[0:01] see are they too loud
[0:04] now they might be too loud
[0:07] now no we're
[0:10] fine is that too loud no that's good
[0:13] okay nice and loud now all right all
[0:15] right we ready yeah recording in
[0:20] progress good evening I'm Naomi Miller
[0:23] chair of the Sha select board and I am
[0:26] calling to order uh this special meeting
[0:30] on Wednesday January 15 2025 6m at Cole
[0:34] Hall and on
[0:37] Zoom does anybody have a conflict of
[0:40] interest with anything on this agenda no no good are there any public does not
[0:49] seem so so we can't get any public
[0:51] comments
[0:54] no first order after those things is
[0:58] Select board vote on the FY 26
[1:03] budget
[1:06] so okay do you want me to share the
[1:08] Excel can you share the Exel yes I'm
[1:10] going to share share the
[1:13] Excel can you fol hear me through my M
[1:17] yes go let dip it up to the
[1:27] top okay
[1:31] so when last we spoke about this on
[1:34] Monday night we had the only changes we
[1:37] made
[1:38] was or were
[1:40] [Music]
[1:42] um sorry to make you dizzy Public Safety
[1:47] libraries law enforcement right and we
[1:51] had bumped it up to 990,000 to be prent
[1:54] in keeping it to the 24 hours yeah yep
[2:00] so that and let me so I just want on
[2:04] that I just want to note that when we
[2:06] run those numbers yeah uh 24 hours for
[2:10] 52 weeks comes up to basically 100,000
[2:13] so I just want to make sure if someone
[2:14] questions us on
[2:16] that I we have to you know we're not
[2:18] exactly getting so let me just do the
[2:20] math real quick here at
[2:22] 90 hours at
[2:27] $90,000 so if you divide that by 50
[2:31] 2 and then divide that's
[2:34] $1,730
[2:36] uh divide so that would be divided by 24
[2:39] I
[2:40] guess that would only be 72 so we're
[2:43] still not quite at 8 uh 24 hours a week
[2:45] for 52 weeks so someone were
[2:49] to like if you do the let's see I
[2:53] calculated like
[2:56] $80 per 24 hours per times off in our
[3:01] calculations fact that this has not been
[3:03] a full year
[3:05] right 80 * 24 is, 1920 that times 52 is
[3:11] just shy of 100 it's
[3:13] 99,8
[3:15] 40 oh wow okay I don't want to get
[3:18] caught in the middle of the meeting
[3:20] saying hey we got 24 and then someone
[3:21] could do the
[3:23] math
[3:26] okay we could just we could say it
[3:28] differently we could say this is for uh
[3:30] you know we can figure out how many
[3:33] hours that is over the course of the
[3:35] year you know we'll just rather than say
[3:37] it's 24 hours a week we can say this is
[3:39] for you know X number of hours for the
[3:42] fiscal year of
[3:44] 2026
[3:45] okay let me just erase this over
[3:49] here all right I mean it's gonna be
[3:52] different you know anyway if they do
[3:55] like overnight right yeah I just don't
[3:57] want to we get there'll be people every
[3:59] year there's someone the audience who
[4:00] finds like an arithmetic error somewhere
[4:02] in oh you said it was $50 but it's only
[4:05] 25 and it just you know it happens so
[4:08] just because law enforcement's on a
[4:09] topic I don't want to be we could be
[4:11] accused of like over promising what
[4:12] we're delivering but we are we' we we've
[4:15] increased it
[4:16] anyway right yeah increased it and also
[4:20] we're doing something new which I think
[4:23] we need to talk to people about when
[4:25] this comes up at town meeting which is
[4:27] that Paula and the sheriff are are
[4:31] talking regularly about how to adjust
[4:34] the hours based on meeting right and
[4:37] that used to happen um not very much
[4:41] there used to be just a sort of basic he
[4:43] was filling with hours right right but
[4:46] like like I said to sheriff Gully you're
[4:48] going to know if a problem exists before
[4:50] I will they'll get the phone calls then
[4:52] I'll get the phone calls so the
[4:56] way right I think we say it the way if
[4:59] we say so $90,000 divided by 80 is
[5:02] ,25 so we could just say you know for
[5:05] fiscal year 2026 we have 1125 Sheriff
[5:08] hours right rather than and so if we
[5:11] divide that by 52 that's actually 21.6
[5:16] hours a week but rather than rather than
[5:18] talk about the weekly hours maybe we
[5:20] could just say you know we have 1125
[5:23] share of hours for the year of 2026
[5:25] which is roughly 22 hours a week we
[5:28] could round up to
[5:30] but uh just with it and yes and that's a good way to think about because
[5:35] it will be varying there will some weeks
[5:38] when it goes under 21 and we might even
[5:41] know that you know if we need a bunch of
[5:43] like overnight shifts for some reason
[5:45] that we're going to be trimming other
[5:47] weeks coverage to to compensate for that
[5:50] s from Peter pay Paul yeah definitely
[5:53] well what was encouraging I think for
[5:55] the people on U twitchell Hill was the
[5:59] fact that there were working with the
[6:00] state police and they were feing them
[6:03] information so I think that's
[6:06] important yeah yeah we will continue to
[6:09] be doing yeah and then right after that meeting
[6:13] things died down a lot yeah a lot a lot
[6:17] of the changes and him them working with
[6:20] the
[6:21] neighbors and you're right about the
[6:23] fact that it'll move from one place to
[6:26] another well yeah yeah and I would imagine it's likely to
[6:33] stay in you know in some proximity to to
[6:38] 7A with
[6:39] [Music]
[6:41] 67 so yeah yeah yeah no I think you're
[6:45] right Mike thank you y no problem I just
[6:48] don't want to get caught making it no
[6:50] absolutely thank that's wonderful yeah no you're right and I don't think
[6:55] 100,000 I think a 100,000 would be like
[6:59] yeah that would be a little over over
[7:02] much um let me just scroll down to see
[7:05] where we ended with
[7:07] that and that change brought us
[7:11] too right now we're at 5.9 we're just
[7:14] under six yeah I want to point out that
[7:18] as as we're hearing about the other
[7:20] Town's budgets we are exactly in line
[7:22] with everybody else
[7:25] yes and one thing to note about if if it
[7:27] comes up you know in the way inflation
[7:30] you know we're we're compensating for
[7:32] inflation now for 2026 that happened you
[7:34] know in
[7:35] 2023 and four you know we're our budgets
[7:38] are always kind of behind the inflation
[7:40] ball
[7:41] so so the reason it's up now is because
[7:44] of inflation that happened you know 12
[7:46] 15 months ago yeah good that's a good
[7:49] point yeah because we can always hope
[7:52] that inflation is going to go down now
[7:55] right the budget our budget cycle will
[7:57] always be
[8:00] April
[8:01] exactly it's a
[8:04] guess um what what else is there
[8:07] anything else we really does anybody
[8:09] have any last thoughts about this
[8:15] [Music]
[8:18] budget very good good
[8:21] job thank you
[8:25] Paul to make your way through a budget
[8:28] like this for the
[8:30] without without anybody who has seen it
[8:33] through before at your I think is really
[8:37] quite an exerting it's just accomplish
[8:38] bunch of numbers you and Martha helped a
[8:40] lot just to go over with it and bounce
[8:41] stuff off of
[8:43] so um and and next year it'll be like a
[8:46] turkey in the
[8:49] OV Thanksgiving yeah it'll be in the OV
[8:52] with the turkey y much much
[8:55] earlier believe
[8:57] me I
[8:59] it'll amazing yeah okay um so are we
[9:02] ready to take a vote on
[9:05] this yeah yes can I have a motion to
[9:10] approve the fiscal year
[9:14] 25 shaftsberry budget
[9:17] as uh presented wait this is the 26th
[9:21] isn't it I'm
[9:24] sorry yeah so that's the motion I want
[9:27] right I oh go ahead okay I'll make a
[9:32] motion to accept this uh fiscal year 26
[9:36] budget as
[9:40] written a second I'll second that thank
[9:44] you moved by Martha seconded by
[9:47] Mike any final
[9:50] discussion
[9:53] no okay all in favor say I I I
[10:01] congratulations we've got a budget to
[10:03] propose to the voters good to Paula
[10:07] thank you Paula thank you thank you
[10:10] you're
[10:12] welcome okay uh other
[10:16] business anybody have anything to bring
[10:18] up at this
[10:23] Junction
[10:25] no thank you Martha for Martha thank you
[10:28] for um getting those people in line and
[10:33] about about the
[10:34] information you know I yeah thank you I
[10:39] think I think we we need to continue to
[10:41] say and what I didn't think of last
[10:44] night when I or Monday night is that we
[10:46] live in a really fractured media
[10:48] environment I think that's way to say it
[10:51] and getting information to people is
[10:54] very difficult now there is not you know
[10:56] not everybody's watching the Nightly
[10:58] News not everybody it's the Bennington
[11:00] Banner you know we as a town I think are
[11:03] caught between
[11:06] um doing things in kind of an analog way
[11:09] and then doing things in a digital way
[11:11] and are trying to hit and reach as many
[11:13] people as possible and you know
[11:15] especially on the digital side the town
[11:18] is doing much much more than it ever had
[11:21] you know even 10 years ago
[11:24] so continue to talk about that that you
[11:28] know there are so many ways that you can
[11:30] get things and you know to encourage
[11:33] people to engage in a way that feels
[11:35] authentic to them and at at the moment
[11:38] in time I didn't think as succinctly as
[11:41] I am right now about saying it that way
[11:43] but to continue to kind of encourage
[11:45] folks to to either do a social media
[11:48] thing or the front porch Forum or if
[11:51] they are you know Avid Bennington Banner
[11:54] readers that we are going to continue to
[11:57] work to try to get out um as much as we
[12:00] can in a very kind of fractured
[12:03] environment and and I think my research
[12:06] has shown that only a third of the
[12:10] population is not in touch the other
[12:13] third is in touch and then the other and
[12:16] then the top third are way ahead so yeah
[12:20] I mean you know just just we have to you
[12:22] know and I turned around and asked Cinda
[12:26] you know what what will work and she
[12:28] goes maybe I need to get in touch you
[12:31] know and I said you can zoom you
[12:35] know so I the onus is on them yeah yeah
[12:40] and also I think something that people
[12:41] don't yet have in their handy repertoire
[12:45] is logging on to the website at their
[12:49] leisure in the middle of the night on
[12:51] the way to and just playing the zoom you
[12:53] can even just get the audio Yeah of the
[12:56] zoom and it's always there on our
[12:58] website so you know it's practically a
[13:02] podcast
[13:05] yeah that would be interesting wouldn't
[13:07] it shacksbury I do know somebody who
[13:09] listens to it on our way to work you w
[13:13] we all have our things we
[13:22] do okay um any other other
[13:27] business no okay okay um review of
[13:31] action
[13:32] [Music]
[13:34] items I'm assuming this budget is going
[13:37] to go to uh to marleene and into the
[13:40] town report now that it's
[13:44] finalized
[13:46] yeah yeah great and I don't know if it's
[13:50] possible to do or if it adds more money
[13:53] um in the kind of printing of the page
[13:56] but if there is a way to have like um
[14:01] lines has have I already asked if that's
[14:04] possible in the printing of things so it
[14:06] looks kind of like the Excel spreadsheet
[14:08] that is there it's very difficult to
[14:10] read at least
[14:12] in I understand what you're saying
[14:14] because when I read it in the book I'm
[14:15] like why are there just it drives me
[14:17] nuts that there aren't Excel lines like
[14:19] yeah there's just spaces and so if
[14:21] there's a way you have to almost take it
[14:23] with a ruler um I think it's because the
[14:27] Excel sheet was probably changed to a PF
[14:29] and then the lines disappear I see so I
[14:32] will do my best to get lines because it
[14:35] will drive me not yeah because there's a
[14:37] way to um to put in all the lines and
[14:40] then when you print it then it's you
[14:43] know has all the lines in it and then
[14:44] maybe that goes gets converted into a
[14:48] PDF right on it
[14:52] readability yep I get
[14:55] it good um so
[14:59] at this point I would entertain a motion
[15:02] to enter executive
[15:04] session so move talk about legal issues
[15:09] not so moved thank you Mike figure how
[15:13] to do that um thank you Tony for
[15:16] seconding um and Marie thank you for
[15:19] being here when we come back we will be
[15:22] taking action if you want to you know
[15:26] hang around for it but we're going to
[15:28] mute our ourselves
[15:29] [Music]
[15:31] now I can put them in the waiting
[15:34] room and then that or you're going to
[15:38] have to mute and then call US no you
[15:40] can't do that