and when they got it, it was top of the line and they still hold the the market for top of the line. And it's aged very well. So, if we can get away with a simple refurb of a few hundred thousand, maybe, to to get us 15 more years, I think that's a home run for the taxpayers, for for myself, for you guys, for everybody. All right. Cool.
112John, any questions at your end? Oh, sorry. >> [laughter] >> Okay, he's here. Oh. Not yet. Unmute. Unmute? Yeah, unmute. He says he's good. Thumbs up. Oh, you're good. Oh, you're good. Okay. Okay, there we go. You got me? We got you, yes. Yeah, no, no, I it sounds great. I'm happy to hear the plan for the truck. Um, everybody's been great. The sound has been good. I can hear you all. Uh, no, I you you guys hit on all the high notes. Good to me. Fantastic. Um, Chief, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you, guys. I appreciate it. I I didn't bring any of my stuff up. No, no, that's that's great. So, I'm going to bring Jason up as the last person just to see if anyone had
113any more questions for him. It's a big department and a newer there might be some things maybe that weren't covered. And then after that, I think we're done and we can talk a little more about the next meeting. So, Would you Would you like to Please, yeah, that'd be great. That was a nice I thought you were saving the best for last. We We We are. >> [laughter] >> Um, as you see the budget like just like the police and the fire, it's pretty straightforward. There's not you know, minimal amount of increases. A lot of it's salary and health care. Um, you know, we didn't ask for any big ticket items as much as we would like to get another, you know, dump truck and more equipment. We kind of cut that out just to
114keep it low. There was some talk about maybe looking at some used uh, you know, state surplus vehicles. Um, going to go look at some next week just to see what what's available and what the prices are, but we really didn't encompass any of that in here. Some of the engineering costs that Tom kind of mentioned, the MS4 requirements, the state is starting to require that we GPS all our storm drainage and map all our bridges and culverts. So, that's going to be an additional cost over the next few years. So, we're just trying to instead of come at you know, come at the budget all at once for that big chunk, just do a little bit at a time so it's not as bad. So, that's you know, why that engineering percentage has gone
115up so much. If there was one area that you could add to the budget that you think would save you long-term and is there an area that maybe we could we look at for example, I know Bob and some others thought of ways to maybe share services um, if anything one way or another either within the town or maybe with other towns. It's been brought up before. I know there's reasons why we haven't done it in some cases cuz it hasn't been equitable, but if you can kind of touch on that, I think people that maybe are watching may not understand the complication of sharing services with one town to another, but maybe there are some opportunities. Yeah, so I guess I'll start with one one area that I wish I had a little bit
116more money for would be just the cost of our a heating and cooling systems. It seems like they all seem to kind of need improvement all at the same time, you know, as as town hall, you know, Buck Foreman, some of the firehouses. So, we're trying to get that stuff fixed instead of band-aided. The one of the line items for the capital improvement was the heating system on the old side of the town garage is original from 1965 or 63. So, we want to replace that, make that a little bit more energy efficient. As far as shared services, we have some shared services already that you know, that we use. We have some equipment that we share with Cromwell and you know, Middletown helps us out on a bunch of stuff. It's kind of hard
117equipment-wise because who who maintains it. We maintain our stuff to a little bit higher standard than other towns do. So, we we tend not to Not that we don't like to share, we like to be a 90% uh, holder of the equipment so that we know that it's getting cleaned and and maintained. Um, so in that aspect, the other aspects of you know, I wish there was a way for us and the Board of Ed to pool services as far as you know, contracting as far as you know, maybe heating contracts or oil contracts, but you know, Tom's right. They get you know, a little bit special pricing than we do cuz it's an educational thing. They do help when I'm looking for somebody as far as a contractor son for maybe some kitchen repair
118at the you know, senior center or something oddball that we normally don't use, but you know, the the pricing doesn't always carry over. But, but Bob Shay helps every time you know, we call. So, in that aspect, it's very good. Any questions on Uh you might be the one that asked this for the for the fire department for the generator. Is So I was I I took that as portable generators. I don't know if that's if that's true or not. I don't know. No, the generator >> Oh, it was for the building generator. Or yeah. What size is that for the generator? Do you know off hand? And that's for one fire station. I know um during the summer time you guys did some sealing um in work with equipment world with a material from
119Bob and Yeah, so at the high school we did a seal coating right around the roundabout in front of the high school. We're going to use that same technique and material to seal coat uh hopefully the town garage parking lot to give it a you know a few more years extra life. Um to see how that process goes if that's something that we could be doing on our uh municipal parking lots to to prolong the life of them. The uh we did a kind of a little demo where some of the guys came in on a Saturday, you know, volunteered their time to learn how to use the machine, learn how to apply the material and uh you know, moving forward now we could do that ourselves instead of hiring out contractors and just rent
120the the equipment. I got to give a shout out to Bob cuz Bob was pushing for that for a while to make that happen. So That's great. So Yeah, it looks looks really good. Excellent. I know you guys do a lot with the with a little, so We do. We do. All right, I think we're good. All right, thank you very much. We appreciate you being here. All right, and last but not least All right. Our wonderful librarian So I promise I again, I promise I will be brief um because I'm the last dance on your dance card. Um so for long range capital um we're requesting an update to the library website. It's about accessibility. There's really specific parameters as far as like contrast of colors between the like a font and a background
121and having all text for every single one of your images. Um so the the software that we're using right now doesn't supply any of that, doesn't check if we're compliant with any of that. And so um but in order to find to do a new software that does it, you have to have somebody build out the website and then that that check for any changes you make into make to a website is built into it. So um we asked a bunch of other libraries what vendors they were using and we got a quote from um so that's what this is representative of for one service provider. They're they're all about the same amount of scary um for me cuz my budget usually isn't this big, though. Any questions about that piece of it? I'll be
122back for all of the deliberation, so if you come up with something, I'll be here. >> We'll come up with something. I know you will. Yeah, just so you know, the town's website hopefully out of date as far as accessibility. Hopefully today. Accessible. Should be. Yeah, yeah, accessible. Absolutely. It makes So selectmen just said that uh our town website needs to be looked at to be able to be brought up. I don't think people knew to do that, so I So we need to look at that as well. Good. Any other questions? I don't have any. Okay. Uh I'm Jen Billingsley, the library director also, so Michelle Sapaugh doesn't get mad at me that I didn't say my name. Thank you very very much. All right. So we're almost done. Good questions, Tom. Thank you
123very much for walking that through. That was that was really good. I appreciate everyone of the of the managers here coming up and uh doing an explanation. Uh part of it is for us, but also part of it is for the residents watching. Um we've been trying to get more people to participate in these kinds of things, get involved in the town, understand where the money goes. And I think once people understand all the things that are done behind the scenes, it makes it easier to understand why the money's being spent on the things that it is. It also gets them involved in asking questions, so I think that's really good. Um any comments room tonight? Everyone satisfied with what they heard? Questions they asked? No issues at all? Okay, good. So tomorrow night we
124have both a um a budget workshop scheduled as well as a board of selectmen meeting regular meeting. Um we always we always budget an extra meeting after these two meetings uh in case there's something we didn't cover. So what I'm going to suggest is I'm going to suggest that the budget portion of tomorrow's meeting we don't need to do cuz I think we've covered all the budgets that we've done today and the last meeting and we just uh do our regular meeting tomorrow night. So it's on the schedule and it's always put there as a placeholder. Should we need Now we can still discuss things about the budget in formal time, we can talk about it generally, but next week is where we start the deliberations. So it's what we did last year uh a
125number of the years that that I've been involved in the board here, but um what is the feeling from everyone on that? It was that at 6:00 we just use our normal 7:00 Yeah, we we still have 6:00 It was still a 6:00 a special meeting. That's a special Yeah, but at 7:00 we had both meetings were scheduled for 7:00 and the way it would work is if we have other discussions, if we want to uh talk about the individual line before we go into deliberations, we would start with those discussions at 7:00 and then we would adjourn and then start our board of selectmen meeting. But uh the last couple of years that we've done this um we haven't needed to go into that third one. But we can. I don't want to I
126don't want to make a decision for the board. It is up to our folks here. >> Just you're just confirming that everything was presented that's supposed to be Yes. has been presented as of now the departments and everything that we Yeah. The purpose of these two meetings is we're covering the budget in full. We've had um Tom explain all of it through. We've had the other departments. Um I've added a little bit extra by having the department heads go up there. Uh we normally haven't done that in the past. I thought it was important that we get as much explanation and get as much information uh passed around. So that would be normally the plan and then we we keep a third one the one that would be tomorrow night as a as a backup
127as a placeholder. So that that's I believe the intention having talked to Sue and having spoken to Susan before uh her doing this and Ryan, that was always the intention uh of the meetings the way it was set up. But it is up to the board as to the decision of the board here. It's set up to be slow and painful. 100% We've We've got the slow and the painful. So but I I'd like to speed it up a little bit and get right to our next meeting and then deliberations next week is where we get to work out working on the brass tacks and get this done. So with that, it gives us a chance to review this, you know, in even more detail and okay. That will get get kind of organized for
128the deliberations process. What about Ben? I know you're new. Thanks. Thank you very much. All right. Uh you I have my ordinance to discuss. We we can do that at our first meeting next week. >> [clears throat] >> So I think that'll be fine. I think that'll be fine. All right, with that we have a motion to adjourn. I'll make a motion we adjourn. Second. We need We need two quick seconds. Ready? Seconds. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed to second motion?