 public comment for items not on the agenda no public to report additions changes to the agenda does anybody have anything else that you think that's me all right let's look at I don't know if Alford or Toby are coming but let's look at the truck well I looked at the ones that Toby just said recently yep and I couldn't reply to any of the other ones I seem to have the first ones he sent to 700 options three seven-year options I cannot find that stuff to say my life I know we talked about it and he's got a spreadsheet I got I have that oh here it is seven-year the seven-year payments are a little less but they're gonna at the interest is going to be more for seven years and then we also need to decide on the warranty the warranty menu but the 70 the five-year interest rate from this LLC which seems to be the best place to go to the other ones that do municipal leasing the five-year interest rate from that from LLC is 4.07 five-year rate is 3.79 so right there you're saving money because the interest rate is lower wait the seven years four and the five years three yeah well four point something it's three point something you paid off in five years you plan either keep the truck seven or five we get the extended warranty and that's for the seven years and one of the things Toby was going to find out was whether or not it's transferable yeah and I don't think that makes that make a big difference I think he said it should be when he was here before he said when he was here before he said it was transferable here's Alfred maybe Alfred thought it was he was here he thought it might be but he couldn't say absolutely right we're just talking trucks your favorite subject so does my husband only he's not having as many as what the town is we're looking at the MLC quote the five-year one save some interest paid off over five years the question that we still and I don't think Toby's confirmed it is a little is the warranty transferable do you have a firm answer yes goes with the serial number of the truck okay you mean the maintenance warranty yeah Charlie boy absolutely it goes with the not a lot of truck it goes with the vehicle yeah just to be clear the only for five years we sell it we put up for sale we say his trucks got this many hours this many miles it's five years old this is our price and it comes complete with two more years left on a warranty that covers whatever the warranty cover that it's good for the for the big number of that vehicle in the year that you know the time that you bought yeah okay but yeah the 84 month the EW for warranty which is 84 months is a total of $4,315 and the we were looking at the truck coverage TC2 which is 84 months or a hundred thousand miles for seven years it's 2,620 whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa you have a mileage limitation 100,000 they're both 100,000 so no how many miles we put on in a five-year period there is about 10 you about 10,000 per year I was at it the 2012 the word that we've had such trouble with is only got 83,000 okay and that's seven years old okay yeah right so the likelihood of us going over that right thousand yeah and then we were I can't remember what we decided when we talked about the towing that was $800 which is seems like and that's for 60 months $800 or 60 months just in case like we do that's one toe that's that's one toe that's gonna cost you at least $800 oh okay but this is doesn't it doesn't seem covering $550 per incident right right and you're paying $800 for however many instances right and this is for the 60 months warranties are that extended warranties well how much how long is the warranty under for the truck prior to purchasing the extension what are we buying actually over and above the existing warranty five years I mean it's a five-year and what is a truck normally factory factory warranty is five years so we're buying two years for another 4,000 well but I don't think the factory warranty covers everything right listen at three years 36,000 or something right it might be three years yeah it'd be good to know it has the factors into what the what we're paying per year I mean if you're paying for seven years of warranty it comes out in the length of less than 575 hours a year if you're paying for two years of warranty at 4,000 bucks right you're paying 2,000 a year different sort of numbers my experience with these warranties it's it's money well spent with the bigger trucks you know I mean we all know what it costs for cars but these bigger trucks you lose a transmission we just experienced losing a motor yeah that warranty is well well worth the money yeah I just wanted to get a fix on what it's costing us that's all right well definitely you have to factor that into the overall cost yeah I just think that you know for these trucks and that the man that we put on these trucks it's a lot of hard miles it might not be a lot of miles but it's hard miles that's what we drive I mean we're loaded to the gill we've got the file we're pushing snow we're right these hills of gallas I mean as these trucks are working very hard right right so are we so we're not ready to make a decision tonight then I'd like to know what I want to wait till we have all the facts okay well let's see if we can we come up then with a list of what further questions we have so that we can try to get them all answered you want to know that what I want to know what the the warranty is that comes with the truck and what it includes what the extended warranty program is what it includes yeah if you go back to the September 10th meeting right because we looked at the different we liked the idea of the EW-4 for the engine and maybe the TC-2 for the truck okay here's Western Star Wanton yeah that's it yep yeah we were looking at TC-2 for the truck TC-2 EW-4 if you go down a little further we're looking at this we're looking at this one see this is for the engine yeah and then for the truck we were looking at this one what is EW-4 321 mean scroll down engine warranty 1 2 3 4 what's the difference let's do it different engines no different packages packages so the EW-4 is more comprehensive oh it is everything above plus yeah okay oh everything in one plus if you go down further then we get to the this is what we were looking at for the actual truck not the engine yeah the truck which is a different warranty than the engine right I understand this is the one we're looking at we don't want the more the most comprehensively it's too expensive well as Toby when Toby was here you hear that Monday can't remember September 10 when Toby was here he said that or you said I can't remember who that a lot of the stuff that's got the more comprehensive you never really have any problems with it wait so let me get this straight so we'd be buying engine warranty for say four grand and then a truck warranty for another few grand but if you average that out or I know I thought it was all this is more wear wearing parts right I see about the cover right now the natural TC2 doesn't have anything to do with the brakes you'd have to go to T3 three covers brake system wiring in addition to what two has is breaking wiring and fuel right I remember when Toby was here he was recommending for his everything because TC2 is generally what you have the most problems anyway well certainly you can over buy on these warranties too right yeah yeah so being at these are complicated computer you know managed engine systems engine control systems this is TC3 talks about ignition system wiring is that is that charging is that going to cover all the electronic stuff that we have issues with or are they going to call that something else they're going to call that ATS emissions under 2C4 of course they are that's that was a problem on the international right so the Western Star hasn't had those types of problems did you agree on the TC2 or did you have something else in mind no I think the TC2 is fine that's you know like I said there's there is you can overspend on a warranty right a lot of the stuff that's in the further plan we don't have problems with transmission clutch that kind of stuff we don't have a lot of problems breaking wiring fuel we don't have issues with that those are the additional steering that's good maybe the questions are answered oh these are five years the engine warranties five or 200k for a five-year the seven years 250k engine five years they're saying okay so the extended why we the extended warranty covers oh I see the factory of us 100 and you extended warranty but that the extended warranty covers everything the factory warranty would have covered pretty much the dw4 okay so five year warranty takes us to 200k right and the 70 gets to 50 so we cover all the mileage so that's good yeah so do we still want to wait and get additional information sounds good everybody else alright so I guess we need a motion to approve the MLC quote five-year quote oh and there are additions beyond the stock warranty packages there are axles right now covered on the extension do you think we need transmission that's gonna that's only gonna carry us to 100 which should should be enough I wouldn't worry about that yeah so eight double L those transmissions are rock solid we haven't in my 20 years of driving those eight double L's we've not had one problem with the transmission what about the clutch transmission clutch either we we've adjusted them periodically but we've never had to replace the clutch I thought we don't have clutches on these every truck has a clutch yeah they're not automatic I thought these are our max I just like I could have sworn our trucks are automatics have it has automatics but I know as long as I could help it okay I thought I thought you couldn't buy them but yeah no you can buy them you can buy a lot of oh I didn't know that our going to and then there's a towing thing right which we talked about $800 a year right now $800 for 60 months I'm limited miles so I thought I don't know it seems to me that towing makes sense given our current experience experience here it's $13 a month we get the towing package yeah the recommendation from Toby and Alfie was for the EW-4 and this TC-2 and the tow package yeah so I was just in the process of trying to summarize what maybe we decided I'm good with it the mlc quote for five years the warranty package the EW-4 the TC-2 hang on this is alphabet superman oh okay ED what was it here EW-4 EW-4 warrant engine warranty okay the TC-2 truck coverage TC-2 truck coverage and the towing and madam treasure do you have any questions about this no I think that's a good motion okay so I guess I'm making the motion would somebody like to second it I'll second it okay any further discussion all right all those in favor please say I thank you yes yes good good investigative work thank you yeah summer for and where what's the status in our junk truck oh really what was the problem it's an international no it's running the battery down or something well that was one issue and I don't think they really discovered that's really I mean it's keyword it's not bothering now but I didn't really get a good description of the truck was had set for five months down there so maybe the batteries you know my dad in the pros three new batteries in it and then there was what Navistar was telling them that there was a wiring to do with the battery cables so they had to add a couple more grounds grounds to it and that may appear to you but I'm not throwing parts out until yeah right and we're still trading selling selling it okay so that is long as we can as long as we can get rid of it by 4 January we'll get what they're what they told us the 45,000 how do you advertise it's well it's it's through J&B J&B has a wholesaler that they use they buy this wholesaler buys all of his trucks his huge trucks as it stands right now he's still interested in this truck as long as we can get rid of it before January yeah that's another year older right it's not worth as much okay so how much 45,000 was the last quote that we got and which truck was that that's the 2012 the 2012 and you want to know what he thinks about international trucks and it really and honestly most of those truck the older trucks were really good I own one myself it's an older one I love it yeah older than that old yeah yeah yeah but it's just when they when the emissions came they tried to go without this urea which is a liquid after burner death stuff they tried to build the truck to run without it and that's where they went wrong they just went through jumped on the board with the rest of them and put the urea to them yeah that would have been a decent motor but they just didn't get it right and they're paying for it yeah so I'm saying a lot of the people are there mistake too but you know I'm not all against international just that this between just that was 2007 2014 I think is when those yeah so while I have you here and I'll be sending on an email laying this all out to you and Toby and hopefully to the rest of the committees I'm going to mention it to the full board tonight when I do my chair update hopefully looking to get a preliminary highway budget by October 22nd prior to that so we can have just preliminary discussion this is not the final so this is like I'm budgeted don't fall right we don't want to be like we were last year at the last minute with all this stuff making my hair dryer by what date October 22nd so that's just a heads up so you have an idea yeah and then I'll be coming up with a more refined schedule as we go along but as long as you're here anything else tonight for us a couple items walking went for a walk and I found a couple tires over the bank between Gale Rams that's that beautiful display you see and then there's still that the issue remains with that tree maybe on this pond road that's oh yeah I really worry of you because there's so much weight over here that if we get a really wet spring and the soils get really soft that that tree is not gonna be able to it's not a fruit structure here right back next to the pond and right so maybe a tree warden should go out and I will confirm that's definitely a process a tree warden process where that thing falls on somebody dead dead dead it's it's this big so you contact you know yeah you're okay yeah okay yeah was that a basket or it's that's I want to say that's a heavy wet tree yeah yeah the neighbors right there I think just to see you go to oh they are oh good I believe so well Ian anyways he ends the sun and they're directly across the road from it yeah the lawyers it's pretty scary but that fall in our house of it reach on that's the table yeah I'd have to look at it again but it is it's leading that way certainly was that always like that all right so the resolution is that Alfred's gonna contact Neil and the tree warden will make a decision thank you that's it you have anything else I got one question and it's fairly simple you guys just got me a cell phone so I'm wondering what my limitations are to that I mean can I use it as my personal phone is it strictly town business I don't know that we have a cell phone policy but I would think generally it should be town town business related unless it's like an emergency or something okay well I just want to know before I get myself in trouble right yeah good thing yes I mean otherwise I'm carrying two phones your personal phone and yeah I'm gonna have to carry two phone right if I need to separate is there a last Barbara I'm assuming Barbara's got your number and has added it to the contact list actually used it I know is that the day from the incident incident on the County Road yeah yeah so is that answer your question so I should limit it to 10 years yeah I mean I pretty much I would think unless like I said there's some kind of an emergency and you need to call home I mean that's we're not gonna I don't know what the plan limits are you know the plan limits are as far as minutes and texting and I think it's gonna cost the town money and even you pay a certain amount right yeah you know I just don't want to be calling somebody in my general contracting world right that would not be good yeah somebody get wind of it right no I think you make a good point I think that anything so I need to know I mean if you need to call Marika from the town phone obviously yes or you know your brother or you know whatever but I think you should segregate your town calls from your private business calls on a different time that would be my recommendation to keep it clean that way everybody agree yeah I would agree I don't think there's like a huge objection of you using the phone but it is in the best interest of the community that there's no perception of an impropriety or something right an overlap of yeah I mean you can see well like I said I'm gonna have to carry two phones you guys can see that right right I mean that's yeah that's not an easy thing to do try to keep track of two phones I've actually had to do that I know it's a pain but it was I think it's in everybody's best interest to keep the business right aside from town stuff or you know just calling home or what do we need for groceries that's not I don't see that a big deal but your other personal business I would think people might have a problem with that okay and now I was gonna ask you something else about the street signs oh lightning lightning Ridge and Adam and I'm now missing street sign yeah they're both still I didn't I took you took yeah I'm guilty no I took it so I could get it correctly spelled because that seems to be a large issue when you take my signs you should call me I was told that it would be better if it was not there at all rather than it being misspelled yeah Greg and I chuckle he said you go tell Alfred Alfred get too big of concrete blocks and right Adam ant road on one side and lightning and just draw arrows he said I bet no one will steal that Jersey yeah the Jersey barrier and I said but great they got to be you know legal and reflective I'll give him reflective so the sign has been corrected and it's okay I thought well I'm glad to know you tomorrow all right great thanks anything else for Alfred folks anything else for us all right thank you good okay winter's coming it is fast approach yes oh right first Monday Cliff and I'll come to the garage around nine to meet you and the guys okay if that works for you guys I just before the weather hits just to keep to our yeah open that's the first of October right Monday and October right right it's actually that sounds fast approaching yes it is yeah that's fine okay nine o'clock works good we like six but that's not happening thank you all right the only other thing I wanted to do before we start open to audit and we have one minute to do this or two minutes I need as you know Maria Melcos resigned as town officer I am town health officer every time there's no town health officer so Judy and I have both talked to Jay Copping and he's willing to be the town health officer so if I could get him appointed tonight that would make me really happy I don't have to be held officer folks here all know Jay Copping I know him very well yes we know him very well I told him he didn't really need them on Jay's Jay's I think he's still with the fire department he's a nurse over at the Plainfield house yeah I've seen him there yeah he was at CVH in the oh he worked in the emergency room yeah for a while he's been on the fire department for a long time we're really lucky to be agreed it's over I think kind of near Scott and I know he's showed up at my house really fast before yeah he's over that end of town he's in East Calis I can't remember the name of his road on the east side of 14 I just I know he has horses yeah now I mean we're really I feel really lucky yeah we've got somebody with this much experience max cream room much closer to East Calis yeah I'll gladly make a motion to a point Jay Copping as the town health officer any further discussion or questions all those in favor please say aye I will contact Jay because he has to come in and sign a form mm-hmm to make him official yeah so I'm mad he also resigned from the conservation she did oh no yeah I guess she's maintained four jobs so just like burned out right I know the conservation commission is constantly looking for numbers okay my next thing is the quarter is up to reauthorize my role and compensation so I think from the office's perspective my role is helpful yeah I would like to suggest that maybe do it for six months instead of every three months because then I forget that it's needs to be re-upped and it's been difficult to do the $500 after taxes so I would suggest that we do like 525 530 I don't know what it really comes out to before taxes and Sandra doesn't have to muck around in the system and try to get things to come out exactly 500 because it just doesn't work so since this is about me I will not participate in the motion too late you already did what a sell job did you get that on film there he's got it on film and Judy's got it she should be like marketing sneakers I have a blank by who the not like is made by I'll gladly make motion yeah to reappoint Denise as our administrative whatever liaison with the town office people with a compensation at $550 a month before taxes well 550 and then taxes right now right yeah 550 before taxes and for a term for six months second anybody else have any thoughts on that no but we really appreciate what you do I don't miss this well when in your app I do appreciate it we have that motion I don't think you voted yet no they didn't vote all those in favor hi thank you very much for your vote of confidence and I have to tell you that cliff has been really taking the lead on all of this technology stuff I don't know what we would do without cliffs piece of that we meet with the town office staff we just want you to really close down amazing job like the duly noted in welcome glad to help out great and we have another little project that he's working on it will probably bring up next select board meeting so all that said I guess we're on to yes the treasure in the clerk do you have anything that doesn't relate to audit that you want to bring up just that voting has begun for November 6th the election is already under way yes we've got our absentee's automatically in the mail it's great treasure anything other than talk about audits everybody's it's the most exciting okay so I just I do want to put out there that Sandra we hired her as a treasure a delinquent tax collector at 32 hours a week she has been working routinely 40 to 50 hours a week hopefully some of that will settle down now the audits are done but I want you to keep that in the back of your mind as we're budgeting because we want to keep really good help and she is then we need to make sure that we're paying her appropriately for the time that she puts in is the Nemerick system all up and good and except for now the computer had a meltdown I wasn't going to bring that up tonight but the Nemerick is all but installed and programmed in it's about 95 percent complete we're waiting on opening balances which once our audit is accepted we will have opening balances that would be opening balances for FY 19 and at that point highway surplus will need to be booked over and we will be installed and it was gonna be entirely flushed out right and of course comes doors we may have to buy Zandra a new computer while waiting for to find out from RB tech Holland if this is going to work they had to take in white everything off go back to the factory setting she lost all of her contact information everything so that's where we are just very good all right so very quick update on this so they be clear so those computers are having been backed up you don't back up no that wasn't it my computer was crashing basically every 20 minutes within the Nemerick modules we thought there was an antivirus Nemerick operating system clash so antivirus is the antivirus was removed from my computer but crashes continued to happen very much affected the ability to work yeah and we continue to have this antivirus conversation and we decided that what if it's really my computer what it's hard drive right and I worked one weekend exclusively on Barbara's computer and I had no crashes whatsoever so my computer has been wiped I've lost my they couldn't they couldn't recover the hard drive it's been taken back to its factory setting so everything is there they've reinstalled all of the programs but they were saved the information on the hard drive that my contacts couldn't be saved so she's lost so on my email when I start to type an email address it doesn't pre-populate those are gone so that's not a big deal all the passwords are gone yeah we need to install some more passwords that's all fine the only issue we have that that has any interest to the board whatsoever at this point in time is QuickBooks which holds all of our financial data from FY 18 back was migrated from a regular QuickBooks program to an enterprise program when we hired Nicole she gave us one of her licenses we don't have that license we did not have that license key we had to buy a new QuickBooks program which we did over on Friday Holland informed me today that our data will not migrate to the new QuickBooks program because if it's in enterprise the file format is different and it won't go over so for the time being we're going to have to see if Nicole Sansebriand will come back and reinstall our enterprise but I thought we just bought that we can't buy it it's professional so so we're gonna I'm gonna have to see if she'll come back and reinstall it and if not there are programs or applications that can convert data from an enterprise system into the QuickBooks program that we have so far as far as historical data happily we are done with the audit of FY 18 I can recover the budget numbers from you know we'll be able to go forward Nicole as a very busy woman and oftentimes you know difficult to nail down to an appointment so what happened with the version that we bought the version that we bought is installed and it cannot accept the data that was that was in the version that we had so do we know what one of these converter tools would cost $225 thinking just go there it makes a lot less labor well yeah that's an easy fix why not just do that and then you're not the holding waiting for Nicole's what does that make sense to you do you still need to use QuickBooks yes all of our historical data is in QuickBooks do you still need to use it why can't you just store it on a flash drive and call it a day well I haven't on a flash drive but I don't have any place to read it we can read it do you have enterprise and we can read any QuickBooks any any quick where if you talk to Lori at office she's QuickBooks advisor I suspect she would be able to read anything you have so we may not have to worry about is what you're saying well talk to her first I am concerned I'm wondering if I backed up after the last journal entries that Jordan had me put in that's the only thing well you have it backed up we can tell okay so that might save you a lot of pain and suffering all right yeah if you have it in hard copy it's historical yeah frankly sometimes paper might be better than because you're not going to renew that license year up to year to have somebody read it right right boy you just want it somewhere and if somebody else can print all that stuff out for you send it to capital copy or something about yours worth there well it's not that big no no but you in other words a couple hundred pages probably if you wanted to see a particular line item and what was in it for instance who we thought gravel from what the check numbers were the dates and the amount of each individual check number that that would be what would it be in a detailed transactions we have that you actually sent that to us we have that as well so I'll be in touch with your lawyer because Jordan wouldn't have probably done your financials without making sure that the QuickBooks agreed with what we have so I suspect that we do have an updated version you can't hurt that the PDF or something you had you can either you know you can convert it to anything but yeah you can lock it in as a PDF and then we have the PDF you guys have the QuickBooks version if we ever need to delve further right and that's okay from an auditing standpoint but that's yeah I'm not your archivist but I suspect that anything that you have that's a paper is probably okay okay you know it's just a summary of bills by line item it's not very complicated okay so maybe use your fix and we think that would be nice all right that's excellent yeah but talk to Lori yeah all right yeah okay um all right that is that is my only tail of well we have a really well functioning I'm sure you saw really well functioning staff doing Judy and Barbara and Sandra they get along very well they work all together they each other out so it's I'm really happy what we have nice I'm going to send around as they always do the warrant for your review I have reviewed all of them prior everything looks great I didn't even have any questions this time well I did $11.38 that was it okay what she answered and makes sense so thank you for coming let's introduce ourselves she knows Sandra John hi hey Denise yep Cliff I'm Rose yeah yes we know and then this is our filmer from Orca Jerome and that's Rod Buck he's the chair of the trustees of public funds great and I know we had I saw something in all of this stuff that I don't really understand about yeah and that's about the trustees stuff so what is I'm not sure well that's my question is the best way to start at boy 17 is really you said it's history it's history we don't even have to talk about if you want to but it's ancient history at this point so it's nothing there was nothing I didn't just roll forward into 18 and 18 is where you are and right and that's three months history now so you're really starting to think about right I think 20 right I mean honestly right I mean yeah right we're gonna start budgeting I heard that yeah yeah so so we want to understand this I have some questions as you can see my war so I mean I'm here but you're a pleasure I can give you a quick overview of the process the results I think that's probably good places and I see if there's any questions and you're gonna start with the FY 18 audit or you correct the FY 18 audit because that's so in a in a in an audit that is our main product great financial statement the any recommendations you get are simply a byproduct of our work that we need to do to do the financials it's not an internal control review we're not here to find things or to look for things even we're here to tell you that your financial statements are fairly presented however when we do that we ask a ton of questions and so as a result of that we share what are called material weaknesses in total control and that's management letter right that's also in the audit significant efficiencies in internal control are also in the audit yeah and then also management or just things as other recommendations and those aren't necessarily there's simply things we want you to think about in terms of helping you to run the town more efficiently more effectively well I know Rod is getting ready to go out of town so he had a timing things I don't know if there's a way to kind of do this overview and then maybe answer the question about that piece and then Rod you're welcome to stay or you can leave because I know you said you had packing things you can join us at this table to get your up right here so let me start with the overview okay so what these are your financial statements the only thing in here that's mine is the letter the letter in the front the letter in the back yep everything else is yours right these are all printouts from our system they are basically print out from your system when we're done your record should agree with these exactly the footnotes are the explanations of what you do when you're done we ask the treasurer to sign a letter saying she takes complete responsibility agrees everything in here that's true very odd and she did and so we make sure that she gets a chance to look at all over ask any questions the idea being that there shouldn't be anything in here that she's not familiar with either because the numbers or the items in the footnotes so what an audit is comprised of is I'll report on the financial statements and that takes place on page one two and three so you've chosen for FY 17 to convert from full accrual basis to modified cash basis right we've seen a number of towns convert from full accrual to cash primarily because the complexities of conforming with gap for towns has become so onerous that when when we're done nobody can understand the reports that I give out and that's not beneficial to anyone because this should be a tool for you to use the other thing we do is we take the records that you use all year for comparing budget with the budget status seeing where you stand and we take and convert them to accrual so with payables and deferrals and we have to put your share of the state pension in and we have to do all these kinds of things that don't make sense for a small town so based on all those discussions you've elected to go to modified cash and we agree that that it makes sense for you I think so because it's understandable and as I started this conversation you need to be able to take responsibility for the financial statements and if I have to come and include all of these adjustments that I make that you'd have to go to school every year to understand them then there's a problem with independence I'm not your auditor or anywhere you're a cop I can't audit my own work and so it really becomes important that your treasure understands you know all these books and when it's modified cash basis that's doable yes yes and we've done this in a lot of places and it's fine in Vermont there are no requirements that should be accrual basis it's acceptable by the feds if you had federal funds the state accepts that there's no so it is an option for municipalities so that's why you applied this to investments and because of the change to modified cash basis accounting you're suggesting we use historical cost correct not in your own books necessarily but but in order to I'm suggest what I'm gonna roll back Luke if you use market value for investments in the material and in your case they are material they're significant amounts of investments and when you're using cash basis cash it's money invested money in and out and so when you first bought these investments you converted cash to an investment at some point wherever that whenever that happened at that point the difference between your cash and we converted from existing investments which were bank CDs but eventually right but eventually some at some point some time cash became CDs CDs don't start out CDs you have to you have to make a conscious in decades ago absolutely that's the problem right so decades ago somebody turned to research yes no no I don't care if you're researching frankly but if you don't want to qualify to pinion related to having your investments of market value then you'd want to research it or or you sell and rebuy sell and rebuy though it doesn't tell you what happened it doesn't matter that you turned it to cash and then turned it back to an investment you have to do it sell and rebuy after we make the switch to this and anytime you want to do it sure anytime you do it will reset the original basis and because you're not a taxable entity there's no tax involved if I were to do that my own personal investments I'd be worried about paying tax on right capital gains of course as a town you don't need to do that the only thing you have to worry about it perhaps are any brokerage fees that might be involved which we don't have we just have to worry about short-term trading rules with the funds that were invested correct and right Sandra and I can handle this though is that a big deal no not not given the way it was stated it's just an annoyance correct but it's it but it will have to be done once right right and then you're done but don't you wouldn't we have to track dividend reinvestments and everything else going forward which is also a huge we already do that you already do that you know what you you know every year from here on for we know what you've earned investment income and we know whether you've withdrawn it or reinvested it so your books and records would show that so you're gonna do that not us no you're gonna do that these are your records and they're gonna audit our records right yeah well we'll have to see right it's not a spreadsheet to do that because we have a number of funds that have monthly dividends and every time we I assume you track that anyway monthly well our fund group tracks it which is TRO price but they if that's fine too most brokers will maintain cost and show your accumulated right they do it for individuals but a lot don't do it for organizations they probably would if you asked the reason they don't do it is because they need you have they know you have no tax reason to do it that's an interesting I just talked to them today well I'll have another discussion okay clear on what it is you're right otherwise yes it there it would require the use of a spreadsheet or some of the method to do that correct well we can handle it one way or the other yeah so that's all we're talking about that that's yeah and now if Rod has any questions about this or can they do they ask you sure absolutely yeah we'll be happy to talk we're channeled through saying yes then if TRO price will track it through their statements we don't need anything but the statements theoretically yeah the bank statements are bank statements and just like you could say I don't need to record everything on the bank statement because I here's 12 my bank statements those my records you still need to make this you still have original records that well you'd make your journal entries correct and so I would assume that right and so it doesn't mean it has to be done every month it might be done once a year once a quarter but you still should have books and records that show your trust funds that aren't just the bank statements bank statements are just bank statements and you happen to have your your investments today at TRO price but in the future you may say I don't know CDs maybe a better deal someday I don't know I mean you know I live through 12 and 13 percent interest rates you know where I would rather have had my money in the CD so yeah so I you know it's fine but you need to understand that bank statements aren't there there's simply a verification of what's happened you really should have invested in zero coupon treasuries actually never feel well those are fun to track I had a lot of clients that have those in their phone track sure yeah so does that make sense in terms of yeah yeah okay we understand that can we ask one other question so sure and you're you also advise us to have an investment policy statement is that for the treasurer's office basically it's really for the whole town I mean anyone who invests should have an investment policy and but would it include the cemetery fund why wouldn't it well we already have oh then you're fine but but does it then so we if we have one for that aren't you suggesting we have one for the treasurer's office as well as thing okay so we need to supplement it with that or we should yeah and it probably would be different than what you have for the cemetery because you're you're you know your reasons for investing in your liquidity needs are probably way different the town would be right sure so we have a cemetery yeah investment policy yeah you're getting this all down right to you so so if you were to go on the deal if you were to go on the VLCT website they have some boilerplate investment policies that you can use and like most municipals you know there it's the slight every safety liquidity yield in that order and they'll talk about what they think are prudent investments for municipality well yeah everybody gets to make their own decisions though there's no rules in Vermont you can invest in anything you choose to well I know Rod was helping with putting bitcoins and gold if you choose oh Rod was helpful with the cemetery right we have that it's dated March 24th 2013 and so it's actually called Cal cemetery funds investment strategies so we have to change strategy to policy right and maybe right well strategies fine too we can okay doesn't need to be that yeah yeah so yeah just call Sandra make time ahead of time hopefully not on a Monday I always email her and find out what the best time yes he does thank you we appreciate that yes I do appreciate all of Rod's help with our investment stuff we're very lucky to have them so other than the cemetery funds being in mark and track that market other than that all the other funds are in full conformance with modified cash basis yeah we don't worry about dollars or pennies or hundreds of dollars okay I understand that that's right now so if they had a hundred dollars or zero dollars frankly it wouldn't matter to our opinion doesn't yeah just wouldn't yeah so yeah so this is also an audit on page three you'll see an audit done in accordance with government auditing standards that's one of the few things required by statute that when they allowed municipalities to eliminate the position of local auditor they said okay if that's true but but if it's going to be done by a CPA it's got to be done where are you on page three bottom paragraph that it has to be done in accordance with government auditing standards and that that means that the our standards for our education our experience is higher than it would be to do a normal audit it also means that we have to include a report on compliance and internal control at the financial statement level right in the bound report and that is the very last letter that we will see in this audit okay so the the way that the office kind of functions it starts from condensed combined and as you work your way back you get more and more detail so the very first exhibit is a very combined condensed state-of-the-art position for the whole town is a whole everything including a day today and you know you'll see all of your assets few liabilities being payroll liabilities the tax ill overpayment and money due to others really money that's cash that you have it's not yours I know I had one question on this I tried in several places where it talked about deposits with insurance company 5,500 that's the HR that's the HR right correct all right yeah that is your money until it gets spent okay if it was a adjustment a money it wouldn't be your money but being HR a money it is money because it's you'll carry it until it goes and investments are what we just talked about correct that would include all investments yeah so what that leaves you is your unrestricted total fund balance that doesn't mean that some of that money isn't spoken for but it is from a government-wide standpoint unrestricted and that was 531,218 at the end of the year a year ago if you look at your 17 audit that was 93,300 so it's an increase substantially in that year that's good yes what what most towns and boards and taxpayers really think about is on page 6 because that's what affects their tax bill and that's the general fund and so the way that this audit is broken out or any audit is that it's we use major funds and that's a mathematical calculation what what a major so your general fund and your cemetery fund qualify as major funds yes and all of your other funds are non-major funds which means they didn't meet the mathematical test and that's the reappraisal the conservation commission lakes and ponds Curtis fund dam east east emfd five equipment fund really town hall fun technology fun highway equipment fun yeah so they're all combined in that non-major however we go in the back you'll see all the detail by fun so you in there somewhere as all the funds but may not be shown up here so the general fund at the end of June and you're you're really caught up now I mean you're probably one of the first board meetings I do a ton of them and the fact that we were able to get 17 done and now 18 done before the end of September is really great I mean that that gets you right up to date current probably ahead of most towns frankly from being behind to catching up and then getting ahead so well that's that's really your work because we can only come in when things are closed and reconcile we don't start until you're done yeah and so you know now you're done you can now focus on the next year right you know we're about QuickBooks anymore much much so the unassigned fund balance at the end of 2018 was 308,300 it's a 34th line at the bottom 318 318 3 yep a year ago that was a 131,000 negative most of what frankly is you knew you had a deficit and you took out deficit debt 280,000 dollars and then you also had positive variances in your budget on both the revenue side and the expense side so between the deficit reduction and making it more money that was planned and spending less money than planned or in the good you're in the real good I mean yeah in total you increase the fund balance by 458,000 dollars so when I look at a fund balance people you know that we said is that and that was the plan well it certainly was the plan to eliminate the deficit right that we know you have to do that yeah you have to do that so now the tip of the next question is what is an appropriate fund balance and the GFOA government finance officers kind of recommends about 20% of annual expenditures well you're right at 20% I did the kind of said why you're right at that number now that then a lot of it has to do with you know where do you stand in terms of infrastructure do you have capital needs how much money should really you be setting aside what your tax rate doing are you at the point where you've been taxing people and now you feel like you want to stabilize it for a bit because that that's why having in a fund balance is important primarily it's for cash flow now for cash flow at least last year your first tax bill was due in August is that was that true for the summer to know it was due on September 4th I believe okay last year and this year as well okay so you've got two months of expenses that you need to carry this year we didn't have to take out a loan in anticipation of tax right which is the first year that I can remember in a long time we haven't had to do that and that makes sense because you had 318,000 which is 20% two months of expenses about 16 and a half percent which means that you had that money there for your interest on correct and so short-term I always look at your tax cycle as being sort of an indicator of how much cash kind of you need as a minimum and so I'd say that at least 16 and a half percent you know is a minimum because that's when your tax money starts coming in well then this year we had to wait for the state to make up its mind on certain things before we could even send out because they were good they didn't know the education and the budget and I know I think right because ours probably would have gone out sooner had we had that information right and so if at some point you change your cycle back to a July 1st first due date it might mean that you need less fund balance in that particular year but with the state I mean we're not done yet I mean you know we're not done yet I mean we're gonna go through that same process if not this year then certainly next yeah in terms of the budgets and the approvals and right well I think we're trying to look at some things long-term like we have some of these reserve funds to help like when we need to do maintenance on this building and we had it for the town hall we have it first yeah truck so we're trying to keep the budget yeah steady I mean we learned a lot we learned a very hard lesson a few years ago where we charged less tax than what the voters actually approved and that helped us get into a mess right but we learned our lesson right and our attorney said you said that that's what the town voters vote and that's what you do right yeah so we learned a lesson so so anyway you're in good shape at least going into the year you're in now and you know I don't know where you stand now from the terms of your budget actuals but you know we've just got winter starting and you know that's where roads and salt and who knows what will happen you know hopefully we'll get a lot of rain because we need a lot of rain but not enough to wash the roads right just enough to refill the aquifer so all right then you know going forward the starting on page 8 is about 16 pages of footnotes that describes who you are what your accounting policies are how you know what you have for cash and investments how you secure those cash and investments the talks about interfund balances talks about the various fund balance yeah there's a lot of unfortunately footnotes on the fact that you participated to beamers and what your share of their unfunded liability is well you you participate in beamers which is a cost-sharing multiple employer and all the state right it's not funded as well as it should be although it's probably still one of the best funded plans in the nation what percentage of at the end of 17 because there was a year behind it was 83.64 percent that term at the end of 2015 it was 98.3 percent so it's going down even though the market's up but that's because of some of it is timing it's there's a lag some of it is the changes in the demographics that people are living longer right yeah I mean the actuaries it's its estimates based on assumptions based on projections based on guesses yeah well we have an aging population pride I'm guessing a lot of people are retiring right right right and they're retiring some I'm assuming they're working on they are looking at that yeah and so if you were cruel basis I'd actually have to record that on your financial statements your share of that it's about a hundred and twenty two thousand dollars I think in total yeah but technically they could come back for a percent for that share if it came up short it won't because their actuaries know that the rates that they have now are adequate into any situation in all situations yeah but technically but technically you are the only way to fund it we are responsible by the way the reason why that the municipal one is so well funded is because they can bill you on the other hand the state teachers and the state employees is miserable we're talking billions of dollars it's always we're good no no they're both awful where's employees that because they were at eighty nine percent at one point it's still a billion dollars I mean you can look at the state of your set yeah I guess and we spread that among 635,000 people or whatever we have now 685 it's a big number you know you just you know you're right it may be pretty well funded but it's still a big number yeah yeah and so but I didn't think it was 98 and you're right the teachers this is the worst teachers healthcare right right right so anyway going back then and schedules for and now I'm going to start on page 34 schedule six seven eight nine these are your other funds and all the funds have positive fund balances these are your reappraisal and conservation Commission fund page 34 yep yep and then on page 36 are all your capital project funds they are set aside money for various projects coming up and again all of them have positive fund balances now I know I had a question on can I ask it on page 36 yeah it shows the town hall reserve fund mm-hmm but don't we have a town hall in a town office is that did we you always had the town hall it was called the town hall fund but we didn't we we pulled it apart right we pulled it when I do that we pulled it apart in April this is this was but that's this is still the total that would still be the total yes right but half is town office and half was town hall right that is that that is the total that's the total okay that's what I wanted to know right okay if anything it would be town hall town office slash yeah right so in your NEMRIC system make sure that only whoever knows that you want those as two funds and we have it set up that way right it's going forward we want a bunch of renovations on the town hall so we want to keep that separate we got some work we need to do here in QuickBooks that breakout isn't QuickBooks we'll get that number that's perfect it's gonna be fine okay that was my question all right sorry and then finally in the on page 38 and 39 is the report on compliance and control but this is this is a high-level financial statement level what that tells you on the top of page 39 is that we found two items that we consider to be material weaknesses and those are things that we think you need to address immediately right it's well as well right but it has to be bound in with the audit yeah okay and then we had one significant efficiency and then as we tell you in the we had no compliance issues at all and then we had some other recommendations in a separate letter which is the man violations of laws or regulations we had none of those a lot of places do but not you know nothing really significant but they could yeah you know I mean there's lots of laws or regulations you deal with every day right we're not looking at every one of them we're looking at only those that would cause your financial statements to be materially misstated so if you had a grant and you spent a hundred thousand dollars on something you shouldn't have that would be a violation of law regulation that would be brought up here right and the grant people wouldn't like it either nope that's the problem they want their money back right right so some of these are probably been already addressed we could go right to that they're all in there too okay so there are three deliverables in an audit one is the financial statement we just looked at right the second is the management letter and the third is just a report that goes directly to the board that just tells you how the audit went right which is what this is if it has recommendations it's not that no that's the management letter I got confused there's so many letters there's three letters two letters and one bound document okay I have this man doesn't have a date at the top it's a draft they're final now I've got them right here so if you that probably says the same thing right shouldn't be saying the same thing yes and then there was these two other letters one was FY 17 when was FY 18 they basically said the same thing there's the letters to the board and what that tells you is we were the cool and I can just talk real quick on those and then we go to the recommendations we were cooperated with everything was ready we had no problems no difficulties no disagreements no the audit went very smoothly considering the you know the transformation from modified accrual to cash and the fact we're trying to play catch up but all in all the auto very well both for 17 and particularly for 18 well yes I was reading them I'm like it is but but we have to issue separate letters for two years the management letter we can combine because it's the same recommendations so the material weaknesses were and this is one that that's common but we it's important and that's the segregation segregation duties over cash we just want some other than a check signer either doing the bank reconciliation are reviewing it in detail right we're working on that as Sandra pointed out yep and I don't know whether she's heard anything more back but we can discuss it later okay the second one is already I know Delwood and that's fund balance entries those are entries that historically the time is time is done in a way to track reserves basically but it really shouldn't happen that won't happen again correct and then the the significant efficiency was just simply having authorization and support for all journal entries making sure that somebody reviews them and so in that you know monthly quarterly if you print out all the journal entries and you look at them and say and ask questions if you have questions and sign off on them that's all we're looking for and that's different than the Lawrence yes you've seen those journal entries they when I I brought you those journal entries when we've made corrections when they have been errors sign off on them we have a no right that's what we need to do when there's problems journal entries can be used to hide those problems so if a second set of eyes isn't looking at them then you've left yourself susceptible to errors or irregularities so it becomes important for that second set of eyes to look at them so that's part of part of the process just like you were doing with the warrants right same with the journal entries okay just review them if they make sense to you if they don't then ask the question and ask sign sign the sheet once a month not every not before they're done and not it just you know once a month once quarter that's fine right the rest of the items in the management letter are simply just recommendations not in any particular level of importance but just all the other things we thought you should think about okay so I had a question about other recommendations fraud policy yes does do you know and I can ask them but is there a sample yes there is absolutely they have one on their website yes through the Mac Center okay and it just says is if if and I hope it never happens but if somebody in town suspected something what do they do what do you do right I mean the time to start to think about it's not when it happens but before so that there's a plan and what do you do to make sure that you protect both the accused and the accuser and so you want to make sure you want to sound that might suspect something to feel comfortable going to work right somebody with the information and remaining nameless and all that stuff correct and at the same time you want to be able to make sure you everything to make sure that the person that it cues is protected as well until it's proven or not proven okay so I hope it never happens but if it does you do want to know ahead of time the progress assessment is simply a brainstorming of basically ever in town and trying to understand what things are you susceptible for where in in in Calis what things could could go on what where could you wear what things could happen how much folding green do you collect do we have good procedures related to that are your cash cash where how do you know that all the vendors that you use are real how do you how do you make sure that the town assets aren't being misused by town employees to do this like an exercise at a select board meeting maybe no it's better it's a work session this that's really not a I don't think a select board meeting is the appropriate place to do it although certainly a select board person or two could be there but it's more for the department heads and staff to sit around and just talk okay and either it can be facilitated by feel CT does it if you feel comfortable on your own and out of it you just simply go for the document that that talks about risks and mitigating factors and then you get to decide if the mitigating procedures are appropriate and you also get to decide the cost-benefit analysis in terms of what kind of controls you can't get a perfect system okay so but you said the LCT will sometimes come out and work with us yeah yes so we could probably do this like that as staff extended staff meeting or something yeah it won't take long because you know you're pretty straightforward here you're you don't have utilities you don't sell a lot of things you don't I mean so it's you know the opportunities are pretty the risk is pretty low frankly but but but it's important to do so the documentation of the control system is there's lots of things you do we've already talked about some of them doing a bank reconciliation yeah you're sharing receipts you do these things because they're a cookbook their procedure what the control system documentation is is explaining why you do things what's the purpose what am I trying to catch it's saying we do this but why do we do this what why is it important that I review journal entries what's the purpose of doing that and so this is kind of a last step once you have everything else done and you think you have good you know everything's taken care of then you really should document your control system there's a form for internal controls that I think the lead I wouldn't even bother don't do that you can if you like it's pretty it's pretty perfunctory it's pretty it doesn't yeah it doesn't do much frankly so what do we use them you can there are templates we can share things that other towns have done with you yep yep the town of St. John'sbury has done a really nice job with this that's just an item to me this isn't a checkoff this isn't this is more of a documentation this is better yeah and it's and one of the other points that we're going to hit is the accounting manual and so you start with the accounting manual that to me is a cookbook how do I write a check what does the board do who how do I do the approve how does that happen how do I pay payroll how do I stop just so that it's the standard word here and somebody else an experienced person not a somebody who doesn't know accounting at all could walk in and do her job so that you know that's gonna take some time that's it takes time and we say that just you know that's a process at the time you know just when you have time pick something you're gonna do okay this this quarter I'll do payroll next quarter I'll do payables and orders the next quarter I'll do packs billing the next quarter I'll do other receipts yeah but it was something you would have loved to have had had you walked in and had it she had eight years worth of yeah cookbooks and that's great then and what you need to make sure is that that eight years is still all accurate and it's what you do now and it's not right I know job of documenting right right so and it's always gonna be a document that changes because as you change as the state changes what you have to do is they modify you have to react to it so it's an ongoing yeah all right that's when banking we already talked about the bank reconciliation's were being done but they weren't being tied to the general ledger and so when when never has a module that automatically my question does never do this yes it does yeah yeah right and they'll either they'll either have the module for you to do frankly they'll do it I mean they they provide that service so I heard you saying that you know if you can't find somebody that will do your bank rex that is a service in them and I'm trying to sell for them right but they do that actually yes that's very good to know because we're working on an option we hope works out but we don't get that we may have to do something else right the overbilling of property taxes I you may already know more about this than I do that was a process yeah so again I think it was just simply that whatever it was it was a preliminary document it wasn't the amount that was voted on a town meeting I don't think it was a huge difference but it was a difference I think it ended up being a total of like $13,000 or something it was but we spent a lot of time on it like I said we learned a lot right right and then the investments we already talked about in terms of getting them how what's the easiest way to get them back to cost if you have the records that showed but lacking the records the easiest way is to liquidate and rebuy records that go back to the point where we first started investing in mutual funds right so but that may not be it doesn't doesn't go back beyond CD right which is so the key is the date the fact that we are now on this new accounting method means we have to do it following the conversion to the new accounting method I sell and rebuy they like I said you have to do it once and then track yeah yeah it doesn't matter when you do it that'll get it back to cost it won't be cost the next day but if the cost that day as long as you know what that is and then track your in your reinvested earnings then you're fine and any future exchanges or changes correct it does seem like and I do think your investment company will do that for you yeah I'll talk to them about that does seem sort of illogical that you would do that since what's really important is the current market value absolutely okay so I agree with that that's why I'm saying don't don't yeah no don't not get don't get rid of the market because that's what you could sell it for again right but in order to comply with this standard of accounting you just have to it's counting isn't perfect okay even even for property in fact it's very imperfect because I could have two buildings right next to each other the same utility one of them was built in 1960 one of a built in 2000 the 1960s gonna have a value on the books of a million dollars the one in built in 2000 the exact same building same utility every ball finished everything could be one million you know so you have one one hundred thousand one in a million same building and that's the way they stay forever counting is imperfect but my cost is perfect we know what cost is right and so accounts like to be as the proof whether it means anything in this way it doesn't it doesn't just like those two buildings right okay because you could choose to sell the building that a hundred thousand and show this huge profit or sell the other building and show no profit and manipulate you so right right I mean that's yeah and by the way so the business is do that yeah yeah so I thought last year we put it was it last year of the year before Judy maybe you remember we put something in the town report about audits I haven't been audit done you put it right no I think there is a copy of the management letter or something yeah the management letter or a summary something we I don't think it wasn't last year's it must have been the year before so what most more and more of our towns are doing is putting the full audit on their websites and the three reports making available putting a single letter that we can write for you in your town report that says that they're available for inspection on the website and at the town office I can't tell you that that meets the letter of the law I can tell you it probably meets the spirit of the law right but but the you know remember the law was written in 18 right yeah that would be great because we're getting ready to start working on the town report so when you get a chance if you could we'll get you that letter yeah we'll get you a PDF or whatever format your printer likes it in we can get that too yeah that would be great thank you I don't know there's specific or general questions or Sandra has one yeah if you don't mind can you and I just walk through the way Jordan and I did to illustrate like really what this audit means to the board in and I'll tell you what I mean and you probably know so if we go to okay first let's go to page six of what I'll be 2018 audit and Fred pointed out that we have a general fund balance of three hundred eighteen thousand three hundred dollars right so Fred is it a true statement that not only do we have that fund balance at the end of the year but all of our reserve funds and special programs are fully funded as well they're not tucked into that no they're not every other fund that you see correct is not part of that 318 it might be that the cash is coming out but it would show up as the due to other fund and so it's taken out of the 318 the 318 is general fund only with everything funded with everything funded so it's when when you were in a deficit oftentimes you're living off your reserve funds so but you're not at this point in time so all of your reserve funds have their own amount of money and there is also this to support our cash flow and where you guys may have noticed in this order we just spent I think close to seventy thousand dollars toward a highway grant project toward two highway grant projects which you which we must spend first and then wait for reimbursement and sometimes that may straddle fiscal years so very important that we have that balance and that is not necessarily want to refund any of that money to the tax payers especially when we have so many highway grants percolating along and then I'm going to have a question if you don't ask it well I'm going to get to that so if we hop over to page 25 I just want to take I just want to go with bread through this thought process and have him confirm if it is a lot of it yes if it's if it's logical 25 so the the bottom fifth of the highway budget has a string of negative numbers beginning with twenty five thousand eight hundred fifty five right most of its grants the twenty five thousand eight hundred so that when we reduce the highway budget to actual by those negative numbers the highway would appear to look as if it over spent by fourteen thousand three hundred seven is that a fair statement correct if we go then to page 24 you go to page 24 yeah about a third of the way through the page all the way on the right you're going to see a number fifty seven thousand seven hundred forty eight dollars is that all the highway grants and that is money that was not and budgeted for so it is a revenue in excess of what you budgeted for if you look to the left you'll see zeros and because it wasn't budgeted and those are grant receipts all right yeah is that is that is that a good explanation so if we hop back to page 25 that fourteen negative fourteen thousand then actually becomes a positive forty three thousand four hundred forty one dollars is the negative expenses over budget plus the positive the revenues that were in excess of what we budgeted for which was a grant reimbursement yes okay so your highway surplus is it a fair statement to say that this is representative of the highway surplus at the end of 2000 at the end of FY 18 it's the highway surplus for the year for FY 18 correct what I don't know is if I know what that highway what it started at right did it start at a higher oh we never I have an answer to that okay don't film that we don't we don't have highway surpluses highway surpluses if there are any are rolled over into the capital equipment fund right by article several years ago so we have no highway surplus we only have a highway capital equipment fund that is reflected in the fund balances I think on page 30 yep and that makes sense to me because those are restricted and we do say that in the footnotes that they're extended because it's highway so the 37 will go into that so the forty three thousand four hundred forty one dollars is that an amount of is that fair to say that that is an amount of money that would be rolled over to the highway capital equipment fund pursuant to that article that requires the town to do that yeah the only one that I don't know for sure and that you would be the but I soon because it was bought with highway months is that is the proceeds from the sale the excavator the 28 grand so I talked with Jordan about that and they and I don't I don't wasn't here for that transaction so they sold an excavator they received 28,000 they paid something off I don't know what that was they had 25,000 855 dollars left and that was rolled over into the highway capital equipment fund so that was already moved in FY 18 that's why we don't include that and it's a negative it's not a positive right but the but the transfers in there too so yes it doesn't change the total so when the operations manager asks about what money that put into that fund it's the 40 43 43 the well no money has been moved but that is the amount of money that would be moved into your highway capital equipment back dollar amount for the minutes well I can't tell you to the penny but because these are rounded but it is 43,441 dollars plus or minus I just have to say I'm not taking this level of detail minutes I need to so budget this out of disgust yeah I mean I'm taking the only purpose and this discussion was to assist the board and walking through a conversation that the board has had annually to how much to transfer what the highway surplus is and so it I spent a good deal of time to be able to take this information and then create I think a step-by-step process to think about it but I wanted to have Fred say that was okay yeah if that's what the and that was a board motion in years past or voter it was okay so then it sounds like you have no choice right and so then yes you would do the calculation and then present the board and they would make a motion to transfer and that would get moved okay yeah we may want to have a different article have it read a little differently I think we talked about yeah well you might want to just put a an amount of money in your budget to as an appropriation to the highway capital equipment fund yeah and then but then what if there's a surplus then what do you do with it as you would you would have to be restricted for highway fund use but it would it would just roll over from year to year so if that number one year was a negative forty three thousand four hundred forty one dollars and you had the money to back you up then you're not in a deficit you know in total and total right total budget and the only reason I hesitate is when I said annual because theoretically it is a rolling number and a negative would be offset by positive so if we walked into 16 with negative but at some point you just gotta say I don't know what it is and let's just move forward and I think that's where you are at this point and so if it's worded to say on an annual basis we have a highway surplus it needs to be moved to the capital fund or however you as a board decide you want to you know to ask your voters to approve yeah and then you just need to do whatever that article says and so you know the lesson is obviously is that make sure the articles worded the way you really wanted to happen right yeah because once voted on your hands are tied right yeah so really this exercise for me was just a reminder for me and and to help you understand your audit of how we can use these audits to distill the highway surplus fund by going through them and picking out the information that we would use to make that calculation okay very good yeah very good I just want to tell you it's been a delight working with you and your firm everyone is so polite and always speaks in plain language I really appreciate it thank you so thank you very much great and if you know any time you have questions don't you know go for it right and then we'll need to do the audit after f1 19 ends correct so now it should be your own cycle you're caught up and will we have a cost idea to put in the budget going forward you do you have a three-year contract right you want to be a three-year bid so we're still going to this is still one third we're still in the third year this really considered correct okay good yep great thank you so much for your time we really appreciate doing business with you take care of see Fred yeah take care of the second Joe is Fred thank you Ron enjoy brought thank you thank you very much only my wife's oh well you still have to you better rush home say bye I just started there's a lot well I do I was riveted listening to Fred yeah well that's what I thought I said oh if I sit here look like he's boring me that I don't know because there's different days that things get run off different batches we have to sign off on all this every time I'm not reading it it's like I don't understand the value well part of my job is I come in and I review everything I look at every check number look at the amount I know but I'm not verifying no I know so I don't know whether I guess we should when you need a I believe you need a majority for a form to sign off on your board orders to release so what you're doing is you're believing me yeah no I know so that's really what it amounts to and I see what you're saying though it just seems like you're signing off you don't even really got no value and I know was I reading somebody was just people were just signing stuff that without reading it and then they got jammed up because it was some right I don't know oh it's hard with electric what the statute requires as far as the board was just doing what we do signing off on the monthly bank statements not checking all the way back and there was money being misappropriated and they were trusting and not trust but it's no that's how hard with electric that no problem so I don't understand the value of my signing it I'm thinking a lot here well I think that's part of what happens you have that internal controls discussion just things like that that's something you would brainstorm here's something if you go wrong yeah here's a minute to go wrong we could be a cahoots and stealing the town's money and you guys are no office here they get along you tell me you all get along you're not clawing each other's eyes out I can't sign this the checks and balances need a rat right well I think what we'll do is we'll investigate further the idea of having BLCT come out and do a work session and then we can present it to a full board and what the you know here's what came up of things that we need to have some controls about it's interesting that we don't need to use that checkbox thing that's I don't know one of our board members made it like three times longer than it already was for internal controls and now he sounds like there's something better yeah from St. John's Bay right yeah all right so download on the audit anybody wants to know or say so I saw the decision I don't I mean I'm adding value get three signature that's good enough I'm serious it doesn't do anything it's up it serves no function well except we have to have a forum of the board that we have a court right now I'm just saying three wherever whatever direction it goes you get three to rest in that the work if it's not like we're not we're still gonna come after you know we're not verifying anything that you could just pick one packet and go through it just to satisfy yourself if you wanted to I'm not it's not that I just trust it but it makes no sense if I'm not if I'm not vetting the stuff it makes no sense to be signed signing it that I'm betting and I'm not betting it all right so we hear you but the problem is going forward we need three people to sign yeah I mean I'm saying if it came this way first I decided but there's so many places to sign in it it serves no functional value every paper which I used to look through everything but I'm not looking to all that all right can we move on yep all right so we have a joint this is my chair update mission on Monday coming up at seven o'clock here I've already posted the agenda I think I know I think I didn't post it on form yet so it would be an important meaning to do and just know that we don't have to take over the cemetery we may we may they're the only way I think there's and I don't have everything here and I sent it to you guys there's an instance where you should or shall but we're not there so it's just something to keep in the back of your mind because it sounds to me like the cemetery could involve a significant amount of work it sounds like it's in pretty rough shape don't think they have a lot of money to transfer so I think there's a good amount of discussion and questions that we need to ask and Andy Christiansen I guess his name is supposed to come to the meeting he's the Poplar Hills Cemetery chair I don't know what it is but anyways so does that cemetery historically serve both residents of East Montpelier and Calis Poplar yes I don't know yes I think that's a good question but it's in Calis right on the border right now so I guess the Christiansen's so if you look just based the I mean are the only options that is the all only option it that Calis either considered taking it over or not it are there other options that we that could be considered like Calis and East Montpelier having joint responsibility and splitting the costs being that we have people from both towns residing there and I think those are good things to explore next Monday night and Jim Barlow will be there to help us okay the legal aspect of it there's a folder a Google folder created for next one night there's copies of deeds of copies of their minutes that Katie populated for me it's on our it's in the drive yeah and there may be more stuff that comes in if you go up back up oh it's under 10 yeah there's a bunch of stuff there so it should be pretty interesting I mean we've never to my knowledge I've never been involved in the kind of thing like this before another thing is we're gonna do a site visit or no I think that's something we should bring up because I'm curious why we don't notice this meeting as a site visit 630 and then you can do that come up here at 7 or something or 615 up here at 7 because I want to look at that hillside and that's really going to be key if stabilizing that's kind of cost a hundred thousand dollars I'm not going to this night personally well I can reach back and I can schedule a site visit if everybody's on board with doing it at 6 30 I don't know what your work schedule is that Monday and I'll think everyone has to but it'd be good this is next Monday right so today yeah so next Monday I'm off or people can go up and take a look at it at their convenience yes I'd like to have the group there have a conversation but I don't think you're going to do it at 6 30 and be back here by 7 615 why are you setting the clocks back already no not yet it's dark by 7 oh yeah 615 will be good I can check it don't rush it and it won't be snowing either you don't know that I'm asserting that okay um you don't have to stay unless you want to you're welcome to but I know you've been putting in some of your dogs oh you're doing here it's tomorrow tomorrow you know it's the same day okay so my daughter how old should be 16 you guys are the same age but there's one for everyone there is an 18 and a 17 bound version that you should hey yeah I'll take the ball I have the photo copy one but same thing he brought a bet yeah okay we got fancy bound coffee yes okay all right thank you thank you very much looking with the auditors they were very wonderful to work with I have to say great I went to the adamant community Center Shirley and overlay district presentation on last 1918 whatever date that was that was a Tuesday I guess right third Tuesday that's when they meet they did a really nice job all of the porters showed up it was well it was well attended they did a nice job presenting it they're going to do it they the Lister to plan a commission plan orca came in and taped it so it'll be up on the website good and they're going to do some more throughout town but this presentation was specific to changes in adamant yes right and there they there were some good suggestions and good ideas so I couldn't guys bird watching okay all right we've been here the other day don't don't egg him on we were here last Wednesday and was it Wednesday were you here that came in from a resident on County road that a truck had a radically in her driveway I don't think the person knew that she was home and he was kind of going around the house checking doors he finally knocked on the door and identified himself as a town road crew worker and he wanted to park his truck in her yard because they were doing ditching and she thought it all seemed a little weird and he gave her his name this guy so she thought the whole thing was a little suspicious and he was wearing an orange vass but didn't feel right so she told him to go park in Maple Corner in the meantime she called the town office and the Vermont state offices Wednesday morning so anyway she was very concerned and rightly so she lives alone so we get to talking about it here and she didn't want anything posted on from porch forum yada yada yada the state police showed up because she had the name of the license number they recognized who it was apparently the guy who lives in Marshfield and he has a criminal history so they were going to go talk to him anyways what that brought up the idea that maybe town employees should have some kind of ID especially the road crew workers so we're looking into town truck with the name of their name on their uniform it's Tyler Callis well I guess you can make fake IDs you can fool anyone how are they gonna know well I guess we weren't thinking negatively I think our trucks are about as good an ID as you're gonna get so well you know I don't think anyone's gonna invest in it 200,000 dollar plow truck just a Rob granny Tyler Callis painted on it oh no but we were just thinking that maybe some ID cards for town employees I don't know how much they would cost but yeah do something like that what you want to do then is create a procedure hesitate to use the word policy but and educate the townsfolk that if one of the members of the road crew is going to approach you they will state their name they will show you their ID and they will you will have the means to contact and verify all this with the town office right that was this other thing because there does seem to be a huge increase in the amount of robberies I mean all you gotta do is look at front porch forum and every little while there's a whole slew and if you look at other towns and look at the Vermont State Police daily incident report which I get so a lot of stuff that goes on there was two incidents that day in Callis so did the guy do any ditching no there was no ditching being done I thought we might get some free ditching no ditching no ditching okay another plea that I have and another person that I would ask and I'll ask her separately please could you please check your email your select board email at least two or three times a week and if I ask you a question about a date which we're allowed to do in the open meeting law respond would be so helpful I just don't have time to call everybody and anything about scheduling meetings agenda items that's all within all okay within the open meeting long that would be really really helpful especially as we're getting into all this budget stuff so that brings me to I think my last my last items is the town meeting budget I have yet to contact this Bob Hannon the Bob Hannon email address that Barbara Butler gave me didn't work so now I've got to track down a phone number or something we're coming up with a schedule to hopefully have a representative from each major entity in town command that's why it's allowed for about the preliminary highway stuff we're not meeting with East Montpelier fire department in October because we're on this news three times a year thing even though anyways that's a long story and it's all said and done I guess but it doesn't mean we can't ask them to come in and present us a budget so I'm looking to to do that and then maybe we we negotiate with the East Montpelier select board about getting back to the quarterly meetings as we were used to when Bruce reminded me that we all agreed that three times a year was good enough so our normal time to meet with them would be December we missed August because they didn't remind us so good anyways I'm gonna put together a draft schedule and then you guys can all look at it before next regular meeting which brings me to my next question October 8th is Columbus Day it might mess up our budget schedule cycle I don't know but it's up to you guys whether you want to meet on Columbus Day I think we typically have yeah yeah we typically have although I'm gonna have company from out of state and so I took Monday and Tuesday off from work so yeah so I mean conceivably if we do a day trip somewhere I could come to a meeting at night I just don't know what our itinerary is I mean they're not staying at my house or anything but you know everybody else feel about yeah I guess I forgot to check in I don't know if she has I don't think she has and you might go out of town if she does right yeah but I'll be back by then because she has to go to school next day I'm off that day I don't know if I'm gonna be able to get the schedule and I was gonna try to get some of the groups to come in on that day but I think a better option would be to me to do a draft let's review it and and then schedule folks to come in and I think by then we might have Meg Dawkins said she wasn't ready to come in today about perennial field lane private sign she wasn't ready to come in David Healy is gonna come next meeting to talk about the Central Vermont ISP and the status and what's going on with that and I'm gonna we could ask them to write something up for the town report when we voted on it last meeting or a while we're already at that point you're thinking about that yeah I know somebody's got to that's what happens when you work in the office every day not in the office every day but I generally do something select we're related every single day and so they were looking for select boards to show up just to show right I'm gonna bring copies of the right you want to warn it okay we're not gonna we're not gonna vote to join the lawsuit that meeting the school boards do that oh it's school board I thought that they wanted okay okay what happens is all of the boards will discuss all this lawsuit right and then they will break in individual sessions and individual boards will decide if they want to be we can say we can say yes we support it we're not voting exactly and I think we kind of look no I think it starts at 5 30 last dot for the agenda and send it around 30 we got news today that there's an informational meeting that starts at 4 30 and then there's a 5 30 to 7 30 which is the merry-go-round one I think that's the 5 30 to 7 and then the callous meeting would be 7 32 whatever so bring your lunch 4 30 and a drink informational get us updated as to where we are and where we're heading where is that do you know what room it's in at 4 30 probably the cafeteria okay good we make a copy of that alright and then we just need to be thinking about we have some board meetings that are going to be one is November 19th which is Thanksgiving week and then of course we have December 24th which is Christmas Eve which I'm sure we don't want to meet that night and December 31st no December 31st Christmas day every day that's very Christian yeah right I know we drunk I think I get drunk every day yeah he doesn't know I can't wait till I retire so I can do stuff like that be totally responsible okay so I'm assuming there's going to be two or three meetings coming up that we're not going to have because they're going to be holidays are you taking this well the camera still on vote for me I'll set you free all right anything else I don't know if people are going to look at this policy that Sharon created she's not even here what is the policy about it is about road naming and it's really long it's like five pages long did she catch it that she mentioned I didn't think I saw it yeah she attached to it it's also in the folder yeah so let's do that maybe next time too maybe by then I'll have a draft credit card policy I hope it's not as long anything else I'm just circling back to Meg the documents that she's been sending us that can't be shared it's difficult Katie and I had a sidebar email conversation and she's going to draft up generic email that we can use if somebody sends us a document and it's like that you can send them say hey would you please put this in the shareable format so that we can stop right it's just a permissions thing it doesn't matter what format the documents and she just doesn't give people permission to share it so we have to do all these work around so that we could post it into our public documents folder right or even just publish it in in the select works well what I did with the this happened with the popular cemetery documents too so I just printed them off scan them name them and send them to Katie but at least the popular documents you can print man you can't even make you can't even what right it's like no permissions nothing you can only look at it right don't even touch it right she said I was self distracted she said one of them in words so right I think I thought it was Katie's idea actually she thought it would be real good if we just had something in our hip pocket and send to somebody it's like hey we need to be able to share this with public because it is going to be part of an open communication I thought like cash a program or something now it's just the way they save it or something right it's probably your default settings is it like is that word or pages or what was it word I think there was one in word there was some yes yeah something I didn't even recognize and so I think what she did is she saved him in her Google Drive sent us the link but the default for her Google Drive is non-chair right I did have a question about we were talking about naming roads and whatnot in the policy but I couldn't help but notice a lot of new street signs in Eastmount Hillier and it seems like they're smaller than what we've been the lettering especially and you know and I know that you know Alfred says they have to be you know the letters have to be that big or whatever but when they order them they order them as opposed to the sign company make sure they're compliant with 911 well and I I don't know what the deal is but just take notice when you drive you know Center Road Sibley Road they're all new they're all they've all recently been put up there you know green they're all on single poles poles instead of two and I've just and I'm like you know they look nice I mean you could still see it you know but it's not like you know the letters are this big you know and so just take notice maybe we have fun if they meet but I mean I can't imagine that they would invest in infrastructure that wasn't compliant right you know right so I don't know it just looks like I remember I'll ask Bruce yeah it just looks like ours are like so big and you know yeah and just yeah yeah just look at night they are helpful yeah they're big so all right minutes you reminded me when we did that little highway thing that the erosion repair job oh yeah I didn't go on the road the road commissioner from Woodbury was there Parkers as was Guthrie from East Montpelier and we were all sitting together on the little school bus after we got past school bus jokes reminiscing about what we used to do to the school bus drivers I asked Guthrie about that spiffy John you're attracted with a sidearm mower that was sitting in their door yard and I think I asked Greg too because they had one similar I can't remember what Greg told me but I think his might have been least or someone parked it there a guy who's contracted parked it there but East Montpelier did did buy one he bought a top top top of the line brandy new top you know that's not great you bought a John Deere like hundred horse m series which is attractive and he bought a brand new crazy expensive sidearm over but Greg Parker said they were looking at a mower down in front of their front end loader somehow I don't know how that would work but but anyway so so towns are that we're not unique in having the conversation of doing our own mowing and really having our own equipment so I think it's worth worthy of exploration and well Alfred and I don't think we should be spending what East Montpelier spent no they spent over a hundred thousand dollars well because I had that issue on Old West Church Road and I got a follow-circle back in with the killer ends and Peter Harvey Peter Harvey he tried he put up signs and he went and visited most of the neighbors but he hadn't caught up with the killer ends and they had the issue about burdock's a nice told Peter you know he needed to follow through and and talking with the killer ends about their issue so if we're not going to do some mowing on road sides next time somebody asked us to not mow on their road we need as a board to say then we need to reach out to the other residents of that road and let them know what's going on because the killer ends were not happy that stuff wasn't mowed although they were did explain about the invasives and the logic behind it which they got they still weren't happy because they had a whole bunch of burdock's and I don't know that's what I got to follow up on this Peter was supposed to follow up and talk with them because I just I really want to look I can make it mental in fact when I go home fall asleep I'm gonna look into it there used to be a law and I keep bringing this up every time we come up we don't have to know there was a law where property owners were responsible for their own road frontages and a town could assess them and I don't know if a law changed since 19 the night early 1970s in prior or if towns have just gotten weak need and taking it upon themselves and that's become the new protocol I'd like to find out because if it's the former is the case and that law is still in place we have no then we would have no obligation into courtesy right but if you're doing it for some right right I mean you gotta look at we have we have a rationale true rational it's only temporary and we are exploring other options as we're right so Peter hasn't followed up and I apologize and say we're going to try to do a better our job of outreach next year if this continues and we're hoping to buy our own equipment I did tell them that that we're looking at buying our own equipment so you can do mowing more often to avoid mowing when the invasives are out right now we increased it to two as opposed to one so you know I think people should be glad that we're looking at wanting to mow more often to decrease the amount of spread of invasives that we can I think I'll totally do the right thing for the interim plan until we can figure out a long-term solution and we're working on that I mean I think yeah I think we did you know did the right thing we make so many decisions here every day we're gonna make somebody meds and she was very nice she thanked me for all the work I do for the town and Steve is a trustee yeah they're usually really nice I was surprised I just don't know where they're I still don't know where their house is on Old West Church Road but anyways pass our praisers house anyway it doesn't matter I'll get back to where Peter lives yeah I know where Peter lives all right minutes just know just two houses how you know which is the most current version or when you open up a version is it gonna include the notes I made and the notes Sharon made how do you know I opened it up and it showed both it had little bubbles showing what you had edited and what she had it right but how did you know which one to open there's like three versions of it right maybe we don't want to stir this in time but it just gives you the time you last opened it and typically it's only the same date yeah I didn't have any edits I looked at it the only comment that I wanted to have I wanted to make the point and this is no nothing against Katie or anything but just the whole length of the minutes and the level of detail especially under the app 46 update when she puts so much detail in like that and especially if this might become part of a legal lawsuit or whatever if we decide to sue the state of Vermont and if every single one of these facts aren't correct I just worry about that and I saw her typing a lot you know when they were given that app 46 update and you know but I mean I think that she just likes to provide that level of detail but I don't think that's the only thing I mean she probably could kind of down I really appreciate when I go back and look at those minutes or I want to research something that we decided because I can't take notes the whole time we're having a meeting well so it's really helpful yeah the thing was the level of detail was one thing but we know that this might we might end up in a lawsuit with the state and you know I mean nothing was so good good point but it's also on video yeah so I like but other than that I didn't find any corrections or anything yeah Sharon I made a few and I looked at Sharon's oh yeah see there's the bubble this is how you can tell as you look at the owner once you've edited it and you saved it it puts it under your name and that's how we know when I did it well once you started making your edits this shows you who did what when I just find it confusing oh it is confusing and then I make some edits are they there to see this is Sharon's yes yes yeah three yesterday what does it say yeah Denise has a green stripe under her face Sharon has a red stripe black like see so I don't know if others looked at these minutes and agree with the edits that Sharon and I recommended so the fast trash is still in play that's gonna be on there is that's gonna be on their agenda Wednesday night after they're all burnt out definitely be there right yeah so the meanwhile is it still well yeah and sometimes they feed people but I don't know if they intend to feed audience people well I'm going there and eat in my tax now or so do you want to wait till next time are you okay we can work her edits are usually fine if everyone else is okay with I usually always review her edits because sometimes I was left here do you have a chance to read it they're fine all right so I would make a motion that we approve them in it's a September tense with the edits as entered by Sharon and Denise sounds good second all those in charge all those in favor please say hi yes I did all in favor