 is Jeremy Hansen, Dana Hadley, our town administrator, and Diane Isabella, our treasurer. I would like to call to order the public hearing for the new town plan. This is the second. So, select board, I mean the planning commission has approved a draft of the town plan. We had to held our public hearing. We boarded it to the select board. We had a hearing last week. We did have comments last week from Bob Bornek and the freshmen who have been involved in the process. They all were, I think, speaking for them, but they seemed happy with the draft. So this is by statute. We have to have the select board have to have a second public hearing on the town plan. So that's what this is. This is the air she's also on the planning commission. So it doesn't look like we have any really just for public comment. If anybody that's interested in throwing a comment. I don't know if you folks have any questions for us. Did the changes that they talked about last week, did those get incorporated? Yes. My understanding, yes, I mean Brandy incorporated them into the document. And my understanding is that what the process would be that you as the select board would forward the plan as approved or as amended with the implementation plan and the map. The planning commission did vote to approve those things at their meeting. Well, actually not the map, but I think that's a minor adjustment and it's okay that you do that without it going back. So it would just be you would just approve it with assuming you approve it. You would vote to put it on the ballot as amended at the last meeting. You do have an agenda item a little further down to approve the town plan. Oh, okay. But where is that most up to date town plan right here? With the amendments? Yes. Okay. Yeah, it was just a redrawing of the changes were and they weren't change. They weren't substantive changes because the implementation plan just incorporated all of the action items that were already in the document. I was just putting them in one place and assigning sort of saying who would be responsible. But there was a change to the map. It was a change to the map, but what that means is it's creating a larger area and saying it would be defined when we actually, assuming we actually go forward with the town center application. So we're basically just creating bigger boundaries from within which we will draw the new lines. Those are not the lines for the town center district. Those are just where we would choose the town center designation area from. Because it can only be 125 acres is a maximum and that area as outlined is bigger than that. And the reason for that was that Michael Rushman I guess is engaged in some kind of discussion or the mall owners are engaged with some kind of discussions with you folks about walking land. With the school district. So that they can I think have access on some point. So we had excluded that portion of that area from the map originally. So it's just in there for flexibility. Of the yellow section or the red boundary section. That yellow boundary section got bigger to include that area in case there was a swap. And that was recommended also by the state. The state approved that because that was okay. It's just that we would have to define it. So there's two things we would define it obviously in an application and then we would have to town center designation have to be. Reapproved or you have to be recertified every five years. The map we will we would have to vote. We would have to review the town plan and re vote on the town plan. So that's a permanent map before we recertified for the town center. Timing wise I think we probably would be doing the town plan around that same time. So I don't think that's an issue. Because she said that when you're recertified it has to be in the town plan what the designated area is. And that's why she being the state suggested that they go ahead and do it now. Yeah. But those are the only changes. And then the implementation chapter at the end. Which basically is your who does what. The most responsible. Any comments? Any comments? I just want to say we I mean we were very lucky to have been able to use Brandy or have Brandy work on this. And the fact that she has done the zoning. I mean I shouldn't say this. She's working with another town and they spent a much greater amount of time on their town plan. And they were when I spoke I worked with one of the folks on that planning commission. And he was shocked that she was able to do it so quickly. And I said it's because she knew already what you know where what what the goals were. Because she had worked on the zoning. So she was able to put it together really quickly. And so we were very fortunate to be able to take advantage of her knowledge. I think that helped a lot. She didn't have to reinvent the wheel. Yes. And even though it looks like a very different document. She said a lot of the information came you know sort of came out of the old plan. And you know the graphics all helped. So I think it's just a really good. We've gotten very positive feedback from anybody that's. That reviewed it or read it or. So the comments have all been good. So if the board approves that when you get to that agenda item. There's also another agenda item putting it on the ballot. For the August 14th vote. Claire has just mentioned that we don't have a town plan now asking if we knew. The town plans are eight years now. Yeah. Eight years. Yeah. You can keep that. Would you rather have one of the state. Anything else. I mean unless you have questions. Sounds good to me. Was that the. I've heard. Yeah. I mean it's been going on for a little while. It has. I mean between the zoning was obviously. That was a two year process and then we sort of. Once we got brandy on board. This wasn't January. I think so. It's been a fairly quick process to actually get this redrafted once we got her. When volunteers it's hard to actually rewrite the document like that. And I'd like to. Echo Bob Warnick statement last week. Of how much we appreciate all. I know you spent hours on this. And have been very mindful. And also consider it to citizens who had. Questions on that. I congratulate you. And it's always nice when people do take part and participate. And we do get an audience. Because we always want to hear from people and we don't always. So when we do we try to be very respectful. Their comments. You'll hear afterwards. Of course. I don't think that I really think there's nothing controversial in here. Or even. Any big changes that's really just. A little bit. A little bit more futuristic in the sense of. Looking at where we go in 10 years. In terms of development. 10 20 years. But it's not really anything that's. Surprising. It's really more of what we have in our current template. I think it I don't think it. I don't expect it to be. Controversial. I hope. There's nothing else. Close the. Public hearing for the town playing. Thank you very much. Thank you. You're welcome to stay of course. You know. Probably not. It's very hot in here. Thank you very much. Thank you. I will call Dana to make sure everything went through okay. Okay. And assuming it does you will be contacting Randy right? I will make. We'll make sure it happens. Yeah. We'll figure it out. What our logistics are. Yeah. Thank you. Well I could go see if they're ready to. Are you are you talking about the Vermont appraisal? I don't know. I got to take and call a certain word meeting to order. That's right. Okay. Yes. We can move up the license permits. Notifications. Yeah. I wish we could. We had to be in the select board meeting. Oh. Because it was warned for 75. 75. Oftentimes I think I should just now put times. You know. Six at one and a half dozen. Immediately following the public hearing. I thought that was pretty good. Yeah. Well sometimes the public hearing is going for hours. Well yeah you don't know. Though some of those meetings I went to were pretty well attended earlier. I think there was a lot of interest in the meetings. Yeah. And they got a lot of feedback. Right. And then it sort of smoothed out a little bit. And I think they were very responsive to the input. I'm going to go get Ted and then just say what you're going to be open to. Well we're not in a meeting yet. I guess. We're waiting to. It's kind of like the plane meeting. I think I'll get them. Yeah. It's kind of like when you're sitting at Newark and they say ladies and gentlemen we'll be boarding the airplane for Burlington any moment now. Thank you for your patience any moment. Yeah. All of you go sit down. We'll be boarding the plane and when we board people with children people that need help so forth and so on. Then they say ladies and gentlemen we're waiting for a mechanic to come look at the plane. She's got such a comfortable voice. Yeah. To do that for a living. Yeah. Then they come back and they say well you now need to go to another gate which of course is an East Orange in New Jersey. Yeah. Yeah. They had a big old jet I don't even know what it was come in here and it filled up with fuel and they pushed it back out of the way and then drove right out of the engine. Oh no. So it's still here with guys climbing all over it with scaffolding and I don't know if the problem is but. Oh they could probably just take off it'll be fine. But you know those fractionals they're these groups of mechanics that have huge vans full of everything to just go go go go wherever they need to in the country to fix them stuck. One got iced up in here for two weeks and I couldn't believe the work they had to do it just because they've been sitting outside and not started and it was cold they had to do all sorts of things to test it out first. Make sure it was okay. It's gotta be huge freaking money to do that just enormous. Well you stop and think you have a cold engine. You fire it up. You don't want to get it too hot too fast. Yeah. Yeah. But then you stop and think those engines are made to run it's a pretty cold weather. But once they're running the pressure is in the beginning and once they're running there's really no pressure it's just and that's you know the 48 hours nonstop no problem. That's a lot of just and when we got those pumps for the car washes they would spool down but they wouldn't shut off so if nobody came in for eight or nine minutes that pump it was doing 67 gallons a minute it would just spin down and then when the demand came it would spool back up and so in the dairy business they have the same setup on vacuum pumps. They're a big power user. Modern dairy they're probably running 50 horsepower just for the milk and machine. Just for the vacuum pump. Clarissa just left. She just went outside. Yeah. Yeah. I don't see Clarissa doing that. I've thought forever all drugs should be legal I mean trillions of dollars leave the country and go to these bad asses all around the world and we sit here with the headache and we're doing it anyways so just stop giving the world the money Nancy Reagan had it half right should have been legalize all drugs then just say no not just say no. We on camera? Yeah. I was checking. I asked you to edit out the middle. Yeah. All set? Yeah. Good evening. I'd like to call the Berlin Select Board for Monday July 2nd to order. To my left is Pete Kelly. To my right is Jeremy Hansen. I'm Brad Town. To my far right is Dana Hadley our town administrator. To my far left is Diane Isabel or changes to the agenda. No, I have none. Public comment. Hearing none. Okay, Vermont Appraisal Company. Let me go tell them to come on down. Yeah, that's fine. You can either bring that chair up if you'd like. We'll be cozy. No AC in here, huh? Well, they're trying to be energy efficient. It's better than outside. Vermont Appraisal Company has had a little staff change since they last met with you. You remember Ted Nelson who was the lead and Tom Cain has been here in Berlin for at least four years? Four or five? Something like that. Clarissa Holmes has joined the team and as far as all the clerical and the nitty-gritty work that needs to be done. And they have provided to you we'd like to talk about the Grand List as you remember last year the Grand List had an error in it. They've been very careful not to have an error in it. They've given you a summary of the Grand List that was in your packet. Also a list of all properties with the old and the new assessment. And stop me if I speak don't speak correctly, but all the changes were sent to the property owner to notify them of the assessment change with an opportunity to grieve and that was June 14th, I think it was. And I know you had a few but not too many. Six or? Something around six. So and our policy now calls for a visit quarterly to bring you up to date on what's going on. I asked them to wait until they were done with the Grand List and come in now with the Grand List total which I guess is 500 million, 100, 1,800 Okay. Some of the significant changes this year was the Honda dealership, Berlin H1 Realty is the Honda dealership and as you know they had quite a building project there. The others are listed what the changes were and also that Grand List total includes personal property taxes which inventories are down and values are down. So that has decreased a little bit. So I guess I just wanted the board to have an opportunity to ask questions. I'd also like to we have included the Form 411 which is a state form that I think Clarissa you'd be able to kind of help us. I wasn't sure who was familiar with the Form 411 if you've ever looked at it before or and this is the Form 411. The report that the state uses to it's all our information in our Grand List that goes to the state is summarized here. It's summarized by category at the top and the first paragraph is all the real property and add personal property if you tax personal property and then below is all the exemptions and these include veterans your Grange the stabilization agreement with the Northfield Savings Bank current use and the solar which is taxed on the municipal side and non-tax on the education side so it shows up on the 411 as an exemption for the education Grand List but it is included with the municipal is that the special exemptions Clarissa down near the border? Yes, special exemptions and it's exempted you can see it's non-residential and the qualified housing which is an apartment building in town it's an apartment building that has affordable housing restrictions it's on the top of Addison Drive and the state if they are using the whole building as an affordable housing entity the state will give them 10% off on their education Grand List so that solar it's enumerated if you go to page 6 it shows that the solar is 9083 and the qualified housing is 85764 that comes off just the education side it shows up as a full value on the municipal side and that was the item that we realized had not been done last year which has since been corrected the current use reduction may change a bit because the state has not finalized all their current use yet there's still two or three properties that are under review because the owners have not provided all the information they need so there's still two or three of those that are out there that may change a bit but they won't change a lot it'll be and then the homestead the homestead non-residential will change as of as people file but that won't affect your municipal that first column of the 411 which is the municipal grand list so the grand list actually for real property went up by before exemptions it went up by 2 million 5461 that was the amount of the changes but that was partially offset by the drop in the personal property so what was our net increase Clarissa the net increase was about a 30% yeah last year's 411 just the first page of the what is that in dollars do you know last year's municipal grand list the final that you filed was 4 million 4 billion 498 million 498 million 461,000 so we feel pretty confident on the grand list this year I appreciate all the help that Ted Tom and Clarissa have done Diane and I have been at them quite a bit and I appreciate their patience well we appreciate your giving us an opportunity to come back and continue to work for you we know that was not easy for you and it was not an easy time for us we're very pleased to have Clarissa working with us she if you look at her arm and how badly it was twisted by Tom she wanted to be retracted in retirement she reminds us of that pretty quickly after almost 20 years of good service Hartford we were lucky to work with our company she's from my perspective much more methodical we do make errors we try to make errors on the behalf of the property owner if we make any errors and we correct them the following year but we try to be fair and reasonable listen to people in grievances I think to the most part we've had a pretty successful year I think we have one appeal coming up that may come to the poor civil authority that would be an interesting case they usually are but nothing like what we had to go through last summer early fall as you go over if you read over any of these the change list if you have any questions any of the changes please let us know I've listed them from the high to the low high plus to low minus so if you had any questions once you have a chance to read over just let us know we can try to describe what the properties were and this includes utilities in the solar everything is on the sheet when we speak of solar you should be aware as you made it the first 50 kW is exempt of the solar field so most residential fields on a roof for example or even the trackers around someone's backyard a single tracker with 10 or 12 panels would be far less than 50 kW a roof system may have 7 to 10 something like that 8 or 9 kW in a conventional single family home so you get into the 4 bigger ones that are over 50 if it's net metered in other words if it goes back into the grid we only put a value on 70% of anything over 50 kW so even the huge ones that look like fish scales on the side if it's really net metered then first 50 is a gimme and we're at 70% of so if you take those out sometimes we're only in it half of what it really costs for someone to put together a solar field that's taxable we did one this year in another town that was 52 kW so they were taxed at 2 kW that's just the way the legislation works and as I said on page 6 page 411 you'll see the solar listed with the owners and the assessment and the last column shows that they're exempt from education tax except for Mr. Luzi who owns land your land still gets taxed on the education it's just the solar array that doesn't get taxed so the other ones don't have any land with them and he's the only one that has a land value and those are separate accounts set up like the one on the auto dealership the daughter dealership itself has a separate value for the building it's just the solar field itself has its own account and again they pay a fee per kW to the state if it's over 50 kW and generally we're at 15-20% of the total tax rate so it's actually with the tax credits if you have the coin it's a pretty good investment or it used to be when they were giving tax credits the only other thing I think is to talk about how we appreciate and what we plan for the future because I think we've passed which we're just finishing up for 2018 and Tom is gearing up with I think a good working relationship through Dana with Rosemary and Corinne to start the Unlanded Mobile Homes and there's about 200 of those Tom is going to work into a schedule while they're here on Wednesdays Clarissa will continue to be here and we're going to update those for what the market says as of April 1st, 2019 so that'll be what we call a categorical re-appraisal of homes in the six or seven parks in town Weston's being the biggest but the other one's off of a very low credit road and we re-visited the agreement we have and reserved out of what Tom and Clarissa are going to make on that project to work something out with Dana in the town if Corinne ends up being overwhelmed and the workload for her helping Tom with scheduling exceeds what her normal work schedule is but we think it's a natural because she's here and she knows the people of Rosemary knows the people when we did the last re-appraisal 10 or 11 years ago the town did schedule them for us and Rosemary was heavily involved in that so my understanding of how that works is you are going to be sending them out increments, not all at once as far as so many then there'll be an instruction for them to make an appointment and I think Corinne would be natural because lots of people might just stop in to do it thinking that they could do it and also you'll have a telephone number they can call and she would be good at tracking who's checked in and when it is and both type of things Did I refer to this card? Yeah I'm terrible with names but that's good, yeah and that was the item in our values that was most a skew Unlanded mobile homes are always a problem because a lot of times it depends on the park you can take a mobile home and put it in four different parks and on the site it'll have a different value it'll show up with different sale prices based on the desirability of the park I mean if your parks are pretty much similar it's not a big issue in Hartford we had like a lot we had five parks that were dynamically different and so it was they're tricky and while the salvage value if you pull them off is not much they're sitting in the park they carry value but it's a tough category it keeps the equity in because of that So a year from now when we're sitting here having this meeting those values will be incorporated into the Grand List That's correct We did the same thing in St. George for this year about half of their Grand List is Unlanded Mobile Homes they had a COD or coefficient of dispersion which is supposed to be under 20 for that category of 48 it was huge Clarissa had mentioned one park there were three vacant homes that are ready to torture them they would go down and watch them and the other one was up for sale so people were anxious Anything else? Any questions for them? Thank you all very much I appreciate you working with us Dana Let's get our models Clarissa you're a natural at this you should be on television Don't forget your keys Stop for a meeting There you go Treasury report now Okay I want to make you aware that the VMware's rate of the employer has changed and the last time it changed was in 2015 we're on plan B so it went from 5.5% to 5.625% which is under 4% but that's the first time it's changed in three years and now I want to let you know too as far as the amount of money that's in the reappraisal account we have $185,375 in that reappraisal account we have in the sub-accounts all and I'm sure that we will not be using anywhere near that amount for the mobile homes so we'll still have a good balance left afterwards have they given us a sense of what that time commitment for that would be and how much of that budget would have to happen to? I think they told us it was $85 per trailer times it by $200 We discussed that I can give you that figure but I'm sorry to have it in my head but that's where we have adequate In the last full-time appraisal we had done was what $120,000 I don't know what the amount was $120,000 I think that was the ballpark Are we still putting money into that every year? No We don't because we have such a $185,000 is a lot If we were to have a reappraisal then we probably with the first few years have to start putting money back into it because the state replenishes it for is it like between $12,000 and $13,000 a year the state contribution goes in every year But it got to the point where we were our CLA was so high that there was no point in putting money into it I can't remember what board did that one but a while ago I think it's back and it's before Diane so I think it was like in 1912 I think we had like $150,000 in the account and we just said no more and the state keeps adding to that account and then I want to make you aware that the assessors are supposed to be helping me print tax bills on July 10th because I have to have them out the door by July 15th and that's all I've got So they've been working out well seems like they have We've had a very nice relationship It's really worked out well and it's you know I think for from their standpoint it's something different and I think it's they've been very amenable to what we want The few times I've been in just as a person they were great they were helpful and I think even the grievance people understand if you explain it to them so they can be understood and I think they're good at that So did he he said a few I'm not sure I'm not sure you're going to have that one yet Anything else? Yeah, thank you very much Approval of license, permits, vouchers and applications We've approved general fund accounts payable warrant number 18G26 with checks 18208 through 18230 in the amount of $16,145 and ten cents Also general fund accounts payable warrant number 19G01 with checks 18231 to 18241 in the amount of $46,453 Also to void check 18228 and also approve payroll warrant number 18-26 for payroll from June 10th, 2018 through June 23rd, 2018 in the amount of $41,168 and $55 Second Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye Aye Those opposed, motion carries Okay, town plan discussion and approval That was the item needed for the Board needs to approve the town plan in order for us to send it forward. As you know the planning commission had two public hearings and you have now had two public hearings They've taken input they've addressed been responsive to the input The consultant I think that we had was a very good consultant and has it well organized and I think we have a very workable plan for the town for the next eight years So move to approve the town plan has approved by the planning commission with the proposed amendments as reviewed at the 25th of June, 2018 Select Board hearing Second Any further discussion? Hearing none, those in favor signify by saying aye Aye Those opposed, motion carries Sewer division funding approvals for capital project The sewer division as you know has been working on a project for changing the sewer line They have run into a few changes, originally it was felt that we could eliminate the Shaw's lift station and have the sewer rerouted down Paintern Pike North via gravity to the connection to the Montpelier sewer line which is not possible due to sizing of the Montpelier sewer line The engineer the sewer division is rerouting that hoping that we can avoid a lift station but I'm not sure at this point whether that's going to be the case or not The sewer division also has voted to go forward with this plan in your packet I gave you a copy of their minutes where they approved that and they need obviously funding they are proposing to go out to the town for a bond both in the amount of $2,200,000 is the estimate In the interim they are proposing to take a loan from the state clean water fund to cover engineering costs for $42,212 Both of those loans need to be approved by this board and for them to go forward the bond approval for the $2,200,000 will the next item on your agenda is approving the warning which means they would go to the town for a vote to see if the town voted to proceed with the bond So they are looking for your approval of these two loans The interim loan would be paid back by the bond What they are actually proposing doing is this this additional line including any improvements to some pump stations that may be necessary Is this servicing additional customers? There will be a potential to pick up additional customers Richeson Road Birch Drive I think it is as well as development downpaint turned by north that is expected to occur The motion that we need to have now I guess I would look to you for two motions to approve the interim loan for the preliminary cost $42,215 and the second for the bond approval for the total amount Move to Pursuit the loan in the amount of $42,415 for the engineering for the sewer project Any further discussion? Do you think that motion is sufficient? Yes Because I am going to have you sign for the loan in a moment Fair enough Just want to restate the amount Jeremy Sure $42,250 On the loan agreement document in the packet says $42,415 On the on the warning it says $42,215 On the loan agreement What's going on? Straighten that out See $42,415 on the email between you and Tom So I know what you are looking at Jeremy You are looking at the total The payments are $42,241,15 And I am looking at the I think it is my mistake It is $42,415 I am sorry I just wanted to clarify that I need glasses Any further discussion on that? Hearing none Those in favor Motion carries So the paperwork I have on that if I could just interrupt just to get that signed Brad I would need you to sign this line $42,415 This is similar to the loan that was recently taken out for the water division And a portion of those loans is expected to be forgiven And I am still waiting for one that we have Today is the second I need you to sign as the chair on that one please And then I need all board members to sign these two Is that for the same $42? It is for the same loan This thing And then a motion on the bond approval for projects cost of $2.2 million So move to approve the project cost for the sewer project in the amount of $2 million to $200,000 Second Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying Aye Those opposed both carries I don't have anything for you to sign on that but I do have on the next item things for you to sign Okay, terrific And This is the next item is to approve the special town meeting warning and notice And as well as the official ballot The two items on the ballot are article one shall the voters of the town of Berlin adopt the 2018 Berlin town plan as filed with the Berlin town clerk on July 3rd 2018 And the second is shall a general obligation bond or notes of the town of Berlin payable from revenues derived from the operation of the town's municipal sewer system in amount not to exceed $2 million $200,000 from the receipt of available state or federal grant in aid be issued for the purpose of financing the town's share of the cost of construction a sewerage collection and distribution line on paying term pipe from Route 62 to Stewart Road the estimated cost of such improvements is $2,200,000 And that's what if you approve this the voters of the town would be asked Move to approve the review I'm sorry move to approve the warning and notice for the ballot items the primary election on August 14th 2018 Second Any further discussion? There are none those in favor Pause for a second That's all right Motion carries I don't know what I do but I hear $2,200,000 it really scares me Well that hasn't been approved yet It may scare other people too Thank you Are we going to send us some notices maybe on the front porch forum or something like that to say Hey, this is what this is Tom is he and I have talked a little bit about the public relations part of it Also there has been a a salary survey underway being done for this project I don't know if you've gotten one in the mail but I'm not sure what Did they choose just Suarez or Holtown? I saw an email I don't remember seeing the survey that went up by mail And they sent out two surveys so far and now they're going door to door Unless you filled it out You didn't get one either? I don't think so Or maybe it's one of those things you just filed it to open the stuff for the town Well it's not from the town It was a rural water association I almost think they'll be involved because I also got it but I think it was the town of Berlin Of course I expected it too Right So is it that we need a certain percentage of people in town to respond and then let's see what income threshold Yes It's like we're reviewing approval of fiscal year 2019 salary As you know when the budget was built back I guess it was last December the non-union employees it was built in the budget to offer a 2% raise to the non-union employees These figures represent that 2% I will point out that Tom We are looking at the portion of his salary that is for zoning Water and sewer His water and sewer funding which is 16 from sewer 5 from water so that's 21,000 Comes from the water sewer division So portion from the general fund is actually voting on the 4232 for Tom which is included in the list here So his budgeted rate for the town is $20.40 Whereas his actual rate is different $30.50 with the water and sewer Otherwise this is strictly a 2% increase Yes it is to approve the fiscal year 19 salary and wages as presented Second Any other discussion on this Hearing none Those in favor Those opposed Go for carries Setting a municipal fiscal year 2019 tax rate David Yeah Now that we have the grand list and we recently last Friday I guess the state figures of the school so I'm going to give you an updated sheet that we just did today that shows the state I said I was going to make copies of those and I didn't so let me go do that So our meeting with those guys making all the racket maybe switched over to the zoning issue They were out there today going pretty quickly All three weeks and Saturday night Was that them? I mean it's loud It woke me right up and it said it's so weird because he says I'm the only one I take everyone down there and I say what about shooting at night because that ain't me and so you just told us you're hearing it from somewhere else and that's teachers will say whatever he needs to So anyways there was a second morning over there maybe So we have the municipal portion of the tax rate last year the rate was 4670 per hundred There are two scenarios that we've given you and again the rate is made up with the budget voted by the town the article appropriations for the special articles plus the fire department The other items we can subtract from that are our income items our item from other revenues our pilot money and our current use money that comes in from the state which is 455,000 so we need to raise by taxes 2,700 in one scenario 2,798,235 that is if we don't use any of the excess undesignated funds that were in the audit report last year which is 43,912 so on the left is the rate not using the undesignated fund on the right is using and I think when we were working on the budget 55 cents is about where we were when we were doing that so 0.5595 without the undesignated and 0.5707 using that 43,000 What that does for the municipal rate and correct me Diana I've got this mixed up but on a $200,000 home it would increase not using that excess $185 for the year for the municipal portion only and $167.60 if you use the 43,000 using adding it in obviously you have to pay the education taxes with that the education rate so homestead is $1.6683 is that right and the non homestead I only put the homestead you just use that one for this purpose and that's what I did last year as well this is just an example so it shows that if you had a $200,000 home using the first scenario your bill would be up just under $300 $277.80 and in the other scenario $260.40 because the school portion was up about $90 $92 something like that last year we had the advantage of a pretty good excess because of the winter before we hadn't spent it on winter maintenance but unfortunately we don't have that luxury this year How so we have 43 undesignated that was the increase from the FY17 the year before it was like $135,000 last year it was 43 so how much do we have in the bank right now we do have other undesignated funds which Diane has and this is as of the end of last year obviously because we don't have this series numbers yet so all in all we got $583,411 of undesignated as of the recommendation of the state is to have 5% of your budget undesignated 5% to save 5% of your budget so we certainly have that we're not in bad shape with the money that's in the bank almost 20% obviously it would be wonderful to use that for the tax rate it would be a great help to the tax payers but as I mentioned last year it's kind of a false tax rate it's going to catch up with you if not this year that's sort of moving things from a one time money into the budget that we've seen this in the news already and having the comfortable, undesignated fund balance does assure us that we have a disaster that we have to finance I mean doesn't like Barry City borrows to meet cash flow I heard that we don't have to do that because we have sufficient resources good because it doesn't cost us any money but second of all we also don't have the administrative overhead of tracking down okay we can get a line of credit and we do get interest on that money although it's abysmal is it just in the savings account it's a sweep it's a sweep account at the bank it's really the highest that we can legally do legally you won't let us do the pork bellies and things like that we'll talk after so I think it makes perfect sense I think the increase is pretty minimal yeah I mean it's not much but I think the budget we passed it's not great but I think having spent what we did and the other part of it is I always hate having to tell people there's an increase in taxes however you have things that have to be done the mirror lake called the equipment the roads the police unfortunately you've got balance both sides well we started that equipment fund or did that get no we started that and it stayed whole so far we've had two days and we haven't raided it yet this is the first year that we started that how much are we putting into that 50 well it's with the culverts it's kind of just a mass amount I don't have that right here but it was I think it's like 184,000 but that was but that's with the culverts and we didn't designate which was going to be rich it's just a lump sum amount our hope is not that the money that we don't spend on the culvert that we can roll over into a reserve account this time next year and then keep adding to that reserve that way when we need the new grade or we need the new see if we could get our borrowing so we don't have to borrow for equipment we must have the money in case that something just get it off I wonder if we off to set a policy at some point looking at the so if there's $500,000 in the bank essentially that's a reserve account does it make sense in just looking at like a 5 year plan or 10 year plan for this kind of capital account as we're putting money into it does it make sense to maybe seed if we say we want to be at 5% we want to be at 10% whatever we say then when we have that comfortable offer there we can take the rest of that and then say okay now we'll get that capital expense account started and then we'll get that expectation that year after year down the road that we'll be buying into it and we can maybe I'm not sure if I'm understanding what you're saying you're saying that using the fund balance to use that as seed money is that what I'm hearing? put that into one of these reserve accounts okay I think you would need voters approval certainly it's a good idea maybe that's something we should consider but I might think about it because otherwise if it's sitting there and earning 1.5% and it would still be earning the same 1.5% if we put it in a reserve account sure but rather than being a really really large buffer we could actually put it to use we would be able to handle as big of an emergency I guess generating revenue with that money at a greater rate generating revenue or at least offsetting future interest if we have our the trucks getting replaced on a regular cycle we're still pulling money into it don't get me wrong but if we can get started with that there I think it's we can sort of spread that spread that out I think that's a good idea more cash well naturally we try to get the most interest with that bigger interest comes the bigger risk I don't regret that but if we can avoid taking out loans that's how many percent I remember one of the fire department meetings they were talking about a new truck that was astronomical and you are going to let them come to you coming and not very long and it makes you great it looks cheap so I guess we're looking to have you tell us what you'd like us to set the rate at as Diane mentioned we need to plug that in and get tax bills out so that would be out in time to be collected August 15th which the voters voted for the first due date I would personally keep the un-designated funds for the town just looking for like you say where that culvert was a surprise that's pretty big money but we have that money we do have that money in our budget and we've got the grant that will cover the 80 percent of the culvert so that culvert but we still have another one in Richardsonville that we don't have which obviously we have to deal with that as well so it's going from 46.70 to 55.08 even with the un-designated funds tax rate I mean that's a that's a significant jump I think it is well the total bill would be just under $260 increase on a $200,000 house as opposed to $277 right if you don't use any of the just to use another figure from the the $500,000 we have in the un-designated fund what we've done traditionally is every year is take the previous years excess and presented it to you what do we usually do with it give it back oh we do I mean it's their money as you said you give it back now and you ask for twice as much next year because that's what's built up our $500,000 over years is this under-spending the budget or greater revenues than we anticipated we do we're very conservative with revenues as I always mention because I'd rather have too much than not enough and then be pleasantly surprised and we've been consistently as long as I've been here consistently coming in under budget not really having to tap into this I wouldn't be super surprised if we come up with roughly the same amount of un-designated funds next year too next year we hopefully shouldn't see that sort of artificially inflated jump next year if there is a jump so it sounds like you guys think we should give it back I think so okay so like about $55.08 rounded up we have to set the municipal tax rate to 0.5508 second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor those vote motion carried would you have to do what you need Diane to get the bills out tomorrow morning by 9 o'clock start that pot of coffee right now yeah I would be okay a plural amount of agreement this is the annual agreement that you signed for the auditors the letter basically outlines the responsibilities that the town has to provide them information and a system in the audit and also that they're not responsible for anything so it really works nicely but it is something that is traditionally done every year and it calls for the signature of myself and the board chair when is their contract up this is the last year so we'll be preparing that for bid coming up move to move to authorize the town administrator and the board chair to sign the audit agreement second all those in favor two of the same the auditors again Diane they're coming in for the preliminary the preliminary of the August 27 and then the audit itself will be the first week of October the nice thing about having the same auditors more than one year is we don't have to reinvent the wheel you actually save money because they have all the information that's a big plus we kind of know what to expect from them and they know what to expect the most what we were told also by other people is that because the firm is big enough that what some companies do is what they say we'll stay with your firm but we want another one of your auditors to do the audit and we've heard of that so fresh eyes we might want to consider that next time thank you approval of select board minutes for can't do it I need the one okay I'll bring those back town administrator's report we have put out the winter sand bid that will be we've asked to have the bids come in for your next meeting which is July 16th yes July 16th I also received a letter today that from Beth doubt that she would like to send to Berlin residents regarding the ash borer giving information we spoke with Beth a few years ago regarding that few weeks ago did I say years how time flies and I'm still working on getting right a ways but Beth plans to do an inventory in the fall and this was a letter that she has asked if we could send out I thought if you chose to send it out we could include that with property tax bills that's a great idea perfect I think it's a good letter it advises people of what the ash borer is Beth and Dave didn't want to have their contact information on the current year that's a very good question I don't know because I mean if somebody asks you I would refer it to them anyway questions about that I see they put a number down for Dan okay I did put Dan's number in there maybe he's a better person to contact anyways I don't really need a motion just a consensus I would also like to inform you of kind of an unfortunate mistake that was made I was under the impression that Tim had told me that we were going to re-bid the paving bid for Pain Turnpike North and Granger Road that was the additional paving and as you remember at the paving we had quite a discussion on paving and that was discussed we had Tim and I put out a second bid which really we should not have because it was discussed at the meeting that you had so I have retracted that bid but in the event someone says something to you that is what happened it's unfortunate I'm sorry it happened and we will take steps so that doesn't happen again was it a bid or was it one was doing tonnage and one was doing yards well the bid was the bid but they were doing it in two different ways and we were it was a so I was sort of what happened is the conversation the bid that we originally sent out was for Fisher Road only because of the grant that we're getting but then Tim is always trying to get as much done as he can and I don't blame him so if he had money left over in his budget he was talking doing north there's a section there that needs to be done by Shaw's going up through the intersection and then Granger Road also is in need of being some attention Tim and at that meeting they were informally talking about what it would cost per ton to do that and so by putting out the second bid we really are not that's not the right thing to do since they already talked about it I was thinking of something different but I wanted you to be aware that happened Wayne doesn't know about it I haven't talked to Angelina about it but I will so in the event someone asks you we've rescinded the bid the other item that is an open item that we've been working on is Brown Mill Road the speed limit on Brown's Mill Road the police department went down one day and sat there I guess at the end of the day and kind of monitored traffic I've asked them to put the speed limit machine down there although that doesn't record anything I shouldn't say that in public but it does so the only person that knows they've gone speeding is the person doing it and I've asked Bill today if we could do another maybe in the morning say seven in the morning that the guideline from the state about taking a survey of 100 cars and so forth we're trying to stay as much as we can but I don't know 30 cars maybe going out of that road you have to live there to want to go there so I will be bringing that back to you once we have the second and I'm hoping the next week we'll have a second visit that the police will give you some the data is limiting right now when he was there he did not really see any evidence of speeding and he was in a place where he wasn't recognized as they are so good at so anyway that's still on the table and that I guess was the end of my report okay I think you did it round table peep Dana on the on the bid for the asphalt is there any way that we could just take and word it so that it's for the job not by the ton not by the it's for the job we want two inches taken out we want two inches put back that's the distance that's the width give us your bid I think that's an excellent idea we are also going to work on both pike and Hutchins unsuggested bids to make it as clear as possible nobody's going to have the same tonnage their calculation is always going to be we are looking for the price per ton yes you want to have we're going to pave half a mile it's so many feet 2,500 feet it's 40 feet wide or whatever I think the vendor certainly would want to get an estimate but that would be up to them and we would come because we're not we're not professional paving I think my goal is to be as inclusive as possible and also to be as clear on the bid as possible and I don't mind asking people and telling them I need help to do that well you're thinking you did it by the job it would take out all the right all the so I think that's I think we're in agreement so does paving come I know it comes in different sizes so different would they determine well we would tell them that we'd want you know like an inch overlay or a 2 inch base and another inch overlay however they were that we would figure in what they need but I mean the actual aggregate itself doesn't that come in different sizes well you got base coat which is a little bit coarser then you have a top coat which is your smaller stone so we would know everyone's given us the same product that's what we have we would also and what we learned last time was we'd also have to know is it being reclaimed are we using that material as a base for the new road we can off the road and we had that discussion but you did it by the job you can always put those little caveats in there the tailings come back to the town garage whatever you want to do but easier to understand stuff easier for us why this year was so difficult because I mean really we've been using the same bid but we were converting the yards to the tonnage to the comparison the tonnage of this one was it got confusing any discussion tonight? no second all in favor?