 So I think like last time we'll Give folks a little bit of time to see if we're gonna get any Anybody from the public if not probably by 615 we'll launch into our monthly meeting Trying to be hopeful I'm gonna show up I can make it today So much money involved and yet Where there are a lot of people at the Town hall study Presentation other it was probably I mean I Would say they might have been other than the usual people that show up in the meetings. They might have been Four or five others. That was about it Maybe a half a dozen. We had the three or four that show up to the select court meetings usually, okay I mean there were it looked like there were a lot of people here, but they were really folks that sit on the different committees Organizations, okay, that's more what it was. They wanted to make sure that the historical Historical society had two or two people from there. You had the zoning administrator and his wife you had the Listers and their families So it was okay, so we really hit people who we didn't get anybody any enlarged general general public there you know, like I said the Couple of people that have been showing up to the select board meetings on a regular basis from the general public I'm here, but that was That was it I think if you didn't know where people were from you would think there were Right you think we have a good representation So when I for I was running a bit late. I got caught up in the Montpelier traffic construction traffic And I pulled into the yard and I'm like, well, there's a lot of people here because there were a bunch of cars out there, but It's funny whenever Whenever I talk to somebody too, I try to make sure that I invite them Yes, there's one meeting or whatever somebody has a question or whatever. It's like oh you should come Should you do a presentation? anyway So it gets on orca probably anybody could do Zoom in yeah Way to do it That's a good point. No, and we could put the link on the front porch for Yeah, but I mean But I think the link to your presentation is up on the left. It is it is So but I don't know. I do know there is some people who watch orca Let's drop afterwards for the select board Yeah, because they'll comment on it. Oh, okay 601 start the recording and just go I guess We'll get started do that. Sure. Why don't we do I mean it might be it doesn't hurt anyways, right? No, I think that's the way to go right Everything makes sense or did and we'll put it in the history. Yeah If somebody logs in we can always answer the questions sure All right, so we're calling this meeting to order. This is our first Capital budget review Just some background in the summer of 2021 it was a work group with folks from the budget committee select board and a state consultant that sort of put together what's called our capital improvement plan, which is which is basically a capital asset inventory which lists basically every big ticket item in the town that will need to be replaced at some point in time also a process document how to add things to the inventory and also a Submission form that folks would use to actually Request a new capital item to be added to the inventory So that happened the summer of 2021 and that kind of started because we got a lot of feedback from taxpayers that They didn't want to get caught off-guard when there were big capital items that were being added to the budget that would Have an impact on the tax rate So the attempt here of the capital improvement plan is to as much as possible be proactive with capital expenditures And to smooth out as much as possible The future tax rate increases as a result of those so the town owns a bunch of things, you know, we have buildings We have equipment we have land And again Replacing any of these things is a substantial cost so again the the capital improvement plan is Is its intent is to Spread the cost out as much as possible over time to avoid any major I'll call it peaks and the tax rate so The definition of the improvement plan it again it focuses on large I'll call them sporadic maintenance items Paving is one of them we we put money in a paving fund every year because we know even though I guess we're the second least paved town in the in the In the state we still have paving costs and they're rising You know again improvements to town facilities We have the fire and the public works folks who have a lot of vehicles and equipment that have to be replaced On a regular basis. We could buy land a Capital improvement could be a study That's that's being done if it if it costs enough money So the threshold that we're using to put something on the capital asset inventory is is something that costs $5,000 more That was just the I think the workgroups consensus in terms of what that threshold would be So to differentiate between the budget and the the capital improvement plan think of the budget is Operational annual costs capital improvement plan the big piece of that is the asset asset inventory It's advisory in nature, and it's forward-looking So if we think about it, we would we would look at the capital asset inventory Take things from that and over time put them in the annual budget and the asset inventory by the way is is Looking out at least ten years. I think ours is looking out at least 15 15, but again there are There are many towns. I'm sure who don't have a capital improvement plan But this is something that towns are looking at because of the impacts on their tax base of making these kinds of Capital investments particularly if you get hit with them and back-to-back years or in a concentrated Short time frame it's going to impact the tax rate So the process is the budget committee us We extract from the asset inventory what looks like it It's going to end what's going to have a useful life that's ending in the next budget year So we take those we gather them up We try to figure out whether the costs are active or not We may talk to departments and ask are you going to replace that asset next year because again the asset inventory In addition to having estimated cost useful life And other things You know it's an estimated useful life a piece of equipment might last longer might not last as long So again those are the questions we ask and once we confirm that we finalize What we think are those items from the capital asset inventory that would be in in the next year's budget and for our purposes next year is fiscal year 24 25, which is July 1st of 2024 through June 30th of 2025 because remember where we're on a mid-year fiscal budget So then we hold a public meeting to inform voters and that's what we're doing now This is our first public meeting of this type and then we we take the results of this And we submit it to the select board as part of the budgeting process, which will start in early November So that's the process New items for the next fiscal year We have a we have three of them the town hall In the asset inventory is $30,000 for elevator maintenance or Fixes if needed. I think most folks know the study has been completed about whether we're going to Renovate this town hall or we're going to build a new one at a different site So again, we're trying to keep costs down as to what needs to be done to the current town hall as much as possible because Everybody knows the cost of a new town hall will be Significant and will be bonded if I'm accurate. Yep So The other two items are both in public works. We have a dump truck. That's useful life ends in 2025 It's about a hundred ninety six thousand dollars to replace it Again, we generally finance these types of things over five years the estimated cost would be about forty eight thousand a year But again, we Don't know the exact cost. This is an estimate We know with interest rates having risen over the last few years that cost might be a bit higher to finance As our estimate was based on a five percent interest rate and we know rates around seven percent now for a lot of loans the other thing is the cabel cabelco excavator which Anybody who saw it doing ditching this summer to fix the roads and things It squeals quite a bit So it's telling us it's near. It's the end of its useful life. That's a hundred seventy thousand Dollar item again, we financed over five years and the approximate loan payment would be about forty one thousand beginning next year So if we look at the total funding for fiscal year 24 2025 from from capital It's it's thirty thousand dollars more than what we have in the current year's budget for capital And that's for the that's for the elevator repairs if we need them The other items are the town hall building fund for ten thousand the bridge bridge fund for six thousand the paving fund for thirty thousand The tennis court surfacing fund for five thousand That's it Romney for anybody who's interested in knowing where that is The town garage building fund of five thousand and then the new asset equipment fund that we had Approved at last year's town meeting Again for heavy equipment mostly in public works and fire and that's a fifty thousand dollar allocation So talk about a hundred thirty six thousand this year Versus a hundred and thirty thousand last year for proposed funding for capital improvement So in just a couple of other things since I got through that fairly quickly for folks who are interested in the a further horizon What we're looking at a replacement cost going out on fire? We have a couple of fire engines that their useful lives are ending in 2030 and 2033 and the estimate for each of those is about 250 thousand dollars Then we have a tanker that that's useful life ends 2034 and that's another 250,000 So in fire alone, we have about 750,000 about play that we're expecting between 2030 and 2034 Highway the other big department. We've got it. We've got a bunch of things. We've got a loader for 85,000 that We think needs replaced be replaced in 2026 We have another dump truck at a hundred and fifty seven thousand in twenty twenty seven We have a backhoe for a hundred and six thousand in twenty twenty eight We have a pickup Who's useful life ends in twenty twenty nine for an estimate of forty three thousand? And we have a couple of other dump trucks that will come do in 2030 and 2032 for a hundred and seventy nine thousand and a hundred and ninety six thousand So again a fair amount of money expected to be Spent in fire and in highway over the next You know three to Nine years So that concludes the presentation It doesn't look like we have any questions unless members of the group have questions I'll ask a couple just to clarify. So if anybody's watching this later on there are some answers Just wanted to point out that Some of the numbers that are referenced for values here do include An estimate of 15% of trade-in value on the existing piece of equipment that would be replaced So the actual values of those vehicles are higher than than what stated as there's trade-in value to be accounted for there and the other thing that folks should know is These are looking at today's dollars and not necessarily being Increased for inflationary value Annually Part of the efforts of this committee will be to make adjustments to those numbers To reflect inflation on an annual basis and kind of make the adjustment as we as we look out So thank you for those points Randy. The other point I wanted to bring up is that sometimes we have opportunity to buy used equipment and That's happened with I think at least one of our fire engines in the past So who knows we we shop around we try to get the best deals to keep costs down in terms of replacing the capital inventory Any other questions or comments from the group before we move on to our Regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the budget committee not for me for those that are watching mark There's a link to the CIP that they can come in and review the work that's been done and I believe that's up on the what's next Middlesex Web page just want to make sure I'm accurate with that statement It is out there And it's up to date as much as we know And it is a working and evolving document. I'll say that so that as we are Provided with updated information for many of the Folks in town whether it's the highway department or whatever As they get updated pricing you know we do Come in here and and update this so Check back frequently All right Well, thanks folks that concludes our first capital budget preview, right? Thank you. Thank you. Nice job. Well done All right, we will now move on to our regularly scheduled budget committee meeting So we'll call this meeting to order at 6 16 Are there any amendments to the agenda? Okay, we have the August meeting minutes to approve Any any comments or it changes to the August minutes. I know it seems like a long time ago, but All right, I think what I said When I asked about establishing a new capital fund, I didn't mean just gravel I meant dirt roads our class two and three dirt roads in general It says here fun for gravel to maintain our dirt roads So what I really said was fun to maintain our dirt roads And we've had emails since where you cleared something up correct Rinda about spending Since you made since he since you made that comment in August I think we did follow up with a couple of emails So class two and three Or just or just dirt roads so Okay, so what did you add alias? I Deleted the words for gravel. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, perfect. That's good. Okay Okay, great, so it's generally to maintain our dirt roads. Yes, okay All right, that being taken into account. Do we have any other comments or Is a removed to approve the minutes so moved seconded so George moves and Sarah Okay action I Let's see Action I'm 36 was that a quarterly budget review. We've done that Before you move on to Farmer. Yes, I've got a vote to approve those minutes. Oh, I'm sorry Yes, let's vote to approve the minutes all in favor. Hi. Say aye. I Hi, it's wise Okay, I was not present right so All right action item. Let's see 41. I check with the Rinda on the conservation fund And so we understand why that's annually now through a special article Um, let's see action item 42. I added the process verbiage that was suggested by alias to the capital presentation that was done tonight And capital fund for dirt roads is on the agenda. Okay, so I Guess we're on to the budget Drinda, why don't you give us Overview well, I've just given you the point where we stand after three months The budget hearings will start the first Tuesday in November And we're starting with all of our small Committees, we've asked them all to submit something And if there's if they want to come in and give a presentation fine, otherwise You know, if it's a status quo from what they've done from previous years, they can just submit the budget and We'll put it into it. So this will include probably the Planning Commission the recreation Cemetery Zoning and I think I think that's maybe it. Okay And then after that we haven't made a decision what will go next whether we'll dive into The fire department or the highway department after that, but okay And we'll probably I'm assuming we'll do one at one meeting and one at another meeting and the town we usually save After we've gotten in everybody else's we do the The all the other items left on the budget. Okay In terms of the year-to-date budget that you gave us know the the big expense is the is under highway for the July flood. Yes, you know of seven hundred eighty five thousand and change So we think we're gonna get 75% of that back from FEMA is that the plan? Yes Yeah, we will get it. We we will get 75 from FEMA and We will hopefully we will get something from the state as well, but the lease that we're looking at is 75% things are going very well with With the With the progress we're making with FEMA. We meet with them every two weeks that number of seven hundred and eighty five thousand is very deceiving because The next one is where all the bills are gonna hit right now. We're up to one point eight million in billing for The highway alone So and but it's not reflected here because it hasn't been expended So that's kind of like if you think it hurts now we did end up taking out a Three million dollar line of credit To cover these expenses and I will have to tap into that next week I Don't plan it is a line of credit. So I don't intend to You know take it all at once We will have to But we don't get believe it or not you don't get reimbursed for the interest you have to pay on that loan So Any guesses how soon FEMA will start reimbursing well We were just told and it was it's a very small. So what they do is everything is divided into projects and So they like all the emergency work is considered a project and Then the next project will be all of this bid work We're putting out and that'll be a project So prior to this they created the FEMA gentleman we're working with he created a project just for Dumpsters that we had to go out and put in place. He actually it's all complete and done So he submitted it. It's only like six or seven thousand dollars, but I'll take anything right now The other one that's complete is the fire department and the emergency work that was done there He's in the process of revealing that now and we'll be submitting that so Has FEMA given you folks any Reasonable or anything to expect in terms of turnaround time from when you submit to when you know, we've heard all kinds of stories They're they're really pushing us to get things in as soon as possible. We are on a deadline all of our Current our emergency work and our Expected bid project to finish up has to be in By the 21st so next week Wow and we have to give them all Estimated costs for that and that's because what they do is they try to plan ahead and allocate the funds for it So we So once the funds are allocated and then we get it the product in I don't think it will be as long as we initially Expected however with the government and their shutdowns You could be talking a whole different animal here the FEMA people on the ground continue to work they're you know non They're essential employees, so They don't go away when the government shuts down, but the rest of it does go away So we're hoping that we get it back sooner or later But yeah, it's you just won't believe Amount of work and time that's gone into it We have to take every single road and take every single culvert and we have to give a GPS number Location for every call culvert that was installed How much the culvert was and how much it was to install just the culvert and Then you know and then you have the rest of the billing that goes towards the road And so I think if I'm not mistaken so far. There's been something like a hundred and eighty culverts put in So a hundred eighty. I think okay. I think it was something like that So we don't have to have the work complete So all of the emergency work is complete now We have moved on to as Randy was talking about before the bids that we just when you were asking before the meeting That we have bids that have gone out to complete the remainder of the work on the roads and That we have a year to complete So if we don't complete it all before the snow flies we have next spring and summer to You know our next spring anyways to complete it He said a year and you know, I didn't question whether it was to the disaster day or I believe that I can't say I honestly don't want to put my think it's a year from the close of the close of the information Yeah, we're both kind of on whatever. Yeah But to be clear that this one point eight million dollars We're talking about here is basically just the emergency just emergency and there's been roughly 200 Somewhere between two and three hundred thousand dollars worth of additional work bid work That's been approved through those two bid processes that have gone out thus far And there's there's more to come is mark There's still we kind of ran through the list real quickly the other day There's still finished work to be done. I believe on about 20 roads Okay So it's it's gonna be a significant number when all is said and done Yeah, if we have to pay just on that on the current that one point eight that just the emergency work That's a four hundred and fifty thousand dollar match from the town If the state doesn't step in and and reduce that 25% match that's required by the town Which hopefully the state is gonna do and there's been lots of talk about it But it's definitely not approved at this point and what they decide to buy that down Is it gonna be 10% is it gonna be 15 who knows? But yeah, I mean the town is looking at a significant match Be hit from the storm alone If clones are put back better than they were just be my cover all of that. Yes, they recommend it That is their goal is to fix things. So We mitigate anything happening down the road and that was the instruction Through that emergency work George that the select board provided To upsize everything where we could I mean, we're gonna when all is said and we're gonna have some nice roads that we weren't expecting But by the same token, it's it's not gonna be free Knock on wood they stay intact, right, you know, we don't have another Event Yes, so soon so I see we have paid the FEMA project manager eighty seven hundred and change We get reimbursed for that or is that yes all administrative costs and So that includes Sarah myself the project manager And The zoning administrator would all be covered on that great the road crew Has some quirkiness to how theirs is allocated Because there's certain things that is considered and this was part of the emergency work That was considered their normal job. So they really some of that will not be covered Reimbursed but anything and over time would be reimbursed And but there are some loopholes if Anything was being done, you know, there's a lot of ifs ands of butts in there And the other thing though is all of our equipment is covered So if they're using even if the manpower isn't being Reimbursed for using the dump truck the dump truck is So Wouldn't that mean then rental of an excavator because we don't have a working one wouldn't that be covered? Yes When it's being used for FEMA related when it's blood related efforts. Yes. Yeah, fair enough It would not be covered if they're just out doing, you know general ditching You know areas that were not impacted by the usual scheduled maintenance, right? There's any areas not affected by the flood Derinda is there going to be any challenge in separating people's Regular hours from doing their jobs versus, you know FEMA related stuff. Is that going to be so challenging since day one? Eric the road foreman has been keeping a log of all the work that the road crew had done and What was FEMA work what was not FEMA work great what what what pieces of equipment were being used so We haven't got to that step yet, but That will be all captured. He's got good records great Okay, anything else on the budget or the July flooding repairs cost, which we have covered in Significant detail, which is good All right Discussion about established new capital fund might be two of them here because it might be the one for dirt roads that we Had talked about and there's the other one that we talked about. I'll call it an emergency fund Based on the July flooding though. I have to admit though on the emergency fund. I've had second thoughts Mainly because of the way that Derinda and folks have handled it, you know budget-wise I'm not sure that we could even begin to make a puddle in a lake You know based on what needs to be done and moving funds around and getting lines of credit I'm just not so sure anymore that Establishing an emergency fund for that purpose is really going to get us thoughts Comments I Think that's a good thought. I think that's a little bit of wisdom what now that we see the numbers I mean when before all of this it seemed like a good idea to have a little slush fund on the side, but Since things like this happen and then FEMA comes in and we get this percentage or that percentage and everything really has to be As granular as it is Other comments thoughts Elias anything on thoughts on your end Pardon me things that might still be around but really it's almost meaningless Yeah, I was you know trying to run the numbers as Randy was in terms of what we might be left with You know holding the bag from this thing and I figured you know if the cost ended up being let's say two million just for kicks and The state covered three-quarters of that I'm sorry FEMA covered three-quarters of that right so that's What is that a million and a half right? And then the state came in and covered maybe two hundred thousand of that We'd let be left with three hundred thousand and we probably could cover it though because we've got I'll call it the I'll call it the oh My aging brain The general fund surplus Probably would cover that if I'm not mistaken or close to it. Yeah, well Your thoughts No, no, you can't you just drains all your operational operational money the other thing is Every conversation we have and it doesn't matter what the conversation it is Everybody wants to spend this money Whether it's the the money the fund balance or whether it's the opera funds, right? Oh, I forgot about everybody You know a reason for spending it and the one good thing about this is The rate we got for the line of credit. I felt was very very good compared to what's out there and There's also when all is said and done. There's going to be long-term financing at a good rate Sba is doing Some kind of stuff the bond bank is doing something They haven't come out with their rates yet And and I still have a hundred percent faith in the bank that we deal with that They will be as competitive as everybody else and So I think you know, I don't think we're going to be looking at a seven percent rate Mm-hmm. I hope not anyways unless right things change Dramatically, but well to be to be honest I mean we're already facing those rates when they gave us the rate for the $3 million note, and we're nowhere near that and we're nowhere near. Yeah. Yeah, so it's less than half of that Which is great. Yeah, no about half about half it. I paid with it 3.99 Yeah, right, right. Yeah, you couldn't have asked for anything more and so and They also said depending on That is a one-year note But they said that depending on the at the end of the year They would look at it and see if it could be extended or not Mm-hmm, so I think they're looking to see, you know, they're not You know concrete and anything they're not saying that's guaranteed But they're right there got their eyes wide open as to what they can do to so I'm sure everybody's going to be flexible here Yeah, with what's going on Pardon Yes, it was are the bank we do everything with community bank And and interestingly enough community bank if anybody read they Is the flooding in Montpelier? They had these I can't remember what they're called the flood doers flood gates that they put on the and the bank did not get flooded But it did get flooded from something else can't remember but the flood gates work They're like 300 pounds apiece. They had a couple guys install them. You know, they've got they've got rubber edges So that they compress and I mean unbelievable that they would thought of this But yeah, well all the businesses along State Street were getting flooded the bank was hanging in there and they opened within days Sounds like everybody needs luggage. Yeah, I know So so the question I guess before this committee is whether You know a few meetings ago July or August we said hey We should have an emergency font or name it something and start fun and get June. I was a June So So what what are your thoughts now? I mean, I guess we'll go with majority rules here And whether we should institute a new fund for emergencies. I think at this point we should table it for a sunny day. I Would agree I as much as I love to plan and it'd be wonderful to have Money sitting in an account that was ready for us to utilize in a situation like this I Can't help but think about all of the other needs that we have and just the continual ask of the town residents to continually to fund more and more and more and While it would be lovely to have right I just I think a perfect world bigger priorities and The other comment and I'll ask George in the last to weigh in is that I think the the comment was something that Durrinda made either last meeting on meeting before and it's one thing to fund For things we know we're going to happen It's a whole other situation for to fund for things that we don't know if or when they're going to happen And I think from a taxpayers perspective. It's just a tougher sell Yeah, George any comments thoughts. No, I was thinking even before I came here We don't know enough about how we're going to come out at the end of this financially So I think an emergency fund would be premature and I agree with what everyone else Okay, all right, we will table that the other thing is This is what George brought up a few meetings ago was whether we would we should set up a capital fund for dirt roads or not now Randy and I had the conversation either an email or in a meeting I can't remember with the highway crew last year. I think or the year before I can't remember when it was about Well, we talked about road gravel, but it was more about no maintenance of the roads and they wanted to keep it in their budget And any idea where they stand on that now? I think we sit in the same spot that and I actually think at one point Christian Meyer from CVLT weighed in on that as well. Okay, I believe so. I have to dig through some emails to find that out for sure, but Christian is the one who took the lead on developing CIP through this whole effort and I thought and I may be wrong, but I thought he weighed in at one point and said that Essentially and at this point, I think the conversation was a little bit different where we were trying to basically Fund a stockpile of material if you would and I think the feedback was that that wasn't a Great idea for what the CIP was designed for that it did fall more in the realm of Take your five-year road plan continue to include that Cost in the budget for the annual the annual budget That's my memory as well that there was something that a Christian pass on to us of the state frowned upon Having gravel on a CIP. Yeah, and general road maintenance, too Well, we got a lot of capital. I wonder if it's worth asking Christian again. Yeah, I mean if this is something that You know we want to it's it feels like it's probably something that's going to continually come up I mean another thought that I've had as I was thinking about this You know after I've read through the minutes and and whatnot is One of the silver linings From the impact of the storm is that our roads are going to be in much better condition and we're catching on up on a lot of deferred maintenance to the roads Being forced to address it right so I started thinking about okay Well, we can't take this for granted and say okay, the roads are good and and have a bunch of deferred maintenance on it moving forward I think it really just highlights the need to continue to focus on it and Stay keep these roads maintained at the same time as bringing some of the other roads up. So You know, it's something that I talked to myself from both ends of that conversation Well, I was thinking coming up McCulloch Hill The other day, but we did get a lot of capital improvements out of this flood. Yes Well, and I think that's how we get ahead right is by being smart and including it Continually so that we're ahead of the game in that way versus having a little extra So I think my personal take I'll just follow finish up full circle. I think my personal take is to Continue to include it in the annual budget for the highway department and Understand that this committee is going to have to remind The select board every time they go to that fund or that line item as we're looking at budgets to say Oh, the roads are good. We can reduce money here right and we just have to remind folks that we don't want to fall back into you know a situation where we've got a ton of deferred maintenance on roads and and not enough gravel on the roads as Eric would say right, you know still slayed out there, so You know when I was on this committee before in 21 remember we put in that extra 40,000 because we're behind Some people complain well Wow At town meter yeah, what a difference 21 it must have been 20 the 21 It's been there probably five years. Anyways, it's so that line. I know yeah, and yeah 20 town Last one we had for you all maybe the you know the You're looking at tell us, but I'm curious how much variance there is in like gravel costs from one year to the next Because to me if it full expenses are Varying widely or what you know a lot from one year to the next it makes it very hard to budget for it in any one year And that's when I would think it might make sense to think of it more as a capital expense that you even out over the years I don't I don't think the cost of the materials vary that greatly from year to year Elias I think what what I Sorry, you broke up there What about the amount that we're getting like do we get wildly different from one year to the next or other materials like that? I think they've just recently continued to include that in the annual budget there, you know prior to You know the the effort that George was talking about about that Specialized services line item and I think it's what it was called at that point And that was to originally to hire some contractors to do some of the road maintenance work that was falling behind But for like the gravel itself and whatnot, it's not necessarily the material cost It's all of the trucking fees and the fuel That's that's the majority of the cost that the town incurs when we start talking about getting gravel on the roads Remember Eric and big mentioning that if you break it down the actual materials is not that much. It's really Getting it around. Yeah. Yeah That makes sense We are if it's hard to predict how much we're going to need to spend on roads one year to the next That's when I start thinking of it as something that we should be for over multiple years. I Think consistency is the key Yeah, maybe it's more our behavior that could make it consistent So so I guess it sounds like if we're all comfortable with Randy's suggestion that we keep it in the highway budget I think we just we monitor and We see is this thing going to start to have gyrations or is it going to stay pretty consistent? If it is if it stays consistent It probably makes more sense to leave it in the annual budget if we start to see peaks and valleys We can bring it up again about creating a capital fund for that work. Yeah Okay, sounds good Could also, you know as we have conversations on an annual basis with the highway department as they're putting their budgets together Have that conversation see what they plan on doing, you know prior to you know, right them You know actually issuing their budget to the select board and just have that conversation and say hey remember just what's the outlook for You know road maintenance for the gravel and whatever the ditching the culverts Yeah, I So I think that gets to the end of the agenda unless we have other matters. I I have won. I just was interested Has there been any more movement on Any specifics what we're going to do with the remaining arpa money? The remaining what money? So there's roughly $315,000 remaining that hasn't been allocated. I think we got $515,000 And these are approximate numbers because I could be off, but I think we allocated 70,000 to the fire department for airpacks $100,000 for Fiber CV fiber, right and I'm missing out on the other $30,000 one But I think there's approximately $315,000 that's what I left to you out of that fund People have their eye on it all over the place I think You know, I don't know what the select board's ideas are moving forward We haven't really had a discussion about that. We understand that it hasn't been allocated yet and it has to be done by the end of Next calendar year right into 2024 we have to make the decision then spend it all by into 2026 yes, yeah so I Mean I can only speak you know as to you know what I assume but I Don't think anybody's eager to Allocate the rest of that money until we come out of this flood recovery, okay Are we earning any interest on it? Is it in a I'm assuming it's We so who we've actually asked and it doesn't matter if it's it's in our checking account or in a savings account We are in the same interest on it. So now so that's where it sits and The reason we didn't invest it in any kind of certificate was we didn't know when we were going to spend it, right? So that's why it sits there and actually that that money along with our fund and along with Tax payments coming in. That's what's kept us from having right. Yeah drawer on the line of credit the school tax Right. Oh, yeah, that was coming next week. Okay. Yeah be prepared I I'm 14 A quarter. Yeah, yeah Any other items that folks want to bring up before we close I Think just recognizing that the select board is putting out notice for you know, we're coming into budget time. Yes So and I think you know the last item on here is scheduling next meetings, but You know, I think last year, you know, we made a pretty significant effort to attend You know all those meetings. Yes, and be actively involved and and I hope we continue to do the same this year Yeah, last year was challenging. I think we started at what? 21% budget increase. Yeah, we're up there. Yeah, we're up there We had a lot of it's a lot of hacking and chaff fake. Yeah to be done. So, you know, I would love to see this committee you know remain active through that whole process and So I just wanted to call call that out and hopefully work. Yep. I got the email from Sarah I think I forwarded to you the first second board meeting on the 7th of November. So as During this said probably got one, two, three, four departments there. Yeah, anything that we get that the small committees I can just forward that on I don't think it'll be huge at the next meeting But after that, I think they'll be significant discussions Yeah, because highway still takes up about half of our operating budget. I think it's like 58 percent. Yeah It's probably higher now. Yeah, it's growing. It's growing. All right. So next meeting So we usually would do it the third Tuesday of the month, which would be the 21st Is that the same night as select board? Yes So that would be so we go back to back right at the 24th. Oh, isn't it 24th Tuesday the 24th? No, you're not looking at November. I was just counting 14 days from the seven So I was sorry. Yes, I was looking at October But if the 7th if they're gonna start budget conversations, then It would make sense to attend that. Yes. Oh definitely on the 7th. Yes And then and then it might mean that we're into a two meeting a month schedule again Yes, depending on what's on the board's agenda. Yep And even if quite frankly even if there's if there is a lapse in a budget meeting for the select board it may give us a time to Look at what the next group is and maybe see if there's anything that we should discuss prior to It making it to the board. Mm-hmm Would we just schedule for the 7th? Would that make the most? Yeah, we can do that Prepare ourselves. So we're doing what four in the select board. Is that right? Yeah Four o'clock and then select board is five, right? Okay Unless there's anything else we are adjourned. Do we have an election on that?