2026-08-19 - Finance Committee Meeting

Summary

The committee reviewed free cash certification and discussed the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District's $11.1M non-MSBA capital request (Charlton's local share). Members went through a capital requests list including police station parking lot repairs, cruiser replacements, and a ~$100K forestry truck refurbishment. Significant discussion centered on the Bay Mountain Farm APR violation and a potential ~$210K buyout to resolve it. The committee also discussed transitioning the town's employee insurance from Hampshire County Group Insurance to Massgic Health Group, weighing cost and coverage tradeoffs. There was a tangential discussion about AI/ChatGPT use in municipal work. The fire substation project timeline was also discussed as an ongoing capital priority.

Issues discussed: DCRSD $11.1M School Capital Request, Bay Mountain Farm APR Violation, Town Employee Insurance Transition

Transcript

0:07 | French lab. So you are you are correct.
0:10 | We are if it gets approved tonight the white Taho is being Nothing is getting approved tonight.
0:15 | Oh no no no that was the discussion in your email. So [laughter] nothing is being approved cuz I don't have free cash. The white Tahoe would be
0:23 | getting mixed. And normally we would take the radio that comes up to talk and put it into the new vehicle, but that
0:31 | vehicle's radio is already a radio in there. So you shouldn't need two radios.
0:36 | That radio, you only need one, right?
0:38 | That radio in that vehicle is not a digital radio, right? But you're going to that vehicle and get a new vehicle. So that vehicle needs one radio.
0:47 | Each vehicle gets two radios. That vehicle doesn't have a radio. You sound very right now. Okay.
0:54 | I don't think you need two radios in a vehicle. Sir, how are you? Cut off.
0:58 | We missed you last night at the And you made it up and got sworn in uh the cookoff thing. I was working last night. Oh, what a what a great night.
1:06 | We have I don't yet. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You're a district, too. Five responded this one that morning.
1:14 | Jeez, that was brutal. I got a call asked if I knew the individual and I was like, "Well, I I don't know people by
1:22 | name and then I saw their face and I was like, "Oh, yeah." Yeah. I did not hear from either.
1:28 | Kristen just texted or uh emailed me and said she couldn't get into my link. That was sad.
1:33 | All right. So, she's going to do Hopefully, she's coming on Zoom. I sent her my calendar invite told her to tell me if it doesn't work.
1:39 | Jamie, I haven't heard from Jamie, but I do I think I have to let her in.
1:45 | So, we'll see if she comes up.
1:55 | And I don't believe the minutes were done yet, right? I didn't see them in the Sue's still not back. Sue's still done at sewer.
2:03 | Oh, I have a couple I might have sent you a couple like the small meetings that were like really short.
2:12 | I think I did and I might have sent them to you when Christ, but I don't think I heard back. But I didn't see any minutes ago. So, we're just going to skip over.
2:19 | Do you want to I'll look to see the ones that I did that were I did a couple short ones.
2:25 | Not Not No, not now. But I'll send them to you again if you want to just review them and then I'll we can do them next meeting. Yep.
2:30 | And then Sue is going to have a rude awakening when she comes back or Sue. But yeah, she's been down at sewer since like February.
2:38 | Okay. Oh, that'd be cool. We can't hire anybody down there.
2:41 | Hopefully the light is at the end of the tunnel. Really? Yeah. We offered it now, right?
2:47 | Well, no, they need an admin down there, too. So, they have no one down there right now.
2:51 | We did for like what, two weeks? Three weeks.
2:53 | Yeah. At three, I think it was four or five or five weeks. [clears throat] Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. We can't hire a superintendent down there. Can't hire an admin
3:02 | or my kitchen coordinator. I get the same issue. Yeah. No one wants to work. No.
3:07 | I She hasn't answered me back, so I'm [clears throat] I don't see her in there yet. No, I don't see her either.
3:12 | But you know what? It's 6:30. So, so I'll open the meeting at 6:31.
3:20 | Uh, reporting in progress.
3:23 | All right. First item on the agenda that I'm going to put is I'm going to welcome our newest member, Alicia.
3:32 | Dizzy.
3:32 | Jee with a J. Je. Yep. Looks nothing like it sounds.
3:38 | It doesn't. It doesn't. That's why I asked. Okay. Uh Lisa works at uh Webster the First Federal. Yeah.
3:45 | Been the VP up there for how many years? 20 years. Couple. So you got a good financial background.
3:53 | I think she will make an excellent addition to our committee. Thank you. Conservation board meeting that way.
3:58 | It's going to be in the meeting room, but they don't start till 7. Okay. In the meeting room.
4:01 | In the meeting room. Yeah. The main room in the front. Thank you. You're welcome.
4:06 | All right. So, the first thing we'll go over uh is we've actually got two calendars in front of us to go over. One
4:13 | is the uh calendar that the voter selectman adopted uh a couple of weeks ago and is specifically for the fall
4:20 | town meeting um when warrants open when it closes. Tonight, we're on that Wednesday, August 9th, where we're going
4:27 | to review uh the the draft of the capital meeting. All right. And then the second schedule. I didn't give you the second one.
4:36 | I tried to update it a little bit to coordinate with this. It's our meeting schedule, right? So that's not in your packets.
4:42 | It's not in your packet. But uh does Alicia have the um Dropbox? Not yet. No.
4:50 | No. But I was waiting for her to get an email. Town email. Have you talked to Jeff yet?
4:54 | I have a town email from when I [clears throat] was on planning board. I don't know if it died. Probably. Okay. No, I have not talked to him. Okay. That's it. So what else?
5:03 | Everything we accumulate we put into a drop tool.
5:06 | Okay. So easy access. Yes, it's easy access. So this is in there. Okay. Um so
5:13 | our next meeting is going to be September 16th where we we'll go through the um
5:21 | uh warrant articles and we'll do our approvals as as we always do.
5:28 | All right, that's our calendar for the coming.
5:34 | And we're going to put you first on the agenda next. Yes. So that you don't have to stick around for the whole thing. Okay.
5:41 | Kristen, can you hear us? Cuz that mic's only on my lap.
5:44 | Yeah. I just I just can't see you, but I can hear you.
5:47 | Okay. I If I turn the camera on, it's just going to be me. I don't have the big one set up. Oh, that's right.
5:55 | Cuz we're not in the other room. Yeah, I could have set that camera up, but it's kind of a pain.
6:00 | No, I can hear you. Good. Okay. Oh, actually, hang on. Let me share this. Yeah, I'm going to share. Hold on.
6:09 | Okay.
6:10 | All right. All right. So, Pat, introduce yourself to the to the committee.
6:13 | Okay. I'm Pat Stockwell and I'm the chair of the senior community center feasibility committee. Um, so I'm here
6:22 | to talk about the possibility of a new center. Um, just to start off, um, I wanted to take
6:30 | a look back in time. And if you look at the 2008 master plan, they were talking about this project way back when. It's
6:37 | in the master plan. Um, also I have a quote here from April 2022 from the child villager which was back when they
6:46 | tried to do a citizens petition and the person that did it was mentioning how they had been looking for a center all
6:54 | the way back to 93 but it was it was already having issues back. So 2022 was
7:02 | when I got involved with it. So I've actually been working on this for four years now. Um, next page. Yeah, a little
7:10 | bit of the history. Um, feasibility committee was created in July of 2022 by the select board with the charge of
7:17 | developing a plan for a new senior community center. Um, we looked at various properties with the decision to put out an RFP for a tear down and new build at the arts and activities center.
7:29 | Um, that was followed by several interviews that we did of architectural firms in
7:36 | April of 2023. I bet there were like eight of them that we did and we chose T2 architecture.
7:43 | Um, while they were working on that, we we did various site visits. We went to a lot of the municipal buildings that T2 had built and done, other senior centers
7:51 | and whatnot, elementary schools. Um and then we got the final report in April of 2024
7:58 | and the price that came back was 21 21.8 million to build a new center over there. So the feas feasibility committee
8:07 | said not feasible [laughter] basically. Um then during 2025 we looked
8:14 | at a commercial property over at Trolley Crossing. We tooured it. We researched it. We even got to the point where we um
8:22 | drove up a sketch for a possible floor plan in that building and unfortunately the owners it was a you know it was a
8:30 | commercial property so unfortunately the owners didn't want to wait for municipal timeline to do something like that to wait for an election.
8:40 | So then we moved on in mid 2025. We got back to the furniture store property. We tooured it and we decided that we wanted
8:47 | to pursue it. Um and we acquired the feasibility funds at the fall special town meeting.
8:54 | Lero hill was chosen by the town administrator to do a feasibility plan with options for both the dresser hill
9:01 | property and the town hall and addition and renovation of the town hall.
9:07 | So just a bit of the demographics. First of all, our population presently is 13,737 people total. And if you look at the top
9:16 | chart in 1996, we had 1,200 seniors. By 2008 2051, 71% increase. And by 2026, we
9:25 | have 3,160 seniors in town. That was a 93% almost 100% increase on that time period. Um,
9:32 | then we have a breakdown by age brackets. And actually, seniors are technically considered to be 60 and
9:40 | over, but I wanted to keep the 55 and over on here because that's showing you that there's another,00 people coming up fast in the next 5 years. So, that
9:49 | number is going to go over 30% of the total population pretty quick. Um, and these numbers came from Central Mass
9:56 | Regional Planning Commission and UMass Boston Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging. Um, also the COA, the
10:05 | CE the Senior Center staff keep track of people that use the center for whatever reason. So, people like to say, well, there's not that many people down there.
10:14 | Well, that may be true, but they do different things all the time and people go to different events. Um it's not
10:22 | just, you know, the people that go all the time every day. Um they also use it for other services. Um depending on what
10:30 | kind of issues they might have or whatot. So a lot of people it's actually 1150 people that that use it according
10:36 | to records that they have. So it's quite quite a few.
10:40 | Excuse me. By the way, I I neglected to introduce the director of the senior center. Michelle sitting right behind Brian. I'm sorry.
10:51 | is a council member and and just a tag on arm candy.
10:58 | [laughter]
11:02 | Okay. Um so why do we need a new center?
11:04 | Well, anybody that's been down there, we know that the current center is inadequate. We're unable to fully accommodate walkers in wheelchairs. It's
11:13 | tenuously compliant with with ADA. You know, if you have been down there, you see that there's ramps and stairs everywhere and you have to go up a ramp
11:21 | or upstairs to be able to get to the bathrooms and that door isn't even automatic. So, people can struggle getting through there and getting to
11:28 | those bathrooms. Um, you can't park more than 13 cars and there's only five handicap spots. And people have
11:36 | literally said that they would like to come to some of the events, but they're not going to fight the parking. They're not going to fight to try and find a parking space to get it there.
11:44 | um they're unable to hold concurrent programs. Um it's actually less than a quarter the size of the recommended
11:51 | state guidelines. Those guidelines uh 5 to six square ft um per senior. So that would be say you take 5.5 square ft times 3,960.
12:02 | I'm talking about a space that be 21,780 ft. So even this project is not going to come close to that. But it is going to
12:10 | potentially double the space that they have.
12:14 | Um, we presently can't offer privacy [clears throat] for anything really. The town, a town nurse, taxes, Medicare,
12:21 | whatever. Even the next one, private consultation with staff. So, if the staff had to meet, let's say, a senior's family or outside consultants or whatever. There's no conference room.
12:31 | There's no privacy. There's not even a space really that's big enough to do it because they, you know, they have privacy in their office kind of because
12:39 | people walk by there all the time and just interrupt when when when they're having a meeting. So, um there's there's really no place that they can do that.
12:48 | Um they're also un unable to offer a scope of classes and activities for various capabilities because you know you have you have young seniors now that
12:56 | can do very different things from older seniors or possibly disabled seniors and with what we have they can't really do
13:04 | everything that they possibly could for these people. Um we also can't offer most outdoor activities. You know, they once in a while they go out on the town
13:13 | comment or they risk life in the wind crossing Main Street to go find an activity center. [laughter] Um,
13:21 | this one kind of really gets me that they there's no office for the activities assistant. She basically has a desk thrown in a storage room. Now,
13:29 | there's a bunch of food and some tables and there's her desk thrown in there where she has to work. They also are not
13:37 | able to properly store and secure food in medical equipment. So, you know, it's left out in the open where people can lift it. And the medical equipment is in
13:46 | a room that's behind the ladies room and it's really scary in there. Like really scary.
13:54 | Yeah, it's like the dungeon. Call it the dungeon.
13:55 | And and you need something that's in there. And obviously if the ladies room is being used, you can't get it. You have to wait. So, and then lastly,
14:04 | another important one is that the municipal offices, you know, in here the town needs need space. They've needed space for a long time, and that's an
14:12 | issue. And so, they'll get that if we go to the red address property because that would open up all that space to be able to put more offices in there.
14:24 | Uh, the next one is is the senior center mission. I mean, I don't know if you want me to read that or not. I think they get a great kind of knows
14:31 | what the senior center does. It's good stuff.
14:37 | And the next one, a taste of what they do and when they do it. So, it's open Monday through Thursday with activities
14:43 | scheduled every day. Um the meal program is obviously an important piece of it because they serve seniors lunch at a
14:51 | reasonable cost or minimal cost really and for some people that's the only meal that they get. So, that's a big deal. Um they have weekly movement activities,
15:00 | fitness, fluid, yoga, etc. Lots of information sessions, lectures, entertainment workshops, you know, and
15:07 | th those kinds of things actually are good for everybody. I mean, the cyber security stuff, the scam alerts, the when the when the police chief or the
15:16 | fire chief come down and do their little information things, you know, that's that's useful information for anybody.
15:21 | Um, they also offer up social games such as cribs buildings, John Bingo. And then I'd be remiss if I didn't say, you know,
15:30 | special thank you to CH library, which lets us expand and do events over there. And, you know, it's it's a great thing.
15:39 | It's a jewel of childhood really at this point. All right. We did um some surveys. We sent out 2500 surveys to
15:49 | every senior household and and we also did an online one that's actually going on now um on a survey hero online and
15:59 | that's mostly for the the rest of the people you know the community meet at large um but this but the seniors for
16:07 | the seniors we got um over 125 people I don't know exactly what the number is now from when I did this but
16:15 | We got we got the 125 back. And as you can see, seeing their friends is their number one thing. And it's been
16:24 | proven in studies that that seniors that socialize more have a higher quality of life. You know, they live longer,
16:31 | they're happier. So, that's a good thing. Definitely.
16:37 | Um, as far as a community center is concerned, like I said, they currently utilize the library, the activity center, and the graange when it's
16:45 | appropriate and available. And available is a big one because the library is just booked all the time. It's very, very difficult to get space over there now.
16:53 | And the committee had determined from the feedback that we've been getting that the town could benefit from space earmarked for the purpose of community events as well.
17:04 | So, this is the senior center senior community center proposal. It's a proposal to purchase and renovate the
17:11 | existing child and furniture building in in town and to provide our seniors with a new safe, accessible, modern, and efficient building to provide them with the best senior programs we can offer.
17:21 | And in addition, it would offer an opportunity to expand offerings to the greater community after hours and on weekends, you know, should we so decide
17:30 | we want to do that. So that's an advantage.
17:34 | Project planning after really an overwhelming vote of support for the feasibility funds at the fall special
17:41 | town meeting. Um Charlton engaged Lero Hill to perform a study for the council on aging. The senior center is currently
17:49 | located in the lower level town hall. We all know that it's approximately 4,400 square ft. Um, the town requested an
17:56 | evaluation of whether the senior center can be accommodated within the town hall long term or whether relocation to an alternate facility would be better to
18:04 | meet the current and future program needs. Uh, as part of this effort, the committee identified 107 dressing road as an alternate location and sought to
18:12 | understand the base building upgrades, code implications, and spatial feasibility required to convert that facility for senior center use. This
18:20 | study built upon prior feasibility work completed in 20 2024 that was in the T2 report that we got and reviewed a
18:28 | sidebyside comparison of options with a potential town hall addition and renovation.
18:34 | The committee agrees with Lar Hill. I actually sent that out to everybody.
18:38 | Hopefully everybody got the L mail report, um, plus some other info that I sent out, frequently asked questions, some
18:45 | information, general information that we're trying to build a website that'sformational for town really. Um,
18:51 | [clears throat]
18:52 | so we agree with the letter recommendation that the dress of property is the best solution. And then just this is straight out of the report.
19:00 | It's it's just a a view of the property.
19:04 | If you look to the to the right, well, Jressa Hill Road is at the top and to the right where that parking is is where
19:11 | there's a a white building. It kind of looks like a house if you've been up there and have seen it. And it's really not salvageable. So, they recommended
19:18 | that it be torn down. And then that gives us a lot more space over there to to add parking. There's some green space
19:25 | out there. Um, you know, potentially we can put a patio and maybe a screen porch. So there'll be a lot more for people to do outdoor activities.
19:35 | The little blue jet you see off to the right there, that would be a portico. So people can drive in and in bad weather be able to get in their passing in and
19:43 | out of the center without being up in the weather. So and then there's a little bit of a bumpout that that rectangle at the bottom. That's a that's
19:52 | like a bump out of extra space that they need for like mechanical, you know, heating and cooling, whatever.
20:01 | And then this is another one right out of the report. This is a floor plan. So as I said, you're getting just in program area alone, you're getting twice
20:09 | a little more than twice the space that you would have downstairs now. And total building space is between 13 and 12 and
20:16 | 14,000 square feet. So this isn't showing like the portico or anything like that, but the the the two the right and left at the bottom there that those
20:24 | are the vestibules where people would come in and out.
20:28 | I mean, you can you can look in the real report and get the all all the gory details about all the space and and what
20:35 | they you know proposing that we put in it because it really covers everything.
20:40 | Uh the next one is straight out of the lure report as well. It's a comparative overview over overview of the two
20:48 | properties. So they used as evaluation criteria program fit, accessibility, site functionality, operational
20:55 | efficiency, future flexibility, and estimated construction cost. And basically, if you read read through these things, you'll see that the
21:03 | dresser hill property meets everything, right? It meets all the criteria, all the needs of what we what we want. And
21:11 | the town hall doesn't. There's a there's a lot of drawbacks. You still have all the issues with parking. Um, the floor plan is interesting to say the least, at
21:19 | least, you know, it's like things don't flow correctly in there. The the the main door would be in the back, but the welcome area and the offices would be in
21:28 | front and no matter where you go to go in or out of the building, you'd have to
21:34 | go upstairs or ramps or elevators. So, not not a great option.
21:44 | These are just some estimates that we have done that the purchase of the building would be about 2 million. The renovation
21:52 | would be about 12 million and for a total of 14 debt service I think actually did this
22:00 | debt service of a little over a million and the average tax increase of 251
22:07 | per tax per year obviously. And then this this one I'm call it potential cost reduction. So the recent quote that we
22:15 | got from the owner is 1.8. So you know that's 200k less than than 2 million.
22:22 | The lero renovation estimate is actually 116. So that's 400k less for for a total of 125 which is obviously 600k less. And
22:32 | this next piece, the HVAC and electric comes to about 1 point for the for the Jessa Hill property comes to about 1.6
22:41 | to put that in there. And I'm on a committee called the citizens advisory committee of the best the new the new
22:49 | facility that is trying to go in on Capitol Hill. And our purview, if you will, is to try and come up with benefits that Charlton can get.
23:00 | So they want to come in here. what can we give a child and so you'll like us.
23:03 | So, so we want to try and get whatever we can. So, it's been discussed of potentially doing so this doesn't mean
23:10 | it will happen but potentially that we could get um a solar best system in that
23:18 | in that building which would cut that cost you know off the top if we did that if they paid for it. And then the second
23:25 | one is a pilot which is basically once you get in a deal with them um instead of taxes it's a payment in lie of taxes
23:33 | and and we're estimating roughly 2 million a year that we could get from them because Kava did one and they got
23:40 | like 1.6 million and they um had the same size that's 150 megawatt
23:47 | facility that's going in there and that's what they're planning for Cap Hill. Medway actually got 2.6 million and This is bigger. You know, it's like
23:55 | a it's like a 200. When I when I say bigger, it's bigger in wattage. It's like 250 megawatt, but the but the footprint is probably identical
24:03 | they're putting in. And then lastly, we created a new not me, but people on the committee created a new uh friends group
24:11 | to the senior center. Um it's a an official 501c3.
24:17 | So they've already started doing fundraisers and now they'll be eligible because they are a federal C3, they'll be eligible to get grants as well. So
24:25 | they are working on that to try and raise money for whatever that they can do for this center to to cut back on costs.
24:37 | Okay, this is estimated operating costs. I mean you can see what it is.
24:42 | Facilities maintenance 50 and support staff 50. uh 60k in benefits supplies 10,000. The utilities again if we if we
24:51 | could get the best system in there that would actually be less maybe zero potentially because if you use the solar
24:58 | and you have a battery backup you have to pay for it. So um which would add about 185,000
25:06 | per year operational costs. This came from our surveys. Um, two questions that
25:13 | we had on on both of the surveys. Would you support a senior center if it required no new taxes and would you support a senior center if it required a
25:22 | small increase? And, you know, we've gotten more back from the seniors. So, you can see the numbers there that, you know, it's much more people say yes, we
25:31 | we would accept it either way, whether it was no tax increase or whether there was a tax increase. And it's it's quite wide. 93% are in favor. If there isn't
25:40 | one, 81% are in favor of there is a tax increase. And then down below from the community, we haven't gotten as many back yet because we just started getting
25:49 | results back last week, but it's trending the same way. 80% in favor um
25:55 | with no increase, 80% I mean 80%, no increase in 80% with tax increase, small tax increase.
26:04 | And then this is just a page of supplemental income. I need infoish uh supplemental
26:12 | info. So, um like I said, some of it I sent to you the little hill report the fact um I'm working on a website with
26:20 | Andrew. We've got some of that done. So, that'll be available soon. The survey results if people want to see it, you know, I can give you access and you can see because people put a lot of comments in addition to answering that question.
26:31 | So, there's a lot of good info in there, too. Um and I and also the bus if you want to go and see what USA is trying to
26:40 | do up on Capita Hill that might go to the page. Okay, next steps.
26:48 | All right, done with one.
26:49 | If you just stay on there for a second, but that actually is No, the one you had in Yeah, that that is the next steps, right?
27:00 | because this would require a debt exclusion.
27:04 | Yes, but the debt exclusion probably wouldn't take place until May unless the board is going to call a separate election.
27:10 | All right. Well, I wasn't specific, but this is you're going to need a
27:17 | project on the town meeting warrant. So, for total project cost on the town meeting warrant and then you're going to have to go to an exclusion vote or vice
27:26 | versa to get it excluded. Yes.
27:28 | Right. And that and that was the plan to go to the select board and try to get it on for October. And then actually, you know, we don't really have a problem whether they call the election right
27:37 | away or whether we have to wait till the election because uh Sula Blank, who's the owner of the property, has been like great about this, you know, unlike the other owners
27:45 | of that other property. She's been very willing to to work with us. She they they took it off the market um to to wait for the town to to play out. Yeah.
27:55 | And I actually talked to her today. So, um, yeah. So, so we would be willing to to wait because that gives us longer
28:03 | now. It's going to be a a lot bigger hurdle to get past an election vote, you know, when we have, right, 2,000 people
28:11 | or whatever come come and vote. So, that gives us more time to try and market it out to to the community at that point.
28:19 | Um, so yeah, that that is the plan for the next steps. And then and then our committee obviously like it says is going to try to do public outreach and
28:27 | we plan an open house that's tenatively scheduled for September 20th. It's a Sunday from about 3 to 6. That will be a community event. We want anybody and
28:36 | everybody to come up and see the space and you know we're hoping to to you know have have information there. Maybe some
28:43 | kind of a monitor showing showing maybe this this is at the property. Yes.
28:49 | at 107 20th 3 to 6 that's tentative but that's what we're planning on September 20th is a Sunday
28:56 | afternoon 3 to 6 um yeah so hope to have a lot of information be able to answer people's questions let them see the space and
29:04 | feel for themsel you know even if we could do something like mark it off to show that you know this is where the kitchen will be and you know whatever so
29:13 | people can get a sense of it um and then the vote is hopefully We will be able to decide. Mhm.
29:21 | So, do you guys have any more questions?
29:25 | All right. Questions under the chat or Michelle maybe on the program side.
29:31 | So, back with the uh CH furniture building estimates, the 12 million for the price renovation. That's including the demo of the small building as well.
29:39 | Yes, it's all good.
29:44 | as far as some of like the HVAC electric best title it like that stuff is that it seems like there's just like a lot of
29:51 | open questions that maybe we need to and and that's why it's potential you know that that is an open question and
29:57 | and if if that were to happen if we come to that agreement and they say okay we'll pay for this and and also get the
30:06 | pilot money which would help obviously to pay for a debt exclusion but the annual payments months, whatever it is.
30:12 | Um, they they're in the early phases of this, so
30:19 | it'll probably be a minimum probably the fastest anything is going to happen is three years. You know, it's more likely five years before they'd be breaking
30:27 | ground. So, we wouldn't see anything, you know, that [clears throat] exclusion would be for the full that's all just like that's
30:34 | all just like hopefully this could possibly happen. [clears throat] by like right I sat in a meeting with the battery energy people and the gist I got
30:43 | is the people that are here marketing it to us have to market to somebody else as palatable I not not to try to like rant
30:51 | on your I don't see them giving us any extra like nothing like Amazon like where they gave us extra money to have them come in it's going to be like property tax I think that they're
31:00 | singing a big song and dance but I don't know if you guys got the same gist I did in that meeting but it was basically like well yeah we can tell you we're going to try, but I don't see them
31:08 | giving us any extra money other than real estate and property taxes unless for whatever reason we agree to enter into a pilot. I don't see them coming in and giving us any extra money.
31:17 | Yeah, that's not how I understand.
31:19 | Yeah, that's the gist. I got they were giving us money. I They said they were looking for projects, so I thought they were giving out money. So, that's why I went I went
31:27 | I said the same thing to Kathy and Kathy's like, "Yeah, no, they don't do that." And and then they said they're the ones that have to pitch it
31:34 | to a developer and that developer is the one that would be paying us. So it has to be palatable to the developer and it's not going to be anything like
31:42 | how Amazon came and said oh here's gifts here's some donations and then they whatever we agreed on a price for their building or whatever had it assessed and
31:51 | whatnot. It's not going to be anything I think like that. Yeah.
31:54 | It will be a I mean probably a substantial comparatively payment. I don't think it's going to be anything like what we think it's going to be.
32:02 | Yeah, I think I think there are going to be extra benefits. If you go and look at the Medway plan, they actually signed the benefits agreement and they got I mean they got money like 50,000 for
32:11 | their food banks and and money for conservation to be able to to to do things in the town conserve land and plant trees and all these things. So you
32:20 | can go and read that that's online. You can go and look at that.
32:23 | I just didn't get that same gist from when they came to present to the department heads a couple weeks ago.
32:27 | Yeah, there is usually a there's usually a community impact agreement and and there's a
32:34 | so there's an associated dollar figure that they will put into their community [clears throat] impact agreement that's
32:41 | uh how does this project impact the community and then how does it uh correlate to a dollar amount. So, in
32:50 | relation to the Medway agreement, they did uh the fire department did receive um some financial benefit um you know,
32:58 | $1.5 million or something for equipment and training and and continuous training and stuff. Then they the town of Endway
33:05 | got uh money for um electric vehicles and charging stations and stuff and they did get money for conservation land and
33:13 | stuff like that. So they did get that because they associated with the battery energy storage where they were disrupting a large portion of the land.
33:21 | So they had to then say, "Okay, this is going to be a community impact. So we're going to give you money uh into your uh
33:28 | town to um because of that impact, right? um if there's a if they're able to tie the impact to the battery energy
33:35 | storage up on Carpenter Hill to you know the senior center then yes I'm I'm sure that there should could be some sort of
33:43 | you know correlation to that but if there's no tie to that then to your point Ashley it's not like the same as
33:51 | Amazon where they were coming in saying we got to like pick and choose kind of out of our capital I mean pick and choose to a point
33:59 | because obviously they still only give under certain umbrellas like if you want to put it that way. I don't it's I mean obviously it won't be anywhere because
34:07 | Amazon's size was just massive. But the gist I got was the community impact to what was impacted if that and then obviously that all have to get pitched
34:15 | to a developer. So like it was like don't count for any extra money type deal is the gist I got from that meeting cuz I looked at Kathy my assessor who
34:23 | was [clears throat] literally sitting right next to me and I was like so this means like more growth the more that she goes. I wouldn't count your chickens.
34:30 | So, you know, there's definitely some associated with it. You know, more for like I guess for, you know, you know, the fire department for equipment and
34:37 | and training and stuff like that, but I don't know if you could definitely bank on what you banked on for Amazon to
34:45 | give the town as much, right? Um, I mean you'll definitely have if this is so when Millennium came here, their
34:54 | pilot was treated differently than um how like our normal real estate taxes are and it was in a different part of our
35:03 | bucket of money, if you will, when we do the tax recap. This was sitting in a different bucket and we didn't get Prop 2 and a half on it because it was considered local receipts. So, we only got 700,000 every year from from them.
35:14 | So yes, it still goes into your levy and becomes money you can use to balance your budget
35:22 | the next year, but it doesn't increase like your like your taxes like your property taxes do every year where we get 2 and a.5% plus new growth every
35:29 | year. This sat in a different area. So you only got their payment. So if that's how this pilot if that's how this pilot would be, you wouldn't get a increase either year. My hope is that
35:38 | they were approaching this conversation with let's let's be from a hard stance right now and then we can work on it. Yeah.
35:45 | They didn't come to the first meeting and say hey whatever you want it we got right.
35:50 | So it could still turn out to be some benefit. I think it will be.
35:54 | Yeah I do. I think it will.
35:56 | It could. And the point of my question is just to understand the timing and like what is the bottom line and can we banked on that or is that something that can be needs to be figured out after the
36:04 | fact? So even if like she said even if even if it was a thing it probably wouldn't be here for you probably wouldn't see it if they didn't start building for five like if they didn't
36:13 | break ground for 5 years you probably wouldn't see a payment for seven or eight by the time it hits the tax like hits the
36:22 | hits budget and stuff you probably wouldn't see it for another seven to eight years from now and if you're going for a debt exclusion if you let's just say if you went for it in May and you
36:30 | borrowed well you you'd have to start borrowing to pay for the reovation So you would see a potential of that debt
36:38 | to hit for your 2028 tax bill.
36:45 | The Lero the the renovation estimate of 12 million. It seemed like with other projects that we've seen in the past there's been like
36:54 | I just don't know like what went into that and is there more that needs to be done before we can go for a debt exclusion? Is there like architectural
37:02 | things that need to be I mean you can look at the lure reports. I have no long but it's very long.
37:08 | This is this is the feasibility narrative for the Lero Hill report. We just thought it was like high view. Like
37:14 | I don't think it's like a I don't I think it's like a like a they gave you like a pretty good number to go with but I don't
37:22 | Is there anything additional that needs to be done to solidify that number that either we could pay for in the October
37:32 | time frame and actually have a better number or more secure more solid number for May or anything that needs to be done upfront to solidify that number is my question.
37:42 | I haven't been part of the talks with Leroy just from what I've talked to with Andrew.
37:48 | I mean, I would think you probably need more of like a design with it not being our building though. I don't know how that works, but normally
37:56 | I'm just thinking like fire station wise. When we did the fire station, we did a design study money first and then we went and got construction plan docs
38:04 | and got that money and then got to like, okay, this is going to be your final number. You have the plans and everything. This is how much your project's going to cost. And then we
38:12 | went for that for the exclusion. So I don't know if you if this is right down to design first. We voted to to do the fire station before we get all that.
38:22 | Um I don't think so.
38:24 | I thought we funded a I think we did the details. Yeah.
38:29 | I think we did a feas we went back before we had the public safety building done. Yes. And then that
38:38 | never passed the ballot. So we scratched that project and went just for a fire station and went and got design money [clears throat] for the fire station,
38:45 | rescended the public safety building and then got the construction docks and then went and approved a fire substation at at
38:54 | we are going to have to raise more money to do a more detailed report. I don't think so. Okay, I just don't know.
39:01 | The number one example I can think of off the top of my head that would drive a cost, okay, is that was a furniture store with a bathroom. Okay, because they had a few salespeople. We're now
39:10 | going to be looking at having 50 or 60 people in that building at one time. Got that use more than one bathroom. Okay, and they all going to be handicapped.
39:19 | So, those are the things I think that are going to drive the kitchen. All right, it's got to be commercial kitchen.
39:25 | Well, you know, there's 100,000 150 fire suppression plans are in there. You can see it. They do the right, but they have not got into the weeks.
39:34 | Yeah, I I think it will probably take a little more money to get a more focused right to be ready for that May meeting.
39:45 | Is that on our sewer system?
39:47 | No. So, I [clears throat] think they would need a septic or they would need to come in. There's a septic plan. They talk about that.
39:52 | There's a septic plan as well be expanded.
39:55 | I don't think water goes down there either. It doesn't. No.
39:59 | And and that building needs fire suppression, too. So, again, that's all that's all in here. It's all in that report.
40:05 | I mean, they've got even monies allotted for sink [clears throat] fixtures. I mean, they did a pretty detailed report. Alicia's got a question.
40:12 | So, on that report, and I apologize, I have not had a chance to look at it at all. Do they do a projection? Because I'm just noticing like facilities, maintenance, and staff at 50,000. I don't think that's a reasonable number.
40:23 | I don't think you're going to hire someone for a building of that size for 50,000. That was those are my numbers numbers.
40:29 | That's what we I mean I think our custodians get paid at the same rate. So So and that's fine. I guess my question
40:36 | is if everything that isn't happening for another 5 to 10 years, are we taking into account those projected costs as those mountains go?
40:43 | Well, no. I think that their building would be built before the 5 to 10 years was more for the battery energy people coming in. If they
40:50 | are looking for the debt exclusion, they essentially because we're buying an already built building, your debt, your
40:58 | debt project would essentially start for probably right after July or whatever. So you'd see it in the next year. Thank you. Is what I'm assuming.
41:07 | And those those were to give you a feel for the operating would be versus the deck or or what those like throw a dart throw a dart at
41:15 | a at the wall and it's about what it should be. Sure. Thank you. It's close.
41:22 | I think this is a reasonable proposal. I just I just want to make sure the numbers are
41:30 | from my understanding it was like a higher view, but I haven't been part of it. Just talking to Andrew.
41:35 | This is a higher view, but I think what's important too is that we have these numbers in front of us as we're looking at everything else that
41:43 | we've gotten down. So we know this is what they would like to propose and how would that fit into an overall I think
41:52 | this the vic's value we're getting right now.
41:59 | All right. If no one's got any other questions and we'll thank you for your time. Thank you guys.
42:10 | Just a couple newsletters if nobody's familiar with what we do. that too. September's hot off the press.
42:21 | Chief, I'm going to assume you're here cuz we're going to be talking about the capital plan here and you want to bring up on that.
42:30 | I'm just here if you have any questions. That's all. Okay.
42:35 | You're you're welcome. You're welcome to sit up here and Okay.
42:40 | Yeah. I'm just here sitting there behind Brian where I can't see you and make faces out. I'm just here in case you have questions. That's all.
42:49 | All right. Do you want me to start with the bad news or the bad? No, I'm just saying the good news or the bad news. I mean, I don't know if we consider it bad news, but
42:57 | All right. What What's What's our free cash number? I haven't gotten there yet. I'm behind.
43:02 | I mean, I'm not behind. I'm behind. I feel behind, but yeah. No, I don't.
43:05 | Okay. So, I don't have You still haven't heard from the state?
43:08 | No, I haven't because you haven't gotten the information. just submitted.
43:11 | Gota I'm behind.
43:12 | I'm not really behind. It's not due till September 30th. I just always submit the beginning of August. So I'm I feel like I'm behind. But so play catch up.
43:21 | Free cash. Okay. You know what free cash is?
43:24 | I mean I know the term but yes. So so essentially it's I go through a process with the department of revenue and I have to create a balance sheet for
43:31 | all of our funds, grants and everything and between any any expenditures that we haven't expended for the year from budget. So we got a budget at say 50
43:40 | million. We've only spent 48. So that 2 million is excess in expenditures that we haven't spent because we budgeted for more than what we spent. So between that
43:47 | number, so they call it turnbacks. Um revenues. So if we budgeted, let's just say 50 million for revenues, but we
43:55 | really got in 52 million, I have a $2 million excess in revenue. So that also accounts for that. And then they back out any negative any grant that we have
44:03 | deficit. So we've spent more than what we've gotten reimbursed for. Um, so between all of that, we get a number that's certified by the Department of
44:11 | Revenue in [clears throat] high level terms. Um, and then that number we use for free cash to spend usually for capital onetime purchases because it's not a guaranteed dollar
44:19 | amount. It's not guaranteed funds every year. So there the number is different every year.
44:24 | So the the philosophy has always been um in May when you pass the operating budget, you pass tax money, right? When
44:32 | we pass a capital budget in October, it's 99.9% one-time deals, right?
44:39 | That's what I I voted on plenty of times in one meeting. I wasn't sure how we always use them for one time. We never use free cash to supplement our
44:47 | budget for anything because it's a bad habit to get into. So, we usually always use them for some sort of a capital purchase. Nice.
44:53 | Um and then if at town meeting you've seen like raise and appropriate, that's usually like we found. So, when we set
45:00 | our budget in May, we're usually using figures of rough estimates from like March, April time frame. And by the the
45:07 | assessor um sets all the property taxes or the property values for everybody for the year. She doesn't really get her numbers until like September, October.
45:16 | So, we'll have what we call new growth and it's sometimes more it's been more than what you always want to be more than what you budget for or at least what you've budgeted for. And we've
45:24 | always been on the um path of being most conservative because if in September you come back and you bud, you'd have to cut
45:32 | your budget at town meeting. So you ever see like raise an appropriate randomly in the falls because we've had more new growth come than we originally planned
45:39 | for. And that's been happening a lot with Amazon because new things have come up since they've come in in the past couple years.
45:45 | And there now we we've been lucky. We've averaged maybe 1.3 a year over the last couple of years, but there was a time when we'd have $300,000.
45:55 | Oh, I remember when it was super tight, right? Absolutely.
45:58 | With the housing market, do you think that's going to continue?
46:02 | [clears throat]
46:02 | So, the way I've always been explained, so when your values are high, your tax rates really low and then when your values drop, your tax
46:09 | rate is just going to go up. So just so it won't really affect unless you want to really cut your budget and stuff, but when you're if you budget the
46:17 | same and your values were to drop, your tax ratio is going to go higher.
46:21 | So that's why our our rate is low because our values are a little bit higher and we don't spend to our fullest capacity. We're not taxed to the levy. Mhm.
46:29 | All right. So let's get your other because I thought your bad news was going to be we only got 800,000. No, I haven't gotten there yet. All right. So what's the other bad news?
46:37 | So, I don't know if you guys have heard the school is coming for a dead exclus or a ballot vote in September for capital. That's your second page here.
46:44 | Two pages. Yes. So, it's a total of 11.1 million.
46:51 | And I'm just going to round the cost to the town of Charleston is 6.1 million.
46:56 | So, they're coming for that for a ballot vote in I think the end of September. so that they'll have a district-wide ballot
47:03 | vote. And then if that passes, we have to decide how we're paying for it.
47:10 | If we go for, let's just say it passes and we go for a Jed exclusion vote in May and that fails, we have to pay for this no matter what because the that
47:17 | ballot decides if we're if they're doing it or not. So if that ballot vote passes, no matter what we do, we have to
47:24 | pay for it. If this is unlike we're the town, whereas if it passes one and fails the other, we can just say, "Okay, we don't have the money. we're not going to do it. The town is a separate entity. If
47:33 | that town meeting and that vote passes, we have it's going to get assessed to us. We have to pay for it. Mhm.
47:39 | So, they're coming to ask for the whole 11. Obviously, the 6.1 million will be for us. So, I'm going to assume you'll see it in their budget for next year
47:48 | because I'm assuming they're going to want to move on this um and do some upgrades. And then not only that, but we
47:55 | were also told that Heritage School, I think, is getting entered into the MSBA program at the same time. So, I don't know how far in the process they are.
48:04 | No, for a whole school, the concrete the entire It'd be an entire school. So, whether they're going to renovate or demo and rebuild,
48:12 | but it's and it's just that school and that total cost will be 100% on us because the school is in Char
48:20 | in Charleston. So, it will still be an MSPA split. So, the state will kick in a portion and then we kick in a portion.
48:27 | It's usually, I think, like 60/40, I think they say. Um, for Dudley, if it was a Dudley school, it'd be a little bit more. I think for us, cuz we're a
48:35 | wealthier community, it might be a little bit less, but I think it's usually around that target point. Um, obviously some things in the school
48:41 | aren't MSBA eligible or they're eligible at a lesser dollar a lesser reimbursement rate than other things even though they would tell
48:50 | you you need a full school and that MSBA committee tells you whether you're going to rebuild or renovate. So, it's similar to when they tried to do Shephard Hill.
48:59 | So what will happen is they'll get it will get passed and then they have to come to us for a feasibility study money that will come just directly from the town of Charleton and then they do a
49:07 | feasibility study to decide whether it's a renovate or new school. But once you walk into that feasibility study money, you're locked in. You have to I think
49:15 | keep moving forward with the project is the way I understand it.
49:18 | So this alone is going to add 120 bucks for attachment. Oh, at least.
49:22 | Yeah. What's the Well, if you think about it that Yeah, probably. It probably beund and something bucks cuz the other project So the other one was 12 million. This is
49:30 | double that or this is less than the 12 million was double. So yeah, probably half of the 250ish.
49:36 | Hey does Dudley have to approve this also?
49:38 | So here's the caveat. It's a super So they have to do a super town meeting or sorry super ballot vote. So it's a majority of both towns. So if the town
49:46 | of Char if more town of Charleston residents say yes then the town of it doesn't matter. It's a district. So it's not considered Dudley vers Charleton.
49:53 | It's a district. tote because they're notoriously they vote things out.
49:57 | Correct. So it doesn't matter. So if we pass it, they h if if more of let's just say more Charlton residents say yes, they're looking at as a whole. So they
50:06 | would also have to and theirs is what four and a half or almost five million whatever. So yeah,
50:15 | and they're having a I think they're still going for an override for this year. And I'll know if that has passed.
50:20 | Last I talked to their accountant, I know they were trying to do another one and that it hadn't passed yet. So, they're going for a second. Do three overrides.
50:27 | Yeah. I think they like they do the whole like pick and choose bucket thing cuz that seems to work better over there. Mhm.
50:34 | So, so this is September 29th. Yep. I believe so.
50:40 | So, if that school goes through, what is the ballpark for? Oh, you're probably talking 200 300 million and then 40% of that, whatever that is.
50:50 | A lot. Yeah.
50:52 | I won't do the math off the top of my head.
50:55 | Yeah. On top of this 6 million if this 6 million passes. Yeah.
51:00 | How long did that program take to go through?
51:04 | So, I don't I talked to Andrew the other day and the school had given them a heads up that they're entered. I don't know if that means that
51:12 | they just submitted for it or um if it means something else. I we've missed each other a lot in the past couple
51:20 | weeks. So I didn't get like a full rundown for him. On the other hand, I was told that the Forest Lechman is
51:28 | meeting next Tuesday and they're meeting with the school committee and the feasibility study committee. So I don't know if you guys also would like to come to that meeting and ask them questions
51:37 | then. Um, but I guess uh the select select board chair had asked for the school committee to come in. So I'm assuming it'll be like uh Mr. Lamar, Mr.
51:46 | Dantes, and then probably a couple members of the school committee. But they're coming on the 25th.
51:53 | Is that what it is? Yeah. August.
51:57 | It'd be Yeah, they're coming again next Tuesday. Yeah. Yeah. Somewhere around that ballpark. That's at 200 or 300.
52:04 | Yeah. I'm just estimating. I don't know how much schools actually cost but so am I to understand that during the
52:12 | next town meeting we are going to tell the taxpayers that we're looking for 11 million for this school.
52:17 | So no so that so because it goes to not to cut you off by because it goes to a ballot vote we get town meeting gets no say it just goes
52:25 | right so because it goes to a ballot vote for the district it would then have to in turn go to a ballot vote for the town for just a debt exclusion. So town
52:32 | the only say I guess town meeting gets is passing the budget.
52:36 | So it doesn't go in front of town meeting at all.
52:38 | Is the new senior center conversation and the school conversation gonna happen within a couple months of each other? Sounds like yes.
52:46 | Mhm. Yep.
52:49 | That's why when she was like, "Oh, put it on." I'm like, "That's going to be a great ballot. You're going to if if it does get passed." I'm under the impression the select board wasn't on
52:57 | board with it. I don't know if their thought has changed. which I know they weren't last time on board with the doing a senior center. Okay.
53:04 | Um I don't know if they still feel the same. There's a new member on it. So I don't know if they feel the same, but I know when they had come a [clears throat] handful of months ago,
53:12 | they it was a flatout no. They wouldn't even put it on a town meeting. And I think that they were even mad that we did the feasibility study money. Um but
53:20 | that passed. So I don't know if they maybe they feel differently now. But if that does go, you would potentially have the school debt exclusion vote and a senior center debt exclusion vote on the May meeting and May election.
53:31 | Now, the school debt exclusion would include would just be the 6 million.
53:35 | Yeah, cuz the 11 million will get voted on, right? The 11 million would get voted on as a districtwide and then uh the part portion for just us would be 6
53:44 | million. So, we feel for a dead exclusion for six. What does it look like?
53:47 | And that won't that number won't be on the ballot. What does it look like if um the debt exclusion doesn't pass?
53:55 | Oh, you're going to have to cut whatever that is. I'd have to do the math. But let's if Where's my
54:02 | So, let's just say it was a million. It was a million for 12 million, then this comes out of rating.
54:10 | So, it was a million76 for debt for debt service for about 14 million. So, if you just cut that in half, [clears throat] even you're saying probably five $600,000.
54:19 | you'd have to either cut that out of your budget or out of your budget or we I mean we could potentially use our excess levy capacity to pay for it.
54:30 | However, it's still going to raise everybody's taxes because I'm cutting I'm now eating into excess levy capacity
54:37 | that we haven't taxed on. So either way, your taxes are probably going unless we're cutting 500 or $600,000 out of budget, right? At least. I don't know if it's
54:46 | going to be more. depends on how long they borrow for. But you're if I'm just going off of these numbers, it's about half.
54:53 | It's a big hit.
54:55 | And I don't know what projects they're doing. Like when this was a building, I can go up 20 years. If this isn't a building and this is just like upgrading, you might you can usually
55:03 | only borrow for however long the life of an asset is. So if you're working on, let's say, like fire panels or windows or something, I don't know if you can
55:11 | borrow for the same length of time, right?
55:14 | And that wouldn't be up to us. to be up to the district because it's their borrowing.
55:17 | Okay. Oh, so it all depends on how long they borrow for would be obviously how much debt comes through in their budget.
55:25 | Correct. Yeah.
55:26 | Yeah. There' just be a capital assessment in their budget.
55:28 | Okay. Let's not let the school take up our entire. So that's that. That was my bad news.
55:34 | Um Okay. So if you look at this little blue piece of paper that's in here, this was the capital plan. So if you ignore the top portion because that's all stuff
55:42 | that we budgeted for. That's all the debt that we currently have um for the fire substation and then the landfill
55:49 | and then the fire engine. Everything below that 1.6 million is all the capital requests that I have for this year.
56:01 | Oh, and I have since you're here, Rob, I have the refurbished forestry one on here twice. That's actually a life pack. Got to fix that.
56:08 | The which one? The the forestry is on there twice.
56:12 | That's going to happen. The 61,000 is really a life pack for the EMS vehicle. I have this in too many places.
56:22 | Catch myself. Happens when I copy.
56:26 | Yeah. So the the 61,000 part of it is a life pack. The 100,000 is really the refurbish.
56:34 | So, I have like 1.5 million in requests for this year
56:42 | without having free cash obviously if you can't vote. But DPW's buying a tired excavator.
56:48 | So, his Oh, it's a Yeah. So, his thought process on that was he was going to ask this year for a roadside mower and next year was a greatall because they're both very old.
57:00 | So, he came to me the other day and said, "What do what do you think if I just got an excavator? It's obviously a little bit more than what the roadside is, but it's going to be a heck of a lot
57:07 | less than what the gradeol would be, and we wouldn't need two machines. I would only need one." So, instead of paying 200,000 for a roadside mower and 400,000
57:16 | for a greatall, it's 300,000 for an an excavator. And he doesn't need a grade.
57:23 | And then he wouldn't need a Well, he would whip along the one they have, but the excavator would be able to do what the greatall does.
57:30 | And then he can put a roadside mower attachment on it. So it also be able to do roadside mowing.
57:36 | What is um parking lot we've been engineering?
57:39 | So the police station has it's always been on their capital request to redo the parking lot there.
57:46 | Yeah, cuz they have they are very limited on parking there. Um the problem is he's surrounded by wetlands. So, in
57:53 | order for us to do any he had pushed it off at first because we were going to do we were going to do a combined public safety building. So, why fix the parking lot if we're going to get a new building
58:01 | because we're not moving forward with that anymore. He's had this parking lot, but he keeps pushing it off, but they're really at they really need parking. Like, if you
58:10 | drive by tons of there's quite a few of them, they're parked in like the side grass and stuff. Um, so, um, Andrew and I thought we'd try to do some
58:18 | engineering to see if somebody could give us a plan of how much it would actually cost instead of us just throwing a number out there. Do you remember what the number is?
58:25 | Sorry, we have 500,000 on it, but I don't think it's more than I think so.
58:30 | Can we actually send it into the wetlands?
58:33 | If you did, I think you have to replicate the wetlands somewhere. A portion of it.
58:37 | Yeah. So, you can as long as you replicate. So, that's what an engineer would tell us if it's even feasible over there. Cuz if it's not, he wants to just have his parking lot repaved cuz they've
58:45 | kind of limped it along. But in order to like keep it nice, it needs it needs to be either repaved. But why repave it if he needs the whole thing? Yeah.
58:54 | Is the police cruiser replacement? That number just rings a bell that has three. It's three. It's always three. It's always three.
59:02 | But I thought we were looking at a lease.
59:05 | We did lease uh some admin cars. Um
59:10 | he He is hesitant to lease duty cars because they rack up miles an hour so fast that they're useless.
59:18 | They get beat up.
59:19 | They're useless after three after 3 years. Value at the end.
59:22 | Yeah. Where the admin cars don't get as those road vehicles get beat up. Yeah.
59:27 | They're sitting they're sitting with just the car running. So the hours get racked up and then Ford and Chevy I think have like a calculation they do
59:36 | between the number of hours and then the actual mileage on the car. Once it hits a certain threshold, you can't run it at high speed anymore. So, you have to kind
59:44 | of take it off off the front of the line, you make it a detail car or whatever. So, Yep. Yeah.
59:52 | And what's Bay Mountain Farm?
59:54 | So, that one that one's interesting. So, um we years and years ago I apparently
1:00:02 | we just found this out, not just found us out, but apparently we found out that we're in violation. So, we got into this agreement with the
1:00:10 | state years ago that we were going to do commercial farming on this property and the state gave us a grant, I guess, to like I don't know if it was fixed
1:00:18 | mountain or purchase or whatever it was, but they gave us a grant and in turn we would have to file this APR every year to show them how much of the property we were farming.
1:00:27 | Do you know this?
1:00:28 | I am because when I was on EDC and planning board, we talked about it. It was when the whole thing came through.
1:00:33 | Yeah. Um, and it was agreed and it was right when things were starting to get a little funny between the town planner
1:00:40 | that was um, and I think things just got lost in the weeds.
1:00:43 | Yeah. So, I don't know how we came across this, but apparently we purchased and then Overlook gave us some money towards it and the state gave us money.
1:00:51 | So whatever, we own this farm, but because the state gave us this grant, we have to at least commercially farm so much percentage of this land. And then
1:01:00 | we need to file this document that proves what we've been farming and what we've been doing. No one's ever filed this document to the state.
1:01:08 | $210,000 to pay for the document.
1:01:12 | Wait, so wait, it gets better. So because we've never done this, so our we have a farmer that runs the farm. He no
1:01:20 | longer would like to run the farm. So we were trying we so conservation controls this. So conservation with the F mountain farm committee wanted to do a
1:01:29 | RFP for a new farmer but we couldn't do that because we didn't know what they really had to do. So our conservation director went to the state to say hey
1:01:37 | can you just tell me like what I would like what are the criteria that we need to do? And she's like oh you know what come to think of that you guys have never filed an APR ever in the existence
1:01:45 | of this farm. You're in violation. you now owe us $210,000 if you want to get out of this APR
1:01:52 | or you need to continue and I don't even think that there was an option or you need to continue farming because we've never filed. So, we're just in complete
1:02:00 | violation of this APR that we've never done.
1:02:03 | So, this 210 buys this out of Yes. So, we would never have to commercially farm that land anymore.
1:02:08 | So, basically what happened is the state initially, just to summarize real easily, Yeah. put like half an inch.
1:02:14 | Yeah. The state said, "Okay, we'll give you money to buy the farm." because at the time it was dying and we and I think it was Allan went to the state and said, "Okay, how can we get money to buy it?"
1:02:22 | And they said, "Okay, well, we'll give you money to buy it." And Overlook was looking to donate money as well because it was a write off for them, too. And said, "But you have to prove to us what
1:02:30 | you're doing every single year in order to substantiate it." And so we said, "Okay, that's great. We'll do that. Easy peasy." Um, and then the P management
1:02:39 | changed hands, if you will, of the town of Charleton, and it just wasn't done.
1:02:44 | And it was commercially farmed because the people were great. But then it again, we just didn't file the paperwork. And I think one hand thought
1:02:51 | we thought the people that doing it were going to file the paperwork. They just assumed that we were doing it since they were just farming it for us but never actually own the property.
1:02:59 | And so here we are.
1:03:00 | And so when the state, I guess, went out there, the part that we're supposed to be commercially farming, all the trees in there are like years dead. Oh, yeah. They're dead. Dead.
1:03:08 | They're like no reviving. Like clearly you haven't haven't farmed on this part of the land. And it doesn't matter if you farmed on another part of land because you said you were going to farm
1:03:15 | on these acres right here. The trees are all dead. So she's like, "You can't even lie to me and tell me you were farming this because clearly you weren't." And because the people that took it over
1:03:24 | knew that we they didn't need to worry about that section. They never cultivated that section. Correct.
1:03:28 | Because there because the town was like, "Okay, well, we're going to take this little parcel, so don't you worry about it. We got it." And when nobody came to farm it, they're like, "Oh, whatever.
1:03:36 | And we'll farm our portion." Right. So if we buy out of the APR, does that land just become It's still ours.
1:03:45 | Charlton land and we can use it for whatever purpose we want. I believe Andrew say Yeah. Right. Well, that's actually come up in the past. Yeah. [laughter] A brand new building.
1:03:54 | So this is like a placeholder. I don't know. Andrew, I don't want to say he's trying to get out of it, but he's trying to like stiff arm the state because like nowhere in
1:04:02 | any agreement that we have or that they can prove says that if we don't do this, you must pay X. So, he's trying to be like where is it?
1:04:11 | Yeah. Like, how can you prove that we owe this money? And it was like a fine from every year that we haven't farmed.
1:04:17 | It was like what say like $1,000 for every year we haven't farmed in the It's not really a thousand, but there was a fee for every year we haven't farmed.
1:04:25 | maybe times the number of acres. I don't know. There was some calculation and that's how they got to this 200.
1:04:29 | And if we buy this out, that also I think so. Yeah.
1:04:31 | And when the conversation first came up, it was there was talk that chocolate and orchards might do it a little bit. There was talk that volunteers would do it.
1:04:38 | There was talk that this there's a group out of Worcester that farms um as volunteers that allows people to have kind of portions that we thought, okay,
1:04:46 | well, we'll give it to them. And again, I think it was a lot of great intentions, but no one ever actually took the helm and it all died in the vine. Yeah.
1:04:53 | No pun intended, right?
1:04:55 | But what did we farm there? I mean we we apple I think blueberries. It used to be a up and running farm.
1:05:04 | When I first started here we when I conservation director used to grab me and be like come on we're going to the farm. Let's go. And yeah like
1:05:11 | cider and donuts and they had all fresh pies from their apples and you can go there.
1:05:16 | I thought I thought we did it a couple years ago. It was up and running up until last year because there's a portion of the Midstate Trail that hooks up by the Rider Tavern that goes all
1:05:25 | around their property and you can see everything that they do and it's actually really neat, but it was a very valuable property up until last year when they just didn't weren't interested
1:05:34 | and for whatever reason, right? So, that's just a placeholder for now.
1:05:39 | I don't know if it will end up in the mix, but we want to just throw it on there. So, let's not a set it in the back of our minds, forget it thing. It's there.
1:05:48 | So, you've come up with 1.6 essentially. Yeah. Yep.
1:05:53 | But we don't know our free cash yet, correct? Okay.
1:06:01 | So, now what we get down below? You're saying so that's just the tax levy was some of this debt, the borrowing was some of the
1:06:08 | debt. 1.5 would come from free cash and then 61,000 for the chief's life pack would probably come out of his receipts reserved for appropriation for ambulance.
1:06:23 | So the 798, of892 our debt debt. So it's the top section there.
1:06:32 | So those so the tax levy so the 798,000 we absorb into the tax levy. The 892,000 was debt excluded part of the fire substation.
1:06:41 | So that's the two debt pieces that we already have budgeted. The 1.5 would be coming from free cash and then the 61,000 would probably be coming from receipts reserve for appropriation.
1:06:51 | Mhm.
1:06:52 | And then this also obviously doesn't include any stabilization or Okay. Yeah. Well, that ain't happening. Yeah.
1:07:00 | So, we've kind of come to this unofficial rule that 10% goes into stabilization.
1:07:09 | Good number.
1:07:10 | Well, that's good number, but how far are we from a 10% stabilization?
1:07:14 | I would need to look. I think we're I think we're still there. We might be a little bit behind, but I'll have to take a look. I haven't looked in a while.
1:07:21 | We might be a little bit behind now that we raised budget up. So, I'll have to look. I'll look before our next meeting at what we are. I have haven't even
1:07:30 | looked at 27. I've been living in 26 land in OPED we did in May.
1:07:35 | We did, but we've been funding it twice every year. Well, that would be it. We wouldn't have to do that if you'd rather do capital stuff if we were strapped for cash. Yeah.
1:07:44 | And and if push comes to shove, no capital stabilization, right?
1:07:49 | Right. Yeah. You could just fund one and it doesn't matter if you fund one versus the other because it still goes to your 10% because it's still considered stabilization.
1:07:57 | The only one that doesn't apply would be water or sewer.
1:08:02 | And then the only thing not on here, um, I've been talking with the water and sewer commission because since our superintendent left in 2023, no one's
1:08:10 | put any money into their stabilization and they're looking at probably putting in a new sewer plant.
1:08:18 | Yeah. Um, however, sewer debt is sewers responsibly. So, it' be those of the sewer user, sewer user customers. Uh,
1:08:26 | but they're looking at maybe doing a new sewer plant and that's probably upwards of another 14 to 15 million I would assume. Um,
1:08:33 | so I told them they need to start putting some money aside if that's what they would like to do. So their retained earnings that they get every year instead of just sitting in limbo is in
1:08:41 | the bank making money. So they meet the first week in September. So I'm hoping that somebody makes a motion to put them aside.
1:08:50 | Sorry about that. Oh, good news.
1:08:52 | Yeah, nothing but good news today. I was hoping for a sandwich approach, but it's not happening though. Give it to you flat out.
1:08:59 | So, Chief, I have a question. What's the refurbish of the forestry one?
1:09:04 | So, um I had submitted this before. Um our forestry
1:09:11 | um is it 2012? It's got about um it's got low miles on it. It's only got
1:09:18 | like 52,000 miles on it. But at the beginning stages of its career, we didn't have a chase
1:09:26 | vehicle and it was used it was a dualpurpose vehicle. It was it was running on all of our medicals and it
1:09:34 | was like a general utility vehicle. It was used in the uh in the snow. Anytime we had a major snowstorm, it was our only four-wheel drive vehicle.
1:09:44 | So, we would take it out in the snow and it was just salt and it was just it was beat uh it was beat up pretty bad.
1:09:51 | So, It was originally on the capital replacement plan um now anyway um for a full replacement of the vehicle and we
1:09:59 | had looked into replacing it um completely and we're talking like 350 $400,000 for a forestry truck
1:10:08 | and it was like kind of crazy that that's what it was going to cost us for a vehicle that really doesn't need that
1:10:16 | much work [clears throat] to it and it can have a substantial longevity to it with only 50,000 mi on an F550 diesel
1:10:24 | motor, which the motor is fine on the truck. The only issue is it's the underside of it. It's just we already had to replace the bumper. The front bumper completely rotted off the truck.
1:10:35 | It just literally just fell off the truck just um just from the salt.
1:10:40 | So, we replaced that um last year inhouse. Um we bought the um bumper online, shipped it. Um they put it on um
1:10:47 | to the truck. We had somebody look at it already on the underside and they said that the underside actually looks fairly
1:10:54 | well. It just needs to be um sandlasted um you know uh painted. Um needs some electrical work, some pump work done to
1:11:02 | the back. Just um some corrosion to the pump. Um we want to change out the rear end. Um, it's not really set up
1:11:10 | currently to go into the woods because when they specked it out, they specked it intentionally to drive on the road because they knew it was going to be a dualpurpose vehicle.
1:11:19 | Since then, [clears throat] we've purchased vehicles to act as our utility response vehicles. So, this vehicle would go to the new station and it would
1:11:28 | be a singlepurpose vehicle to be used as a forestry vehicle. Um, so we would change up the rear end, put a single
1:11:35 | wheel on it. Um, put it uh make some modification to it to truly be a brush
1:11:42 | truck. Um, last October we had that rash of uh dry season. We were doing a lot of brush
1:11:50 | fires and um we did utilize this vehicle at several incences and it it did not perform very well because it's got dual
1:11:59 | tires on the back and it's just not intended to go off-road. So, um, we did do some estimates on it and we got some
1:12:07 | estimates around the $90,000 range and stuff like that. So, we think, uh, the request goes for $100,000 and we're
1:12:14 | pretty confident that that would give us at least 15 years, 10 15 years of longevity, um, of this truck. So,
1:12:23 | in the summer would be out in the salt and snow.
1:12:25 | No, it would just be, you know, a singleuse vehicle. Um, we wouldn't have to go out in the salt anymore. When I first got on the department uh 12 years
1:12:33 | ago, this was the vehicle that we were told to take when we had those really bad snowtorms because it, you know, you could lock the hubs. It had the winch on
1:12:42 | it. If any vehicle got stuck, you would go out, you would, you know, yank vehicles out of the snow bankankings and stuff. Yeah.
1:12:48 | Cuz it was the only four-wheel drive vehicle that we had. Now, we have a new vehicle coming in. Um should be here in October. It's going to we're going to
1:12:56 | get a plow on it. that will be our primary response vehicle for the new station. We have um the current Chevy
1:13:03 | pickup truck F350 um for Power Station Road. There is a request for a duplicate vehicle um for Power Station Road that's
1:13:13 | going to mirror image the one that's going to the new station that won't come until next year. But then that way both stations will have of a true utility vehicle to act as our response vehicles.
1:13:24 | And then this forestry truck will just be a single use vehicle just as a forestry. Okay.
1:13:32 | All right. So, if we're supposed to prioritize, let me just throw out as a supposition that we've got a total
1:13:39 | request of 1.6 basically and we meet here in a couple of weeks and Ashley says, "Okay guys, we got 1.4
1:13:47 | [clears throat]
1:13:48 | in free cash. What do we do?
1:13:53 | Is that how you want us to prioritize sugar takeout?
1:13:56 | I would say I would just wait until I'll just present you with the same capital plan and then we can Yeah, just wait until September.
1:14:04 | I I you know I didn't know whether you were looking for just more present it to you guys.
1:14:09 | All right, but now now you've all got this in front of you. Okay, let's be ready at the next think about
1:14:15 | what you would prioritize over where do the department heads prioritize. Well, they're all going to think that theirs are the more important things. Yeah.
1:14:23 | And for the departments that have multiple requests, I've asked with the exception of chief where they've like
1:14:30 | what their like number one if you only get one thing, what's your number one? Okay.
1:14:36 | So, those I know. So, if we have those questions, we can go back once we know what free cash is.
1:14:42 | Yeah. Because it is tend to dependent on free cash, right?
1:14:45 | I'd love to have you come in and say, "Okay, we got 2.2." I would love to tell you we had five million in free cash, but that probably isn't gonna happen.
1:14:52 | It would help a lot if we stick Fay Mountain, right?
1:14:58 | Yeah. So, the other problem is they need to refurbish Fay Mountain cuz the barn's falling down. And so, there's all So, if we don't pay to get out of it, we're paying to fix the farm.
1:15:06 | So, I don't even know if that's an option, but yeah, just as it'd be way more expensive. I think even just the barn alone, you're probably talking a million dollars. Yeah, cuz they're caving in.
1:15:15 | Yeah. Is it seems like a bargain? Yeah, that's kind of where that's why the reverb of the Fay Mountain isn't even on here
1:15:23 | is and why were we in the business of farming where is the ability if we pay it off?
1:15:29 | Yeah, sounds can we then turn around and sell it to a developer? I think so.
1:15:35 | I don't know if there's a caveat to I was just going to say you might want to look into that because I believe when we purchased it we bought it with the idea that we might and again I don't quote me
1:15:44 | on this but I believe the idea was we give it back to the state if we um within a certain timeline so
1:15:52 | maybe yeah but there might be a 10 or 20 year basically free lease if you will um where they'll give us the money to buy it we buy it and we do what we need with
1:16:01 | it but I think that's what this 210 might be maybe we're buying out because they don't want it that might be why we're having to pay a fee. I'm only like half
1:16:09 | in this conversation. I That makes a little more sense.
1:16:12 | I think there's special language in here. Um but again, it's been a while.
1:16:16 | So it might have been our 20 years are up. We pay our 275. We own it. We sell it however we want.
1:16:21 | Or there might be some fine little language that gives the state um that we have to sell it back to them at a discounted whatever. And I don't mean to
1:16:28 | misquote. I just I remember there was something clunky about it when it was all purchased.
1:16:32 | [clears throat]
1:16:32 | That sounds Andrew's told me like highle it and that sounds right but I'm getting confused if
1:16:39 | we pay the 200 do we completely gather and then we own it we can sell it or is that 200 just to like that part I don't know I know Andrew knows so we can talk about it at our
1:16:48 | next meeting then you put and hopefully he has an update by the way uh the other side of dresser hill is for sale
1:16:55 | 1.3 huh Chris doesn't have an offer.
1:17:03 | No. Thank god Chris is in Italy.
1:17:07 | All right. What else we need to So much insurance discussion next. Yes. Know where we're at.
1:17:15 | I know. I mean, as far as I know, insurance is going
1:17:23 | different. So, um I did email Hampshire Group because I don't know if if you remember. So, oh, I guess I have to
1:17:31 | update because Alicia is here. So, as of July 1st, we changed from purchasing our insurance from Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust to Massgic Health Group.
1:17:40 | So, what will happen for the next 18 months, we're responsible for claim runout for any medical claims that happen as of June 30th that the doctors
1:17:48 | haven't build for. So, I emailed um the woman in the office at Hampshire County um Monday, and she said that she should
1:17:57 | she's hoping that Blue Cross has their July claim data back in the next week or so. So, she'll be able to tell me how much we owe. The nice thing is when we
1:18:07 | got into Hampshire County, we had to pay like a buyin fee. So, they have $250,000 of ours that they'll eat at until we
1:18:14 | have to pay. So, they'll eat at that money. So, I won't have to make a payment to them until that's gone. So, I'm hoping it's not more than that
1:18:22 | because that would be nice. Um, so I'll find out more from them as where we stand for the month of July. Um, as far
1:18:29 | as our new insurance, um, I haven't heard anyone complaining. Knock on wood.
1:18:34 | Um, other than it's a shock cuz people like, why am I getting this bill? Because now we have that deductible. We haven't had deductible since I started here. Well,
1:18:43 | before that. So, that's the only like shock to people even though everyone was told. But still, I think shocking just to see the bill. But I mean, otherwise,
1:18:50 | I haven't heard any complaints. So, it's going well. I know we had our first strategic like IA meeting, our insurance
1:18:58 | meeting with them last month, and we have another one coming up, I think, Tuesday.
1:19:02 | So, we are part of a board still. We get to make votes. Hopefully, we'll have us an update as where we stand with
1:19:08 | Medicare for the January um January open enrollment being in like
1:19:15 | December. So we should get an idea on that of how much the increase is going to be if any. So
1:19:22 | I'm hearing most are coming in about 11 12%.
1:19:26 | Yeah, that seems to be all the people that I deal with seems to be the number.
1:19:30 | Yeah. So we'll see where we stand with that. We're not going to have for sure numbers yet, but we'll have maybe like a ballpark idea.
1:19:36 | And then they'll probably get for sure numbers. I think usually September, October, and then open enrollment, I think, is like November, December. and then that their rates are effective for uh January one. Anyone on Medicare?
1:19:47 | Mhm.
1:19:48 | So, have you all I got have you um as part of your update?
1:19:53 | Okay. Have you come up with a replacement for clear dove or I just think we're just going to use our spreadsheets. Just stay with that cell.
1:20:01 | Yeah.
1:20:02 | I don't see I haven't been poached by anybody else for other software that's similar.
1:20:10 | Um I don't know if Andrew is looking at anything. Um, we did look at personnel budgeting software. Um, that's supposed
1:20:19 | to give us like town like comparables of towns, like where everyone is town-wise.
1:20:23 | You're supposed to pick like our top 10 comparable towns. We're supposed to be able to go into a dashboard and see. So, we could use it for uh union bargaining.
1:20:31 | And then for non-contractuals, see if like somebody comes in and says, "Hey, I think I'm really underpaid." You can go and say, "Well, if you're writing a meeting of these 10 other towns, you're
1:20:40 | not really underpaid." Or, "Yeah, you know what? all these 10 other towns are paying a lot more than we are. Maybe we need to kind of look at this person.
1:20:46 | Um the software just isn't moving as fast as it was new software. It's not moving as fast think we wanted to, but we are trying to utilize that. They keep
1:20:54 | saying that they're going to have something up and running for us before the end of the year so I can use it for budgeting. It would be nice. Um
1:21:02 | but that's I think as close as I got to any other software. So I don't mind the spreadsheets. obviously does take a little bit longer, but they are nice
1:21:09 | detail-wise because you lost that in clear dove. So, it is nicer because now you can see all the detail of everything.
1:21:15 | So, it is a little nicer the spreadsheet, but I mean it takes me maybe an extra half an hour if that to
1:21:24 | Yeah, which is fine, right? It's not an insurmountable problem.
1:21:27 | No, it's And I mean I rather be I think I liked the spreadsheet better because I was still taking the stuff out of Clear Gov and putting it into our spreadsheet.
1:21:34 | I could just it was easier to move it over because it was already there rather than me having to go between whatever 30 spreadsheets and like manually typing all the numbers in. But it's fine.
1:21:44 | Okay.
1:21:45 | And then the last thing would be to pick pick an item. I'd like to go back to taking 10 or 15 minutes at each meeting
1:21:54 | to talk about something that we don't understand. Okay. We've talked about excess level capacity. We've talked
1:22:02 | about bonding things. Okay. What is something we want to ask Ashley and Andrew to explain to us for our next
1:22:11 | meeting? Again, 10 minutes, maybe 15. Is there anything that anybody's, you know, we could we could say school
1:22:19 | budgets, but I mean that that's a meeting in and of itself. Okay. I was looking for something.
1:22:25 | I feel like Jamie would almost be better than that. Better at that than I would.
1:22:28 | By the way, she's not on. Kristen's there, but Kristen, I'm sorry if I haven't been including you.
1:22:36 | She's on quite all right. I'm here. Okay.
1:22:41 | Is there anything you'd like to see us discuss?
1:22:46 | Nothing I could think of off the top of my head.
1:22:49 | Okay. All right. Try by the end of the week to give me some ideas and I'll get it to the two of you and we'll get that for the next meeting.
1:22:57 | So, I do have a question. That's okay. Yeah.
1:23:00 | Um, you had mentioned that Excuse me. We're kind of informative.
1:23:03 | [laughter]
1:23:04 | I mean, we may use Robert rules of orders for certain things, but speak up.
1:23:09 | You had mentioned that you pull from like 10 or 12 spreadsheets and then put it into another spreadsheet. Yes.
1:23:14 | Okay. So, I'm just going to throw this out here. My son just finished an internship where he created a dashboard
1:23:21 | that did that automatically um for the credit union. And what he does is he used um some [clears throat] AI. He used just some and I can't tell
1:23:29 | you the first thing about the first thing, but I saw it and it's amazing. Yeah.
1:23:32 | Um and what he did is he pulled from all these public sources from all over to give us data from every bank and credit union in Massachusetts. Okay.
1:23:40 | There might be something to be said for allocating and I'm throwing out a a couple like a $1,500 to have one of
1:23:48 | these AI people come in because he's at um at WPI studying data science. Yeah.
1:23:54 | To create just that. And again, I totally that number was silly, but um to create that for you because what he did is he took information that took our
1:24:02 | people a very long time to put all together into something they click a button and it repopulates.
1:24:08 | Yeah. Cuz I know like when I worked one of my other jobs, we used to run they called them macros. You would like put information into a spreadsheet, click a button, and it would run a macro and it
1:24:16 | would literally pay all of our bills for us. It would enter them all into our accounting software instead of us having to manually go in and key bills. You just key them into a spreadsheet really
1:24:24 | fast. you hit a button and it would output into our accounting software. So, I'm sure there's something probably similar to that.
1:24:30 | And even if there's not a budget for it, you could do a free internship through one of the college.
1:24:34 | We actually offer We have a summer intern program that. So, I'll pitch that to Andrew, that would be nice.
1:24:40 | Yeah. If it could save you time, time is money. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I'll pitch that to Andrew.
1:24:46 | And as I get further into AI myself, I see the benefits. Oh, it's amazing. What it can do.
1:24:51 | It's crazy. Yeah, I haven't even like dab like dabbled in it at all. But I use it to like I'm not a word person. I'm a numbers person. So
1:25:00 | my words are basic at that. So I'll take in that I want to like sound professional or fancy. I always put my emails into AI and I'm like, "Wow, man,
1:25:09 | that sounds really nice. Sounds so smart." You know, I I will say um and I'm going to bring it up for a couple of reasons.
1:25:16 | you everybody here knows I've been sitting with the senior center feasibility committee since they I'm not a member of the committee I don't vote
1:25:25 | on the committee okay but I do feed them information and I said to chat GP
1:25:34 | show me a marketing program for a senior center to sell to a town for $11 million and and it gave me a fivepage timeline
1:25:43 | outline of you got to do this by then and you got to have It was phenomenal.
1:25:49 | Amazing what it will do.
1:25:51 | And I found that the entire thing is built on the first sentences you put in.
1:25:57 | Y Okay. You can even say and when you give me an answer, be funny and all of a sudden it'll start talking back to you and make jokes.
1:26:06 | So I'm the president of the United Way of South Central, the board president, excuse me, and I needed the letter. So I thought think of myself as a pretty good
1:26:14 | worksmith. So I concocted the letter and and my son came behind me and goes just for kicks. Why don't you throw it into chat GPT like ah what does it have that
1:26:23 | I don't? So I did I copied and pasted it like fudge and then it said would you like to make this more empathetic empathetic? I'm like yes I would click
1:26:31 | and I read this and I mean it was amazing. It was nothing like my letter. I loved it better. I used it. Yeah.
1:26:37 | And so because it was just a call for donations, if you will, right?
1:26:40 | So I wasn't trying to pretend I was, but it was just I'm like I like your letter, not you. Like the letter so much that it's not like mine, right?
1:26:49 | Yes. And I got compliments on it. Hard to say. [laughter] Everyone just assumes everything's AI these days. I think
1:26:58 | I I can see what it's still your words. Whatever. It's adding like seasoning to a dish. It's fine. I got to edit it.
1:27:06 | Right. It was your dish. You just added some seasonings to it now. Made it your own.
1:27:10 | Okay. What else we got here? We're getting a big 8:00.
1:27:14 | The only other things I have is I hope I have free cash by the next meeting. If not, I might cry. Um, and I know Andrew
1:27:22 | usually gives you a fire substation update. I think they're running a little behind, but
1:27:29 | hopefully still slated for October, but I think originally they thought they'd be in there in September. I don't think so. Are we hiring yet or?
1:27:37 | No, not until the building is built, right? Cuz we don't incur those. So the problem is once once that building is built, he needs to take everyone from
1:27:45 | power station and put them in this building because power station road needs to be the apron needs to be redone and the garage floors and he can't do that with the vehicles
1:27:54 | in there and people in there because they respond from there. So all of those bodies need to go to the new station and there isn't enough room for both.
1:28:00 | So he needs to wait until that's done before he hires more bodies so they can be in both stations. So he probably won't be in both stations until probably January, I would imagine.
1:28:10 | And the other problem is is that power station road project is also time sensitive to the weather.
1:28:16 | So if it gets real cold fast like it did last year, Yeah. be in trouble. Yeah.
1:28:21 | I'm going to assume cuz concrete doesn't like cold. Nope.
1:28:24 | So, and I'm assuming that's all what it is for the apron stuff over there. So the asphalt really doesn't even like cold. So So it's all about timing. So
1:28:33 | let's just pray it doesn't get cold fast like it did last year.
1:28:37 | That's right. If there's no otherwise that's it.
1:28:40 | No other uh Christian unless you've got something I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion.
1:28:46 | I have a motion. Do I have a second? I have a second. All those in favor say yes. Post say no. There's a vote. We oppose.
1:28:54 | Thank you very much. It is nice to have you as a member. Thank you. Thanks Kristen. Welcome. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Night.
1:29:03 | All right.
1:29:04 | Kristen