[0:07] Good evening or good afternoon still I guess.

[0:10] And welcome to the Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026.

[0:13] Hopefully super short town Council beginning meeting.

[0:17] We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance.

[0:19] Councilor Foot, will you

[0:22] Pledge, allegiance, flag, United States of America

[0:26] and Republic One under God.

[0:32] Justice.

[0:35] Thank you. We'll do a quick roll call.

[0:38] Councilor Mills here. Councilor Webb Present.

[0:42] Councilor Chase. Good evening, councilor Flood.

[0:45] Hello, counselor Foot. Good evening.

[0:47] And Councillor Healy, are you online? Yes.

[0:51] Yeah, I'm here. Can everyone hear me? Yep.

[0:54] Yep. Okay.

[0:56] I'm alone in the room and I'm on Zoom just

[0:59] 'cause I have a work commitment a little bit later on

[1:01] tonight and I want to be able to get there in time.

[1:04] Okay, thank you. And good.

[1:07] Anything from the chair as well? So we just have one item on

[1:09] our our consent agenda this evening.

[1:12] Item 26 89, ordinance 2026 dash 0 0 4

[1:16] to adopt chapter 40 of the general code

[1:18] regarding electioneering at polling places.

[1:23] This will, this

[1:24] ordinance will have public hearings on both October 6th

[1:28] and October 20th.

[1:31] Is there a motion to accept the consent agenda? Move

[1:34] To move to accept the consent agenda.

[1:36] Second. All right. A motion by Councilor Mills.

[1:39] Second by Councilor Webb. That's the consent agenda.

[1:42] So I don't, do I have to do all call?

[1:43] Oh, I do because we have Councilor Healy.

[1:45] I was like, something's telling me I have to,

[1:46] but I dunno why on the motion.

[1:48] Councilor Mills? Yes. Councilor Webb. Yes. Councilor ta?

[1:51] Yes. Councilor Flood? Yes. Councilor Foot? Yes.

[1:54] Councilor Healy.

[1:55] Yes. And Chair Boats? Yes. Motion passes. Seven zero.

[2:00] Excellent.

[2:02] I make a motion that re we recess this meeting

[2:06] until five 30 this evening.

[2:10] Second that. Alright, we have a motion to recess

[2:12] until five 30 when our workshop

[2:14] with the Dairy School Board will begin.

[2:15] We will still be in a public session at that point.

[2:18] And we have a second on the motion. Councilor Mills? Yes.

[2:21] Councilor Webb? Yes. Councilor Chase? Yes. Councilor Flood?

[2:24] Yes. Councilor Foote. Yes. Councillor Healy.

[2:27] Yes. And Chair votes? Yes. Motion passes. Seven zero.

[2:30] Thank you everyone. We'll see you over at the other table.

[2:33] Seven at five 30.

[2:37] Evening everybody, this

[2:39] Workshop started.

[2:40] We've got members of the school board

[2:41] and the town council here tonight along

[2:43] with our superintendent town manager.

[2:46] Why don't we go around the table for introductions.

[2:48] I'm Michael Field, chair of the school board.

[2:50] Michael Flynn, superintendent

[2:52] of the Derrick Cooper School District.

[2:53] James Jane Simard, business

[2:55] Administrator, dairy School District.

[2:57] Jack Webb at Large Town Council.

[3:00] Aaron Spencer, town Council Chair

[3:01] and District one Counselor.

[3:03] David Mills. Counselor at large. Raymond Chase.

[3:07] Council at District Four.

[3:08] Charlie Port Town Council. Douglas Flood

[3:11] Town counselor at large.

[3:13] Mike Fowler, town Administrator,

[3:17] I guess you matter.

[3:20] Brenda Willis. School board. Karen Ram School Board.

[3:23] Jamie Caru, school board.

[3:24] David Clap, school board.

[3:26] Jenna Paradise, school Board Secretary Jen

[3:28] Au. School board. Vice Chair.

[3:30] All right. Thank you everybody and thank you

[3:32] for taking the time to be here.

[3:33] We've got a few new faces since we met this past February

[3:36] prior to a council meeting, so we're happy

[3:39] to welcome you guys here tonight

[3:40] before our school board meeting.

[3:42] Plenty to discuss lots

[3:43] of developments in the last seven months

[3:45] since we've last met.

[3:46] A lot of these things get right to the heart

[3:48] of why we hold these workshops, which is coordination

[3:50] and cooperation between the town and the school district.

[3:53] So I'm looking forward

[3:54] to a good discussion over the next hour

[3:56] and I'll turn it over to my counterpart.

[3:58] Aaron. Thank

[3:59] You.

[4:00] Yeah, welcome everybody. Thank you for joining us.

[4:02] I'm actually very excited to see a turnout of the public

[4:04] behind us here, so welcome to all of you as well.

[4:07] I'm looking forward to catching up

[4:08] and talking through, think what's going on right now.

[4:12] I think with that I'll turn it over to the mics

[4:15] and see where we go from here. I'll let

[4:17] Mike follow, take the lead.

[4:19] Okay. So for tonight's agenda, superintendent Flynn

[4:24] and I had kind of just brainstormed a little about,

[4:26] about some of the ideas that are relevant coming up for

[4:30] both of the bodies here.

[4:31] And, and again, I think the theme for all

[4:34] of this is coordination, collaboration.

[4:37] This is one town,

[4:38] not two separate governmental agencies

[4:40] we're talking about here.

[4:42] And I think the first item that is,

[4:44] is out there is just some discussion from an a higher level

[4:48] picture about for the public about what is pending in some

[4:53] of the recent legislative action.

[4:55] So obviously it house bill 1300, which is the

[5:00] going on the TA on the, I'm sorry, the general election on

[5:04] November 3rd, which there was a recent

[5:09] judicial decision which allows this to go forward

[5:12] for the November 3rd election.

[5:14] So essentially what's at stake here is a

[5:19] mandated tax cap for the school district funding only.

[5:24] That would not affect the Townside.

[5:25] The Townside is already under a tax cap.

[5:28] And I'll explain a little bit the mechanics in one

[5:30] of the later agenda items.

[5:32] So 1300 is something

[5:34] that the voters will have an opportunity to vote on

[5:37] coming up this November.

[5:39] Then you also have House Bill 1331, which is

[5:43] a local issue.

[5:44] It's an enabling legislation which allows for an action

[5:49] of the town council through a vote

[5:52] to potentially absorb the school district into the town.

[5:57] And the ideas of that,

[5:58] or the concepts of that would be a combined

[6:00] tax cap, if you will.

[6:02] So that's a separate entity just for full disclosure.

[6:06] But those would be working in that certain sequence.

[6:09] And so the town council would have some items

[6:11] that they would need to consider relative to

[6:13] if there were a petition to be received, how

[6:16] that would operate the mechanics of that.

[6:18] But I think that's for some later discussion.

[6:20] So I guess that with, with the backdrop, Mike,

[6:23] I don't know if there's anything else that you wanted

[6:24] to amplify relative to the school board

[6:27] and, and your side of things. Yeah,

[6:28] I think we're attacking it November and then March.

[6:31] Right. And two, two separate phase phases.

[6:33] More importantly, I think our board did a great job

[6:36] discussing it at our last meeting,

[6:38] more specifically on the lack of clarity

[6:40] that we're receiving both from the state,

[6:44] from DRA and then really with our legal teams.

[6:49] Some of that's becoming more clear.

[6:51] We feel like some of the math is coming into

[6:55] focus a little bit of the, of the baseline of that number.

[6:58] 'cause what we really wanna do and

[6:59] what we said the other night as a board is we wanna be able

[7:01] to provide the picture for the community on,

[7:03] on if this then that, right?

[7:05] So, you know, our board's been pretty clear on a target

[7:09] that's, that seems to be below

[7:11] what the anticipated number would be on

[7:13] that vote either way.

[7:14] But that's something that we're working on, on,

[7:16] on the administrative side.

[7:18] The 1331 is a, is a different approach, right?

[7:20] We, you and I have had meetings to discuss how

[7:23] that would look, what it would look like,

[7:25] but just to, to clear, to clear it up a little bit.

[7:29] That just proceeds with the next step, right?

[7:31] That doesn't automatically make that vote in March if

[7:34] that were to occur, it moves on to the next vote, right?

[7:37] The charter and so forth and so on.

[7:39] So that's kind of where we are on our side.

[7:41] But I think the board did a pretty good job discussing it

[7:43] the other night waiting for some clarifications on

[7:45] what the math would be more specifically on

[7:48] what that number should be.

[7:49] And then there were some other discussions on default budget

[7:52] if that's higher than what is voted on, what supersedes.

[7:56] So we're still trying to get some legal clarity

[7:58] as well. Okay. Yep.

[8:00] Alright. So I think that segues into the second

[8:03] topic in terms of town budgeting.

[8:07] So one of the things that the town has had a longstanding

[8:11] tax cap that goes back over 30 years

[8:14] and it's been implemented

[8:15] and I'm just gonna go through the mechanics

[8:17] of it real quick just so there's some basic understanding of

[8:19] how at least hours operates.

[8:22] So each year everyone's aware that the Bureau

[8:25] of Labor Statistics publishes data for the,

[8:28] what they call the consumer price index, the CPI.

[8:32] And so basically you look at the trailing 12 months,

[8:35] the difference between what there's an index

[8:38] and you create a percentage that you are allowed

[8:41] to go up on the tax rate, which essentially is your increase

[8:44] that you're allowed to go in your, on your expenditures.

[8:47] So for the town of dairy last year, that number was 3.3%.

[8:52] And so that drove us to how we calculated a bottom line.

[8:56] We incorporated all of our expenditures,

[9:00] subtracted out our revenues to arrive at a net number.

[9:03] So for example, as we go into next year,

[9:08] we set our baseline at $31,000,817 for,

[9:13] or $817,412.

[9:16] We're projecting the CPI probably is going to land somewhere

[9:20] between 3.7 and 3.8%.

[9:23] That could change in the final couple of months here,

[9:26] depending upon some of the world events.

[9:28] But essentially what our task is,

[9:30] when we set the town's budget, we will go forward

[9:34] and we establish a target of what we think

[9:37] that the spending is going to be based on.

[9:39] And so at 3.7, 3.8%,

[9:42] that would probably allow us somewhere in the range of about

[9:46] 1.4, $1.5 million of new expenditures.

[9:49] Now that sounds a lot,

[9:51] but when you really think about some of the things

[9:53] that hit us in terms of, you know, health insurance costs,

[9:58] things like salt, things like fuel costs, things

[10:01] that sometimes you, you don't control.

[10:03] And obviously employee costs being one of the largest

[10:06] pieces of our budget.

[10:08] All those things have to be combined within there,

[10:10] including debt payments.

[10:12] So that we arrive at that number.

[10:14] So then that number is given to the council.

[10:16] Oftentimes we start with a budget that is higher than

[10:20] what the tax cap allows.

[10:21] And then that gives the council an opportunity to go through

[10:24] and, and make some decisions about what services

[10:27] that they want to deliver, what things that they emphasize,

[10:30] what they're hearing from their constituents on, on that.

[10:32] So we're working on that process.

[10:35] Obviously the town's budget process

[10:37] is a little different than what

[10:39] currently the school district does.

[10:41] But essentially we have our staff working on our capital

[10:45] improvement projects.

[10:46] Now as we're starting to budget for that,

[10:49] the budget will be delivered to the planning board.

[10:51] I mean, I'm sorry, the CIP P'S delivered

[10:53] to the planning board in February

[10:54] and we deliver the budget to the town council by April 1st.

[10:59] And we work our way through some workshops.

[11:01] We generally vote in May

[11:03] and then that new budget begins July 1st.

[11:06] So we're on a fiscal year as far as that's concerned.

[11:09] So that's how our budget would work.

[11:12] Should either 1330 I'M 31

[11:14] or 1300 be something in the future?

[11:18] That is typically how we have rendered.

[11:20] It doesn't mean necessarily that that's the way

[11:22] that it would happen in the future,

[11:24] but that is the general concept of

[11:26] how the tax cap has worked for the town.

[11:28] So does anybody have any questions or comments,

[11:31] Mike, before you go to to that?

[11:33] I just, I apologize, we forgot.

[11:35] We have our, our, our other counselor here,

[11:37] counselor here is here.

[11:38] He just had a work commitment tonight.

[11:40] He's virtual, he is in in ether.

[11:42] But just wanna acknowledge that he is online so as well.

[11:46] Okay. I forgot that part. Alright, now questions.

[11:49] Alright, so yeah, if there's any questions, let me know.

[11:52] Otherwise we can roll on to item C on the agenda.

[11:56] Sure. So we're ecstatic that, not this meeting,

[12:00] but our next meeting will be finally rolling out our capital

[12:04] improvement plan that goes out to 2033.

[12:08] We had to make some adjustments due to the savings

[12:11] of the bond projects that are occurring

[12:14] significantly on the most recent at South Range,

[12:18] in which we had two separate PO projects

[12:22] that were anticipated that were combined into one

[12:24] with windows, doors, facade, roof.

[12:26] I know that sounds like a lot, but

[12:27] that all ended up being one bid

[12:29] which came significantly under what was projected

[12:33] when you guys were putting that together.

[12:36] And with

[12:37] that we are now developing basically an excess bond usage

[12:41] planned, which is gonna help pull away from some

[12:45] of the items that were initially on the capital improvement

[12:48] plan, which is great.

[12:50] So we're gonna be able to do some more jobs that,

[12:54] that are needed to to get our buildings up to a baseline

[12:58] and then that's gonna shift our CIP plan,

[13:01] which is also a benefit.

[13:02] 'cause then you can move those items, it's a living document

[13:04] up sooner rather than later.

[13:07] So that's gonna be coming to the board next meeting.

[13:10] And that will be living on our website for the community

[13:13] to see what the targets

[13:14] and goals are at each rain each facility

[13:17] and anticipated spending.

[13:20] We this past year put a warrant article on

[13:23] to ask the community to approve continuing add

[13:27] to our capital improvement plan.

[13:29] So that passed unanimously.

[13:30] So we were able to add $500,000 to

[13:33] that capital improvement plan

[13:34] and we went right to work this past summer.

[13:37] We changed out nearly 20,000 square feet

[13:40] of flooring in all the schools.

[13:43] So we were able to chip away at some

[13:45] of those CIP plans earlier.

[13:47] So, you know, Mike

[13:48] and I have talked about ma,

[13:50] our capital improvement plan becoming a big part

[13:53] for the community so that we can have those discussions on

[13:56] not not having spikes with our community members in regards

[13:59] to being more predictable.

[14:01] I think that's our real goal that we continue

[14:03] to say in the school side is we wanna become predictable

[14:05] for the community so that it's not where did this come from?

[14:08] Why are we, why are we asking for it now?

[14:09] So it's a little bit of the overview of what we have coming,

[14:13] anticipated it being done a little bit earlier,

[14:15] but that the, the savings

[14:16] that we had at our last facilities meeting,

[14:17] we really wanna make sure we use the bo the bond fund money

[14:20] to full effect.

[14:23] Okay. So I do,

[14:25] I just have one question on the tax cap fraud town.

[14:28] Sure. Have you ever been in a deficit?

[14:30] Like you've done this for,

[14:32] you said 30 years you've been under a tax cap.

[14:35] Have we ever been in a deficit from that?

[14:37] No. So to my knowledge there's never been any

[14:41] opportunity for an override.

[14:43] One of the interesting things that is a little nuance

[14:46] of the tax cap, let's say we have a benign inflation year.

[14:50] So we only only had, and we have had these

[14:52] where the tax rate can only go up by 1.2%, 1.4%.

[14:57] That sometimes strain your ability to do some other items

[15:01] for, for example, if you had

[15:03] a collective bargaining agreement where you had made a deal

[15:06] that you're paying 4% to each one of the members of

[15:09] that particular unit that continues on, that's a,

[15:12] an agreement that's been made,

[15:13] but your tax cap only allows 1.4%

[15:16] that has some issues within the rest of your budget.

[15:20] So fortunately for the town we've been able

[15:22] to put certain designated funds.

[15:24] So we have the ability in certain situations

[15:28] to utilize those funds as, you know,

[15:31] basically rainy day funds

[15:32] or un unrestricted fund balance to cover that.

[15:35] But you don't want to go to that well too many times

[15:38] because you deplete the fund balance.

[15:40] But to date we've been able to manage, and I,

[15:42] and I say this often, sometimes the town, you know, has

[15:45] to do without, there's certain things

[15:47] that maybe we don't have as many staff members as,

[15:49] as other peer communities would have.

[15:51] And I'll give you a good example.

[15:53] In the code enforcement department, you know,

[15:55] many other towns of our size have seven or eight inspectors.

[16:00] We were two up until July 1st, 2026,

[16:04] so we just added a third inspector for the town.

[16:07] So there's examples like that that maybe you have

[16:09] to be a little bit more lean,

[16:10] but overall we are able

[16:12] to deliver those services without going over the cap. Thank

[16:16] You.

[16:20] Okay, so to segue on what Mike had said, we,

[16:23] we were talking a little bit about the CIP project.

[16:27] So the town's process, again,

[16:30] we project out six years as well.

[16:32] So we will be looking, believe it

[16:34] or not, into fiscal 33 with our next next view on projects.

[16:39] A lot of what the town does,

[16:41] it's projecting a lot of equipment.

[16:43] So things such as, such

[16:45] as a fire truck might be $1.3 million

[16:48] with a three year lead time.

[16:49] Some of that has really stretched out

[16:51] because of some of the equipment difficulties.

[16:54] A dump truck might be, you know,

[16:55] a quarter million dollars now that we use.

[16:57] But we try to keep that rolling stock replenish so

[17:01] that we don't catch a year that if a truck is on year 11

[17:05] or 12 and it's starting to be a problem mechanically

[17:08] that we don't have a replacement in the line on that.

[17:10] So we rely on our department heads to look at that.

[17:13] Same thing with police cruisers.

[17:15] As far as major building projects we're, you know,

[17:19] we just finished the fire station at approximately

[17:22] $21.5 million.

[17:24] We have a 20 year repayment on that.

[17:28] The parking garage at Abbott Court

[17:30] that is also in a 20 year principal and interest payment.

[17:33] That project had a $23.3 million bonding

[17:38] issue or bond issue.

[17:39] And that was also, that's within the TIF district.

[17:42] So that is covered within the captured values of one

[17:46] of the two TIF districts that we have in the community.

[17:49] At some point we're gonna be looking at

[17:51] perhaps a, a police station.

[17:53] We haven't worked out any of the details on, you know, when

[17:56] and how, but I think that would be an example of

[17:59] how we would want to coordinate discussing

[18:01] with the school district what are your big projects when,

[18:04] how, and, and what those impacts were so that we could,

[18:08] you know, figure out where we would be

[18:10] and where we would want to be relative to that.

[18:12] Otherwise, most

[18:13] of the large projects are under the enterprise fund,

[18:16] so they're water and sewer projects.

[18:18] So those are generally covered by the rate payers as opposed

[18:21] to the tax levy.

[18:23] So that's just a general idea, but as we move forward, Mike

[18:27] and I, you know, are committed to talking

[18:29] through the various items

[18:31] and the timing of that just for the purposes

[18:33] of the confidence that, you know,

[18:34] we are coordinating those items.

[18:37] So. All right. Any questions on that? Let's go.

[18:40] Good. Just quick,

[18:42] how much is in your reindeer fund, just outta curiosity?

[18:45] So as it stands right now, we are forced to retain

[18:49] by our policy $13.5 million.

[18:52] I think we, the last audit,

[18:54] which was June 30th, 2025, we had about

[18:59] 18.5 million.

[19:00] So about 5.6 million over the, over

[19:03] what the retain percentage.

[19:05] We're gonna have a new number for June 30th, 2026.

[19:07] As we're going through the audit, I do expect that

[19:10] to grow a little bit, we probably will be somewhere in

[19:12] that 21 to $22 million.

[19:18] And that's just to remind people the importance of that

[19:23] unended fund balances in capital projects like this,

[19:25] this building was built using those funds.

[19:30] So it's, it's, we think of it of as being a big number,

[19:35] which it is, but it helps keep our bond rating down

[19:38] or bond interest costs down.

[19:41] It helps fund the CBA trust, which is one of the ways

[19:45] that he was alluding to, to prevent those spikes,

[19:49] particularly if we have a lean year to fund the contracts.

[19:54] So it, it helps smooth things out

[19:58] and it's one of the things that I'm glad

[20:01] to see you're putting into a capital reserve fund

[20:04] and having this, 'cause I can, I can remember

[20:07] not too long ago, it was

[20:09] before all of you were on the board

[20:10] that there was a major mechanical issue at the school

[20:12] and you didn't have a, a fund balance

[20:14] or a capital reserve to draw to repair it.

[20:18] If we, god forbid, wreck a fire truck

[20:21] or something like that, that's a million dollar

[20:22] expense. So

[20:27] Yeah, I mean the options that the school district has

[20:30] for this are very limited.

[20:31] Right. You know, we can do a, you know, a trust fund, which

[20:35] of course requires a town vote in March.

[20:38] Yeah. You know, even to move money from the unreserved fund

[20:40] balance into a trust fund requires a vote of the town.

[20:43] Correct. And

[20:44] and we do have, you know, we can create a contingency fund

[20:47] where we can move money from the last year's unserved fund

[20:50] balance into a contingency fund.

[20:51] That was something that is from way I understand you

[20:54] explained is something that's fairly recently only

[20:57] allowed by the law.

[20:59] It was fairly recent. Yeah.

[21:00] And there was actually a law that passed this year

[21:04] that would've eliminated the contingency fund

[21:06] and it took a veto over the governor to save it.

[21:12] Just outta curiosity, how, how I assume

[21:15] that $18 million took a long, took a while to build up.

[21:19] Right. It's not something over years.

[21:22] Yeah. And the council has set a,

[21:26] by their policy, a percentage of retained costs.

[21:31] So essentially what you do is you take the total tax levy

[21:35] from town plus school plus the county.

[21:38] I think we leave out the swept on that part of it.

[21:41] And we've determined that 9.5% is the retained percentage

[21:46] and that's just a, an accounting standard.

[21:49] You can take different standards.

[21:50] There's a range of like between five and 17%.

[21:53] We've talked on the town council level, do we want

[21:56] to increase that to 10, 10.5%?

[21:59] That's on the table. But

[22:00] that's a decision that they're going to make.

[22:02] But you're right, it, it's been a slow, you know,

[22:04] process to build up to that.

[22:05] And as the budgets have increased, what we've had

[22:08] to retain has also increased.

[22:11] Gotcha. Thank you.

[22:16] Okay, so we put in the agenda

[22:20] future legislation, state legislators.

[22:22] So if that's a topic that anybody wants

[22:25] to jump on, feel free.

[22:27] Can I speak to that before we get going? Yeah, yeah.

[22:29] I do wanna be mindful before we go down this road

[22:31] that there is a candidate there, there candidates present.

[22:35] It is election season and we do have to cross that line.

[22:39] We don't wanna cross that line

[22:40] to electioneering in this moment.

[22:42] So asking things about the future

[22:44] of legislation may not be appropriate at

[22:47] this moment in this meeting.

[22:49] Okay. So if barring, if there's anybody that we can,

[22:53] You can try to ask question, your answer may be we can't

[22:55] talk, like we shouldn't talk about that right now.

[22:58] I mean if the consensus is that there's really nothing

[23:00] to talk about here, that's okay too.

[23:02] We can move on to, to f

[23:05] Ready?

[23:06] Yeah. So Jane's just gonna give a brief overview of

[23:10] what we already know and what we are still to come

[23:15] in regards to adequacy.

[23:17] So when we're looking at adequacy, the,

[23:20] Sorry Jake.

[23:21] That's okay. The swept account is where we expected

[23:25] and adequacy actually came in

[23:27] just within a couple thousand dollars of

[23:29] what we had budgeted.

[23:30] Now it's still over 400,000 less

[23:34] than our current year,

[23:37] but it's pretty close to what we had estimated.

[23:39] So at least there's not a huge shift in in our estimations,

[23:44] but they just released that number just

[23:48] maybe two weeks ago, somewhere around there.

[23:52] So we're right on target where we thought we would be

[23:55] With The loss direction.

[23:57] Yes. Yeah.

[24:01] And are we anticipating it decreasing again next year

[24:04] with the way the formula is working?

[24:06] The whole harmless, right, the whole harmless end.

[24:07] Yeah, yeah. That's phasing out, chipping away at our numbers

[24:11] and I mean that is a, a cause

[24:12] to be concerned about this tax cap question the way

[24:14] that it's constituted

[24:16] because the, you know, there are two methods

[24:19] that were already in state law for a tax cap.

[24:21] You had a local tax cap

[24:23] and then a school district budget cap.

[24:25] So this question

[24:26] that's gonna be on the ballot November is

[24:28] gonna be a tax cap.

[24:29] So it would, you know, it would limit the tax assessment.

[24:33] We don't have a ton of funding sources.

[24:35] You know, the core of our funding is the local tax

[24:37] assessment and the state adequacy

[24:40] and there's a few other, you know, much smaller,

[24:42] you know, sources of revenue.

[24:44] But that's the bulk of it.

[24:46] And a lot of years when the, the state aid goes down,

[24:51] you're making up for that in a local assessment.

[24:53] So if we have a year possibly where we're anticipating

[24:57] the state aid going down

[24:59] and then we're also capping the assessment, you know,

[25:02] you're being squeezed from both sides.

[25:06] So just to give you an idea, as far as revenue

[25:08] that we receive from the district, there are really

[25:11] probably four areas where we would collect more than a

[25:13] hundred thousand in revenue.

[25:15] Revenue. And one of them would be our tuition

[25:17] for our preschoolers

[25:19] and also Medicaid reimbursement,

[25:23] special education aid reimbursement and adequacy.

[25:28] Those are our only areas of revenue for the district

[25:32] and local taxation swept and local taxation.

[25:41] One other thing that I think for, for the good

[25:43] of the public to talk about is one other avenue

[25:47] is looking at new growth within the community.

[25:50] One of the things that we continue

[25:51] to talk about on the town side is growth.

[25:54] And, and again, when you have more valuation in your system,

[25:59] you have more ability to meet the needs

[26:02] of the school and the town.

[26:04] So we've been growing quite well over

[26:07] the last couple of years.

[26:09] In the last year, the tax year 2025, we grew by $55 million.

[26:14] We had projected $20 million

[26:16] and we had a much better year than anticipated.

[26:19] I don't have the new numbers yet for 2026,

[26:22] those are gonna get a little skewed

[26:24] because we did a revaluation in 26.

[26:26] So most, for example,

[26:28] single family properties went up about 10% on

[26:31] their valuation.

[26:32] In theory that's just a balancing exercise

[26:34] between all the properties.

[26:37] But we were anticipating, again in our budget $55 million

[26:42] of new valuation.

[26:44] So prior to the revaluation

[26:48] we were at about $5.7 billion in valuation.

[26:54] That represents a 1% increase.

[26:56] Doesn't sound like a lot, but

[26:57] that does create some opportunities for meeting

[27:01] future cap meeting some of the needs

[27:03] that we have within the community.

[27:05] And that's the whole concept by behind some

[27:08] of the developments that you're seeing going on, you know,

[27:13] regardless of your opinion on four A

[27:15] and some of the other, you know, projects that we have,

[27:17] we've got a lot of construction going on in the community,

[27:20] but the whole idea behind this is the infrastructure's going

[27:23] to drive opportunities for economic development.

[27:26] So when you see an apartment complex

[27:28] that goes up on Rockingham Road, well

[27:31] that project is generating a loan $34 million in

[27:35] new valuation.

[27:36] I just looked it up, I'm not sure that's the full valuation

[27:39] because that was as of April 1st.

[27:41] But that's an example of a project

[27:42] that again will contribute to new valuation.

[27:46] So we're gonna continue to see these projects,

[27:48] the economic development staff, the planning staff,

[27:51] the planning board, everybody's been on board with trying

[27:53] to find the right type of development for the community.

[27:56] And I think that continued growth is going

[27:59] to give us opportunities to meet the needs of both

[28:02] of our, both of our entities.

[28:04] So, you know, that's just an important point

[28:06] to put out there regardless of the, you know, the tax cap

[28:10] and some of the other items that we talked about

[28:11] that math growth is gonna be a key component to continue

[28:16] to keep this wheel moving in the right direction.

[28:20] And of course we wanna make sure that

[28:21] that growth is balanced between residential, industrial,

[28:25] commercial uses.

[28:26] It's like, you know, if we focus too much on residential,

[28:29] more housing units there are in town, the more of a stressor

[28:31] that that is on the school district,

[28:32] the more money it costs to operate the schools.

[28:35] So really when you have more commercial,

[28:39] more industrial development that is going

[28:41] to benefit the taxpayers more

[28:43] because you know a commercial business isn't putting

[28:45] kids in the schools, right?

[28:47] Yeah, unfortunately I think the way

[28:49] that this town is developed, the land available

[28:55] is for what we view

[28:57] as industrial development just isn't there.

[28:59] And we have to look at,

[29:00] like I don't look at exit four A as a development project.

[29:03] I look at exit four A as a redevelopment project.

[29:07] There are some sections of land that

[29:10] hopefully we can develop commercially such as

[29:15] the stuff across

[29:16] from Rockingham Road.

[29:20] But just going north, there's a pumping station

[29:25] just north of clam aven that's, there's potential for there.

[29:30] I think what we really have

[29:31] to look at is not only develop a land,

[29:34] but we have to look at demographics

[29:36] because in essence we are, we've provided services to people

[29:41] and our primary cost is people, you know,

[29:44] municipal budget is 94 to 97% personnel cost.

[29:48] Yours is gotta be very similar. Yeah, we have other things.

[29:53] So when we have to look at our expenditures, we have

[29:55] to also look at the demographics.

[29:58] What is the population growth in town

[30:01] and what age groups our population?

[30:03] Because that's gonna drive where you have

[30:05] to target your services and we have to sort of predict those

[30:09] and look at them

[30:13] with a five year look ahead.

[30:15] Because if you, if you don't,

[30:21] you just get behind the curve.

[30:23] So if you're looking at a, at an aging population,

[30:25] then maybe we have to begin looking at

[30:27] what services we have to provide for that.

[30:29] If we're looking at now we're having influx

[30:31] of younger people, are they having two

[30:33] kids or are they just having one?

[30:34] Are they having three kids? And how is that going to find

[30:37] the population in five years when they're six?

[30:43] So sorry if I talk a lot.

[30:47] No, and I, and I think, you know,

[30:49] we all share the same goal in terms

[30:51] of responsible developments

[30:53] and we want items that are going to enhance this community

[30:57] for quality of life

[30:58] and also areas that it will create a good tax base for us.

[31:02] So again, it's been incremental.

[31:04] We haven't obviously had the same scope of development

[31:08] that you would see in London Dairy or Salem

[31:11] and I'm, I'm not sure sure that

[31:12] that would be necessarily an answer for dairy just

[31:15] because of the way that we have been built out in the past.

[31:18] But I think it's careful development.

[31:21] I think we are trying to target the right types

[31:23] of development

[31:25] and with that we are seeing, you know, incremental growth

[31:28] that we're gonna continue to, to prosper and,

[31:30] and move forward on.

[31:32] So I think that's something to put some confidence out there

[31:34] for the public on that.

[31:37] Alright, wanna talk about

[31:41] item G on the agenda?

[31:42] So town and school collective purchasing opportunities.

[31:45] So one of the things that when we talk about budgeting and,

[31:49] and what we do on the town and,

[31:51] and obviously I've coordinated with Jane on numerous years,

[31:55] numerous times on various projects and,

[31:57] and we talk often about, you know, various commodities and,

[32:00] and so one of the concepts that we've always gone

[32:03] with is averted costs, right?

[32:05] So some of the things you can't control, such as

[32:08] electricity costs, natural gas costs, fuel costs,

[32:13] but where we can, the town

[32:15] and school where possible have collaborated on these larger

[32:19] collective purchases.

[32:21] So we've always had a very long history

[32:23] of combining our electrical use

[32:25] and usually the, the answers to that had been, you know,

[32:29] we'd get a rate that was 7 cents

[32:32] and the market rate from Eversource was 9 cents.

[32:34] So you would be saving money by virtue of combining those

[32:37] and there was no impact to your service.

[32:39] We've done that on, on natural gas now

[32:42] for probably about 15 years.

[32:43] Matter of fact, back in the day the school district,

[32:46] how many gallons did, did you used to have a contract?

[32:49] We were up around 180,000 gallons a year for fuel, for oil.

[32:53] So imagine at $5

[32:55] and 50 cents a gallon

[32:56] what you'd be paying right now for oil, right?

[33:00] Instead we have a great, you converted over all

[33:04] of the buildings to natural gas where we could

[33:07] and those facilities are now burning natural gas.

[33:11] I believe the market rate

[33:12] for the supply this year on a three year contract combined

[33:15] with the town is 74 cents per therm.

[33:18] The rate that the

[33:20] default utility from U Liberty is a dollar 74, right?

[33:24] It's a dollar per therm.

[33:26] I think we burn combined about 80,000 thes per year.

[33:29] That's $80,000 that was averted that we don't have to spend

[33:33] and can be used elsewhere.

[33:34] So there's a number of stories like that

[33:37] that we continue to work together.

[33:39] We work hard to try to, to stretch every dollar

[33:42] that we can in these fuel commodities in a market where,

[33:46] you know, prices continue to grow.

[33:48] You know, we talked about heating oil on the Townside,

[33:51] we still have some facilities that we can't convert.

[33:53] It's a much smaller contract now.

[33:55] We locked in at $4 and 39 cents.

[33:58] So we're doing better than probably

[34:00] what the market's gonna be this summer.

[34:02] Again, those costs are things that we're not having to shell

[34:05] that money out and make concessions in other areas.

[34:07] So, you know, we've had a long history Jane and I

[34:11] and looking at, you know, ways

[34:13] that we can collaborate salt purchases looking at, you know,

[34:17] formally I think the, the school district used to go out

[34:19] and buy its own and paid more

[34:21] because it was a smaller contract.

[34:23] Now the trucks just come over, we fill 'em up and,

[34:26] and so I think there's been a long history of,

[34:30] of collaboration that maybe the story hasn't been told well

[34:33] enough, but I think we're gonna continue to do that,

[34:36] you know, where possible in many of those commodity areas.

[34:39] So just wanted to kind of put that out there as far as,

[34:42] you know, we are diligent about that.

[34:45] So Janie, do you have anything else you

[34:46] wanted to add on on that? No,

[34:48] And I think we looked at other areas too.

[34:49] Yeah. But the, the ones that

[34:52] made the most sense were the ones

[34:54] that you've mentioned mostly utilities.

[34:56] But we worked together on a lot of projects where we can,

[35:00] excuse me, we've called the town when we, if we needed help

[35:03] with equipment so the town's come over

[35:06] and whether it's digging out a hole

[35:08] for a pro maintenance project, it's a cost saver for us.

[35:13] We've been able to collaborate with the town.

[35:15] So vice versa, we've had a really good working relationship

[35:19] on trying to find any area for cost savings

[35:23] And you know, I think that's a credit to the people.

[35:26] It's a credit to you Jane, in terms of, of you know,

[35:28] your long tenure here and,

[35:30] and we've always had that great relationship.

[35:32] So I just wanna make sure that the public hears that

[35:34] that is something that, that goes on every day and,

[35:37] and there's always discussions about

[35:39] how do we save collectively money across the board

[35:42] and commodities utilities are, are one way that,

[35:45] that we have collaborated heavily over the

[35:47] past number of years.

[35:48] So, alright. Ask

[35:50] A quick question.

[35:51] Sure. So I know you guys are studying health

[35:53] insurance costs, which is great.

[35:56] One thing I'm not up on and I don't have the answer for,

[35:59] and maybe you guys do when it comes

[36:01] to our collective bargaining agreements,

[36:03] can you switch out health insurance

[36:05] during a bargaining agreement as long

[36:06] as you provide the same services and same employee cost?

[36:10] Or is that something you have to work?

[36:12] Is it a rope have moved

[36:15] Through?

[36:16] So it's, it's probably, it's a complicated question.

[36:18] I think it would vary between the unit,

[36:20] but typically the asset we put together

[36:24] with Health trust is what if we took the school district

[36:28] and the town and just give us a combined number.

[36:30] So what I've been told is October 7th is the date

[36:33] that we are gonna see the release

[36:34] of the health trust numbers,

[36:37] and then within probably 10 days

[36:38] after that we'll get a what if it's,

[36:40] it's just a pricing quote that we have.

[36:43] History has kind of proven, not dairy specifically,

[36:46] but across the state when when bargaining units are faced

[36:50] with any changes to their plan

[36:52] that they feel are substantive,

[36:53] that puts them into the impact bargaining.

[36:55] So you might have to talk to them on that

[36:59] if you can simply just do

[37:00] what we're asking is if the school district keeps theirs

[37:03] and the town keeps theirs, does that improve the pricing

[37:06] for either or both or not at all?

[37:08] So that's really the question we've tasked them with.

[37:11] So we didn't really get into the nuts

[37:12] and bolts of let's, you know,

[37:14] eliminate this prescription drug,

[37:16] let's eliminate that service.

[37:18] That wasn't really what the ask was.

[37:19] I mean, that's a, a larger question maybe

[37:21] that school district would handle on its own

[37:23] and the town would handle on its own.

[37:25] But from a pricing exercise, it's just current situation.

[37:30] I've been on that side of where I have both

[37:33] worked on changing health insurance while

[37:35] as a union member town wide.

[37:37] And this was back in 1995.

[37:40] And and the best way to do that is you have to get

[37:44] your union involved at ground zero.

[37:49] If you're looking at doing a major change.

[37:51] And a major change, for instance, could be going

[37:54] with a self-funded health insurance

[37:56] where you have a third party administrator, you have a,

[38:00] a gap insurance or umbrella insurance

[38:02] that covers both major personal expenditures

[38:05] and major costs to there.

[38:07] But you still need to get your employees involved

[38:12] and, you know,

[38:13] health insurance is probably your second largest

[38:16] expenditure next to wages.

[38:18] So it's, it's a way

[38:20] that you can have a real positive impact in your budget,

[38:23] but the, the hidden cost is vacancies.

[38:26] So if you're got all these vacancies

[38:29] because people says, I don't want to go there

[38:30] because their benefits suck,

[38:33] that drives up costs on another end.

[38:35] So it's a really fine balance,

[38:38] but the best way is get, get you, they're, you're,

[38:43] they're vested in having as good a health plan

[38:46] as they can get, but they're also invested in the balance

[38:49] of, well, if I have the Cadillac health plan,

[38:53] I can only afford a fiat.

[39:01] I hear you. Yeah, Thank you.

[39:02] Yeah, we, we had some rates last year that

[39:05] for a family plan, total cost employer

[39:08] and employees share that are approaching $50,000 per year.

[39:14] That's unbelievable.

[39:15] We're, we're trying our best to try

[39:17] to mitigate those cost increases,

[39:19] but I, I don't know that there's any easy fix

[39:22] to reducing health costs.

[39:24] It might be a function of just trying to, to

[39:27] slow down the rate of increase on, on that going forward.

[39:30] But we'll have a better idea at least on the townside

[39:33] October 7th when they release those rates.

[39:35] And, and that'll obviously roll us into some

[39:37] of the other calculations that we need to have

[39:40] as we go into our next fiscal 28 budget.

[39:46] Okay. All right.

[39:48] So the last item on the agenda that we felt was

[39:52] relevant was other topics, open discussion.

[39:54] So this is an opportunity for anybody to,

[39:59] to throw out there any questions, any statements

[40:01] that they'd like to make for both sides and,

[40:03] and obviously, you know, I think we've covered a lot

[40:05] of various topics tonight on the financial side.

[40:12] I'm just, can I go briefly?

[40:15] I, I just want to thank the dairy police department

[40:20] in their partnership over the past

[40:22] 15 months that I've been here.

[40:23] Now it's been really phenomenal to work

[40:27] with Chief Foli and, you know, captain Breen there,

[40:30] but they've been so responsive

[40:33] and I know they're dealing with staffing challenges, which,

[40:35] which then impacts our s

[40:36] so SROs we do not have any currently,

[40:39] but at the same time they've been doing drive-bys

[40:42] and walkthroughs regularly,

[40:43] so it doesn't feel like we're missing a beat.

[40:48] I just think that their responses to our students

[40:52] and our families, the help that they've

[40:54] provided really is another avenue of showing partnership

[40:57] between the town and the schools.

[41:00] And I just want to thank them for, for all the time

[41:03] and efforts that they put in

[41:05] for our families and our students.

[41:06] So

[41:11] I, I just wanna stress that I think one

[41:13] of the most important things that the public should be aware

[41:15] of about is, is the coordination we try

[41:17] and keep between the town

[41:19] and the school district as far as all the,

[41:22] the huge capital projects.

[41:24] You know, labor costs are one thing,

[41:25] but we know that the capital projects are the ones

[41:28] that always make the news

[41:30] because monetarily they're just,

[41:33] just big elephants in the room.

[41:34] And the fact that we try

[41:35] and coordinate 'em so that you are not trying

[41:37] to build a new school at the same time we're gonna build a

[41:40] police station and oh by the way,

[41:41] your taxes just want up $10 a piece.

[41:43] You know, I, I think that coordination is, is a huge,

[41:47] huge step in the public.

[41:48] Should be aware of it.

[41:58] I actually, the Only other thing I would say is,

[42:01] you know, we have our budget process coming up in the

[42:03] next month or so.

[42:05] Obviously people here listen online, they should watch

[42:08] that process 'cause more feedback that we get

[42:12] and it, I think

[42:13] for some people it would be an eye-opening experience of

[42:15] what we can actually mitigate

[42:18] and do to try to keep the numbers as manageable as possible

[42:22] and, you know, just watch and, and share ideas with us.

[42:28] 'cause there's a very small pie that we can actually affect

[42:33] when it comes to the budget process, especially

[42:36] with health insurance labor

[42:37] and all that kind of stuff that, you know, is scheduled

[42:41] to go up at high numbers.

[42:43] That's all I gotta say about that. It's just something

[42:44] that I would hope people would do.

[42:46] 'cause you know, the things you read, things you hear,

[42:49] even when you read 1300 and they talk about tax cap

[42:53] and there's a line there that says this will,

[42:55] this will not affect classroom

[42:59] classroom expenses.

[43:01] I don't know how you can make that claim when, if you don't.

[43:04] I just, if you've watched a budget process,

[43:06] you can't make that claim.

[43:07] And I, and I, and I wonder when people talk about it like

[43:10] that, I just don't know how that is a viable point

[43:14] of, you know, point to make.

[43:15] So I encourage everyone to, you know, run in for office

[43:19] families, whatever, just watch the process

[43:21] and give any input that you have.

[43:24] To that point too, you know, you guys are, you know,

[43:26] under a charter and, and you set your budget.

[43:29] All the school board does is we propose a budget

[43:32] and then, you know, we have a,

[43:34] there's a deliberative session where

[43:37] everyone in town can come and

[43:38] voice their opinion on the budget.

[43:40] The people in that room get to vote on

[43:42] what the budget is gonna be.

[43:43] You know, anyone in that room can propose

[43:45] a change to what we proposed.

[43:47] And if the people in the room are, a majority of them agree

[43:50] with that, then that's what goes to the ballot.

[43:53] And then once something comes outta that room

[43:56] and gets on the ballot, then you have another chance

[43:58] to vote on that or the default budget.

[44:00] So I would especially encourage, you know, everyone in town

[44:03] to pay attention to the budget process

[44:05] because it's your budget.

[44:09] Yeah. I think people forget that 94 to 97%

[44:13] of our budgets right now are all personnel costs.

[44:17] Doesn't leave much room.

[44:18] So that if you want to say, oh, we need to cut, cut here,

[44:21] cut there, you have to ask, okay,

[44:24] what personnel are you cutting?

[44:25] What services are you cutting?

[44:28] Yeah. Yeah. I mean that's absolutely right.

[44:30] You know, I mean on our, our side that's,

[44:32] those are the big movers, right?

[44:34] Personnel and benefits.

[44:36] You know, we can cut these little things that are, you know,

[44:39] they're not gonna have a big impact.

[44:40] You know, if you have to make a big cut,

[44:43] that's the bulk of it.

[44:45] Yeah. I think to the point too,

[44:46] when Jane mentioned the adequacy numbers, you know,

[44:49] we lost half million dollars coming into this fiscal year.

[44:52] So, you know, you get costs going up whatever it is, three,

[44:55] four, 5% and you lose half a million dollars on, you know,

[44:57] it's just one more thing that you have to take people

[45:00] that need to understand and take in consideration.

[45:07] Okay. So I think those are all the items

[45:10] that we had at least developed on our agenda.

[45:14] So I think for purposes of the council,

[45:16] because we are still in to aurn.

[45:19] Yep. So other than that, I guess we'll hand it over

[45:22] to Aaron.

[45:25] So from the town council side,

[45:26] is there a motion to adjourn?

[45:27] There is a motion to adjourn. My favorite motion.

[45:31] All right. We have a motion by Council Mills

[45:33] and a a second by Councilor Foote.

[45:36] And we have Councilor Healy remote.

[45:38] So we have to seek a roll call vote.

[45:39] So I'll start with Councilor Flood? Yes. Councilor Foote.

[45:42] Yes. Councilor Chase? Yes. Councilor Mills? Yes.

[45:45] Councilor Webb? Yes. Councilor Healy. Are you still there?

[45:50] Sure. If he's able to. All right.

[45:53] Well, we've got a majority. So council votes?

[45:55] Yes, I got chair votes. Yes.

[45:56] And council is adjourned. Thank you everybody.

[45:59] All right. For the school board, we will be in recess

[46:01] until six 30 until we begin our regular meeting.

Town Council Special Meeting And Joint Meeting with School Board - 09/22/2026

Agenda

Transcript