 the meeting of the Arlington Finance Committee to order. I think John you'll have to hang over there until we get a seat for free. Okay, everybody set? Okay, so our first hearing today is the Arlington Public Arts Article 37. We had some discussion of this on June 1st at our June 1st meeting and we asked them to come back. January 1st, what? January? February 1st. What did I say? June. Yeah, jumping ahead. Okay, so if you could give an update and the materials that you've sent out and what you have, we appreciate it. Right, so I did send everybody some more information. Yes, I'm Andrea Arch from Arlington Public Arts. We are a small committee part of Vision 2020 soon to be part of our bigger vision under the auspices of ACAC Cultural Commission. Until that happens, though we are still part of it, Vision 2020. And I first I'd like to say that you also have this wonderful zine magazine created by the artists and Cecily Miller, our public art consultants. We are so grateful to you all for approving the fine the funding for the public art consultant as the capstone of the fantastic Mass Av renovation project that completed last year. And we have have so many positive responses to this project. People stopped us on the street when we were putting up these giant repasted images of the wonderful shop owners and gallery owners. Mark Gertin is here from Thirteen Forest. He's been a proprietor over 10 years on Mass Av, nine years. And he can speak to this himself about the positive responses, the good feelings that people had by seeing the people that run the stores, run the shops, make that part of Arlington so unique and so special. So I just wanted to provide each one of you with this and you can read about these people. You can read their stories, including Emily Kanaf, who's the young librarian who works at the Fox Library. And the Friends of the Fox Library gave us quite a bit of funding in response to the fact that this project was going on. So just quick to say thank you so much for that decision. That was so helpful and really has just I think done a lot to keep us all moving in that same direction of yes, the arts are important. Yes, you know, our cultural commission can bring us under one group, under what heading. So we would very much like to have somebody like Cecily Miller continue to work with Arlington. We think that this is a wise investment that she can write grants to leverage the funds. As you can see, you know, we're looking to a one to one match this year if we can, maybe more than that. This is what she did more than that last year. She raised in grants more than she was actually paid herself. So we're hoping to do that in more. We you know, we really want Arlington to become an arts and culture destination, which brings people to spend money in the restaurants and the shops. Not to mention just meeting your neighbors because you see something really interesting outside and you want to talk to somebody about it. So at any rate, that's that's what we're hoping to do. Okay. Um, is anybody else like to add anything? Yeah, I was going to say, on top of the fact, what just to add to what Adrian said, it's it's the value, of course, to the businesses in Capital Square was was measurable, but it also brings different folks to the neighborhood from outside of town to come in and go to like a unique neighborhood like ours, which has unique shops and unique restaurants. We're getting new restaurants and new businesses all the time. And it also, you know, if you think about it brings people into town who might then start to think, well, maybe I'm going to move to this town. And so it increases the property values from that standpoint as well. So, you know, we moved just a little bit about our gallery. We started in Medford Square. That's why we were called 13 Farms, because that was our address there. And when we moved to the to Arlington, it was because if you guys remember, there was Monroe Saltworks, that was in the neighborhood. And I thought that was a great little anchor for that neighborhood. Of course, now they just sell pizza over there. But before that, there were a lot of different unique businesses, not chains that are there. And it makes it a very unique place for people to shop. And I can tell you that my customers come from all over the, you know, I mean, I have a lot of great customers for Arlington, but they come from all over the western suburbs and as far as Newton and all kinds of places are coming in. So it does bring this kind of thing does bring people to the neighborhood. And this particular project, and Cecily herself, who has traveled around the world studying public art and bringing unique ideas to to our little quarter of it was particularly useful in just just I don't know if you folks got to see the week page project, but it was really amazing seeing the artists putting up the you know, and putting up not only putting them up, but devising them as they were going along because they had to photograph us. And they had to listen to our customers were each interviewed, and had to give a particular, you know, spent on our on our businesses. So it was a very interesting project. And I have a newsletter that I said, I should all sign up for it. I saw that I send out every two weeks. And, you know, there's 6,000 people on my list. And I made a very big deal out of it. So, like I said, I'm publishing this thing out to, you know, outside of the community. So, okay, thank you. Sure. Either anybody else like to add anything? I would just add that Arlington is known for that it has mass ab is this spine and people think that is a place to get from one place to another. And when we were dealing with the mass every design people were concerned there was going to slow traffic because people like to just drive through Arlington and and there's, you know, there's a reluctance to close mass ab except for on town again, because it's this thoroughfare. But when you have these murals up, and you have public art that's visible from mass ab on the street in the larger than life form that these were, it really helps people slow down, which is first of all, you know, a bit safer, but also lets them know this is a neighborhood, you know, people live here, and people are doing interesting things here. And this is a neighborhood that expresses itself and you might want to stop, you might want to stop and park, maybe have lunch here, take a walk around, look at these things. So, you know, then it changes what the people's perception of Arlington. Okay, questions from the committee. Tom couple. So you do all these business and all these buildings. So do you get permission from the land? Yes, yes. Who takes the app off it when that business should leave? Yeah, that's they're all gone. And we actually hired a business called Atlantic power washing. And then the town actually did the one in the Fox library. And they were made to be temporary. And we're not talking about doing this project again, we were just saying, you know, that this was something that happened in the next projects will be different and try to be appropriate to that part of town. So we hope to do something on the bike path temporary projects on the bike path. And again, somebody like Cecily doesn't just go and plump something down without talking to what people want, what people would like to see, how they feel about that part of the neighborhood. This is her. And also public art, anybody else that we would hire, like Cecily would be somebody who would try to figure out what is this community want. So we're looking at the bike path. We're also looking at possibly using the town hall garden for for a short temporary piece since they put the bike lane in on that set. What is have you considered what is the percentage of people that want that bike path out there? Arlington residents that we see this? I think that would be a question for the bike advisory committee. Yeah, they probably collect that kind of information now. But I'm sure lots of people from Arlington and beyond Arlington use that path. And it is the 25th anniversary of the bike path this year. So we're really working with a lot of other groups to coordinate and help to celebrate it with this with this exact thing with some kind of already said that arts. Yeah, actually, I have something that he already for public art. Have you even considered doing now in the center of the Heights? Yeah, we're absolutely would love to we just we do need funding. We do need a way to make it happen. What would be your rationale? The bike path would be before the center of the Heights? Well, one thing the bike path anniversary is one thing that that has come up. The other reason is that we are looking into the well, we're just about to receive cultural district designation. And that was for applied for the center and East and East Arlington together. So the bike path is a natural bridge between those two things and a better place we think for placement of temporary public art is this less sort of unmassive. It's such a kind of hard place to deal with. Thank you. And even though we're using the center and that area right now in the bike path, bike path obviously goes all the way through Arlington. So we see this as a way to to test working with with the rules that apply. One more thing you have to make this really benefits more than the store owner. Does the Arlington taxpayer? This was an argument that we heard quite a bit about. Yeah, does the store owner contribute any monies? What I was trying to think whether I did well as a whole and it wasn't asked to. So I mean, we're asking the taxpayer to help the store. Well, in this case, because it was a storefront story thing that the next project that that work could be completely different would be would have nothing to do with the next project. But we give you for this project. You know, I actually don't know how much money it was. Okay, I can't thank you. But I do I do want to answer your question because we get you get a lot more for your daughter than you think because we're all volunteering on time. Yeah, rather than running our business in the volunteer time, but it's still benefiting more the store owner than it does the Arlington taxpayer who was putting out the money. And then necessarily because you're introducing the people that work, you know, they're in these shops to the community. They're saying, Oh, there's a face. There's a person. There's a family here. You know, this is something that's so unique to Arlington. We don't want to have the gaps in the Burger Kings and all the rest of it. In East Arlington, we want to have these special small but but again, that was just a project that happened in there for that particular time. And but I want to say that we've done a fundraising project every year through public public art called cheerful where you sit that has raised a lot of money. You know, people artists give their time to to renovate a chair that would people people creative people all all over the place have taken chairs that would have other been otherwise landed up in in the landfill to decorate them design them and sell them for $100 apiece. And that money, their artistic ability, you know, is they don't get anything back for that. They're people buy them and they enjoy this beautiful chair. So we've saved chairs from the landfill over at this time, probably have saved over 500 chairs from the landfill. They ended up in somebody's backyard in someone's living room and they enjoy them. And, you know, that is a way that, you know, we've really supported what we've done. We paid for the art to that way. We didn't pay for Cecily that way, but we paid for all of the things ourselves that way. Okay, other questions? How much money do you have remaining? Um, we are in the nature of $5,000 right now. And but that's to pay for the art. I mean, we need something to pay for the art with. So we are hoping. I know that. Yeah. Yeah. Want to know what the balance was you have remaining. Yeah. To be clear, do you mean on the money that was that came from what I mean, left on the public art? Bounds on the account for Arlington public arts? Approximately for $5,000. That's money that was raised. It wasn't the money that was that was awarded from the. Is the bike path a really good place to put public art? It's isolated. The minute it gets dark, it's subject to vandalism versus East Arlington Mass Ave, Arlington Center of the Heights, much less susceptible to vandalism. I mean, I think we've, you know, we can say I would say that it's the places that haven't been taken care of that are most susceptible to vandalism that we've had these transformer boxes painted those switch boxes that other people call them switch boxes, transformer boxes. You've seen them around town. Not one in the last three years has been touched. I mean, they are pristine because people respect them and they, you know, kids aren't interested in something that looks nice there. They want to put their tag on something that looks lousy. So I'm not personally concerned about that. Yeah, well, yeah. But still, I mean, it's we think it's an interesting place. We think it's a delightful place because it is off the beaten track. It's a place where people walk all the time and enjoy nature. And we, we, you know, of course, will pick pieces that will jive well with that setting. You know, we, there are all kinds of concerns and that's what we will totally take that in consideration. This is why you have a professional public art curator because they know artists, they know, you know, about looking for the appropriate piece, the thing that's going to be meaningful and speak well and and and really, you know, avoid vandalism, if at all possible. So right, and safety issues are paramount. Yeah, they're just so you don't put something up there that in there that that that is going to be, you know, begging for right. And I believe lighting is being considered for the bike path, particularly that area of the bike path by the planning department. I believe consider somewhere in there. And the other thing I would say is that it is it is heavily used. And the and part of the design is to make East Arlington to Arlington Center and back more walkable. Just because going Mass Ave that whole way, you know, you would need a lot of money to really dress that up like a boulevard fashion and to really and there's no commercial stuff going on there. So you really really have to work hard to make public art, draw all the interest between East Arlington and Arlington Center along that spot of Mass Ave without anything else going on to support it. But we can bring it, you know, from Mass Ave down Linwood Street to that spy pond area and along, you know, the bike path there and, you know, sort of integrate that and make it more of a connector. So that's part of the idea. So part of it is scale both for the art and for the budget and part of it is for that kind of connectivity and varying the environment that you would experience. And these are temporary pieces. We're not talking and nobody's talking about something that's going to be there forever and ever at all. This is not getting in a coliseum or the panther. No, no, no, no, no. So, you know, yeah. Okay, other questions. Thank you very much for coming. We really appreciate your time. Thank you. So we're here for the next piece. Then did you have any questions in so far as the budget, the annual budget request for the Commission on Arts and Culture had been discussed. I don't know if there were questions and I thought I hadn't been on the previous conversations. I thought we were unresolved or as am I or are you any further questions for any of us on the Commission on Arts and Culture, which is a separate budget request. Anybody have any other questions for the Arlington Arts and Culture? Commission, right. Now my understanding is that the Arlington Arts and Culture was created by Biwa many, many, many years ago to act as an overseer over all the artists activities in the town of Arlington. That's right. Okay. And one of the things that we were charged with, we actually just began in 2013, even though the 1993 town meeting article with the Biwa was enacted, I guess, and that but 2013 when we were populated and in the list of things we, our responsibilities include putting together a cultural plan, which thanks to FinCom funding and a terrific, really active work on the part of the Department of Planning and Community Development, they found additional grants so that we are really actually doing very well in that cultural planning process. It will, we have done a survey of about a thousand people. We've had nine focus groups. We will be doing a big public meeting in the town hall in March 1st to get as much input as possible. We hope we actually the schedule we are on schedule for working with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and we have another consultant with funds from the CBDG funds to help do two things. One is the come up with an action plan and we're on schedule to finish that at the end of this fiscal year and also to use in the CDBG grant. We are working with the Planning Department also to coordinate the disparate town arts and culture groups that I think confuse many of us so that the commission, although the overall entity is one of those. The Arlington Cultural Council, which grants provides grants to artists has money coming from the State Cultural Council. That's another group. There's the Arlington Public Art Group. I point to Adria, there are others, but Adria is heading that up. Then we have, as you know, as Adria just mentioned, we have an application to the State Cultural Council for a designated cultural district, waiting to hear, but we have a whole managing partnership of many from Arlington Friends of the Drama to the Dallin Art Museum to the Historical Society. And Robin's Library. And Robin's Library. Working together, ACA, lots of them, working together and that's another group that I think shows that we can work together, the towns involved in that too. And then ATED, the Tourism and Economic Development Group, if we can figure out a way to award me, really streamline, be efficient, have a single entity for the town, that would be our goal also coming from this cultural planning process. So our fiscal year 18 request is all about implementation of what we will have accomplished in our planning process to the end of this fiscal year. And that's what I'd love to answer questions about, or any of us would. Adria and Stephanie are currently the co-chairs. I used to be a co-chair until recently. Your request was for 15,000, 15,000, 15,000 dollars. Correct. That's right. Okay. Are there any questions? Allen? Why are there so many different art groups? Why wouldn't it be more efficient to put them all together? That's what we're doing. That's what we're doing. They're historically different. The state funds, I don't know if it's most or every town, has a cultural council. So that comes from that direction. You know, our... So it's part of the mission to bring them all together on the project? That's what we're here. That's our mission within Arlington and I think that the... We'll do it one organization. Yes, by June we will be one organization. Yes, we want that desperately. I think everybody is a little bit confused. Who does what? Other cities have one entity and then they have the different... You know, they still could grant money from the state to artists. You can still accomplish it. We also have a very finite number of volunteers. I think the more synergy the better. And again, public perception of this really would be really helpful. I think it makes people's heads spin, but we're in process on that. Dick? What was your appropriation last year for the public art? Oh, now you're talking about public art. So that's again, I know it's confusing. I'm talking about the commission. Public art is separate. There was no appropriation here from public art. Last year, none. Two years ago, it was for the public art consultant and then it was 12,000. You get 12,000 two years ago? Two years ago. Fiscal years. And it wasn't two APA. It was actually... How much was your appropriation last year for the Arlington Commission on Arts and Culture? 4,000. We've gotten 30,000 more dollars from the appropriation we got in order to do our work. I mean, unusual and one-time events. From the town, you've got 4,000. Yeah, from the town. Correct. Yeah, other pain from other sources. The metropolitan area, planning council. Yes, other sources. OK, are there any other questions? OK, once again. OK, thank you so much. You're trying, guys. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Same to you. We'll stick around if you have any questions or you really don't need us anymore. No. OK. We're all safe. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. OK, let's take a minute to do the minutes. Peter sent the minutes out a couple of days ago. And hopefully everybody's had a chance to do it. Mary Margaret. I was just going to say, I think you just transposed numbers on the 215 minutes on the back page, the AYCC. Built the revenue and expense should be 630,000. They're both supposed to be the same, aren't they? Yes, 630 is the right number. Thank you. OK, are there any other corrections? Christine. Peter, on the first page, under water bodies, the Clinton Park, Tyrone reported that the recent survey revealed that the ground sludge is iron and manganese. Oh, OK. Where is that, Christine? It's in the middle of the page under Article 48, water bodies. It starts retention funds at the Clinton Park. I got it, yeah. The sludge is iron and manganese. And I think it's more accurate to say that it's not hazardous to humans, but potentially hazardous to wildlife, rather than not poisonous. OK. OK, are there any other corrections for the minutes? OK, do I have a motion? So moved. OK, moved and seconded to accept the minutes as corrected. Are there any other discussion? OK, all those in favor, please say aye. Opposed? Happy. OK. I'd like to discuss the arts situation. And right now, we have four groups. Two of them haven't come before as yet, but we have the Arlington Arts and Culture, which is asked for 15 for 15. Arlington alive, once 2,500. They do festivals and things like that, I guess. Arlington Public Art was requested 15. And the poet-oriented committee wants 500. So that's a total of $33,415. Last year, the Arts and Culture budget was $4,000. And then none of the others was appropriation of any. Two years ago, the public arts was $12,000, I think it was. And I've been talking a lot with the manager about this. And there's so many different groups that try to pull it together with a web page, which didn't appeal to me. Nothing brings people together like money. Now, the Arts and Culture group was actually created by by-law back in the early 90s or early 80s to act as this group. In other words, everything was supposed to be underneath them. I guess I would suggest, and we don't have to necessarily vote on this. People could think about it for a little bit. And I made the suggestion to the manager, and he agreed that would be a good idea for us, that instead of appropriating money for all these little groups, we put a chunk of money under the Arts and Culture and have them supervise the whole thing. Everybody's got to pay attention, got to go to them. So if the poet or it needs $200 for paper or whatever, they go to them. And the Arts and Culture knows that they're part of the group. In other words, we'd have it right in that committee report, Arts and Culture, X dollars, and underneath them was the other groups, the other three subgroups. And I don't know, is it better to have a website or is it better to have Art Public Guard on the bike path? And what Arlington Alive can do? But if we give them Arts and Culture that's created by a town by-law to do this specific thing, and we give them X dollars, and that should bring people together real fast. I was, I just pulled this out of the air, I was thinking maybe $25,000. And that'll be what we give. If you want more money, you've got to go out in some other place and get it. Grants and stuff like that, they seem to have a lot of enthusiasm, it's a lot of exciting, some of the things that are happening. But let the management take care of dividing up the money, we just decide how much to give them over a period of time. So I think, John, you raise your hand. One instance is in AYCC, for example, in which someone would spend some money appropriately. But it couldn't be done properly because the comptroller thought that somehow thought it was inappropriate. And I just want to be sure that the thing that you're trying to do will, in fact, be able to work. In other words, who will be in charge of the money and how can it be given out to these different entities? I'm not objecting, because I think you have a good idea. I just want to be sure that it will function the way you say it should function. Well, it would be the arts. I mean, it is a committee created by town bylaws to perform this function. OK, so let's say the poor lawyer wanted to buy whatever for 200 bucks. How would that occur? Would the committee buy it and just hand it to him? Is that how it would work? No, they would have to get approval from the Arts and Culture Committee to do that. If this became a problem, the year later, we could put it on the authority of the manager. And so if anybody has a problem, they'll have to go to him. I'm sure he doesn't want it. But that would be my thought. OK, let me just go right up then. Jonathan? I have a good idea. My question would be, would there be any restrictions on where the Cultural Commission, who they could raise money from, and any restrictions on how they could use whatever funds are? So for example, is there any restriction that would prevent them from taking $15,000 and hiring a consultant for the public art? And would the Cultural Commission still be eligible for granting under this cultural district mechanism that they're talking about? They're under the same restrictions as any other public body that gets public monies, as far as they cannot spend it for various items. But it would be their job to decide the best use of the money among their own and the other groups competing for it. It's your sense that they would not be under, they would not be restricted in any way differently than, say, the arts and public arts? Well, if the public arts group, which is a subdivision of Vision 2020, can go out and raise money, I'm sure they're going to go out and raise money, just like they are now. But the main committee, the arts and culture, they would have to decide exactly are they going to do X dollars of public art? Are they going to do a website? Are they going to work with Arlington Alive to do X, Y, and Z? This is giving them the same management control that public works or any other group has to do that. Alan? Two questions. The management committee would be making some decisions on appropriations. Who selects, how are those people appointed or elected? That's a good question. My guess is it's the, anybody have a talent reporter around here? My guess is it's the Board of Selection or the manager that appoint people to it. And a second question. Should we be considering something like a big chunk of seed money up front hoping that it would be self-sustaining after that? Are you thinking of an annual appropriation like water bodies? I would think like an annual appropriation. You know, with that, So in your annual, 25,000 a year. And then going forward, they know that's what they live with and then they go out and raise as much money as they can. Okay, so we're like 25,000 a year forever. Well, you know, forever is a long term, so. Something like that, yeah. Very Margaret? I just wanted to point out that on this committee is the director of the library, Andrea McAulay. So there is a town person who knows about budgets and money and has a sense of art and community. So there is some control there. Okay, Charlie? I just like to say that I think Alan's mentioned this seed money and trying to get some sort of sustainable organization in place. I think that putting taxpayers' money in year after year to support the quote unquote arts when they're basically undefined, I don't think it's a wise thing to do. I mean, art is something that's very special. We have, you know, the soccer club has to go out and raise money for themselves. And the hockey players have to raise money for themselves. I think that artists are no different. I mean, this is something that benefits the community just like sports. And it's not a result that necessarily appeals to or services everyone. So I think it's a pretty subjective thing. I think if, you know, I remember the town manager came before town meeting a couple of years ago on this subject. I can't remember exactly what the article was, but it just had to do with the arts. And they said they were looking to an appropriation to get this started. And it was to get the structure in place, but it wasn't to be funding art or artists per se. And I think this has sort of moved in that direction. And I happen to know that my wife is a big supporter of this, so probably in deep trouble for me, but. Only if she's watching TV. That's right. But I just think that if we can give money to that organization so that it can get some momentum and make itself a fundraising organization or somehow to sustain itself in the future, that's fine. But not everybody's definition of art is the same. Not everybody's taste is the same. And ultimately, I just don't feel that this is the way the town's money should be spent. Would you support extollars up front with the proviso that that will decrease over a period of time and then go to zero? Well, $25,000 is a lot of money. Yeah. I mean, they oughta be able to do some organizational work for $25,000. I mean, I remember five or 10 years ago, maybe it was 15 years ago, was it Raleigh Chappell who wanted to celebrate the bicentennial? And he came and he asked for $2,000. We wouldn't give it to him. We'd call him and go out and raise some money. And he did, and he organized quite a big celebration. And I did, this is, you know, I was a half teacher. Okay, Steve. Yeah, I just wanted to clarify in the appointment to the commission on the arts, the manager has six appointments. The seven members, the manager are 0.6, the school committee 0.1. And so that's how they get to that number. If they have sufficient funds through gifts, they can hire a staff director. If there isn't sufficient funds, there can be a staff director, but there's no payment for that person. So just, and that's when the buy a lot. This is a 1993 buy a lot? Yeah, well, 93 buy a lot, that's still a buy a lot. Okay, Gene, and then Peter. Yeah, I have the general same thoughts that Charlie does on this. The only difference, I think, is I kind of took a different approach to it. And then I think I like to be consistent in things. So when I break down the elements of the 25, 30,000, whatever, and it is some website work, I think, website, which two years ago, we told the tourism people no to. And I guess my question, as I think of my head, is if we say yes to them, well, that's inconsistent. And then if the rec department shows up and says, look, we've got like 10, 15 sports user groups that are kids that are everywhere, right? It'd be great if we just had one website, give us five grand for that. And I say that as someone who somehow in the last two years got sucked onto the Arlington Soccer Club board, because I'd like you guys to pay for it. I don't wanna pay for it anymore. I mean, so where does this end? So tourism now, arts and culture, yes, you get a website, sports groups, you show up, wow, and of course, you know, like sports parents would show up like crazy and would actually have people at this meeting. And so I think there's, I think we have to be consistent. And I think the same thing for branding and marketing. I don't remember giving, I remember the tourism people asked for that money too, and we said no to that as well. So I kind of go to that same thought process of when you become consistent in your application of funding, when do you become inconsistent because you're picking, you know, winners and losers. So I think from my perspective, if we pick the number out of this 15 grand and said, you know, they get their 4,000 from last year, maybe they get another 1,000 to help organize these other groups, that block of money is five grand, that makes sense. I don't know how the rest makes any sense. And then, it's not consistent with what we've done recently. It's not consistent with what we do next year when the next group show up. And then that other block of money for whatever they wanted to do on the bike path, well, that's a separate discussion. So that's just my thing. I'm sorry, that's same. And that's a separate discussion. I mean, because we funded it two years ago, so I can't say that we were inconsistent in that regard. So I mean, I guess I'm focused more on the 15, 4, 1, 5 that they asked for, which I know we didn't, we approve it all would be consistently applying what we've done either in the past or in the future. So I could see paring that down and then we could talk about the other sort of block of money. Okay, so part of this is whether to appropriate money towards these groups. And part of it is also how we managed to try to bring this together under one decent management organizational setup. So we don't have 10 or 15 groups coming before us every year looking for this piece or that piece. So those are, I think, a couple of issues, Peter. Two things. First of all, the Arlington public art, as you said, is a task group under Vision 2020. So if you make a list, I guess you should incorporate that in the list also. A list of groups. I don't know whether you've had that in mind or not. I'm sorry, other groups in Vision 2020? No, that particular group in 2020 is the one we've been listening to. Right. Arlington public art. Right. So I would suggest that in the list of groups that ACAC has been a supervisor, whatever, if you include that one. I don't know whether you did that. Yeah, I did. You just made your list, okay. I mean, the four ones that have come before is of Arlington Arts and Culture, Arlington Alive, Arlington Public Art and the Po-Orient Committee. These are the ones that are listed in Article 37. Well, these are the, you know, two of them are new. One of them we've dealt with before, the Arlington Public Arts two years ago. Arts and Culture, you know, has been part of it. I think we gave $4,000. So I mean, we got a lot of committees and commissions. None of the others wanted more money, you know. So, you know, our policy has always been if you don't need any money, you need to come before us. But this thing seems to be growing my concern. And I just want a consistent way going forward that we deal with all of it. And if we give whatever money we're given to one group and have them control it all, that's what I was trying to drive at. Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense. As far as a lot of money is concerned, the ATED, the Tourist Development Group, got $20,000 three or four years ago and following another $20,000. And for that, we got some signs. This group, without any money at all, these groups, I mean, have done all kinds of things with money that they've raised. It's very likely it seems to me that they'll continue to do all kinds of things. Allen? I just wanted to note that there's an art that doesn't seem to be represented here, which is music. Poetry seems to be coming in. But if we do make some sort of statement about a supporting appropriation, we should make sure it's inclusive of all the arts. Well, Porchfest does the work. Sculpture, Porchfest, you know, Porchfest, they're like the Philharmonic, there are plenty of music organizations that can do support, as well as sculpture, flower, transformer, boxes. Well, I mean, here we just do it. We have one arts and culture which is created by a town by law. So that's a town agency. So I'm just trying to deal with the ones that are coming before us now. I mean, we could divide them up and say yes, no, yes, no, or whatever. But I guess what I'm recommending is if we're gonna say yes, we put it under one group and have them handle it. Yeah, I agree. I'm looking at the by-law. There's no specification for which particular art they're talking about. There's arts and culture. So I just want to make sure. I remember when water bodies seemed to be only going to the spy plot and the resin, those plot, we said, no, look at all the water bodies. That's right. Same sort of statement, look at, you know, be inclusive of all the arts, not just the ones that you're representing. Tom. Not having the by-law in front of me, but it sounds like that by-law was meant to be. But these groups, they already are automatically going to that by-law. Now I see them drifting on their own. So I think it's the by-law we need to follow. Yeah, and it really, just a sort of art and culture. Which means that these groups should be talking to the by-law. And the by-law should be maybe coming to us. So the question is, who's going to control it? We already have it in place. I mean, that's my opinion. Not seeing the by-law in front of me. Yeah. What I'm sort of emphasizing is you've got more control if you're in charge of the money and you forced them to come before. Stephen? Yeah, well, and I also think we heard tonight that June helped to have everything consolidated. So if that's the case, then for fiscal 18, it should be one group. So in my mind, that's an appropriate suggestion to if we are going to recommend an appropriation, that it go to one group. It took to the by-law group, if you will. Okay, Mary Margaret. I was just going to echo that, but also that because they applied for that designation of our culture, it wasn't supposed to be just art. It was all culture. And I think their goal is by the two times that they've appeared, or the two different groups that they represent, and from talking to other people, the goal is to have it be one group. And probably we have to remind them of that, and say that that's how we can specify the money. And by the way, I just saw 25. I mean, we could be 15, it could be 20, it could be whatever we feel comfortable with on that. So, and I'm not sure if there's a lot of consensus right now, we don't have to go. Brian? I'm not sure where all this is, but historically, say over the last five years, how much money has been spent on, roughly, on these items, but Dean and I were just saying, I said, I don't remember that 12,000 two years ago. I tend to remember all these things. Normally, unless of course it's fading. But in general, how much money's been spent over the last five years? Well, I think, actually, I think it was 15. I only have last year's book. Last year, the public art was 15. And then last year we turned it down because they said, we told them in the thing that we'll give this to get you going, but to actually create the art, you need to go out and raise money, which they did. So, there, last year, arts and culture, we gave 4,000. Paul, Orient, and Arlington alive, we haven't given any. Charlie? Yes, so, Alan, I think you were leading the committee in the right direction with pointing out the existence of the bio law and having a structure here. But I wonder if the general discussion that we're having isn't somehow, are we making arts policy for the town? And if there is gonna be an arts and culture policy for the town, shouldn't it be at the Board of Selectment, not at the Finance Committee? Or are, every year, when they come here, are we gonna make a judgment about poetry versus music versus watercolors? I mean, I just think. That's what I'm trying to get away from by giving it to one group. Right. But in other words, I'm trying to get us out of policy and saying finance. This is how much we can afford to give on a consistent basis. Shouldn't the Board of Select, what I'm saying is, shouldn't the Board of Selectment, which is an elected body, and ostensibly responsible to the public, I shouldn't say it ostensibly, but it's not responsible to the public. He didn't mean that. I didn't mean it. And shouldn't they be saying, well, we wanna spend $100,000 a year on art, or we wanna spend $10,000 a year on art? I mean, that sort of direction should be coming from them, not from the Finance Committee. That's what I'm trying to say. Well, the request for appropriation is. Before us. To the Finance Committee. Oh, Grant. That's a good idea. That's what I'm trying to bundle up. How would the money, would the money be budgeted, or would it have to be done via warrant? Well, we do it under Article 44, the Committees and Commissions article. And we do it under that. So I think I'd say, take a letter, J, our own commission on arts and culture, X dollars. And then underneath that, I'd probably list small parentheses, Arlington Alive, Poet Laureate, and Arlington Public Arts. And we could even write a comment on how we think this should go. And then in the future, then there would be nothing to stop someone in the future of getting a bunch of signatures and trying to, and coming forth and asking for more money for a different art thing that would fall into this. The same way the water bodies kind of. I mean, anybody can put together 10 signatures and put a warrant article in and come before us. Our job is to sort of pull this together and make some reasonable financial sense for the town. Right, and our response, consistent response would be, no, we have to go before this commission for this committee that we established. And that would not have won off in front of a war. Yeah. John? Would it be possible and appropriate to go to the commission on arts and culture and ask them to work with these other groups to come up with a consolidated request of the finance committee so that we don't have to sit here and say, that's the problem. No, we're not, we're giving them X dollars, but that's what they said they're doing. This is sort of going in the direction that the town and they want to go in. Rather than, but I'm asking rather than us voting at this time to try and bundle this money in some form or fashion to get a supplemental request from the commission itself where they come up with the bundled amount that is appropriately appropriate. Well, my guess is they'd want 33,415 dollars. On that. So, Steve and then Charlie. And just to further Charlie's comment on the policy, the selectmen approve the six members that the manager puts up for the commission on arts and culture. So if those six positions are filled then we probably should confirm that. Then that to me is the policy statement from the selectmen and then it is a matter of the annual request for money. And it took them a long time to fill these seats but if it started in 2013, that to me is a message from the selectmen that they at least want this commission to do some work and to promote art and culture. I think it took a few years for them to fill any of the spots. Okay, Charlie. Just a clarification question. When Barbara was speaking, is she a member of that, of what do you call it? The person on arts and culture? Is that what she was talking about? Was that that group? Barbara Tosna, she's sitting right next to you. Right, yes, she's in the arts and culture. I think there's a lot of inbreeding between the members. Okay, she was in the arts and she was talking about. And her group that's trying to pull out the things again. That's correct, that's correct. So I'll tell you, I'll make a motion. I move that we, I'm doing this for, just to get some clarity of this direction, that we, how much is it? All right, I said 25. Okay, so $25,000 for the commission and our culture under whatever the relevant art is. Is there a second to that? Second. Okay, that's 45, that's article 45, right? It's article 34. It is 44. Yeah, article 44. Okay, so. You're not going to vote any of the other requests. Okay. We have 35 on our article 45. Okay, so the, so the, Alan, you're looking at your financial. Oh, I'm sorry, you're right. It's article 45. It's article 45. I'm sorry, I was looking at last year's. What about 37? 37. 45. Well, 37 is the public arts. So. Yeah, I'm saying zero. I'm saying no on that. Right. So article 44, the motion is for 25,000 dollars under the Arlington Commission on Arts and Culture. That money to fund them, Arlington Public Arts, Arlington Alive, and the Polar Warrior, and then zero on article 37. Okay, so that's been made and seconded. Let's focus on that. Christine. The reason it hasn't happened was that the commission that was created was never staffed. And it never took them off, I think, I'm sorry, Christine, can you speak up? The commission was never, wasn't staffed, so it never really took off until I guess recently. But its intent was to do what, now you're suggesting happened. And I think that's a wonderful idea. And I think we should do that. But my problem with this vote is that for the reasons Dean has said, I have a problem with the amount and what it's gonna be used for. So I wonder if we can split this vote, like to have two votes. One, yes, we'll give money to the commission and then two, the discussion of what that amount is and what we think is appropriate or not. And I'm specifically thinking of the web designer because I do recall the conversation for the last year. Yeah. I think that there were some legalities that were part of the reason we boiled that down. So I'm just suggesting that we have two separate votes, one that we give this money to a group and second, a discussion about how much. Okay, so I wanna sort of the policy. This is what we're gonna do. The second is you're recommended as we decide on the amount. Right. Okay. Let's know how you're getting to that. Well, let's sort of discuss this first and then I'll ask the sponsor if he wants to do that. Dean? Can you listen, how are you getting to 33,000? Because I'm not getting to 33,000. Well, the arts and culture wanted 15,415. I got that one. Arlington Alive was 2,500. Oh. Arlington Public Arts was 15,000. And the Po-Auri, it was 500. Right, so the Public Arts, well, the Po-Auri was what? I'm sorry. How much is the Po-Auri? 500. So the 15,000 is article 37. Right. Okay. So that would, under the motion, that would be zero. Everything will be put on the commission and committees article. Okay, Palin. I just wanted to point out that ACAC already has a pretty nice website. Yeah. I'm not sure what the $15,000 we were to do. It's pretty good looking on the website. Okay, that's the one that you worked on with them. Oh. No. No, just. It would have been nicer if it wasn't for arts and culture if their website had to sell the groups and it has a musician on it and so forth. Yeah, right. Oh. I'm not sure why they need more than this. As a blog, it's fairly active. Mary Margaret? Based on what Christine said, can we make it giving the money contingent on them creating just one organization? Well, that's their job now. And that's what they said they want to do. This just reinforces it by giving them control of the purse strings. Okay, I guess I'm just saying, should we make it really obvious? I could write up a comment. You know, that usually these articles are pretty standard but we could write a comment to that effect. You know, on there. Steven? Just a question on Dean's point, Christine's point. Was the request from ACAC was a 15,415 entirely for web design or was it? No, it was 5,000 for a web designer. It was 10,000 for branding and marketing professional to create a cohesive identity for Arlington and culture in Arlington. And then it was like 400 bucks for other stuff that aren't worth reading. Okay, and so was the web, so what about the marketing and branding is for consistency reasons? Are people troubled with that too? Yeah, I think they're more like the web designer. Arlington. Okay. Okay, Paul? So what about their $4,000 that they've gotten in previous years? Was that, are they asking for that in addition to this? No. No. It looked like $415 for sort of miscellaneous things like town day, 10 and five that's been discussed. Tom? The problem that I have with all this, give me money, I don't know what they're gonna do with it. I don't know how they're gonna break it up, who they're gonna give it to. Well, that would be their management job that they have to do, because they'll have conflicting needs and they're gonna sit down like any other organization and decide. I understand that, but shouldn't we know? What happens if they give nothing to the other three and decided to keep it all for themselves? I mean, somebody come in here and say, give me $50,000, you've got it. I don't know what you're gonna do with it, but you got it. Well, I mean, we've listened to all the things that they wanna do. I'm assuming the poet, Laureate, want the money for general miscellaneous purposes. But it seems to me if they do a good job then that would be lean towards, maybe we'll give them some more next year. If they do a lousy job and there's infighting and people are being weft out, then next time we do this, we'll say it's expended under the direction of the town manager and let him straighten it out. Because most of the articles we do, like water bodies and Harry Barber and all that, it's expended under the direction of the town manager. We're sort of expecting that the arts and culture group will be in a public body appointed by the Soekman will act responsibly, give them the chance. That's sort of my question. So say we give them $25,000. Isn't it on that the people that are appointed to figure out that they can't use it for like something that's illicit, like the website if there's a legality issue? Isn't it on them? It doesn't that, it takes it off us. And isn't, do you think that you would trust them to figure that out or yeah. It's putting it on them to do the job that the bylaws are created for. Okay, John and Alan. Well, I was just going to say and in the future then the arts and culture commission would come to the finance committee with a request and with a discussion and description of how they intend to spend that money. So instead of having four separate groups come and lay out their plans, one would be that would be there. Okay. Charlie, how do you feel about splitting your vote between the policy of appropriating all to arts and culture and then voting secondly on the dollar figure? I agree with that point. Okay, anybody have an objection to that? Okay, so there's going to be, actually there'll be three votes because we'll have to deal with article 37. Okay, so the first vote is on the policy of under article 44, 45, sorry, I'll get it right. Under article 45, to give one sum of money to the arts and culture, their job is to take care of all four groups and plan on going forward rather than give a certain amount to each group. Everybody, all those in favor of that, please raise your hand. Oh, it's unanimous, okay. Yes, but no button double-tie. No, please silence all of you. Okay, now the motion has been made and seconded for $25,000 as the figure. Is there, is it too late to offer an amendment? I offer an amendment to $12,000 because I don't see a need for a website or anything. Okay, so, John? Now I have two questions. My first question would be to do, what is Arlington alive and what are they, they're asking for $2,500, do we know what the purpose of that, what they, how would they? My understanding is they work on festivals, small festivals in various places. So, much more than that, I don't know. Yeah, still. Peter? It's for bringing the community together in open spaces. They've had several of those in the center over the last five or six years with bands and tour. Oh, so they're the ones who sponsor the music in the center? I don't think it's that one. Summer, it's Black Party. So, there's your music. My second question would be, have you come up with $12,000 by getting rid of the, I mean, it's real old, back then. Okay. Could it go up to $10,000? Okay, what? So, we're gonna get it up to $15,000 in a month. Okay, why don't we do it this way? The main motion is $25,000. If you don't want to give $25,000, you vote no, and then somebody else will have to recommend a different figure. If the majority says $25,000, that's the number. Okay, all those in favor of appropriation of $25,000 to the arts and culture, please raise your hand. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Whoops. 10, all those opposed? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Okay, so that motion carries 10 to eight. Do I have a motion on Article 37? Move no action. Okay. Second. Second. Everybody clear? Okay, all those in favor of no action on Article 37, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, and I'll write up a comment. Okay. Budgets. Who has budgets? Okay. Everybody get their budget book out? Okay, Mary Margaret. What you got? Okay, so I got some answers. Oh, he's good. So why don't we go backwards here and do AYCC? 207. All right, so we do the Arlington Youth Counseling Center. So the questions you all asked. We paid for them. Oh, 207. We're clearly 208. We want to know the fund balance. So at the start of the year, the fund balance was $37,348 for AYCC. Okay, so that's at the end of Fiscal 16. Fund balance, yeah. So 30. 37,348. Okay. All right, the other question was what grant funding was lost? You had asked that. And so what Christine wrote is that it was an adjustment in the federal grant that was received and due to the timing last year, let's see. The annual amount received was $12,000. However, in FY 17, two years of funding was received at the same time. Because of the timing, so. I'm sorry, could you repeat that? There was an adjustment in a federal grant that was received because you had asked why, you know, what grant funding was less. Okay. Usually the annual amount received is $12,000, but in FY 17, two years of funding was received pretty much at the same time just because of timing. You had also asked where gifts and donations come from and is $90,000 a realistic number. Yes, $90,000 is a realistic number. The gala they do every year does raise a lot of money. So that's, and then they get gifts and donations throughout the year. They get gifts from people who couldn't go to the gala. So yes, that $90,000 is realistic. I think a couple of the churches give monies there too, yeah. That, yes. So I think you can be confident about that. All right, the psych nurse pay increased $6,500 and that's because her hours are increasing. We have to have a psychiatrist available to oversee, but the psych nurse now is taking on more of the role that the psychiatrist was doing. So is taking on more hours and she, like I mentioned last time, she can prescribe medicine. Yeah, I just want to comment that psychiatrists costs are extremely high by comparison to that salary, so it's a good thing to be doing. Right, yeah. But for compliance we still have to have a psychiatrist in charge of the program. So that's all the questions I had written down about the AYCC. Okay, so we already approved it. I just wanted to answer the question. Okay, is there any questions for Mary Margaret on the AYCC? Okay. Okay, and then the Council on Aging Transportation one. Yep. Page 203. That fund balance is $80,209. What if we ever paid that taxi driver? No, I think that whole thing just disappeared. I think they just offered what they offered and let it go. Okay. You Allen had asked about what the trend in ridership was, for vans and taxis. Right, so what she said is that the taxi service is very popular among the users. We limit the number of trips per month to allow for more participants to join the program. That's the dial ride taxi for which you buy tickets up front. The trips per month per subscriber are max. The van is now running local errand service which has increased the number of residents who are served. Right, and we had mentioned that there are four part-time drivers now so that people are on call all the time but there was one main van driver who passed away and Christine felt that this work better to have four drivers on call, let's see. She said, we're also looking into alternative ways to provide services and have reached out to Uber and Lyft and are looking at other ideas for next year so that because right now you can have be driven to medical appointments in contiguous towns or in Arlington, you've seen the van take people to stop and shop and whatever so they can do their grocery shopping. They have to do other errands but they're grouped together. So it does, it provides a lot of services to people who don't have transportation or can't drive. Does that answer everybody's questions about that? Any questions? Okay, thank you. All right. And then I guess we can go to the library. The library's on page 155 and just for informational purposes I sent you that presentation that the director had done for the trustees of the library and there's a couple things I just wanted to point out about that. So just to explain that we have the Fox library and the town supports Fridays, the friends of the Fox support Saturdays. All right, we're increasing the hours for the part-time technology librarian and there's a new part-time adult services librarian. The Fox library has, the usage of the Fox library has increased significantly since last year. There are more people using it, more people moving into East Arlington as we know and the circulation has increased, how they use it, what they use it for. There's a lot more events there for the kids and so that's why they need to have it open for. If you, let's see, what else that was interesting. As they point, the trustees point out the library is a critical resource for children working families who can't get there on weeknights or weekdays. Saturdays are seeing a much higher average circulation than weekdays. She gave you some data on those. So the library has, it's also become a neighborhood library and it's sort of building community. There's a whole staff that's trained to be in that library and to help the families use it and it's structured around that. So they need the weekend hours. Let's see, oh and there is a rotation now and they're just gonna increase the rotation so that all the children's librarians work at both libraries. So that's basically it and part of what they're planning on doing is doing a study of both libraries to talk about the space usage and the way it's used for whom or by whom and how they can make it more friendly for the way the community wants to use both libraries. Ron? I just wanna say that we received this information when Mary Margaret and I went to the trustees meeting and I continued to be very impressed with Andrew Nicolette. I think she's doing a great job and she says, it's my question that you have also the RFID is coming along very well and I think it's... I'm sorry, the what? RFID, you know they're... The tags in the books? Tags in all the books and you can do your own checkout or all that sort of thing or you will be able to and it's, what did she say, within a year or something like that should be completed? Well all the books are already tagged. Right. It's all the other media. Yeah. Right, that's right. Right. So they're working on it. And also that has really improved productivity because the tags people can check out themselves and they're doing that. Capital planning budget work. There you go. Yes. John did ask about that. That's right. No question. That's why I say that Charlie's doing a great job every year. All right. So let's see. So if you look at the budget, now that facilities has taken over, they covered the custodians and the overtime. The salary and wage increases are mostly step increases, let's see what else they want to say. Yeah, the custodial services are paid for by facilities, but also that other contracted services includes what they pay to be part of the Minuteman Library, member, member, the whole, that whole system throughout the state. So we can get books transferred from one library to another. The otherwise unclassified is just miscellaneous supplies. And I asked about, down at the bottom, the Friends of the Fox Library, and they absolutely do expect the same amount this year as they've given in previous years. Let's see. So the minimum wage is $11, so all the pages get $11. They're adding $20,000 for the part-time Fox Librarian. So, and the Friends of the Fox will continue to support Saturdays, right? Oh, she also said the circulation at Fox has doubled in the last year. I talked about the space usage. Oh, and also you have that little fox. The shop at the Fox Library has provided revenue for more hours as well. There are more groups using the community rooms too. You have private nonprofit groups using the community rooms. So, I don't know if people have specific questions about that, about any of this, and if not, I would just recommend the budget as presented. Questions? Just one quick one. Sure. Which one of my items is the one that, I think belongs to the network, the mid-man network. It is other contracted services, five, two, three, six. Okay, all right. Thanks, I second the budget. Okay, any other questions? Okay, motion's been made and seconded for two million, three, five, four, two, three, six as presented. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? unanimous, 22. Okay. Yes, I don't have any more at this time, but I would, if you haven't had a chance to look at the presentation that Andrea did, please look at it, because it really, the library is, I think we mentioned last year, is the fifth largest in circulation in the state, which means only Boston, Worcester, Springfield, I don't know which other one, or had Brookline, maybe. So it's an awesome library. Okay, we're done for now. Okay. Paul? We can do police, if there's on 130. First, just updating on the current fiscal year. Point, a conservative estimate is that he might go $12,000 over in salaries and overtime, but he anticipates. But that's his conservative estimate, and he anticipates that when it's all done, he won't have a deficit in the personnel budget. There is some question on expenses that he could go a little over on the expense budget this year, primarily for expense items that were unanticipated, having to do with the move into and out of the fire station, out of this building. So he's still working with the Permanent Town Building Committee to see if some of those expenses could be covered by the capital budget for this building renovation. Tell him I'm sure Charlie can come up with them later. One thing had to do with the expense of moving into that little corner of the building next door that they used and having to paint the walls and put it back together when they were all done using. As far as next year's budget, it is pretty much just normal cost of living. The salaries and wages line at the top is slightly higher than the cost of living because they're adding a halftime social worker. The staffing on police officers is not changing, but they're in the support category. On page 138, they're adding a halftime social worker. They've had a social worker working primarily with the opioid epidemic problems through grant money for six years, I believe he's had grant money, but the grant is probably going to run out and while he's like a full-time social worker for budgetary reasons, they're only proposing adding a halftime social worker. So is the focus of the social worker on the opioid? Yes. And I'm assuming they work with AYCC or with them? My, I think what happens is that sometimes when they're going to do an arrest or they find someone overdosing, they call in the social worker to work with the person involved to find rehab and other resources to help that person. Okay, so this person was formerly on grant money? Right. There's also adult behavioral health with AYCC as a child. That's true. Okay, formerly on grants. So under personnel, except for that position, that's essentially just the normal cost of living under expenses. There's an increase in teleprocessing that's actually paid for additional software that they're using that allows citizens to file reports electronically over the internet instead of having to have a police officer come and take their complaint and record it and type it in and whatever. So the software should result in more time available for the officers to do their normal work. And which category is that under? It's under 52 51 teleprocessing. That's the most descriptive swine item name. Worked out with the $2,000 increase in other supplies. Oh, was that... Oh, yes. It's for taking care of the plants in this building since they invested so much in the buildings and Fred is somewhat obsessive in wanting to keep it looking nice and in good order since they did that work. He says he's been able to juggle things and get the custodian in for half a day on Saturdays to try and keep it clean and good repair. Good, good to take pride in your building. Is there anything more to that? So overall then I moved the budget as printed 8,214,807. Is there a second? Second. Okay, discussion, questions? Charlie? Yes. Paul, is there been any discussion with Chief Ryan? As I recall, he was active in the restorative justice movement about a year ago. I remember seeing his name in the paper. I'm sorry, I can't... About a year ago, I remember seeing his name in the paper associated with the restorative justice movement as a post where possible criminals do restitution rather than jail time. And I noticed in the paper this last week, the legislature is redoing the criminal code and putting a lot of emphasis on restorative justice. And I wonder if we have any opportunity to get any state money for that. We didn't discuss that, but I'll send him an email and see if I can get some more information on that. He did tell us about a trip he took not at town's expense to Israel where he saw how they do their security and terrorism dealing and everything. So it was a very, very informative and enlightening talk about how they have, when they have a terrorist incident and like this task force that goes in and tries to collect all the evidence first, but then clean it up as fast as they can so that wherever it is, can get back to normal business and that that is significant in defeating the intent of the terrorist attack. So I will ask him about the restitution and what the legislature. Other questions? Okay, motion has been made and seconded for 8,000,214,876, any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, unanimous, one, two, while we're on police. Dick, do you have any more information on the plaque? Everybody able to get the wording? Yeah. The person I contacted called me Monday and said that they had found all the records and the design and everything of the plaque. It was 26 years ago. Well, they have the cost. So he said off and off to the foundry who cashed it and he called me back today. In 1996, when we bought it, the first one, it was $434. Today it's 1,846, it's four to six weeks delivery. Okay, so we got the exact same thing. Yeah, yeah. Okay, Dick, could you carry this on? This is great that you found this. Could you talk to the police chief and make sure that he knows the amount and it's okay to go ahead and then we can just order it. Who are you gonna? John Coles, apparently. You think it would be that? He's already volunteered with it. Oh. Okay, then. Dick, you just, you know John Coles. Yeah. From the town building, right? Yeah. Didn't you? Okay. We had an email correspondence, you were copying on it. Okay, probably missed it, but. And he said he would find the money in paper. Okay. Do you want to just give him a call or shoot him? Well, Dick's got all the information. Dick, then why don't you email John Coles saying this is the cost of the plaque. I just want assurance or just confirm the money's available in the budget and then we can go ahead and order it. What do you mean by order it? It's his budget, actually. Let's go, you're right. You know, you're right. Why don't you confirm that, give him all the information and ask him to order it. Yeah. And then install it. And install it. Yeah. Now, here's a question. Where should it be? I can put it right under Arlington police or can put it over here. What about the light switch? Well, I suppose that's the entrance. I'm trying to remember how big this thing was. John Coles an architect. Why don't we let him figure it out? Good idea. Good idea, okay. Where did you find all these records? Well, I remembered where I ordered it from. And I went over there. And at first, the first person I talked to, nothing. And then I just dug back and I went into the cemetery. And found out when O'Neill died. And took that in February of 93. And they took that date and started to work forward from that. And gave them some dates to look for it. And they did, and they came up with the whole thing. And even my signature on it for okay, and then. Well. Well, let me tell you, these people say that because I assume a family might want to say I want to say kind of a headstone that grandma had or, you know, my girlfriend had or something. Okay, so that's great. 1848, probably it's the cost of the metal would be my guess as whites. He said there used to be four foundry around here. But they've all disappeared. You have this comes out of Pennsylvania. Okay, that's great. So if you could call email John Cole and get the ball rolling, that's great. You hit a homerun, Dick. I feel like the lawyers do 500 and a half. Yeah. The applause. Okay. Any other budgets? You can do better. Okay. 142. 142. Five. So just to cover fiscal 17, they are tracking fairly well on the, against the fiscal 17 appropriations except for, they've got four retirement buyouts. So they're probably gonna be looking for a reserve transport of about 100,000. And then for fiscal 18, there's really not a whole lot to see here. Personnel, it's just going up slightly. Longevity's obviously got the biggest increase on the personnel side. Under expenses, the only two items of note are increasing electricity, 50 to 11 electricity by 10,000, which is offset by decrease in, yeah, heating oil by 10,000. And a lot of that's coming just as they're getting to, getting to know the redesigned headquarters building. They're finding that increased IT shocker is more expensive than they expected. But other than that, their expenses side is pretty basic. So for fiscal 18 there, they're gonna have five vacancies. They're planning on filling four. And those people will probably not get through the academy until they somewhere early fall. They expect a delivery of the latter trucks that I guess Charlie bought them. So obviously he's deeply appreciative because I guess that's replacing a 23 year old truck. We should see the rewards he gets on his credit card. I'm sure he'll get a lot of frequent flyer minds. And their 23 year old truck apparently takes a while every time they take it out. Should definitely be reduced repair costs as they get to the new truck. And, get that set then. So I move that the request of fiscal 18 for $7,459,022, they approve. Okay, minus the offset. So 7, 2, 8, 6, 0, 8, 8. Yes. Do I have a second? Second. Okay, all our questions in discussion. Brian. What offsets would be at the fire department? It's the ambulance. Oh, it's the ambulance. Oh, okay. They did say they, because of manning is a little better this year than some past years. They've been able to use the second ambulance a little more this year than they have the past years, which means they're bringing in a little more money into the ambulance revolving. I was thinking what, that's why I was, that's why I would jump in on it. Right, the water they spend in putting out fires. It's really, that's an expense. Okay, yeah, it comes from the revolving fund. Other questions? Comments. Okay, the motion has been made and seconded for 7, 286, 0, 8, 8. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Unanimous? So, he's looking at four buyouts for the possible $100,000 for this fiscal year for the reserve fund. He doesn't anticipate any retirement. Two almost definite for next year, one of which will be a two percenter. They don't have any, he, the chief, is the only one left in the fire department with the 7% deferred payment that will be hopefully an expensive buyout when that happens so far. That's times three. Right. But 21%. Yeah. So it's, there can't be many left, because it was 5% and what, 85, and then 2% and like 91. There cannot be many people left with the 5% except. Right, that keeps going. Yeah. Okay, any other budgets for you guys? Okay, just checking. How about, do you do inspections? Yeah. I thought we did. Well. I think we seconded. Yeah, we did and then he asked for questions. All those in favor of the 7,286, 088, we say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. We nailed it. David? I'll do the manager's budget and Peter will do the planning budget. Okay. Just before we start that, Paul and Darrell, do you guys do inspections? Yeah. We met with them today. We'll have that on Monday. Okay. Okay. Now that sounds good. The manager's budget is on 32 and 33. Okay. If he has some increases primarily in the salary and wages and the longevity columns. If you notice that this also, this year there's a CPA offset for a total of 34, 468. And that's for the work that the system town manager does as well as the management analyst does for the CPA. It's divided into 20% for the management analysis, analyst, and the 15% for the assistant town manager pertaining to the CPA offset. And David? Yes. That was FY17. I can't hear you. That was FY17 and FY18. Okay. Right. Right. And 18 is 20 and 20. Okay. Could you repeat that again then, 20 and 20? It was 20 and 15, but in FY18 each would be 20% of that total. 20% for the assistant town manager and 20% for the management analyst. 20% of their salaries. Of their salary. The offset of the CPA. Okay. It's charged to the CPA? The number is there for 2018 in the budget book. Right. The number for 2017 is 24819. Okay. And the, with the offsets, the manager's total figure is 629-921 as printed. Okay. Are there any questions? Allen? There's a large increase in the other offset, the 5190. There's more in sort. The reason why it's a large increase. I don't know why. Could be because the budget went up significantly with the addition of the assistant town manager. And the, you know, if we look at the budget versus, of course that's when it was 117. The budget went up 38,000, the offset went up 30,000. Yeah. It may have been a reapportionment, I can ask Sandy about that. Yeah, David, could you ask that question? Why the water and sewer offset went from the 118,000 to 147? Okay. It could be just upon this, the salary adjustments and adding of the assistant town manager's position, which he was a transfer from the health department and the management analyst was a transfer from the planning department, which the salaries was adjusted coming over, including the longevity. Yeah. It could be the, you know, and the fact that when we appropriated the... Well, one of the things that we have, we've talked about these water sewer offsets in the past and I think when Andrew Flanagan was here, one of the things we concluded was that the offsets are adjusted a full year later. And so the offset, so example, when we talked about this in the past, the offset for water and sewer in FY 18 would reflect budgeted changes in FY 17, not budgeted changes in FY 18. Okay, good point. So if you look at the jump in the department, if you look at the jump in the department from 16 to 17, the town manager appropriation went from 607 to 774, that's the basis which the offset was increased in 18. Dean, I think that varies from budget to budget. Yeah, it's always the ones I ask about that they give me that answer, because their whole concept, at least what they've said in the past. Maybe that applies mostly to the water and sewer offsets. It is to the water and sewer offsets, because the argument they've made in the past is that the current year budget is subject to change. So if you were to change the current, if you were to base off the current year budget and a change were to be made, then you would have to go change the offsets on the fly, which would be difficult. So if you based on the prior years, approved budget in Denver, then it's smoother for them to do. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, are there any other questions? Okay, so do I have a motion for 629-921? So moved, second. Second? Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Peter? Planning. Page 75, 76. Okay. Okay. The department also keeps an eye on redevelopment board. And under the redevelopment board in the past has been budgeted, Gibbs School, Parmenter School and the Dallin former Dallin Library. Gibbs, of course, is no longer, well soon no longer be a town building, so it will be a school building. Attached to the Gibbs in the past has been the, called a building craftsman, Lambert. His, so his skills with his, he will not be needed on Gibbs in this coming fiscal year because the contractor will take care of the building. And after that, the school will take care of it. At least that's the current thinking. So that position has been moved into planning and the budget. You'll see a new, it'll look like a new. Okay, so the building craftsman? The building craftsman, I am, where is he anyway? Lambert. Yeah. Went up from the bottom. Oh yeah, went up from the bottom, right. Thank you. And that was before that was in the redevelopment board? Yes it was, where they Gibbs building. So that, there are various adjustments associated with that. The only thing that didn't happen is he lost his overtime apparently, but according to the actuals he wasn't taking it anyway. So you won't be working for the, you won't be taking care of Gibbs, but you'll still have the Winterburn, Robin's house, 23 Maple Street, the senior center and Jefferson Cutter house. Actually, I think this is a long overdue adjustment, but it's better late than never. Another change is that the person that worked for the conservation commission has left. That's the environmental planner. Well, that's what the title is now anyway. And it used to be a half-time position. It's been increased to a full-time position because there's much more demand for environmental judgment and there's nobody in the town employee that can provide that. For example, the other day we were asking about McClendon Field and the settling the ponds and marshes out there. And there wasn't really anybody in the town that could answer that, because Dean's question is about that. So perhaps this person will be able to tackle those kinds of things beyond the stuff that is directly, ordinarily, conservation commission work. That's a position that's sort of grown over the years. Didn't that used to be a very part-time position in the conservation commission budget of, I don't know, 10, 20,000 or something? It's been a half-time for quite a while now, though. I think you're right. You'll see adjustments for training and travel and the expenses. Jenny Raid is working hard to get her staff up to speed. That's what that's for. If you're concerned about why the do's and so's has gone down, because the highly touted piece of software not worked out very well, the one that provided information to the town and people. Now, they've eliminated the technical planer GIS coordinator? Oh, yes, and that will first will not be rehired. That position will not be filled. So it almost looks like they've in effect eliminated that slot and increased the environmental planer approximately the same. That's right. If you take Lambert out of it, it's more or less low. So we recommend the budget has printed. Why is the, oh, questions? Christine? Peele, what is, does they have a plan for filling that environmental planner position? Do they expect to fill that position? Yes, and I think she said that it's in process now. I can't remember whether it was just about you rememberable. She was almost ready to select the person. She was working with the human resources. Other questions? Charlie? So where did the, where did the Gibbs income and expenses flow through? That's in the, it's under, it's still under ARB, but not the Gibbs, but I mean, that's where it used to be and so forth. We're coming to that. It was under the ARB, the Gibbs? Yeah, the, those schools that were managed by the town were managed by, technically, by the ARB. Actually, it's under general fund rental properties. I split a couple of pages later, they split them out and split the properties out. Okay, that's, actually it's nearing me right in the face. Was any bigger, would it fit me? We haven't got to that yet, Charlie. Okay, thank you, Peter. Other questions? What's the sort of justification for the spike in state travel? That's part of the training, training and travel efforts to boost up our staff. They travel to conferences and training sessions around the state. That's like a five-time increase. Yeah. So she's gonna send her staff all over the place for more training? Probably easier to get people to travel if you're paying. Okay, other questions? Yeah, just like making a comment. Sure. I think the, the in-state travel expense and those training expenses have been there for a long time. When Alan MacLennan was here, you know, he had several projects like that, whatever we used to call, the place that became MacLennan Field, Reedsburg, the Reedsburg project. And then he had the Lehi Hospital project going on. And they used to do a lot of conferences and travel under those projects. So I think what you're looking at here is the, without those projects, they put it directly into budget. Okay, any other questions or comments? Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Okay, so moved and seconded for 479.979. Yes. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Anonymous. Okay, others, Peter? Redevelopment Board. Redevelopment Board itself is double-plundered on page 80. I recommend it as printed. Any questions? Second. Okay, moved and seconded for $10,800. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, Peter? Okay, and then the other thing here is the general fund rental property. So the big one is Gibbs. And as you can see, the request is zero. On page 83. And our matter is level funded at $15,000 on the next page. And the library is level funded at $5,000. And that's summarized with the income from those various properties on page 87. The cost, and the column under 2018, $20,000, and the rental property income, is considerably more than that. As has been true quite a lot. If you look at it this way, their rental properties are paying their way. Many years I've been corrected to say that, of course, there are other costs that are not included. Yeah, because this is run out of the managers' offices. If I remember correctly, the NOS was basically spending her time on this. Okay, so proposing $15,000 for parminter expenses, and $5,000 for down and library expenses. Your motion? Second. Move from second to any questions. Okay, all those in favor of those amounts, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Yes, try. So I just like to, maybe I can just ask for an explanation here. Make sure reading is right. But basically, on the summary of page 87, we are having income in 2018, that's $400,000 less than the prior year. That's something, yeah, that's about, a little less than that. No, 300 and something, 250,000 probably. Because we don't get any, this is a sketch of the way under construction. So we're voting Gibbs, we're voting. Zero. We're voting to lower our revenues. In other words, the revenues versus the expenses. And if you look at page 87, we had 588,000, 582,000, 608,000. Now we're down to 272,000. So that's the impact on the general revenue from this switch in the Gibbs to the school department. Yep. Now, did all of those maintenance costs go away, Peter? Or are they shifted into other departments? The, in FY 18, the school will be controlled by the contractor who will pay the, whatever needed to keep it warm and so forth. Charlie, that's why the bucket of profit went from 219, to the 239,648 to 20,000. Because to get to 239, you start on page 83 and you get the 219,648, and you're moved forward and you get the 15,000 off of page 85 and the 5,000 off of page 86. And so that following year, when page 83 goes from 220,000 to zero, when you roll it onto that summary sheet, that's why it's down to 20,000 expenses. I don't know what you're at, what you're concerned about, Charlie. Well, I think he's making the point that lost a lot of money when we gave up the Gibbs. Oh, yeah, that's for sure. It's not new, so. Okay, do you have any others, Peter? No, I don't. Oh, yes, I do. CBA. I think I interrupted the vote. I don't know what you're talking about. You're in the process of voting and I'm rudely interrupted. I thought we had voted. Well, let's do it again. It's such fun. 5,000 for the Dowon, 15,000 for the Parment or Expenses. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, ZBA. This is a very small, very small budget. What occurred to me this year that, perhaps the people that, bring cases to the ZBA, I have to pay something and sure enough, they do $400. There were 22 cases or hearings. So $8,800 goes into the general fund from the Zoning Board. I'm sorry, approximately $8,800 a year in revenue? That's what it was. That's what it is. I guess it was last year. And in other years, it's been around 20 hearings also. Comptroller doesn't have any way to check that without going, he does, but he has to get all the little pieces of paper that go with the individual deposits. So is your motion as printed? As printed, yes. 26, 320, sign in. Okay, moved and seconded. Any questions? Okay, all those in favor of 26, 320, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Is that it, Peter? That's it. David, you're finished? Thank you. Other budgets? Okay, now, who will have budgets for Monday? Okay, you'll have inspections. And what will you have? Reckon, right? Okay, that's it? Yeah. Okay, other budgets that will be ready on Monday. Okay, well, that will probably take us about a half hour at the most. And we don't have any hearings, Liz? Nope, not on Monday. And I'm from Monday. Boy, you guys don't like to meet on Mondays. Okay, now hereby cancel the Monday meeting on the 27th. So our next meeting will be now on Wednesday, March 1st, we'll have the community preservation crew in. And so that will probably take a chunk of the evening. Now, I would expect we've got two, we've got Minuteman on the following Monday, we've got Capital Planning on the following Wednesday. I've asked Stephen's going to contact Ed to get the Minuteman budget to us at least three or four days ahead of time, electronically. Capital budgets on Monday. Now, Monday? Wednesday. Oh, sorry? Wednesday. Wednesday the 8th, right. Okay, so I would expect, okay, okay, then the Wednesday the town manager is in to wrap up any other articles and discussions. Let me ask you this, Dean brought this up with me the other night, there's four articles on increasing exemptions for the elderly, for veterans, et cetera, et cetera. We could have the assessor in to discuss that. Is that something in the committee? It is a loss, it's probably a loss out of overweight, because it's increased, there's decreased revenue. I'm not sure how much it is. Do you wish to hear that? Or do you want to, is it small enough, you just want to let the select one handle it? Mary-Margaret? I have, Christine gave us a sheet that showed what the amounts would be, that the state, not by who's going to get them here, but do you want to know the specific amounts for being elderly or a veteran or whatever? I have a list of those amounts, I could just send it out. Charlie, have you met with the assessor yet? We're meeting on the 10th, I'm sorry? We're meeting on the 10th, right? Friday the 10th? He's not here, but that's what we're trying to catch. Friday the 10th. So we could report the following Monday. Okay, that would be good. Okay, so why don't we have the subcommittee meet with the assessors, report back on Monday the 13th, and then if the committee wants the assessors to come in and have more questions, we could schedule them for Wednesday the 22nd. So I would hope that all budgets can be presented to the full committee no later than Wednesday, March 22nd. And then we could save the following week for any emergencies or anything like that, but if people could aim for the 13th and the 22nd, and even before that, I'd really appreciate it. So, and I realize there's some big ones there to do that. So Monday's canceled. If there's time on Wednesday, we'll do inspections and recreation and the rink. And then move on with the rest. Okay, is there any other business before the committee? Paul? Well, first off, I'd like to apologize for the committee for missing the first three meetings of the year. That's okay, Peter's taken, you know, so it'll come out of your salary. But one thing I saw reading the minutes from the meetings, I just, you probably already discussed it already, but I wanted to understand. Talk about the Harry Barber as paying $10 an hour for it. Is that change because of the minimum wage going up to $11 an hour in Massachusetts? Yes. So they'll have to adjust for that, but I'm sure they're aware of it. I think they might have mentioned that at the hearing. All right. Thank you. Any other business before the committee? How's the snow doing? Well, it just came out. I think there, the budgets like 800, well, Christine. So 1.1, we voted 900. 900, yeah. Okay, so we're two to 300,000 over budget. And, but winter's over. Right, it's going to be 65 tomorrow. We were walking along, wife and I were walking along and the flowers were starting to come up. So that should be it. I'm sorry? We're slightly below the 10 year average. Okay. And they requested appropriation? Any other questions? Okay. Any other questions? So certainly do have a big balance in the reserve fund. So. Right. Since the winter's over, we'll be able to cover it. My wife accuses me many times of challenging the gods, but yeah, I mean, there's, remember, there's no money. Is that 500,000 that always got set aside in the miscellaneous there? So that money is now in the reserve fund. So we'll have plenty of money. Well, we should have plenty of money to cover that. Will we get a copy of the special town meeting? The special town meeting weren't open and closed today. So we should have that pretty soon. And Peter and I were talking, the manager at this point does not need the 25,000 for Mugar, because they're still wrestling over the whole, was it one and a half percent? Yeah, one and a half percent could need more money, but that'll, they should be okay until the special one, the fall. So they're looking into special one, the fall for the recodification. Okay, any other questions? Everybody's got their school budget, I assume. So I'm sure you're studying that ferociously. And, but we won't have Diane to beat up on anymore. So somebody else will have to do it. Okay, any other issues? Media adjourned. Thank you.