[0:02] Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming. I am Dr. Bruce Perry. I will be your chair for the

[0:09] evening.

[0:12] Mr. Bryant is competing in the Ironman competition and will not be joining us. I'm sure we wish him

[0:18] the best of luck. Please join me for the Pledge of allegiance.

[0:23] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it

[0:30] stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[0:42] Are there any adjustments to the agenda? I just have a few dollar corrections on the payroll

[0:49] warrant, but we can do those when we get down there. Okay.

[0:54] I had written down the wrong numbers on the COVID sheet.

[1:00] Very well. We'll see that when it comes we a public hearing. So we will move to approval of the

[1:06] minutes.

[1:11] I did not see anything out of place.

[1:19] No, I'm fine with it. Move to approve the minutes for August 14, 2026.

[1:27] I second

[1:30] all those in fav.

[1:36] And now I will yield the floor to Mr. Paul Bennett. Thank you.

[1:43] Hi, my name is Paul Bennett. I work with Hodonna and Associates. We act as the assessor's agents.

[1:50] These are your assessors? Most of them.

[1:54] Over the past year we've done our assessing work and we've arrived at our figures to set the tax

[2:02] rate for 2026. In front of you, I three different options for tax rates. Last year our tax rate was

[2:13] $12.70 per thousand. Historically, if we have enough funds in our undesignated fund balance, the

[2:23] town has always historically opted to use some of those funds to keep the tax rate low. So depending

[2:32] on how much funds the board chooses to remove from the undesignated fund balance would be depend on

[2:40] the increase level of our tax rate. If the board chooses to remove $400,000 from the undesignated

[2:50] fund balance, our tax rate will go up about 15 cents to $12.85. Per thousand? Yes, sir. Per thousand

[3:01] at the bottom of the sheet.

[3:04] So that means that a person with a $150,000 house with

[3:12] their taxes would increase about $18.75. And if you had a $250,000 house, you'd increase by about

[3:20] $33.75. And if you had A $350,000 house, it would go up by $48.78.

[3:30] If our assessors chose to remove 300,000, the tax rate would increase from 1270 to 1310, which would

[3:41] be about a 40 difference. The differences at the bottom of the page that I calculated for each

[3:50] taxpayer would be about 50 bucks. For a taxpayer with a $150,000 home, $90 for a person with a

[3:58] $250,000 home, and $130 for a person with a $350,000 home.

[4:08] If the board chose to just remove $200,000 from the UNDES,

[4:16] the tax rate would go up about 65 cents, leaving the increases of $81.75 for a $150,000 home,

[4:31] $146.25 for a $250,000 home, or a increase of $211 for a person with a $350,000 home.

[4:47] The biggest question is how much? Can we safely crunch in the numbers? Can we safely use this? For

[4:53] me,

[4:55] I'm not privy to the inner workings of your undesignated fund balance, but I was guided by the

[5:03] auditor's recommendation from Kerry. So if I could ask Kerry to explain that, please. He said,

[5:12] comfortably, we can take out 2, 400. How much is, in that unfunded balance account? We don't know. We don't have the 26 audit complete

[5:23] yet,

[5:25] but based on the revenues and expenses that we've recorded to date, it's. It's adequate. If we don't

[5:33] know how much is in it, then how do we know how much we can take out? Again, based on the revenues

[5:39] and expenses and prior audit years, there's adequate funds in there.

[5:47] I don't understand that.

[5:50] I just don't understand that. Last year, Will, you and I were very much on the same page about how

[5:57] much to take out. But

[6:01] I want to say that this decision,

[6:06] and I wish Jeff was here, but this decision is incredibly important because

[6:15] many of us in this town are still reeling from the recent assessment and the uptick in the amount of

[6:25] taxes, the increase in taxes that we've had, that we've had to pay, not having had an assessment for

[6:33] so many years,

[6:36] this decision will affect every resident of Livermore Falls, whether you are a property tax, a

[6:45] property owner or not.

[6:48] You know, I'm a property owner. John is a property owner. John owns several properties. Will is not

[6:56] a property owner, but his landlord is.

[7:00] So every increase

[7:03] is going to play a role in everybody's bottom line. So we need to consider this very carefully. I

[7:15] know which one I prefer, but I'm open to hearing other people's thoughts. Mr. Binet, in the board's

[7:27] defense,

[7:29] the board has very little control over a lot of the spending that increased in the town. And at the

[7:37] very top of the page, you could see the comparative county tax from 25 to 26, where the county tax

[7:46] has increased about $30,000. The school tax has increased 120, approximately $128,000. And town,

[7:58] if I say town spending 152,000, I'm going to kind of go on a limb and say a lot of that is

[8:07] insurance for our employees.

[8:12] I don't think like we're buying new things. I think from the tax rates that I've said in other

[8:19] municipalities, it's the, a lot of these are the costs of just having employees. Maybe Kerry can

[8:26] shine some light on that. You're exactly right. It's, it's cost. We, we can't. I believe your budget

[8:35] committee nickel and dimes this thing,

[8:39] municipal spending. Oh, no, I know. I'm on that committee.

[8:45] That's okay.

[8:47] That's all I wanted to say. And John, this year, lucky John gets to be on the Budget Committee, too,

[8:54] by being a member of the board. Lucky you, man. I'm fortunate. Things like that. Bruce, could I say

[9:02] something? Yes, Mr. Long. Well, being the chair of the Budget Committee, I believe the last audit

[9:08] showed an unfunded designated undesignated fund balance of a couple of million dollars, if I'm not

[9:14] mistaken. And the year before last, we had excess revenue over what we had budgeted. We spent less

[9:19] than what we had projected. So we had an excess in terms of the positive and the revenue variance

[9:24] and the negative or whatever than the expense which you guys used to reduce the taxes. Basically,

[9:31] the difference in there, that excess revenue from the revenue and the expenses is what you use to

[9:37] bring forward each year because you can't do it precisely. You can't project the revenue precisely.

[9:43] And sometimes you don't spend all the money. And last year the same thing occurred. The revenue was

[9:48] over budget, the expenses were under budget, which produced another overage, which is what the

[9:55] auditor and I believe the town manager is referring to in terms of the 200, 300 and $400,000 that

[10:02] you can take and apply. That's money that we've collected, we haven't spent. So that contributed and

[10:07] added to the undesignated fund balance. And the undesignated fund balance is just money sitting

[10:13] there. The question is, how do you want to use it? Do you want to have it sit in a checking account

[10:18] or a savings account, or do you want to take it and apply it to. And give it back to the citizens,

[10:23] which is where you took it from to begin with, to the prior tax rate? That's basically it in a

[10:29] nutshell. I'm glad you spoke because at one point I was Going to call on members of the Budget

[10:35] committee for their input. So thank you.

[10:39] How do you feel? What do you think? Personally? I mean last year we went with the lower amount

[10:45] because we were cautioned that it wasn't a good idea to go with the full 400,000. If we are being

[10:51] told that we have the money, it's there, it's a good number. I am off to giving it back to the full

[10:57] 400,000 back to lower the taxes as much as possible. Not lower, but offset. Yeah, minimize. So John,

[11:07] so I agree with using the max amount we can. I'm just a bit nervous because we don't, I don't have a

[11:15] number how much is actually there.

[11:22] What I've seen

[11:25] in some Excel spreadsheets that there is a lot of spending coming up next year and following year

[11:33] and where will that money come from.

[11:38] And then the idea it doesn't lower our taxes. It just means we're taking from

[11:47] sort of a rainy day fund to help offset the current tax rate. Which you know, I think sometimes is

[11:56] misleading to people if you know, the citizens, they see that oh, the taxes are not so bad this

[12:01] year. But an understatement. I think the town is doing a decent job with keeping the spending down.

[12:06] It's, you know, the county, the school, other things,

[12:13] it's going up but you know, the citizens are looking at us to keep the spending down where we can

[12:19] and I think we're doing a good job with that. I just want would like to know how much is actually in

[12:24] there. You know, if it's two or three million dollars and. Yeah, no problem. Let's, let's do the

[12:29] full bout even. Could we do more? But

[12:34] that's just my, my concern there. Well then I having hearing that I would like to move that we set

[12:44] the tax rate

[12:48] for the 400,000 with the tax rate

[12:52] at.0.01285.

[13:00] I'll second. All those in favor?

[13:06] All those abstaining? No, it's not that I don't disagree with you, it's just because I don't. I

[13:11] understand, I understand. So the mill rate has been, I mean mill rates. The tax rate has been set at

[13:20] 0.01285 with $400,000 being taken from the undesignated fund balance.

[13:33] Thank you. Just. Thank you. Mr. Bennett. May, may I get four signature? Four signatures from each of

[13:41] you please. The papers. Thank you. Jump.

[13:45] There's 1, 2, 3 and 4.

[13:54] What are we even signing? This is the commitment paper. The commitment paper.

[14:02] It's a Good question.

[14:05] I mean, he's a very nice man, but, you know, nice people hand you things to sign and you should ask

[14:11] what they're getting you to sign just to be on the safe side.

[14:17] We saw what, 1, 2, 3, 4 signatures total from each assessor. Which spot? This page has two, and each

[14:25] page here has two spots. So. All four spots. Yes, sir. Please, feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

[14:53] Many of you are going to realize by the end of this why it's not a good idea for Bruce to be the

[14:58] chair of the board.

[15:01] So far I disagree.

[15:18] Vampire. Why,

[15:21] Ms. Document Manager. Yes, sir. When do the bills go out? They so will. I was gonna say within 10

[15:29] days. Within 10 days.

[15:33] So Paul and company will do their magic behind the scenes tomorrow to generate the file that Doris

[15:39] will send to high grade. And.

[15:46] The first payment due date that October 1st. October 1st? Yeah, October 1st and April 1st, they were

[15:54] set at town meeting with an interest rate of 7%. 7.5 last year.

[16:06] It. About two years ago. Two years ago? Yeah.

[16:26] You can do a windage? Kind of. Okay.

[16:31] Less than that.

[16:33] I haven't taken the time to do that yet. I'm waiting for some information

[16:39] to do that. To get a ball card. There's more than

[16:45] the key. Is that designated unbalanced?

[16:50] You are most welcome. Thank you. Excused. Of course. Good to see you, Colonel.

[17:05] Moving on. We are. We have the procurement policy update and a preferred vendor list. And my

[17:14] question is, does this cover everybody or just the wastewater treatment plan? This covers everybody.

[17:22] Because I'm thinking we really should have one that's inclusive all the way across

[17:27] because it will come up in future requests. So it would be nice to have a comprehensive one for the

[17:35] entire town.

[17:38] So we. Because I

[17:42] started a list and I have circulated it, and then I went through our vendor list in our database and

[17:50] I pulled a few more. So that's. That's why it's three pages. So

[17:56] a lot of the vendors we use don't trigger the amounts that require even three quotes. But for

[18:05] safety's sake, I figured let's get them approved or preferred.

[18:11] So with that list. Sorry, go ahead. Was there any criteria that was applied? You know, certain

[18:20] vendors, maybe they could offer discounts, certain preferred rates. And some of the larger

[18:27] contractors, the insurances and all the things that are required to work for the town. And granted,

[18:34] understandably that, yes, they worked in the past, but is there a record of their insurance and all

[18:42] that stuff that can actually be applied that makes it a truly preferred vendor list? I look at this

[18:50] as more of just a previous vendor used list. So much without any real criteria set to it. Any

[18:58] contractor on the list does provide insurance certificates to us.

[19:04] Motor Supply is not going to give us an insurance certificate. We buy stuff from them almost every

[19:10] day. That's, you know, that was the criteria. It's the vendors we use consistently and regularly and

[19:19] 90% of them are local. They live within the three towns

[19:25] I've seen where

[19:29] you have like suppliers, like Motor Supply. Yes, they're a supplier. You know, there's others,

[19:35] there's Napa and there's a bunch of them. You know, it would be kind of nice if the list actually

[19:40] showed or to identify, you know, they offer 10% discount or delivery to the shop or something. Just

[19:48] so there's

[19:51] something that always can sort of be tied to and then, you know, for the larger vendors or

[19:55] contractors.

[19:58] Yeah, just something that. Couldn't that information be gathered when we set, put out for bids

[20:05] and just get their information on their

[20:10] insurance, their, you know, preferred

[20:15] discount or whatever. Wouldn't we get that information when we put it out to bid or could consult

[20:21] them if they were to respond to a bid that we put out as a municipality. They all treat us really

[20:29] well anyway. Most of these guys don't offer discounts. You know, it's not like a regular consumer, I

[20:40] would imagine. We are probably on their preferred client list too.

[20:48] They wouldn't want to do anything to lose us.

[20:53] Most of what we need to talk about when we do our policy update is what triggers the use of this

[20:59] list over, you know, going out to bid. You know, I mean, I suppose that's up to us, but it also

[21:07] should be that our preferred choice is to go out to the bidding process.

[21:13] But what is actually going to trigger going with one of these, you know, like what the criteria

[21:18] might be. I think that for a good conversation for later when we do our policy update and then you

[21:24] know, as well as how do the people come on and off the list, you know, what's it take to change the

[21:30] list, all that good stuff. Does this require

[21:36] any action you need to approve it if you so choose. I would like to move, I would like to move to

[21:42] approve the preferred vendor list that we had with what will has said to be taken into consideration

[21:53] when these people are

[21:58] contacted or put out to bid.

[22:02] One other thing to just the way that I understand it from the procurement policy, the preferred

[22:07] vendor list is simply

[22:11] a list that shows of vendors that, you know, qualify to either supply goods and services or goods or

[22:20] services. Right. So you've got an engineering firm or mechanical firm that can lay plumbing pipes or

[22:28] whatever it is sort of thing. So without going out, having to vet a particular supplier or vendor

[22:35] every single time,

[22:38] the particular area manager would come to Kerry and say, hey, we need a mechanical contractor. Cary,

[22:46] if you go to this list, mechanical contractors, here's three of them. I'm going to send them a quick

[22:52] email. Please give us a quote asap.

[22:56] They come back, depending on the price range, right? So that's the 5,000, $10,000, which needs to be

[23:03] a sealed bid. They come back in an email, same day or a phone call, say, yep, we come in tomorrow,

[23:10] do it for X dollars. You know, you get the replies. That's good. Then it goes into the process. For

[23:19] the $10,000 bid that actually goes out, they send via a sealed sort of envelope that gets opened

[23:27] during a public meeting. So again, the preferred vendor list is just who we would go to. It doesn't

[23:34] circumvent the actual procurement process. And then nowadays with email and phone calls, it' you

[23:41] know, it's so fast, you send an email, hey, we need a quote for this. Please get back to us asap.

[23:46] And understandably,

[23:50] you know, it's a small town, we kind of know everybody. But, you know, during a particular period,

[23:55] maybe one. One contractor is in between jobs and he can come in, or that contractor could come in

[24:03] tomorrow and offer a better price than the other guy that you used last time because he has four

[24:10] jobs ahead of him. So I think that's all that I'm trying to encourage with this type of approach is

[24:16] let's just make sure we fill it in the guys that have the space between jobs, not just relying on

[24:23] one, right? Because if he's got five jobs ahead of him, he's like, yeah, I'm gonna bid these guys,

[24:28] I'm gonna just bid high, you know, because I don't really want the job, you know, and that happens.

[24:34] I mean, we all know contractors that's like, yeah, I don't want that job. I'm gonna build it high.

[24:38] And then you end up having them anyway, because I like the work they do. And that would be the

[24:42] executive decision that we could make. No, we know these guys. So even though it's a little bit

[24:48] more, we choose to pay that. And that's all I'm trying to make out of this. I'm not trying to be a

[24:53] jerk and making it complicated or extend, you know, make it more complex. You're making valid

[24:58] points, John. Just you are policy. And the way I See,

[25:05] we didn't have a second on that before the discussion started. I'm going to. I'm going to.

[25:14] Make a new motion. Since there was no second, I'm going to make a new motion that we accept the.

[25:20] That we accept this as the preferred vendor list. Seconded. All those in favor?

[25:30] Motion carried.

[25:33] Ah, road closure.

[25:39] I am going to defer to the Colonel.

[25:43] Thank you. I'm going to. Chief, Abe wouldn't leave without his gun, and so I'm gonna put on my gun.

[25:52] Okay? All right. Good afternoon. I'm Colonel Mitchell, the retired United States Army. We've asked

[25:58] for a road closure for the recognition day of recognition for the 81,000 veterans that have not come

[26:06] home yet. Our job is not done. And every year we. You all have supported. You know, it's going to be

[26:14] J Memorial at Raleigh Road, and we invite you all. Number one. Chief, you've already gotten your

[26:20] invitation. Town manager, of course, I would like to hear from you that you'll be in one of the

[26:24] front rows, etc. In addition to that, this hat. This hat right here says that we were all state.

[26:31] That we were one of the best units in this state. That was

[26:36] 24, 25 this year. We're all American, okay? We're on the. We're one of the top units in the United

[26:43] States of America. This little picture little town, okay? With no deference to the word

[26:48] , okay? So the whole point is it doesn't happen automatically. It happens because of you, each

[26:56] one of you in the room. We put over $200,000 into the VFW post in Jay, and I want to see everybody

[27:05] there. We have all kind of assortments every week, from cribbage to trivia to a multitude of other

[27:13] things. So we've gotten the permission. The motorcycle bikeless veterans will bring the flag from

[27:22] Turner, and we've talked with Chief and they'll bring it down to the bridge. We need from the bridge

[27:29] to the J Line. And from the J Line, I've talked to and gotten the selectman's approval to go from

[27:36] the J line to the memorial at Wrigley and Route 4. So that's the essence of the request. And we had

[27:45] to come as we did for Jay. We're here to ask your permission to do so. And that all the offices,

[27:56] from Andrew Scarpin to Franklin to Jay Livermore, they all cooperate. They all know many of them are

[28:03] veterans themselves. Many of you in this room may well be veterans. And that's why we want you as if

[28:09] you have A family member that has served in a foreign war. We want you now auxiliary. We had Donna

[28:16] Wills. Donna Wills that was supposed to come and fly in today at 11 o'. Clock. She is the President

[28:24] of the VFW Auxiliary for the nation. And she is. She was. Her flight was canceled or something. She

[28:34] didn't get. Get here at that time. But we are having an appreciation day tomorrow from 4 to 7pm and

[28:41] that's. That's like to see each one of you. Each one of you there to. To show. To look at what we've

[28:48] created. And you've created because it doesn't happen. It takes. Takes every last one of us to make

[28:54] this happen. So that's my request to put the. To get the road closure and the selectman's approval.

[29:02] When does this take place? 18th, 18th of September. 1800 hour.

[29:08] Might be hard of hearing, so I want to step close to you and make sure. No, I'm not hard of hearing,

[29:13] but thank you. Okay, good. It was September 6th. I heard you, but you scared me. 18th 1 to 8. 18. I

[29:24] like to have that effect on the chairman. And at 6pm At 6pm that's 1800. 1800 hours. Yes, that's. We

[29:31] were just talking before all this military time. I am the son of a veteran all the way back to the

[29:37] Revolutionary War. Okay. So I'm familiar with military time. Big time. Then we want you to be a

[29:42] member of the 3,335 Veterans of Foreign Wars. So I'm going to personally put your name in as the

[29:49] person that we would like to have with us. Well, thank you.

[29:55] I'll wait for the results. You might refuse me.

[30:00] When it comes to anything having to do with veterans, you will never get a refusal from me.

[30:09] Did everybody get that? It's September 18th at 6pm at the VFW in Jay. No, it's not. It's at the

[30:20] memorial in Wrigley Road and Route 4. Route 4 and Wrigley Road. Thank you for that. I'm sorry. Right

[30:28] next to Ski Depot. Okie dokie.

[30:37] All righty. Thank you very much. Okay, is that. Is that approved or do you need a motion or. No, if

[30:43] this was for information. Information only. Okay. There isn't. There isn't a person in this room I'm

[30:49] pretty sure that would stand in your way to deny this. Yes. Mark,

[30:55] thank you very much. You're very welcome for your service tomorrow. Appreciate the day.

[31:01] The reason you don't need to approve it is it's not a full road closure like the parade. It's Just,

[31:06] you know, maybe a three or five minute. I'm just gonna hold everybody at the light so the. The

[31:12] procession can get through in one. One unit instead of having to wait. Yeah. We have one to maybe

[31:17] hopefully 50 bikers coming through. When they go down, down. And they. At Crash road, they turn

[31:22] around and they pass the flag off. And I'm the master of ceremony, so I'll try to look nice and

[31:28] pretty. Okay. All right. And Tomorrow's at the BFW. Tomorrow? Tomorrow's at the BFW. Yes, tomorrow's

[31:33] appreciation day at the BFW starting at 4. 4 o', clock, but 1600. Okay. All right. So indeed, thank

[31:42] you very much. See you all tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you. Out.

[31:48] Wow. Okay. Moving on to warrants, abatements, deeds, and quit claims.

[31:58] So, like I said, I did write down the wrong numbers on the COVID sheets for the payroll warrants. So

[32:03] payroll number 32 is actually $40,746.90. 40,746. 746.90. 90. Number 33 is actually

[32:20] $28,056.12. That's 2805-6.12.

[32:30] And number 34 is actually $40,753.44. 4075. 3.44.

[32:46] All righty, then. I would like to move that we approve payroll warrant number 31.

[32:55] That one hasn't changed, right?

[32:59] 40,700. Wait a minute.

[33:05] I have number 31. I have $40,746.90.

[33:13] I think we did 31 last time. I think I just didn't change the number. I think that one is 32. Okay.

[33:20] Yeah. Then I move that we approve Payroll warrant number 32 at

[33:26] $40,746.90. Number 33 at

[33:32] $28,056.92. And number 34 at

[33:39] $40,753.44.

[33:47] Is there a second? Second. All those in favor,

[33:54] Is there any changes to the general warrant? There is warrant number eight. We did get word that the

[34:03] patrol. The new patrol vehicle is in Massachusetts and should be here either the end of this week or

[34:09] next week. So I did ask Rebecca to add that as well as a couple other little invoices that came in.

[34:17] So that new amount is

[34:19] $372,607.

[34:25] So

[34:25] 372-60-7.07.

[34:34] Then I will also move that we accept general fund warrant number six for

[34:40] $35,742.91. Number seven at

[34:46] $14,117.92. I have a question about this one. Number eight. Okay, let me. Number eight. $372,607 and

[34:58] 07 cents. Oh, we need a second.

[35:05] Five, seven before discussion. Oh, okay.

[35:10] Well, if there's a second, then it kind of bypasses my discussion because it's a question about. I

[35:15] see that a 45,000 or something at Bailey Brothers Ford. I thought it was for that. It is. It's for

[35:23] the new cruiser.

[35:26] We ordered it this summer. Early summer. Late spring. Yep. Right. I remember that part of it. So the

[35:34] cruisers in. It's in Massachusetts on its way. What was that bill at Bowens for? That was for. That

[35:41] was. Was for the car. We haven't paid for it yet.

[35:47] All right. It's just. It's like 45,000, I think. Yeah, but then this is for 300,000, right? That's

[35:54] the. The big fat warrant that's there. That has all. Oh, the whole package. The whole package. Is

[35:59] there a second? Second. All those in favor?

[36:06] And now we have abatements, quick claim deeds and supplements. We were handed a.

[36:13] An explanation of. For the abatements and all the. All the things that go with it. I would like to

[36:24] move that we approve the abatement. These are all abatements, are they not? Correct. I would like to

[36:31] move to approve all of the. The abatements. U2,342 in the amount of $50. U260 for 4152. U2,203 for

[36:43] $100. Just clarification. It's U.T.

[36:49] i'm sorry? It's U.T. i know. What did I say? U2. I'm sorry. U.T. 203. U.T. 60. U.T. 342.

[37:02] Is there a second? Second. I'll second. All those in favor?

[37:11] Board discussion.

[37:14] John, I have a quick one that I would like to apologize to Chief Roux for the last meeting. When I

[37:23] like that report that you presented. I think that was really great for us and the town to see and I

[37:30] hope you can continue to do that. So I really appreciate that. That. Thank you, sir. That's it.

[37:37] Thank you. Will. Nothing. I have nothing. We will go to. On to the manager's discussion. So last

[37:44] week we had the kickoff meeting for the Norris Bridge. Just wanted to give everybody out there in TV

[37:49] land a heads up that you're probably going to see a little bit of activity out there over the next

[37:54] month or so. They're going to start their survey and start doing some work out there. We had our

[38:02] third or fourth Work the rural economy. Something, something, something, whatever it stands for.

[38:09] Planning session for our two day in person workshop which is going to be September 30th and October

[38:16] 1st. Again this is the grant program we got with Jay and Livermore to work on economic development

[38:24] as a topic to recreation and the community is invited to that. As soon as we have an outline and an

[38:34] agenda for what that's going to look like and possible information gathering we'll be looking for it

[38:41] will be published. And the last thing I have is I was asked if the town would want to accept a

[38:52] donation of. Does anybody remember the Merry Go Round from the old

[39:01] elementary school? Primary school. Which one was it? Doris? Do you remember primary school up on

[39:06] Church Street? Yeah.

[39:09] I don't know what kind of shape it's in but the gentleman is willing to gift that to the town for

[39:17] installation down at the rec field if we choose to accept that.

[39:25] I don't see why not. Those are always fun. So what kind of shape? There's kind of a lot of

[39:31] questions. Reliability and that sort of stuff. I did check with MMA and they said that, you know, it

[39:37] is

[39:39] insurable. I guess they do still sell those.

[39:46] Would that increase the insurance? I suppose that's a good question.

[39:50] They didn't say you'd have to check with the insurance company and then you kind of find location

[39:57] for it. Maybe it's like a tentative with more information I think. Well, I mean we can accept it.

[40:05] Doesn't mean we have to install it. That's true. I mean if they're accepted somebody else that

[40:11] wanted it I guess would be then I would. I would move that we accept the very generous donation of

[40:19] the Merry Go Round

[40:23] sending all those in favor

[40:27] agreement. I'm personally not for it because I near got killed three times on one of those

[40:35] suckers. But one of them was my brother. But anyway, I'm not bitter.

[40:43] Was. Was that all, Karen? That was it then we will go to department head Chief Haroun. Mr. Vice

[40:50] Chair. I don't have anything for this. Thank you.

[40:55] The next one. Don't worry. Ms. Austin. We had a blood drive here yesterday. Very successful. We had

[41:05] 17 people that donated. So they got 17 units and actually six power reds. The power reds are when

[41:15] they can take double the red blood cells. So they're very successful and they will start planning

[41:21] for the next blood drives. So probably a couple months. Excellent.

[41:31] And that's. That's. That's all. Okay. How's the garden? What's happened now? It's winding down so

[41:37] it's

[41:39] like gone or done or. Well, there's a few things down there still. Lots of green tomatoes still down

[41:44] there.

[41:47] How was the turnout this year? Was it kind of not great? Oh, it'll make up probably a very nice

[41:55] garden spot next year where we can sit and look at big flowers. Oh yeah, but we need to have another

[42:01] plague and it'll pick right back up.

[42:06] Okay, I. Nope. Wait, wait, wait. Gary's here. Oh, okay. Hi, Gary. Hello. For those of you who don't

[42:15] know, I'm Gary Bear. I'm a lieutenant in the Livermore Falls Fire department. So I'm here

[42:20] representing the fire department just to give you guys a heads up of what we've been doing. Last

[42:25] weekend we had our Bowman field fly in where we had trucks down there on display a couple weeks ago.

[42:32] And last Saturday we passed out 190 backpacks with some basic school supplies to the kids.

[42:42] We've had a new member that is in the process of joining. He is from New York. He's an experienced

[42:49] firefighter so we don't have to train him. And as soon as we get all his paperwork gone through, he

[42:56] will be an active firefighter. Our trucks are staying pretty much the same. We are still looking at

[43:03] grants to see about expanding our and upgrading our fleet. Fire coffee calls have been, knock on

[43:13] wood, minimal. They've done a lot of minor responses and a lot of it has been mutual aiding to other

[43:21] towns. But they've been small incidents. So a lot of times we get turned back before we actually get

[43:29] to the scene. As a is such a small incident, we got canceled and road. So other than that, things

[43:37] have been going pretty straightforward on the fire department.

[43:41] You had a car wash a week ago or the car wash was done at the fire department, but that was actually

[43:48] the cheerleaders. Okay. The auxiliary did have the. Our ladies auxiliary did have a yard sale to

[43:58] raise money for their part.

[44:02] , I missed that.

[44:06] And everything that was left over got donated to Bowman for their yard sale. Well, the Bowman's

[44:12] thing was. Was incredible. Saturday was very busy. Yeah, the cars had a lot of airplanes there. It

[44:19] was great. So. And the breakfast are still awesome. So anybody who doesn't or hasn't gone, I

[44:26] recommend the breakfast at Bowman field fly in. Very good. And so that's about it. It's been fairly

[44:34] a quiet month. We're now gearing up for the fall. Unfortunately, that usually means chimney fire

[44:40] season for us and leaf brush piles going out of control.

[44:48] Not as dangerous as in the summertime, but it still causes issues. So yeah,

[44:56] thank you, Gary. Thank you. I'm sorry I didn't call on you. I didn't know. That's okay. No problem.

[45:00] I saw that you had an insignia, but I see people wearing stuff from Disney, but I don't think

[45:06] they're Mickey Mouse.

[45:10] Mr. Bilodeau the Elder. I'm all set, thank you. Mr. Bilodeau the Younger actually might be a crazy

[45:17] question, but okay, it's question. Is there any way that there could be the information of last

[45:26] year's sort of a line item just for the citizens to see for the cost of employment, cost of

[45:33] insurance, new equipment, buildings this year versus last. We all know the price of everything's

[45:38] gone up, but that gives us a good comparison to see its cost of insurance, cost of everything else.

[45:44] Can that be? Is that part of public info? It is. It's. It's all on the budget spreadsheets that have

[45:55] been online.

[45:59] This stuff's still on there, isn't it?

[46:03] The budgets I haven't been able to find. Looking at Jim and Shearer, I haven't taken it down.

[46:09] Where is. I've got the town site up. Could somebody point. I don't know how much information was

[46:15] there? Was it just one liners versus all the detail? I'll have to look. Bryson. Okay, thank you.

[46:24] Good question.

[46:27] And as chair I have the prerogative of not calling on anybody unless they're on the sign in sheet.

[46:34] But I'm going to ask, would anyone like else like to add anything?

[46:42] I was wondering if the fire department was going to be doing like fire prevention at the school.

[46:49] That will be coming up in a couple months. In a couple months. Yes. Okay. But yes, we do that every

[46:53] year. It's just. It's coming up. So I was going to wait because Nixon Ortiz is the one who is in

[47:02] charge of fire prevention and he has just started ordering the materials and organizing. So when he

[47:09] has more information, I will bring that information to the board. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank

[47:13] you, gary. Thank you. Mrs. Bailey. Mrs. Long, since Gary is here, you're doing how we will be doing

[47:21] the haunted house Oct. 31 at the fire station. Yes. And you can do your yes.

[47:31] Donation.

[47:34] Yeah, we'll accept any donations. I don't know exactly what they need. Just wrap candy. Yeah,

[47:40] usually we're.

[47:45] We usually go and take money out of our association fund and go buy candy. But any donations are

[47:52] always welcome towards that end. So which brings me is the town we will be doing that junk retreat

[48:00] and so they'll be on the same night you doing it the 31st? Right now we have a tent. It'll be

[48:07] scheduled for the 31st. So unless that changes, as far as I've been told

[48:14] by the assistant chief, which is a Saturday timeline, yours is later. We used like last year, we

[48:22] were sending people over and a lot of people were. I mean, it was vice versa. I think a lot of

[48:27] people go to both

[48:31] house earlier for the little kids because parents don't want them out later. Right. And we tend to

[48:38] make it less scary because we don't really want to traumatize any little kids. And then later on at

[48:43] night, it's more for the adults, for the bigger kids, you know, that want it to be scarier.

[48:51] So how late does it go? Usually if it's a school night, we try to shut it down at 9. But if it ends

[48:58] up like a Friday or a Saturday night, we can keep it open till 10 if we have the people. Unless it

[49:04] dies. And then we'll close it down earlier. Thanks. The 31st is on a Saturday. Yeah. So we generally

[49:11] will run it a little later because we do find that a lot of people like to, after they get done with

[49:18] the little kids, they like to go out and experience the haunted house when it's more scarier.

[49:26] Well, if we really want to scare the older kids, we can invite them to one of our budget committee

[49:31] meetings. Hey, hey, hey. I was thinking of extended hours of homework at the school, but, you know.

[49:41] Yeah. My boat is still with a budget.

[49:46] So the trunk or treat is usually what, four to seven? Yeah.

[49:53] Do we have any other public comment?

[49:56] Then I would move that we go into executive session

[50:03] after a 10 minute recess.

[50:09] Thank you all for coming. You've been very well behaved. I appreciate that in a vote. Okay. I move

[50:17] that we move into executive session after the 10 minute recess. After a 10 minute recess. I second

[50:25] that. Any discussion? All those in favor?

Livermore Falls Select Board Meeting - September 1st, 2026

Transcript