[0:52] Okay, review and approve, minutes from previous meeting, August 3rd.

[0:57] I make a motion we approve as a red. Second.

[1:00] So,

[1:05] Justin, one change on page 7.

[1:07] We have a page 7 number 44.

[1:10] Hold on one second.

[1:10] Let me get there.

[1:12] I'm there.

[1:13] Page 7, top of 7.

[1:15] And the fourth number 44.

[1:16] Motion was made with this stipulation that

[1:19] Music stopped by 10 pm.

[1:26] Would that change be in made?

[1:28] All those in favor of saying five by saying aye?

[1:30] Aye.

[1:31] You guys opposed?

[1:33] You guys have it?

[1:34] Comments from citizens?

[1:35] Please.

[1:37] Hello, buddy.

[1:39] Review and possibly approve requests license for a tarot Italian stake out

[1:47] any contingencies

[1:48] on that?

[1:49] We call that this was carryover for the last Blackboard meeting.

[1:53] Mr. Chair, we do have a letter in here from Chief Welfare.

[2:01] I will make a motion to approve the liquor license for tarot pending that they pay all

[2:05] doing corn property taxes.

[2:08] Second.

[2:10] Any other discussion?

[2:14] We know other discussion all those in favor,

[2:16] see you five by saying aye.

[2:18] Aye.

[2:19] Aye.

[2:22] Reveal and possibly award-bid revise

[2:25] stream bank stabilization project,

[2:28] flood recovery project,

[2:29] 35 rubble and 100 to sell.

[2:32] Mr. Chair, we call that on August 3, we postpone the award of this due to the evaluation

[2:40] team up finishing their ranking.

[2:42] This is a, we're prepared to do that now at a recommendation.

[2:47] This project is as a result of the flood of 2023 and the bank stabilization will protect

[2:54] a private property owner's septic system.

[2:58] 100% of this project will be reimbursable

[3:03] between the USDA and RCS.

[3:07] We are prepared tonight to recommend

[3:12] that the board select the as-in-brothers,

[3:16] basin, basin-brothers, do to the ranking

[3:20] that we utilized and that recommendation comes from myself and Ron Charles.

[3:30] Okay, I feel in the board.

[3:32] I make the motion that we have approved a bit for the Bayesian Fathers 75,910.

[3:40] Second.

[3:41] So I can.

[3:42] Any other discussion?

[3:45] Hey Brad, just one thing.

[3:49] Penny, just curious about this, that rubric of gauging the beds, I think it's awesome.

[3:57] I kind of see that if that's something new or where did that come about?

[4:04] We have used this on different projects since I've been here.

[4:10] This is something that I would like to build in as a standard, depending on the project itself and the criteria that we are requesting in the RFP.

[4:22] That makes sense.

[4:23] Awesome, I think it's really cool to see.

[4:25] So thanks for taking care of that.

[4:26] No problem.

[4:27] So the metric will change depending on what we list in the RFP as part of the scope.

[4:34] It's all those favors, and before I see him high.

[4:38] All right.

[4:39] Aye.

[4:42] Close our FY26 budget.

[4:46] Continuation from July 20th.

[4:48] Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[4:49] This is the second review of our close-out of fiscal year 26.

[4:55] We have both chiefs here tonight.

[4:57] If we also have Diane Knight here as the board did ask questions about

[5:04] different revenue and expenditures in ambulance fire, PD, and insurance.

[5:12] As I said, this is the second review.

[5:15] I hope that we can have one final, one other final review for close-out.

[5:22] This clear one, six.

[5:28] I would hope that that final close-out comes at a time when we can realize all of the

[5:37] expenditures in revenue for fiscal year 26 because both have not been completely

[5:44] realized. We're still waiting on revenue and we're still processing final payments for items in fiscal year 26 that makes sense.

[5:57] Anybody got anything?

[6:13] Thank you chair. Penny, I can kind of go through line by line.

[6:18] And I started doing that and after kind of getting a way through it, I don't know if that's the best use of the select board to kind of analyze this.

[6:30] But I think looking at our big big numbers, what was budgeted on the revenue and expense side, our biggest issue or our biggest expense was ambulance coming in at

[6:44] 25,000 over police was 205 solid waste, which kind of was an outlier to me, wasn't on my

[6:53] radar, was 151. Insurance is obviously admin and then fire. Something that was pretty telling

[7:03] was how the revenue was offsetting. Some of the expenses that we had for ambulance, for

[7:12] For example, 171,000 offsetting an over $300,000 overage on the budget, not quite doing what we want as far as the increase in expense.

[7:30] As far as generating the extra revenue, I guess one big thing as we just get a handle on this moving forward.

[7:40] Do we think keeping to what we have now is realistic?

[7:47] And I think we're getting close to that.

[7:51] You can look at each department and really nail down

[7:55] of the main issues, I guess, with the over expenditure.

[8:03] I think one thing that I want to be mindful of is where

[8:10] the expense or revenue is kind of skewing things a little bit.

[8:15] And I think it's telling like in the ambulance example where, hey, they're off their budget by over 300,000, you know, close to 400,000 dollars.

[8:25] But actually the revenue was able to make up for a good chunk of that.

[8:32] So kind of having an understanding of that for each department.

[8:35] And another piece was that management actually put us in the positive by $104,000 is that because

[8:45] we decided not to spend that money and it's going to show up this year.

[8:50] But I think it's something that we've really beaten this down pretty well and I want

[8:57] to kind of put it in your hands of keeping us on track moving forward and then really diving

[9:04] into stuff in this fiscal year.

[9:07] So thank you for putting all this together and getting into us.

[9:10] I'm kind of looking forward to moving down the road

[9:14] with some of this stuff.

[9:21] Anybody else, can I think?

[9:24] If I can.

[9:25] Just go ahead.

[9:25] Just something quick.

[9:28] I kind of prepared a little bit off what Noah said.

[9:32] Some of the line items, we know we're way over.

[9:36] And the insurance was kind of boggling of how much that had increased.

[9:45] What's, I guess the question I have is, is there a recommendation from Ms.

[9:51] Wu or the department heads who aren't managed some of these fixed cost expenditures?

[9:56] Is there a way for us to bring these costs under control?

[10:03] Like, I mean, utilities is another category.

[10:05] I understand that we don't have the ability to negotiate those rates,

[10:12] but is there any recommendations

[10:15] for better practices for the fiscal year recurrently in or for planning for 2028 budget,

[10:23] which is around the corner?

[10:24] I think that planning for fiscal year 28, we will continue to

[10:37] identify opportunities for revenue generation.

[10:44] And then my other piece to that in terms of expenses is to build a realistic budget.

[10:51] Can we talk about what does that mean?

[10:54] I think we're coming off of fiscal year 26 and we've talked about this numerous times about different departments and the inaccurate budgets that have been developed.

[11:06] And we will correct that going forward.

[11:10] My team and I are very much aware of some of those inaccuracies.

[11:14] And or revenue that was placed in some of the different departments,

[11:24] that we're never identified in terms of where that revenue goes from.

[11:27] So,

[11:31] we know that fiscal year 27 will be a difficult year, one, four, just trying to, I liken it to trying to right size the ship.

[11:41] And 27 will be a critical year for myself and my team, all the departments, to ensure that we are staying within what's budgeted.

[11:53] Of course, there are with any budget year.

[11:57] It's not perfect.

[11:58] And this speaks to what you are just talking about, Noah.

[12:02] There will be times when emergencies arise.

[12:08] various equipment breaks, things that we did not plan for or budget for, but we will

[12:14] take those on as they come.

[12:26] Brad, I guess I had one more.

[12:29] Good.

[12:32] Penny, I know you're a better vendor and welcome to like having a bubble plan for

[12:39] for songs and things like that.

[12:41] I think that's not a good one.

[12:43] I think that's a good one.

[12:45] They've been getting awesome.

[12:47] Peter's here.

[12:48] And that could be another thing where it can be that, you know, computer,

[12:52] very, very, very important.

[12:53] You do what it does.

[12:56] You know, be a little bit more,

[12:57] maybe it is useful in another department when that,

[13:01] when that age is out.

[13:03] Same thing for admin where, you know,

[13:05] they're on that all the time needs to be super liable.

[13:08] And it could get, you know,

[13:09] moved into that other department, so things like that, that I kind of skew things a little

[13:17] bit here and there.

[13:25] So.

[13:25] Some of those lines too, and we've talked about this with some of the department heads,

[13:30] is some of the line item descriptions need a little more description that makes sense.

[13:38] So, for instance, when you see computer, that captures the contract that we have for IT services.

[13:48] And we are trying to transition out of the old system that we have.

[13:52] Some of you that come into the Town Hall, the Municipal Office.

[13:58] You can kind of see the conglomeration of different boxes that have lights on them and wires that come out of them.

[14:04] That is an older router and I'm thinking of the word system that we have and we are trying to transition with the contractor to a cloud-based system.

[14:20] So that's some of the, that is some of the costs that you are seeing, seeing at the end of fiscal year 26, no under computer.

[14:29] The other thing we're building is a better firewall to protect some of our assets and some of the revenue pieces that you see on him.

[14:47] Thank you.

[14:50] Nothing else.

[14:51] We'll go on.

[14:53] The municipal manager update.

[14:56] Go.

[14:57] Eric.

[15:01] Thank you, Mr. Tucker and Ms. Wu, touched on a few of these. As we move forward, hopefully with looking at these budgets correctly,

[15:16] I don't want to get lost in thinking that, because we were fortunate to find some extra revenue that that is that that okay is the overspending of all these departments.

[15:32] If you look at this one, it looks like everything on the barn, and it was all of a budget.

[15:38] And some of them may be explained, but historically that's always been the case.

[15:44] They're all of a budget, and then we just go to the next year.

[15:48] And we hope that we make some income somewhere that will negate those expenses.

[15:53] But that's a bad way to look at it.

[15:55] Just because we're fortunate that we made some extra money somewhere,

[15:59] That doesn't excuse that these departments are so far over budget.

[16:04] And we need to budget as wrong.

[16:06] And if you're bringing it in in the credible amount of income that wasn't budgeted outside of some extraordinary circumstance,

[16:14] that means your budget was incorrect on that side.

[16:17] So, you know, I want to make sure and it sounds like that's the way we're moving that when a budget is presented to the public,

[16:27] They can believe in and they can trust it because that hasn't been the case historically

[16:31] You know budget's representative then it is what it is at the end of the year

[16:36] so hopefully there's

[16:40] You know new looks at these coming forward for the department gives a budget that they're within that budget

[16:47] unless there's something you know that that came up as you speak

[16:51] And hopefully, you know, where we realize that all of these things that come up are not a surprise, you know, hopefully we can plan for them better.

[17:02] We need to know what we need to be able to budget for it without, you know, these budgets being skewed so badly.

[17:10] So, I'm hopeful that that will get there, but there seems like there needs to be some more accountability on the departments to stay within their budget.

[17:20] and that doesn't seem like that historically have happened.

[17:23] Thank you.

[17:24] Thank you, Eric.

[17:28] Moving on, Melissa, what may have dropped dates?

[17:30] I have a handful of updates, partners and organizations.

[17:35] I've had three recent meetings that I'd like to talk about here.

[17:39] Side-held snow crunchers, meeting met with John Murphy to discuss the trail

[17:45] on Scott Free Road and trying to find resolution there in terms of

[17:51] moving the trail off of the Godfrey Road

[17:54] and through private property.

[17:56] Okemo Valley trails, this is the mountain bike group

[17:59] that is here in town and examined their trails

[18:05] that they've built down at the Fletcher Farm

[18:07] behind the create building.

[18:10] They're doing an awesome job as well.

[18:13] And talked about some short term and long term objectives

[18:19] for not just their trail system,

[18:21] but how do we link those together with destinations around town

[18:25] and utilize maybe some of the larger blocks of land

[18:29] that we have to do so.

[18:32] And then finally, myself, chief, forful,

[18:36] and Ron Tarble met with O'Kimo Valley Regional Chamber

[18:41] to talk about, discuss a fall foliage train in early October,

[18:50] basing out of the blue lock, and so Carol L. All doing a lot of, she's doing all the work.

[18:56] It's something that they are sponsoring. She's working with O'Kimo on whether O'Kimo needs the blue lock during that time for seasonal preparations.

[19:06] She's working with Vermont Rail.

[19:07] Flood recovery projects, Clark Drive, Dr. Crescent.

[19:13] I finished the onsites with oil tanner engineers and the landowners.

[19:18] We are pursuing the northern crossing and oil tanner as such as ordered survey and

[19:25] we'll conduct geotech analysis as well.

[19:31] Sam Steakhouse, demolition, the general contractor is awaiting an asbestos report.

[19:36] And then once that comes in, in terms of how to eliminate the asbestos, that will move very quickly.

[19:46] Waste water treatment facility rebuilding in place.

[19:49] We are working on a request for proposals with Vermont Emergency Management team for developing the design and engineering phase.

[19:58] This is for the mitigating place, so this is the existing footprint.

[20:02] with the mitigation standards that were identified and accepted by FEMA and VEM.

[20:10] This is about a $10 million project.

[20:13] We are moving forward with this one, knowing that FEMA and VEM are aware that we want to

[20:20] ultimately relocate to the higher ground, which is the industrial park, new properties behind

[20:28] young women and lovalies.

[20:33] We are moving forward with a flood resilience project.

[20:36] This is a distilled, covert replacement project

[20:40] that we are receiving funding through FHWA.

[20:46] It's the federal highway administration

[20:48] and through V-trans.

[20:50] And this was something that we had put in for, I think, a year ago.

[20:54] We do have funding for a design consultant.

[20:57] And we utilized a pre-selected set of contractors that VTrans has under the program called

[21:06] App The Ready, and we chose Hoyl Tanner.

[21:11] Two more.

[21:13] We continue to work with those property owners that are in delinquent taxes.

[21:21] and we are reaching out via letter phone and or meeting with people face-to-face in terms

[21:32] of trying to collect on the liquid taxes but also working with them on payment plans in order

[21:39] for them to catch up on their delinquent taxes.

[21:42] And then finally, I've been doing some research on the open meeting law and would like to propose

[21:50] some changes and some additions to how we manage and some of our protocols in terms of

[22:01] select board meetings, trustee meetings and water commissioners meetings. Those will be forthcoming

[22:06] in the September monthly meetings. That's all I have.

[22:14] Other business,

[22:23] just what I don't know for other business, please, the downstairs meeting room, when it's meetings.

[22:30] Down there, more often than not, the Zoom wink has a problem. I'd like to see if we can get that resolved. Either you can't hear, you can't log in, you can't see. You know, half the time that link or that system doesn't work. So I know we spent some money to have that installed down there. So the public who can't always make it through me, that often we can't do that.

[23:00] lies on zumen in. It would be nice if 99% of the time that worked. Thank you.

[23:10] The elderly, the elderly or the other business,

[23:14] possible items for next meeting September 21st.

[23:23] Thank you very much.

[23:25] Is that a good session, personal contract legal issues? No?

[23:30] No. More orders are assigned, motion to adjourn.

[23:35] I make the motion to adjourn.

[23:38] Second.

[23:38] All those bearers signify by C&I.

[23:41] All right.

[23:42] All right.

Ludlow Selectboard Special Meeting 8/17

Transcript