[1:32] Console meeting from May 5, 2015. The evening we started the tonight off with the Executive Session

[1:39] at 6pm, and it was specifically discussed as a parcel located on May very road

[1:47] or, sort

[1:48] off, the roll call, counsel calendar. Councillor Golger. Councilor Gang.

[1:53] Console the deleting.

[1:55] Councillor Jellerson, Tomerati, Tom Mangerabakubene, Council Chairman, Nathie Stresgers, welcome.

[2:01] Would you please join us with a pledge of allegiance?

[2:18] We'll

[2:26] ask Matt on April 21, 2015, and we have minutes from that meeting that we received.

[2:34] Surely, you just received a minutes today.

[2:37] Nancy has a new computer over there.

[2:39] the uncrashed and raised.

[2:42] I am just so like places on next slide.

[2:44] Next slide?

[2:45] That's OK.

[2:47] So will we hold up on reviewing those and we'll talk about these in two weeks.

[2:53] Thanks Nancy.

[2:56] That happens.

[2:57] This is the bad issue.

[2:59] Thank you.

[3:00] Look forward to reading you.

[3:02] Second, the first order of business is,

[3:04] is, probably comments about the agenda.

[3:06] If you have something to say, we'd like to come up.

[3:09] It'd be great.

[3:09] I would just like to keep it within about three minutes or so, and just identify who are the good folks at home and the record keeping here we have.

[3:28] Chairman Mofon, great.

[3:30] Welcome.

[3:32] And we're at 100, and seeing the same thing about the executive session, the action was taken, action was taken, you didn't say.

[3:40] No, we'll have an action item, presumably probably in two weeks for the agenda to act on in the public.

[3:48] So you took action to have something to put on the agenda in two weeks?

[3:52] Yes.

[3:53] So we'll have at that point down, but some homework needs to be done before it's for public

[3:58] doing.

[4:00] The issue that I want to discuss is what you had taken taking care of last week.

[4:06] I mean, last council meeting.

[4:08] And that was taken some funds from the TIP account.

[4:11] and shuffle it to take care of what tax pay is raised in taxes for that road.

[4:18] I'm 100 up for 100.

[4:21] I'm going to write by me.

[4:23] Oh, yeah, for the $35,000 for the road improvement margin of our work.

[4:31] I'm going to apply the way.

[4:32] Okay, thanks.

[4:34] So anyway, the tax pay is your total tax pay.

[4:36] You need some money for that road.

[4:37] and taxpayers gave them money for it, they proved it and etc.

[4:42] So, I would think that you would be spending the money for that.

[4:46] However, I don't think it's morally right to take that money

[4:51] that the attack you told the taxi is going to use for railroad,

[4:55] turn around and use a shuffle of the money from a tip,

[5:00] a count, to take care that because you need a new item.

[5:05] That's not covered under the tip.

[5:09] If you're serious about economic development,

[5:11] which I'm not sure you are,

[5:13] because your actions don't seem to indicate

[5:16] by taking what I consider a savings account, which is tip money.

[5:22] So that if some major thing comes in,

[5:24] we're sitting pretty good to be able to work

[5:26] and take action immediately.

[5:28] If we had some funds, but it seems like every time I turn around,

[5:32] the citizens turn around. This money is being sucked out of there out of the

[5:38] tip of town. So, you know, what are you going to have when something

[5:41] should come up? If something should come up, maybe you don't believe anything's

[5:44] going to come up. Maybe you feel that, you know, but what your actions

[5:48] are saying is that we don't really care what we told you we're going to use the

[5:54] money for. We're going to do what we want, when we want to do it anyway. And

[5:57] that's my impression, which will pace at the last meeting. And I think you should

[6:01] really look into that because this is not the first time you went into that typical, this is,

[6:05] you know, you kind of wanted to do that with 100-chip account.

[6:10] And, you know, this was a great tool for future growth down in that area, that was the purpose

[6:16] of it.

[6:18] And, you know, you're not going to have any money, so we're going to do bond again, you know,

[6:24] that seems to be, you know, use the credit card to go and take care of the immediate needs.

[6:28] You really have to think about this. That's totally, that's all I have to talk about right now.

[6:35] Good. Thank you. Any other public comments?

[6:41] Seeing that, we'll move on to the second order of business.

[6:44] Accounts of business is evening. We have two items on there.

[6:47] First is public water ordinance options.

[6:52] And this is approximately a month ago or so.

[6:55] of the Council, and this is a Council business discussion relative to some water, but at

[7:02] the time, we didn't have the luxury of being able to talk with our fine chief and the

[7:08] fire department, and it was, and we honestly volunteered to come out this evening to help us

[7:15] understand that what their concepts or what their thoughts were on the subject directly about

[7:23] specifically about water and public safety.

[7:27] And the discussion at that time was about fire funds for one.

[7:32] If Owen is right now, it says you have to show sufficient water for some division as far

[7:38] as public safety either, you know, fire upon sprinklers or a system or something along those

[7:45] lines or high grants.

[7:48] And we received a report from the planning side of it that fireponds, you know, apply

[7:54] fine to the art, you know, preferred.

[7:58] But we reached up to the chief as far as that to hear what the death of us would be on that

[8:02] relative to public safety.

[8:04] And that's why the chief came up tonight.

[8:06] So again, if you could come up and address that some,

[8:18] thanks to coming out to see the

[8:19] chief.

[8:23] The whole subject, as I watched it, that this last meeting did have some input that specifically

[8:33] wanted to talk about, you know, I think in Doug's letter did mention that the public safety

[8:41] department has been working on what I would call a fire ordinance, not a water ordinance for

[8:48] couple years now, and that's was something that the Council has approached in 2008, I believe,

[8:55] around that time with a fire ordinance that covered things like mandatory water hookup,

[9:02] residential sprinklers, and such.

[9:05] At that time it was rejected, and honestly I don't, I wasn't involved, I don't really know

[9:10] the ins and outs of what happened or why it wasn't accepted.

[9:14] So I tested it off and started working on it in the last couple years, but honestly, it hasn't been on the top of the pile.

[9:24] So after your discussion last month, I rushed it off and talked to Doug and said, you know, look, I don't know how,

[9:33] which way the council wants to go with this, or they want to go from the code of the zoning side to address some of these issues,

[9:42] or they want it in an ordinance, fire ordinance, and I think it could be done either way.

[9:47] My preference would be that it would be in an inclusive fire ordinance, which would cover

[9:53] a lot of other things that current fire ordinance, so we have this from 1950.

[9:59] So you can imagine that it really is pretty well useless, cover things like incinerators,

[10:08] driving over firewoods. It really doesn't cover the issues of today. So my preference

[10:13] would be for public safety that we work on this ordinance and it's going to take a while and

[10:20] get the input from both Council and Planning Board as to what issues need to be addressed and

[10:25] covered and then we go that route. You can choose to cover these things under the subdivision rules

[10:33] And right now, that's where it's being done.

[10:37] It's subdivision rule whether it's minor or major says.

[10:40] You either need to pick from a sister or a sprinkler system,

[10:44] or extend the water main, or a fire pond.

[10:48] And so the whole thing kind of started, I think,

[10:50] when in the fire pond, like my comments,

[10:54] we don't really think that's the best method anymore.

[10:59] And the reason for that is,

[11:02] they're not as effective in a wintertime, they're not accessible, they, you know, like this one,

[11:08] we had three feet of ice, so we don't even use them. And so I said to be the code office, you know,

[11:16] the next time you examine your subdivision rules, let's not make that an option. Because,

[11:23] honestly, it's very expensive to subdivision people to do. Anyway, has to be certified by

[11:30] hydrologist in order to pass, and then they're not affected. So that's kind of where

[11:36] this all started, I think, from the planning board, and some of these things address

[11:41] so. What I would need to hear from you, folks, times what direction you want to go in.

[11:46] If that's the direction you want to go in, we'll hit the box, we'll get this developed,

[11:51] we'll get it back to you. If you want it to come from the planning board, then you have

[11:55] address it that way.

[11:59] That it's really that that's simple. But if you go the planning board

[12:04] rude, they want to address some of the fire protection rules that we need. It'll only

[12:10] address new development in such, you know, for instance, we just have a store across some

[12:19] put up, it's not sprinkled. That should never happen. But right now they don't

[12:25] buy the state of Stages, which is 12,000 square feet. I'd like to see it

[12:29] 2000 square feet. So every commercial building that is put next, right next to a

[12:36] water line should not have any excuse not to hook to that water line and sprinkle

[12:41] the building. So those are the types of things that are not being addressed, that I

[12:46] think should come from a fire ordinance.

[12:49] The damage we're looking at from a commercial, a commercial side in a residential application.

[12:54] You'd be able to address those differences.

[12:56] Those differences.

[12:57] They would go to the included.

[12:58] And they would have verbiage in there for either or.

[13:02] Some of the rules would be the same.

[13:04] Others would be different.

[13:05] It would certainly be more strategic for commercial.

[13:09] Not to discourage commercial growth.

[13:11] But in quite honestly, most commercial people for insurance purposes want to

[13:16] And it's a little beyond me that the ones who don't, I don't quite understand it, but I think it needs to be covered in that type of an ordinance.

[13:27] Council to us, Pete.

[13:29] I think we should give it to the fire department to roll over you.

[13:35] I mean, again, this obvious, the fire department needs to go.

[13:39] So there's need for change and I think who better than I could fire the fire department to do it.

[13:47] I know you've been working with the Planning Board as well and seen this in conflict in action,

[13:53] I guess, specifically, especially with firepower in questions too.

[13:57] Yeah, and I would agree that the fire on issue is something that needs to be dealt with,

[14:05] and I don't have a problem with that.

[14:08] I do think that it should be a standalone ordinance enforced by the fire department, because I think all it does is complicated things for the plan board and there's too much that it's left open to individual interpretation.

[14:28] I think myself and I think the majority of the council have been very outspoken about as far

[14:37] as the residential, making water hook up mandatory for subdivision, sprinklers,

[14:44] requirements, stuff like that.

[14:45] I think it's pretty plain that at least this council is something that they're not going

[14:51] to support.

[14:52] I am amazed that that building is not sprinkled.

[14:57] I can't believe why they wouldn't do it.

[15:00] I agree with you. I think any commercial building should be required to be sprinkled.

[15:08] And that, you know, then again, that's one of those things that's needed to be taken care of for a long time, that's just haven't dealt with again. So it's really a shame to see that I don't know why they would not want to sprinkle that bill in that boggles in my mind.

[15:24] or let me retrace that we were never presented with a plan.

[15:29] So, honestly, don't know.

[15:32] I could only assume it was not.

[15:34] We were never given a plan to approve.

[15:37] Well, I guess that might be another question for the other question for all I got by, though.

[15:42] But if you need to put a little flavor into the pot and hold it at least.

[15:46] Because the audience doesn't support it, and they don't have to do it, and that's all that

[15:51] reason to get this, what we so call the ordinance that we have straightened out, because it has

[15:57] a lot of holes like that in it. But I would agree with you with the fireballons, I think that's,

[16:05] you know, I think that's something that needs to be changed. I don't have a problem with that.

[16:11] I don't think that puts on any unnecessary financial burden on the developer

[16:19] are reduces their choices, so to speak, like a mandatory hook-up to public water and

[16:27] a mandatory sprinkling of homes does, though those two things I would not support, but I

[16:33] would definitely support the getting rid of the fireponds and having subdo-requires

[16:40] of divisions to go to systems, and I do like the idea of staying alone on its own ordinance.

[16:51] I think that's realistically the only way to go in my mind and to leave it up with you guys,

[16:58] because the ones that steal with it, the ones that know about it, so the ones that should be dealing with it.

[17:06] I don't have anything to add without drawing this out, so I'm going to agree with what's

[17:13] in just set so far.

[17:16] Thanks, sir.

[17:19] I believe with Louis Shubby's den alone, I believe in the expertise of fire department to carry out

[17:27] what is needed.

[17:29] Can you speak to the rating?

[17:31] Like if we change our ordinance for how fire ordinance is there, how does that affect your reading?

[17:37] Isn't that better for the town?

[17:39] It would not necessarily by itself affect the rating.

[17:45] But that is another subject that we're in the middle of applying for a rate change.

[17:54] In other words, there are many steps you have to go through for ISO 2 to get a better rating.

[17:59] rating right now is a split rating, which is a four in the hydro district and eight B in

[18:05] the rural district. So if you're outside the hydro district, you're in a rural setting. And

[18:10] we are applying to have that improved right now. We're in the middle of our paperwork and it's

[18:16] been a, like a year-long process. So that's, that's what's been on the top of the bottom of this,

[18:22] but so no, it would not necessarily improve your rating. However, in the long term, by instituting

[18:29] some of these rules or ordinances for commercial business, essentially would improve how

[18:38] you get to a better rate if that's clear. In other words, you know, you can prove that 90%

[18:46] of your commercial buildings are sprinkled and, you know, so on and so forth are on the

[18:51] water, but on the water, hydrogen system. And yes, that does help your improvement. For instance,

[18:55] the water tower that was just installed will help already potentially, but it all has to be

[19:03] added up, everything from dispatch to your building, your apparatus, that all those in the

[19:09] forms are so. So it's not a reality.

[19:13] Go where you're saying there is some on-term, and I believe in implementing it.

[19:17] I believe so, yes.

[19:19] Thank you.

[19:21] Thanks, Lynn.

[19:22] Chief, I'm also an agreement with my fellow councillors as far as

[19:25] having it as a standalone document, especially updating it over since it's about 60 plus

[19:32] years old.

[19:33] So now we're seeing like a good time to get in that business, but I look forward to

[19:39] here what your recommendations work, because with all your experience, within the science,

[19:43] if you will, and updating it and knowing that how technology has changed and also knowing

[19:48] what our availability of apparatus is and what we can respond to and how we can best use

[19:54] that in the relationship to the last time that it was written would be huge upgrade.

[19:59] I have in my office probably six to eight other ordinances from the county that I'm using and looking at it to draw up our own.

[20:12] So obviously you look, see what other towns are doing, what's the best of both worlds and put it all together.

[20:17] So I don't know if you may want to have a workshop where you can give me more input after we have a draft, maybe.

[20:25] And then I'll get input from Code Office, Planning Board, if need be to put all this together, but it will not happen tomorrow.

[20:36] Is there any need, or does I have to get the public safety involved as a assistance as well?

[20:43] I know they have been meeting very much at all.

[20:46] No, I've not heard anything from them.

[20:50] They actually developed one in 2008.

[20:53] I think they were involved as well as the chief.

[20:57] I'm okay with doing it.

[21:01] And I will put it, maybe not on top of the pile, but very close and hopefully within maybe a month or so have something of a draft.

[21:11] Oh, that's great.

[21:11] Because I'm sure once I get a draft, everyone will dissect it and add and cross out and all that.

[21:17] But that's a process that we'll have to go through.

[21:20] As well as working with the planning department, you know, update those questions because, you know, if you do, if it changes on one side of it,

[21:27] and all of a sudden the downstream effects would be in the subdivision ordinance where there

[21:31] would be changes that then would have to be integrated so that's about to get that consistency

[21:35] that I would like which I would welcome their input and what they would like to see

[21:39] what they've had for experiences and as well as Doug and his team so we'll start that process

[21:48] that's what your wishes are. Yeah I'd say so and then secondly you know the

[21:58] to go through that in kind of informal context and then and then get it moving forward and then have something formally to act on later in the year. So I think that'd be great.

[22:08] Okay. I have a completely unrelated question.

[22:12] But it seemed like every piece of rolling stock was moving towards North Raymond Saturday afternoon at one point.

[22:16] It was, you know, this is like mutual aid in action.

[22:21] Was there a major part of the year or Sunday?

[22:22] Was a Saturday or was a Sunday?

[22:23] I know, might have been a Sunday.

[22:27] Sunday, we had,

[22:32] when we were trying to do this, it was happening to people.

[22:36] OK, it's like, it sounded like West Cumberland had just

[22:39] about everything going up one hundred out of that point.

[22:42] Covered the station, we had Northeastern covering,

[22:44] and we had, I don't know, how many guys I'm seeing.

[22:47] I wasn't there.

[22:56] You know, there's Dr. Fierd?

[22:58] No, sure, drive.

[23:01] Almost.

[23:01] With fire.

[23:04] I understand it, not permitted.

[23:07] And we went to Raymond yesterday for a fairly large wood fire.

[23:12] I didn't notice it in fairly large font today on the public safety.

[23:17] Marquita said, there's no wedding.

[23:19] I didn't get that on dry.

[23:20] I just need to make it clear.

[23:22] I don't even think about burning.

[23:23] That's a great place for that sign with the way the traffic stacks up there early in the morning.

[23:28] So I can't chance to read it.

[23:30] That was great.

[23:30] Thank you very much.

[23:31] Thank you.

[23:33] Second, I know we had was a discussion on meeting decorum.

[23:37] And the reason why I asked every to put that on for our, for council businesses,

[23:42] I did receive the council, I think, all of us to receive an email from Mr.

[23:46] Mr. Barter, but not Richard Barter, different Mr. Barter.

[23:51] David, David, and it was related to watching a recent planning board meeting and it was

[23:57] in happy with the way the discussion unfolded in there and I felt it was a good opportunity

[24:02] for us to actually for the Council to take a look at it and kind of re-correct our own

[24:10] compass.

[24:11] If you, as well as, you know, recommend to our boards that we're all, and commissions that

[24:16] Well, liaison, too, to just remind folks that our discourse should be respectful and

[24:24] doesn't have to have to always be agreeable.

[24:27] But I think we can all improve as far as I go, as in trying to work in the business of

[24:32] the town as far as trying to have conversations and work with volunteers as well as others.

[24:41] Then a polite, not always reable, but polite and professional fashion.

[24:45] So, we did receive the email that I responded to it for us, but I did think that was an important point that he brought up and one that we can always try to remember.

[24:58] That was about the full extent of what we had.

[25:01] I don't know if anybody had any thoughts or if not we can move on.

[25:04] I will say that since I've been attending school board, CIP meeting, they have a cool thing on the bottom of the agenda where they sort of have meeting and get a few.

[25:19] Which sort of rules to follow, which I thought is, it's a nice reminder.

[25:24] Sometimes in the heat of the argument or heat of the discussion, you know something comes up, but you can see it.

[25:30] I'm going to sort of set the tone for the, for the meetings as well.

[25:36] Yeah, I think that's great.

[25:38] If you want to bring that along, maybe we can.

[25:41] I'll forward it.

[25:41] Thank you.

[25:42] Thank you.

[25:44] Third order of business to report me, Council Chair.

[25:47] I'll be, I'll be brief to see you.

[25:49] We have a few, few different items.

[25:51] John, Reverend, we did receive John's resignation from the Planning Board after, after many, many years.

[25:59] I'm going to share exactly how many of the work, but I did send in the thank you note for

[26:05] his service.

[26:06] I thought he did a great job, was very dedicated to that board for many a year provided.

[26:11] Always was willing to work, as well as brings perspective.

[26:17] So I thank him for his service, but I know he'll be missed.

[26:20] So that does also identify that there is an opening on that committee as well, now that

[26:28] take in place. And then a couple of things I had was Patriot 5K. This is going to be on May 16th,

[26:36] 9 a.m. So if you are in the greater crystal lake area, on that day, be prepared for some

[26:44] closures and fast and slow people running. And maybe some intermediate speed people. But that'll

[26:52] on May 16th, and that's a huge event, brings roughly, you know, 750 to 1,000 people to

[26:59] the town at that morning for a huge fundraiser, which would raise roughly 50 grand for

[27:05] paid-your-pads, which is a huge shop here. I'm probably the most successful event of that

[27:11] size in that time period. Second, the third thing is that summer day camp openings, or

[27:16] it's open for registration now, so if you want to find a place that's fun and engaging

[27:21] if you're a kid. In the summertime, they do have opening still. But please move quickly because

[27:27] they will fill up. And then finally on May 28th, we will have a finance committee meeting

[27:32] finally. We're just looking for May 21st, but there is a conflict that evening because the

[27:38] school will be having their district meeting that evening at 630. And that will be all that

[27:43] the middle school. That's high school, that's the cafeteria. So that's why we won't

[27:49] meeting on that night. So we're meeting on the 28th. And that is what I have for Council,

[27:56] Jerry Port. Yep.

[27:58] Thank you. I have a few things to report on. I have been trying to send blurb's out

[28:04] to issue you counsel. So hopefully you are fairly familiar with some of these items. But the

[28:09] first is that the town of New Gloucester is interested in partnering with the town of Grey

[28:14] regarding the letter that we want to send to the MTA regarding the tolls.

[28:19] And actually when I spoke with Paul Ferris, he was quite excited about both towns doing it together.

[28:27] And having each of the council or sign on that.

[28:30] So we're working together on that, and I'll be bringing that back to you.

[28:35] Kathy Tomberley indicated to me today that she has been talking with Mr. Mayberry regarding the impact fees.

[28:41] If you remember planning decisions and Mr. Mayberry with the two entities, there was someone else

[28:48] who had contacted her and then they retired, consulted and pretty much she has determined

[28:55] that one of them was not interested and the other one really doesn't have the skills set.

[29:00] So our two candidates still appear to be either Mr. Mayberry or planning decisions.

[29:06] And she's still waiting for a cost estimate from Mr. Mayberry that we should have within a couple of weeks.

[29:13] This Friday is very important meeting, we're quite excited about it because the commissioner of the Department of Transportation is going to be meeting with staff.

[29:24] And some of you counselors as a matter of fact, I need to get a head count because we'll be having lunch after we take a ride of Route 26.

[29:33] and I would like to thank Senator Breing for facilitating that meeting for us.

[29:40] And hopefully we will be able to move forward or at least begin to start planning on how we're going to take care of root 26 and the integrity of that road.

[29:51] The firefighters had their annual banquet, April 24, Councilor Mancini and Gallagher attended that.

[29:59] but it's off

[30:00] Police, it's very heartfelt and Lewin and Lynn may comment on that as well. It's very rewarding each

[30:10] year when I go and it's just kudos to the department and their dedication and hard work.

[30:17] And there's always stories that bring it all home for us. So, I want to thank them again

[30:25] for the banquet.

[30:27] The Memorial Day Parade is going to be May 25th.

[30:31] There is information on our website, Jason Hall from the Legion

[30:39] is the contact person, but we had a really successful

[30:43] interesting meeting with staff and folks

[30:47] from the Historical Society, and we also

[30:49] were visited by the main living history association.

[30:53] And these folks are attempting to change legislation that Memorial Day will now, in the future,

[31:02] be celebrated on May 30th.

[31:04] Instead of the Monday that's convenient to make a long weekend, they're very passionate about

[31:11] celebrating Memorial Day for the initial reason that it was established.

[31:17] Anyway, these folks came to our meeting and they would press completely in cost of the civil

[31:24] war era and they are going to be conducting an event or a demonstration on May 30th

[31:32] of this year. At our cemetery, it's going to be at 1 o'clock. We are going to videotape it.

[31:38] We'll also be providing it on our website and cable TV.

[31:42] But you might want to be watching for these folks because they are very excited about next year.

[31:49] May 30th.

[31:50] We're already planning for it.

[31:51] Memorial Day is May 30th.

[31:53] And they've asked us to consider having our parade that day at 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

[31:58] So that we can have a huge statewide gathering.

[32:01] Everyone else will have finished with their parade.

[32:03] And we will have folks and costumes.

[32:06] There's going to be war equipment that will be part of the parade and they told us hundreds could be attending this.

[32:15] So we're hoping that we do see that and we're already starting to plan for next year.

[32:22] The video that we had produced in conjunction with New Blaster in the school,

[32:28] about two, three years ago, has now on the website of

[32:35] Cumberland County and it's hosted under community videos.

[32:40] So I'm really excited about also having that showcase at the

[32:44] county level because it's hard for me to believe but some people

[32:48] even in the town of Greg have yet to see that very well done

[32:53] production.

[32:56] Last year, last week, last month, the town of Gray hosted a state motor vehicle training

[33:01] here at town hall. And I think I'm forwarded the compliments on to you council. But the staff

[33:07] was really excited about being able to use this very room to host a statewide training. And

[33:13] the state was really excited about being able to use this room and how easily accessible it

[33:18] is off from the turnpike, so we're just so proud of this building, and it's just another

[33:26] way for us to showcase that. And given the building and how proud we are of it, we will

[33:33] be hosting the monthly Chamber of Commerce meeting on June 2, upstairs as we did a few years

[33:40] ago in the morning. And once I find all the particulars about, I will get that information

[33:46] to you and acting that's it.

[33:49] Thank you.

[33:51] Committee reports.

[33:52] Sorry, this is very, very nice.

[33:55] I'm going to go have a forum for the Finance Committee which I'm pretty excited about.

[34:00] The school's the IP budget meeting that moved from this yesterday to next Monday, 630 at high school.

[34:08] So I look forward to continuing discussions about that.

[34:12] And then, the only other thing I have is a continuation on what Deb said that Councilor

[34:17] Messini and I attended the Fire Department meeting.

[34:22] She even had me in tears with his stories about what they've done and what they've

[34:28] accomplished.

[34:30] And I just want to say Kudos to all of them, because even though certain ones were recognized

[34:35] for their contributions, I know it takes a team, so thank you, and thank you for the advice.

[34:40] Thanks, Lynn.

[34:42] I'll say it.

[34:43] I think that's it.

[34:44] Thank you, sir.

[34:45] Hold on.

[34:45] Thank you.

[34:46] Lou?

[34:47] Listen for me tonight.

[34:49] Peter?

[34:51] Library trustee's met.

[34:53] Gene Humphrey's a new member.

[34:55] Join this.

[34:56] She'll be a good member, I think.

[34:59] It's going to be interesting going forward.

[35:02] The library has since reopened after the renovation has been running about 25% ahead of

[35:11] previous usage, and this past month of April will be the first month that is kind of

[35:19] in compared against when it reopened last April. So, be interesting to see if that trend

[35:26] of heavy or usage continues, Josh's keeping his sharp pencil on his feet is there so we'll

[35:33] find out next month.

[35:36] It's an example, it should be strong.

[35:40] I was there before the meeting in the place was parking lot of staff also.

[35:45] That's great.

[35:46] Thanks, Peter.

[35:47] What committee meeting will be meeting this Thursday at 6.30 p.m.

[35:51] Here in that kind of office, and that's what I have for any report.

[35:55] Council force funds.

[35:56] I just think about one email that we did receive from David Barter,

[36:00] and we did also receive a letter from the Laura Stagel

[36:03] who was talking about, she had, unfortunately, she had a bad accident up at the intersection

[36:09] of Shaker Road in Route 26, this past winter, and it was frankly due to, you know, the snow

[36:18] being there and being an unsafe intersection, and I think this would be an important letter

[36:22] obviously to the meeting on Friday with the DOT chairman, but thank goodness, you know, nobody

[36:29] He was hurt, but also the car was sustained about $10,000 worth of damage, but her thoughts

[36:36] and triadies to have at least a light and try to find some way to at least make that intersection

[36:41] safer because it is so dangerous.

[36:44] But she was encouraging us to try to keep pushing that a lot.

[36:52] We'll be gone to the fourth order of business.

[36:54] I'm sure sorry we make a police and I don't have to tell the finance money for the CDC.

[37:02] I'm sure.

[37:02] I'm sure you have a couple of agencies.

[37:09] Thank you.

[37:10] Yeah, well planning board.

[37:11] I believe we're still thinking.

[37:12] The two now.

[37:15] So please jump in early and often.

[37:18] Fourth row of business.

[37:19] We do have a presentation that folks have been looking forward to quite a while.

[37:24] We have a preview of coming attractions roughly a month ago, and this evening we have

[37:29] Superintendent Beesley and School Board Chairman Martel here to bring us an updated

[37:36] information packet and tell us all about the good work they've been doing at the schools.

[37:42] Thanks Bruce. We can distribute that for you. Thank you sir.

[37:52] Thank you for having me.

[37:57] Okay, so this evening, I'd like to share with you the budget update that it owe you that the

[38:06] school board will be taking on Wednesday. That is the finalized day of war in the article.

[38:10] We've had straw poles, we've made some decision to pay some decisions at the board level.

[38:15] And we should be signing those warrants, the article questions Wednesday evening and be able

[38:22] to provide those heat to the two towns following that meeting.

[38:26] So, here we are.

[38:28] So, the proposed budget, for 2015-16, and I'm going to jump right in.

[38:33] If you look at the expenses, you'll see that the expenses are up about $116,907, which equates

[38:42] to about 4.49% increase on the expense side of the budget.

[38:48] Subsidy from the state, we have an increase of about 18,154 dollars

[38:54] as of today that we're counting on.

[38:58] And we do not expect that we will have the same carry forward

[39:03] in our fund balance that we've had in years past.

[39:06] So in the years past, we've been able to carry forward

[39:08] of our 650,000, or just being able to carry forward.

[39:12] $550,000 from the $1450,000 to the $50,000,000 to the $50,000,000,000.

[39:18] So the estimated tax impact for the two towns that that increase will have, gray share is

[39:25] $9,000.

[39:26] I'm just going to estimate here, $9.2 million, which equates to about 0.14 cents, and that $14,000

[39:37] There are $100,000 of valuation on property in New Blaster, it's about $5 million, which

[39:45] is equates to $7 per $100,000 of valuation.

[39:49] And you'll see the gray share of 64.7% in New Blaster shares, $35.3%.

[39:56] And that's going to be important in another slide that I show you in a little bit.

[40:00] And these numbers do include the $53,000 that we extend on the belt education.

[40:08] So, the major impact that we've worked through, and I do want to commend the board.

[40:14] I want to commend members of the community to come to the budget hearings, the budget workshops that we've had.

[40:20] And the discussions that we've had with representatives at the state level as well,

[40:25] because we really have tried to reach out to them and make our boys heard and regards to things that are going on.

[40:30] The things they're taking place at the state level that have an impact on the local budgets.

[40:35] So charter school tuition, we're going to see a reduction of 384,862 dollars in charter school tuition.

[40:43] That is passed at the House and Senate level at the state.

[40:47] It's a weighing the governor's signature and it's expected based on an email that we received today from main school management.

[40:55] But the governor will sign that bill that basically creates revenue for each charter school without the local locals.

[41:04] local being responsible for a portion of that tuition.

[41:09] Health insurance, health insurance, we have been budgeting 8% 5% we were really hoping that

[41:16] we could get in around 5% and we had a 1.8% reduction on our premiums for this year over the cost

[41:24] of our premiums last year.

[41:26] It equates to about a savings of $130,000 in health insurance that were able to build

[41:33] than to the budget for this coming year, which is really good, I mean.

[41:36] But that being said, we still pay 20% more than districts that have had 0% increases for

[41:43] the last couple of years.

[41:45] Our increases were 13% and 9.5% and now we're going to get a 2% reduction, so we're still

[41:51] out about 20% and more than other some of the districts around that.

[41:56] Death service, we've read the debt, the bonds, some bonds have been retired, some bonds

[42:01] been reworked and it equates to about 78, 79,000, 70,000, $652 savings to the district.

[42:11] Also he infules, we were working very closely with our providers and we're able to save

[42:18] about $95,000 in the budget and the price that we're able to lock in for oil, gas,

[42:25] diesel, those things.

[42:26] So those are some significant savings, special education costs, do so in increase of about

[42:32] 438, 439,000,000,000, and that's really IMP driven costs that are associated with special

[42:42] education students.

[42:44] And additional, I don't even go into too much detail on how special education is funded in

[42:49] who's 79, but your initial increases, a dollar of a dollar in your budget is a two-year average,

[42:56] so you're going to wait a year or two and get some reductions, and then you see some savings,

[43:02] but initially it's dollar of a dollar. So there's no additional money from the 279 offset.

[43:09] Our past tuition, which is a Portland-Ply Technical High School, is $70,000 increase,

[43:15] And I teach a retirement. This is from the state. We contribute now. This is the second

[43:21] authority that we've had to contribute to main purpose in terms of anyone that eligible,

[43:28] I say a teacher retirement, but it's also administrators. There are a lot of people that are

[43:32] eligible for a main state retirement. And our contributions increased by $8,000 this year.

[43:37] So those are major impacts that we've been able to secure in terms of savings. So we've

[43:43] will come up, we've had to come up with in terms of expense.

[43:48] So there are some additions to the budget, and I want to share a few of those with you

[43:52] these are the big ones.

[43:53] Our resource room teacher at the high school, 2x tax that are in special education, we have

[44:00] two outside placements, those are students that are high needs, special education students

[44:04] that we need to place outside of the district, we do not have the services that meet their

[44:09] IP needs. We are increasing by 0.4 guidance at the Cated 2 level and that's going to allow us to have a school counselor at Russell school four days a week and a school counselor at Memorial School three days a week.

[44:20] increased by 0.6 social worker at the K-2 level and that basically provides social work

[44:26] service that's specific to our self-contained populations at the K-2-4 level.

[44:33] We've added JV across in the spring of 2016.

[44:38] We have a lot of students participating in the K-3 across right now.

[44:41] The board has been through the process of recognizing that as a program.

[44:44] And we're also increasing field hockey system, a lot of our programs have paid assistance

[44:49] that work with a field hockey being one of the last in that cycle to fill that assistance

[44:54] position.

[44:55] And then we have state events for teacher evaluation, a new teacher evaluation system at the

[44:59] state level.

[45:00] And I want an app to school program. We have a large increase in the number of students that are participating in app to school activities in the district, and we've offered statements to support the number of those.

[45:13] We do have some staff reductions. K to two teachers. We've reduced by two teachers.

[45:18] The last couple of years your first talk about the bubble, the population bubble that's been going through at Russell's school in particular.

[45:26] That group is now moving on to done school.

[45:28] We had a lot of long-compensational principal, Rob and Zeth done school about does he have enough staff to meet the needs?

[45:34] And it's a one year piece at done school in terms of that really lives population.

[45:39] And instead of shifting his whole team, you structure up there, they've agreed that they would just take on an extra student or two on each of the five teams to offset the population increase.

[45:48] coming their way. So that's by that's by their work at at the school. And then we've also

[45:54] reduced by a system principal position at a great loss for a high school. So we'll have

[46:02] a principal and one a system principal as opposed to two. So what's out there, Kenning, as I mentioned,

[46:10] the charter school funding, we're waiting the governor signature on that and it's important to note

[46:15] that we have not included the cost, the local share, for child schools, which should if the

[46:22] governor does not sign that legislation will have to find the resources to cover those costs.

[46:29] State subsidy subsidy, you've been hearing a couple of different times that they're really

[46:34] this conversation between the Democrats at the State House to increase the 279 pool, which is our

[46:42] of the school revenue pool. They were looking at $25 million to that pool of money. And I'm sorry, the Republicans looking to add 25 million Democrats are looking to add 50 million, which will make that pool whole.

[46:58] And as a result of no increase in there, I will know rate has gone from 8.41, 8.48, which is really in the money that I have to raise before we can spend that to 79.

[47:12] So that's a substantial amount of money when you talk about 30.38 mill rate increase.

[47:19] That's a lot of that's a substantial amount of money.

[47:22] So if they add money to that pool, that reduces that even more.

[47:26] But we don't have that information right now.

[47:28] We can't count on it, but we'll really have our fingers crossed.

[47:32] That I would choose to be nice when they really get finalized.

[47:35] They're we're going to have more subsidy from the state than even what we're showing.

[47:38] So we're really hoping that we'll be able to carry that and the board will have discussions about how we deal with that with the two communities going forward.

[47:49] We do think in the monitor our kindergarten enrollment that's always a moving target.

[47:54] We try to get our registrations in as quickly as we can.

[47:57] So if anyone's out there and hasn't registered their kindergarten student, please do so.

[48:02] Since we've added pre-case, we're a lot better at it than we used to be.

[48:06] because we have a lot of so many of those students are already in the school, so we can account for them.

[48:12] And we're still going to go, we're still in negotiations with the teachers and we're in negotiations with the support staff currently.

[48:21] So those are all pending.

[48:24] I want to share this slide with you because this is a separate article question that will be on the warrant,

[48:30] and it is to support a school resource officer,

[48:33] And it's really a partnership that we're trying to, that's being developed with a town of Greg.

[48:38] And this article is written, so that it's contingent on the funds being passed by the town of, by the borders for the town of Greg.

[48:47] And then if the borders pass it within the school budget, then we would be able to put a school resource officer in district next year.

[48:56] So if we look at this, the district is 38 weeks of service, and the town of Gray would

[49:02] gain 14 weeks of service, and we take the estimates from the County Sheriff's Department.

[49:09] And so for the district, that would be 99,544 dollars, and that's what we're really focused

[49:14] on tonight is the district budget.

[49:16] So the estimated tax impact, if that additional article passes from the school side, would

[49:23] for APA 64.7% that would have a $9 per $100,000 valuation impact on the town of Gray and

[49:33] have an $8 per $100,000 valuation on the taxpayers of New Gloucester.

[49:40] Now, the questions on that component law have that slide up there?

[49:45] Just we just take the opportunity to sort of just discuss the need for a school resource office for maybe just one year.

[49:54] The principal of the back and principal Klein have requested that position for a few years now.

[50:00] Just in regard and it really has to do with, you know, the legal challenges that they face, whether it's, you know,

[50:09] incidents as we've got in students and as we've got in families just yesterday I was up at I was at one of the schools working on a custody case

[50:18] You know and and legal we had to have the sheriff's office come in and and go through the whole court documents with us around that and so

[50:26] Well, there were a lot of different reasons that that would come in in principle of back in principle

[50:31] applying shared the number of incidences that the sheriffs have been at the school providing

[50:38] service to the district for, and they had all of the incidents targeted.

[50:44] So I have said it included, including in the budget, the Board of Directors for the

[50:48] SAD chose to create a separate article that doesn't impact the other programs that are

[50:54] in the budget.

[50:55] So it's really about the peacefulness of the school, the safety of the school, and creating

[51:05] relationships with students and being able to support students through some challenges

[51:12] that they face, that I'll leave in nature.

[51:15] I appreciate the reason I brought it up is because we've had our own discussions about, you know, the sheriff that we fund through the town, 40 hours, and there's some shared resources here, and there is an extra demand that takes away from, is it, we scrapped me from the statement by, did, I guess there's a concern that this position drew from the hours that the sheriff was serving.

[51:45] That's where I'm going to tell it.

[51:46] And you need for this position?

[51:49] I'm trying to highlight that there is to be legitimacy.

[51:51] We need for this, in addition to, right?

[51:54] If we place it all to the Sheriff's Office a lot of time, it's Lucas Hallet.

[51:58] Yes.

[51:58] That comes to the school to provide a service to the school.

[52:02] And I think the, the, the, the, the conversation is that that's funding that,

[52:08] not the Sheriff's Office is a Nestle of Payne for its funding at the town of Grant

[52:11] of Payne for because they are paying for it for Sheriff Hallet.

[52:15] Thank you, I was just trying to get a commit that morning.

[52:17] There was a meeting and that's the relationship, right?

[52:21] As it pertains to you.

[52:22] Are you, thank you.

[52:24] And we have tried, I mean, we have tried a number of years

[52:27] to fund this to federal funding.

[52:30] There's always a request for grant money.

[52:32] And you have tried that, but the three, four years.

[52:35] And we haven't been unsuccessful.

[52:38] So a little bit different than communities that have their own police force,

[52:40] because they can partner with the police force.

[52:43] We are not in that position, we have to look to the couple of kind of sheriffs to be that partner.

[52:49] The other side of this is these are a first year cost, because the cost do go down significantly in the second year, because they're a stock cost,

[52:56] related to cruisers, and setting up the cruisers with all of the, you know, sirens and radios and all those pieces are in those stock costs.

[53:06] So, every five years, I mean, you have to re-incure, you know, you have to look at those

[53:12] costs.

[53:13] But, that this is a model that the sheriff's office has shared with us, that's very productive

[53:18] because it gives the sheriff's department the first of all, you have the same sheriff working

[53:24] with the school in the community and so it's more of a position that they want, because

[53:30] they aren't working with the school and then they're in the summer there on the midnight shift

[53:35] enrichment may, you know, not that that's a company count, but, you know, nobody wants to be up there, you know.

[53:43] But it's something that they think they may get more, more applicants that want this position,

[53:48] because they maintain that connection with those struggling students and those struggling families through the summer as well.

[53:53] And there's always that connection that takes place.

[53:56] And so it is a program that they, that they're very supportive of.

[54:00] So we do have it as a part of one of the articles that is a stand-alone kind of article that doesn't impact the rest of the budget if it's not passed at the town level or at the district.

[54:19] The district has had school resource officers in the past. They were through federal funds and they were not they did not they we did not continue to fund the school resources resources and a lot of that had to do

[54:40] with the personality of a person, if you will, and the success of the person, you know.

[54:47] And so the funding for this kind of drive-up in it went away, and I think, you know,

[54:56] it's about, we want our administrators to really be focusing on student learning and educating

[55:01] students in less time on the legal issues that they may have to face within the schools over

[55:09] time. Okay. Thank you. So I do have a couple of upcoming important dates on May 6, the Board

[55:16] of Directors. This will be working on improving the warrant for posting. And I will get

[55:21] to the two towns after the Board meeting tomorrow evening. On May 18, we chair my talent.

[55:28] I will be at the New Gloucester town council to present a very similar information to them.

[55:34] On May 21st is the district budget meeting. And as was mentioned earlier, that's as

[55:38] and Green Gloucester High School in the cafeteria.

[55:41] Thanks for registration, stocks at six o'clock.

[55:45] And then June 9th is the budget validation vote.

[55:50] So in summary, after two years of top budgets,

[55:54] and I am pleased to present to the taxpayers

[55:57] of the two towns, the 1516 budget.

[56:01] This budget supports existing programs,

[56:04] as well as new initiatives.

[56:06] And I do have a few of those.

[56:07] It supports the performance evaluation and professional growth model for teachers and

[56:13] principals, which is a state initiative where we redo our evaluation system.

[56:19] It increases our co-curricular and after school programming and students something that

[56:23] we really have seen a lot of growth in over the last couple of years.

[56:28] And it supports a district wide wellness initiative, which includes the pet

[56:36] opportunities and it increases the physical education and health opportunities, continues to support

[56:43] pre-K, pre-K, and all day kindergarten, strong response intervention program, for struggling

[56:51] learning, K-12 Spanish instruction, and the international baccalaureate program is seeing a huge

[56:57] increase in the number of students. It's been a real benefit to the district that the

[57:01] that the opportunity that our graduates students have in their post-secondary work, that we

[57:08] have the district-wide technology integration is a component of this, as well as the

[57:14] proficiency-based diplomas that were required by state law to have in place by for

[57:19] graduate students graduating in 2020.

[57:24] Questions?

[57:25] This is Bruce Lennon.

[57:27] A lot of questions.

[57:29] We talked about the decrease in the fund balance carryover,

[57:32] whether any specific incidents that cause that decrease.

[57:36] I do.

[57:38] Yeah, those that generally comes from teacher retirement.

[57:41] So we have a live number of teacher retirement slim from year to year.

[57:46] And we will re-hier sometimes that it's not expensive.

[57:50] Sometimes it might be a less experienced teacher,

[57:53] which would be at the beginning of the scale versus the top of the scale.

[57:59] It could come from just costs that we anticipated in terms of health insurance costs,

[58:08] or something that we didn't have finalized where we put the budget together last year,

[58:12] and there are similar things that happen here to year.

[58:17] thing proper capital maintenance projects that we expected would cost us

[58:21] ax amount of dollars that don't cost us quite a much so there are a number of

[58:25] reasons why that would that why that would take place and this year we just

[58:29] don't have that we didn't have that many retirements so we didn't have that many

[58:33] projects that cost less than we anticipated snow removal was a huge one this year

[58:39] year we had we had to put a lot of money into snow removal that we weren't expecting

[58:45] Only you had that.

[58:46] Yes, that's right.

[58:47] You did that.

[58:50] Okay.

[58:51] Other questions?

[58:54] No, no.

[58:55] I know the pre-K is the program's pretty new.

[58:58] Is that been successful?

[59:00] We have 84 registrations for pre-K already, and we basically have every student that's registered

[59:07] for pre-K is in pre-K.

[59:09] We have six slots left, and those are on a first come first,

[59:13] or based the so-if it does a family out there that has a four-year-old they would like to have that four-year-old involved in our pre-K program,

[59:20] they should get that student registered as soon as possible because it is on a first come first or basis that is point-and-see.

[59:28] I can tell you.

[59:28] EGA, EGA, we run about 85-86 students in the pre-K program.

[59:34] We have families outside of the district that have tuition in their students, into our pre-K program.

[59:40] That's been very successful.

[59:43] That's good to hear.

[59:44] Thanks for putting everything together.

[59:46] There's a lot of work because into this.

[59:49] I can test that the time is of all it's here for everyone on the school board.

[59:54] It's a time drain and it takes a lot of effort.

[59:57] I appreciate what everybody did.

[1:00:01] It was, it was, the, the, the mill rate increase in, in, we're not really unsure where that's going to settle because of the really depends on how much money gets put into that 2.79 pool when everything comes out.

[1:00:15] And that can have a huge impact on the district, you know, a month from now when the state budget is settled in terms of actual savings in the school budget.

[1:00:23] I'm going to stand here and promise anything, but if that no rate comes down from 8.48,

[1:00:29] that could really provide an opportunity for the board to have discussion about what they

[1:00:36] do next with that.

[1:00:38] So we're really watching that closely, but nothing will be finalized until the governor's

[1:00:42] budget, until the state budget is actually acted on.

[1:00:47] I appreciate it.

[1:00:48] last point is, you know, you have a school board has always done a great job putting these

[1:00:54] budgets together and very money conscious and we appreciate it.

[1:00:58] You know, I'm looking forward to the results of the Capital Prudent Committee.

[1:01:03] Yes.

[1:01:05] Schools here.

[1:01:06] Just to see how that can ductail into this and we can get some, what I think are some

[1:01:12] overdue improvements to be co-curricular, and what exactly is on that real quick map.

[1:01:17] They basically have at this point visited all of the buildings and look at all of the components of the Stephen Black report.

[1:01:27] So the CIC has met at the Middle School of the High School of Russell School done the school and they've talked about all of the building and infrastructure components on next Monday and they reschedule from last night as Lynn mentioned because of the new gloss to come meeting was last night and we wanted to make sure we had it all of our representatives.

[1:01:46] as much of our representation there as we could.

[1:01:49] And so the next agenda is really to start to talk about the field space and the field

[1:01:55] use and what should that field design look like going forward.

[1:02:00] So the thoughts that build into a recommendation and some possible...

[1:02:04] The committee will make our recommendation to the Board of Directors and then the

[1:02:07] Board of Directors will be responsible for what's developing the next Board of Directors.

[1:02:17] It's a very thorough meeting, it's very efficient, and it we touch on every thing.

[1:02:23] And I feel it's very healthy discussion, not everyone agrees, and we dissect everything.

[1:02:29] So I'm really encouraged to see the outcome from that, so it'll be exciting.

[1:02:34] Thank you.

[1:02:35] That's great.

[1:02:37] Great.

[1:02:38] I don't have any questions, I do have a couple of comments.

[1:02:44] I was pleasantly surprised at the numbers.

[1:02:50] I think it shows that there was a conscious effort on everybody's part to be as conservative

[1:02:59] as you possibly can be.

[1:03:02] And I think we all know that the important thing is to work to

[1:03:08] to fiscal sustainability.

[1:03:10] It's not going to do any of us any good to build the

[1:03:14] municipal system or a school system that we can't simply

[1:03:17] can't afford to maintain.

[1:03:20] And so I'm happy with that.

[1:03:23] I mean, it's obviously a lot of work when into it.

[1:03:26] And obviously good news about the charter schools.

[1:03:32] It was a pleasant email to get leaked, that's the new name, because that's going to obviously make a world a different sort of law.

[1:03:42] Well, for us, it just solidified what we built, how we had built the budget.

[1:03:47] You know, we anticipated that that was going to happen, but there was really wasn't a lot of action taking place at the state level.

[1:03:52] So to have the House and the Senate both passed that legislation and now get the news that it's anticipated.

[1:03:58] anticipate that the government will sign that legislation. That's what we hope in what we put

[1:04:04] the budget together.

[1:04:06] I mean, you know, and I think there's a different applause, because I think, I mean,

[1:04:09] it's a level where I think we're looking at not too long from now to the point where we're

[1:04:15] looking at squat from the state. We're going to figure out how to make up for that last

[1:04:21] funds somewhat, and you can get out of them.

[1:04:26] Okay.

[1:04:27] And it really does speak to the fact that, you know, to the taxpayers of gray in the

[1:04:32] New Gloucester and the support that the two councils have given to this budgeting process

[1:04:36] because we understand that the last two years were pretty tough.

[1:04:42] And the fact that we, you know, that we were supported, and then we didn't have to look

[1:04:46] at program impact and big program cuts and things like that, really speak to them.

[1:04:51] to the value and understanding of what the education and the school system the impact that

[1:04:57] that has on the two communities because it is significant and if we started to have to take

[1:05:02] away it would be very difficult. It would create a lot of challenge. So thanks to everyone

[1:05:09] that has supported over the last couple of years the learning and the school system.

[1:05:15] That's a good question.

[1:05:16] Thanks a little.

[1:05:18] Health insurance Bruce could you elaborate a little further on the decrease this year and why

[1:05:25] we are so much higher than perhaps the other schools in the immediate area?

[1:05:33] This is the third year of the year that we're going into where three years ago we each

[1:05:40] school district became their own pool.

[1:05:43] Prior to that, the entire state was one pool.

[1:05:47] So if you are a district that had some tough lock in terms

[1:05:52] of some staff members, then it is significant medical coverage,

[1:05:59] then your rates were impacted by that as opposed

[1:06:03] to having spread out over the entire state.

[1:06:06] So being our own pool, we had a high, you know, three or four high, you know,

[1:06:12] incidences and that meant that we, our rating was high and so as a rate of as a result

[1:06:20] of our rating being high, then our rates were higher than maybe a neighboring district.

[1:06:26] So this year,

[1:06:29] our rating is not as significant and so we're starting to see some reduction

[1:06:35] in two of those last two years of having those high incidents.

[1:06:39] And so we hope that we continue to work backwards now

[1:06:42] in terms of how our impact is.

[1:06:44] But the bottom line is, instead of being one big pool,

[1:06:47] state of Maine, now we're just a pool of SAD 15.

[1:06:51] So if we have some significant situations in district

[1:06:55] than it impacts our rating.

[1:06:57] Why was the big pool done away with, you know?

[1:07:00] Because, well, that's an interesting conversation.

[1:07:03] And it was, people were looking, there were districts that wanted their own rating, their districts

[1:07:08] are really like what they, you know, like the zero percent increase.

[1:07:12] And so they petitioned the state and there was legislation that passed that created that

[1:07:18] opportunity to have your own rating.

[1:07:21] And so the MEA benefits trust and played into how they, you know, they get, you know,

[1:07:26] because people were going to want it to go off and shop their insurance rates.

[1:07:29] And so, I mean, if it's trust, you know, how they can let no one fall with it, it was really through state law.

[1:07:36] There were districts that, you know, realize that they would be charged 8% increases,

[1:07:39] and they had no, no big exposure, so they were looking to save money within their own communities around that.

[1:07:46] Understandably.

[1:07:48] I just wanted to say to you, Intina, that as a taxpayer, I appreciate all your efforts to, as Lou said,

[1:07:56] keep the budget conservative and it's a good break after three years of

[1:08:00] family significant to the tax increases so thanks very much.

[1:08:05] And I will say that not that we need to compare to how the district's

[1:08:08] runs because it's our education system is supporting our students and our

[1:08:12] learning but there are a lot of districts that are really struggling because they

[1:08:15] lost money into seven national, our increase in 279 is pretty minimal at this point.

[1:08:20] But there are districts that lost half a million dollars in 279 and it makes the

[1:08:24] significant changes today, but it has a result for that.

[1:08:28] So we're in pretty good shape.

[1:08:29] We feel a bit about where we're at.

[1:08:30] We appreciate this support.

[1:08:32] Thanks again.

[1:08:32] We're saying you said a couple of quick points as well.

[1:08:36] You know, I'm amazed frequently when I get to look at the different schools, the way the kids are advancing,

[1:08:43] what they seem to be doing in all levels from the lower schools, through the middle school, through the high school.

[1:08:50] You know, I'm looking at such things as the science fair, which is upcoming.

[1:08:53] You know, at the different school levels, we're going to throw a wide

[1:08:56] X-Team, which is going up and being very well received and highly regarded

[1:09:00] at this on the state of recent champions at a competition.

[1:09:04] You know, the kids with the Verizon app challenge winning that, you know, you

[1:09:09] think about all this emphasis that folks place on these, you know, the science

[1:09:12] technology, engineering and mathematics approaches, and the kids are really

[1:09:17] succeed.

[1:09:18] Well, it's great to see it district wide, and obviously they're not just developing

[1:09:22] that skill and the tense grade, you know, they're starting at the K level and working all the

[1:09:26] way through.

[1:09:27] We just to see that move and I think that's a huge advancement in there.

[1:09:31] I think part of that is that whole, you know, scanner space, the approach that you've been

[1:09:35] doing to allow kids to work and advance when instead of being stuck to the same old

[1:09:40] paradigm that, you know, many of us all grew up with in the educational field, kind of, I

[1:09:45] just think that's a huge accomplishment.

[1:09:47] I have the opportunity to talk with some folks just about the IV program and their kids are

[1:09:52] and they're talking about how high these kids are working.

[1:09:57] But I can't say this to you, but I'm not sympathetic.

[1:10:02] That's what they're there for.

[1:10:04] And it's because of that, that you're challenging them

[1:10:07] to make them better and more prepared when they do,

[1:10:10] eventually move on to where they go to from here.

[1:10:13] But I think that's huge, that's a challenging

[1:10:15] students to do that.

[1:10:17] But I also had the opportunity in the joint leaders meeting

[1:10:20] on Friday to hear, you know, all the accomplices from the while the site and the

[1:10:23] pep grant and where that has been going forward and looking at the summer programming

[1:10:28] and seeing that in action, you know, with, you know, with, you know, with, you know,

[1:10:33] with, you know, with Calvin and with Paula and the work they do with the middle school

[1:10:37] and going through the high school and the successes that they're having.

[1:10:40] You know, so you see really looking, and I think the district is hugely,

[1:10:46] exceeding and looking at the student and his entirety, you know, from the classroom as well as

[1:10:51] outside of the classroom to try to help them be, you know, well educated, but also healthy

[1:10:58] folks and you're succeeding. So I can ask you that and to see the fact that you're actually

[1:11:04] doing it in a cost effective manner is to you, you know, you said it greatly. I mean,

[1:11:09] the past two years have been incredible challenges. Most of those challenges have been

[1:11:13] external to the district, where someone else has handed you the bill.

[1:11:18] So I think, you know, it's a celebration that she had to do with nothing.

[1:11:22] I mean, I've watched some of your meetings,

[1:11:24] and I know that you haven't received a lot of public input,

[1:11:26] but that's generally because I think folks are quite satisfied with,

[1:11:30] you know, your work as well as the board.

[1:11:31] I just want to talk about just a couple of highlights.

[1:11:34] I don't mean take all of your evening.

[1:11:36] But some of those prep-grained opportunities.

[1:11:37] I mean, we just had a group of high school kids that did some back

[1:11:42] country hiking and skiing up at a

[1:11:46] attack of Mr. Reen, our model, Washington, and they come back and you

[1:11:49] you know, I pull those kids aside when I see him at the

[1:11:52] high school, and I said, it was the best opportunity

[1:11:56] that we've really had to go up there. They absolutely

[1:11:59] loved it. They wanted to be right in the middle of it

[1:12:01] when the ambulance watched was at the highest point.

[1:12:05] You know, Paul and Calvin kept, you know, she probably got the

[1:12:08] the precautionary fall. She was very, you know, she was not really, but group of middle school kids

[1:12:15] going down to bike on a cage coming up and just opportunities that the pet grand is offering.

[1:12:24] And we are working in joint leaders with the local rectipyments to make the resources available

[1:12:31] to the rectipyments so that they can offer opportunities in terms of kayaking or biking or whatever

[1:12:37] the resources that we have through that background, which is the intent that there's a community

[1:12:42] component to it.

[1:12:44] So that's some of the work that we're taking on through jointly.

[1:12:46] So a lot of exciting stuff happening, a lot of great opportunities, stuff that we're very

[1:12:51] proud of.

[1:12:52] And so I think we're pleased with the budget that we're able to present, because we do

[1:12:55] know the impact that this whole budget has had for the last couple of years.

[1:12:59] We're looking forward to coming out on the 21st and extra vote, everybody else.

[1:13:05] So thank you very much.

[1:13:05] Thank you.

[1:13:06] Well, that is always.

[1:13:07] All right.

[1:13:08] Thanks, Bruce.

[1:13:12] You know, it reads the order of business on the agenda, and we have three orders this evening.

[1:13:18] Of the person's number 92-15, and this is three view and act upon authorizing the town manager to sign the form for establishing it proposed by a fighter's bargaining unit.

[1:13:30] So, move.

[1:13:31] Next, Peter.

[1:13:32] Second, move.

[1:13:32] In discussion.

[1:13:34] Question.

[1:13:35] Public Jim.

[1:13:45] Well, concern.

[1:13:46] We can roll down the grid.

[1:13:50] When I saw this article, Coach, I immediately had a hot pot.

[1:13:55] Are we talking about a union here?

[1:13:56] Yes, sir.

[1:13:58] When this all started happening.

[1:14:01] It's the first time we came aware of it when I saw this.

[1:14:04] Yep.

[1:14:04] And I said, what's this deal?

[1:14:05] How come we have now have to have union in our town?

[1:14:09] Are we treating our employees that bad?

[1:14:10] They have to go get an army union?

[1:14:13] There may be, you can give general technology a lesson, let us know the number that we have

[1:14:19] of folks who are joining the union.

[1:14:22] There are three members that have filed a petition, statutory, they have a right to

[1:14:28] the file, and basically we initially met in an executive session, the council with our

[1:14:42] advised by our town attorney as well as his partners that basically they have a right to do this.

[1:14:52] Where's all the detail? I mean, I have a background in unions. I just have a bodyguard, quite frankly, some of my work.

[1:15:02] I'm just bringing that up. I mean, I know the dark side too. But what I saw on the website, certainly, was not a complete agreement.

[1:15:11] It's very simple to say bargaining unit. There's a lot more in these agreements. I mean, to these people have the right not to go to a fire.

[1:15:18] I mean, what else was in the agreement? I think before the town, at least as a citizen, our town is getting into a situation. Now we have union firefighters, my correct.

[1:15:28] We're going to have Jungian town staff, I mean.

[1:15:34] Why did we have to have a Jungian in the first place?

[1:15:37] This is not an agreement.

[1:15:40] This is basically signing the form to acknowledge or to authorize them to establish the Jungian.

[1:15:49] The unit.

[1:15:50] There is no bargaining agreement that none of that has happened at all.

[1:15:55] Say that carefully, because what this is.

[1:15:59] They're signing a form to establish a bargaining unit.

[1:16:03] Okay, stop right there. You're establishing a bargaining unit.

[1:16:06] The three firefighters have petitioned to this state, and there is a form that we sign basically saying that we recognize that they want to establish a union.

[1:16:21] They want to establish, but is it established or not establish by executing the stocking?

[1:16:26] They have the right then from this point they will vote. There's three of them.

[1:16:31] They'll be voting in whether they form their own union.

[1:16:35] And what union will that be? Who will you be dealing with their agent?

[1:16:40] Who is their agent?

[1:16:41] I look at that signature on that document.

[1:16:44] And quite frankly, I don't think you will.

[1:16:45] I don't know a little bit here, slow down.

[1:16:47] I'm not going to slow down.

[1:16:48] But I'll talk softer.

[1:16:49] That we just need 20 or a chance to answer some questions as you bring it forward, so instead of asking like three questions I wanted to just let her

[1:16:58] I'm sorry.

[1:17:00] I'm sorry.

[1:17:00] You can't keep up.

[1:17:02] It's not on that document.

[1:17:03] It's on the website.

[1:17:06] When you get to the signature page, I say you can't sign that document because there's a bunch of scribbles there.

[1:17:14] But whoever signed that, we don't know who it is.

[1:17:19] Jim, it says on the form, the gentleman's name is Michael J. Krauss. He's the service rep for the International Association of Firefighters.

[1:17:25] That's not done by the signature section that I saw on the web. I didn't see.

[1:17:29] Well, what we have right here is this signed by Michael J. Krauss.

[1:17:34] I don't know, maybe we're looking at something different, but I'm just looking at what I saw on the web today, shall.

[1:17:39] Well, I don't care if you're telling me Sarah.

[1:17:41] Yeah, that's the representative for that.

[1:17:45] So what's the next step?

[1:17:49] The next step is that they will vote the three members whether or not they want to establish a union and then at that point they'll decide whether or not they want to negotiate a contract.

[1:18:03] So currently we have the employees we have a budget that we have established but there has been no indication to us that they want any different benefits or a contract with the town.

[1:18:16] All they're doing at this time is establishing a unit.

[1:18:21] I just would encourage, I'm not comfortable that it's a, I think the situation of a more advanced than must being put forth, otherwise it wouldn't start in the first place.

[1:18:32] So I'll go back to my original question.

[1:18:37] Why would these people feel motivated or unnecessary to form a union in our town?

[1:18:43] Generally unions are formed from dissatisfaction or some negative experience. That's a normal thing.

[1:18:49] And yes, maybe unions are formed for some other reasons too, but usually it's a matter that there's some dissatisfaction

[1:18:56] with current situation and I'm just wondering why did they want to form a union in the first place?

[1:19:02] Well, to be honest with you, Jim, that's kind of a question that we can't ask.

[1:19:06] When they come forward and state that they want to establish a union, as you know, I mean, you've got, you probably have a year as much more experience than the rest of us when it comes to dealing with unions in general.

[1:19:18] But when they came forward and said that they want to do it, we pretty much don't have the ability to sit down and say,

[1:19:25] what do you want to do that for? It's more or less they've said they want to do that.

[1:19:30] And we have not very much choice in the matter as far as we have based on what attorneys have advised us.

[1:19:38] If they decided that that's the truth that they want to take, that's the right to be able to do that.

[1:19:44] I completely understand what you said, although I will go back to my original comment that

[1:19:53] there has to be some reason, maybe you can't ask them to ask yourself, why did these people

[1:20:00] feel the necessity to organize a union?

[1:20:05] So, me, that's a fundamental question, maybe you don't ask them to legally ask them directly.

[1:20:11] But there's a lot of ways to find help, much to need to know.

[1:20:16] I think it's a sad case when they feel compelled to form a union.

[1:20:22] I see when the seed is planted and they start because now they can demand.

[1:20:26] Now we're in negotiation.

[1:20:28] Well, it becomes demands from their side.

[1:20:30] Now you have town staff.

[1:20:32] I mean, to me, there's just a first step down a very slippery slope.

[1:20:35] Where the town will be all union.

[1:20:37] Everybody, back to the Department of Old Year.

[1:20:39] And I think it's a sad commentary on the community

[1:20:41] when they feel the need for me to thank you.

[1:20:44] Thank you.

[1:20:45] I appreciate your comments, Jim.

[1:20:46] Thank you.

[1:20:57] I think you have a signature on the signature line,

[1:21:00] but I don't think you can read it.

[1:21:01] Can you read it?

[1:21:02] Yeah, we can.

[1:21:03] Maybe the copy that you have is not there.

[1:21:05] Well, what's on the web, would you mind if I see it?

[1:21:07] Sure.

[1:21:08] Peter, can you show you how you have

[1:21:12] it?

[1:21:13] So, I'll come and have a different document on the web.

[1:21:16] Because we can not read that.

[1:21:17] It was all terrible.

[1:21:22] I can't testify as much as you looked at, but I didn't know.

[1:21:26] I'm sure we have the same documents because it's very frustrating for the public.

[1:21:29] If we come in and prepare what one thing, and we have a different document in front of you,

[1:21:33] that doesn't make it a fair thank you.

[1:21:41] So what kind of money have you set aside?

[1:21:43] What is it for?

[1:21:44] You just said that you set aside some money for this situation?

[1:21:48] We did we did not know I thought that's what was just said. What was just said then no, we made it. We

[1:21:54] fabricated this year's budget

[1:21:56] Under the same terms as we had all along. There's no allowances in there for an increase in wages or anything along those lines

[1:22:04] Why if he's written like that?

[1:22:06] Outside of what we've already spent at this year was included in this year's budget. You know, this year's legal fees, but no,

[1:22:17] that's a

[1:22:18] of the spelling of your name in that document? Your name was misspelled in that document.

[1:22:22] I don't know if you know that. But again, that's the one I saw on the web.

[1:22:25] The capital B in the mail?

[1:22:27] Yep.

[1:22:31] That means she didn't be an accurate document with the correct spelling.

[1:22:35] So, I mean, I don't want to pick it up, but I'm just saying that.

[1:22:39] So, what I, there's no other documentation that's behind this at all. There's no, well,

[1:22:49] We have this part of the union, these semis would need to be addressed, or these kinds of wages.

[1:22:57] What happens if we want to wage the man, what happens if and what happens if we decide to strike,

[1:23:03] what happens to sit a town of citizens, you know, in a city of Portland or any place else in the city,

[1:23:10] you have the units that can come in and take care, the unit that is on strike.

[1:23:15] We don't have any of that, so, you know, for the last two weeks, I find it very strange that the fire trucks and messier kept them going up at 100 constantly all day long.

[1:23:28] Twice a day on Sundays and once a day.

[1:23:30] So, I found that that was, you know, a lot of activity.

[1:23:34] So, what we do in our work, what we do in some other townswork, it mentioned earlier, Cumlin.

[1:23:40] You know, there was a major five in the woods in Raymond, you know, so all of this stuff,

[1:23:46] but thinking about and what happens when these guys run a strike, so what happens

[1:23:51] to the town, and that's who she would happen eventually because she can negotiate or, I mean,

[1:23:57] we all know that.

[1:23:58] I mean, just about every union strikes at some time or another.

[1:24:01] And so I think that these are kinds of things that there's nothing in writing, huh?

[1:24:06] None says address anything at all.

[1:24:08] Can I just offer to provide some info for you?

[1:24:13] All of this item is here, is stating that these folks have the ability that we've identified them as an appropriate unit.

[1:24:21] After that point, the gentleman who are eligible to vote for it, need to decide if they want to actually act and establishing it.

[1:24:29] That's what this document that we have here this evening is about.

[1:24:33] After they go on that, then from that point forward, then you'd be getting it to some of the other issues that you identified as far as a contract and things going forward.

[1:24:42] As far as striking and not responding to a fire, I don't believe that's actually illegal.

[1:24:48] But I mean, if that year's where it worked, Portland firefighters haven't had contracts and they still responded to fires and emergencies as it goes along.

[1:24:56] But that's a whole different thing.

[1:24:58] And just as a quick point of clarification, I just called up the agenda packet for this nice meeting and see exact same document that we have here that you that you looked at.

[1:25:09] I'm not sure what I'm not sure the resolution on your TV screen or the computer screen may be better.

[1:25:13] I'm looking at the same thing.

[1:25:14] Just let, you know, is that readable on my screen?

[1:25:16] You haven't had any problem.

[1:25:18] I don't think it is.

[1:25:19] I should have taken it out because I, you know, again, we couldn't have read that signature at all.

[1:25:23] And I could read it on paper.

[1:25:25] I'll say it's not the need of signature I've ever seen, but

[1:25:29] What happens if you don't sign this tonight?

[1:25:32] We really don't have much of a choice, but to

[1:25:36] But to go forward with it

[1:25:40] You don't have any choice, why is it on the agenda then? Why do you involve them?

[1:25:44] Because people, yes or no, on an action item, you can vote no.

[1:25:48] So if you vote no, what's the consequence?

[1:25:52] I mean, what's the situation?

[1:25:55] I mean, I just wanted to know what's the importance of this.

[1:25:57] Can we move the question, please?

[1:26:00] I mean, bottom line is if we go in favor or against it,

[1:26:04] they still have the right to do it.

[1:26:06] But we have to formally act on this.

[1:26:08] What are we the other?

[1:26:09] Well, okay.

[1:26:10] I don't, okay.

[1:26:12] I don't think so.

[1:26:13] That, thanks for your questions.

[1:26:16] Here has made the motion to move the questions there.

[1:26:19] So that's a fine time.

[1:26:24] We have a motion, and we have a second, all in favor.

[1:26:30] Opposed.

[1:26:32] I just want that, Nancy.

[1:26:33] Thank you.

[1:26:36] You get back to my schedule here.

[1:26:39] And number 90, three that took me in.

[1:26:42] This is to view an act upon application.

[1:26:44] But Patriots are to up to run two fields behind me,

[1:26:46] being regularly occurring basis.

[1:26:50] And this looks like it is striding on Sundays from January.

[1:26:53] on July 21st through August 2nd, is that July 21st at June 21st?

[1:27:08] Yeah, sorry, that should take June 21st.

[1:27:11] It didn't even move on there for women days.

[1:27:14] So it should take June 21st on that.

[1:27:18] Through August 2nd on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting April 20th, 28th.

[1:27:27] You got two or three different questions here?

[1:27:29] Okay.

[1:27:30] That is okay. So I'm going to add this here. So we're looking at starting on June 21st through August 2nd.

[1:27:45] And that is Sunday night 6 a.m.

[1:27:50] Yeah. Yeah. The agenda says, you know, July 21st, but it actually is June 21st. Yeah.

[1:27:56] But I have a position on the second one was starting on April 28th.

[1:28:03] And on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Tuesdays through June 9th. And then on starting June,

[1:28:11] let's see, April 30th through June 11th on Thursdays, both times been from 5.38.

[1:28:17] Thank

[1:28:25] you.

[1:28:27] Thank you.

[1:28:28] Any discussion?

[1:28:30] I think there are another.

[1:28:31] There are another page.

[1:28:33] 8, 3, 2, 10, 30.

[1:28:35] No, sorry, did I miss one?

[1:28:37] Thanks.

[1:28:39] And then we have the other one.

[1:28:40] We can be so kind of instrument.

[1:28:43] 8, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1.

[1:28:45] I guess third.

[1:28:47] I'll talk to over 30.

[1:28:50] That's enough.

[1:28:51] That's enough.

[1:28:52] That's enough, as well.

[1:28:56] Okay, the first date.

[1:28:58] Okay.

[1:29:03] Okay.

[1:29:04] Okay.

[1:29:06] Is there a second on that?

[1:29:07] Just on the correct motion.

[1:29:10] Can I say anything?

[1:29:11] Good.

[1:29:11] The main theme is.

[1:29:12] And the key there is to have the few waived.

[1:29:18] So any discussion?

[1:29:20] A home favorite.

[1:29:22] Sorry, sir, as easy as we said, or more easily done the setup I guess.

[1:29:28] Thank you.

[1:29:30] And the last there, we have 94-15, and this is tribute and act upon an application by name,

[1:29:35] Junior Volleyball to rent the new beginning Museum on a regularly accruing basis.

[1:29:39] And that would be starting on May 18, going through August 12.

[1:29:45] So moved.

[1:29:46] Thanks.

[1:29:46] Sir, second.

[1:29:49] Any discussion?

[1:29:49] This is a kind of gray organization I assume, because it's a different name.

[1:30:03] It's not a great John happens to live in gray, but there are players from all over.

[1:30:15] Okay.

[1:30:15] That was one of my roles.

[1:30:19] If they've been a consistent client, who's here, he's in the space.

[1:30:24] That's why I'm looking for a second.

[1:30:25] any further discussion?

[1:30:28] All in favour?

[1:30:29] Roger on that answer.

[1:30:32] We now release the e-quarter visits,

[1:30:38] and I'd like to act motion at this council adjourn.

[1:30:41] Is there a second?

Gray Town Council Regular Meeting

Agenda

Transcript