[0:26] hey Jim hey Maggie how are you well I'm
a nervous wreck Who am I but you did
[0:35] this perfectly yes honey okay hi Maggie
good evening good evening Scott you're
[0:50] being surly he was at the dump so he's
hustling all right hi Debbie
[0:56] thanks thanks for setting it up Connie
yes yes thank you
[1:00] oh and where's Karen hopefully she
should be yes I talked to her earlier it
[1:23] was mine worked out I thought I was
gonna because I've been having prowl my
[1:27] email but I did okay okay yeah mine
works mine was easy Tim you look very
[1:42] official over there I'm on time and a
half I don't even see you where are you
[1:51] yes I see now hey Tim hey how are you
how's it going it's going okay how's
[1:59] things with you I can't complain yeah
Tina bills busy day today was a crazy
[2:06] day it was beautiful a crazy day okay so
just everybody knows we are being
[2:11] recorded for all of these messages so
just letting you
[2:17] thanks for letting us know looks like
Phil may be just connecting to audio and
[2:47] Maggie you said that Scott was
definitely coming on he might be a few
[2:53] minutes he had dumped duty tonight so he
was very good back ah great I have to
[3:00] actually click everybody in I
participated on zoom but I've never
[3:07] hosted a meeting so I did a quick little
test with my sister oh there's Karen
[3:14] well you did it right cuz it's great
going well you're doing a great job to
[3:20] ask now actually zoom was very good I
could actually do online training so
[3:30] there was like a half an hour thing
where they kind of walked you through
[3:34] Folkston and white people so that was a
good thing so good everybody thank you I
[3:43] care
I had a tutorial with my daughter
[3:47] earlier today so know what I was doing
so I set my background a little bit
[3:51] cleaner
ooh my background looks it that looks
[3:55] okay yes he fell yeah he should be is
his first ones this to Scott you're
[4:19] beyond a little nervous about it well
you know I did
[4:27] yeah he popped up before go call me if
he gets worried my phone is you - I'll
[4:36] pay attention okay it's nice it's a good
system it is a good system yeah I'm
[4:45] gonna just stop my video because I need
to print something out so I will be back
[4:49] on in a minute but I can still hear you
[5:39] is that Scott on Tiki iPad you know I
think that's Tom King Tom Paine yeah
[5:50] I'll be right there okay
hi everyone its Nicole hi Nicole Nicole
[5:58] good to see everybody I'm too wimpy to
be on video and say I blame you
[6:07] I can't I'm scared
[6:12] is this official meeting yet we're still
waiting for a couple more as soon as
[6:20] Karen gets back I think we can start I
mean yeah okay well I thought I'd start
[6:28] with other people um
[6:34] okay if other people decide to join I
just have to keep checking that out
[6:39] anyway
okay I want to I'll just start the
[6:41] meeting I'm just letting everybody said
before is being reported and it'll be
[6:48] posted on our town website and before we
get started I just would like to take a
[6:54] moment to remember Wade Cole and to
thank Wade he was a true native son to
[7:01] everybody here in the town you weren't
out of his way to help you support
[7:05] everybody in the town of Heartland and I
would also like to thank anybody else
[7:09] Maggie
Karen I don't even know all the people
[7:13] who stepped up at this time
and really have helped us during a lot
[7:17] of extreme situations that are going in
town so that being said I think we get
[7:23] started if we can start with Emma and
she can give us a small presentation of
[7:28] the board of the heads budget oh it says
you disable the screen sharing I'm gonna
[7:33] share the screen it says host disable
screen sharing I can see you know I if
[7:45] you want to put up slides yeah okay okay
actually my house is Greg yes I mean at
[8:04] least on my end um if you move your
cursor toward the bottom of the screen
[8:09] almost off you might see a little green
indicator that says share screen yeah
[8:15] that's what I did and it says that the
host disabled it Wow
[8:20] okay there we go oh can you see that it
still says disabled okay
[8:30] there might be a control on your in
Debbie there you go Oh
[8:40] oh sorry I didn't want to okay I see
everybody on the side down the right
[8:47] side but nothing in the middle now Howie
doesn't matter well that's not very nice
[8:54] [Laughter]
[Music]
[9:03] not even you know what it's this Deb
screen not mine there it is yeah
[9:09] okay yeah it's still saying all right
okay I'll just go through it all right
[9:15] so I typed I typed it up just so that's
the backup um all right so basically our
[9:22] overall budget proposed budget is five
million four hundred eighty eight
[9:25] thousand seven hundred forty-three
dollars which is an overall decrease of
[9:29] one hundred and thirty seven thousand
five hundred and thirty dollars which is
[9:34] a decrease of negative two point four
four percent and just quickly work
[9:40] through categories for the of salary
category we have a one point two percent
[9:46] increase and that includes the three
percent increase preparers custodians
[9:51] bookkeepers administrative assistants
and nurses or then we also added one
[9:56] point five teaching assistants to
services fed and intervention students
[10:00] and then the teacher salary increases is
actually down because they were offset
[10:05] by us bringing in a lower salary hires
and it's superintendent of principals
[10:11] salaries are also down negative one
point nine though the overall for that
[10:16] category is a one point two percent
increase of twenty three thousand six
[10:20] hundred and seven dollars employee
benefits are up one point zero percent
[10:25] and that is because working with our
broker we have an estimated six percent
[10:30] increase for health insurance for next
year which even though we have a
[10:34] decrease staff it's a two percent higher
amount that it was the year before the
[10:39] next category is our biggie our purchase
services in that category we have a
[10:44] negative five point eight percent
decrease and this decrease is
[10:50] significant and it's due to the
reduction in our special education up
[10:54] placement and our special education
transportation associated with the out
[10:58] placements as well as a decrease in the
attorney fees since we do not have
[11:02] teacher negotiations this year so again
the total for that line is negative one
[11:06] hundred and seventy two thousand twenty
seven dollars our utilities are up four
[11:13] thousand hundred forty-one dollars which
is five point marcozzi amounts lower so
[11:17] the electricity costs are down but due
to the solar panels but the heating oil
[11:21] is up and then our next category
supplies and materials are up 2.7 and in
[11:29] that category teaching and supplies in
textbooks we decrease that and we
[11:32] slightly increase the computer supplies
and software for a total increase of two
[11:36] thousand two hundred ninety five dollars
which is two point seven percent in our
[11:41] last is capital outlay and that's flat
at 0 percent so again the total budget
[11:46] is five million four hundred eighty
eight thousand seven hundred forty three
[11:51] dollars it is a negative two point forty
four percent and negative hundred thirty
[11:55] seven thousand five hundred thirty
dollars even just took her to confirm
[12:02] again your number for your total budget
by four eight eight seven four three and
[12:11] was lost by five dollars sure will I
wanted to thank you also Deb in the
[12:23] Board of Finance and and Karen and my
other fellow selectmen this is the first
[12:27] time in 17 years Wade has not done a
budget meeting he is sorely missed
[12:33] everywhere in the town our overall
bottom line is 1 million nine hundred
[12:39] ninety thousand three hundred forty
seven dollars this includes the capital
[12:43] outlay and the municipal reserve
contribution our overall increase is
[12:48] fifty four thousand four hundred and
seventy two dollars with thirty five
[12:52] thousand seven hundred and eighty seven
dollars of that are due to increase in
[12:57] the medical insurance line with this in
mind it equates to a one thousand six
[13:02] hundred and eighty five dollar increase
in our regular budget lines for services
[13:06] and payroll
most lines in our budget either stayed
[13:09] the same or reduced we went with the 3%
employee increase across the board which
[13:15] mirrors the Board of Ed employee salary
increase our elections and registrar
[13:20] line they're preparing for a double
primary and presidential election all in
[13:25] this new budget year so that's a little
bit more to plan for we really don't
[13:29] know to expect there our medical
insurance the benefits were added for
[13:34] the bookkeeper who now exceeds and
continues to exceed 30 hours per week
[13:38] and we've also put in place an estimate
for our two hires in the fall in the
[13:42] highways department the normal increase
in town insurance is there our liability
[13:48] insurance is on a hold steady with a
three year award and that's because we
[13:52] have a good claim good responsibility
record and this our fourth one in a row
[13:57] it's great we do have a small increase
in workmen's comp and vehicle
[14:01] registration and our VF is which is the
firemen's insurance which is normal we
[14:06] have some small increases in company
services for the town contractors and
[14:10] contracting services but overall our
budget going forward is low
[14:15] thank you very much Karen bring the
numbers forward as once I made my
[14:28] correction in terms of the inaccuracy
that I'd had on the mill rate the
[14:34] balance would be at six hundred and
seventeen thousand five hundred and
[14:39] seventy five which i think is very
adequate what I have encouraged and I
[14:50] again I've sent out a couple emails to
the Board of Finance because once I
[14:56] realized that I had made the error on
the mill rate we were in a much
[15:02] different scenario so my first
suggestion had been for the mill rate
[15:07] decrease the second possibility would
have been to increase the selections
[15:13] budget for an increased municipal
two-third contribution
[15:16] and the third suggestion has been for
the Board of Selectmen to actually
[15:22] expend more of their budget this current
fiscal year because the highway
[15:30] department has some significant safety
concerns equipment upgrades that are
[15:37] needed and I think that that is probably
the the path of the easiest path for us
[15:46] to follow if we were to put an increase
into municipal reserve then that would
[15:52] necessitate us having another town
meeting to deal to allocate that money
[15:56] out of a municipal reserve decreasing
the mill rate would have meant a small
[16:03] decrease in each taxpayers annual tax
bill but not a significant one and I
[16:11] know that Frank had spoken to me about
that and he was like you really
[16:15] disagreed with on that and after
speaking with both Maggie Scott and and
[16:22] Gregg I kind of looked at it and with a
little bit of different set of glasses
[16:27] on and feel that really going with a
flat no Mill rate increase that's us in
[16:34] a really good financial position for
next year and allows us to address some
[16:39] of the current needs so that would be my
recommendation at this point in time is
[16:45] that we leave the mill rate as it is at
27 point like five yeah
[16:52] twenty-seven point five that's what it
is and go forward with that I think
[16:58] we're in good place with municipal
reserve the new cell tower will be going
[17:03] in so we can anticipate some increased
income with that probably towards the
[17:10] end of the year but we're picking up
about a hundred thousand dollars in
[17:14] terms of municipal reserve from the
current cell towers plus the hundred
[17:20] thousand dollars that is included in the
select men's budget at this time thank
[17:26] you and just closing the me
I just want to put a couple things out
[17:34] there the town right now is in stable
financial situation and there's a couple
[17:40] things that we have that are positive
that are going on right now as Karen
[17:45] mentioned we have a strong municipal
reserve that's the money that's been put
[17:49] aside for large projects whether they be
projects equipment something like that
[17:56] the other thing that's really positive
is that this is the last year of our
[18:01] bond payments so after this year that's
of about $95,000 each year that we won't
[18:07] have to spend so that's a really good
thing and the balance in the general
[18:13] fund is strong and that general fund
needs strong so that we have money going
[18:20] forward in July if we spend every penny
at the end of one fiscal year we had no
[18:25] money going forward that means until the
tax money came maybe put a balance in
[18:31] our general fund and the last thing
that's really positive it's a good and a
[18:36] bad last year the state of Connecticut
passed a two-year budget getting the
[18:43] same amount of money in this coming
fiscal year that we have in the current
[18:47] year that we're in that being said the
state is in a really bad situation right
[18:54] now
because they're not getting the tax
[18:57] collections that they are planning on
our had planned on before this violet
[19:02] stuff so that's a little bit of an
unknown so hopefully we'll be getting
[19:08] the same amount of money but as Karen
said earlier certain parts of the grants
[19:12] know most of the small ones like the
Pequot grant which we get from the
[19:16] casinos of course that revenues down but
I think overall those items really help
[19:23] us going forward knowing where we're
going to be next I don't know if anybody
[19:30] else has anything
point or would like to speak about
[19:36] actually Dave grant
excuse me Greg the state Gramps in turns
[19:41] of the ECS grant we actually are down a
little over fifty thousand dollars on
[19:46] that one but overall the difference the
difference is about fifty thousand
[19:53] dollars from the state yeah I was just
curious what the what the approximate
[20:06] big state monies are over those two
years what about each year I believe
[20:16] next year we will getting beginning one
point three eight zero about one point
[20:23] three eight one million this year one
point four three six so it's it's about
[20:30] you know fifty five thousand dollars the
the one grant that I am because the
[20:41] casinos are not even bringing in revenue
so but that's a small grant the total
[20:47] amount of that Grant is sixty five
hundred dollars so that's not gonna make
[20:51] our bracelets the big concern is always
the ECS grant which is decreased in this
[20:59] year by about that fifty thousand
dollars and that's what I'm carrying so
[21:04] when you say one point three eight
that's in millions is that right 1
[21:09] million three hundred and eighty
thousand dollars is what we we expect
[21:13] the state grants so what's the what's
the total budget I'm sorry I got several
[21:18] files open here I might not be missing
it our total budget the Board of
[21:23] Selectmen
is seven million four hundred and
[21:27] seventy nine thousand dollars work that
roughly about eighteen and a half
[21:38] percent of our budget is financed by the
state grant correct monies yes
[21:44] okay so I'm just curious does anyone
know how that compares to other like if
[21:51] we had a cohort of pounds how does that
compare I mean - like Colebrook or
[21:58] Granby is it all depends Greg and were
you standing on the economic reference
[22:04] grouping Heartland stands right in the
middle okay so call Brooke is I think a
[22:11] little bit more affluent you know and
and sometimes it's really difficult the
[22:17] rhyme or the reason in terms of where
the grant money is how its allocated
[22:24] sometimes we've seen bar camps should
actually get more than we do we're
[22:28] actually really a little bit more on par
with New Hartford where I live in terms
[22:33] of and rent when we look at all the
municipal indicators we're pretty equal
[22:38] in terms of the per capita income etc
and what the expenditures per student
[22:43] are so there is you know there's there's
been some times where we've looked at it
[22:51] and said geez how come how come North
Fork got a little bit more than we did
[22:54] or how come collaborative but but a lot
of it depends on again their per capita
[22:59] income so does all this misses my last
question does all this fall under the
[23:06] broader heading of aid to cities and
towns well there's there's numerous
[23:11] grants and if you pull up the my report
you'll see that the state grants are
[23:17] really lines 20 through 44 there's a
couple blank lines on there we used to
[23:21] get billy revenue like boat revenue
which was $700 a year most of those
[23:27] really small camps are are gone what we
do see is the main grants are the ECS
[23:32] which is the education uh share and
that's our large grant we get a tiny
[23:37] little municipal projects grant of 955
dollars the pilot grant which is payment
[23:45] in lieu of taxes we get 56,000 for the
newer grant number 27 is a municipal
[23:53] stabilization grant and that has is more
recent over
[23:57] past three years and we get about
seventy six thousand dollars out of that
[24:01] the pequod again to be about twelve
thousand dollars we're down to about six
[24:07] adult and we get low sip which is the
local capital improvements grant which
[24:13] Maggie applies for usually annually
sometimes we're behind and we make it
[24:17] two years in one year and then the
townie grows which was just we just
[24:23] received this current years a lot but
for that and that typically comes in two
[24:27] to $71,000 allocations but this year we
got a whole 142 just this month I see so
[24:35] yeah I did receive that side I should
have been able to kind of get to that
[24:39] but it's Abby's comments kind of spurred
Mike my question on it so thank you yes
[24:44] so the grant money over over the past
couple years has steadily declined okay
[24:51] we were about 1.6 1.7 million dollars
just maybe five years ago so we have
[24:57] been you know and I and that will be I
believe the trend over the next several
[25:03] years that we will see decreasing
revenues from the state mm-hmm hopefully
[25:11] it's on that gradual slide and that we
can absorb it without having a
[25:16] significant impact one that is based on
I believe the nut the mileage of roads
[25:24] that we have in town and whether there
are paved or nine page code isn't that
[25:29] correct Maggie yes I believe it is so
you know if you say what is one-time get
[25:34] based on the other it really is
depending upon the miles of roads that
[25:39] you have that stays pretty stable
I mean and the other thing as far as the
[25:45] ECS Priya our school population has
dropped pretty significantly over the
[25:50] past 10 15 years our school enrollment
and the EEMA can speak to that I don't
[25:58] have the exact numbers on it but when my
children were in school we were at a
[26:02] peak of 325 and we are dramatically
below that at this point we have 160
[26:11] yeah okay so if there aren't any more
questions we're going to end this
[26:19] meeting and we will regather at 7:30 for
the next meeting it'll take me a minute
[26:25] because when I get out of this they have
to convert the recording to a different
[26:30] file format and that does take several
minutes so soon as that gets done then
[26:34] we'll reconnect and everybody should
have a five-minute break thank you all
[26:39] thank you damn a queue yeah I have a
question for you okay so as far as
[26:44] floating on the budget do you do it at
this meeting or do you do it at your
[26:49] subsequent meeting other subsequent
movement okay okay all right thank you
[26:54] thank you thank you thank you