 to say, after the increase of reception support is to pay a part-time contractor, say the COA found they needed a more consistent level of support. Oh, sorry, where are you? I'm at Council on Aging at the very end on the second page. Okay. So you have the second sentence, the increase in reception support is to pay a part-time contractor. That's good. And then could the next sentence be the Council found they needed a more consistent level of support? Needed a more consistent. Okay. Are there any other corrections, David? Just on the rental buildings. Okay, so across off Turkey Hill and put in Mount Gilboa. Okay, Christina. Okay. Hey, John. Okay, is there any other? Any other corrections? Okay, do I have a motion? Second? Okay, any other corrections or discussion? All those in favor of approving the minutes is corrected. We say aye. Opposed? Okay. And now our favorite topic. Snow and ice. Um, everybody should have the handout. So Andrew, could you tell us what's happened? Sure. It is continued the snow at a record day since we will ask for you. I think two weeks ago. The request tonight is to request authorization to deficit spend an additional $500,000 on top of the $750,000 that we requested last time we were before the finance committee, which would bring our total authorization to deficit spend the $1.25 million in addition to the $771,000 that was appropriated in the FY 2015 budget. So I draw your attention to the memo to the town manager from the Public Works Director Mike Rademacher. He summarizes the number of snow and ice events we've had this year. We're up to a total of 2515, which were snow events, 10, which were ice in an approximately 95 inch snowfall. So he's broken this memo with two pieces expended today. So those are receipts we've actually processed associated with snow removal. And then additionally, some more recent costs that we've incurred, but may not have had the final final cost as a result of the work just being completed in the past day or so. And that's in the bottom half of the memo. So what I can tell you is over the past several weeks, we've utilized all the resources available to the town of Arlington, including all of our town resources and assets. We've worked with several contractors to help with snow removal, street widening, moving snow out of town to our snow or to our snowfield. Last week, specifically, we utilize two contractors to do a pretty significant snow removal effort of snow from rooftops, the biggest concern being the Odyssey Middle School. Those efforts are continuing. They were to give school today, they'll meet the Fox Library tomorrow. So that's ongoing. We've also will begin the process of moving snow from the rez out to a location of the contractor's choosing. So when you take the cost that we incurred in a process and what we're anticipating, the total expenditure to date is approximately 1.7 million. With the authorization approved tonight, that'll give us about another $300,000 in room to basically pay any cost that continues to come in, or in the event we have another storm or ice event in the future. So I don't know if you want to go into detail about what the different financing plans could be. We talked about them last time in addition to the appropriation, we set aside in long range plan $500,000 to raise on the next year tax rate, raise the deficit. Some years we utilize it last year we utilized all 500,000. It's assumed we'd do the same this year at least the 500,000 that's set aside. And then come back to the finance committee as the winner draws to a close and make a request for what I imagine be reserve funds. So I'm happy to answer any questions. But that's what we are today. First of all, I think for the amount of employees we have with doing the good job. And I don't want this to sound like I don't think we're doing it. But I need to understand a few things. And the first one, he gave us data February 4 to tell manager we had six of the 16 events we called in, we contract this probably for a total of about 234,700. Today's February 23. We called in so far eight of the 25 events, which was two more. We call them in two more times since February 4. But the two more times we added up 207,000. We almost spent the same amount of money for two events that we spent on sex. I think it has to do I know it has to do more with the duration. We were keeping contract is overnight going 24 hours around the clock. We're in the other events, the time in which we utilize them was much shorter. Does that with that? That also include the cleanup with that 441,000? Absolutely. That's that's total. Total. That's total. Okay, the other the other question is going back to February 4. We spent 131 125 for repairs. That kind of bothers me a little. To me, that's a that's a big number for two storms on repairs. I have a concern with that. And I know you can't answer that. But that would be my concern. And the other question is, the school buildings, does that fall under the school budget or DPW? So it's a there's a few components to the answer. They have staff that they have in their own budget. custodial support and maintenance staff that all their overtime has been paid or a good portion of it's been paid through the school budget. We're gonna have a conversation with the school department with regard to the snow removal from the roofs. Well, that's that's my question. Why is the DPW taken 100 grand when it's to be out of the school budget would be my so we know it's a very fair question. School school was on break last week. We had to get the job going. So for the purpose of tonight, we put it in our cost accounting, but there's gonna be a conversation with the school department leadership. Just go. I mean, those are questions that I okay, so just on that school, so the removal from school roofs under normal circumstances that might be taken from the school budget for these purposes right now, you've just incorporated it in the general correct. Okay. Other questions. Well, we have we have an historically charges of snow and ice and raise it through this, but rather addressed that within the individual public safety budget so fire and police will also have a cost associated with this. Okay, any other questions team? Yeah. Um, so I guess I have a few. So I see I know what we started with I know we added I know what we're adding and how much we have left. So let's pretend for a second doesn't snow again, right? It seems like a funny thought. But for the money we're appropriating. What's the what's the ongoing? What's the forward looking strategy here? Right. So what I mean by that let me just let's just go for the last couple weeks. Week before school vacation, it snowed on a Sunday Monday, something like that. We've gotten hit repeatedly. So I understand dpw probably spent a lot of time focusing on clearing up the schools get in the back operational doing some different things. So we're all sort of live a lot of people are living with these sort of I don't even call them single laid road. They're like car length roads where you pull off into a driveway if someone's coming the other direction or back up like 100 yards, right? So let's say it doesn't stop. You're getting this money. Now, is the plan to get trying to widen the roads or is but we had to point where it's you're living with this until it melts. No, not at all. So in the immediate future, we're going to continue and overnight, at least a one night overnight widening of Mass Ave. That's the best time to widen Mass Ave. And then the plan is to regroup this week and come up with a plan that will make very public for how we're going to go about widening roads. But what does that what does that mean? So let me let me explain. We had a big we had we had a big storm the week before school vacation. Okay. And I understand you have to school back in order all that. There were no kids in the last week. Right. So the concept that we had to focus on the schools last week is out. So now we so if there was anything that was going to happen in terms of widening or planning that would have started last week. And I have to be honest and look, I'm not trying to be up here, but I am going to be up here. Because it's kind of tough. I'm sure everybody else deals with this, right? You live in an eight road where you shovel because not enough lane in front of my house don't apply a snow blower. And a lot of times you hear the same things you hear, you know, oh, the town run out of money. Oh, the town know what they're doing. Oh, what are we doing here? And so from a from a governance standpoint, you feel like you're kind of backed into a corner. So since we didn't school last week, where are we going for the money that you want? So, so let me respond a little bit what our plan was. We identified priority priority areas being areas in and around schools, work beginning at schools, working outward to ensure that people will be able to get to school safely when school resumed. Additionally, the police department went street by street intersection by intersection listing the priority areas fire department went street by street listing priority streets on a scale from one to four. One being needing immediate attention for needing the least attention with regard to that scale. And we focus our efforts based on that as well. We realized really quickly that we weren't to be able to widen every street in a in a Thai fashion that would be acceptable to every resident of Arlington. But what we tried to do is target around schools with the police and fire have identified as priority priority areas. Okay. So now we're here today. Right. And I don't think we've got to all the priority areas yet. So we're going to continue to target those. And once we get through those come up with a plan for how we move you know, it's a resource. So it's fair to say there is not a plane. Besides widening around schools. There's no plan to widen the streets in the town at the moment. I would disagree. I think you just said in areas identified by the Arlington Police Department and the Arlington County Department that present a public safety fair enough, fair enough. Okay, so just make sure we're on the same page. Areas around schools, areas identified by the police or fire is representing a public safety, which I think you've probably learned when it comes to when the JRM trucks couldn't get down the street would be my my guess. That's kind of the tipping point at that point. But that's where we are. Okay, so we give you this money. And that's what we're that's that's about it at the moment. We haven't figured the rest out yet. That's the plan and we'll be working figure out what we'll do in the following weeks. And when that plan put together, we made public like we've tried to be very open with our public communications through the beginning of this, providing daily updates. So as we proceed to the town, our plan won't be hidden from anyone. Our plan won't be hidden. We'll make public with the plan. Okay, the only other thing I would say because I know we were talking about clearing the roofs and the schools and things like that. Could everybody speak up a little bit? This thing is noisy. And I think I'm getting down. So I mean, look, I understand you said you want to have some discussion to school. But the one thing I would sort of beg of you here is, we're at the point where flexibility in a school budget is difficult to gain, right? Because the majority of their costs are teachers. And once the costs are locked in on September 1, it's tough to to pull them out. So I understand you might have some some discussions with them. But it I think outside of any type of surpluses they might have here or there money, they might not spend it's going to be it's a tough a school budget, a tough place to take money out of. I mean, on the town budget, you have that backward lever that you can overspend the budget. I mean, if they're, you know, teachers make up the majority of the budget, the only option you have is very limited at this point. I mean, they're not things we want to talk about. Right. And I think that's the plan. Have a conversation and see if there's an opportunity to cut here. And we'll see. I mean, we haven't had an opportunity to have that meeting. Okay, and then obviously, and then the last thing I'm just gonna say this is lasting on the schools because it was a pet peeve mind several years ago is we're all in this together, right? I mean, I never liked the days of school versus town. When we talked about the town as a set the school is a separate weird government that didn't really exist. I don't know whose children they were educated, but it didn't appeal like they were the Arlington Children. So we're all together in this, right? I mean, it comes to that stuff. Okay, right? I guess if you're going to follow up on the schools. Let me ask this question. And I think I already know I hope I know the answer to this. Who's plowing the school parking lots in general? Anyway, on a general basis, is it DPW or is it the school hire their own contractor? The school doesn't hire their own contractors typically. So what they deploy is their equipment can only fight snow, you know, certain certain certain depth. So they'll deploy their custodial staff to generally do roof work sidewalk work. And then they generally deploy takeoffs with clouds. Some of these storms have been far too great in nature for their equipment. So then DPWs come in and help with it. I would hope that's actually I would have hoped that it was DPW to begin with. I think this is just an extraordinary time period. And you know, we just all selected up in the towns responsible for the town's responsible for the school's town's responsible for maintaining everything we have. Second topic that goes piggyback with the snow. And that is parking. What is the what is the thought of the town manager as to what's going to happen with the parking if you're not going to be removing the snow from any other area other than mass up in the foreseeable future? So the goal is to lift the band incrementally as fast as we possibly can. So in the foreseeable future, we're going to be widening roads every single day. And what we put together that you'll see on the town website, which predominantly one color right now, where the band's in effect, it's different color where it's not. But what we will be doing through the town website, only it's not realistic to send a message of 5000 people every time we open the road is keep a list of when roads and the goal is to the opening roads. I don't know, you know, I live over on Warren Street near the fire fire station. And the other morning as a fire engine tried to get through. And it didn't. The firemen were out directing traffic trying to get things going every which way. And there was an ambulance following them. And I'm sure glad that I wasn't the one having the heart attack that they were chasing because they they had another 10 minutes just to get through that. So I mean, I would think that maybe if the town would be following this one side of the road parking and get some signs. So there's some organization between it. Okay, are there any other questions? Okay, the manager has requested an additional $500,000 of spending authority for a total of $1,250,000. Now, this is not a final thing. We'll figure out some time in late March, maybe early April. Exactly how much we're going to take from the reserve fund in this. So but this basically gives them authority to to spend to this level. So they're looking for additional $500,000. We have a motion. Second. Okay, any discussion? Okay, all those in favor of an additional $500,000 and spending authority for snow and ice removal, please say aye. Opposed. Okay. Now, sort of. Well, actually, we're late. I'll bring that up later. Okay, well, thank you very much. Okay, water bodies. How many people do you have? Seven. One person, one person over here. Can we pass this mic down? I'm sorry. Can this mic travel? Yeah, it can pick people up pretty much across. Okay, great. You should have a hand out from Gloria. Gloria, do you have an extra handout? I have one here. Okay, this hearing is on the article 34 for water bodies that we've had. This is yours? Yeah. Here, I can use this one. Thank you. Okay, this order goes on 34 requests for appropriation for water bodies. I'm Jane Howard, one of the members of the spy pond committee. And I am the name attached to the Warren article. We have other sponsors, but we weren't all able to meet formally to get the vote. So I'd like to introduce the rest of the people here. This is Brad, Barbara, who's the chair of spy pond committee. And you know, Teresa Benedictus from public works, and Joey Gushko from planning and Nathaniel Stevens from the conservation commission also a sponsor. Bill I camp from spy pond and Martin Google from the reservoir committee. And now you'll hear from Brad Garver, who is the chair of spy pond committee. And then also from Teresa. Okay, just so you don't have to keep moving. Okay, so I'm Brad Barbara, a co chair with Steve Ritchie of the spy pond committee. And we've got we came to you last year and decided just we wanted just to do a little preamble. You have it right here describing what we do. The Arlington water bodies, the big ones, as you know, are spy pond and mystic flames. We have but the river we have but L. Y. Brooke Hills pond mill broke. There's a number of other smaller water bodies. And the reservoir very important. Thank you. And and there's a bunch of quite a lot of organizations that are involved in it. And we have representatives, the conservation commission is very much interested in water bodies. The reservoir committee. This the last few years we've had a fairly severe problem with water chestnuts, which is something that sort of there had been problems a while several a number of years ago, we weren't paying attention to it. And all of a sudden we had a think it was a $20,000 a year problem with it. And it's still still not cleaned up completely. It's not as bad as it was before though. All of these water bodies take care. They just simply you can't just let them go. You let them go on the water becomes quite quite quite ugly. It fills up with vegetation on things love to grow in it. There's lots of nutrients of all kinds that have been building up over 100 years now. And you know, even in the time like five years ago, it was pretty much a green mat across behind Elizabeth Island. And what we worked out is a pretty good scheme. And that's what's down in the schedule there. In late spring, that's the time to treat aquatic plants. And we're using two separate separate treatments, a very effective, what's called a systemic treatment. The brand name is sonar. And what it does is it attacks Eurasian millfoil, which is a predominant invasive plant that's in spy pond. And it goes after it goes after the plant itself. And it's actually a fairly involved process. We dropped the water level a little bit. We monitor how much of the sonar is in the water. If it drops down over the course of the summer, a little bit extra is added in. And then that is effective for about three years. And then what we need to do is after typically in the spring, evaluate where we were where we are, and add and do a spot treatment with a different herbicide that is not systemic. But we'll keep out. You don't want a lot of vegetation in the in the body of water, because it makes it unusable. And you don't want it all to be dying out midway through the summer, because that's part of what brings on an algae blue. This year, we were, we were lucky, we didn't actually have to use any any herbicide at all. And we had no real algae problems this year. And then the the in the summertime, the water chestnuts that's a mechanical process. The idea is to get rid of the seeds so that they don't there's not a lot of seeds to sprout for the next year. We need to watch for algae blooms. And that's a you really just have to you know, if it gets bad, there's a number of treatments that you can use to knock the algae down. We've had a fairly rather successful program to manage frag mites. Those are those tall reeds. They used to we used to have about an acre and a half of very solid frag mites and they went up to 12 feet high and up to 100 feet deep. And that's now quite under control every three years, my guess, we'll need to just keep it from getting out a hand again. And then most important that my biggest worry is what we don't know about. And and that's a matter of we need to have qualified people check for check for new invasives. There's all kinds of invasive plants and animals that can get into water bodies, just like the water chestnuts. We don't want to have that happen. Again, we'd rather have caught we would have been much easier if we'd caught the water chestnut problem when it first started, as opposed to when it was in full full love. In working with the other groups, one of the particularly important we're hoping to make it have a have a larger role in the water bodies fund is the conservation Commission. They're interested in in, you know, they have they have a fair amount of regulatory oversight, but they're also interested in making the whole town work better as far as the water bodies go. And and so they're actually just starting a a survey, you know, a study of their own of the water bodies and what the ongoing needs are. So with that, unless are there any questions? We will be here and I can go over it. And what I'd like to do is turn it over to Teresa to go over the numbers. Okay. Okay, thank you. Hopefully you all got a updated spreadsheet. And it's a little bit, a little bit jazzed up from last year, one of your members gave it the once over and made it a little more user friendly. But it's essentially the same information that we've been presenting for several years now. So the most important part is on the to look at is on the page water bodies program analysis, the sort of first block of information, you can see the monies that we've been spending from FY 10 forward, what we're looking to possibly expend in the current budget that we're in FY 15. And then the three year look ahead that we've been presenting for a few years now. So we're asking for this FY 16 for 40,000 same amount as we got this current fiscal year. And we have it broken out to intending to spend between spy, the res and Hills for a total of this coming year, FY 16 of $50,000 between the three water bodies. If you look on the backside, you can see the page to sorry, you can see the more detailed exactly what the programs were thinking of doing at the three in particular this coming year. Sorry. And one thing I need to mention in the FY 15 projected the second block down, I didn't update the spent to date column. We have spent 10,750 on water chestnuts at the reservoir, we spent that this past summer. And we might have some additional this spring. But at least we spent the 10,750 and I don't think we'll spend any more on water chestnuts in FY 15 for this fiscal year. For the upcoming, as I said, we're asking for 40. But we're actually we have a budget of $50,000 as broken out here yet we're putting aside our second amount of $12,000 for sonar treatment that we're expecting to spend in FY 17 at spy. Then we're asking for 10,000 for the if we would need to do a treatment of reward 8,000 for water chestnuts at at the res we're hoping that in this coming year that we won't have to do mechanical harvesting like we've been doing for a few years, and that it'll be a lesser expenditure this coming summer algae treatment, generally at spy but we've been been lucky for a couple of years on that. And we're actually asking for a little bit of a beefed up on this line here says water quality testing plant ID and survey. We want to look more thoroughly at the water bodies and get a better idea to see if we're doing the right thing. Are we missing anything to include any other water bodies, you know, within our program. So we did bump that line up within our budget, but we still stuck with the asking for 40,000. And then we have FY 17 and 18. Pretty much think what you'd be expecting to be seeing in coming in coming fiscal year. So I think we're doing a good job within our funds, keeping an eye on the water bodies, spreading the monies around and seeing good results, particularly at spy. And we're I guess we're hopeful that we really have gotten the reds under control, in particular with the water chest nuts and that this year, things will look better. But we'll we'll see when the when and if the ice melts, we'll see what we have. Okay, are there any questions? Christine? Yeah, I'm aware of the population mission is a very aggressive and trying to get anti up. I'm not sure. Good job in holding their feet to them. So thank you for that. My questions. You said that all of the water bodies in town take care. But what you said laid out for us is only to be spent on spy on reds. And those are set projects that we have in the queue other than as I mentioned, we're asking for a little bit extra in the last line item of FY 16, where it says water quality testing plant ID and survey, we want to look around at all of them and see just to make sure should we be doing anything you know, beyond what's being done at Hills? Is there an issue that we should look at at MacLennan? You know, just to be a little more thorough and make sure we're not missing anything are, you know, caught unawares. There hasn't been any type of survey done on the other water bodies. Yeah, we have people visit on there's no but not been made the then I have some my right you guys check it out by. Yeah, it's upper mystic. There's an individual group of homeowners who do some papers and treatment there. The Conservation Commission is currently studying the other water bodies that collecting information. Mystical River Watershed Association has some information about some water bodies but not others. There's different sources for information. So we're collecting that and we're collecting as much as we can do. But there's going to be a point where we're going to need professional services to come in and do like plant ID do or more formal surveys so we can find out what management needs to be done. And that's what the line item is that Teresa was just referencing. So the work that the Conservation Commission has been doing or will it is doing is in progress. Yeah, is separate from this request. You're funding it from their prior work was separate. But if they need like said to get some professional services that would fall in this budget. I want to make sure I understand it. So far no money has ever come out of the water body fund ever. To survey any of the other water bodies. We've we've we've done surveys but they've only from the fund has been the res spy. Yeah, right. So we've got a lot of outside monies that wasn't in this budget for saying different grants and things through the years but not from this budget. And in this 15,000 that you're requesting for survey. You're representing that that would be for all of the water bodies. Right. I just broke. I didn't add another column to the spreadsheet for like miscellaneous and I just kind of write that I just want to I ran I picked the numbers 10 therefore they're one day no no magic to it. Now, in addition to this fund, the DPW also supports work at catch basin and storm grid. Yeah, and associated with this type of work. Yes. Do you know how much on a really basis adds adds to take care of the why buy one or the take care of the wife, these three water bodies. If you would, it's hard to quantify because I feel like probably the most useful thing we do is catch basin cleaning. And it's it's for all of them. And it's generally on our own staff time. So we're now sending the truck out to do that work. It's, you know, what I put a number on it, you know, anywhere from maybe 10,000 to 25, maybe depending on particular circumstances. When you, for example, when you go out and pull the water chest, does the DPW is all of the work covered by this one? No, I've done it different ways through the years. At this point, like when we've sent them, we've sent them to Lexington. Sometimes that came out of public works, this budget that was maybe things like five grand for the disposal part. I didn't charge the fund for that. This last couple of years, we we were letting the stuff dewater right on site on the spillway. And it becomes so dry that we can bring it back to the yard on Grove Street, and then put it in with other similar material. And we have it properly disposed of comes out of the highway budget. Maybe that's down, it's like 2000. So I'm just trying to find ways to spend the least amount of money. And then also, if it's in keeping with other expenses, it gets charged on the operating side of things and not to this account. And like, I get a little like, sometimes we'll have flyers for storm drain things or different printed materials and stuff. I just charge it off to highway. I think it would muddy the the detail in this spreadsheet and make it more top to keep track of. So I just charge it on the operating budget. Just easier to keep track of it that way. Okay, are there other questions? Are you finished Christine? Other other questions on the program? Just just a one response to Christine's comments. We do most of the fun to his tar is has been used for spy pond and the reservoirs. And that's really not my accident. Those are the two water bodies in town that that have the most people involved. It's their very public bodies of water. I'm sure all of you have been to one or the other or both multiple times in the course of a year. One of the great successes. In the last couple years, in particular, this year just past has been the Arlington Belmont crew, which in conditions of the pond has been in the very recent past would not have been able to to row on the pond. They just simply vegetation and rowing to just do not go well together. And they had a they were out there. I don't know how many times a week. Oh, so she's in it. Oh, five days a week. And it's a very team group. And they've been quite successful. That's great. Can we get them to pick up water chestnuts? In it, certainly. Okay, other questions? Great. Look, so the 15,000 study. It's for all of the water body study all the water body. Yes. Anybody else? Christine? So when when would you have a report as to the condition of the other much dependent on the works being done by members of the Conservation Commission? And I've been as the chairman, I've been pushing them along to complete the work as a sub working group of the Conservation Commission. But like many of you, you know, they're volunteers doing the best they can, the time they have. I would hope that we'd have something later this later this year, mid summer. Would it be realistic to have something by this time next year? I would certainly hope so. So that if and when you come back for more money next year, we have an awareness of what else is going on in town. Yeah, that's that's that's that's the plan. Okay, we'll write that down. Anybody else? Okay, well, I'd like to thank all of you for coming. We appreciate your appreciate your input your time. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, the next group is the Board of Assessors for article 23. Come up here, we've got less of space now. Chairman. I'm kept in the chairman's board of assessors and with with me is Paul Cheney, who's the new director of assessing. This is Paul's first visit to the finance committee. And first visit to make him his request. Basically, this is our tri annual request that we make every three years. Because the ZOR requires more certifications in the third year than they would in the other two. So I believe three years ago, we had a contract for $8,000. This year, we're with Paul and quad really, we're hoping to keep it down under 50. So we're only requested 50 this year. All can go through the details of what we think we'll get by that month. Thank you, Chairman. Again, I'm Paul Cheney, director of assessments. Our estimate so far, we really want to focus on the commercial industrial properties this year. And we're anticipating that it costs me about $25,000. We also want to do the personal property, which is all the businesses in town. We're budgeting five to 10,000 for that. And for the residential, we'll need a full field review of the town. And that'll be anywhere from 10 to 15,000 come out to $50,000, which is what we're requesting. Okay. Are there any questions? John? That I am not sure of. No one's ever made me aware of it. And I'd only be guessing that we'll have to get that value. I mean, typically it's in several tens of thousands of dollars. Yes, but three years ago, we hit a pretty hard, I think. So I'd like to get information. We paid the consultant $80,000 three years ago. And I think that might have been 50 plus $30 from one dollar for another year. But I'd rather get you the real information on that thing. Is this residential, the 10 to 15,000 residential? How many this is physical inspection? No, that doesn't, they would, excuse me, they would do a canvas of the neighborhoods of the outside of all the properties. It'd be most I'd say three quarters of the gap. It's a quality. It's a quality review process rather than an actual full inspection. Correct. Yeah. So after the our in health staff have done their analysis and work, then they would come in and do a quality review, part of which would be to test test some some actual locations. So it isn't a it isn't a full listing and measuring, as we would call it. It's a it's a quality review testing process. Okay, this will be for fiscal 16 or fiscal 17. 16 16 16. Okay. Alan and then John, you're budgeting roughly twice as much for commercial evaluation of residential. Is that a change from prior practice? We've always used the consultant to do commercial because we have such a limited amount of commercial that we don't have a lot of comparables in town. So that the consultants have the availability of that information from neighboring towns rather, so they're more qualified to do it than we are. So I think it's more only 400 parcels together with there are such different types of commercial that we've always used the consultant of the commercial. So in terms of the budget, that's more or less the same thing was done three years ago. Yes. Yes. Okay, John. I understand you correctly. You said for the residential, what you'll do is you'll sample a few places and that would you go inside some places and not this particular time for the field review was just an outside review of all the properties to check, you know, the grades that are consistent on particular street, the story heights, and then it was being treated fairly within particular neighborhoods. It's just an outside review. Okay, you're a camp. What are they looking at? They're looking for consistency in the data that say a ranch is consistent with the ranch next door, that all the grades and say if you have a C grade on one ranch, you'd want to see grade on the ranch next to it. It's being treated. Everything in the neighborhoods are being treated out fairly. And if there's a two story height on our building, and it's the same way next door, they want to make sure that that's a two story counting. That is two stories too. And you also check the property records to see what has been added. Yes. Yes. That is done by the assessors themselves. This was not a potter. The company that's done on a daily basis. We received the permits from the building department. I believe we've never received them electronically. And one of the duties of our data collectors to go out and view those and put and make sure they get in the system. Part of what the consultant would do would be to audit that function and make sure that it's been done properly. That's that's what this review Thank you. Okay. So what is the next time you have to go inside the properties and fiscal fiscal 19? Okay, any other questions? Okay, so could you get that data back on on money is left over from prior authorizations? If you could send it to Gloria by email and show email it to the rest of us. Okay. Okay, well, thank you very much for calling. Are they here? So this would be article 35. Okay, so article 35 appropriation for the Harry Barber Community Service Program requesting $7500. So could one of you please give an overview and sure, I'll give introductions and then I'll pass it off to Susan. So as you know, my name is Christine Bonjour. No, I'm the Health and Human Services Director here in Arlington. I have I have here with me Susan carp who is the Council on Aging Director and Patty Brennan who is the office manager in the office and will be taking over some of my duties this upcoming time for my budgets. So I'm going to pass it to Susan to talk a little bit about the program and to give you an update as to where we're at this year. In this move? In this be moved or do I? Good evening. Can you hear me all? Yes. All right. Thank you for having me. As Christine said, I'm Susan carp and I'm the executive director of the Council on Aging. One of my roles is to manage the Harry Barber Program. If I could just have a quick show of hands of how many people are familiar with a senior work off program that's a part of mass general laws. All right. So very briefly Arlington doesn't have the senior work off program for real estate tax abatements. In 1980s 1997, excuse me, the town of Arlington adopted a program called the Harry Barber Community Service Program. Harry Barber is in looking at the room. Probably many of you remember him as a community advocate, spending a lot of his time in different areas and as an honor to him as a tribute to him created this program to help other seniors. This program is fashioned a lot after the senior work off program where there is a dollar amount that set Arlington has set $750 per person. In fiscal 15, the finance committee approved $7500, which represents 10 individuals working for $750. We use minimum wage as a gauge. So for fiscal 15, that was 93.75 hours. To date, so that would be through this month, we have six individuals that are placed. We have three that are active resumes, if you will, and they're going to be placed within the next three weeks, which actually leaves just one opening. So we've gone from in the past of having five individuals, now all the way up to 10. So what does that mean? That means that it is a program that gains recognition. You have individuals in Arlington that are actively engaged. So these are retired individuals. There are income guidelines. So it is a demonstrated financial need. They are committed to working and being a part of the town. And at the end of the 93.75 hours, they get a check for $750. I will say I think that last year when I was here presenting, there was a member that had asked if we had placed applications at the assessor's office. And at the time I said no, we turned around the next day and placed a number of applications and I believe that has helped increase the visibility. So I was very grateful that that recommendation had come forward and we actually put it together. So we're from the the Council on Aging Board from the from my department, we say, you know, thank you very much. It's a very, it's a very good program. It really reaches out, it engages the seniors in Arlington, gives the extra pocket money for fuel, for food, for medical insurance, for for prescriptions. It's, and it also helps real estate taxes, but this is not just for the homeowners for the renter and for the homeowner. Are there any questions? One question. Some 50 divided by 93.75 is $8 an hour. That's correct. Isn't the minimum wage in Massachusetts $9? Not yet. Okay. In fiscal 15, it was 93.75. Yeah. So this year, I'm not at because we were level funded. I didn't ask for an additional amount. So the amount of hours will be less. You're going to ask me that I think it's 83. Okay, so it's for level employment. Why weren't you asking for a little bit more to compensate for the increase of minimum wage? Well, I think I was afraid of being turned down. Next year, I will though. Thank you for that recommendation. That was a question. It wasn't a Okay, there are many other questions. Okay, well, thank you very much for coming. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, well, why don't we take a look at these? The water bodies request was for $40,000. at all of our water bodies and then figures out what needs to be done. It's become a general maintenance fund for three water bodies that subsidize on top of the 40,000 by the DPW. And I feel like I'm not saying that we shouldn't do work on the water bodies. I'm just saying that I think it should be treated as any other maintenance program that the town has, like the athletic fields that should just be included in the DPW budget and budgeted transparent, transparently so we can see what's going on and voted that way. And I'm also concerned that Despite the number of years that we've been funding this, and the number of years I've been raising this question, no money at all has been spent on the other water bodies. No money at all has been spent on any of the other water bodies from this fund. And I'm bothered by that because I think it's one of the reasons I'm concerned about that, because I know, for example, in the climate, fragmented have been a problem each year gets worse and worse and worse. And there's been no effort to address that at all. And I know when the time comes, it's gonna be more expensive to deal with it. Then then it was my first reason, the issue of why isn't some of this money I'm sorry, with this noise, I am really having trouble with each other water body. Were you concerned? I know that I know that there have been fragmented there and they've been getting worse. And I know when the town eventually gets around to doing something there, it's gonna be more expensive than it was. I could have addressed it using funds from here. But this seems to be a funds, especially designed for three free water bodies. And that's it. So for all those reasons and other reasons, I haven't expressed them. I'm gonna vote against finding this. Mr. further discussion. John. Christine, why did you ask a lot of questions when they were here? Excuse me. I did. She did. I didn't. I didn't catch it that way. You understand what I'm saying? I would have been more educational for me if you said it just like that. You know, you were too easy on the one. I think you should really ask those specific ones. Why isn't that we have fragmented? Well, I raised that question last year. And I think a year before. Okay, I feel like this is a this is we ask questions to get the information. I don't have pontificate and lecture. I would have asked more questions. Okay, can and then when we allocate the funds like this particular case, can we specifically allocate certain funds for a certain area? In words, Christine says they do nothing at the other water bodies for example, for example, see we're going to give you 40,000 10,000 as much go to other water bodies. Are we able to do something like that? Well, I think we probably do anything we want. Keep in mind that this is only part of the money they have. They're also rolling was a 20 or 27,000 from prior years. Now maybe you accomplish what what is the concern of some members of this committee is that you know, we do the appropriation and then we can and furthermore, the finance committee specifically requests that that requirement park water body be included in the project for the next year or something like that. We could we could add that. Or we could say for example, they think this is was a three different water bodies here that you should work on. No, there are three that there have only been working on and there are others have been ignored. Well, can we say something like, you know, the money portion of the money allocated to water bodies other than these three other than these three. Before you can please say something has to go to the other water bodies. Just to clarify, I'm curious that I know the water body up into the current part. But my understanding is that upper and lower mystic lakes are under the control of conservation recreation, the state agency. So I'm not sure what are the water bodies? Wasn't Hillspond? Yes. Hillspond is included. So the other one so we could add some language to that effect. To require them to bring that in for the next appropriation. So we're given a fair warning, you know, we want to know what's going to happen with this bond, or we won't do an appropriation next year, or something, you know, we don't have to specifically lay it out like that. But we could require that pond to be brought into this program beginning in the next round of appropriations. We can work out the wording. If that's what the committee, if that's what the committee wants. Dean. So I am very sympathetic to what Christine said, because it was interesting before she started speaking, I knew what she was going to say, because she has done it year after year after year. And only the only twist, right is when you finished, actually, I was waiting for trial usually mentioned, but not in Iraq's park. And he didn't mention it. So it kind of threw me off a little, like, I don't have normal questions. I don't have the sheets with me. And so, but I'm also sort of being balanced, because I do think they do a good job on the on the water bodies that they're that they're managing. I think, and I think at the end, we voted the majority of the vote appropriate for 2000, we move on to next year. And it kind of keeps this puts back same place next year, right? Um, I think the simpler thing to do might just be to not vote on it right now and ask them to come back, you know, they got a week, come back, let's talk in a week, like, you're the exact things we need to know about here are concerns. And before we appropriate it, we just want you to answer it. Because I don't think they're, you know, I understand your frustration, right? The two sides to everything. And Christine frustration, I would actually vote against it just in a sign of solidarity that she's been beating her head against the wall for this for years. But I also know that I don't think they're maliciously doing this, right on their two dots sides to these stories. So I think the fair thing might be to just say, look, you know, we've asked you a few years about a bmc, like to your thoughts on it, get some discussions. If your if the answer is you don't have enough money to do it, and you feel like asking for $50,000 or $55,000 was too much or you're not comfortable with that. That's fine. Just tell us. But I don't think I guess I don't feel like we have to debate it and vote it tonight. And give me a week. Let's get their answers and have some judgment. Let's say a week from tonight. Okay, Peter. I didn't go over tonight. But the fragmati's work on spy pond was funded by by contributions, not by the town appropriation. Has there been any effort to raise funds for McClellan and pond for fragmati? I think there's a difference in the type of water body. It's five pond you have a butters who are living right there with the clinic and you don't have that the pond is in in in the back of the park itself. So you don't have the same. The homeowners don't have the same same stakeholders. Exactly. They don't they have the same motivation for funding fragmati's removal program. But in any event, if this is to protect all of our water bodies, it doesn't matter whether it would be nice if private people contributed. But if you want to protect the water bodies, we have to we have to our attitude has to be. This is something we as a town want to do. Not only do this if there's enough private stakeholders who want to make sure they have a nice view of spy pond in their home. Could I just add something? Sure. The is true. Christine that that the people with late frontage and spy pond with major contributors, but there were lots of others that contributed to the fragmati's effort. Okay, so the issue has been raised and currently has some support here about what's being done with the recline in pond. Is there a name for that pond? You know, okay, the pond of recline. The question is, you know, how do you want to deal with unfortunately, the warrant article itself says $40,000. Now, how many times I tell people not to put the dollar amount warrant. So we could just, you know, seems to me go ahead and pass it as is. We could pass it with the warrant article reading. And furthermore, you know, that McLeod and pond show, you know, shall be studied for the next year or something like that. We could add it as a comment that the finance committee expects that. Or I don't think we're going to vote it down. I don't hear any sympathy to voting it down. Or we can follow on Dean's comment is have them come back and specifically address that issue. Yeah, they don't want to come back. I mean, they can just ask some questions, get some answers. Think whenever here, they had said, I believe they're going to be doing some survey. So I think if you ask them to come back, I think all they're going to say is what we're going to do a survey on all the water bodies. So we can't tell you what has to be done, what should be done, what we plan on doing until they have the survey. So the survey won't take place until this year. So I don't see any sense of bringing them back and tell us what they're going to do because they can't tell you that. There's been no survey yet. And do have plans for a survey. I'm hoping to survey is on all the water bodies. At least that was the impression that I got. It's about all the water bodies. John, I'm sorry, Alan, I'd like to sort of support deans in the form of requesting before we take a vote requesting a policy statement or something back from the committee asking what are the criteria for selecting appropriation of money allocation of money among the water bodies. I don't think any of us have an expertise to make judgments about where to how much to spend where for different things. They have a lot more expertise than we do. But I think it would be fair to ask, how do you make those selections? You know, do you have a written policy for saying, you spend this money here, we see this plan, we spend money, or whatever. Ask for that policy or explanation before we think about it. Right. It is greatly a protest. But I, again, as I said before, I'm not saying that we shouldn't be spending money for our water bodies. I'm saying that I would be I would feel more comfortable if if I knew that all of the water bodies were being attended to. And I, I don't understand at this point in time why we have a separate warrant article for this type of work. Because this is now a maintenance program. And so I saw it. Yes, it's a protest. But also I feel like there are Would you feel better, for example, if we were to increase the need to help you budget by $40,000 in terms of this article down? I actually would. I would. The problem there is, though, is the whole carryover situation because a budget disappears at the end of the fiscal year. A warrant article like this can carry over from here. I think that's the explanation they would give would give to this on that. I was going to mention that. The argument for having money in the warrant was that some years you don't have to spend it in another years. They need to spend the money before town meeting would actually pass that budget. But I don't think that we lose the money for being in a budget. There are ways like revolving funds, other mechanisms to keep the money available for future use. And candidly, I long thought that this was mostly funds that were spent on by Pond. Right. The concern I share with Christine, it seems like it's working. It seems like the process is growing and they've got like a good hold that doesn't seem hard to get your arms around a whole thing. Good luck. I've always left over money from DPW for the highways in there. It's nice to smooth it out. But it's hard to get a true accounting of it. And now in addition to what we're spending now, which isn't all that much in the scheme of things, perhaps, but in addition, we have a survey. So more work is going to be done. They just sort of don't see a cap on it. See it kind of growing and warping. But that's kind of vague and not really specific. But that's the direction I see I'm getting the feeling. Well, we put the cap on the town meeting was the cap on it, but they decide what to appropriate on that. So, okay, so, um, you know, we've got the program, we can sleep on it. I think we sort of beating it around now. Would somebody like to make a motion and let's see how people feel? Yeah, I mean, so I'll make a motion to table it until we, you know, we can ask our follow questions and get our answers. And the reason I'm going to do in the comment on me, I really, you know, I hear all the arguments about passing in and putting a qualifier on it and things like that. But I don't think we're anywhere near the point when you do that, you're kind of like picking a fight, right with a group. And I don't think we're at the I don't feel like I'm at the point of wanting to pick a fight with a bunch of volunteers that I'm quite that will quite fond of. I mean, I don't think we're quite there yet. It's not like we asked every question and they stonewalled us to that. So I think we just table it, get some more answers. And then if we do in a week or two, put a comment on it about the ponds and things like that, at least we hopefully most likely, I think we're going to do a joint comment with which we all agree on, we're all the same page over there. I just don't feel like we're, you know, I think tabling it as the way to go versus starting to fight. Okay, then I think what I would recommend is that we put together the questions. And since the committee of the size forum to do that, I would recommend that anybody who has a question that they would like answered on this program, should email it to Gloria, Gloria just put all the questions in one format, send it around. And then if that's fine, we'll send it on to the on to the committee. And if we need to get them back, that's one thing, if they're able to answer all the questions, you know, we can email them out, they could fit in their answers right below. But I think that that's what we need to do. So if people have specific questions, they would like to present, even though the glory or glory put them together in a one word document, let me take a look at it, and then we'll send it off and get the answers back. So with that, we'll lay this upon the table for now. Okay, let's do the cessers. Okay, the assessors were before us article 23. Okay, now, you heard the presentation, they have to leave this every three years. One question was was left by was put forth as far as the balance is left. So, Travis, you want to sort of take a table to get that back. We have to have a meeting with anybody. I mean, I sort of vaguely remember that $20,000. Okay, we'll be meeting with them soon. Okay. Okay, then let's leave this on the table for now. And Harry Barber, which is 35. Okay, we're all pretty familiar with the Harry Barber program. I still remember what the what you got bowl work. That's right. Okay, what was the will the committee on the Harry Barber program move favorable action. Second second. Okay, is there any questions? Okay, all those? Okay, motion to make a second on the Harry Barber program. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Okay, that's done. Okay, now, one thing I just like to mention on snow and ice. This is not to be discussed here. dress only now what we probably have a discussion on it later. And this is regards to the snow and ice. And the recommendation of the manager's budget for you notice he only went up 2.95% could have gone up three and a quarter. And so he allocated that, or he recommended that that go into open for the fun there. I've been thinking this for a while. And I talked about him about this with him. And it seems to me, we've got the other deficit, which is snow and ice. You know, I'll bet, you know, we're going to approach $2 million this year, on the expenditure of snow and ice. And that's not counting some big, you know, the marked storms often come much heavier and wetter than than the earlier the season. And I'm wondering, you know, we're only going to get through this reasonably well, because of the Charlie's recommendation to go to $1 million in the reserve fund, and are constantly bumping up the snow and ice to the 771,000. So I mean, I think the manager said that he recommended that the balance between 2.95, the three and a quarter going to OPEP because a lot of this was set up because we've usually done 7% a year in the increase in health insurance. And this year, because of they adjusted that down to like 5.62%, or something like that, in the long term plan. And the reason is that that's sort of been the average for the last five years, not counting the big dip. And he felt that if we're keeping health insurance down, we should use that surplus to go into OPEP, which is a perfectly reasonable point of view. On the other hand, we're having some big snow and ice deficits and some big storms. And I'm not sure whether it's going to, you know, go back to normal, whatever that is. Because we've had deficits every year for the last four or five years. And especially when we have to start taking it out of town. So I don't think we have to discuss this now, but we get to public works budget. I think we should just think about it now and discuss do we want to put that balance of money? I don't know how much it is going to be a couple hundred thousand. Do we want to put that in the OPEP, which is a, and I've been a big supporter of OPEP to help get that up there, or do we want to put some more money in snow and ice? So we're not constantly having these, these every year deficit. So think about it and we'll discuss it more when we, when we get into we'll get into public works. Okay, I've got a couple of other things here. Detail for legal expenses. So everybody should get that. That's Peter, right? So this is from you. Yes. Okay. And this is a this is the detail breakdown. Just oh, there's conservation commission. Yes, the there are two years covered there. The current year up to today, up to now, I mean, and last year, I forget, which is on top of it said, I should say there. Yeah, 14 is on top. Now, how much was the appropriation? I'm trying to permit me for expenses. I've been missing it here. But what year? For 14? It's probably the same as it is this year. Okay, so I think that the request for information was a breakdown on how the expenses are, you know, have been have been allocated 135,000 135. Okay. Um, this is a bargain. Okay, does anybody have any questions for Peter on this one? Any more? Okay, just remind us what the settlement was in 2014. They have the big numbers on 2014. What's the story behind these numbers? That's that's Boris Kaufman. Okay, does anybody have any other questions? If you come up with some more questions, you know, give Peter a call. Okay, so that's there. And then the other one, which I think is also up here on the conservation fees comparison. Christine reminded us last time that when the administrator of the conservation commission was increased from the city, I forget exactly what from a half time to three quarters time or something, the planning department promised or the redevelopment board that find far that they would raise fees to offset that to some extent, they have raised fees as of this last month, after considerable study, considering what other towns charge and the concern with the people will not try to avoid it. They also realigned the category. So they don't all match. But what is now is supposed to be better aligned to the Does anybody have any questions for Peter on the? So I guess the question is the answer is yes, they have raised on for to see how how it works out before increasing the offset. Okay, so any questions? Okay. Thank you, Peter for getting that information. So probably at the budget revenue task force on everything was fairly smoothly on Senator Donnelly's office had represented in their city, probably many of you know, said that expect level funding, because of the problems the state's having now anyway, healthcare forces even a bigger problem for the state than it is for for cities and towns. I don't think anything else particularly exciting. The manager recommend or mentioned that March 4th is when they hope to get updated health insurance numbers. So I don't think we'll see the health insurance budget or the insurance budget for at least until after that. On there. And so I think that's it right now. So budgets Okay, so why don't everybody go back into health and services. 147 actually 149. One of the questions was about medical supplies, which is so the reason it was 957 in 2014 is because they had a grant to provide those medical supplies that grant went away. And so between 2015 and 2016, they needed to replenish a lot of those supplies. That is about the question about the Human Rights Commission, we're going to defer to the town we had to explain. We had a question on the next page about how to run in salary. So she is paid, I said that she was in, you know, one of the TV that she's paid from some other funds and the other funds are what she has paid are the vaccinations fund, the little more Robin's house fund, and the town hall fund. Does reflect work performance in those areas. Very market. What were the other vaccinations? Vaccination fund with more Robin's. Vaccination. Yes. Vaccination with a more Robin's house. What's the service? So it is part of her job, we wait to whatever purpose those funds must serve. Yes. Well, is the vaccination fund a regular revolving fund? Must be fund number 4124. So I'm sorry, is it a revolving? Yes. Vaccination is a revolving fund. I know that you always give them your insurance information. Okay, yes. So she wrote her work is divided from three revolving funds to reflect work performance in those areas. Okay, so I think that answers the questions from Health and Human Services budget. Okay, do you have any additional questions? I think those are the there are other questions you have, but they were for other budgets within Health and Human Services. Good job. Any other questions on this budget? Okay, so you're recommending as presented? Yes. Right motion. So moved. Second. Okay, moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion or further questions? Okay, moved and seconded for 372, 474. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, the next budget is veterans, we did approve it, but you had questions about the percentages of 100% reimbursement and 75% reimbursement. Unfortunately, 100% reimbursement is a very small amount of this. So in 2016, only about 20,000 of that 360 will be 100% reverse. That's only 6%. The rest of it, the 340,000 will be 75% reimbursement. Okay, were there any other Oh, and then the other question was in last year, how much is 100% reverse? It was probably only 10,000 per house. Okay, and I think we voted we approve that budget. Yeah, I'm going to whether the 730 that they'll be coming before us for a reserve fund transfer for about $140,000 for that. Okay. Next. Okay, Council on aging. We did approve that, but you had asked questions about the social worker and the geriatric nurse. So Gloria August is paid to 0.5 for paid by the town and 0.46 paid from the EOE a grant, which is the Executive Office of elder affairs. The geriatric nurse clinician is 0.17 from paid by the town of 0.43 paid from the EOE a grant. So she works 21 hours. And then Shapiro is the part time social worker and his part time. Okay, Alan, do we have do we have those footnoted last year? Well, we just said was these positions are partially funded by state and other Okay, that was the only question that from that budget and we had. Okay, any questions on that? The Shapiro's part time? Yes. So what you see there in the budget is what there is. There's no other funding, no other hour. Okay. All right. So if you want, we can go to the library and we can do some of the enterprise phones. Okay, so the library is just before Health and Human Services on page 145. So Gloria sent you all new pages. Now, none of the numbers changed. It's just that the the line item descriptions were odd. So that you've been corrected. So that's why you have a new page. So the bottom lines are changed. You can't read it. No, everything is the same. Only the labels on the you know, the line item labels are changed. Oh, I see. Okay, so we can cut page to take this little section here Yes, that's what you could So anyway, some of the things I wanted to point out under the salaries that differential is for the 680 union that for working at night. And if you look at 2016, overtime has to do with the $10,000 and extra $10,000 for Saturday hours. As we had up till now or up till next year, the library was not open on Saturday. So there are many months. Yes. So there were times that you could not access the library from Friday evening until Monday morning, which, you know, when you have kids at home, the library would be a good place to go. And then the Friends of the Fox offset is we've always talked about it. But now they decided to show it in the budget. So instead of it coming up and being shown in the general fund, they're actually showing you the offset of the donations from the Friends of the Fox. That's to keep the Fox library open some Fridays and Saturdays. So they did put motion detector lights in to reduce the energy costs. The 5236, the other contracted services, it's both the cleaning of the library and the dues to the Minuteman library system. Okay, we did put it not yet, but they did put in into the budget, a technology library. Okay, that's that 2020. So is that the only new position? Yes, we did that because of there was only one, you know, half a person doing actually, so there's actually was, they did a nice presentation which I can send to you all, but they talked about all the technology they have put into that library and still they only had that one person to work on it. But they have a laptop vending project. They have their RFID project. They have to manage the whole back end of the Minuteman library system. 24 laptops that people can borrow library on a very high use of laptops in the library. So I sort of asked about that in general, the library turning into a quite a nice description I thought about the fact that the library is always traditionally served intellectually, the people that have. And there is this new way in which people can learn that you like and read et cetera, in addition to holding books, so the largest branching though, you know, after I thought about it, it seems quite appropriate to change it seems to be as though the library is going in the right direction, doing the right kind of thing, serving the way it always has traditionally. Yeah. Another thing that almost floored was a circulation of this library is night in the state. The ninth in the state in terms of post circulation, which given the large cities, et cetera, and that's rather spectacular myself. And fifth and children's programming, but has some of the lowest weekend hours of any of the libraries in the state. Okay, so are you recommending the as presented? I am. Okay, one question. The, you know, at one point, the trustees or the friends or I forget who they were soliciting donations for Sunday hours. That was probably the friends. And do you know, they still do that? They still do that. No, they're not reflected as an offset because that is so diminished over time. They, they can't really count on that. That's for the big library, the Fox library has a separate one just for the Fox and those hours, but the Sunday hours, the donations have dropped off significantly. They did pretty well for a couple of years there. But that's hard to keep up to have Sunday hours just come from donations. Are there additional questions? Okay, Dean, then Paul, then when I might have missed it. Sorry if I did. But does this appropriation maintain all relevant certifications of the library? Yes, it does. They did ask that question. So they're all good with that. And then john, I would say get to the side comments as you brought it up. Um, I would say I'm quite stunned. I agree with you in your comment of how relevant the library has made itself up to me because I, I, well, my wife started taking my two kids. I couldn't really go library. But oh, it is an amazingly relevant institution in town. The jewel in the town of my family. They have, I mean, they have, I'm sorry, they have all kinds of programming and programming for elders and for adults and tweens and whatever. So they I mean, they're really trying to get everybody involved. elders adults. Well, they're specific programs for that. They're getting out. Okay, Paul. What is the status of the RFID project? They're still there in whatever phase was a phase one that they were in. So they they do have it. That's part of why they need the technology person to get it moving forward. And so I I remember everything you said about that. Let me see less than a year to be open running. Right. Yeah, it's my understanding. Okay. Your set when So the summer hours, you know, that's going to be full day or just three hours in the afternoon? What did she say? It's not going to be a full day. I don't remember what the hours were. What was your question? They were as a way to check in and out the books that would be RFID enabled. So that the library doesn't have to check every lunch, you can just run a whole group through and then they can be shelved in the right place. And so it would take up a lot less time of shelving and collecting them out of the bin or whatever. Okay, are there any other questions for the library? No, no, you mentioned the laptops. Is that a laptop that gets home down? Or Okay, so you can take a laptop to a desk, use it, and then you have to check it back in again. Okay, it's like a vending machine. Is any of these wandered off? They didn't say that. Sure. They would have if they if they had a laptop should be coming obsolete now. Um, okay, there are any other questions. Okay, actually, but they did say they're only the second library in the whole US that has that laptop. I wonder if there's something we don't. Okay, so I have a motion. So move. Second. Second. Okay, motions were made and seconded for 2,000,217, 065. Um, any further discussion? All those in favor, we say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, unanimous. 223. Okay, what would you like to do now? Okay, we could do the Council on Aging Transportation, which is page 193 in the enterprise funds. Right. So on I'm paid this, I didn't have anything to point out on page 195 on page 196. That line item on the Friends of Council on Aging donations, there probably will not be enough. And the medical escort fees are fees that are collected from the clients when they have their certain volunteers have been trained to be medical escort so they can take people from Arlington to their doctor's appointments. But mindful of whatever their issues are getting there and being there. And also there will probably be less CDBG money available. Like the same. Right, but they're thinking that there might be. Yes, Chuck. So Mark, Mark, does this mean there's going to be a deficit in the enterprise funds? Well, I don't know. She didn't think so. It's going to be the way she was the way that she and the town manager worked it out. I thought you just said that the donations were going to be there. Well, they dropped it to zero. Right. And then made up for it with getting some escort. The only concerns that CDBG might try, they're already running. They're already running a deficit. Do you have the because the last line of their revenue is a transfer from retained earnings to plug the debt to plug the deficit. Do you have a fund balance from last year? No, I don't. I forgot to ask her again. I will get that for this one. Okay, anybody everybody on the enterprise funds? Oh, could you and the audits I assume are up on the website? Yeah, it's 112,000. Their fund balance. Is that from the audit? Yeah. Okay. 112, unrestricted. Yep. What I'd like to do is get them from both the audits and from the controller, because sometimes they're a little different on that. So I'm sorry, Dean, was that 112 even? One of unrestricted balance, they have 112,354. 354. Yep, as of June 30. And that's from the audit. Great. Thank you. Alright, so okay, are there one? Well, it is a bit concerning that they're continuing to rely on transfer for retained earnings, because it's only under 12 left. They're out in a couple of years. So is there a plan to bring it to balance? How to answer that? With this fund done with AYCC, we depend on having money from the town. Right, that would be a request for appropriation. Well, when you call it transfer, well, we used to say transfer from other funds or something like that. So you sort of have a twin challenge there, you've got community development block grant, gosh, you know, we don't know what's going to happen. Yeah. And then like, go ahead and say as you've got 112,000 and fund balance now, which we're using 30. So three or four more years and that's gone in the 2014 actual transfer from retained earnings was 68,000, so it's unclear to me that the 30,000 actually would be okay. Could you repeat that one more time? If you look at the actuals from 2014, the transfer from retained earnings was 68,000, so I'm a little skeptical that 30,000 is actually going to be enough. Well, part of they part partly made up for that with the donations. And I asked them, do they really think they're going to get those gifts and donations? And she said yes. I'm sure. Could you repeat that again? Yes, there was a lot that from the transfer retained earnings, there's less money from that because it's being compensated for by gifts and donations. And I asked her $20,000 was a realistic amount for gifts and donations. And she said yes, based on what happened last year. Okay, are there any questions? Other question? Maybe just comment. Maybe that's something like what happened with AYCC is going to happen. Funding for this organization may happen. Somehow, depending on some new way of other funding for the county should continue. Okay, it's a good question for the manager. Gloria, could you add that to the list for the manager? It was a question, I guess, of the long term viability of the Council on Aging Transportation program. And when you add that to the long list, could you email it to me just so we're on the same page? Okay, thanks. Wouldn't some of the present preservation fund cover this? I'm sorry. The new preservation preservation. Got it. I don't think it had three things. And one was housing. Housing, open space and historic preservation. So you don't always we use a historic bus. Yeah, I think it I'd like to know why you look if you look at the transfer from retained earnings. So we have 112,000 in material earnings, then there's 50,000 in 68,000 that had been previously transferred out of that fund. What were we doing that created that big campaign earnings and what's different? Are you asking why some difference now? In other words, there's 112,054 something. Yeah, in the in the fund. And recently in the last several years, there's been 123,000, 153,000 probably transferred out. So there's a huge amount of money in the fund at some point. What, what were we doing that created that surplus in the fund? And why aren't we doing it now? One thing that could possibly be if you remember a couple of years ago, a taxi company was doing a tremendous amount of work driving and never submitted any bills. And I've never heard of any submission since then. So they could have built up a big fund from that. And I'm just guessing it would be useful to find out. Okay, I'll ask. Are there any other questions I should ask about that one? Okay, it sounds like a bunch of questions on this. Should we put off voting on it until we get everything here? These are not, you know, these are not small questions on that. So okay, why don't we, why don't we table this? And if you could come back to us with especially how that Charlie's question, you know, how did build up so big? It's not like they're producing big surpluses each year. Okay. And what other Okay, so we can do use services. The next budget. Do you want to see? Yeah, 201. Right. So if you look at line item 5230, the administrative fees. In 2013, it was 14,182. It's gone down significantly because they're paying any HR vendor to process the insurance plans electronically. I'm sorry, which Oh, 523. Yes, the professional licenses. We asked about how why that number was varying. The 800 for 2016 is a truer number of how many licenses they really need to buy for the people who are working in AYCC. The otherwise unclassified is actually supplies for the clients. It's printing, it's the gala, it's the phones. And then on the next page 202, page 202. It looks like line item 4389 disappeared, but actually, 89 and 90 were combined into one. So that 288,000 number is actually combination 4389 and 43090. Which was the money from the schools 4387? Yes. And then the transfer from other funds is the money from the town. What's that again? The transfer from other funds is the money from the town. The line item 4972. Transfer from other funds is what? The town, the money from the town. So she has done a really good job about getting the counseling and getting insurance companies to pay. Compared to previous years, the amount of money that the town is providing is so much less. On top of that, they are providing a valuable service that is hard to find anywhere else. Okay, now you think the gifts and donations is realistic? Yeah, I asked her about that too. And she said yes, that the gala they do does bring in a good amount of money. Okay, more than 2014. And that's four times what they brought in. I don't remember, but yes, they do believe so. She was pretty calm. Okay, you got a poll. Do you have any rough numbers as how their number of clients they handle and how their services have gone up? I didn't ask that. But I want to know the number of clients and what just want to get some senses to their business. Yes, yes. I mean, so much so that people from other towns want to get involved. But they can't always take them because they have so many clients here. Okay, other question. So when the grant did you know if they combined the two gifts and donation lines in 2016? Ah, yes, they did. And the case for the donation, was that the position funded by higher up? That I don't know. Oh, sorry, what was that? The position the higher up church does like this misgala every year. And then A Y C C position. I don't know. And then they would have to hire more people, more case workers. No, I remember the years on plan, like that was curious. But the town's providing not enough. If you like, it was successful, both in increasing the number of people in town as well as yeah, same, same action, better difference. Right. And having the claims coded correctly, so that they are getting okay, any other questions? Okay, well, number, I don't think these have something directly to do with the quality or the budget themselves, they're informational. So if you can get those back to us on Wednesday, that'd be great. Okay, so are you recommending I'm sorry, they just want one follow up question because I'm sort of comparing back and forth it isn't something I'd like to the answer to is um, I think these don't these last two enterprise funds, we have actually, you know, we talk about the OPM, we talk about it, we're not considering it. I think they're, they don't fund into it. But I actually think their budgets that they present actually have it in not that is it like on because they're either a cruel basis enterprise funds, I actually think they show when they show their deficit the cost of OPEC. Can you just ask them if they've got them that if that's in their actuals in the prior two years? I think they're showing a cruel cost of their unfunded OPEC. They're not paying funding into it, but it's a little different on the town side. I know that the enterprise funds I think except for AYC do contribute to like health insurance. I don't. Is there a particular line item you're looking at? Is there a particular line item? I was looking at the budget. Yeah, I'm looking for well, they have a yeah, the line that says other post employment benefits obligation on their on their on the audit financials, then all the numbers tie up when I go back and forth. So they've got to be it seems like they're probably buried in one of these lines. So it's just sort of if anything, it's a slightly different basis of accounting than we're using for the town side. So I was just trying to figure out that they were doing what kind of money we're talking. I don't know. 12 grand. I don't know. That's just because the liability they're showing is 117,000 as a liability, which is part of that larger $80 million thing we have. Yeah. So, okay. Oh, no, I think his question is, is someplace in here is they're buried a contribution? Right. No, I'll ask that. I'm just asking. They're not making it. I think they're just expensing it in the budget. They're showing us. They're showing what the liability would be. But not. It's not an enterprise fund is in a cruel budget. Yes, they book it as a liability. It's in a cruel. But I'm just wondering if it was in these looks like it might be. I don't see any place where it would be. But ask the questions. There are any contributions from any of any place in here towards OPEP. But see, we have to appropriate the money in the warrant article. And there's we don't do it. You know, we have the we have the general appropriation to know that we've been doing all along. No, I'm not saying they're appropriating it. I'm saying that they're, they're just showing that I think they're showing the budget on a cool basis. So they're not paying for it. They're just just like the town doesn't the town when you the town doesn't we just omit it from our budget presentation. When you get to the town's financials, it's still there. We just on our for our purposes, pretend it's not there. Which is what we talked about at the last week. Perhaps you could ask Andrew I can I can if there's any connection, don't worry about it. I'll email just the high rock and the client and the balance. Okay. Okay, so I think we can go ahead. Are there any other questions? So do I have a motion on the budget presented? Budget moved and seconded produces a surplus year of 6,101. So pluses are great. Okay, any further discussion or questions? Okay, all those in favor, please say aye. Post unanimous. Okay, any others? Okay. Okay, who else has buckets? Paul, most of our meeting with the higher chief talking about the current fiscal year. This is as of now, it looks like they're going to be overspending their budget. Primarily, because of retirement buyouts, $179,000. The secondary thing is that they've spent $30,000 on snow related expenses. This includes bringing in extra people to plow the fire stations. They brought in during storms, they brought in extra manning, because if they have to go with a medical call, they need people to shovel out the walkway into the house so that they can get in and help the people in the houses. So they got them the extra people there. And also the mechanics for both police and fire are in the fire budget. And they had to spend overtime on mechanics during storms, for instance, to change tires. As of now, the chief said that the worst case of their deficit would be 131,000. He's anticipating that it won't actually be that much. Part of it, one way that that number will be lowered is that it's based on a the overtime numbers for the rest of the year are based on the historical numbers. And he has two firefighters that just recently started and five more firefighters that are coming will be starting next month. So he believes that his overtime for the rest of the year will be less than what they've done historically. And the other way that he thinks the deficit will be reduced is that of the $179,000 buyout, he thinks that about maybe about $50,000 maybe a little more will get pushed into next fiscal year, just because of when the pay periods happen there. One person leaving in June or retiring in June, he'll get some of his buyout this fiscal year and some next fiscal year just because of the way the pay stuff works. So I guess the working number he has right now is is really no more than $80,000 deficit. So I think 80,000 is sort of a max. down to it now. He's probably down to $80,000 now. Right. Yeah, so 80,000 is the max and then 50,000 is what he's hoping for. I sent an email off to Andrew at the manager asking whether they anticipated they can at this point, covering this with money from other budgets or whether they will ask for reserve money transfer for this. Okay. The other thing I asked in my email was, if we're pushing about $50,000 of buyouts from this fiscal year to next fiscal year, are we going to have the money in FY 16 budget to pay for? And then the longer term, we seem to get these fire department IO big buyouts every few years. And once again, we don't really have a mechanism of place in the budget to sort of smooth that out or prove it or whatever it needs to be done so that we don't get these big chunks every few years. He did say he has a chart that part of the reason like this, this one big buyout this year is there still are these firefighters who back in the 90s, there was deferred compensation because of a budget crunch, they talk about the 7% or 2% or so they can have a big chunk of deferred compensation that they get when they retire and that the number of deferred compensation people going down slowly over time. And he also said that for the first time now, the newer firefighters have a cap on how many sick days they can carry over to retirement. And so they're now are more with the cap than there were without the cap. So the sizes of the buyouts should go down slowly as some people retire. Get the rent they have five people that were left for the 7% buyout. One of them is coming off this year. So you'll be down to four people on the buyout. But he's kind of humorous, because he's very optimistic. Like Paul said, we're down to 80%. And they say if everything works out well, we go down to 50%. But if all works out well, 50,000 for all works out well, we could balance. So he's got a three scenarios there. It's very positive outlook. Aggressive management. That's what we want. And bear in mind also that 7% is times three goes to 21%. But we can't have too many more 7%ers left. No. And I don't want that'll help. Yeah. Okay. So now looking at the FY 16 budget. It's you can see that the bottom line is actually a decrease of 34% of the biggest change that leads to that is the difference in the offset to look at why 5190 the salary numbers. This is the offset of what from the ambulance revolving fun. I know I asked last year of the manager, the chief of the manager, why it was the first three years, the three years you see here, 2013, 2015, which I think were the first three years of using the ambulance fund is an offset. The numbers didn't change. And at the urgency, they actually did an analysis of really what the what it is costing them personnel to do the ambulance and came up with a more realistic ambulance fund offset. And that's the $166,000 number in the 2016 the miscellaneous increases in the salary items. Generally, they're a combination of what the collective bargaining agreement says, doing some more careful and accurate accounting of what the expenses really are, how much they're doing for holiday pay, how much they have to do for vacation, double time, etc. expense numbers, saving money on the gas, sorry, that I neglected to ask with $1,100 increase in otherwise unclassified. And of course, the personnel staffing it will be the same as is in the current So overall, the budget now they get a DMT differential 102 miles, right? It's 51, 5117 on the first page. I guess it's probably the overwhelming percentage of firefighters are now EMTs. Yeah, they all are. Yeah. Good. Good job. Shouldn't the salary request that by million three 1575, shouldn't that equal the total of the salaries on the pages, but it doesn't by my total of up I get 451892, which is more than that, but if you take the the bottom number on page 133 for the 4997, right? And then take the number on page 134, the 3184 30. Oh, I see. Right. Okay. The longevity, right? Thank you. Other questions? Okay, are you recommending? Oh, grant? No, no vacancies. Okay, they right at this moment, they have no vacancies. They have six. That's right. No, they have no vacancies. Oh, this moment. Except that they have there. There's a captain who's retired that they haven't done the promotion of the ladder yet. So there's one fewer captain and one additional firefighter. And they're going to be promoting a ladder with these retirements, trust the expression for three vacancies as of July. And they go into the fall, start the whole process of building those vacancies. Okay, John, the retirement. So those are the personnel that shown as with the name and slash, right? Is that an impending retirement? Other questions? So are you recommending as presented? Yes. Okay, do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Okay, moved and seconded for 6,000,682,980. 60. 60. Seconded. Are there any further discussion or questions? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Anonymous? 223. Okay. What one other note just because the budget is also the town's emergency management person took talk told us about the calls he was getting from different states and organizations to come in and help with our snow removal and things like between MIMA, the state of New York and the state of Vermont. We got some of our snow removal for free. What, Vermont doesn't have enough snow? It's on it takes on back. Okay. Okay, now, I think I'm sorry, Charlie. Okay, it's getting towards 10. Now on Wednesday, we have no hearings scheduled. Okay. What budgets do I have? We'll be ready for Wednesday. I guess we're taking Wednesday off. Okay, so Wednesday's meeting is canceled. Gloria, could you contact anybody who wasn't here? Now, next Monday, Minuteman will be here. That usually, of course, we could have a lot to discuss with Minuteman. Gloria, could you call Steve to Corsi and ask? We'd like to get the email, the budget emailed to us, you know, ahead of time. And secondly, will they be presenting on the building program? We'd really like to have budget materials emailed to us, you know, say by Friday at the latest. And are they also going to present to us on the budget building program? Okay. What budgets, you know, we really like to see if we can get a lot of budgets in because I don't have much else for next Monday and Tuesday. We've just gotten Minuteman and a planning director possibly coming in on Wednesday. So please, if we can get more budgets in. Okay, sorry. Okay, that'd be good. So, Gloria, for posting next week, put in Minuteman, obviously, and then budget presentations. And for Wednesday, what is the planning director coming in for? Do you remember? Oh, that's right, the master plan. And put in budget presentations and post both of those. Are there any other questions? Media adjourned Wednesdays.