 Alrighty, it's 5 o'clock PM on Thursday, February 29 at the middle, 6 town hall. We are calling the meeting to order and welcoming guests and the explanation of this informational hearing. The select board is holding per 17 BSA statute 2680 H2 a, which states. Quoting the hearing on a public question shall be held within the 10 days preceding the meeting at which the Australian ballot system is to be used. The legislative body shall be responsible for the administration of this hearing, including the preparation of minutes. No action will be taken at this hearing. And this is regarding article 7. Which is shall the town of middle sex voters authorize the select board to purchase a new excavator in an amount not to exceed $200,000. To be financed over a period not to exceed 15 years 24 BSA statute 1786 AC to be voted by Australian ballot. So, is there any information that anyone here would like to share about this article about the excavator? Okay, are there any questions about this article from any guests? We have a couple of guests online. I don't know who MJ is. It's just Michelle. There we go. Welcome Michelle. Okay. Hi, Michelle. Sorry, I didn't know who you are. You're not just Michelle. You're Michelle. Let's see. Explanation of article by select board, road foreman commissioner. So you're just explaining that when it's a certain amount of money, it has to be an article. And It's the amount of time that you're borrowing and the amount of time that you're borrowing. Okay. So, and could someone just clarify for the record that if this article were to be approved, it would be purchased in fiscal year. 25 July one after July one and not financed till the following year. Does anyone know? I'm just curious. That would be ideal. I don't think we're gonna make it through it. Oh yeah, let's purchase it now. Our excavator now is on the brink of no longer. Okay. So this is for an excavator to be purchased before July one, but funded or something. We'll start a year from point of purchase. A year from point of purchase. Okay. So, yeah, so we would have to. If we buy it after July one, the payment wouldn't come through until 2026. But if you buy it, it'll come through and then our budget year 25, if you buy it before July one. Okay, which is the plan is to buy it before July one, or at least. I would, it'd be nice if we could. Okay. The, the reason we had to rent one last fall was because this one was not right. Okay. So we're not, we're not, we're just financing it and that the financing, if it's before July one would begin in this next year, this next this week. The payment comes through one year from the date that you. So that would be with the next year. Yeah, the next when you take out loan. All righty. Any other questions? Just Eric, if you could just with a long time ago, we talked about this a relatively long time ago. And I know we're not making a decision today about. What excavator we're going to buy, we did have some discussion about what size, etc, etc. Do we still think, I mean, so, so I'm just interested knowing any update on that. And also, as far as we know, we think the trade in of our old excavator. Will be okay. I mean, not going to be. Correct. Depending on which route we do, the trade in varies between $30,000 and $40,000, depending on the machine and which, which brand, I think Vic and I've talked and I think we've both decided that we're going to be able to do that. I mean, I think we're going to be able to do that, I mean, we're going to be able to do that, I mean, we're going to be able to do that, I mean, we're going to be able to do that. I mean, depending on the machine and which, which brand, I think Vic and I've talked and I think we've both decided that the bigger of the two would be a better option for us, and the longevity of it. So, yeah, that's pretty much where we're at with that. Can you talk about that? I'm sorry, go ahead. We were looking at the pretty much the equivalent size to what we have now. I think what I found with with renting the smaller one, it was very difficult pulling stone out of the back of a tandem dump truck. I think it would take way, it just slows the process down way too much. That's my personal feeling. And we, and we are comfortable as comfortable as we can be that between the trade in and the $200,000, that price is still a good price. We'd be okay. Yeah, that's actually more than I think it's going to be more than what we need, but I wanted a buffer. Did you have a question, Randy? Yeah, I was just, you mentioned that you were looking at a couple. Yeah. Brands, case, cabalco, cabalco, cabalco, yeah. And from Anderson anyway. Yes. Case, CASE, and Velco, like the company. It's not a cabalco. It's just a case. Case. The confusion comes from, Sarah, is that the dealer that sells a case used to sell cabalco, but they don't sell cabalcos anymore because I don't know why they're not making it. So just forget the cabalco. Forget the cabalco. Yeah. Case or kamatsu is the other one we were considering. Yes. Just a question, are you going to be at town meeting? Yeah. Okay. And you are too. Oh, yeah. Okay. I just in case someone wants to go into details about the excavator and has questions. This will be an article. Okay. You had a question. And this excavator will be able to be transported by our newly acquired trailer, right? Correct. Okay, Vick, do you have a question or comment? No. No? Okay. I do. Oh. Yes. So I was under this understanding that this wasn't going to be purchased before July 1. And therefore, there is no money budgeted for the payment in the next year's budget. But doesn't this, actually if it passes, doesn't this give us the money? It gives you permission to buy it, but it doesn't put the money in the budget. Oh, I thought it did. No. Not the payment. Because the budget, the budget's already developed that we're asking them to. Well, but, but the 65,000 for the town hall isn't in the budget that gets added if it gets passed the way the special. But that is, that is part of the budget. But it is in the budget. You're right. It is a part of it. If it, but if it doesn't, it gets taken out of the budget. Right. So don't we take some money out of our new capital fund? Which is not included in the budget. I mean, we've talked about a couple different. We've talked about a couple of different things and it was thrown on the ARPA list. The capital asset inventory or that fund has some money in it. I don't know as if it's been talked about expressly pulling from that as down payment to this or future purpose purchases. But yeah, I don't think we've had that level of conversation that I remember as of yet. Can I ask a question? When you buy a piece of equipment like through community bank, for example, it goes to purchase the equipment. Right. It doesn't, it doesn't go to like refund us for purchasing. No. So we use that to pay for it when it comes. Right. Because that's the collateral sort of. Right. I'm just checking. No. Would we be allowed to like we did on the greater, we got the greater like a month or so early and but we didn't pay on it until the. Well, they didn't bill us until after July 1. If we make that arrangement, is it? Let me freeze that. I don't care. I mean, let me speak. It does not matter as a general rule, but you know, we didn't, but normally you would budget the payment, you know, because we'd have a budget, you know, a payment due within the physical year 25. So in this case, it would be ideal if you could, if you could have them bill you. I don't know how soon you'd take possession of it. It will be a discussion. No, it's a. We'll have to have a discussion. Negotiation as part of the sales. I bet they do that. I bet they do that. But the other way and again, you know, there's creative financing as far as if you, you know, maybe barred from here and put the money back or something like that. Again, I just wasn't, when we were doing this, I wasn't under the impression it was being purchased before July 1. I don't think we made it clear. Yeah. I think we talked about getting one, but I don't think we ever talked about it. And this article only allows us to purchase it. It doesn't actually put money in the budget for the first payment. Right. And you can, and it doesn't, if this gets approved, it doesn't mean you have to purchase it. Right. Right. Yeah. It's just giving you. All right. And that's why we put it into this warning. So at least there would be something in place. Great. Okay. So. Go ahead. Ask a question. If we were to order that excavator next month, what would we be likely to receive? Is it like trucks? No. Three months later? No, it would only, it would be a short time month or so. Okay. So we're in March. They might even have it. April. They might even have it coming in. They could. Okay. So we don't have the money. And you would, how much does it cost? After trading. Well, an example. Theoretical amount. Please hold. I have no idea how much trading is. Probably neighborhood of one. I'm just trying to think out loud here. So suppose we just read your plan or whatever the right word is and tell me if this past month or the room to, that we would take the first payment out of our capital fund. It's a possibility. Yeah. I mean, I guess it's, I don't know who manages the capital fund who decides, you know, when that was something that was assigned to the budget committee. So is it. It's all town money, but who, they were saving it for a different purpose, I think, weren't they? It's, it's not, it's not set aside for a specific purpose, but it, or for a specific purchase, sorry, not purpose. It is designed to offset the purchase of any large piece of equipment or truck. I think the thing that the select board needs to think about as we determine how we pay for it, what pot of money we pull from for down payments or anything else is what else is coming down the line. And I know that we have trucks in multiple years coming up and how we, you know, how we do that. So, I mean, I, we're not here to figure out how we allocate money for it today, but it is absolutely a conversation that we need to have. All right. So in hindsight though, just thinking about this, because I, I just want to get clarity in the budget, the 65,000 was put as a line item. Well, it just, that's something you're going to be paying all in one year. So yes, it's just like it, but it's in our budget. It's there. This is something completely different because you're financing it over 15 years. So we haven't necessarily, we're not going to pay the $200,000. Right. No, I know, yeah. Where, you know, so. But it might be 25,000 or 30,000. We did not, we did not put it in. We did not budget for it. Okay. All righty. So are there any other questions from attendees? I think the only other question that I have, and we're not there yet, as far as like selecting a place to purchase from or whatnot, but I just want to make sure we think about, you know, service availability and, and, you know, the customer service that we get, you know, with, with some of the things that have happened with trucks, I just want to make sure that that's on top of our scoring sheet for who we purchase this from. And training the appropriate set. I would also suggest right along that line, Randy, that if an extended warranty is available, we consider taking that extended warranty. The warranty. And if they come out, do they charge you to work on it even if the warranty is all a factor? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. We've been, we've been burning lately on our trucks and it's frustrating. Yeah. Any other questions about the article seven? Yes. I was running around doing stuff. Did you, did, did you guys discuss whether or not your finances before July, you're going to take this before July 1st or after July 1st? We're not deciding that at today's meeting. We're just discussing the article. It's a TBD. Yeah. All right. We'll see if it even passes first. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. However, I will, one more thing before we adjourn. Is there a, an estimate to render like of what the interest rate would be on this so we could, if someone asks what would the payment be on a monthly, I mean on a yearly basis? What is the interest rate? Well, we've gotten very favorable interest rates up until the last couple of years. Yeah. I just, I inquired, the last one I inquired about, it was, they're looking at it 6% somewhere around there. 6%? Yeah. Ooh. That was. Holy moly. And that's something that probably most of these places have financing themselves. And it, the rates are dropping back again at the bank. So it may. I can always ask around. Well, just ask about, I mean, the bank is, we can deal with all the bank financing. You don't have to worry about that. But if these companies offer financing, and that's how we compared it to when we bought the greater. Of course. Of course. Talk, if you need to stop talking or meet yourself, please. That's, that's in the, um, this outside, Peter. It's not on a mute. Okay. So, um, but yes, it was, when I inquired, I'm trying to think what I inquired about before, but she said, oh, I was talking about renewing our line of credit. And she said it definitely wouldn't renew at the rate that we've got now. The manufacturer may have something. Yeah. They might have programs too. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think it's, uh, standardized on a monthly basis, but that's 15, 20 times 12. That makes sense, doesn't it? I can inquire. So it would be the principle to divide that by 15 years and then whatever that payment is for the. 20, 20 K. Yeah. 20 K. Yeah. At 6%. Yeah. Okay. All right. Uh, are there any other questions or comments about article seven and the purchase of a new excavator? Yes. I just like to have it on the record that clearly. We need to eat this excavator. It's an important piece of equipment for the town. And it's very important for us to go ahead with that. This isn't some frivolous purchase. We've carefully thought about it. We certainly, when we made the decision to buy our first excavator or last excavator, there was some question about whether we use it, we would use it or not. And I think the answer is we've worn the poor thing out using it. So there was no question that we, uh, that we've used it and gotten good value out of it. Okay. Did you get that, Sarah? He wants for the record. Peter just wants for the record that, um, that this, that we really do need this excavator and, um, we're hoping that the town would be supportive. And yes, you had another comment. You had the, you figured that what the payment might clone. Yeah, I like around 20,000. 20,000 a year. Yeah, a year. Yeah. Approximately at a 6% interest rate. Yes, Randy. Um, just thinking about getting stuff out there in the meeting for those 180,000, by the way, for those who might watch this recording. Um, I think it'd be good for folks to know as well. Um, if we have an estimated cost for, um, um, any types of repairs that are currently necessary, I know the undercarriage is worn. Thank you. Yeah. I think that that's going to be a useful piece of information. Um, for folks, um, just so that they know away the new cost versus what it would take to repair this one to a point where we're comfortable and feel like it would be reliable enough. So if we had an idea of what an undercarriage replacement cost would be, um, and I don't know what other issues there may, you may be having with it right now, but it sounds like most of it's undercarriage. The major part of it is that, I mean, there's other issues that's not as frontline. Yeah. So I think that if we had that information for town meeting, that'd be good information and just a ballpark, you know, an estimate from somebody to say, you know, in this range. Okay. Sarah has a question of clarity. How much did we spend to rent? How much did we pay to rent that thing last fall? You know, off the top. $5,000 a month. $5,000 a month? Yes. And how many months did you rent it for? I think it was only a month. A month or two. A month or two. I think it was a month, by the way. Is it a month? Only a month? I think so. It was only a month. What's that? I think it was only a month. Right. Okay. Are there any other questions about the excavator in Article 7? All righty. Then if there are no other questions, we'll adjourn the meeting at 522. We'll take a break until 530. And just so you know, guests who are here will resume a new meeting at 530 for the vicious dog hearing. So...