[0:04] So welcome to the Williamstown Fire Department. The finance Committee meeting. Sorry to be starting late. We hit wait for quorum. So we're going to move through the agenda as it's been has been put out as we've got, you know, minutes and treasurer's report cash forecast the and then updates on current working process. Um chief, the chief is asked to be put on the agenda for every meeting, which I think is a great idea if people are looking for that. And then, um, uh, and he has to leave for another meeting every month. Every month, this time in, uh, something, uh, pretty far away. So we're going to start with him first before the minutes. That's okay with folks. Okay. Go ahead.
[0:49] Um, so for me this month, um, a contact of mine, uh, create some very good, Um, visually appealing data stuff. And I printed a few of the things that he's put off because it's, it's it's eye opening. And I think for the finance committee to see the situation that we're faced with is fire administration. I think this is very pertinent to all of our discussions. As much as we've talked about our capital outlay and and our future needs. Um, the fire control response fleet, the one with the dark red hetero cop, um, just shows you the different types of fire apparatus you find in the department and specific to us. Um, right now, an engine pumper, uh, says that the typical GV is irrelevant. Typical cost is 800,000 to 1.3 million. Um, which, you know, holds for firefighters and has a replacement range of 15 to 20 years. We've pushed that to a 20 to 25 year life cycle. Um, so we're really good in that regard. We're actually we're actually pushing our lifecycle up and extending it at least another five years. And we're trying to get up to that 25 year mark with our pumps. Um, the engine that we're awaiting delivery of is 25 years old, but we have a 20 year old engine and a 36 year old engine that are also going to need our attention in the near future. Um, we don't have an aerial ladder. We have a platform of power, as it would be considered. And you're looking at 1.7 to $2.3 million. Um, most recent estimate. Right. Um, a truck exactly like the one we have downstairs, brand new $2.4 million, uh, because we asked for a price quote on it. They're looking at buying something similar to what we have down there. It's 2.4 million. Uh, command vehicles said 75 to 150. $85,000 is. You know, that high end. we don't have ambulances. But, you know, the ambulances that we see in our communities right there, they're not a couple hundred thousand dollars anymore. They're, you know, anywhere from 3 to $500,000. And actually that that's a low cost estimate. Um, brush trucks, anywhere from 150 to $550,000. Tankers belong to 900. We're really good in the tanker realm. Our tank is only five years old, and we should see that at 2020 to 25 year lifespan out of that tanker. So we shouldn't just. This will not be a problem for anybody sitting in this room right now. This this is for the next generation. Um, so if you look at the bottom, he has all of his sources. He's gone through, um, apparatus manufacturers, um, vehicle outfitters.
[3:47] So, for instance, where it says it's the expected light, the replacement range.
[3:51] And FDA says that an engine company should should last through 15 to 20 years.
[3:56] Here's an article in space I Berkshire that was I think was Hinsdale was saying that they were complaining that their whole apparatus was. But there was a particular truck that was over 25 years and they were saying that the the standard is 25, the maximum life should be 25 years.
[4:13] And I agree. I agree with that.
[4:15] Um, so even though it says here 20 years.
[4:17] NFPA says that at 20 years you should replace what we have found in what I found in my 30 years in the fire service is that if you take care of an apparatus, you can get more than 20 years out of them. Some you're not going to. Um, the engine downstairs is 20 years old this year, and it's it's in rough shape. Yeah. Our 36 year old engine is in better shape than the 20 year old engine. But the 36 year old engine scares the death out of me because it's not going to slowly decline. It's just going to it's just going to give it up all in one fell swoop. It's just going to stop and go, yeah, I'm done. And when that happens, we're all an engine. And without a without a plan where the free flow path.
[5:01] You know, a year ago, uh, Hugh and I did the analysis on the age of equipment. And we should update that for when, you know, to incorporate that which we've approved in this coming year's budget, that that'll reduce the average age considerably. But tell me again, you just told me about the pieces of equipment that we have after we do this year's purchase that are going to be over 25 years are the ladder truck and which else.
[5:29] The tower truck is in 1998. So we're we're at 28 years right now. Um, and we are we're really at the end of that. We're very lucky that it is in as good a mechanical shape as it is. Um, but it's something that we do need to think about in the near future, because when we do commit to to replacing it. We're looking at a 3 to 4 year build time because apparatus manufacturing times have gone astronomically through the roof. Um, and then engine three is in 1990. Um, they did do a.
[6:05] Project to it. They did some bodywork to it and had it painted and had some mechanical work done to it, and they were hoping to extend its life five to, you know, 5 to 10 years. And that was, I think 12, 13 years ago. Well, yeah, maybe. So they got their 5 or 10 years out of it and it's, you know, it's still 36 years old.
[6:25] Okay. The engine three would be comparable to what piece of equipment on this.
[6:29] Uh, the top, top left corner bumper.
[6:32] Just comparable to what we are buying right now.
[6:35] So what we bought was, um, what we bought was a commercial chassis pumper, uh, um, which filled our need for the time being. Um, I would not advocate for all of our taxes to be commercial taxes, because they do not last as long as the customs structures. Um, they are not. They are not as durable as the customs assets that people buy. Um, but it fit our budget and fit our need. And it got us something in a very short order. Um, so it was. It was a it was a good choice. I don't regret our choice at all. But we're not going to get. We're not going to get away with that too many more times. Um, right now, engine three would actually be replaced with a with a with a mini pumper. Um, and that's a significantly less amount of money you're looking at. Well, when we started having this conversation, we talked about like 540 to $560,000. And that number is kind of that number is kind of morphed into 6 to 6 and a quarter right now.
[7:40] Okay. Well, we were just more of a winter time for Ten minutes, but they. In the meantime, you also have an education.
[7:49] We do have an application for a grant to replace an engine which would, would, uh.
[7:58] That would, that would, uh, relieve a whole lot of financial burden on us. Um, I also wrote a grant for, uh, portable radios to the tune of about 100 to $8000. Another thing that would produce a tremendous amount of financial burden on us.
[8:27] Okay. So so come wintertime we'll begin the planning for the timing. The other thing I, I almost can't fathom the letter you know.
[8:38] Yeah. No none of us can. I have no idea what we're going to. I don't know. I don't know. We're gonna have to do. We're gonna have to sell advertising space on it or something. There's been a lot of articles I've been reading on a national front about this, like number one. They're like, why is this getting so outrageous? Why is it also taking 3 to 4 years? So there's there's usually a single article. So this is something in the in the media and it's kind of being delved into like what's going on here. Yeah. I mean the Congress has had congressional hearings on the fact that the problem is, is that a couple of venture capital firms have bought up most of the apparatus industry, and they're competing against themselves, and they're driving they're artificially inflating the cost of apparatus. And Congress has called their bluff and said, we're not so sure that this isn't, um, anti-competitive. Yeah, they're violating antitrust laws.
[9:35] I mean, in a capitalist society, you would expect your interest to drive the price back down. So yeah, I'm surprised like a where's GM or something? Where are the people who are looking.
[9:47] For unfortunately, every time somebody comes on the stage that is independent of this, they just buy them. And it's not just apparatus, um, it's done by you.
[9:59] For instance, Jaws of Life, like what people call the jaws, are like extrication tools. Hearst is owned by conglomerate Hearst. Anytime there's a competitor in the market that's producing a phenomenal extrication tool, a hydraulic rescue tool versus fighting puts on business, right? They've done it now three times the three companies that we used. And next thing you know, we can't use them because parts are no longer available. They're not allowed to sell in America. Um, two of the companies that we that I used to use for rescue tools, they're some of the best tools that are sold in Europe. They can't be sold in America and they can't import parts. So if you break something, it's done. And you're talking about a $50,000 piece of money.
[10:46] So it's it's been brought to the forefront. Yeah. Congressional, congressional hearings have been held. You do a little search on it. You can read some interesting articles. It's the first thing that gets fleeced is the taxpayer. Yeah. Yes. It really is. The taxpayer loses because if we lose an engine, we either have to find a demo engine, you know, a stock truck that maybe kind of meets our needs and pay an exorbitant amount of money for it, or we have to just sit and wait 3 or 4 years for a piece of apparatus, which is not a not a sustainable solution when you're in a small department and it's not a sustainable solution for big cities. Places like, you know, like like Dallas. And I mean, part of this thing with the fires, the wildfires a couple of years ago was that L.A. County had, you know, an exorbitant amount of apparatus that was out of service, unavailable. Sitting in the yard. Broken because they couldn't get parts. So there were. There were dozens and dozens of pieces of apparatus not available to fight fire. When that that fire came through the Pacific Palisades because they were waiting on fires. So it's it's a it's it's a it's a national epidemic. Wow. Um, the other thing that I printed out for you was the the impact of inflation on the fire service. And this was a this was a phenomenal thing. Same guy. Um, and, you know, everything that he does, his sources are all, uh, numbered. He utilized, um, actual departments purchase costs. He, uh, utilized the CPI from the from the federal government. Um, but if you look at, for instance, um, diesel fuel. Right. This is a national, uh, this is this is a national standard. In April of 2020, it was 249 a gallon was the national average for diesel fuel. And right now at 535 a gallon, you know, up to 114% decrease. We average, you know, probably a hundred something gallons a month. So, you know, we're talking about 12, 13, 1400 gallons of diesel fuel over the course of the year. And we're talking about doubling our our fuel budget, which, which isn't really planned for. Um, and the blue line that the bright blue line. It says that in 2020 and which was the impacts we were was 8754. And now it's 9645 average in 2025. Well, I can tell you that I just got quotes on replacing air packs and the cost of replacing air pack complete, which is, uh, the pack itself, two air cylinders and one base piece is what they consider a complete replacement. Um, I paid in 2018. I think we paid.
[13:34] 70. I want to say 75. $7,600 in 2018. And that number now is over $11,000. Uh, for for the air packs that we wear. Um, which is preposterous, honestly. Um, talking about Nokia, and I actually called him on this, this, this data for his journal gear set. Um, because he said it's gone from 2200 to 2500, which is 104% increase. That is just a jacket pants. The complete ensemble also includes your helmet, your boots, your gloves and your hood. And that's another 15 $1,600. We're talking about like $6,000 a person to head to toe outfit them, because all of that has a ten year shelf life, and we have to replace it every.
[14:22] Ten years for the arithmetic. You'd have to include that in the 2020 number two. But I hear it.
[14:27] So yeah, I mean.
[14:28] It's almost $7,000.
[14:30] Yeah. And probably it still it probably still follows that 104% increase. But it's just that the the numbers are a little skewed because it's not giving you the total total picture. So that was just I thought and I mean, yeah, in a, in a six year time frame or a five and a half year time frame, you're looking at a 30% increase to the, to the CPI, uh, which is I think.
[14:55] So the gray line is the overall CPI. So just the average CPI of all all items up 30.2%.
[15:02] 30.2%.
[15:03] Over the same six year period. Yes, but or seven year period. But um, but then you compare everything else and yet again, coming back to your spark fire engine gone from 589,020 20 to 1.1 million, up 87% in the same period.
[15:21] Yeah, it's.
[15:22] Triple. Almost triple.
[15:23] Yeah, it's it's ludicrous. Um, it really is, but but it's the hand we where dolphins, a hand that we you know, we didn't create this problem, but we have to deal with it. You know, I mean, just if we don't have an ambulance, but you look at like EMS, the monitor that they put people on to cardiac monitors, 2020, they cost $26,000 and now they cost 51. It's almost 100% increase in five years. That's not okay. We're used to like a I mean, fire apparatus. When I sell fire apparatus, you can almost set your watch by the fact that it was a 3 to 7% increase every year, typically around a 5% increase. If you think in ballpark, 5% increase year to year, you are generally in the ballpark. During Covid, they were having 20 to 30% increases every quarter because of building materials, raw materials, availability, uh, lack of staffing, you know, manpower at the places where the raw materials come from. And they can't ship things to you. And it it went from that to, You know, I think that some of these, these companies then took advantage of it and said, why stop now? We're not still on the raw materials front for where aluminum has is. You know, so tough to get that we're paying 200% more for aluminum. Mhm. If the price is.
[16:44] Not going the excuse the supply chain went away. I mean the prices are going to come way down. And in a lot of products they did. But for some reason it does something opportunistic.
[16:55] And a lot of people don't understand as well. Whenever you say that something is for the fire service. You know, I could I could give you a Stanley hammer. And that hammer costs $19 at Home Depot. And then you say that it's an NFPA, uh, compliant Stanley fire fighting hammer, and it's now $100, because anytime something is pulled up by a service, the price goes through. Yeah, it's it's again, not a problem we created, but it's the hand that we're done. Yeah. So I just wanted to share this with you so that everybody on the board understands the kind of financial conundrum that we find ourselves in to survive.
[17:34] So I'm grateful. Thank you. I wanted to talk about.
[17:38] Not.
[17:38] Just the fire service.
[17:42] EMS.
[17:44] Yeah.
[17:47] Um, no.
[17:48] I think things that are on your mind.
[17:50] I just showed you that to show you. Like that's something that's on my on my mind, but something that's on my mind. You know, as I work through strategic plans and working through a lot of things here. Um, it's.
[18:01] Just so it's just a list of risk, risk items that are on people's minds in this particular to the people.
[18:11] If I keep thinking that's it, right?
[18:12] That these are.
[18:14] These are these are the things that I have to concern myself with. So, um, I will say before I leave and let you for the rest of your meeting. The plan for using the generator diesel fuel tank to fuel our apparatus is probably going to save us thousands of dollars a year. Um, not in the sense that we're going to pay less for fuel, but, um, that generator is 2200 gallons of fuel in it, and if we don't use it, we can, you know, constantly put pressure on to it. We're going to lose that fuel. That fuel is going to start growing algae and we're going to have problems with it. So I think that we're heading off a major problem in the future by by going down this road. And we should be, uh, very soon being able to fuel here.
[19:02] Um, can you what's your protocol? You monitor the level and then when it gets closed, like, just. Yeah. Just order that you're refueled.
[19:11] We have a, we have a, there's a fuel gauge right on top when we get to half the tank. I call that fuel delivered. Um, you know, I'm actually hoping that we can get this up and running soon, because I want to get that level of drawn down so we can put the winter block in there before the winter hits. Um, because as we all know, it gets really cold out here.
[19:31] Could be, um, I have an item on it when we get to the building construction project. We do. We we we have a generator here. Yes. All right. And is that generator south worth something?
[19:45] Yeah, that'd be the.
[19:47] One. Okay. And so you're talking about, um, this is something, strangely enough, in the hospital industry, we used to have to deal with it. So if you wanted to refresh the the fuel. Yeah. And I forgot that.
[19:59] It's a diesel powered generator, so we don't continually cycle that fuel. Fuel only has it. It has a, you know, a finite shell, and it'll start to go bad. Diesel fuel actually grows algae because one of the things that happens with diesel fuel and then it clogs filters and you have all kinds of problems.
[20:16] So if I say what you're saying, you say you're going to you're going to load, you're going to fuel the trucks from the tank.
[20:20] So that we're constantly trying to.
[20:24] Fill. They'll fill the diesel generator tank and have 2000 gallons of fuel. They'll be pulling fuel out of it to run the trucks until they get to a half tank. So when they refill.
[20:35] Okay. Now, I mean, is there an environmental risk associated with them?
[20:39] No.
[20:40] No.
[20:41] So you're not just taking, like, a road and you've got.
[20:45] No actual fuel. Fuel pump?
[20:47] Yeah.
[20:49] Yeah. This is just a vetted process.
[20:52] And and and their protections.
[20:55] Yeah.
[20:55] Yeah.
[20:58] Okay. Well, what if somebody knows about these things? Thank you.
[21:03] Yeah.
[21:03] Kind of kind of hit us like a ton of bricks. And I think the the solution will come up with, we'll put us in a good spot to continually have, uh, fresh fuel available for the generator. Should we have to endure, you know, long term power outage situation.
[21:18] Around the fire station had a gas natural gas generator. We never had that option.
[21:25] Yeah, yeah. We never had to worry about it as long as there was gas, as long as there was natural gas, you degenerated, would run and run with a diesel generator. It's a consideration that I think we really took into consideration.
[21:39] But we have a good work around. Um, before I leave, did the finance committee have any questions for me on anything?
[21:46] Um. There are. Well, let me show on the building construction recap sheet, which was included in the packet. Um, I think there were one of them was about the generator was that I wasn't sure. I don't I don't recall reading about that before, but it it was part of the you it was something that we.
[22:10] Um, we.
[22:11] We acquired for as part of the projects. That was. That's fine. Um, if there are other specific. That was a specific question. There are other specific questions. I can follow up with you after, but they um. But that was one was the other one was here. Bruce. Expenses as more of a Billy Joel question, I think. Um, the I have an answer already on the 400,000.
[22:56] Have the country been behind in closing things out for us?
[23:02] I know the last invoice we received, it looked like, um, and I bought it to two. So I don't know if you had a chance to look at it, but I think from what I can tell, the balance on that was 357 left for the I saw. That's kind of um, so I think we must be near the end. Um, with those, I don't know if there's any other vendors besides constantly that would come forward. Um, so I remember hearing things back and forth and I about garage doors and punch lists and everything's been addressed now, and so. Okay, I think the heat pump, would that be an additional cost on top of what.
[23:45] What. Uh oh, maybe that that'll be an additional cost.
[23:49] For.
[23:49] Whatever that that'll be, I think I think we got a rough ballpark estimate like $12,000 for that. And then just just the stuff that's left in the epiphany lines that we need to we need to finish it up on.
[24:04] But okay, so if there are other specific things associated with the operation of building. I'll follow up with you with questions, but the, um. Oh, I know. Well, I'm. I'm not sure whose bailiwick this falls into, but the pursuit of the energy credits.
[24:25] Specifically is actually Skanska Balder from scan chip has been the point person on all of everything to do with our reimbursements, our energy credits, our documentation. That's. That's in his wheelhouse.
[24:47] Yeah. Okay. He's been he's been on top of that.
[24:50] So when can we expect resolution? So when when we hear about things like energy credit, anything energy credit related is being held up, um, by politicians. I don't need to worry about that. That's not true in our project.
[25:07] I don't I don't I don't think it's. I don't think it's in our.
[25:13] Realm. That's that. They're holding things up.
[25:16] So it's up to national. It's not up to us.
[25:21] One of the things we're waiting on is an IRS number from something. I saw an email between Calder and one of the the engineers that said they were just waiting for a piece of documentation from the IRS, and then they could finish filing something. Uh, they're not. Uh, there's a buffer.
[25:44] That's like $200,000.
[25:45] I mean, it's it's it's serious money.
[25:54] Bruce is on that team we talked about. Just like you brought that up. And the credits.
[26:01] Yeah, we get a couple of buckets we were looking for for money back. Right? We had some some national bird rebates and some, some, some federal rebates.
[26:09] And yes, so it's been out there for floating for me. And now we break down here.
[26:15] We don't want to lose track of it because we definitely want to get them at some point. Unfortunately. It's just it's like pulling teeth.
[26:21] But do you think it'll be a fiscal 27 thing?
[26:23] I hope so.
[26:26] And looking again at our financial series the project says 2005 expended.
[26:32] Yeah, we'll get into the detail. But um, but I before the chief she's going to go and we'll get into it. So there's there's nothing else that got that. Otherwise we'll turn attention to Felicia.
[27:07] I'll. I'll. I'll make the motion.
[27:09] I'll second.
[27:11] All in favor? Any questions? Okay. We'll consider those proof. Thank you. Uh. Treasurer's report. Billy Joe and Billy Joe has corrected us here, which also circulate and will post on the website. My initial report. I did not focus on the future budget. Um, I just left as they were, but Melissa noted, you know. Anyways, they've been updated. Um, the future budgets were just at this point. Increasing it by 4% and then increasing it by close to each year. And that's just obviously not.
[27:50] Oh I see.
[29:01] Okay.
[29:02] Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry. Are you utilities? Oh, yeah. So I do think that it's the 22. Um, I don't think that will be enough. But all in all, I think between the overage and the underage, I think, you know, it won't impact that particular budget as a whole, because that's just an article. Oh, that's article seven. As long as we don't go over, we're good. So on utilities we utilities just buried in with all the other operating expenses. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Correct. So there's. Yep. Yep. Yeah. So but we've only for utilities. I'm looking at I'm looking at the right line. It's 985 for the month. Yes, but. But we've been seeing um July understandably we also have been getting credits coming back into. So the bills are like over $1,000. We get credits. I'm not I'm not sure why we're getting these checks on.
[29:54] Nobody quite has it figured out yet. And they're still looking into. Uh, they're still working with National Grid on the whole solar thing and metering and craziness that goes along with that. Um, so quite frankly, it's probably going to be that we need a solid 12 month evaluation period. So we can really say, I mean, we've got a good number plugged in, but we don't know, um, it's culmination of technology, things working right in technology. Um, well, we'll we're going to just need a 12 month snapshot to really forecast for the next month.
[30:33] Yeah. Yeah. So so that's really it. But I don't think it'll impact us like as a whole. Like our budget I think will be fine overall. Just it was too long. It'll probably, you know, anyways. Uh, need more hiking, like next year. Um, looking at the special appropriation. So obviously what's in there is what we, um, voted on. The two things that are highlighted are really prior year's figures that are remaining, we have remaining PPE. Um, and the project consultant, which is Bruce, um, and I and we can probably easily spend the PPE. The project consultant. Um, really depends on how much longer Bruce is going to be with us. That mostly, most likely will be left unspent. Um, you know, once I'm going to guess that, you know, I had a question about that. So, you know, you've got it highlighted. Here's the 2026 project consultant was we didn't include that in this year's Warner. No. So the reason I also have highlighted is because if you were to add up the columns, I excluded those figures because it's because it was prior year's budget in prior years. Um, we received revenue for that in the prior year. So when you add it, I'm not adding I'm excluding those because really those are prior years, uh.
[31:50] Sources of government funds or something.
[31:52] Right. Where did we get the report when you said we had revenue. Tax will come from the tax taxation of 2026 because these were war articles. So they were war in articles. So but we didn't spend the money in in fiscal year 26. All of it. Yeah. Where some of us carried into 27. So how. Talk to me about revenue. So we recognized the revenue in 26. Correct. But we we also on the balance sheet there's like a reason for an upward bound. So that so it kind of almost says this amount of money is set aside. You know. That's it.
[32:35] Okay. So this doesn't it doesn't screw up this year's budget and it doesn't screw up last year. It's just it's it's cash timing thing.
[32:44] You know, it's flown through the income statement. It's now. Yeah. We'll we'll spin the cash when, when we actually do that there.
[32:51] And I think like what we did for this past, um, meeting. If any funds are remaining from the project consultant, what we will want to then ask to have that moved to cash.
[33:04] Just like we did. Just like we did with those like ten other lines that have been out there for like 15 years or.
[33:12] Whatever. Maybe he hasn't been, um, his his costs been pretty lightly left.
[33:19] He's doing very little. He's just trying to kick them to finish the paperwork so we can just we want to we just want to close this, like.
[33:28] That'll be leftover funding. Um, and then. Yeah. That's it. Um, and then the certified free cash that's obviously has not been certified yet, but that's what has when it has been certified. That was the figure. I removed 93,000 from it because that's what we voted to spend some free cash. Mhm. Um and the stabilization we have not voted to do anything for civilization this year. Um, they'll just be interest earnings, and we still have an outstanding amount of funds that we had for the fact that we voted to do that. That's what that represents. Um, so then I kind of surmises I wasn't had wasn't going to chat about the forecast budget at this point. Yeah, I haven't focused. Yeah. But make sure that. Yeah. Okay. So any questions for Billy John this first one month before.
[34:23] Uh, the only so looking at the construction thing would that that's not actually a construction, uh, budget reporting what this is, is looks like sources and like.
[34:35] Oh, no, no, I got I'm sorry. Right now I'm still on this.
[34:37] No, no. Yeah. No, I'm just looking out a little box about it. Yeah. It's sort of saying, hey, here's the money that we think that we've raised for the project. Here's the money we've expended so far. Uh, it's this is more of a timing question, right? We didn't. We did. We're not $7,500.
[34:53] No no, no. Um. What? This what this is is the bond proceeds at the 21.93. And how much our construction, uh, through June have been to 21501. Um, and so, you know, we're not in the in, like, our bond account is essentially bent down at this point. Um, but the the bond is the cash account itself has about $8,000 in it because it's interest that has been sitting there. Yeah. So, um, I haven't, but if you've got an excellent point of view and so I haven't been I've been trying to time I've just started with quite a bit here. I haven't tried to tie that according to this report, but then all of this tying together is what I'm trying to get to before the end of this fiscal year. I think we have the luxury of time in the community is something that's going to impact the audit for the camp for the period of the 230, 2027, but I think it affects three. We have to get some.
[35:59] I mean, I don't like this. This map will all check out. We don't have any concerns about the only places that we can get balled up is one that we ultimately spend more than we had appropriated. And we're not going to do that. And then two is cash flow timing of how we pay for the things, like if we haven't received a check from Williams or we haven't, you know, we haven't gotten our money in yet and we have to make a payment. So those are the only two places, I think.
[36:26] There's a third place to, which is the source of the funding that we tap to use things. I'm not worried at all about the College of Clark's money. So that's something we have sort of obsessed about. But I'm I'm personally worried about that. Yeah. Um, what I'm more worried about is making sure that everything is Document with respect to the use of the bond. Purposes particularly, these would be not only the one in the first year grant payments, but also the money that we had appropriated from the ARB money from the town. And we'll get I'm getting ahead of myself, but all all of the basically making sure that if we had, uh, we borrowed 21 million, $140,000, that we have 21,140,000. Obviously, we spent more than 21,000,140, but we have, uh, we had other sources. Yeah. So did we double up on sources? And if so, then we need to either get that correct accounted for in cash or something wherever.
[37:28] I agree that.
[37:36] Okay. Thank you. More on this report.
[37:40] Okay. So um, I always forget this one. Am I supposed to seek to recommend this? This is what will go to the credential.
[37:50] Um, yeah. We can. I mean, if you want to formally do it, we can just. I don't think we we. Yeah. It'll be. But yeah, I mean, this is what we're going to review and what basically you and I kind of speak to. Yeah. At the meeting and yes, I mean, I don't, I don't think it needs to be approved. No. Not one course. We just quite frankly, we do as you see more of the deep dive into it. Yeah. Nitty gritty side. Yeah. Which is which is great.
[38:20] Okay. That takes us to the cash forecast going into the world. Is that what we're talking? Yeah. Okay. So the cash flow and updated this report to, um, include projection of our spending for the whole entire year on a budget. Um, I, some of it's just divided by 12 months. Some of it's based upon like timing of when. Yeah. And they have kind of been coming in in the past. Um, and, you know, I mean, honestly, like so at the end of the year, if all goes well, I mean, we'll pass it over to my daughters. Well, the. Yeah. So I look at this report on a month by month basis just to see. Yes. What I'm looking at this report for is exactly what you just said is what's the beginning and end of year cash expected to be the beginning of the year when we still have construction proceeds yet to be expended? We began the year with $3.8 million. We expect to end the year with about 2.5. But in this sort of the finish out of the construction payments. And what I also look at this for is to see what the flow point is on general cash and the low point on general cash. Uh, last year at this time, we were a little worried, but we were to the point of like when exactly are the bond payments due? Interest is due in both December and June. Principal is additionally due in June. But because of the way the timing of things wait, the low point on cash I believe is December right after the payment is paid and the general can't the general account basically tax in in that in that winter tax bill is more than enough to cover the um, the, uh, the interest bill is to that period. And then the combination of the spring tax bill and find the million one gifts from the college is more than enough to cover the second interest. Otherwise everything flows through.
[40:22] Yeah, I've done my period. Um, I don't really know the, the the number that that coming out this year.
[40:32] Yeah. So the pumper truck, I think he said last time I asked me we should ask to Jesus. But I think that he's expecting that in the early winter. Like January. February. But I can't swear. Yeah, but but that one will be a come out of, um, stabilization. Stabilization. And if I think there was a difference. We appropriated another. Yeah. That's part of the tax. Yeah, yeah.
[41:03] Okay. So anything else on the cash forecast. So people have questions and okay so that that's that and then audit. Oh yeah. How are we coming into the audit. Um I and that would sort where where I'm, where I work. We also are going through an audit, but our auditors are the same auditors. Um, so I met with Joe when he was at my office location last Monday, and I, I basically gave him the green light because everything has been given to him. Please go into a quick grab. You know, grab it. Because they were waiting for me to say, like, you know, that I'm not going to touch the numbers anymore. So I had gotten the final bill. And so he has been given the green light. Um, I talked to Dave Irwin yesterday on the phone, and, I mean, I don't know. I know there's been work done, like a lot of planning and cash concerns. And obviously they grab their book file. Um, so they are on their way. I talked to Dave and he chatted with Joel. Um, and they are estimating a draft by maybe October. Um, so that's mid-October. So that's the date. That's the information I have. So that's a draft for our reviewer. Your review for for, you know, almost I mean, you don't have an extra month for, you know, I don't know. But so it also depends on really when does he give it to us? I don't know exactly.
[42:44] He did say to me like, well if you do, I promise I will never. I think yeah, yeah. So, um, yeah.
[42:57] I mean, that's all I have to say about that. Um, but that that'll be that'll be good. Done. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a timing. I don't know when it'll all be finalized and then be presented at one of our meetings. I can say that. Maybe. Why don't you tell them what they were reading and see it? Maybe for the client, for finance. Yeah. So. And I just agree. What do you mean to then go to Prudential or just to find what do you need to do both with just the one meeting.
[43:28] With the presentation.
[43:33] Yeah, we would do the joy meeting, but not to do it. Yeah, we can just do it as a reminder in October. Yeah. And usually meetings right before Thanksgiving. The day before. Yeah. Like Thanksgiving. I don't know if that'll work. Obviously, we cannot do it. You know, it's always nobody's fault.
[46:07] Exactly. It was.
[46:08] Where I.
[46:09] It was like early legwork. It would call it feasibility funds.
[48:53] Just as a side note, I think I could make a suggestion to you, which is the all of the one way to summarize some of this is all of the stuff that came in on the air form is one bucket of expenses. Is that what you have to tie out to?
[49:09] Well, that's another way of doing. And and so the AIA reports that can simply, you know.
[49:15] Because somebody says, hey, AI, a report is 20, $20 million. What is the detail of that? Then you have a they. They got it. Exactly, exactly.
[49:25] And that's like a that document by itself is like a 60 page.
[49:29] The other day with its projects closed out. When you get to that final last report. Then you have all these supporting documents that accompany every one of these requests. It's that's for this one that I'm not sure whether we just use that like we want that to be.
[49:45] And that does exactly that. I think right now I was probably.
[49:51] This was when I say to president, this was through August 7th, and I don't think that last payment had been paid. And then also there's an additionally there's a lag effect. And Billy Joe's wonderful report. I think there's a lag effect in that too. There's are you a month behind on that one is to August 7th. That would have payments made in.
[50:12] Um, right. So when you had that there was um, that is on here that I didn't have at the time, and it came in, um, so that it's, it's the only thing missing is this one. And then there was a small I think it was $1,200. And I mean.
[50:28] Yes, I counted it, actually. Oh, you did that.
[50:30] It's like those are the only things that that are I guess that's it.
[50:35] Nothing else. So in the bottom right hand corner there she's is. What she's talking about is there was an invoice that was paid subsequently I guess 373. That was that was 18.
[50:46] And I coded it for June because it was for services insurance. So they do reflect in our FY 26. Yeah.
[53:48] Which is about right, so say we spend about $22 million then of these sources, um, is the first $22 million to be used to pay for that project? What I and I, we touched on this probably six months ago now, but and this will be a question for bond counsel. Can I say the first $22 million of project expenses was correctly applicable to the bond? Yes. Proceeds to the bond proceeds, including the net premium. And then I think they'll say no. Melissa, the first million dollars and the you have to count the first million won because that was actually in approving documents, is that that first payment from the college needed to be used for the construction for the construction project. Actually, that wound up being the source of the sizing of the bond issue. What would have been 2025? It was reduced to 21. 140 and it's basically 22.5 minus that million one.
[54:52] So I think what you're getting to is let's say there's a balance of leftover of half million, whatever it is. Right. Who who do we have to ask to use it? Right. Is it the bond holders or is it going to come?
[55:05] And the.
[55:05] The answer wound up being can ask if you can ask bond if the bond holders are not going to let you prepay those bonds for ten years.
[55:12] Right?
[55:13] And so in that case, we would have to set that money aside.
[55:18] Okay.
[55:18] As a separate interest bearing account. But we would not be allowed to prepay those bonds.
[55:24] For.
[55:25] Ten.
[55:25] Years.
[55:25] One nine years from now. So um, but that's the level or can we say the other place we could go to is Williams College and say, geez, can we with your permission, can we say that that 500,000 a but can we instead tap the bond process and ask you for permission for to reduce?
[55:50] That's that's the that's the in my opinion, that's the easier ask. And the, uh, the, the the way in my opinion, the way we want to have this money have been spent is the publicly finance portion of this was extended 100% on a publicly financed building. The gifts, the privately financed portion of it was to be used on the publicly financed building. But it's the safety gap. It was to make up. So there's a balance left over. It's not from issue bond proceeds. It's from the private financing side. That's it. I would project that out to our attorneys and make sure that that can be correctly assumed anyway. I do.
[56:32] So you think that's. Oh. I mean, we we it's up to the Prudential to decide this, but we need to present these facts to the. And I'm. We're not finished with.
[56:41] The.
[56:41] With the numbers yet. So the other question though that we haven't ever talked about that I recollect is a town also gave us £225. And so where does that all fit into all this?
[56:55] If I go back to that public financing, that's, that's that was money raised even though it was part for taxes, which I'm not convinced that raised that money. Anyway, I think they just printed that money. Yeah. I don't know that that was raised in a big way, but it was appropriated from the town to us. So I put that back into the public financing site that the last bucket of money, by following this bond proceeds. Any other publicly financed portion of this would be Arpa or town. Yes. And then the last campaign class is, uh, the privately financed and funded stuff. Yes. Yeah. Because that's how I would do it.
[57:33] Make sense to you? Yeah. Okay. So. So this was. So this is where there's a ton of detail in this that Billy Joe and I are working through. But I just wanted to show that and ultimately where this also affects this brief. So I'm thinking that the I'm thinking if I were the auditor, I'd be asking for this information as part of the audit, too, because even though the construction project won't be finished until it won't be reflected until the The audit for the year that we're in right now. Yeah, that in terms of the certification of free cash, all of this cash is sort of in our general account. And so how.
[58:13] How they do have I mean, so first of all, the honor has been going on for multiple years. So they have audited all of 25. They have segregated out, you know, the different funding and refuse the expenditures for the project through 2025. So it just it's a continuation for them, but they're going to add on to their information. And they have all every bit of this, you know, they've access to the file, which is where the document came from. They had in our bond. Um, so they have all.
[58:42] I mean, they could be a help in terms of making sure I'm thinking of this.
[58:51] And if I think that's right, I think the auditor would be to the penny watching watching the money flow through here. I all we would like again. Like, we just would like to have it flow.
[59:09] Yeah.
[59:09] Yeah, yeah.
[59:23] It's bringing together. So the the auditors view of things but making sure that they are plugged into. I mean, my experience is that auditors are doing things from their perspective to make sure that it's all tied together with respect to the bond and then the money, making sure that we can articulate. Okay. Yes. Okay. Anything else on that? This is a working process. I'm not sure that this will be something we address every month, but it's something that my goal is to have this resolved by next.
[1:00:00] Yeah.
[1:00:03] So that's that. In terms of the 20. Next item on the agenda is the recap preview. It'll be the recap in packs. What I'm talking about is the property tax recap in this case is going to be presented to the credential of their meeting next Wednesday. Um, uh, I did talk to Chris Lamar just to make sure that the numbers that we be the finance committee told the credential, they should expect our time out. It's almost exactly what we expected. So it came out, um, very good. So it turned out exactly what I was hoping for. I think there's a little more new growth for.
[1:00:46] The science.
[1:00:47] Committee in that meeting. I'll be attending. I forgot to attend last month's meeting, but, yeah, I'll be making a joint meeting or.
[1:00:57] Okay. No, no.
[1:01:01] Okay. That brings us to item seven, sale of the old building. Any update?
[1:01:06] So.
[1:01:08] Regarding the old building. Uh, and it's something we can discuss, perhaps at our next meeting with more members present. But I, I think we should take a couple approaches to it, and I'll put it out there and put it out to everyone. But something that occurred to me was, you know, there's there's a lot there's a lot of talk. There's a lot of talk for future development in town. Um, we presently have this this building, this asset sitting there. Um, a we don't want it to be a burden on us. Uh, b we don't necessarily need to dispose of it tomorrow. But going back to what I said, as a we don't want it to be a burden on us and cost us any money, or we will have to cost the taxpayers any money. So I'm wondering if, you know, we can look at a couple of different approaches to this. One approach is just putting it right out there for sale, but perhaps there's some opportunity where it could benefit, uh, an entity within the town, a business within the town, an individual within the town. Who knows? And again, this would have to go through procurement, but maybe we look at, uh, some type of a and not a long term by any means, maybe some type of a lease option for the building where if we were to offer that building or lease, um, again, I would have to go through procurement on a triple net basis where it's not going to cost us anything, meaning that anybody who's leasing it is going to be paying, uh, any applicable taxes on it. If it's a if it's a taxable entity, they're going to be paying the insurance, they're going to be doing all maintenance, they're going to be paying for everything. So it's not going to cost us anything. And I feel there might be some boon to the fire district in that where I feel what it's going to do is it's going to have an asset in our core. I want you to consider this as an investment. We have a piece of real estate. It's an asset on our books, and it's an asset which in my opinion is probably going to appreciate in value. So just something to think about.
[1:03:13] So when you talk about procurement, the way that we had been thinking about this is if you were doing a sale, for example, you develop it like you just did on the dirt lot as you develop an RFP description for people, and then you put it out for bid. Are you saying we could do that? Or we could elect instead to Lisa Lisa.
[1:03:35] But we still have to go through that same procurement.
[1:03:37] That could.
[1:03:37] Say, okay, we're offering this lease. Here is how how do you do that? Then here's a description of the property.
[1:03:44] Yeah.
[1:03:44] Again. And then, um, give us your.
[1:03:47] Your might.
[1:03:48] Give us your proposal.
[1:03:49] My bet is on that. You would, you would, you would describe in the RFP. Here's our expectation of what the lease is like. You're responsible for the building. You pay taxes. Exactly. Everything. And then people will propose back to us. They'll propose what they think the lease rate is. Exactly. It supports the terms of the RFP. Exactly. And then.
[1:04:09] At.
[1:04:09] All costs in this, we're assuming it's all costs are yours.
[1:04:13] Everything total.
[1:04:14] Triple net. Yeah. And that it seems like an interesting idea because I think I understand what you're saying. Like the weird thing, you know, it's like finding the market is always difficult, but it does feel like there are about to be very big changes on the, you know, south end of Spring Street, the athletic corridor, the Water Street and all that stuff. And it might be in our interest to wait that out and we'll wait that out with zero cost. Then all of a sudden, when you do go to sell the thing, the buyer right now has to say, well, I don't know what's going on down there. And so they discount. I don't know if this can be good or bad, whatever. It's at the end when it's all done that questions answered price. It might be it might be beneficial to us.
[1:04:58] So and the way I think of it as taxes insurance each with the person be able to make improvements or change or it'd be a.
[1:05:11] It's all stuff we could stipulate. Like you're not going to put a second storey on the place. Yeah. Um, but you know, they can they can obviously within reason. Yeah. You know, do some interior alterations. Again, it's going to come before all of us to consider this. Um, obviously it doesn't have to be the highest and best thing. We want to insure that, you know, we wouldn't want someone coming in and say, oh, I'm going to put. I don't even know. I don't want to call anything out, but we want to make sure it's something that stays meets zoning, meets town regulations and is something that's appropriate. I'll leave it at that. Appropriate for the talent and stuff.
[1:05:49] Yeah.
[1:05:49] It's it's one thing to to think about. It's just. But we do need to do something. I feel bad, I feel like we've stalled a little. It's just, you know, as. As as I was sitting there and it's like, here's another approach. Yeah. And again, maybe it's me wearing the real estate investors hat, but it's like, you know, this may be the most beneficial thing for this fire district if we look at it from that approach. And I think others might agree with that.
[1:06:19] In our annual meeting, we asked the after a vote to sell the building that impact the fact that we voted that way. I don't know if it.
[1:06:28] Yeah. We have we have some more legwork to do on this. I've. I've, uh, in again. I have to go back and read that. But I have had I did of my own accord and just reach out to our legal representation to inquire about this. Um, so there, there, there may be that situation because we depending on I have to go back and look at the exact wording that we did of that. Um, again, there's no ulterior motive here but to do what's in the best interest of this fire district. And quite frankly, what's in the best interest of this community where the fire district of this community, we want to do something that's going to benefit the community. So I think, uh, my suggestion will be for our next meeting. Put that on the agenda. Hopefully Fred and Donna here and anybody else, the chief will be here, too. And and maybe we can engage in some conversation in the meantime, I, um, I can, uh, ensure that I come back with some more answers on that from the legal side.
[1:07:27] Maybe we can. We can help a couple of years.
[1:07:30] Yeah, well. That's it. Yeah. And it's, uh, it's it's nothing where we also wouldn't have that option, like. Oh, hey, you know, we got this ladder truck we need to buy. We need. So it's It's there. It's an asset. It's, you know, I think is real. Estate's the best place to put your money.
[1:07:49] On the procurement side, though, we don't have to put out both a lease and the sell at the same time. You can choose one or the.
[1:07:56] Other.
[1:07:57] And you don't need to cause them to compete.
[1:08:00] And again, there's there's just, you know, I'm a stickler for as are you guys. You know, there's crossing our T's in our eyes and making sure that everything we're doing is, is, is appropriate with our with our, you know, legal counsel reviewing everything. But I think it's just one other option. So it's it's another option to consider. And it's out there now and you know, perhaps we'll hear some feedback on it. For the tax payers I agree.
[1:08:26] The idea of having somebody who for me, the big thing is to get somebody if we're going to do that, to get somebody in there, because I think empty buildings fall apart.
[1:08:35] So exactly if somebody's using it in some way, that's that'd be a great just holding on to it for three years or whatever, some number of years. Doesn't feel like a great idea. But if it's got a perfect it's got a use in that period for somebody that feels like a good use. But if there's a way to buy some time on the decision.
[1:08:55] I mean, quite frankly, you can look at it this way with what interest rates are. So if we have somebody in there and on that basis and we're getting some monthly income, we're ahead of the game. And quite frankly, what we've been realizing at an interest, uh, you know, what we what that money would be earning us in the bank. We would be ahead of the game. We actually would be generating a little more money for this fire district.
[1:09:23] What depends on if they if what they're paying us is worth more than the cost, I mean. So if it's truly available on it, if somebody says, well, I'll take it off your hands for free. You pay the cost. But if they if they do it on a triple. Yeah. Yeah. And then it's break. Even then I'm not. Then it's a push. Then it's a matter of, um, comparing. Say we sold it for some amount of money. You're earning something on that. And then versus, um, um, I think, yeah. I mean, it's exactly.
[1:09:54] This is.
[1:09:55] The potential.
[1:10:06] I think it's very clever. I think it's good ideas.
[1:10:09] Excellent.
[1:10:10] All right. Does anybody have anything else they want to bring to this meeting? Is there any anybody paying attention to any requests public comment out there okay then. Motion to adjourn.
[1:10:22] Oh. All right.
[1:10:27] Oh.
[1:10:33] All right.
[1:10:34] Thank you judge. That'd be interesting.