[0:28] Good

[0:32] morning, August 19, 2026. This is the Board of Select Committee for that date.

[0:41] We're starting

[0:42] with monthly reports, police and animal control is first.

[0:51] Good morning Chief.

[0:59] Good morning. I wish we have any questions on the monthly report.

[1:06] When you look at that, over the past month, I know my lieutenant was here for the last monthly meeting.

[1:14] I talked about the Milo Simulator training. We've been continuing with that,

[1:20] putting officers through, that training has been excellent, covers sort of like real-world scenarios has different, you know, so all different types of calls that officers can go on from routine, you know, so all the way up to active shooter calls was good to not only sort of see where where they're at with them, but to be able to sit and have a discussion with them afterwards.

[1:51] and if something does happen, it's not the first time that, you know, it's one of

[1:54] their books. They've walked through those things. We did first national

[1:59] night out. Obviously, as you recall, we used to do family field day. I'm going to switch

[2:05] that to national night out so that it was nighttime events, that if we daytime

[2:10] event, lucked out, perfect weather. It was great. We used to have it at

[2:17] Governor Ware Park in the town common, which was sort of put everybody in a little bit

[2:23] more of a confined area, so there's more discussion amongst people and sort of our faces

[2:28] are out there a little bit more so. I want to thank, you know, I certainly couldn't

[2:32] have done it without the fire department, the direct department, the library, and our new

[2:39] So, someone new administrative assistant, she did a great job sort of taking over and

[2:46] running that, you know, getting all the vendors there, because it's a little harder this

[2:51] year since National Night Out is everyone, so to all the communities, so some of the vendors

[2:56] that we've had in the past, you know, are committed to others, so good job getting to that.

[3:04] Yeah, it was great, like I said, it was, you know, definitely a few more people than we've

[3:10] We've had in the past, and I think that's due to the, you know, Tuesday night versus, you know, Saturday during the summer with, you know, people scattered so.

[3:30] How much is a new police cruise accosting now?

[3:34] Yeah, so we're, it's definitely something on the horizon for us.

[3:39] As you see, there's two of the cars now over 100,000 miles.

[3:46] We're sort of pushing it off because I don't think the 2027s are out just yet.

[3:53] So I don't know if once the 2027s out of the 2026s stay the same price or lower if you get a deal there.

[4:01] But certainly something that we're going to, obviously with the board's approval, hopefully

[4:09] to start looking into, I know that last year I think like all in maybe I want to say

[4:18] it was 80,000, 85,000 something like that and obviously that was two and a half years ago

[4:23] at this point so I'm not sure exactly, even if the cost of the car itself doesn't

[4:31] So they go up to obviously all the cost of the different things that go in it. Yeah, I'll think it's gonna gonna be

[4:37] That question's prompted by one the mileage that I looked at and two the

[4:43] char here

[4:45] That shows you have a hundred and fifty one thousand dollars in that account. Yes, I'm assuming we're getting ready to buy one

[4:52] Yes, yeah, it's exactly. Yeah, so that the the two accounts there

[4:59] especially that detailed account just so it keeps building it so I haven't purchased one in a while.

[5:06] Exactly.

[5:07] So yeah I'll be all in obviously to cheer up point, you know, there will be no extra requests for any additional funds.

[5:26] Scott Beaver put you up to that.

[5:30] All right.

[5:32] All right.

[5:34] Anything else to achieve?

[5:35] No.

[5:36] Mark?

[5:36] Nope.

[5:37] Now that you have a work.

[5:38] Like what?

[5:39] Yeah.

[5:40] All right.

[5:41] Great.

[5:41] Thanks.

[5:46] Hey, Bobby's back there.

[5:47] Fire ambulance and emergency management.

[5:58] Good morning.

[5:59] Good morning.

[6:03] I should have my report.

[6:04] Is there any questions on those this morning?

[6:09] Why isn't two pages?

[6:10] Because it was really busy.

[6:13] She will look at it.

[6:14] Yeah, I went tracking back in our records

[6:17] And as far as I can tell, it's tied right up there with the busiest month we've ever seen and it wasn't

[6:24] Excuse me. It wasn't weather-related or anything

[6:26] Very busy medical month

[6:34] Yeah, we still have cats and trees and now we have painters of being a painter. I can't get down the ladder

[6:42] Just an update you guys had approved the donation for the SCBA fill station that is slated for in

[6:49] install right now. They should be there any time. So if Mark disappears, it's because they've

[6:55] texted me and want my electrician to me under that direction. It's going to be fantastic

[6:59] for our program and help some locals.

[7:05] I spoke with Mr. Ed BD last month. I requested a meeting

[7:12] regarding the ALS contracts that were sort of sent out and requested just an update they

[7:19] were doing a grant and with doing that they wanted commitment letters from towns and

[7:25] that commitment letter will lock us in for five years. I see the look. Year one being

[7:31] around 15 grand by and for Hampton Falls year five was just over 95,000. Much discussion

[7:40] Amongst my guys at my department and the chairman we've decided that would better suit us to try and invest those monies in the future into our own program and

[7:49] Gold ourselves better than

[7:51] Then just throwing it elsewhere and that was just a standby fee as well. So they were still going to be charging for transports

[7:57] so it was

[7:59] 200 and someone dollars or something. Yeah, it was a couple hundred dollars for the transport but the readiness fee was

[8:04] with that dollar amount.

[8:08] And I do know for sure there's other towns that are

[8:10] pulling that same trigger. It's just a lot of money to have something just in

[8:15] case. So if a lot of towns back out of that, is there a chance that they may?

[8:22] I have not got a straight answer on that question because I've asked it. And that

[8:26] question I actually asked when this all started, when extra ALS walked away,

[8:34] and

[8:34] town A walks away because you're basing it on 18 towns, well, who's eating that?

[8:40] And nobody could ever come up with that answer because initially it was free.

[8:45] So, you know, everybody just jumped on board, it was a great program.

[8:48] And I'm not saying it's not a good program, it's just a lot for a small town like ours or

[8:54] really any town just to throw that kind of money at something for just in case readiness

[9:01] it's fees. No, not something we were willing to solve.

[9:05] Yeah, I used to do this in very high.

[9:07] Not at all. Now, we cancel them far more than they come.

[9:13] That's for sure. A lot of that has to do with proximity,

[9:16] which we knew that from the beginning,

[9:18] where they are versus where we are.

[9:21] For them to be a true intercept service,

[9:23] I would only be able to shoot to Exeter Hospital.

[9:26] That's not the case.

[9:27] We have C-Brook ER, which is affiliated with Portsmouth, and we go to Portsmouth quite often as well

[9:32] So we just don't wait for the intercept and off we go

[9:35] And we've had no issues with that this year just holding our own. We have great mutual aid partners

[9:42] North South east west of us that have well, I guess not east. Yeah, he's kind of east. Hamptons over there

[9:47] They have paramedics. We're not burning them by any means. I send a lot more mutual aid than I request. That's for sure

[9:54] We see by my numbers that I give you guys, we're busy giving, not just getting.

[10:00] So our town definitely holds its own in participation, that's for sure.

[10:05] In terms of exit or hospital dimension, it's my understanding that they were closed last

[10:11] week, the Europers, eight hours.

[10:14] So they go on divert.

[10:16] And divert is kind of an interesting thing.

[10:19] It's more of a recommendation.

[10:21] Like, hey, if you have a patient that doesn't have to come here and they can go to

[10:26] porcelain, it's a good idea.

[10:30] All hospitals right now are getting inundated with just people, I mean, we're busy, everybody

[10:35] else is busy as well.

[10:37] But in an emergency, it is against the law for any hospital to turn my ambulance away.

[10:42] I can bypass a divert.

[10:45] We use an app, it's a triage app when we're headed to any hospital and when we pull that up it gives us the status of the hospital.

[10:54] For example, we went to Portsmouth Monday for a call.

[10:59] They had recommended that we divert elsewhere.

[11:02] My patient had doctors at Portsmouth Hospital, I ignored it.

[11:06] We're going to take them where they're best suited to go regardless.

[11:10] The news is going to make a huge deal about that, everybody's going to make a big deal

[11:14] about that, but it's for us, it's nothing new, it's really not.

[11:19] We see it all the time.

[11:21] What do you attribute this large increase in calls to, I mean, whether it's good, whether

[11:28] it's great.

[11:29] I mean, we do have an agent population, we're seeing a lot of that.

[11:32] But what key it is open and fully booked, we're going there quite often, you know, when

[11:41] they're 100 percent, our town is 200 percent.

[11:45] We did a math once and we can just about fit our entire town in that campground.

[11:49] So that's a big, big ask.

[11:52] We've got festivals happening, you know, with Applecress, we're used to that.

[11:56] So those calls start to meander in, bee stings, ankles, you know, fatigue from dehydration

[12:01] and such. That's another one. The heat has been wild this year, so it's given us a lot

[12:06] of calls with older folks that are hotter than they should be, but refuse air conditioning

[12:12] that happens. But yeah, it's just everybody is just busy for whatever reason, a million

[12:21] reasons. We'll never really truly understand. That's why we just do what we do and keep staffing

[12:27] and plugging along. If we had to go in usually late for any of our goals because we put in the

[12:32] envelope. We had, you mean as far as medical? Yeah. On my report, you will see two instances because

[12:38] I actually color code them out of all of the runs we had last month. One was on 95 North. We got

[12:46] beat there. It happens a lot because whoever calls 911, they'll give a very vague description. 911 will

[12:53] They'll play it safe and send multiple times.

[12:56] It's on a zebra camp to fall in the quarter.

[12:58] We're both going.

[13:00] Well, if they're there, it's OK.

[13:02] The other one you'll see, it was a paramedic from Seabrook.

[13:07] We utilized them for a paramedic call.

[13:09] So they took that.

[13:10] Other than that, no.

[13:11] All the yellow is 100% us.

[13:13] We're doing really well.

[13:15] I come in my guys for handling that call volume

[13:18] as a call volunteer department.

[13:20] It's very commendable.

[13:30] Thank you.

[13:31] Thanks, Bobby.

[13:32] Thanks.

[13:39] Hello,

[13:54] everyone.

[13:54] Good morning.

[13:55] Just everybody's been able to read my report.

[13:59] Any questions?

[14:01] It's not a real happy report.

[14:03] No, it's not.

[14:06] I have a little update on the COVID.

[14:09] I did a full inspection on the COVID.

[14:13] Did a walkthrough took pictures of it.

[14:15] But reached out to Paige Libby and told her that I thought that the college had reached

[14:22] emergency status and told her to please move it along ASAP.

[14:29] She has filled out the second request by the Army Corps of Engineers for additional paperwork.

[14:36] So all of the paperwork that they have requested is now on their desk and she believes that

[14:44] we're waiting for them to sign off as of now that everything is complete. That's where it's at. So we're patiently waiting.

[15:01] How quickly, I mean, the next step is you want to build to do the work, right? I've reached out to the contractor that has the contract on it, and he's pretty much just said way to get all the permits before, but he said he was good to go and that the culvert existed. In other words, the material that he was going to supply is basically in the warehouse. It's not out of the norm. So he's

[15:31] He said he thought he would be able to go as soon as things could happen.

[15:36] And that was roughly a month and a half ago, that I spoke to him.

[15:43] I could reach out to him again, but he's like kind of feeling, get your permit for us,

[15:49] please.

[15:54] Good.

[15:55] And I guess that's about it.

[15:59] I guess we have to.

[16:00] I had to do anything else with Rose until we know what the culprit's story is.

[16:03] So, patiently waiting, I mean, that's where we're at.

[16:08] At least everything is on their desk now,

[16:12] and that brings me to my course services

[16:15] in my bill, I guess.

[16:18] Okay.

[16:26] So, entertain a motion to move the course services

[16:30] of $10,496.

[16:35] Some move.

[16:40] Do I see the sheet here?

[16:41] Yep.

[16:42] All those in favor?

[16:47] Okay. Thank you.

[16:54] Building Inspector,

[17:00] here's a light duty job.

[17:04] Not much going on.

[17:08] Good morning.

[17:10] So I turned two houses over for occupancy this week.

[17:14] One was a remodel from what it used to be.

[17:18] And the other is a new home that replaced the home that was torn down.

[17:21] So those two houses it.

[17:24] coming in this week for occupancy and other than that, the report is pretty

[17:30] pretty static. I have one request this week for another detached a to use so

[17:37] that will add to the list. How many does that bring us to? New ones? Yeah.

[17:47] That would make

[17:48] So he had six in place, right, six going.

[17:53] When I close one out and, one just replaced it, it's in the planning stage.

[18:02] What is the, a bill that's soldiers have been doing are they?

[18:08] So the store is open.

[18:10] The store is open.

[18:10] And operating and there at Planning Board next week before development of these, the quiet

[18:19] part of the property. So there'll be an outdoor activity area that's going to be available for customers.

[18:29] And it's really a site plan to catch up to everything that's there now.

[18:34] So the building pretty much remained the same. It's just been totally rebuilt.

[18:38] And although he's adding a small out building because he's installing a sprinkler system in the building,

[18:44] It's just tucked behind the building, but it's an update to the

[18:51] 1989 site plan to bring it current to what's actually on site and then on the right-hand side

[18:57] It's going to be an outdoor activity area. That's the device you see. It's been constructed there. Do you know what the activity is?

[19:07] Are what he's planning? It's a it's a sluice, so

[19:11] So whoever youngsters or adults will be able to pan for minerals and items and it's

[19:22] so it's an activity area and part and parts of that they'll be discussing it at the

[19:28] planning board will be there might be a demonstration of how to make an arrowhead out of a stone so

[19:35] So it's kind of a multi-use area.

[19:39] There'll be some community involvement there.

[19:45] That's it?

[19:47] Yeah, I don't know.

[19:48] That's all good.

[19:48] Great, thank you.

[19:57] Next on our agenda is financial reports.

[20:00] General fund balance as of August 11th is $4,000,000,000, $45,155, and $35,000,000, and a hamshapedip.

[20:13] pool seven-day yield is 3.71 as of August 13th, 2026. Motion to approve those as

[20:23] red. So moved. Second. All those in favor. All right. Okay. And now moving on to

[20:30] accounts payable payroll treasurer treasurer treasurer treasurer treasurer treasurer treasurer

[20:34] funds, warrants, payroll warrant number PRO 7.17.26 for $47,142.48 and payroll PRO 7.31.26 for $49,492.12

[20:57] and PRO 8.14.126.26 for $50,585.95.

[21:10] Motion to approve those as read.

[21:12] So moved.

[21:13] Second.

[21:14] Opposed in favor.

[21:15] Aye.

[21:17] Under accounts payable, the warrant number 7,

[21:20] More number 7.1726 for $13,874, warrant number 7.31.26 for $92,954 and 63 cents.

[21:38] and warrant number 8.14, 0.264, 1,182,000, and $75.91.

[21:49] Motion to approve those as red.

[21:51] So moved.

[21:53] All those in favor?

[21:56] At this point, I'd like to make a request that we round things off so that I don't have a math quiz every day here.

[22:03] Anyway, all right, I guess I got through it.

[22:11] Under all business, executive, and we've had a couple of meetings in Scotsia today for

[22:21] the party or visual upgrade that we've been talking about for more than one year here.

[22:28] That's for sure.

[22:30] Scott, would you like to update us on that?

[22:32] Sure.

[22:44] As Ed said, we had two demos here, demonstrations of AV equipment. You know, sitting

[22:52] here today, I can tell you, it's never more necessary than it is now. It's, you know,

[22:59] just sitting in the middle of the room, I could barely hear what was being said, even

[23:04] with this equipment. So I know I talk aloud, but I'm not, I'm probably not common in that

[23:13] regard. But we looked at AV equipment that will consist of microphones with speakers

[23:23] for each of the people on the days, and then speakers for the public around the room that

[23:32] will be about the size a little bit larger than that fire unit up there that will blend

[23:40] in with the room, small white speakers, and it'll be wired underneath the floor.

[23:46] Will the proposal is to have a Zoom room, which will allow people to participate in these

[23:54] meetings remotely from their homes.

[23:57] We have a fairly large elderly population, and we also have a population that doesn't like

[24:03] to attend public meetings, so between the two it'll be good to have an AV system that serves

[24:09] that. This is a generational investment. When this, I last year I got five proposals from

[24:19] different AV companies, facilitators of this type of equipment. And there's one company

[24:26] that came in significantly lower than the others. Many of them were up about $80,000 or $90,000

[24:32] dollars before some of the adjustments we made recently, and one company came in about

[24:38] $50,000, and although coming from the construction industry, I've learned not to take low bid.

[24:44] This was a highly company that had some interesting solutions, and so we started working with

[24:52] this company. They've been here three times with two demonstrations, and the original proposal

[24:58] came in around 50,000, and then we made some modifications after the first demonstration

[25:05] and a request was made by Selecman Garjulo to actually add camera tracking equipment that

[25:16] will allow people remotely to see who is speaking and what they are presenting.

[25:20] And their updated proposal with all these changes is roughly $72,000.

[25:25] dollars, and that also consists of $5,000 for on the spot service if we need it in the

[25:34] course of the year.

[25:36] It's a service plan, if you will, kind of like what you get for your automobile or whatever

[25:42] to allow us to integrate this system properly and learn how to use it.

[25:47] I can tell you, whenever you improve technology you have to make it work, technology just doesn't happen.

[25:56] You know, if you get a new computer you have to learn how to use it.

[25:59] If you get a new system here there will be a learning curve and they will help us come up to speed.

[26:05] So the total investment as it stands now looks like it's about $72,000 with the improvements that we talked about in the last demonstration.

[26:14] and that includes the higher-tech speakers that are hidden or not hidden, but subtle in

[26:21] the room, it won't change the historical value of the room, in my opinion and the opinion

[26:28] of the presenter and the sound that you have right now will be greatly improved.

[26:38] I think just from 30,000 feet, and I've been attending meetings here for 19 years, it's

[26:45] really good to be able to hear what's going on.

[26:49] There's a lot of important things said here and decided here.

[26:52] This investment also includes video equipment, so people remotely can see it, and if someone

[26:59] comes in to present something, there will be two widescreen TVs, so you can see their

[27:06] a presentation whether it's a PowerPoint or a diagram or a lot plan or whatever you'll

[27:14] be able to see it on the screen.

[27:16] This will replace the projector technology that we have here right now and that's important

[27:24] because of the ambient light in this room that kind of prevents us from being able to

[27:29] see a lot of things that are used with a projector.

[27:33] So, just summing up, I think many of us believe I sense that the board does also, if this

[27:43] is a worthwhile investment, question is how do we finance it, if we go to for $72,000.

[27:50] Do we do it through a warrant article, is there another way to go about doing it?

[27:55] And since I've collected a bunch of bids on the front end proposals, if you will, do

[28:03] we have to go out for an RFP since we already have those numbers on hand?

[28:11] So those are the remaining questions.

[28:22] I think the last point you made is probably working on in terms of how we're paying for it.

[28:30] Yeah, so I know we talked about the counter-communication involved in thought that being part of that solution, but certainly that would have went it out at 50, so now we've got 72, so we're talking about, you know, and I know we'll use that communication kind of person on the table.

[28:58] So, I

[29:02] guess the question that I would have is there, and I've noticed I haven't been through the whole thing, but your budget kind of recapped so far for you for the year.

[29:20] We're on the target, they would say, it's tight, but we need to be careful.

[29:28] It's not like there's other.

[29:30] There's not a lot of back in the budget.

[29:32] Yeah.

[29:33] I was going to ask Scott, do you think it would be something we're looking at?

[29:37] I mean, depending on how simple it would want to do this, if there's something similar in the later,

[29:41] and maybe it's willing to split the bill out of it,

[29:43] like perhaps maybe it's going to come to this year.

[29:47] Some of this year, and then some of this next year.

[29:50] The only network that we're looking for is really good.

[29:53] I was going to say, because if it's a communication,

[29:57] the money isn't.

[30:01] I know I asked this question last time, but what are we going to do? I don't know, that's a short. Yeah.

[30:32] We just got from the

[30:33] question becomes do we put it on a warrant article for a smaller amount of data we could

[30:44] set aside a certain amount of the communication problem, or maybe in your suggestion, Scott,

[30:53] this is probably a question for you, is it possible to do something where we can, you know,

[31:02] purchase at least of the lights to get started with the communication fund and then figure

[31:11] out how to do the balance after March or next year.

[31:23] So is there a place where we can make a break, so there's 53,000 in that account right now?

[31:30] Is there a place where we could make a break where this amount of money could be added

[31:36] without any interruption already, and we could get started on doing something, or is it

[31:42] kind of an all-in-nothing scenario?

[31:45] One of the questions I asked the group, the name of the company is key code media, and

[31:51] one of the questions I asked them is, is this an expandable system?

[31:55] But, you know, can you, you know, if you start with something, can you add things later

[32:00] on?

[32:01] I think, for example, the upgraded cameras that, uh, uh, Selen and Garjulos suggested we

[32:09] look at, which is a tracking camera, which is really a pair of cameras that, uh, actually

[32:15] track the speakers as they speak.

[32:20] That may be something that we hold off on, you know, maybe do the video enhancements later on, and that's 12,000 by itself.

[32:34] So that would bring it down to 60, and now we're getting closer to the 53, and I can ask them what the options are for financing or

[32:46] or working part of it this year and part of it next year.

[32:51] I haven't touched on that with him yet.

[32:55] My recollection on the cameras was that if we did it

[33:00] in two steps, we'd end up having to buy lower grade

[33:03] cameras and then we would not have a need for them

[33:08] and then have to buy higher grade cameras.

[33:10] So there would be some waste there if we did that.

[33:13] I think

[33:21] at this point the money doesn't exist to commit $70,000 or even $50,000 because

[33:27] that fund is used for other things that come out of it, that the budget will support.

[33:36] So my sense is we either do a partial this year or we look for a warrant article and get

[33:46] commitment, the problem with the warrant article is if it fails, then we can't do it any

[33:51] other way. So that's all other can of worms. Or the other one is fundraising. Maybe see

[33:59] if people in town would be willing to help support doing this because it's not something

[34:08] we have to do, but it'll provide a lot more transparency and provide a lot more transparency

[34:14] and it will help people who aren't able to come to the meetings or don't want to come to the meetings.

[34:23] And maybe there are a few benefactors who would be willing to chip some money in to help it.

[34:29] The interesting catch-22 is how do we communicate? We needed the money.

[34:34] Because people can't hear us.

[34:37] I mean, how would we get that across to them?

[34:41] You know, you can't hear me right now, so...

[34:45] The other side to it, and this is something that we can explore, and I haven't explored

[34:53] myself, is part of this package is hearing assist, because as you start developing spaces

[35:01] that could hold 50 or more people, you're required by federal law to provide hearing assistance,

[35:09] which is a loop technology that allows people with, you know, to plug in their hearing aids

[35:14] into the system through Bluetooth or cochlear implants. I'm familiar with that because my wife

[35:22] has a cochlear implant, which is electronic hearing through the inner ear. And also it has

[35:31] As headsets for people, I think there are two that are provided in this system.

[35:36] So we might be able to go to the state and see if there's any subsidy offered by the state for this kind of investment in terms of upgrading a meeting space to be compliant with ADA.

[35:56] We also look to see if there's any grants out there, general grants for anything like this.

[36:04] I think it's, you know, I didn't say for the second session with you gentlemen, so I haven't had any feedback.

[36:12] It seems to me that the selectmen are interested in doing something, just a question of being able to fund it properly and stay within our budgetary concerns.

[36:21] and of course we couldn't even be irresponsible because Andrea gave us a list of all the

[36:27] monies that we've spent so far and where we are so you know we could have been irresponsible

[36:32] for that but we weren't allowed to be so it's definitely a knee you know I hear it from

[36:40] all kinds of people that they couldn't hear it's not that they can't see they see what's

[36:46] going on. They can't hear often. And we probably should make every effort we can,

[36:53] I don't know what those efforts are, grants, whatever, maybe a partial payment to get something

[37:00] in place and add to it, whatever, whatever the options are. As soon as we can do something

[37:06] in my mind, to be a heck of a lot better than what we're dealing with, President.

[37:12] So one other question, but I think certainly grants if we can find any kind of grant that would be great.

[37:24] But you may not know this, Andrew, right off the top of your head, or in the final papers you got.

[37:29] But how much interest have we earned in the PDF this year?

[37:36] And what is that money?

[37:38] I mean, that's extra money, that's not considered in the budget.

[37:42] I can check what that treasure is, but that's when you, the key tip is, it's a variable,

[37:49] so it does that percentage, it's what.

[37:52] Right.

[37:54] Can you give me that?

[37:56] Not really.

[37:57] Is it obvious?

[37:58] Beverly's a plant, as well.

[38:00] Yes, it is.

[38:02] Anyway.

[38:08] But where is that reflected on like the current budget work that it's kind of it's unassigned

[38:18] by the way it's not thing that budgeted.

[38:22] Well, it's six I would say 6,000 a month is something like that.

[38:27] I think that's looking at numbers.

[38:31] I'll talk about that.

[38:35] Yeah, because I think curious.

[38:37] It's over the course of six months.

[38:40] That's 36 grand.

[38:42] That's 6 grand, right?

[38:43] Right.

[38:44] And that's not money that we...

[38:47] We didn't budget that.

[38:48] It wasn't necessary for us.

[38:50] Like being in our own conditions.

[38:51] Right.

[38:52] So that might be an opportunity to take advantage of that too.

[38:56] I guess that means stay tuned because if we have that I'm assuming that we would be in favor of doing something with that.

[39:06] I mean it's money that we did not raise and appropriate and it's money that's not targeted to anything.

[39:13] We just use it as a cushion because we have this opportunity to put that in the beautiful.

[39:19] So,

[39:22] the other thing in terms of splitting it, right now we've got the town hall streams for a video.

[39:32] We can do the audio maybe this year.

[39:38] It's probably, I'm thinking it's probably 70-30 as far as percentage of the investment.

[39:43] Most of the cost in terms of the individual units is in the microphones.

[39:48] That's where there were a lot of the cost.

[39:49] So if we did the audio portion on the front end, and then maybe next year do the video

[39:58] portion, if you break it up that way, because we do have a video component right now.

[40:08] So I can check to see if that's doable.

[40:13] We're back at this in two weeks, right?

[40:15] Yep.

[40:16] You want to come back in two weeks and put it on the agenda and see if we can get to a

[40:21] The solution of this both funding and what we're buying.

[40:26] Yes.

[40:28] Yep.

[40:29] Yeah.

[40:32] I thought I probably neglected to do this but I'm changing gears right now.

[40:39] I wanted to do an HVAC upgrade update for the town hall building as well.

[40:47] May I take a few moments to talk about our HVAC system.

[40:49] So we had many splits installed in half the building in January and February this year.

[40:59] And I think it's worked well where we've installed and we installed it in the Administrator's

[41:03] Office in land use and also the building inspector's office.

[41:07] We installed better heaters in the two bathrooms.

[41:12] And the way we made this decision, initially, the Energy Committee came to this group to

[41:19] talk about doing the whole building.

[41:21] We decided to give it a shot and see if we could use the old equipment to run the half

[41:27] the building.

[41:28] And the problem side of the building, which is the north side, and also the administrative

[41:33] office with a high seal, and those are the ones that we addressed with the new mini-split

[41:38] equipment, we solved half a problem and we still have issues with the old system.

[41:51] And the main reason for that, and that's for the clerk's office, bookkeepers office,

[41:56] the hallway, and the vestibule up front.

[42:00] The main reason for that is the existing equipment, while it may be decent equipment as a mechanical

[42:08] unit itself, the system as a whole of ducting in this building was never done properly,

[42:15] it was never zoned and so we're playing whack-a-mole right now trying to keep the offices comfortable.

[42:23] I think the clerk called it sweater on sweater off, every 15 minutes they've got to change

[42:30] their clothes to accommodate the fact that the hallway air conditioner came on and it

[42:37] blew out everyone including the building inspector's office when it came on and some of

[42:43] the offices in the front are properly cooled and some of them get very hot. So when we first

[42:51] proposed it we proposed doing the whole building. It's the Energy Committee's recommendation and I

[42:57] speak as a whole for our committee to finish the job and to do the other offices. Basically what

[43:04] you needed, you needed zone for each office, a zone for the hallway and a zone for the

[43:09] best to be able to.

[43:10] I think, so we spent, I think we spent about $25,000 doing half the building, which included

[43:18] two bathrooms.

[43:20] I think it would probably not be more than that to finish the job.

[43:25] It's our recommendation that we do the other offices.

[43:28] So that's the three offices on the southeast side of the building, the hallway, and

[43:34] the vestibule. Each one would have its own zone, so no one would be, no one's comfort

[43:41] would be compromised if another one, you know, that cool or heat.

[43:48] Scott, how much was that? Did you say 2000? I'm sorry, how much did you say that was

[43:52] again?

[43:55] I'm working on getting a formal estimate. The first half was 25,000. I don't believe

[44:04] I believe that the second half would be any more than that.

[44:07] And I'm verifying that with the contractor that did the first half of the building.

[44:12] And that's something we can do again through an RFP if necessary.

[44:16] It might make sense to use the same contractor to finish the job, which was McKenzie.

[44:21] But it's been fun.

[44:24] Bobby and I have been up in the attic.

[44:26] We've opened and closed different ducts and dampers.

[44:31] And the real issue is that each office needs its own control and it doesn't have it.

[44:42] Again, I think there's a financial issue with that and I'm not sure where the money's going to come from.

[44:47] Unless we go for a war article or put it on the budget and a lot of people, I think at this point,

[44:53] and I'm looking to see their tax rate go up.

[44:56] That's the biggest issue out there.

[44:58] And I

[45:00] I think that we have to be conscious of that, and this may not be the time to do it.

[45:07] I fully understand that. I just, I wanted to bring to the attention of this group that we've solved half a problem.

[45:18] But it's much better than it ever was. Yes. It's, it's, it's better.

[45:24] 100 percent, yeah.

[45:25] Yeah.

[45:27] Well, if we were paying the energy committee, we would have given you bonuses over the other

[45:31] building and what you've done so far.

[45:34] But since we're not, we won't.

[45:36] But the reality is, thank you for all the help and work.

[45:40] Where do you go?

[45:41] I want to mention the community, the whole community electric thing.

[45:46] You're involved in that, correct?

[45:47] Our committee is I'm not specifically involved with that carol is and she wasn't able to be here.

[45:54] There's a wide push along the seat coast for communities to pull out of it because it's failed based upon what the rates are, continues to fail and a lot of communities are saying enough and they're voting to remove themselves from it.

[46:12] What are your thoughts about that?

[46:13] So, I'm aware that there have been changes in the rates and people aren't happy.

[46:21] You're talking about getting out of community power and going back to the standard utility or a unitil and so forth.

[46:29] We're on top of it, we're exploring it.

[46:32] Again, that's not my specific focus, but I'd like to report on that in a later meeting.

[46:38] But I think that there's an argument for going away from community power, if that's what you're suggesting.

[46:46] And if there are people out there watching this, they can do it on their own.

[46:52] Yes.

[46:52] They can still online and withdraw from it.

[46:54] But given the fact that we, the Board of Selectmen decided to go in the direction, we have an obligation, I think, to give some guidance or make a decision, one way or the other for the town.

[47:07] So some of its centers around the delivery and some of its centers around when the rates

[47:14] are posted and what way they're buying out of the pool.

[47:18] And so Unitil tried to defer all of their rates to a further date and to have the PUC pick

[47:26] up the cost of some of the stuff that was initially in their in their rate.

[47:30] And that led, you know, to have a lower rate by a penny or so, I think.

[47:40] And now the rates are coming back up for renewal.

[47:44] And I think that's what's causing where this is going to be, what the projection is on those rates.

[47:49] So I know that there were two different dates that were being given.

[47:53] I thought one was August, but it might be September.

[47:55] Yeah, we're going to get back with you and make a recommendation on that.

[48:00] I know Carol's been researching it pretty thoroughly, and we're not done yet, but we're going

[48:06] to come back and make a recommendation, but it's a really good question, and obviously

[48:11] what started out as a really good deal doesn't appear to be a good deal anymore, so we want

[48:17] to find out what we can do about it, and if we should recommend, you know, as a board

[48:24] to go in another direction.

[48:29] Thank you.

[48:38] Next on the agenda is the Stad Road Electric Electronics

[48:43] Signup date, which is pretty much in the same place

[48:49] it was the last time we met, except that there have been lots

[48:56] of 4 years and 91 days asked of both the Department of Transportation and the town of Seabrook.

[49:07] I think some of that stuff would probably better serve than not public at this point, but I certainly did that update, but from what I've heard,

[49:19] I've also heard from Kodell who's the planning board attorney who initially indicated

[49:27] that he thought there was something unsavory about this whole event based on what he'd

[49:33] seen.

[49:34] And he's been updated as well with some of the same information and emails that went

[49:41] back and forth, things are settling on whether or not this is truly a government function

[49:51] and entity and whether or not it's a commercial project.

[49:56] So it might just take a court to figure that out, but that's where it's sitting as a, well,

[50:05] I got off the phone last night with some people, so that's where it is and we'll give updates

[50:11] It's as necessary as we go along, but that's not really all I can say at this point since I have some other stuff to tell both of you in one public.

[50:27] Any other selections old business?

[50:33] Any comment on old business from the public?

[50:37] Okay.

[50:42] Is there

[50:49] any update on the two wells that were being built by C-Work on

[50:55] start road and wear road as far as how it's affecting the apple forest during this

[51:00] drought?

[51:04] The last I know, the last I knew about it, they were having to re-submit

[51:09] ownership of certain properties because they had the initial owners of those

[51:14] property so they did not identify a but is properly on the front end where that's gone

[51:21] from there don't know. I don't think they've started them. I think they did the initial

[51:29] testing but I don't think they've started.

[51:34] They did, they've been in one.

[51:40] I'm trying

[51:41] to be careful but what I say here but the reality of, and I wasn't all that careful when

[51:48] we had a public meeting, but I'm more cap will now, because I think one of the things

[51:53] that we're facing here is a cultural shift, Scott, where everything is top down now.

[52:04] Local control is being widely eliminated.

[52:08] It's being eliminated in zoning and planning level.

[52:13] It's being eliminated in construction, approval, and the legislature has seen fit to put in any number of new laws that basically mandate certain things to happen rather than with the approval of the local ordinance.

[52:37] So they wiped out a lot of local control.

[52:41] That's the overreaching problem.

[52:45] And then when you get to the specifics of water,

[52:49] I was told by an activist involved in this before across the state said they never denied one.

[52:58] So when they came here we figured they probably not going to deny this one either.

[53:02] But it has been delayed.

[53:04] I don't know where it is as far as I haven't seen a piece of paper or writing or anything

[53:10] regarding it since the initial fluff up about what are you doing to our water and whizz

[53:17] the water coming from and all the other questions that were prompted by the decision to go ahead

[53:22] and do this.

[53:23] But some of that has to do with sea brick and water and building and overextending water

[53:34] resources.

[53:36] So there are all kinds of things floating around here.

[53:40] And I don't know.

[53:41] I couldn't predict how this is going to went out because there's so many different pots

[53:45] to it.

[53:46] It's a jigsaw puzzle.

[53:47] And the state has put a heavy hand on.

[53:49] And the planning board talks about it all the time, regularly, that, you know, local control has been hit hard.

[53:58] A past legislature did not protect a lot of what maybe in Hampton Falls, we would significantly say, help us keep the rural character of our community what it is.

[54:13] There's a lot of that to go away.

[54:16] ADU is a part of it, but that's not the biggest part.

[54:19] There are other stuff in waters of big part of it.

[54:22] You can't do anything about water.

[54:24] You don't have to go to Arizona to prove that.

[54:28] So restaurants, everything.

[54:30] So if you take a look at one in Seabour, you see the water consumption level, what it's like.

[54:40] If you also take a look at the amount of housing being built along the Seacoast in all areas,

[54:46] it's insane, and the issue is that nobody is considering the infrastructure as part of it.

[54:54] So, you hear of water restrictions in places like Exeter, but they continue to build hundreds and hundreds of units every year.

[55:04] And the water restrictions are part of why they say they don't have enough water.

[55:10] And that's happening everywhere.

[55:12] So I think we have to be very sensitive to it because here we rely on wells and it's

[55:19] each individual homeowner's responsibility to provide their own water resource where

[55:25] other communities have community water.

[55:27] And then you have a boy to select men that are counselors who are responsible.

[55:34] But here every person who lives here, it's really on them what's going to happen if they

[55:40] lose their water.

[55:41] So I think that we're fortunate the overdevelopment has it hit us yet, but it could because of

[55:47] the what it's talking about, the sheer lack of local control and not considering all of the

[55:55] variables that exist.

[55:56] And I'm all for development, but the governor and the state talks about affordable housing.

[56:03] Somebody who's involved in that arena, nothing being built as affordable, so that alone

[56:08] is a joke.

[56:10] And nobody is talking about what do we do with the additional people and the resources

[56:16] they're going to need.

[56:17] So I think there is a significant conversation that needs to be had and people need to rise

[56:24] up before it's too late.

[56:27] In the case of seed growth, you know, the concern was they were not an individual, but

[56:33] at the town.

[56:34] They were willing to grow up on the water supply without breaking the deficiencies in their

[56:39] infrastructure.

[56:40] So they, it was determined they were wasting some water because of the old equipment,

[56:45] the old pipes and everything else.

[56:46] They didn't just be, you know, growing up on the resources there.

[56:51] They were put in these two wells, and you know they could fix the other ones, so they were

[56:55] going to double in.

[56:57] They were going to do stuff, not fix the old, uh, with it.

[57:02] And, and you could see what Lewis was talking about, as far as the building goes, I was coming

[57:07] down route one, I, I had been up in Port Smith, the dinner, and I was coming down through one

[57:11] with my wife, and I look over the right, and I see what used to be the cochlear landfill.

[57:17] bill. And they've got multiple condos in there. Now, you know, you can talk about water and

[57:25] you can talk about, you know, a super site, EPA super site, talk about all those things

[57:30] when I first came to the Seacodes, right? Who's in the top six, I think. And now they've

[57:36] got houses built there. And the other thing that struck me because I've been traveling

[57:41] around is that there's no money being put aside in all this building infrastructure for

[57:47] the roads. So take a look at your roads. Take a look at your state roads. They're not being,

[57:52] I hope they're going to be cloudless winter, but they're not being, they're not being mowed.

[57:57] They didn't mow them last year. Am I right, Russ? And they're not mowing them this year. You go down 84.

[58:02] It's like you're in Ireland, okay? And you know, I can go to Ireland and get that in my face and my

[58:08] and we're getting it here and so this is a lack of money and more demand and nobody addressing

[58:18] the concern that really is there, the affordable housing is a concern and certainly it's

[58:23] a real one.

[58:25] Affordable housing, the sea coast,

[58:29] I mean it's an oxymoron, isn't it?

[58:32] Yeah, I mean you can't have that because we're too close to the ocean.

[58:36] So, you know, these are all impacting decisions that are being made that are way beyond the local control.

[58:43] That's the concern I have and I think they're expressed by both of us here.

[58:48] Is that we don't have as much control as we wish we did to eliminate what we pictured Hampton Falls should look like in 2040, let's say.

[59:00] We may not have any control over it.

[59:02] They may just be whatever it is

[59:05] So

[59:07] It's a concern and it's part it's as part of the makeup here

[59:11] Including billboards.

[59:18] Okay under the executive we have trustee the trust funds approval requests

[59:23] then these are

[59:26] The first one is

[59:29] They're all for

[59:31] They drink water road culvert which comes out of the highway capital reserve fund. There's six there, so

[59:38] All right.

[59:40] We have to identify all of them and go through it up.

[59:44] You could probably just go through it.

[59:45] I'm sure he voted on this, didn't he?

[59:47] On these ones, I don't think you have,

[59:48] because the trustees want the backup, which is fine.

[59:51] They want the board to vote on what they get reversed.

[59:54] Yeah, yeah.

[59:56] We don't necessarily have to vote on this, but we will.

[1:00:00] I think they'd show better. Yes, please. So we have a highway capital reserve fund of $306.25.

[1:00:12] We have a, that relative to the Jones and Beach thing, it must be, huh? Yeah, all 70 drink water covered. Yep. And then we have a capital reserve fund of $156.25.

[1:00:25] cents and we have a amount of $437.50 and for what's raw, these are all part of Jones

[1:00:41] and Beech's work on this. $131.25 and

[1:00:50] we've killed how many trees doing this. $175.00

[1:00:54] even in the capital reserve fund highway, and then we have $1,944.5 for

[1:01:04] culvert work at 70 drink water road in Jones and Beach, and that's it.

[1:01:23] So

[1:01:24] We have a wage, we have a wage pay plan that's been upgraded from an initial one that was done and Andrea has identified the 20 steps whether or not somebody involved in the town here as an hourly employee or an annual employee.

[1:01:57] And I suppose we would want, we want to have some time to look at this, but we'll

[1:02:03] table it for the next meeting.

[1:02:05] The next meeting will have discussion about the specifics of it.

[1:02:09] Let me know if there's any changes you want.

[1:02:11] I know I've looked at it.

[1:02:13] It looks pretty good.

[1:02:14] It's a 20-step plan.

[1:02:16] Somebody served 20 years.

[1:02:18] They're at the end of the Alicia.

[1:02:20] here, so that they'd be relying on just, of course, the living adjustment beyond that.

[1:02:32] So I think it's pretty symmetrical and appropriate and I've looked at a lot of them in my

[1:02:38] life and it looks pretty good.

[1:02:40] So I'll let anybody, any initial comments on the go?

[1:02:44] And also I'll bring it to the next meeting.

[1:02:46] I did a chart of where people fell on in the chart.

[1:02:50] You had asked me for that, so I'll bring that to the next meeting.

[1:02:52] Craig, which allows us to track exactly where they are.

[1:02:55] This is going to be great.

[1:02:56] Yep.

[1:02:56] So that's great.

[1:03:00] And then we have the budget proposed.

[1:03:04] We're covering this so that we couldn't be irresponsible by the system this morning and

[1:03:10] showing exactly how tight the budget really is.

[1:03:14] And this is a new form that Andrew had put together.

[1:03:23] But it has all the important parts

[1:03:26] that I think he'd have.

[1:03:28] What was it last year, how are we spending in real time?

[1:03:34] The percentage that it is, and obviously

[1:03:38] on the right, beyond the approved budgets and the cuts that we've made, the comments

[1:03:44] for, necessary for justification for the budget season.

[1:03:55] Any questions of the end-of-the-earth bulk list?

[1:04:00] Okay.

[1:04:03] It is clean and it's only one, it's not like three or four budgets in a day.

[1:04:14] I couldn't resist anyway, and then we have a calendar for, so I guess we can break

[1:04:21] out our phones, our computers, you can, this one works.

[1:04:24] You have a calendar's in front of you, so you don't have to break out your phone, I don't

[1:04:28] know when you want to start, you don't have a budget committee which is great, so I don't.

[1:04:34] Based on start preceding you, it looks like we should have started a while ago, anyway,

[1:04:38] So we're looking at the budget, budget dates, everybody want to get there.

[1:04:44] Do you do meet outside of regular meeting times, have you done both?

[1:04:51] We've done, we've done on the back end of the meeting, a budgetary meeting.

[1:04:59] We've also had a hearing or a review with a particular department.

[1:05:05] We've got to be a budget for similar times, so it's really been kind of all over the map based on people's schedules.

[1:05:17] I didn't know if you do want to see.

[1:05:18] Do you have a day anyway there? It's actually open?

[1:05:21] Not really, but I'll make it work.

[1:05:24] Okay.

[1:05:35] Our next meeting is the first.

[1:05:37] The second.

[1:05:38] And we're meeting at four o'clock.

[1:05:41] Second.

[1:05:42] Yes. At four.

[1:05:44] Four o'clock.

[1:05:49] Yes, blue has something going on that evening. I sent the email. Yeah, so we're gonna meet

[1:05:58] a little earlier.

[1:06:13] Put your pleasure, gentlemen. You want to have something starting then?

[1:06:18] On the second or anytime. I want to send out the department as their budget. I'd like

[1:06:25] to get them out tomorrow to them so they have time to work on them. So maybe the second

[1:06:30] meeting of September, we start, that works for you.

[1:06:33] That's the 16th.

[1:06:35] The 16th?

[1:06:36] Yeah.

[1:06:36] Yeah, that's fine.

[1:06:38] Okay.

[1:06:39] About after a regular meeting on the 16th.

[1:06:43] Yeah, we do have regular.

[1:06:44] That's your morning.

[1:06:45] That's a six o'clock meeting.

[1:06:47] That's a more, that's an eight.

[1:06:48] Yeah, your second meeting is the eight.

[1:06:50] So,

[1:06:53] that all right for you, Mark?

[1:06:55] Yeah, excellent.

[1:07:04] You're going to be going to the Arctic? I mean, where did I call you last time?

[1:07:25] I can't update you on one of those dates.

[1:07:29] Okay.

[1:07:32] The first of the time is September 11th.

[1:07:35] The sixteenth, so the department heads have time to reach out to their vendors, so let's

[1:07:40] give some about a month.

[1:07:42] Okay, so after our regular meeting, you're up there.

[1:07:45] Sure.

[1:07:46] Okay, assuming, say, 10 o'clock.

[1:07:48] Yeah.

[1:07:49] Okay.

[1:07:49] It might be earlier than that.

[1:07:52] Right.

[1:07:52] Good after the regular business.

[1:07:55] There's such a happy crowd that wants to get together so often that you want to.

[1:07:59] Well, I start at one point.

[1:08:00] There was like, I looked at last year's schedule and there was like two meetings in one day, one in the morning, one in the evening.

[1:08:05] Yes.

[1:08:06] That's, I don't know.

[1:08:08] If you really want to do something like that, it's probably not.

[1:08:13] Is anybody interested in doing anything else in September since we had the extra Wednesday

[1:08:17] and September?

[1:08:20] Is that the 30th?

[1:08:22] Yeah.

[1:08:24] Okay.

[1:08:26] The 30th?

[1:08:29] What time would you like to meet on the 30th?

[1:08:32] You're admitting that.

[1:08:35] What time do you want to meet on the 30th?

[1:08:41] Okay. Same with you?

[1:08:44] Eight o'clock? Okay.

[1:08:47] Do you want that to strictly be budget?

[1:08:51] But just because you're adding an extra budget.

[1:08:56] I guess it will depend upon what we have.

[1:08:59] Right. Ready for us if we can't even do it.

[1:09:03] Maybe two early.

[1:09:05] I think we'll know better after the first one.

[1:09:08] They should be.

[1:09:09] Yeah, I think.

[1:09:10] I think.

[1:09:12] Yeah.

[1:09:14] Right.

[1:09:15] No.

[1:09:15] I think it will.

[1:09:16] The coffee's not that good here.

[1:09:17] Yeah.

[1:09:19] More coffee.

[1:09:21] All right.

[1:09:22] So.

[1:09:22] I put October.

[1:09:23] What?

[1:09:24] I don't know if you want to.

[1:09:25] I mean, we meet on the 7th.

[1:09:27] 7th is your night meeting.

[1:09:29] 7th is your night meeting.

[1:09:31] 7th is your night meeting.

[1:09:31] What was that?

[1:09:32] The seventh is your first meeting of the month in October.

[1:09:38] You wait, okay.

[1:09:39] Do you want to switch it?

[1:09:43] Yeah.

[1:09:44] Do you want to do like the second and fourth or...

[1:09:57] Okay.

[1:09:59] Okay.

[1:10:11] Okay.

[1:10:13] Okay.

[1:10:16] What's up?

[1:10:19] I am flexible.

[1:10:23] All right, so the 6th we'll do 6th, I don't want to make the decision, but I'm going to, all right, so the 6th, we can switch to the 14th, that's 6pm,

[1:10:37] the 14th, the 14th, the 14th, the 14th, the 14th of October at 6pm.

[1:10:41] Does that work?

[1:10:43] Okay,

[1:10:47] and then do we want to do the 21st or the 28th?

[1:11:01] Okay,

[1:11:05] they'll be back-to-back.

[1:11:07] Yeah, it would be back-to-back meeting, so if you want to bump it out to the...

[1:11:10] So the 28th and 8th.

[1:11:12] Yeah.

[1:11:13] I'm going to hold on on any other budget decisions until we know what we're getting.

[1:11:18] Yeah, yeah.

[1:11:19] I would think you have most of your budgets by then.

[1:11:21] The things that you're going to be waiting for, it's usually like, prime X is usually one that comes in a little later.

[1:11:30] Health trust usually comes in a little later, so it's those ones. But you should have most of your numbers.

[1:11:44] Absolutely.

[1:11:45] Yeah.

[1:11:48] Yeah.

[1:11:51] Yeah. Yeah.

[1:11:56] Yep. Sure.

[1:12:00] Yep. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. Then I just put November

[1:12:06] and December in there. But we can. That's that's too much. Yeah. Well, I'll trust that later.

[1:12:11] Where am I supposed to be this afternoon? All right. Good.

[1:12:21] These are the RFQs and the next item. Do you know when the CIP have you heard?

[1:12:28] I've only, I'll be honest, I've only gotten one worksheet back, so.

[1:12:33] Okay, so Todd hasn't scheduled a...

[1:12:36] We haven't scheduled with me now. I have to get together with Todd on that and decide.

[1:12:43] All right. It looks like they sat in September. I think the deadline for the worksheets is...

[1:12:49] So, it's like August 26th or 7th, so I'll get in touch with him and then I guess you have a, do you, you have a CIP committee?

[1:12:59] Can I have a committee? Yeah, we usually get to get there at least twice.

[1:13:03] Yeah, we kind of see what's going to affect the budget and what you want to put forward.

[1:13:07] Yeah, okay. Do you still, are you still interested as like being a liaison for that?

[1:13:13] I used to be interested in attending those, like, at the CIP.

[1:13:17] Unless anyone here, I mean, I always feel so.

[1:13:20] All right.

[1:13:21] It doesn't matter.

[1:13:22] All right, that's fine.

[1:13:23] All right.

[1:13:23] I will lose the right way you want.

[1:13:25] Okay.

[1:13:25] I'll lose the one when I get more info from Todd.

[1:13:28] All right.

[1:13:32] Yeah, these are just that, yep.

[1:13:33] Okay.

[1:13:34] Yep. Go ahead.

[1:13:34] You can move on.

[1:13:35] We have a world set.

[1:13:36] Yeah.

[1:13:39] The RFQs for legal and IT.

[1:13:42] Figured you probably just want to review these at this point, but you know, do you have

[1:13:46] this information?

[1:13:47] I did do a breakdown of the, aren't some worksheets.

[1:13:50] The IT, the legal is pretty straightforward.

[1:13:56] It looks like none have a retainer.

[1:13:58] Right now we have a retainer, so we're paying $2300 a month, whether we use our legal services

[1:14:04] or not.

[1:14:04] So none of these, no they have a retainer, yes that's it, that's it, this is the we use it and not.

[1:14:13] Correct.

[1:14:17] In your legal budgets, it's overspent, so.

[1:14:20] Let's see.

[1:14:22] So yeah, take a look at these. They're all reputable.

[1:14:28] Every time you turn a corner here you think the road's going to open up and then it gets dark again.

[1:14:34] And that, that's just, that's just, that's a crazy, I know, I know, so we're showing

[1:14:42] out.

[1:14:45] So we're paying for the next four months and that, the legal line is, what we spent.

[1:14:52] And we could go, the interesting things, exactly how much you actually,

[1:15:00] We're doing a couple of cases. We certainly got our money's worth out of that retainer. Right. Exactly. You're going to be months that we didn't do anything. Yeah. No, it happened that it happens in Japan. Okay. Well, yeah. I don't know about you, gentlemen, but I'd be looking for something without a retainer, no matter what the. So what we're trying to do is just reach out to like Prynex or NHMA. The small stuff if there's any questions.

[1:15:32] But yeah, so none of these three firms appear to have a retainer, so it's just a matter

[1:15:37] of what we want to pay hourly. They're all reputable firms, they'll have this full cell.

[1:15:42] And then the IT, there's four there.

[1:15:47] There is one that didn't really, it was like Alacot

[1:15:50] There wasn't a yearly amount, so it's stellar.

[1:15:56] Stellar, yeah.

[1:15:57] So it looks like Block 5 is about 75.

[1:16:02] You can look at the RFPs, but just a real quick overview.

[1:16:06] Block 5 is 74 to 10.

[1:16:09] Again, Stellar was like Alacot.

[1:16:12] But, um, um, um, um, um, on bail is 29,276, and then our, our

[1:16:19] my is, uh, 47,905.

[1:16:22] So, yeah.

[1:16:24] is our mine?

[1:16:25] Yeah.

[1:16:26] Okay.

[1:16:27] Yeah.

[1:16:27] I'm going to have to fit.

[1:16:28] One.

[1:16:29] One.

[1:16:29] One, one, one, one.

[1:16:30] Where?

[1:16:30] Is it remote?

[1:16:32] Our MLA?

[1:16:33] Is that how?

[1:16:33] Did I say it around?

[1:16:34] Yeah.

[1:16:35] I might have Yeah, I've mispronounced it, too.

[1:16:38] But, um.

[1:16:39] Yeah.

[1:16:39] So you may want to pull some of these people, some of these firms and companies in for questions and you can email me with any questions too.

[1:16:51] Do you agree with these?

[1:16:53] Comparable size towns that I've already using some of these pre-sources and I know it does mention how many places some of these are involved.

[1:17:03] I think Stella is they have all mean cut all mean clients except for this one like in New Hampshire

[1:17:13] so that's the one that's Alokat so I don't know but again review them and let me know

[1:17:22] if you have any questions and let me know if you want me to invite anyone in so I actually think

[1:17:28] that's a really good thought, you know, I'd be real curious what Kensington or, or yeah, see who they use, you know, some of those

[1:17:39] companies, who they use and what they, what they are, some of these seem really high. Yeah, we said Kensington, what was the other time?

[1:17:51] Not new fields, it's kind of similar in size, I mean those are the two that come similar in size to us.

[1:18:03] I'll reach out to them.

[1:18:07] Just to see, maybe it's based on population as well.

[1:18:13] Sure.

[1:18:14] Yeah.

[1:18:15] Right.

[1:18:16] The numbers.

[1:18:18] Yeah.

[1:18:19] Okay.

[1:18:22] Okay.

[1:18:23] Any else on legal or IT?

[1:18:26] Everybody's got this stuff.

[1:18:29] Happy reading.

[1:18:34] September 8th, primary.

[1:18:40] Stephanie Simmons, an email.

[1:18:44] The tape and JP regarding the possibility of the trailer and the set up scenario for the September 8th primary.

[1:18:59] I saw Lou responded and I responded as well that I thought we could.

[1:19:07] Bobby was going to be away, but I guess he's back in the fold maybe on that now.

[1:19:13] Well, somebody is, so we'll run it as usual in other words, we'll get the trailer over there and September 8th is...

[1:19:29] Prime act.

[1:19:30] First day of school?

[1:19:32] No, I don't think not.

[1:19:33] No, it's not in him to fall.

[1:19:35] That's right.

[1:19:38] Yeah, I think they have the eight-off.

[1:19:41] So they're already in schools.

[1:19:41] was the will. So it's just the same as we've always done then.

[1:19:45] Yeah,

[1:19:48] that's right for you.

[1:19:58] Okay, great. Thank you, Bobby.

[1:20:03] Lick a license. Cathedral ledge, just still a read.

[1:20:07] We dealt with them before. Yeah.

[1:20:09] And where is this one?

[1:20:12] One is for the live freely fast. That one is on Sunday, the 23rd.

[1:20:17] And then the other request was for the 18th annual Hampton Falls

[1:20:22] Craft Festival. That is on the 19th and the 20th of September. So I guess they just need

[1:20:30] their approval of the board. And I need you to sign it.

[1:20:34] Is there a motion to approve those as requested?

[1:20:43] So moved.

[1:20:44] Second.

[1:20:45] All those in favor?

[1:20:46] Thank you.

[1:20:50] Okay.

[1:20:53] House Bill 1300, which I'm trying to get an answer to.

[1:21:01] House Bill 1300 is one of the more interesting things going on.

[1:21:05] But what it does involve, but it is a request from the legislature to be put on every ballot in

[1:21:15] 26 and 28.

[1:21:22] That

[1:21:26] there be a tax cap of a percentage and I'm still unclear about exactly who it applies to.

[1:21:33] It looks like they want to level fund the prior year's budget.

[1:21:40] Yeah, the question is, who's funds are they leveling?

[1:21:44] That would be the...

[1:21:46] Again, it is convoluted. I'm assuming it's the...

[1:21:49] I keep reading it. I keep trying to figure out exactly what their point is.

[1:21:55] And there's two things. You've written on two things.

[1:21:58] It's not just the level funding in the budget.

[1:22:00] but it's also the 6% for the administrative staff.

[1:22:03] So there's two things going on there.

[1:22:05] So this is not clear.

[1:22:07] The second paragraph is what throws me off of that.

[1:22:09] But so we need to find out more about that,

[1:22:12] but House Bill 1300, I think the municipal association

[1:22:20] is against House Bill 1300, yep.

[1:22:25] I can tell you just for my own clarification,

[1:22:29] I have a call on the MAT at the SAU and I was going to today send a note to

[1:22:40] Gisella as well just to get their opinion because I'm sure they've been

[1:22:45] talking about it.

[1:22:47] They're going to address it, I think, on the 25th, it's a school board meeting on the 25th.

[1:22:53] Okay.

[1:22:54] So coming up.

[1:22:54] Yeah.

[1:22:55] And I know they're going to address it.

[1:22:57] I mean, if I knew what I was voting for or against, I'd be able to have a position.

[1:23:04] I'm inclined to not be in favor of anything that, first off, I mean, maybe it's an appropriate

[1:23:10] thing someplace in the state, I don't know.

[1:23:14] But our budget was down and so was the schools budget was under last year, so I don't know

[1:23:21] what they'll, you know, how that applies to us that much. But I did note that there's

[1:23:30] 11 more students that Lincoln Ackerman this year wanting kindergarten 10th throughout

[1:23:35] the grade. So that in itself, we know if they're local or we shouldn't. No, I think he's

[1:23:46] of people who have moved into town.

[1:23:47] Yeah, I think they're local.

[1:23:49] Yeah, they're local.

[1:23:50] So which is another issue down on our agenda.

[1:23:58] So I suppose as a board, once we know what it is,

[1:24:03] we can actually take a position on it.

[1:24:05] Yeah.

[1:24:09] And when you research it, and then you

[1:24:12] research it in those two sides to it.

[1:24:14] So you've got to be careful which articles you're pulling

[1:24:17] because they're biased on either side.

[1:24:22] Well, I think the thing that's unclear to me

[1:24:28] is whether or not they're just talking about the SAU budget,

[1:24:31] or whether they're talking about the school budget.

[1:24:34] Right.

[1:24:36] And obviously teachers are on the contract, so you can't...

[1:24:41] Yeah, they can't, that doesn't impact contracts

[1:24:44] And any bonded projects my gut tells me and I don't necessarily trust my gut all the time

[1:24:50] So my gut tells me it's an essay you budget. I think you're right, which would be all yeah, yeah

[1:24:58] It would be what it's no if Hampton all three of us have been to meetings where

[1:25:07] Mark we participated and that was

[1:25:10] probably on the other side and I know news going to meetings up at the high school

[1:25:14] where, you know, the SAU budget is unscathed every year. I mean, they come in, you know, a lot of

[1:25:21] testing. A lot of people said that the teachers got 2.5 and the SAU budget went out to 7.9 and it

[1:25:30] just passes the joint board on a voice board half the time and it goes, it goes, it can't get

[1:25:37] stopped so maybe this is what they are attacking yeah don't know they probably

[1:25:41] find a lot of teachers you need in favor of that as well but because because it

[1:25:46] does seem to kind of go on its own but if it involves the whole school I'd be

[1:25:51] on a different right I don't think it does no I don't think yeah I have the problem

[1:25:55] with it was they've done like this new job marketing it and nobody really knows

[1:26:01] was exactly what it contains and how it's applied.

[1:26:05] And then there's the two dates in 26 and 2028.

[1:26:10] Yeah.

[1:26:10] And what's that?

[1:26:12] Yeah.

[1:26:13] I think voting again for the same thing.

[1:26:15] Yeah.

[1:26:16] That's the way it, yeah.

[1:26:18] I mean, if you were going to do this,

[1:26:20] then there would be a cat unless you saw.

[1:26:22] And as a sunset.

[1:26:23] Right.

[1:26:24] Right.

[1:26:25] So there's a whole load of things that have not

[1:26:28] been well articulated.

[1:26:30] And I think that the municipal association, I know they're against it, but they should at least articulate because they don't know what mechanics of this thing are.

[1:26:41] Because parts of it, I think, are good in terms of having a camp in administrative cost.

[1:26:47] But I'm not sure what it does.

[1:26:49] Right. And it's really going to make an impact.

[1:26:51] Right. Right.

[1:26:53] And I'm not sure when it goes into work back.

[1:26:55] Right.

[1:26:55] I mean, there's all kinds of post-it things that I think it's so complicated for anybody.

[1:27:00] It is convoluted.

[1:27:02] I don't think you can make a recommendation one way or the other as an elected board.

[1:27:08] Well, probably not.

[1:27:10] I don't know.

[1:27:11] I think that legally, is that correct?

[1:27:14] What's up?

[1:27:15] I don't think we can make recommendations about it.

[1:27:18] No.

[1:27:20] No?

[1:27:20] You know?

[1:27:21] It's not individually how I feel about it.

[1:27:23] Right.

[1:27:24] It's not the town.

[1:27:25] Yeah.

[1:27:25] It's not, and it's not going on the town ballot.

[1:27:28] It's a, maybe we could get a readout, Andrew, if you could ask the municipal association.

[1:27:33] Yeah.

[1:27:33] What, what, if they can give us something?

[1:27:36] The provisions of this, of House Bill 1300.

[1:27:40] And why they are not in favor of it as municipal associations, as we belong.

[1:27:48] And then that might give us at least some answers to the stuff of the next meeting.

[1:27:51] Right.

[1:28:16] I'm going to defer that. I need to talk to Jay about it. It looks like it's an amendment

[1:28:22] to a date on it. So I want to even see if you wouldn't even know if Jay had a...

[1:28:30] Do you know if you get this in 2024? Well, if it was awarded in 2024?

[1:28:34] All right, I'd like to talk to Jay.

[1:28:37] It looks like there's...

[1:28:39] Okay, so...

[1:28:42] It's a next meeting.

[1:28:44] I'll have...

[1:28:45] Or not.

[1:28:46] And so we have a new buyer?

[1:28:48] Yes.

[1:29:00] Young man from Hampton, Sean Carter was a UNH graduate.

[1:29:03] He has interest in somehow joining the fire service.

[1:29:09] Is it going to be strictly volunteer call?

[1:29:12] Is he going to move on to a full-time department?

[1:29:14] He's not sure yet.

[1:29:15] But in order to get him started on that path, I have to hire him.

[1:29:20] And I've had conversations with Andrea.

[1:29:23] The process used to be not followed.

[1:29:27] And I will be following it.

[1:29:30] One of the things I learned in retail is how not to get sued.

[1:29:33] And in order to have these folks covered by insurance, they need to be employees.

[1:29:37] So in order to have them training with us, that's the process that needs to happen.

[1:29:42] I mean, their employees at Wales, they decide they don't want to hang out, they want to leave, then that's great.

[1:29:46] Move on and go do something else, but yeah, I would like to onboard him with your permission and just start that process.

[1:29:53] And then I have five more in the wind that are working their way through the process to be interested.

[1:30:00] I see if they went on board as well. Just pretty good for call department to have that kind of interest. We have a pretty good program.

[1:30:10] Motion to approve this higher on Sean Carter to the fire.

[1:30:17] Second, I just have a quick question. So he's being hired as a volunteer. So yeah, it used to be a different process. And with Andrea, I've worked on changing that. They used to get sworn in immediately and all this stuff.

[1:30:31] He's going to be hired as what is a member that's it

[1:30:35] He's a member of the call department once he's certified and either fire EMS. We'll get him down here

[1:30:41] He'll get sworn in as an actual active member either firefighter EMT

[1:30:47] But in order to onboard him that I have to

[1:30:50] Gotta start somewhere

[1:30:53] Yeah, yeah, it used to be they were onboarded and it was oh there they're fire EMS

[1:30:56] But they're really not they're they're starting is nothing

[1:31:00] I do have a couple that are coming to us with qualifications so when I get around to that it'll be so you know

[1:31:06] He's not trained as a firefighter anything. No

[1:31:09] Okay, and that happens quite often folks will come this is kind of the start of their career. I am very cautious and try to be vetting

[1:31:18] What I think folks are going to stay around for a little while

[1:31:22] We do have a process that I can have them sign a sheet that says they'll give a two-year commitment to the town

[1:31:27] because for me to get them in fire school, I have to have them in gear that cost me 4 grand.

[1:31:32] And if they're not going to give anything back to the town that's doing that for them, then, you know,

[1:31:38] it's not somebody that you want on board.

[1:31:40] How many of the volunteers are out of town?

[1:31:43] Oh gosh, at least half the department is out of town.

[1:31:47] Yeah, we have folks, Sebra, Kensington, Hampton Falls, and Hampton.

[1:31:56] but we try to stay within a 10-minute response, you know, wherever you live, that you can actually come to the station in 10 minutes.

[1:32:06] Yeah, and that's a long time. Those folks typically aren't making a whole lot of calls, but they'll come to trainings.

[1:32:13] You know, they'll they'll learn they'll start their careers on the right path, but most of our folks are under five

[1:32:21] Minutes to the station

[1:32:30] Thank you

[1:32:39] any new business public comment

[1:32:48] And I'm sorry. I do have two more things to add. I apologize apple crest

[1:32:53] I thought you about that yesterday they're expanding out into there

[1:32:56] They just need approval. Yes, go into the patio, but they want to sort of look out there

[1:33:01] And I need to send a letter to the liquor commission. They are having an event this weekend

[1:33:05] I'd like it done before the event this weekend

[1:33:14] Oh, it's the rest of our correct, right?

[1:33:26] Okay, and I'll send a letter to them this weekend and then

[1:33:32] Thank you. I have one more. I had a, um, she is one of our firefighters. She was driving

[1:33:39] down Brown Road last week and someone crossed over and almost hit her head on. She had us

[1:33:45] to work out of the way. Uh, she came to me and asked, uh, if the town would stripe the

[1:33:51] road. Um, here, I meant to talk to you about this yesterday. I don't know if the town does

[1:33:57] road stripping I apparently brown road has been an issue I'm

[1:34:06] just don't know I'm

[1:34:06] just saying yeah okay it

[1:34:16] was not yes it was it was it was it was yeah

[1:34:25] it's a

[1:34:42] I'm not in favor of it, I was involved once with some striping, the B-A-4, I'll put that in there.

[1:34:52] Okay, yeah.

[1:34:59] And airport.

[1:35:17] Yeah.

[1:35:18] I'm not going to prevent it from crossing.

[1:35:20] Because people generally like live away from the backside.

[1:35:26] They don't want the trees in their face.

[1:35:28] Or they're far from the back.

[1:35:31] But I don't know if this is lying in the middle.

[1:35:34] Well, I think I remember, I think it was back in the day when they did your road.

[1:35:42] But part of the reasoning, part

[1:35:48] of the argument against it, I should say, was, and I remember

[1:35:52] this from the previous chief, was when you stripe a road, cars tend to go faster because

[1:36:00] they feel, well, they feel like it's safer and a stripe road is, I don't know, just usually

[1:36:06] on faster roads I think it's like so that was another strike against it I know that

[1:36:34] would a sign help like maybe like like when they had the curb signs sometimes like you

[1:36:42] There's a shop curve coming on.

[1:36:44] Just about.

[1:36:47] That's part of the problem is that people are just going way too fast.

[1:36:51] Right.

[1:36:56] That's no one follows.

[1:36:58] Every day I go through Ainsbury, I'm swearing at them.

[1:37:02] Because it's hard to go 25.

[1:37:07] By the way, Chief, was that you going up next to the road last night at seven o'clock?

[1:37:11] And that way?

[1:37:13] No?

[1:37:13] All good. Find out who it was. I'd love to know who it was.

[1:37:21] It just came to my head about

[1:37:23] going along. Anyway. Okay. So I don't think that's in the car. It's in, I'm, I'm, I'm,

[1:37:31] okay. That I asked. Russ is very quiet over there, which is good. I'm not going to get in

[1:37:37] Who will that one?

[1:37:39] All right, now can we move?

[1:37:43] Yes, we're good, thank you.

[1:37:45] So review and approval of previous meeting minutes,

[1:37:49] 715 and public and 715 non-public.

[1:37:54] We're good to be.

[1:37:55] Same.

[1:37:56] All set, OK?

[1:37:58] Motion will prove those minutes as red.

[1:38:01] Second.

[1:38:02] All in favor?

[1:38:03] Aye.

[1:38:04] Non

[1:38:08] -public.

[1:38:13] Second.

[1:38:13] Two C, primarily possibility of some other stuff there as well, but two C works, second in all those in favor.

[1:38:21] Thank you all for coming.

[1:38:23] Thank you.

Board of Selectmen

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