[0:00] at that point in time. >> What I Let's see.

[0:08] Are you still seeing the spreadsheet or are you seeing one note right now?

[0:11] » I'm seeing the spreadsheet. >> Okay. Let me um Yeah, because I just I'm

[0:16] going back to last week.

[0:21] So,

[0:25] so not including um so what Ruth has on here is 54,550

[0:33] in capital projects for

[0:36] » and that's going to be more if we when we talk about that you know the the well

[0:41] and the septic came in higher than the 15,000 that was was budgeted for that.

[0:46] » Right. Okay. Okay. So, that was my question. That wasn't included in there.

[0:49] So, right now, um, so if not including the well and septic and if we if we

[0:57] spent the 41720 and the upcoming 54550 on capital

[1:03] projects, that leaves a balance of 174,979.

[1:09] » Yep.

[1:13] » Okay. That doesn't include any reimbursement

[1:17] from the um the rescue funds that come in.

[1:24] » And what was that last year that was on that sheet?

[1:27] » Uh it was only about 32,000 last year, but I think it's going to be more this

[1:30] year because um we had some some issue with Medicare and and so we should be

[1:37] getting some back payments this year. Well, that'll uh that'll pay for a well

[1:42] and septic >> 32 well. Yeah.

[1:45] » Yeah. >> Okay. Um All right. So, you guys okay

[1:49] leaving that 41720 coming from from Capitol right now for that ambulance

[1:54] bond?

[1:57] Hearing no objection. I'll assume so for now. Um

[2:02] we Ruth, would we need to vote to change our recommendation on that because we're

[2:06] changing how it's funded? Um, so

[2:14] » yeah, >> I think we would.

[2:16] » Yeah, I'm going to mark it. Whoops, wrong one.

[2:28] » Okay. Um,

[2:32] » and then I also, so under the 2018 road bond, um, I had taken 50,000 out of the

[2:38] undesated fund to cover some of that >> and and I don't know, it might be

[2:45] » everybody okay with that?

[2:52] » Yeah, we can always come back, you know, sometimes after we and revisit something

[2:57] if if uh something changes as we go. Um, okay. Um, Eureka Center. So, Mark

[3:05] brought this one up. Um, this is >> that was just an example, but

[3:09] » Yeah. Yeah. So, >> I looked at the budget that we went

[3:11] through and I don't really see anything that we could take out there. So,

[3:15] » okay, >> I'm going through the individual sheets

[3:17] here on my computer. >> Okay, great.

[3:20] » This is the fire department budget. This is um

[3:26] I think we heard from Ruth uh and we should probably in fairness to the chief

[3:32] we I think we should if if we wanted to make a change here we should probably

[3:35] talk about that next week when he's here. Um

[3:39] did we lose Rich? >> Did we

[3:53] You know, Rich, are you there? >> Yes.

[3:56] » Oh, he is. Okay, good. All right. Um, my camera screen gets wiggy when I'm

[4:03] sharing. That's why I couldn't see everybody. So, okay. Uh, general

[4:07] assistance. I think that is what it is. um

[4:13] planning board and appeals, they um they took a a significant decrease

[4:21] versus last year's budget, but it's still

[4:24] uh increased versus LY. Now, there was um

[4:31] there was money in here for marijuana ordinance work, right? And

[4:37] we're we're taking that or at least that's what we haven't voted on yet, but

[4:40] that's we we the discussion last week was we were only going to put um budget,

[4:46] you know, in the business articles um on the warrant. Um

[4:52] » we had 7500 for projects. I'm not sure what that that was in the budget. Was

[4:57] that was that is that what that was? I think I think that's that was the intent

[5:00] of that was to um pay someone um to help us with the uh writing marijuana

[5:08] ordinances. But it feels like even if we um I don't know what do people think

[5:14] about that. I mean, of course, because we could conceivably put the,

[5:19] you know, depending on what happened, we could conceivably put the marijuana

[5:22] ordinance questions on the ballot in November, but we probably still wouldn't

[5:27] be spending that money in 2020. >> Well, now I'm looking at that. Their

[5:32] budget request was 466 and we cut it to 35. And I think we may have already

[5:39] taken that out. >> Did we already take it? Yeah,

[5:41] » I think so. >> Okay.

[5:43] So, they've already spent uh $2,762 of that money.

[5:50] » Oh. Oh. Oh, yeah. They've had to hire some um some environmental consultants

[5:55] on um resource protection lands. Um yeah. All right.

[6:02] I'm thinking we leave that one alone for now. Any any

[6:08] again we can come back to it. This is public works. So, this is the

[6:13] scenario with that we kind of just talked through with Calvin with doing a

[6:18] reduced um reduced maintenance paving. Um we would we would definitely have to

[6:25] revote on that one. Um

[6:33] conservation, parks, and wreck. Um, that's all that's all funded from

[6:39] undesated. But I think somebody raised I don't know if it was you, Ruth, but if

[6:45] there's not going to be a softball and baseball season this year, do we

[6:51] um what do we do 1500 to each organization or something like that?

[6:56] » Uh, I think so. Yeah. >> Yeah. I don't I I might be premature on

[7:01] the softball. I can't speak for baseball, but I think softball has

[7:04] intentions in playing this year. >> Yeah.

[7:10] And again, that money um that that comes from recreational fees. Um

[7:17] » so it's funded with undesated. So taking the money out and taking money out isn't

[7:21] going to impact this year's taxes at all.

[7:26] Um, >> so it looks like it was 2500 to each

[7:30] organization. >> 2500 to each. Okay.

[7:34] » Why? >> Okay. Yeah. No, that's what it looked

[7:38] like. It was So I I guess Little League had the 1500 and Durham softball had the

[7:43] 3,000. And then so this year Little League asked for 2500 and Durham

[7:48] softball asked for 3,000. And so what you guys did is you

[7:51] » Yeah. >> Both of the 2500. We gave them both the

[7:54] same. Yeah.

[8:02] Um, okay. I'm just going to keep going

[8:05] unless somebody stops me. Solid waste. Ruth, where does does this number change

[8:11] with the discussion we had with them last week?

[8:15] » Well, it it depends. So, you could put the ballot question on it and and you

[8:21] probably should if you want to do the three-year contract with them. Um, and

[8:24] so if we do that, then we would accept their their bid prices. And so that

[8:28] would be the same. >> That that would be my sense is that we

[8:32] keep going with that plan because like you said, there's no I know the question

[8:36] came up during um meetings and um uh and oh, by the way, Milt, if if you're

[8:43] raising I can't see if anybody raises their hand right now. So, if somebody's

[8:46] got something to say, they got to speak up. So, um the uh um there's no benefit

[8:53] to going to a one year or a two-year or three-year

[8:57] contract because of the way it's structured to fluctuate with the price

[9:01] of of um recycled materials. So, I know that was one of the questions that we

[9:07] thought, you know, that there might be something to that. Well, what if

[9:10] recycling prices go down? Um the contract accounts for that. Um

[9:19] okay. Uh telecommunications.

[9:25] This is again this is all money from franchise fees. Um

[9:31] and basically spending those um

[9:36] the raise pool. So again here you can see it's it's

[9:41] right now coming out of um undesated um

[9:48] but again it's what do people think? Do we want to keep that number at

[9:54] um regardless we're going to we'd be voting

[9:58] on changing it? Um we want to keep that 2% or do we want or are people thinking

[10:04] wage freeze for the year? You know where I'm at.

[10:10] » Yep. >> Yeah. I'm thinking wage freeze.

[10:13] Unfortunately, >> I would agree.

[10:18] » Hey, if we go with zero, does it remove the question from the ballot?

[10:24] Um if yeah, if we're not recommending if we're not proposing a spending

[10:30] amount, then yeah, that there's no um the question doesn't go out.

[10:36] Yeah. I mean, I I guess my thought is I'd

[10:41] I'd at least like to see the town's people vote on it. I think, you know,

[10:44] it's up to them if they don't want to give raises out.

[10:48] » Well, yeah, I I hear that. >> I mean, I get it's up to us, but I think

[10:53] that they should be the ones to decide in this case. I wouldn't want to remove

[10:58] it off the ballot totally off the warrant,

[11:02] but that's my opinion.

[11:08] question. >> I'm not saying I'm opposed to a wage.

[11:12] » Yeah, Milt Milt's trying to say something here.

[11:15] » Well, I just want to with regards to I mean, I'm just How many questions will

[11:19] appear on this voting warrant?

[11:25] » Um, Ruth, do you have a do you have a count, Ruth?

[11:28] » I I have a count of about 30. >> 30? Yeah.

[11:32] » Yeah. >> Yeah. down.

[11:34] » For some reason, I was I I had the impression that maybe you were going to

[11:37] try to >> um condense it so there'd be fewer.

[11:42] » Well, we can um so so the way that I had written it so far um and obviously it

[11:50] can change. There are separate questions for two capital um issues which are the

[11:55] the fire department capital well and and septic and the other stuff that the

[11:59] capital is going to pay for. There's a question about the fire the plow truck.

[12:05] Um and then there's you know the big budgets are separate the administrative

[12:10] the um fire department the public works. Um I left what else did I leave

[12:16] separate? I may have left animal control separate and then I had combined a bunch

[12:20] of them into one question. But what takes up a lot of it is actually the

[12:24] business questions. Um, you know, if we wanted to, we could

[12:29] absolutely condense the questions further. Um, but I don't I don't know

[12:34] whether you want the the residents to vote on a one lump sum budget or whether

[12:41] you want them to have a better idea of where the funds are going.

[12:46] » It it feels like we should in terms of the questions we ask them that that we

[12:53] should keep it as normal as possible. Um >> because

[13:01] I don't know. I mean >> town meetings.

[13:05] » Sorry. Go ahead Todd. Yep. >> As much like town meeting as it could be

[13:10] possible. >> And in you know ironically the business

[13:14] articles which I those you know that kind of flurry that comes at the end the

[13:18] last several years there's been a motion to consider them all together and vote

[13:22] on them all in one thing. But I don't know if we can I don't know if we can

[13:26] actually do that on a uh >> I asked the answer was was no.

[13:31] » Yeah, that's what I figured. Yeah. So >> yeah, with 30 questions I think we're

[13:36] going to need to provide table and chairs.

[13:39] » Well well mil the uh there it's likely this won't involve a polling place at

[13:46] all. It's likely to be um all absentee. But if we do have a um polling place

[13:52] then you're right. I think we will need to provide um seating for people. I

[13:57] think I think that I think you're absolutely right.

[14:00] » A quick question on the um on the fire department well and septic. If we posed

[14:06] that question, my guess is we would already have spent the money before it

[14:10] is posed to um to the to the to the citizens. What happens if they reject

[14:18] it? Well, that the plan is not to uh is not to put those questions on the ballot

[14:24] once. >> Okay, I understood Ruth then. I

[14:27] apologize. >> Yeah, we don't we don't um capital

[14:30] expenditures um really except for bonds and stuff. Um

[14:37] don't don't don't have to have a warrant article once because the town has voted

[14:42] » to put the money in capital for that purpose. Listen, as long as you're using

[14:46] it for that purpose, then then you you've already been approved by voters.

[14:51] So, >> yeah, my fault. I I misunderstood what

[14:54] Ruth said. >> No, Rich, you didn't misunderstand, but

[14:57] we can take them off the ballot if you want to.

[15:00] » Well, that's on the draft. >> Why would Why would that specifically be

[15:03] on the ballot? >> What's the question again, Rich? Sorry.

[15:08] » Why that would specifically be on the draft ballot if if we're going to pay

[15:12] for something before they have the chance to vote for it? Yeah, I think I

[15:15] think right and I think um it's been custom to oftentimes ask for um you know

[15:23] to put some of these capital expenditures out to vote you know on big

[15:27] things like trucks especially. >> Sure. you know, um, but in this in this

[15:31] case, I think, you know, with a well and septic, which is a borderline urgent

[15:35] situation and the money's in the capital account and needs to be done, like you

[15:40] said before, people would actually probably get the chance to vote on it

[15:43] anyway, that, um, it would be part of it. No.

[15:48] Um,

[15:53] so is there is there a motion on Well, wait. Actually, we'll go back and um do

[15:59] you want me to It sounds like there's right now we're at um

[16:04] moving that to zero and moving that to zero.

[16:10] Um but again, it's not going to change anything at the bottom line. So

[16:15] um funds for town manager search. So, um I think we we said at our last meeting

[16:24] that I that that we were wanted to take, you know, this question and the

[16:29] marijuana and the ordinance stuff, you know, off at least this secret ballot

[16:34] and then um potentially um

[16:40] try to work through some of those things maybe in November if we had the

[16:45] opportunity to put um some of those things on the ballot. But but um are

[16:50] people still feeling that they don't want to put the town manager question

[16:55] out this year or how what are people thinking about that?

[17:02] » I don't think we need to do it this year.

[17:06] » Yeah. Leave it on. >> I I think there's I need to do it. With

[17:11] that said, because of the time frame that when this is going to take place, I

[17:16] I I think the ship's kind of sailed by that time. So, it'd be probably best in

[17:20] our best interest to put it towards next year.

[17:23] » Yeah, I I I would agree. I think it's um the timing and the timing is just not

[17:28] right and I'm not sure we'd even be able to get the resources to do a search and

[17:32] who even knows what the process would be like. So,

[17:36] » um I agree. >> How will we even do it?

[17:40] » Exact. Yeah. Well, so um

[17:50] um and I had already zeroed the funds for severance because because of the

[17:55] timing that was never going to be paid in 2020 anyway. And really the the way

[18:00] for us to address this as a board is um via a severance policy um to be adopted.

[18:08] We we should adopt a policy that kind of guides us and how what the town's um

[18:14] position is when you know if we run into a situation where there's a separation

[18:20] um because of an organizational structural change or something like that

[18:24] through no fault of the uh employee but that'll be a separate discussion for um

[18:30] for later. So, uh, transfer emergency fund. Um, again,

[18:37] this one was being funded from undesated. Um,

[18:41] I would personally like to leave this one in. Um, because again, there's no

[18:45] impact to the tax rate this year. All it simply does is make another $10,000 more

[18:52] accessible via the emergency fund should something come up. So if we if we need

[18:58] to spend emergency fund money, it has to be approved by the budget committee and

[19:02] the selectman um in order to spend it. But if if there's if there's no funds in

[19:08] this account, which I think I think there's less than 10,000 in it now,

[19:13] » um then we we couldn't we wouldn't have it to spend. we would literally have to

[19:19] go call a special town meeting to um to get undesated funds to cover whatever

[19:26] the emergency was that we were talking about. So, um my feeling is to leave

[19:31] this one on on there.

[19:35] My recommendation >> Go ahead, Mil. What do you got? Yeah,

[19:40] just um if you do leave it on, if if one of you could participate in our budget

[19:47] committee meeting next week to give, you know, your point of view because the the

[19:52] the when the budget committee last met, there was there was there were questions

[19:56] that were left unanswered, which is why the budget committee voted against this

[20:01] line. So, I think it would help if if they heard it from, you know, one of you

[20:06] why it's, you know, why we would benefit from it.

[20:10] » I'm checking my calendar now. When are you meeting?

[20:12] » The 11th, I believe. Is that right, Ruth?

[20:18] » Yeah, this Monday. >> Yeah, I can probably do that, Mel.

[20:22] » Okay. I mean, yeah, and you know, I'd be welcome to be there, too. But I think

[20:26] just being in the situation that we're all currently in and just I think

[20:31] there's time to recognize that that that needs to be funded and have funds

[20:35] available. Um, if if now's not a good indication of why, then I don't know

[20:41] what would spark someone's interest into ever participating in it.

[20:44] » Yeah. And again, it's just a shifting of money. It's taking money that's not

[20:48] » not liquid and making it more liquid for us if we need it really is what it is.

[20:54] » It from >> from undesated.

[20:57] » Okay. Yeah. All right. I was going to suggest that.

[21:00] » Yeah, that that's the plan. Yep. >> Okay.

[21:03] » Um Okay. And so that takes us through uh

[21:09] the operational stuff. Um

[21:13] any and then in capital the only thing because this is there's

[21:18] some difference between selectment and budget committee. So budget committee

[21:21] will have to have their own discussions but right now we were um spending uh

[21:29] 54,550

[21:32] uh for fire capital and that was all coming out of uh fire department capital

[21:36] reserves and um 188,600 uh for a plow truck and that was also

[21:45] all coming out of public works reserves. So cutting anything here is like some of

[21:53] the other stuff we've talked about um is not going to impact this year's um tax

[21:59] rate. So

[22:02] » So Kevin, if you're not going to put the capital expenses for the fire department

[22:06] on the warrant, then you know, you don't really have to vote on them. At least

[22:10] not tonight. >> Well, I was just Well, I think

[22:16] Yeah, actually we can cut we can And I actually expect

[22:21] » we can take get a few we can get a few questions off the warrant by

[22:24] » Right.

[22:28] » Yep. Um I don't know how do people feel. How do

[22:33] people feel about that? basically not putting basically just um

[22:40] well but if we don't if if we well what if

[22:47] and now I'm I'm I might go back on myself here but how do we then deal with

[22:52] um showing a selectman in a budget

[22:56] committee recommendation? >> Well, if your recommendation is zero,

[23:02] then you don't have to put it on the >> right. No, I get that. But here our

[23:06] recommendation isn't zero. It's 54,550. >> You could just take it off the budget. I

[23:13] mean, it would be included. >> That's true. We We only have to provide

[23:19] a It's only if it's on the warrant.

[23:24] » Right. >> Right.

[23:26] Yeah. >> This is money we've partially already

[23:28] spent. Right. >> Most of it. Yeah.

[23:31] » Screw. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[23:36] » Yeah. All right.

[23:40] I >> mean, it's out of capital, so

[23:42] » Yeah. Do people feel the same way about the truck?

[23:46] » Nope. >> I didn't think so.

[23:49] » I think that should be on the ballot. I think we'll get

[23:55] up against >> Yeah, I definitely think it should be on

[23:57] the ballot. >> Yeah. Yeah.

[24:01] But I I think the um Ruth, you had an opinion and and I don't

[24:08] know if Calvin is is still here, but that that was a pretty amazing price and

[24:13] that um unlike feeling was unlikely to get that price next year or who knows

[24:20] could be better if things go really in the crapper. But

[24:23] » yeah, you don't really know. >> I think I think there is a good chance

[24:26] he might be better. I mean, they're pretty aggressive right now on vehicles.

[24:30] Yeah. Also, we spent a lot of money on the two older trucks that we've only got

[24:36] a couple years out of a lot of money spent on them.

[24:40] » Yeah. But I I I hear that. But at that kind of a

[24:46] how money spent on two other trucks doesn't really

[24:50] » Oh, I know. >> play into whether a third truck is

[24:53] reached the end of its life or not, >> right?

[24:55] » Yeah. I have no problem putting the truck on the ballot, just to to clarify.

[24:59] I just don't feel comfortable spending that amount of money in capital if we

[25:03] had the the right to do so as a board without the people's

[25:06] » Yeah. No, on this one I I would agree. I I wouldn't I wouldn't buy a truck

[25:10] without putting it before the town. >> Yeah.

[25:12] » If it was an e situation where something was expired like the breathing apparatus

[25:17] that the fire department needed, I can at least kind of make a rational

[25:20] argument with that, an easy argument with that of why we had to do so. Can't

[25:24] do that with this truck. >> Yep.

[25:26] » Yeah. I say leave it on. >> Okay. So leave it on. Leave our

[25:30] recommendation as is. >> I would. Yes. Be my vote.

[25:34] » All right. So then going down through this, we didn't

[25:40] really we didn't really change anything that

[25:43] hadn't already been done like that that affected the tax rate. I mean, we pulled

[25:47] out the town manager fund um and severance had already been pulled out.

[25:53] We pulled out the um assessing capital. Was that being raised? No. Uh, yeah, it

[26:00] was being raised. >> That was gonna be raised.

[26:02] » Yeah. Um, so that one actually Well, if it's going to be zero, we don't have to

[26:08] we don't need to vote to we haven't voted to put the article on the warrant

[26:12] yet. So, we don't have to vote to take it off. So,

[26:15] » right. >> Um,

[26:17] » maybe we see what the budget committee comes up with.

[26:22] » Not if we're not going to put it on. That's our decision that we put on.

[26:25] » That's right. That's right. Um.

[26:30] Uh. Okay. So, >> so what did was how much do we take off

[26:37] that was coming out of undesated funds that we eliminated?

[26:40] » Oh, geez. That was um let's see. Um well, from our original

[26:47] recommendation, >> um 80 8,600 there.

[26:53] » Uh 8,000 there. So that So that's 166.

[27:02] I think that was it. >> That was it.

[27:06] » I'm looking. >> Yeah, that was And

[27:12] um >> so where does this get us next impact?

[27:16] » Yeah. Uh so net if we go to the bottom line, net impact is

[27:21] » on the municipal. Yeah. because we didn't, like I said, everything we

[27:25] changed was und designated fund stuff, so it didn't impact me. But it has us,

[27:30] it we're bringing a municipal budget >> that's 2% less than last year.

[27:35] » Yeah. >> Um, school right now is estimated at

[27:37] 1.7, but like I said, I think that might come down.

[27:41] » Um, county is county. Uh, overlay is that's a pretty small overlay. Um and

[27:48] then which gives us this 0.5% total. But like I said, if I think the school

[27:55] reduction alone may get us um to flat at for a total rate, but uh if the um town

[28:05] assessed total assessed value that we base taxes off, you know, goes up, it it

[28:12] only had it's literally it's it's a percentage percentage thing the way the

[28:15] math works. So if valuation goes up 0.5% then this will go down 0.5% and we'll be

[28:24] at flat. So I'm I'm pretty confident that this these numbers right here are

[28:30] going to have us um >> much flat

[28:33] » flat and probably actually down a little bit.

[28:39] » Would you agree with that Ruth? You >> I got my fingers crossed.

[28:44] » Yeah. I mean it does depend on the valuation. um and what the school does.

[28:48] » Yeah, I think the valuation will go up. I don't know what percentage. Um and the

[28:52] other thing too is is um people who have a homestead exemption will see a bigger

[28:56] exemption this year. Um although it won't be the full 25% because we're at

[29:00] 87 25,000 because we're at 87%. Um it'll still be more than last year. So if they

[29:06] have the That's right. >> their tax bill will actually go down

[29:10] simply because of the homestead exemption.

[29:11] » Yep. Yep. So >> hey Kevin. Yeah.

[29:16] » Um that doesn't mean if we're we're holding the rate at zero, but that

[29:20] doesn't mean the tax bill will be no increase, right? Because if the even if

[29:25] if we hold the rate, but valuation goes up, they'd still do see a slight

[29:29] increase in their taxes. >> No. No. So the to the towns Well, if

[29:32] their individual valuation went up, yes. But the town valuation that I'm talking

[29:37] about that comes from the state, that's a different that's a different deal.

[29:41] That that often goes up where the and then that's the issue why we need a

[29:46] reassessment. That's that total number has been going up what the state

[29:51] estimates the total value of the property is and the um but our

[29:56] individual assessments have not been keeping up with that. So, um,

[30:02] » okay. >> Unless unless somebody's individual

[30:05] property gets a different assessed value, um, then if if the tax rate was

[30:11] the same, they'd have the same tax bill. >> Okay. Thank you.

[30:15] » And no whispering on the set, Rich. >> My wife's upset because my kids were

[30:22] home all day, obviously, and they drained her computer dead, and this is

[30:25] her office, and she had to get her cord. Ah.

[30:31] All right.

[30:35] » Uh, hey Ruth, is there any concerns on the revenue side?

[30:40] » That's a great question. >> So,

[30:45] so the way that the town of Durham does our our budget is we balance base it off

[30:51] of last year's uh revenue. So, take excise tax. We have about

[30:56] $950,000 worth of excise tax last year. So that's what we put toward this year's

[31:02] budget. So when we come to the end of the year, depending on what the excise

[31:06] tax collected this year is, there would either be a surplus to the undesated

[31:10] fund or a negative to the un designated fund. So say we come to December, we've

[31:16] collected $900,000 worth of revenue for excise tax. That would mean that our

[31:21] undesated fund would take a hit of $50,000. So, I had sent you guys um some

[31:28] dire predictions and I did try and make them pretty

[31:34] pretty um you know, sad um hoping that that they would be happier when we get

[31:41] the actual figures. Um but yeah, so so our undesated fund would take will take

[31:48] a hit in December depending on what the revenue ends up being this year. And um

[31:53] I think I know both Ruth and I have been sitting in on a lot of um Greater

[31:58] Portland Council of Government and MMA meetings with other you know managers

[32:03] and uh chairs and mayors and things of that sort talking about a lot of these

[32:07] issues. And at least right now, the state is holding firm saying that in

[32:14] 2020, what what they've estimated that school districts and towns will get in

[32:20] terms of school aid and local revenue sharing um is um is holding that they're

[32:29] that that's going to come in. Um the the other big theme we talk about is like

[32:34] the big challenges and the big pain is probably next year's budget. Um because

[32:40] that's when we're going to see um the impacts of real revenue decreases. And

[32:47] um it's also one of the reasons why I don't want to um I don't want to go too

[32:54] far uh cutting this year because if we cut

[33:00] too much this year, we know that we just know because of the challenges coming

[33:05] next year, it would just the year-over-year increase would be that

[33:09] much more magnified. Um it would be like um be a real shocker I think to people

[33:15] because I think um I think next year is going to be a very challenging budget

[33:21] year because of the revenue side

[33:26] » okay thanks

[33:30] » any other questions

[33:36] so um our board members is

[33:41] uh comfortable with amending our um

[33:46] uh budget recommendation to align with this scenario that we've just been going

[33:50] through. If if so, we can go back to the handful

[33:55] of items that we need to take votes on to adjust our recommendation. Um if not,

[33:59] we can uh keep talking.

[34:04] Is there anybody that's not comfortable with this at this point?

[34:12] Okay, then I'm gonna >> Okay, I'm going to zip down through and

[34:15] we're going to uh take votes to uh adjust our recommendations

[34:20] um and then we'll um kind of have that on the record for um for the budget

[34:25] committee when they meet uh next week. So, I'm going to move that

[34:31] we adjust our um budget recommendation for administration

[34:38] to uh $390,544

[34:44] with 106,347

[34:48] uh transferred and $284,187

[34:54] raised.

[34:57] Second. >> Rob seconds. Any discussion?

[35:02] And we got to do the roll call votes. So, we got we got a handful of these.

[35:07] So, if you're in favor of that, say yes. If not, say no. Rich,

[35:12] » yes. >> Rob,

[35:14] » yes. >> Todd,

[35:16] » yes. >> Mark,

[35:18] » yes. >> And I'm a yes.

[35:21] Okay. Um, I'm going to move that we alter our

[35:27] recommendation for the payment of the ambulance bond and that we transfer

[35:32] $41,720 and raise zero.

[35:38] Is there a second to that? >> I'll second it.

[35:41] » Todd seconds. Any discussion? All right. If you're in favor, yes. Uh,

[35:49] » Rich, >> yes. Rob,

[35:52] » yes. >> Todd,

[35:54] » yes. >> Mark,

[35:57] » yes. >> And I'm a yes.

[36:04] I'm going to move that we change our recommendation for uh payment on the

[36:10] 2018 road bond uh for the the same amount but that we uh transfer $50,000

[36:18] and raise 197,460.

[36:26] » I'll second it. >> Todd seconds. Any discussion?

[36:31] In favor, say yes. Rich, >> yes.

[36:34] » Rob, >> yes.

[36:36] » Todd, >> yes.

[36:38] » Mark, >> yes.

[36:41] » And myself, I'm a yes.

[36:45] I'm going to move that we reduce our recommendation on the public works

[36:52] budget to 1,38,693.

[36:58] with 1,6763

[37:03] uh transferred and $31,930 raised.

[37:12] » Second. >> Rob seconds. Any discussion?

[37:18] If in favor say yes. Rich, >> yes.

[37:21] » Rob, >> yes.

[37:24] » Todd, >> yes.

[37:26] Mark. >> Yes.

[37:28] » And I'm a yes.

[37:32] Okay.

[37:36] Um I'm going to move that we uh change the selection's recommendation for the

[37:41] raise pool um to zero.

[37:49] » Second. Is >> there a second? Rich. Second. Second.

[37:52] Yes. Um okay. If you're in favor, say yes.

[37:58] » Rich, >> yes.

[38:00] » Yes. >> Rob, no.

[38:04] Todd, >> yes.

[38:07] » Mark, >> yes.

[38:10] » And Kevin is a yes. So, four to one on that one.

[38:16] But we will is we will um Is there anybody opposed to still putting that

[38:21] question on the warrant? Although, you know what, Rob? If if it's

[38:26] a secret, well, I guess the >> if it's zero, then they can only vote it

[38:30] up or down. They can't change it, >> right? And if it's Yeah. There's no

[38:33] amendment. It's not like a normal town meeting where somebody could amend it

[38:36] from the floor.

[38:41] » That's why I want to make sure we get it on the ballot.

[38:47] » So, I'm confused. But but but if they vote it well I guess if I guess

[38:53] if the budget committee had a different recommendation

[38:57] they could because what they're going to have is they're going to be able to

[39:01] choose um between the selectman or the budget committee recommendation.

[39:05] Um it's unclear what happens if there's if we have to put like none of the above

[39:10] or something like that on there. What happens? Um

[39:12] » I'm confused as to how the budget committee would have a recommendation if

[39:15] we're not putting that on the ballot for making it zero. What are they

[39:19] recommending on? >> Yeah, I think normally we wouldn't. Um,

[39:25] you know, Rob expressed an interest in having the question go before the town,

[39:30] which in a normal town meeting year, I guess I would get, but if it's a secret

[39:34] ballot, then there's no opportunity to amend it, like, you know, have a

[39:40] discussion on the floor and somebody, you know, raise it, you know, to 8,600

[39:44] or whatever.

[39:51] We can come back to that. We don't have to decide tonight whether that um goes

[39:55] on the ballot. We can think about that one some more

[40:00] because even if the um even if the budget committee for the

[40:04] sake of argument came back and they wanted to fund the 2% say if the board

[40:11] was at zero that we can still we still don't have to

[40:16] put the question out there um because we are in effect not it's not a money

[40:21] spending article at that point because we're not proposing any money be spent.

[40:26] Right. I guess you could could you could you word it as in terms of the um

[40:32] you you pose the question the do you recommend do you um

[40:38] would you like the um to have a raise pool of up to 3% and the selectman's uh

[40:45] recommendation is no. Is that >> Yeah, I think we could do something. I

[40:49] was just thinking I think we could do something. I don't think we're limited

[40:53] to um number of choices. Like for instance, we could say we could put the

[40:59] question on there uh to see what some the town wants to you know raise for

[41:05] raise pool. Um A could be selectman recommends zero. B

[41:11] could be budget committee recommends zero.

[41:15] C could be 2% which equals $8,600. and D could be, you know, something

[41:22] else. I think we could do a multiple choice um question like that. Would you

[41:29] agree with that, Ruth, based on what you've learned so far?

[41:32] » Uh it's not the suggestion of MMA. So MMA's suggestion is that um it's a

[41:38] closedended article so that >> Oh, okay.

[41:41] » Uh so it's a yes or no, basically. But >> how do you do a closedended article with

[41:45] a selectman and a budget committee's recommendation? Well, I'm still working

[41:49] on that. >> Okay.

[41:52] » So, there are some towns uh that do, you know, put down the as as the options,

[41:59] the selectman's recommendation, the budget committee recommendation, and

[42:02] then basically none of the above. There has to be an option on the ballot that

[42:06] that to vote it down, unfortunately. >> Yeah. So we we need to find out what

[42:12] happens if they do vote it down because does that mean

[42:16] » well >> oh we talked about the article about

[42:18] putting at the beginning like to revert to Ly right

[42:21] » and and there's no guarantee that would pass either but

[42:24] » I know right okay >> you would need to take another vote to

[42:27] get a um like if the school budgets voted down they would have to to go back

[42:32] and another vote. >> Oh that'll be fun. Okay.

[42:39] All right. All right. So, we can come back to whether um like I said, we don't

[42:41] have to decide tonight. So, we've already here and

[42:46] um this one

[42:50] I think we just take this one off the town manager search.

[42:54] » Is that people good with that one? >> Taking it off. Yes.

[42:59] » The budget committee recommended zero on this one anyway. So, um I think we don't

[43:05] put we don't have this we're not putting the town manager question on the ballot.

[43:08] So, we don't need this, you know, on the on the article. So, I don't and I don't

[43:13] think we need to vote to take it off because we never voted to put it on. So,

[43:18] okay. So, I think that I think that takes care of the necessary votes that

[43:22] we >> actually the only change, Kevin, is the

[43:24] the truck is a lower amount because uh it came

[43:28] » Oh, yes. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Um, so I'm going to move we change our

[43:33] recommendation on the um, uh, public works capital expense to

[43:40] $188,600

[43:43] um, to be all be uh, transferred from public works capital.

[43:50] There a second on that. >> Second.

[43:55] » Okay, Rob. Second. Um, any discussion?

[44:02] So if you if if just so for procedure, if you were thinking that

[44:09] voting this down would bring it to zero, that's not what would happen. It would

[44:14] actually leave it at 216202. If you

[44:20] » are thinking you want to recommend zero, then we would that would have to be a

[44:25] separate motion and we would vote on that. So the the motion right now is to

[44:30] change the recommendation from 216202 to 188600, but the board would still be

[44:39] um recommending the purchase of the truck. Okay.

[44:46] Any other discussion or questions on that?

[44:50] Okay. So, if you're in favor of changing the truck recommendation from 216202 to

[44:58] 188600, uh, say yes. Rich,

[45:05] » um, could just for clarific,

[45:15] » right? So, my my only question is, is that is that wise to do? Should we leave

[45:19] a little cushion in there like 192 or is this okay to roll with that?

[45:27] » Last year, uh, the only thing that we ended up having to spend extra on is

[45:33] getting the truck lettered town of Durham and that was an extra cost was

[45:37] under $1,000,000 that wouldn't hurt my feelings.

[45:42] » That could just come out of regular budget though, right?

[45:45] » Right. Right. Right. >> Yeah.

[45:48] I'm in favor. Yes. >> Because this this is a contracted price,

[45:51] right, Calvin? If approved at town meeting.

[45:56] » Yes. Uh what I would have is >> That wasn't a resounding yet.

[46:00] » That wasn't a very good yet. >> The only hesitation I have is I think I

[46:05] think that those bids are good for a certain amount of time and we haven't.

[46:11] So, I'm wondering if that was only good for 30 days and where we didn't accept

[46:14] it, I suppose someone could could could back out on the deal. I mean, I don't

[46:18] know how that I'm not I've never had this happen, so I'm not sure. Any

[46:22] suggestion, Rob? >> Well, get something in writing from them

[46:26] that says they'll hold their bid until a referendum in July.

[46:31] » Okay. >> And if that's the number, then that's

[46:34] what we'll use. >> Yeah. Okay.

[46:36] » I I would think for um for tonight, I would think we could still

[46:41] change our recommendation um and and basically get that task done.

[46:47] And if for some reason something changes, we can always vote to change

[46:51] our recommendation again. >> Good.

[46:57] Any other discussions or questions? Okay. So, if you're in favor of changing

[47:02] the recommendation to uh the 188600 number, uh say yes. If you're not, say

[47:08] no. >> Rich? Yes,

[47:11] » Rob. >> Yes,

[47:13] » Todd. >> Yes,

[47:16] » Mark. >> Yes.

[47:18] » And I am also a yes. Okay.

[47:23] Anything else, Ruth? On on this subject?

[47:29] » Not that I can think of. So I if you look at the draft warrant um what I did

[47:35] is I I uh because it's quite confusing in the way

[47:39] we do it with the transfer and the appropriations and everything. I I left

[47:43] everything raise and appropriate and at the very end uh there's a warrant

[47:47] article and many towns do this that actually just um transfers a certain

[47:52] number of dollars from the uh revenue fund.

[47:58] » Yeah, I saw some articles like that too. It just it's kind of uh

[48:02] » they don't worry about it article by article. They just do like a lump sum

[48:09] » and and that's really it. It's >> like

[48:13] » it's the same end result. But >> yeah, I I hope it doesn't confuse people

[48:18] too much, but um doing it the other way would be very confusing. The only thing

[48:22] with that though is that we've kind of trained people if they see raise that

[48:28] means tax money. Whereas if they see transfer they say okay that's not coming

[48:34] out of taxes. So I I don't know. I again I hesitate to change things up too much

[48:40] when we're um when we're having such a big change in

[48:45] format and process. >> I can I can try and write it the other

[48:49] direction. Um, and we'll we'll look at it both ways. Okay, you

[48:53] » guys. That's good. >> Okay, I think that takes care of um 5C,

[49:02] discussion of the budget to be presented at town meeting. So, um,

[49:08] next is 5D, a discussion of the tax anticipation note. I'm going to stop

[49:13] sharing this screen here.

[49:19] Okay. And at least I'm back to regular view now. All right. Ruth, what what

[49:24] would you brief us on with the regard to the tan?

[49:29] » So, um I think we can wait till next week to take a vote on it. Uh the reason

[49:33] I did up two new cash forecasts, well not two but a new cash forecast for it

[49:38] was to show you the difference uh in the tan uh if we commit taxes the end of

[49:44] July or if for some reason and I don't know what the reason would be we had to

[49:48] commit taxes later in the year. So the tan just goes up.

[49:54] » So I guess >> I'm sorry. Oh, July Oh, July versus

[49:58] October commitment. Okay, I got you. Yeah.

[50:01] Hey, I don't know if I asked this before. If I did, I apologize, but why

[50:05] is the outflow number in August double what it is in the other months?

[50:11] » Uh, that's the month that we pay our uh county tax.

[50:16] » Okay, there you go. >> I went I went in and I'm like,

[50:24] » "All right. Is there any any possibility of talking to the county about their

[50:29] attacks? Um, doubtful.

[50:34] » Yeah. >> Well,

[50:36] » nominate you for that committee. They asked for somebody to participate.

[50:38] » They're looking for somebody. They're still looking for somebody to be on that

[50:41] budget committee. >> I vote zero.

[50:45] » You're the man for the job, Todd.

[50:50] So, okay. So, um, yeah. And that's hopefully by next uh

[50:55] week again, we'll have a more we'll be able to I'm hoping next week if we have

[50:58] firm direction from the governor, we'll be able to actually set dates of um

[51:04] meetings and votes and such. So, okay, we are on to uh department um

[51:14] uh department head reports. The fire chief is not here tonight. So, Calvin,

[51:18] you're up. >> Okay, that's about all I've got. So,

[51:23] Great report. >> Good.

[51:26] » Fair enough. >> Yeah. Um, so everything's going fine so

[51:31] far with what the state's doing with Route 9. No issues there so far.

[51:34] » Yep. Been down, checked on that. It all It's all going as planned.

[51:39] » Okay. >> Very good. We've got some potholes that

[51:43] we keep reporting to do that some people have been complaining about on Route 9

[51:47] at Cerosis Corner and a couple other places and we keep calling them and we

[51:52] get no response. I don't know whether to just go do it myself or I mean I don't

[51:56] know if I want to start that >> I don't know if that's a

[52:00] » I wouldn't establish that precedent. >> I know that's I wouldn't do that either.

[52:04] » That one rose corner it's getting bad. >> Yeah. It just makes us look bad when it

[52:10] doesn't happen because it looks like we're not doing it. They most people

[52:12] don't realize the DOT does one thing and we do another. So, I'll have to put

[52:16] something out there. >> What's the Do we have that speed

[52:21] enforcement sign yet? >> We do and we're working on that. Uh um I

[52:28] don't know if we we'll be getting that out hopefully completed for giving an

[52:32] update on that to the next meeting, but we have it and we've we've had to go buy

[52:36] a small trailer and retrofit it to meet what we're going to do. So

[52:40] » Okay.

[52:43] » All right. Great. Thank you, Ruth. Town administrator report.

[52:49] » Uh we've we've been through everything. Um

[52:53] the only thing I I just wanted to talk about was uh you know the town office is

[52:57] looking at the possibility of of um opening uh for appointment only. Um I

[53:03] don't know whether it'll be next week or the week after. It depends on when we

[53:06] get um everything uh in place and and that will be for uh necessary um or what

[53:14] people want to be necessary uh transactions and also for the higher

[53:20] risk uh population who may wish to come into the office uh when there's not a

[53:25] line. Um, and then right around June 1st, which is this the the date that

[53:31] most of the other town offices are are beginning to open completely, we'll have

[53:36] protocol in place um for uh social distancing and uh and we will have to

[53:42] reopen the office.

[53:48] » I don't know. I I don't understand why we need to wait so long.

[53:51] » I don't either. Um, we why like on the soft opening,

[53:58] why wouldn't we like have a sign on the door says that limits, you know, two

[54:03] people at a time in the lobby and put some cones or something outside for six

[54:09] foot distancing for the line um and um just let people queue up.

[54:17] » There's there's a couple of issues. Um, you know, one is that that Becky didn't

[54:21] get a ton of counterwork yet. Um, and so Pam's going to be helping her a lot. And

[54:27] so it would be very difficult to have two windows going right away. I could

[54:32] help, but that would mean that I would spend most of my day at the window with

[54:36] Becky making sure that that everything went fine.

[54:38] » Okay, that's legit. Then just do one one customer at a time. one. Yeah. One open.

[54:43] » And people can queue up outside and then people

[54:47] uh can make when people drive by and they see the line, they can make their

[54:50] own decision on whether they want to wait in that line or not.

[54:53] » Yeah. >> Yeah. I would agree. But the only thing

[54:55] I would add maybe have them exit out the back door.

[54:59] » You go through the front and you go out the back and then that way nobody's ever

[55:03] crossed >> through the AV room.

[55:05] » Through the AV room. >> Looking at the other direction, but uh

[55:08] we're we're still working that out. coming in the back door and going out

[55:11] the front door. And that being because then um we don't need somebody to direct

[55:17] traffic out of the front door because you can see when you come in the back

[55:20] door where the mana man's bathroom is, you'd be able to see the windows and

[55:24] still be a sixoot distance and then you >> and then you'd have people conjugating

[55:28] in the back room. >> Not conjugating. They would be lined up

[55:32] like the the Hannerford lines. >> Why wouldn't you just keep the majority

[55:37] of them outside and have them exit out the back? I don't I don't get that at

[55:40] all. >> Yeah, I kind

[55:41] » because you'd need somebody out front directing traffic and allowing people in

[55:45] when there was >> I don't think so. Not just one person

[55:49] only, >> right? And why do why would you need

[55:51] that in the front but not in the back? >> I think you need it more in the back.

[55:55] » I would I do too >> because from the back you can see the

[55:59] people standing at the windows. So you know when those people

[56:03] » only if you're in the building, but you can keep everybody out of the building

[56:06] and they can see through the front door if you do it from the front door.

[56:10] » Yeah. The next step would be in the c in the uh al cove, right?

[56:16] » No, just Yeah, you can have one person in the alco, but there's only one person

[56:19] allowed at the town office at the windows. And then once they're done,

[56:22] they'll exit and the next person can walk in.

[56:24] » I would Yeah, I would keep them back. Actually, I would keep them out of the

[56:26] alcohol because then you've got two people that have to get pretty close to

[56:29] each other to >> Yeah. No, not in the al cove.

[56:31] » So, I think you you draw your line, you know, you know, back like if you're

[56:36] doing a straight shot right out the the doors straight ahead, your your first

[56:41] person in line is probably to the left, just to the left of that as you're

[56:46] coming out. And you there's a line there and don't cross that line until it's

[56:50] your time to go in. And then that gives plenty of space for the person exiting

[56:54] to get out. And you just do one at a time. Oh, to go out the same door.

[57:00] » You could go. >> That's what I mean. Go in and out the

[57:02] same door in the front and just set it up so that that's

[57:06] » out the back door. >> Well, that Well, I mean, we could do

[57:08] that, too. But, um, you could you could still do that.

[57:14] » Yeah. >> I didn't know there was back door.

[57:16] » Yeah, Rob's got his Rob's got his hand up. Sorry.

[57:19] » Yeah. Sorry. I just like we're trying to solve this uh complex problem here, but

[57:25] is it really that big a deal like to open next week versus just wait till

[57:30] June 1st and when the when there's further restrictions limited and I mean

[57:35] is there a big public outcry to open town office? We don't have to register

[57:39] anything still >> and we won't have any support from the

[57:42] state because the state's still not working.

[57:46] » Yeah. So why not just wait till June 1st and then we'll solve all these issues

[57:50] then? >> I don't know. All I hear I I hear I keep

[57:55] hearing anecdotally like the phone's ringing off the hook. We have so many

[57:58] people calling you. So I think I think there is

[58:02] » but all of those those people we can take care of over the phone,

[58:05] » right? It's just direction as to how to do this or how to do that or you know

[58:12] that the governor has has allowed people to drive their vehicles without plates

[58:17] or on temp plates for 30 days after the emergencies lifted. So there's no

[58:22] emergency for everybody to come in um from May 15th until June 15th. And what

[58:28] we're trying to eliminate is the rush on town hall. I don't want to have these

[58:31] huge lines where everybody's waiting to get in and everybody's frustrated

[58:35] because there's this huge line. >> You're still going to You don't think

[58:39] you're still going to have that June 1st?

[58:42] » June 1st, we're still going to have all the social distancing things. You're

[58:44] still going to have to have all the precautions in the in the lobby that

[58:48] we're talking about now. People will probably still have to wear masks. So,

[58:53] that that that aspect of it is not going to change June 1. But if we take the

[58:58] most complicated uh transactions as appointment only then

[59:03] we can control things a little better and that would hopefully alleviate the

[59:08] the the most complicated and time consuming um transactions are new

[59:13] registrations. >> Yep.

[59:15] » And so if we took them by appointment only and we got rid of a number of them

[59:20] before the June 1 opening then that would decrease our lines. And then also,

[59:25] you know, with the trash tags, we're we're looking towards probably setting

[59:29] up somebody outside at least for the first couple days.

[59:32] » Well, that was part of my thing with the, you know, with the 30 minute

[59:35] appointment windows, like there's a lot of things people do that don't take

[59:38] anywhere near 30 minutes. So, in terms of the, you know, your productivity and

[59:42] the number of people that you could conceivably help, it's re you're really

[59:46] limiting yourself if you go to, you know, 30 minute uh intervals.

[59:54] I think that's more to to give everybody a time to do the most complicated

[1:00:02] transactions so that people don't back up on each other.

[1:00:17] » Todd, did you have something? Well, I mean, is this something that we

[1:00:23] have to vote on? >> Well,

[1:00:27] depends on what you want to do. I mean, you can vote on it and decide what to do

[1:00:31] or you can leave it up to me. >> Well, I I think it's six and one half

[1:00:35] dozen of the other. I mean, I I don't you're not going to resolve the problem

[1:00:40] on I if if people feel comfortable enough. I mean, this is working in

[1:00:44] supermarkets where there are much higher risk. This is working in restaurants.

[1:00:48] This is why is the town hall so different? If the argument is because we

[1:00:52] need to get training for an individual, that's fine. We'll limit our we'll limit

[1:00:56] it to that one person at a time so we can you know make sure she's properly

[1:01:00] trained and also obviously limit the exposure inside at one particular time.

[1:01:05] But it I don't understand why we would wait till June 1st. I I just

[1:01:12] » I think we should go to May 11th. I would I would even I would throw out I

[1:01:16] would even be okay if you went to um if you're worried about

[1:01:23] being overwhelmed. Uh I would be okay with not not having

[1:01:29] all of the hours that the office is open be accessible to the public. Like maybe

[1:01:34] you start off with say, you know, we're um the town office will be open to the

[1:01:40] public from, I don't know, 10 to 2, you know, or whatever or or noon to 4 or or

[1:01:46] whatever, you know, just as a, you know, as a kind of ramping up strategy. So it

[1:01:52] would still give you some time to kind of um caught up on other stuff.

[1:01:57] » That's a good point.

[1:02:01] » Um I don't know. What do you think? Well,

[1:02:03] so we are meeting again on Tuesday, which is the 12th. Um,

[1:02:10] » Mill has his hand up, too. >> Oh, sorry. Yeah, Mill, sorry. Go ahead.

[1:02:15] » My two sense I mean, if if they're only allowing one person into the office at a

[1:02:19] time, I I I don't understand why the women behind the window will feel

[1:02:26] overwhelmed. I mean, yes. I mean, one transaction might take 20, 25 minutes.

[1:02:30] And people who are outside standing in line can choose whether or not they want

[1:02:34] to remain in line. Um, you know, other transactions will only take maybe 15

[1:02:39] minutes. And but the the people at the window won't be overwhelmed because it's

[1:02:43] only going to be one customer at a time, right? I think the I think where I was

[1:02:47] coming from with that, what was in my head was that the um the line might

[1:02:52] never stop like that. It might just, you know, in a normal course of business

[1:02:55] when you've got a couple of windows open and um you're in normal periods, you

[1:03:01] have gaps during the day where there's nobody at the window. But I think at

[1:03:05] least for a time when we first open, there's likely to be a lot of people

[1:03:09] coming in for a lot of different reasons. And it might just be a constant

[1:03:13] line all day. And if with it with one window open um it might make it tough

[1:03:19] for them to get some of the other work they need to get done done. So

[1:03:23] » yeah that that makes sense to me. I also think you know whenever you that that

[1:03:28] office I think that they're going to face that scenario whatever the date is

[1:03:33] when the office opens. >> I agree which is why I agree why I think

[1:03:37] it's good to open earlier and start working through some of that pent up

[1:03:40] demand. Yep. >> Or we just open two days a week out of

[1:03:45] the four that were open, >> you know.

[1:03:48] » Yeah, that's another option. >> You know, just a Monday and a and a a

[1:03:51] Friday or something just so people can get some maybe not Friday because that

[1:03:54] tends to be a busier day. Maybe a Monday and a Thursday just to give some people,

[1:03:59] you know, I I just had a text yesterday and I can I'll be more than happy to

[1:04:02] share it with anybody on the phone asking when the town office is going to

[1:04:05] open. >> Yeah. Um

[1:04:07] » so I do think there are people looking for the town office to open.

[1:04:11] Yep, I agree.

[1:04:18] So, um I don't know where what do we think next steps are. Do we need maybe

[1:04:24] like does Ruth come back to us with an amended plan um on a for our meeting on

[1:04:29] Tuesday with and that we want the plan to be um well, if we meet on Tuesday, we

[1:04:35] could say, you know, doesn't have to start on a Monday. we could put out

[1:04:39] there, you know, for a really soft opening, say communicated as best we can

[1:04:43] that, you know, town office will open for limited hours starting, you know, on

[1:04:48] on Thursday of next week.

[1:04:56] I think we can say now that we could start on May 11th.

[1:05:00] As long as we get everything in place,

[1:05:06] » we'll have everything in place. So that would be that would be Monday. So we

[1:05:09] wouldn't meet again before that. We would just

[1:05:11] » have Ruth come up with a plan to um open responsibly on May 11th.

[1:05:15] » Yeah.

[1:05:20] » Monday's May 11th, >> I think. Calendar in front of me.

[1:05:23] » Yeah, because that's the day the budget committee is meeting, right? Yeah.

[1:05:26] » Well, why don't why don't we have a meeting on Tuesday and have a plan to

[1:05:30] reopen on the 14th? That way we can have a discussion on it before we do do that.

[1:05:34] » Yeah, that's what I was suggesting, too. was it?

[1:05:38] » Sorry if I missed that. >> I just don't know what's going to

[1:05:40] change. >> Well, I think it's it's it's a matter of

[1:05:45] of Ruth being able to go back to the staff and say, "Okay, this is the goal.

[1:05:49] We need to" and we've talked about various ways it could happen. um uh to

[1:05:55] send it back to them and say, "Okay, we want to we want a plan that uh opens

[1:06:00] town office at least for, you know, at least for starting half days um on

[1:06:06] Thursday the 14th." Um and see what that looks like.

[1:06:15] Other thoughts on that?

[1:06:22] No. >> Ruth, do you feel you could get started

[1:06:24] on the 11th? >> Um, I I wouldn't mind a couple extra

[1:06:30] days to make sure we have everything um you know, all the signs and

[1:06:35] everything up.

[1:06:40] » Yeah, because there's nobody in the office tomorrow, right? So,

[1:06:43] » no, we're not in the office tomorrow.

[1:06:50] What I mean what signs do we have to have other than one person in at a time

[1:06:53] and putting some cones out that we already have a sign up says mask on if

[1:06:56] you're in the office

[1:07:01] » just going through the checklist again and making sure that we have everything

[1:07:04] in order. I mean we were only planning on doing it for by appointment only. So,

[1:07:09] um, you know, we're going to have to go back and

[1:07:13] just make a plan, make sure that we go through the checklist that the governor

[1:07:16] has.

[1:07:20] Is there is there anything we've we've talked about here that you are concerned

[1:07:25] violates or or goes against what the that checklist is?

[1:07:32] » No. >> Okay.

[1:07:43] So, where are we? Do we need to have a a a vote to reopen the town office on on

[1:07:51] Monday to the public?

[1:07:57] » I move we uh I put it there. I I move we uh open the town office May

[1:08:04] 11th um with with Ruth doing her best with

[1:08:10] her working with the state

[1:08:16] recommendations. Um are you are you moving for um full

[1:08:21] operational hours or are you um moving for uh continued uh limited hours?

[1:08:30] » Uh limited hours maybe two days a week >> the starting point

[1:08:37] and go to go to a full week on the 18th.

[1:08:46] » Is there a second to that?

[1:08:51] I'll second it for discussion. I think we already had a lot of discussion, but

[1:08:55] I'll second it. Yeah, I think I'm gonna vote no on this simply

[1:09:01] because um I I would like to give them the opportunity to um go back and have

[1:09:10] the rest of this week to okay to actually, you know, lay out what they

[1:09:15] want their plan to be, bring it to us on Tuesday, and we can approve or

[1:09:20] disapprove it and um open on Thursday And if we were going to do limited time

[1:09:27] anyway, we we're really not we're really not costing ourselves any

[1:09:32] time. But it I think it it's a little bit more of a deliberative process than

[1:09:36] just saying, "Hey, okay, we want the office open. Figure it out."

[1:09:43] So that's that's I'll be voting though on this one.

[1:09:50] » Any other discussion? >> Would you just out of curiosity is that

[1:09:54] a is Are you voting I understand you're

[1:09:57] voting no, but um is there a chance that maybe it sounds like you're willing to

[1:10:02] amend Todd's because Todd wasn't really necessarily setting a specific.

[1:10:06] » You just said limited hours. I didn't know if you were amending Todd's or if

[1:10:11] that was possible. >> No, I wasn't amending but you know I was

[1:10:14] just going to I was going to do a separate motion um okay afterwards.

[1:10:22] » Any other discussion? Well, I will withdraw mine.

[1:10:26] » Okay, >> let's get on with it.

[1:10:28] » Okay, >> we've talked about it.

[1:10:32] » All right, I'm going to move that um that the board um

[1:10:38] have Ruth bring a uh opening plan to the board at our next meeting on uh May 12th

[1:10:46] uh with the goal of opening the town office at least for

[1:10:50] limited hours by Thursday, May 14th. I'll second that.

[1:10:57] » Any further discussion? >> All right. If you're in favor, say yes.

[1:11:03] If not, say no. Rich, >> yes.

[1:11:07] » Rob, >> no.

[1:11:10] » Todd, >> yes.

[1:11:12] » Mark, >> yes.

[1:11:14] » And I'm a yes. So, four to one on that one. Okay.

[1:11:20] All right. So, Ruth, I think that was that was all you had uh that we hadn't

[1:11:24] already talked about was the reopening uh plan.

[1:11:27] » That's fine. Yeah. >> Well, I thought that's what you said. If

[1:11:30] you have something else, that's fine. >> No, no, no. I think that's enough.

[1:11:34] » Okay. All right. Uh I'm going to uh move we

[1:11:40] accept the consent agenda as presented. It only has the minutes for last week on

[1:11:44] it.

[1:11:48] » Second. I any Oh, we don't have discussion on

[1:11:52] that. Um, if you're in favor, say yes. Rich,

[1:11:56] » yes. >> Rob,

[1:12:01] » yes. >> Todd,

[1:12:04] » yes. >> Mark,

[1:12:06] » yes. >> And I'm a yes. Okay.

[1:12:09] Okay. Okay. So, our next meeting, uh, regular meet is, uh, Tuesday, May 12th

[1:12:14] at 6:30, uh, p.m., uh, same format, Zoom. Oh, Milt's got something you want

[1:12:21] to say, Mel. Milt. >> Yes, thank you. Just a couple of

[1:12:24] questions. Um, either to you or to Ruth. Um, just in case I'm asked this at next

[1:12:30] week's meeting. So the way the questions will appear on the secret ballot

[1:12:36] so it could so the the question will be asked and then it'll be selectman's

[1:12:42] recommendation is so and so budget committee's

[1:12:46] recommendation is so and so should we have different different recommendations

[1:12:51] will there always be a third option meeting neither or just the two options

[1:12:58] » I believe it's required that you have a neither Yeah, we don't know for sure

[1:13:02] yet, Mill. We're still actually investigating um and trying to find out

[1:13:06] for sure how those questions have to be um structured. So, we don't know with

[1:13:11] certainty yet. Along that same line, if the budget committee and the selectman's

[1:13:17] recommendation are both the same, will there be a second?

[1:13:24] Do they then the the the the vote is whether to to approve or or not to

[1:13:29] approve the recommendation. Is that correct? If I've understood what Ruth

[1:13:33] said is is right, if that proves correct that even if the selectman and budget

[1:13:38] committee agree, there's still some other option where

[1:13:42] they could just say no or none of the above. Um but what we're what we plan to

[1:13:47] do if that's the case is put an article um early in the warrant that would

[1:13:54] basically say something like you know uh are you in favor in the event that uh on

[1:14:00] a budget article um neither the selectman or the budget committee's

[1:14:05] recommendation uh passes that the budget for that

[1:14:11] article will revert to last year's figure. you know, something like that.

[1:14:15] Um, and if they say yes, then that kind of covers us. If they say no to that and

[1:14:21] then say no to a particular article, then uh, as I understand it, we would

[1:14:28] actually have to go through a rebudgeting process for that article and

[1:14:33] put it out to vote again. So, >> okay, that well explained. I hope I can

[1:14:39] do just as well. >> Okay,

[1:14:41] » last question to Ruth. Are you going to be sending out an invite and be hosting

[1:14:46] the budget committee's meeting next Monday?

[1:14:48] » Yeah. Uh Thursday, I'll send out an invite and I'll I'll host it and I'll

[1:14:52] also send out um the information or a number of the information that I sent to

[1:14:56] the board. So you guys will have um a spreadsheet to work with and see what

[1:15:00] the board recommended. >> That would be very helpful. And um do do

[1:15:06] we need to know in advance that we have a quorum or like any meeting we six will

[1:15:12] come along and if there's five people there we're good to go and if there's

[1:15:15] not why not. >> I think it's like any other meeting.

[1:15:19] » Yep. That's that's exactly it. Yeah. Yeah. Either

[1:15:22] » there's a quorum or there's not. You still hold the meeting meeting.

[1:15:26] » All right. >> Oh, we still hold the meeting even if

[1:15:28] there's not a quorum. >> Well, you hold the meeting. You just

[1:15:32] can't do anything. you might immediately adjourn,

[1:15:34] » right? Yeah. >> Because you can't because you can't vote

[1:15:37] on anything. Might be a short one. Um but yeah, you technically call the

[1:15:41] meeting to order and recognize that you don't have a quorum. And you can still

[1:15:47] have discussions without a quorum. You just can't vote on anything.

[1:15:50] » Is it possible, Ruth, that when you send out the invite that you could request

[1:15:55] that people reply whether or not they'll be participating?

[1:15:59] » Sure. >> Thank you. And it might it might be

[1:16:02] worth calling out too for those um members that um may have think thought

[1:16:07] that their term expired that that to let them know that under the state of

[1:16:12] emergency that their terms are still in progress.

[1:16:16] » It still stuck with us. >> That's a that's a valid point, Kevin. So

[1:16:21] Ruth, if you could uh you know, if there's a way to word put that wording

[1:16:26] in your email, I think that would be helpful. I think I think there's

[1:16:30] probably at least a couple of members who, you know, mentally have tuned out

[1:16:33] of their participation in the budget committee.

[1:16:37] » Yeah. >> Okay,

[1:16:40] » Rich. >> Um, just real quick, and I apologize. I

[1:16:43] didn't see it. Um, and it just as I was scrolling through my text and talking

[1:16:47] about the town office, um, I sent an email asking for a quick discussion, and

[1:16:52] I mean really quick, in regards to softball. Um, and I guess I'd wrap it up

[1:16:56] or to keep it brief, I would just say, is the town going to impose any further

[1:17:00] sanctions on the public that the above and beyond what the governor has already

[1:17:06] imposed? And I asked that simply because softball, if given the chance by the

[1:17:11] governor and the state, they would eventually like to you to utilize the

[1:17:16] field that they lease from us to hold some softball games, but they wanted to

[1:17:21] make sure that it was um kosher with the town before even committing to anything

[1:17:26] like that, irregardless of what the governor said.

[1:17:30] » Yeah. I um any thoughts for members on on Rich's question?

[1:17:37] I don't think we po impose any other restrictions.

[1:17:40] » Yeah, I wouldn't restrictive enough. >> Yeah.

[1:17:43] » Yeah, that was my thought too, but I just wanted to get the boards.

[1:17:47] » But that actually I'm glad you brought that up because when you when you shared

[1:17:50] that uh text I um it also triggered my a question for Calvin. Calvin, are we

[1:17:57] still locking the outhouse at Runaround Pond?

[1:18:00] » Yes. >> I think I think we need to consider

[1:18:03] opening that back up. Okay.

[1:18:06] » And um what I mean that's just my opinion. I mean because we are at the

[1:18:10] » people are you know using that facility more and more you know and as the

[1:18:15] weather gets nicer and um I think when we shut it down before we were it was

[1:18:21] largely because people were stealing the toilet paper. Um and so I think you know

[1:18:25] we're somewhat past that. So um my feeling is we should open that back up

[1:18:30] again. >> I would agree.

[1:18:34] Yeah. Yeah. >> Can you go ahead and and take the lock

[1:18:38] off that, please, Calvin, and just go do what you did last year as far as

[1:18:42] maintenance and whatever and >> Yep.

[1:18:44] » Um Okay. >> Thanks.

[1:18:47] » All right. Any other uh final business items?

[1:18:55] Okay. So, um actually, I'll throw in a plug. The budget committee will meet on

[1:18:59] Tuesday, I'm sorry, Monday, May 11th. Is that at 6:30? Bill.

[1:19:06] » Yes, that's I'm planning on it for 6:30. >> 6:30. Okay. Yep. And that'll be a Zoom

[1:19:10] meeting and that'll be uh how you can watch that will be publicized just like

[1:19:14] it has been for these uh selectman meetings. Uh Ruth, please send that Zoom

[1:19:18] invite to all the board of selectmen as well. Okay. Um and then uh and then May

[1:19:25] 12th and May 26 are our next regularly scheduled uh board meetings.

[1:19:31] All right. At this point, I'm going to move that we adjourn.

[1:19:36] Is there a >> second?

[1:19:37] » Rich seconds. In favor of adjournment, Rich.

[1:19:41] » Yes. >> Rob,

[1:19:43] » yes. >> Todd,

[1:19:45] » yes. >> Mark,

[1:19:46] » yes. >> And I am also a yes. We are adjourned.

[1:19:50] Thank you everybody. And Milt, thank you for joining us tonight.

[1:19:54] » Happy to see you all looking healthy. >> Yeah.

[1:19:57] » Good to see you, Mil. >> Stay safe.

[1:19:58] » All right. Take care everybody. >> Take care.

May 5, 2020 ~ Select Board Meeting

Transcript