Speakers labeled via automated voice-based diarization + AI name-matching against the city's official roster. Automated transcription can still mis-hear a name during fast speech (e.g. a rapid roll-call vote) -- clear near-misses are auto-corrected, but this is not manually verified line-by-line. Treat names as a strong best guess, not an official record.
Consent Agenda
[0:02] Michael J. Morris: Good evening, everybody. Welcome to a regularly scheduled meeting of the Waterville City Council. There are agendas available on the table near the entrance or online on the city's website. Consent agenda items are routine items which are voted on in one motion and vote. Unfinished or new business items are voted on separately. Councils will be given the opportunity for questions or comments, followed by citizens who must speak at the podium, identifying themselves. Citizens will be allowed to speak one time per agenda item for up to three minutes. Citizens who do wish to speak on a topic that does not appear on tonight's agenda will have the opportunity to do so during the public comment section of the agenda for up to three minutes. Starting off tonight, Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Next up, any disclosure of conflict of interest? Any councillors have any conflict of interest on any votes that they will take this evening?
[1:10] Public commenter: Sir? I'm a customer of the scrap dogs. I don't think it's a conflict of interest.
[1:18] Michael J. Morris: Okay. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? All right. Moving on to a couple of presentations this evening. The first, we'll start off with Patty and a general municipal election update. Holding.
[1:55] City Clerk (Patty): Thank you, Mayor. I'll try to be brief. There's a lot of information, so I'm going to buzz through it kind of quickly, but I just want to get some information out in advance of the November election. There's been a lot of questions and possible changes. So I just want to, get out correct information to the voters. So I want to introduce everyone knows D, is the customer service manager. D will be working with me closely on the election this fall. Roland Hallie, wave to everybody. Roland, is the, warden in charge at the polls on election day. Roland has been doing this for 39 years, 40 years. So he has a lot of information. He does a really good job and I'm not just sucking up rolling. I'm also going to introduce Kathy Taylor. Kathy is here in the audience as well. Kathy is a key staff person that helps with the early voting here at the Annex. So we have a staff of about 14 that will be helping with that this fall. So Kathy's kind of the one of the key players in that task if you will. This is my saying that I talk to the election workers when I do the trainings. We follow all the laws, even the dumb ones. It gets a little bit of a laugh, but it's true. We don't follow the laws that we like or the laws that are convenient. We follow all the laws. We do get a lot of, we're on the receiving end of frustration from voters regarding elections. And if I would just say, if voters are frustrated with elections with the current law, then I would urge them to go to the legislators and get the laws changed, and we'll follow those laws. So I'll talk a little bit about voter registration. We have cards that are designed by the Secretary of State. These are standardized cards throughout the state of Maine, and they contain data that's required by state law. There are different colored cards based on how they come to us, so a white is completed in our presence, a yellow card is completed at the Bureau of Motor Vehicle, and a green card is complete completed through a voter registration drive or if we mail a card to a voter and they mail it back to us. So people to register to vote, they can register in person at the clerk's office. Our regular business hours are Monday through Thursday 7 a.m. to 5 30 p.m. They can register through the mail with a green card, at a voter drive, at the BMV, or there's also an option to register through an online portal. We have a link through our website for that service, so you can register any time. But during the 21 days before the election, you have to register in person. That's a requirement through state law. So for we receive any voter registration applications during that time, we don't process them and put them in the central voter registration system. We hold them until after election day. We bring them to the polls on election day, so if those voters come in, they don't have to complete a new card. We can just verify identity and residency with them on that day. So we follow the laws regarding what is required to be provided by voters. Proof of identity is required and proof of residency. There are, we have cheat sheets at the voter registration areas so that we can show folks that we're following. Those are excerpts from state statute title 21a, so those are what's allowed in state law, and it's not our discretion to say, well, we like this ID better than that ID, that sort of thing. Yes, Mayor, you have a question?
[5:27] Michael J. Morris: Just a point of clarification, I'm sorry. During the 21-day period, if you get a request and you can't process it, are we proactive and reach out to the person so that they're not? No. Okay. So they were going to show up thinking that I already did that?
[5:42] City Clerk (Patty): Yeah, and if they show up here at the annex, we'll just complete a voter registration in person. If they show up the polls on Election Day and say they mailed one in, we'll pull the card that's there and just complete the process in our presence so that we can verify proof of identity and residency. Thank you. Mm-hmm. So the Save America Act has been debated and I think it's still being fought in court. It would require voters to provide proof of citizenship when they register to vote. It would require voters to provide ID when voting. But that law has not passed. It's so there's no changes in effect currently. Voters are not required to show an ID when they show up to vote and they're not required to show proof of citizen when they register, citizenship when they register to vote. So that's how it's been for as long as I've been a clerk. So state and federal law requires that voter check on a box on the voter registration application certifying that they're a citizen. If a non-citizen only submits a false form, they're committing, you know, they're breaking a law and they're subject to prosecution and possible deportation. I would imagine Maine law does not require or authorize ministerial officials to collect any documents regarding citizenship. So there are unusual circumstances where folks register to vote with non-conventional addresses. Homeless folks can register to vote. They may not have a physical address. They may be, you know, camping out under a bridge or whatever. We can register them there. Incarcerated persons can register to vote in Maine. They can actually request an absentee ballot as well. They register on the town where they live prior to going to jail. Students can qualify to register to vote in a town that they're living at while in school. Conversely, a student can live in Waterville with their parents but go to school in Massachusetts and still choose to maintain their residency here. It's really up to that, the choice of that young adult to make those decisions. You know, two family members can establish residency at different places for certain reasons if You have a camp in, you know, Medibems and you live in Waterville. Your spouse can claim residency in Medibem so that you can vote at the town meeting there and make decisions in your town, and the other spouse can maintain residency in Waterville. And a person doesn't lose their residency if they're temporarily away. So for example, if someone winters in Florida, they don't lose their residence if they stay there six months in a day, for example. They can still maintain their residence here in Waterville. So currently we're under the barrage of helpful mailers that have gone out to voters from entities that are trying to be proactive and getting people to absentee vote and register to vote. We do not mail those mailers to voters. We do not know where they get their data because three registered voters can be at one household and only one will get the mailer, and they're frustrated. Why didn't my spouse get the mailer? Are they not registered to vote? What's going on? So we've been getting stacks and stacks of mail and lots and lots of questions over the phone. If you're already registered to vote, you don't need to submit a new registration because you got that in the mail. If you want to request an absentee ballot, you can use that form that is pre-filled in that mailer, or you can go online and request a ballot. You don't have to use that form. What we find happens is in these big election years, even numbered election years, several mailers will go out, so we'll receive eight absentee ballot applications from one voter because they mail in that card every time they receive it because they think we didn't get it. Why are we getting another one? So we just, you know, attach it to the original applications and move on. If it's a duplicate voter registration application, same thing. We will attach it to their original voter registration card, put it in the database as a duplicate application and move on. But it creates a lot of havoc for our office staff. So if anyone is concerned about whether they are in fact registered to vote, if they're concerned that maybe they got taken off the rolls or why am I getting these mailers, just give us a call. We can verify over the phone whether you're registered to vote. Absentee voting takes up about 30 to 35 percent of the turnout at every election. We have two types of applications now. There's a regular absentee ballot request which is, you know, can be submitted by a voter. It's for this upcoming election to include if there's a state, a Federal, a county election and a municipal election all held on the same day, so it's for that one upcoming election, and so the municipality will mail the ballots for that current election. We now have the ability for voters to request ongoing absentee ballots. I'm not a huge fan of that personally. I don't push it out to voters. If they request an application for that, I will provide it, but the voter has to keep notifying us of address changes if they move, or if they're away for a season, or if they're really not interested in voting the municipal local election that year. We're obligated to mail ballots to all the voters that have requested an ongoing status, so it means that for any upcoming election you're automatically going to get mailed a ballot. So those applications are available, and we're required to mail all the ballots whether the voter is interested in that particular election or not, so it's a little costly if you don't get the ballots returned. So for every absentee ballot we need to track how and bet when the application was received, how and when the ballot was issued to the voter, and how and when the ballot got returned to us. So that's six pieces of data for every single absentee ballot, and we have thousands of them, so it's a lot of moving parts. It's very busy, and you know, we do a pretty good job at keeping track of all that with a lot of hands in the cookie jar. So voters can request an absentee ballot up to 90 days before Election Day by mail. They can print out an application and mail it to us, or drop it off in person at City Hall or at the annex. They can vote in person absentee starting October 5th. They can call us by telephone, we have to speak with the voter directly, and they can request their absentee ballot over the phone, or they can request it electronically through the website, and there's a link on our on our face on our website page. So how are the ballots issued? They're either handed to the voter, an immediate family member can also request a ballot for a voter, they have to sign on behalf of the voter, it can be mailed to the voter, or it can be issued to a third person. So if you want your neighbor to pick up your ballot and it's not a family member, you would have to designate that person to carry and handle your ballot and sign that application. So then the ballots come back to us, how can they be returned? They can be returned at city hall or the annex when we're here during early voting, they can use the drop box which we have a new location for the drop box it's around the back side of city hall or they can send them by mail. We're encouraging voters to allow for seven to ten days to get the ballots back to us in time. They have to be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day we're required by state statute to conduct absentee voting at nursing homes and we reach out to them to schedule that within 30 days before the election. There are voters if they're not registered to vote at that facility we can conduct voter registration for those folks and that makes you know additional staff necessary to leave and go to those off-site locations. Here's the location of the drop box behind City Hall. So that's the elevator entrance and I've got a little map to show folks that, you know, the front side of the building is where Castonguay Square is. People will be able to drive around to the back side. They won't even have to get a parking spot. They can just park where that elevator entrance is and just drop the ballots in there. So to check the status of your absentee ballot once you've requested it, there's a link on the Secretary of State's website that gives an up-to-date status of your absentee ballot as long as we've entered it in into the central voter registration system which when we leave every at the end of every day we've entered all the requests that have come in and all the ballots that have been returned because we don't have time to catch up tomorrow because tomorrow is going to be the same thing all over again so every day the database is up to date. If photos don't have access to that website they can call the city clerk's office to see the status of their absentee to make sure we received it or whatever. So now we're shifting gears to november 3rd we vote at thomas college out on west river road. We open an hour early in big election years even numbered years 7 a.m we're open till 8 p.m. The voter shuttle will be available again this year through the generosity of colby college they'll provide the shuttle and the driver to us for no cost. I do have handouts on the table that have the all the information about absentee voting and the time the polls are open and absen voter registration and the shuttle schedule is on the back side of that. So those are at the entrance there with all that information it's also posted on the website. So when voters show up at the voting location they enter the line that corresponds with their last name alphabetically if they're registered if they're Not registered, then they need to go to the voter registration table. Voters must state their name and residence address to the clerk, and the voters must be provided all ballots that they're entitled to. Some people say, I only want to vote for president. Well, we're required to provide all the ballots to you. If you decide you don't want to mark those ballots, you can put them into the tabulator blank, and that's fine. So then the voters enter the voting booth, they mark their ballots privately, and then they feed their ballots into the tabulator. If a voter checks in with a different name or residence address before they vote, we have to update their voter registration information to make sure that they are provided the correct ward and district ballots. We can't do that after they vote because they would get the ballots for the prior location. So what else can voters expect on Election Day? There'll be candidates there, they can shake hands and introduce themselves, but they can't ask for a voter's vote. Poll watchers may be there. Those are representatives of the political parties that are allowed to be there to monitor the voting process. Petitioners are there to collect signatures on various issues, and they can't approach voters until after they voted, and they're positioned at the exit at the polling location. And public safety personnel will be there. Law enforcement and emergency responders are on site all day for the safety and security of the election officials and the voters. Who need assistance with reading or marking the ballots can vote independently with a accessible voting device that we have at the voting location. It has headphones if they're, you know, if they need to hear, have the ballot read to them. It has a touchpad with Braille that they can navigate through the ballot. So it's a card that gets fed into the machine, the voter makes their selections and the card prints out and then they can put that card in the tabulator and the tabulator reads that ballot, it can tabulate that ballot. They're not required to use that equipment and a voter without a disability can ask to use that equipment as well. Alternatively, voters can ask for assistance and one of our election staff will help them read and mark the ballot and the assistant doesn't need to be 18 years of age. A young, a child of a voter could read and mark the ballot for the voter if they request that help. This is a picture of the express vote. So it's a standalone machine. It's off to the right at the polling location. We have one program for city ballots and one program for state ballots. And so you can see like the ballot style is on the face of the machine. So the voter can either use the touch screen or navigate with the paddle, or they can plug in their own device. If they have a sip and puff device or whatever, that can plug into the device, and they can navigate the ballot through that. The tabulators that we use are DS-300 tabulators, and they're electronic machines the state of Maine leases. It's standardized throughout the state of Maine. These devices have been upgraded this year. They are very similar to the DS-200. It's just like getting an iPhone 11 or 12, you know. So it's very similar, but it might looks slightly different. The biggest change that I see is the actual ballot box is that it rolls on is not metal, it's now plastic. So it's a hard plastic which is easier to roll around, it's a lot lighter. These devices are standalone, they're not connected to the internet. The tabulators look for the filled in oval on the ballot based on the markings on the outside of the ballot, and each race is counted either as a vote for a candidate, as a blank, or an overvote. That's all the machine does. Messages to in-person voters are required when the voter has over-voted the ballot or if they've got a blank ballot. So it's required by federal law to notify them that they've made those errors. And they can either cast the ballot as is or they can get the ballot returned to them and mark it appropriately. So it's up to the voter. The total votes for each precinct are the same. They have to match. They have to equal the same number at the end of the election. So this is a picture of the new tabulator. It looks very similar, like I said, other than the ballot box itself. And it's got a cover that closes so they can actually transport in that. We will have carry cases as well, so I'm not sure how I feel about transporting in this. So I'm going to test the machines and see how it feels, and then I'll make a decision at that point. So we have state machines that are coded to accept the state ballots only, and city machines are coded to accept municipal ballots only. It doesn't have to be separate coding, but I like it that way because at the end of the night, we're not sorting out ballots to pack them up separately. It's just a lot more efficient at the end of the day. And it doesn't take long to explain to the voter, this one goes in this machine and this one goes in that machine. And in fact, if you try to put a state ballot in a city machine, it will reject it and say it can't read it. So that we don't have to worry about by mistake, somebody puts it in and then we're still tabulating, you know, 10 machines instead of five for municipal ballots. Prior to each election, the machines are qualified. We have an election coding that we put, that we install on the machine from the secretary of state. Tabulators can be programmed to scan write-in images if there are declared write-ins, and so those images are captured, and at the end of the results tape we can review those write-ins to see if they are in fact declared write-ins or if it's a vote for Santa Claus or Mickey Mouse, which would be counted as a blank. So when the machines are received, when the ballots are received, we take out a small number of ballots from the absentees and the regular ballots. We mark them as test ballots, and we use that test pack of both absentees and regular ballots. We mark a vote for each position. So the first position, the next ballot is the second position, the third is the third position. This is an overvote and then a blank, so we check to make sure that the coding is correct and it gives you the messages for over votes and blanks. The test pack is hand tallied, so I compare my hand tally to the machine tally. Each machine and each memory stick is tested, and each ballot style is tested, and we're required to maintain that test pack and those test ballots with our materials that go to the, that are retained for 22 months after each election. So people, I've heard a lot of concern about machines and whether they can be hacked or if there's problems with them. You know, I will say from my experience, time and time again, hand recounts of races using tabulators on election day have upheld the results. There may be slight variations in a recount, almost always attributed to ballots that were not marked correctly by the voter. So sometimes, you know, it says fill in the oval next to your choice. They'll put a check mark out to the left in the margin, okay, so it's clear to them how they voted. But when it goes into the machine, it's going to count that as a blank. And that person may have been, oh, just cast the ballot, I don't, I'm fine, like I don't want to remark my ballot. So that gets cast as a blank ballot. But in a recount with humans looking at those ballots, it's easy to tell the voter intent because every race has a check mark next to one candidate. So that vote would change from a blank to a vote for a candidate. So that result might change by one or two, and it's usually based on that. These are very, simple machines. They do their jobs very well. We need you. Elections are conducted by citizens, volunteers that come forward. We need a lot of additional staff to conduct elections adequately. It takes a village. There's a lot of tasks before election day that need to be done. Absentee voting takes up all our time for six weeks. I've been working on this election since June. Right after I put away the June election, I started preparing for this next election. Election clerks can be paid. We only pay minimum wage, but it is a little bit. Or they can choose to volunteer. Some people come forward and say, I don't want to be paid. I just want to do my civic duty. That's fine, we appreciate that. We do conduct training prior to each election so we don't kind of throw you to the wolves, put you in cold and say good luck, let me know how it goes. So we conduct election training before each election, and we put the new folks in a position that they'll be comfortable with. We might partner them with another seasoned election clerk to watch what they do and understand the role, and then they might switch spots, and you know, then the seasoned official stands behind the voter, the volunteer, and make sure that they're comfortable and they understand. So if anyone is interested in helping out with elections, please reach out to my office, and I will take your information and get you on board. If anyone wants to volunteer, my contact information is here. Call the city clerk's office or email me, and thank you for your time. I know it's a lot of information.
[24:40] Michael J. Morris: And I hope it was helpful. I mean, it seems simple enough, right? Like, yeah. Well, listen, Patty, thank you. Roland, thank you. Kathy, thank you. Dee, thank you. I know this is a huge undertaking, whether it's midterm in June or, you know, a November election, or even special elections that we run on off cycle. So thank you for keeping up on all of this and making all the changes so that we are compliant in every way we can be. So, okay, moving on to our next presentation this evening. We have Matt Weaver from First Wealth Investments. You want to kick this off? You want to just introduce him, Christina, make
[25:34] Speaker D (unidentified): sure this is on for when he comes up? Sure. We've been investing with First Wealth for a lot of our trust and bequeath accounts for the past two years. I would say three, as a ben going on three. And so I thought it would be helpful if he came in and just gave a update and some information on what we currently have for investment accounts and the, maybe some strategies behind them, and information for your to have available for your review, and if you have any questions. So yes, ma'am. Awesome, thank you very much. Thank you, Christina. Thanks,
[26:14] Financial advisor (First Wealth): folks. Thanks for having me here this evening. As Christina said, we've managed the funds for just about three years now. They were sort of here, there, and everywhere before M&T Bank and several other trust companies in the Portland area. We consolidated the undesignated funds as one account, and then we have trust funds into other accounts that we manage per the city's policy. I've been managing municipal funds for 20 years. I've been with the bank for a little over 25 years now. I've been in the business for almost 30. I manage money for your neighbors in north of here in Fairfield and also in Vassal Borough and in many towns along the mid-coast and the bank's footprint. So I brought a presentation. I'll be brief. I know you have a full agenda here this evening, but if you go to the third page, I believe, with performance numbers, I'll skip over my quarterly newsletter. I'm sure you can read that at your leisure. Two more, there we go. So this is a kind of a busy report. I will summarize it for you here this is the undesignated funds it's a little over two million dollars this is money that well it's it 's not perpetual in nature which the trust funds are so undesignated funds could be you know put to use it at any time so for that reason, we manage very conservatively with just fixed income investments. These are just bonds and CDs in this portfolio. Three years ago, when rates were much lower, this account, through June, only managed to throw off about $11,000 in income because rates were so low. So through July of this year, I can say that we've managed to have almost $52,000 in income generated from this account, and the three-year number annualized is 4.42. So as bonds and CDs matured over the last two or three years, we've replaced them with much higher yielding investments, which is, you know, good for that, for the city, and means going forward, we had the 10-year just hit 5% today, so going forward, as these fixed income investments mature, we'll be replacing them with some pretty high yielding investments, so that's, that's, that's good for the city. On the two pages, one more here, go to the next account. This is the Pine Grove Cemetery. These are perpetual funds. So we want to keep them around forever and make sure that we have funds available to keep the cemetery nice and tidy and mowed and all of the work that needs to go in on an annual basis, so this is about two million dollars as well, and it is managed again sort of as a endowment, if you will, if you know college endowment has both a growth and an income component, this does as well, it's a, it's a balanced portfolio based upon what we can do in the policy, so we're following city policy here, and it has a much higher return because of the growth component over the last year has a 11.2% return against the benchmark, which is 11.5. So we're right there with the benchmark. The three-year number is 9.29 against the benchmark of 9.63. So we're pleased. That's what you want to see in a three-year time frame. If you have returns like that, you'll keep these funds around forever, and you can take an annual disbursement of 3% or 4% of these funds and help maintain that cemetery. So the markets have certainly helped with those numbers. We've had some very good years in the equity market. This year, the bond market has sold off a little bit as we've had rates moving higher. Higher, but nonetheless, we're very pleased with performance. We use a mix of both mutual funds and ETFs for our stock exposure. We like to have exposure to all markets. Our bias is towards large-cap domestic companies, all the companies you know very well, Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson. And they're represented in the Dodge & Cox Stock Fund. And then we have exposure to the other markets that we think are important, including mid-cap, small-cap domestic, international, and emerging markets. So, again, international has outperformed domestic this year, and that part of the portfolio has done very well. The fixed income part of this portfolio is, again, a lot of CDs and corporate bonds. We have John Deere Capital in here, Wells Fargo, UBS Bank. We're looking for yields in the 3.5% to 4.5% range. Range. We think the sweet spot in terms of where you want to invest in the bond market is anywhere from five to seven years. If you get any longer than that, you're taking some risk. So rates could move higher here over the next year or so. So we've determined that it's prudent to have a short-term and intermediate-term exposure to bonds in the portfolios. Else. Moving on to the last one here, which is a City of Waterville trust accounts. The next one, yep, right there. This is the smaller of the two trust accounts. This is a mix of smaller trust accounts that we use sub-accounting in order to give Christina a breakdown of all of the individual trust within this account. This is also invested for perpetual investing, so we want to make sure that we have, you know, a growth component in the portfolio. The one-year number is 9.33 against the benchmark of 10.39. The three-year number is 7.94 against 8.66. Again, that's what you want to see in a perpetual account. If you're taking, you know, four percent disbursement rate from a trust account, you want to see a return over the long term of seven to eight percent. The reason for that is you're going to have, you know, three or four percent in disbursements, three percent inflation, and then you have fees. And so that's, that's sort of where we want to, want to be in terms of the return. So we've been very pleased. On the next page is a breakdown of those holdings and again it's it's very similar to the other trust account that we manage you know again the bias is towards large cap domestic companies but we also have you know that international exposure as well and with that 's all I have and I'm happy to take some questions
[34:26] Michael J. Morris: from y'all. Well, Matthew, thank you very much. I appreciate all the work that you do, and with these, with these accounts, any questions, comments from the council? All
[34:45] Nick Cloutier: Right, moving on to the city manager report. Thank you, Mayor. I will try to be brief. The first note I have is about a regional newsletter that is at least new to me through the Mid-Main Chamber of Commerce apprised me of it, but it may have been around before. It's the KennebecValleyVoice.com. I'm not sponsoring this or anything. It was brought to my attention, and they do have a really great listing of all the regional events in the area. So in addition to checking the city's website calendar or social media, I would advise this is yet another resource that will tell you what events are happening in the area, not only the city of Waterville, but regionally that you may want to attend. 10. Next, an update about Carter Memorial Bridge. As of this evening, through the end of October is the tentative date we were told that the eastbound lane will be closed, so it's only restricted for that time to get from Winslow to Waterville only, unfortunately, but it is for long-term fixes that are needed for some structures there, and they're saying the detour would be Ticonic Bridge in the meantime. Fiscal year 25 audit, we are at a point of wrapping that up. Fortunately, it's a little bit later than in prior years, but we can certainly speak to that more. The intended presentation date is October 20th where we will have our auditor to be able to provide that, and we will have the documentation as well. Next, just a note about MMA, Maine Municipal Association's legislative policy committee. I'm the city's representative, and there are at least 70 from across the state, and it's meeting together with those other individuals that represent municipalities to advocate for municipal initiatives at the legislative level each year, so we gather together once or twice a month and then email periodically to put forward initiatives that we think would benefit municipalities, and then when there's a thousand or two different bills that have been put in at the beginning of the year, because this is the long cycle of a two-year cycle, then we review those with MMA's support to sift through, okay, these 200 really need your attention, and then I would sift through that to make apprise you of any that require your attention and support or your Comments on them thereof next, the rural health transformation funding for community paramedicine. At a recent meeting, the fire department talked about the application the city had put in for grant funding for that purpose, and it was a very quick turnaround time, and as quickly as we applied, we heard back that they wanted to do a site visit, and that was very positive. And I can only speak for myself, that I figured oh maybe like two or three people, but it'll be great. I swear there was 15 or 20 people, and they were the heads of the Maine DHS, Maine CDC, Maine EMS, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, and it was a really good time, and they were very interested in learning about rural health challenges and particularly what we've done with community paramedicine and what we would do if they were to fund our services locally. So we're very proud of that, and they wanted to take photos and learn more, so we're going to stay on top of that and hopefully we'll get some good news when they've made their decisions. Next is impact task force updates. I was going to give a more lengthy update, and I can still just give a quick one today, and as I've alluded to, there's been in recent months of progress on selecting focused subgroups to have homework tasks on emergency assistance, community service, community paramedicine, overdose response, and then public health efforts. Those are kind of four subgroups that we've all tried to move forward, and rather than speak to each of those today, I thought there's two things I'd like to do is give you something in writing before the next meeting, and then at the next meeting I propose that we have a presentation from either one or two of those subgroups, because they've some of their initiatives have culminated in products that they'd like to put before you both literally and figuratively to address some of the concerns they've been working on. So I look forward to a more substantial presentation from two of those groups at the next meeting, and then giving you something in writing to talk about all the group's progress. Next, upcoming presentations for city council meetings. I just spoke to that, so that'll hopefully be at the next meeting. That is my intention, and we meet as a group tomorrow, so we'll fine-tune what that's going to look like, as well as just do preliminary discussions on preparing for the winter weather months, because there are unique challenges in those months. And we're starting early enough that we can have a number of months to prepare accordingly. And then city council workshops, we've recently had two that have concluded, one about outdoor dining and mobile food trucks. And next meeting we will have some of the culmination of the recommendations for ordinance changes that will be coming your way for the next meeting. Secondly, the economic and community development position was discussed at the more recent workshop, and that was well attended as well. And we had representatives from the ECD at the state level and Central Maine Growth Council in many area businesses and schools, and they got to give their input as well as the mayor and council on what that funded position could look like and what kind of work it would do and if it can be supported by an advisory group or working group once it's up and running. So we will keep you posted on that, and we will be workshopping the fine-tuning of the position description and posting with our HR now that we workshop with people, and we'll distribute that in the coming weeks before we post it. And finally the next one that is coming up over a workshop is October 14th, the Wednesday, stay at 6 p.m. here in the council chambers to do a very proactive early discussion about next year's budget process. And in addition to myself and the staff, as they wish to be present, to give some insight into unique things that we'll be seeing next year, we really want the council to weigh in and or residents to weigh in on priorities and expectations early so we can plan accordingly. That's it for me this evening. Thank you. Awesome, thank you very much. Okay,
[42:00] Michael J. Morris: with that council comments or committee reports. Any counselors have any comments or committee reports this evening? All right, seeing none, public comment. Anyone for public comment this evening? Ira. Ira
[42:24] Rebecca Green: Mandel, Ward 4. I have two announcements. One's little, one's big. The little one is we're having another potluck dinner, sixth of the year, and we'll have three more after that. We had last month at Waterville High School a potluck square dance. Forty people came. Flavia was there. We had a blast. It was wonderful. And we plan to do that again in December. So but it's very strenuous. People should sit down, take a rest. The big announcement is within a few weeks. I expect to close on a property next to my house. It's 49 Cool Street. My house is 47 Cool Street, right on it. Used to be one lot, there are a lot in my lot, and now it'll be all my lot. I plan to convert that to a community center. The house actually will be available for some rentals, apartment rentals, but there's plenty of space in the house to develop for a meeting room. I expect that would be ready by around December 1st. It'll be heated, finished. The only thing that'll be a little odd about it is it'll have a garage door. It'll be the two-car garage that would make it to a meeting space. I'd like to leave the garage door open there so that in the summertime when it's warmer we can open it up and have continuous space to the outside. I plan to offer open houses for people who would like to come and see it as well as individual tours. It has also a barn that was built in 1880. It measures 36 by 24 feet. It's three stories high, has a hay loss, has a basketball hoop in it, so I plan to offer for one-on-one basketball tournaments in there. It also has a swimming pool, in-ground swimming pool, which I was planning to fill in. But I was discouraged from doing that, because with proper doing it right and hiring part-time staff who's qualified and knows what they're doing and they're supervised, children who are learning to swim could take lessons there as well in the summertime. time. And the barn should be done for also community events. It's going to be a wood stove in it and totally insulated. In 2027, we're planning some part-time hires. I'm in early discussion with KVCAP, which is just offering some technical advice. But we're seeking all kind of partnerships and involvement and we're very excited to be able to offer this to the community. There's no place for people to meet in our neighborhood. There's no place and there
Unfinished Business
[45:07] Michael J. Morris: will be now. Excellent, thank you. Thank you very much. Anyone else for public comment this evening? Patty? Anyone online? All right, wonderful. Moving on to the consent agenda. At this time I'll entertain a motion to read by title only. Motion to read, I'm sorry, motion to approve the consent agenda. Motion to approve consent agenda. Ahead of myself. Second. All right, all those in favor. All right, thank you very much. Now I will entertain a motion to read by title. Motion to read by title only. Second. All right. Thank you very much. And all those in favor, wonderful. Thank you very much. All right, moving on to old business. Order 159 2026.
[45:51] City Clerk (Patty): six accept grant funds to support a seasonal outdoor recreation program coordinator at corey
[45:57] Michael J. Morris: road recreation area move to adopt second all right thank you all right this is the second reading this is the amended version or do we have to amend we would need to amend by substitution the substituted agreement okay thank you and i believe there was matt do you want to speak to this real quick i mean i know there was a change in the
[46:17] Speaker H (unidentified): the yes thank you there was and it was just as nick had said it was based on the benefits numbers for the position that we had to be adjusted upward so the foundation was very agreeable we went back and you know figured just what we would need to fund the position and wrote things up so
[46:34] City Clerk (Patty): you should have that revised number okay yeah so is that the one that was in the packet or is that the one that you brought that sent yesterday well what i sent yesterday was i don't remember
[46:46] Michael J. Morris: remember sending you anything yesterday there is an amended by substitution in the packet okay i think that's yeah that's it okay 45 that's the one that's the number yep all right all right this is a second reading any questions with regard to that at this point and then can i entertain a motion to amend by substitution motion to amend by substitution oh second okay all right and any discussion any comments move is amended all those in favor of the moving
[47:20] City Clerk (Patty): the amended version yes all those in favor of the amendment okay now move as amended yes is there a motion move as amended second thank you okay any discussion on the amended version
[47:36] Michael J. Morris: All right. Seeing none, Patty, can I get a roll call, please?
[47:39] City Clerk (Patty): Councillor Gilley? Yes. Councillor DeBrito? Yes. Councillor Burdick? Yes. Councillor Green? Yes. Councillor Crickbaum? Yes. Councillor Beale? Yes. Councillor Herard? Yes. The vote is seven in favor and zero opposed.
[47:51] Michael J. Morris: All right. Moving on to Ordinance 167-2026.
[47:57] City Clerk (Patty): Amend the zoning map for veteran court. Move to adopt. Second.
[48:00] Michael J. Morris: any discussion with regard to the second reading for this ordinance seeing none patty can i get
[48:11] City Clerk (Patty): a roll call please councillor gilly yes councillor de brito yes councillor burdick yes councillor green yes councillor krigbaum yes councillor beal yes councillor harard yes the vote is seven in
[48:22] Michael J. Morris: favor and zero opposed all right thank you moving on to resolution 170 2026 authorize the issuance
[48:31] City Clerk (Patty): of a secondhand license to Melissa Holmwood doing business as Madeline's Incorporated. Move to adopt.
[48:36] Michael J. Morris: Second. Any discussion? Any comments? Is Melissa here? No, it's here. No. Okay, with that, all those in favor? All right, thank you very much. Moving on to Resolution 171-2026, authorize the
[48:57] City Clerk (Patty): issuance of a victor's license to John Coke doing business as Rusty Lantern, number zero two four.
[49:03] Michael J. Morris: Move to adopt. Second. All right, this one we do need to, I do need a motion to amend. The change, the address on the application was incorrect, so we need to update that to 224 from the 244. So can I get a motion to amend? I'll second. Okay, all those in favor of the amendment? Thank you very
[49:25] City Clerk (Patty): Very much. Now move as amended.
[49:27] Michael J. Morris: Now move as amended. Move as amended. Second. Okay. And any discussions? I don't see, John's not here. Okay. All right. With that, all those in favor? Okay. Moving on to Resolution 172-2026.
[49:49] City Clerk (Patty): Authorize a contract extension with Scrap Dogs Community Compost. Move to adopt. Second.
[50:02] Speaker H (unidentified): Folks, thank you. [Rebecca Green: So] in the memo excuse me you'll see that scrapdogs has been with us at the public works compound six went worth court since 2023 they have 17 resident subscribers happy to hear that councillor beal is one of them i've actually seen you there council that's great it's a great program of course we wish the program was bigger and we hope that it that it can be I think it's important they caught they 're very little impact on our group it's good to have folks come into the compound to see the other programs that we offer, so that's kind of a benefit of it, but there really is no impact on our staff or on our facility, so we're happy to support it. So, you know,
[50:59] Michael J. Morris: you say, would you say 28, 20 subscribers? Yeah, 17, sorry, I'm manifesting to get to 28. So for those that like, maybe they don't know what's, I mean, they moved here, like what is
[51:12] Speaker H (unidentified): scrap dog just real quick yeah they bring in their food waste they get buckets they bring them in they have three different bins and i think monthly and counselor beal can correct me they're they're able to pick up processed compost to use as fertilizer at their homes for
[51:31] Michael J. Morris: their plants and gardens. And this is something they, the count, the customers bring to public works, they don't, the Scrap Dog is not going. No, they come, that's right. Yeah, it's a satellite
[51:41] Speaker H (unidentified): operation facility at our compound. Okay, Councilman, there's some people contract to have
[51:48] Public commenter: it picked up at their curbside, so it isn't, that is an option. Yeah, I'm too cheap, so I go to the
[51:54] Speaker I (unidentified): Fair enough. Yeah, so I didn't realize that this was in operation at Public Works, because I bring my compost to the other site that we established some time ago on I recycle. Yeah, I recycle, right. So that's also an option for people, right, and that's free. That's free. So the idea, so this particular option is cheaper than pick it up on your curbside, but not free, and you get compost in return, right. Yep, that's that's basically it. Great, you
[52:40] Speaker H (unidentified): have agri-cycle picks up from the facility at I recycle, and it's free, and you don't get the compost with it. Right, okay.
[52:50] Speaker I (unidentified): Well, I actually previously was a customer of Scrap Dogs, and I love the service. It's great that there are so many options, including free ones, and it will reduce the number of purple bags you have to put at the curb. So I highly recommend composting your food. It's it's really so good for the environment, and just it's a win-win. I
[53:19] Speaker H (unidentified): think that for me the most startling this data or a statistic around food waste is that 20% of materials sent to incinerators and landfills as food waste, so a fifth. It's a lot of weight, you know, food weighs a lot, so it's important. It's a good program, we support it, I'm glad you do too. Yeah, thank you. All right, any
[53:39] Michael J. Morris: Any other questions or comments? Anyone from the public? Want to weigh in on scrap dogs? All right. With that, all those in favor? Wonderful. Okay, next up, Resolution 173-2026.
[53:56] City Clerk (Patty): Appointment of members to the Waterville Youth Council. Move to adopt. Second.
[54:01] Michael J. Morris: Okay, yeah, excited about this one. This is the third year for the Waterville Youth Council. You know the last couple years we've we've maxed out, you know, the participation at 15. It is a large group, so we set out this year to kind of trim that down a little bit, and it just happened naturally. We actually didn't have to make cuts, we got it down to 10, which we think will be a more manageable group to keep them all on task between the three of us. So we are excited, we've We've got some good things that are coming down the pipe with them this year. And yeah, get ready to kick that off, and we have our orientation on next Monday, and then we meet the first and third Monday of every month. So yeah, with that, any other questions? Any questions from the council? Anyone from the public? All right, with that, all those in favor?
[55:02] Public commenter: I'm abstaining because my son's on the list.
[55:05] Fire Chief (EMS): Fair enough. So do I have to abstain too if Maddie's on the list?
[55:09] Michael J. Morris: Well, I mean, listen, you certainly can. I mean, you're not benefiting financially from the decision. Yeah, that's what I thought. At the end of the day, it's not really a huge conflict of interest.
[55:18] City Clerk (Patty): So you want to vote in favor. Okay. Yeah. So be it. Very good. I mean, they're not getting compensated. All right.
[55:26] Michael J. Morris: Moving on. Resolution 174-2026.
[55:31] City Clerk (Patty): APPROVED WAIVER OF BID PROCESS FOR AUDITING SERVICE FOR FISCAL YEAR 2026 AND ENGAGEMENT OF NICHOLSON, MISCHO, AND NADO CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS. MOVE TO ADOPT.
[55:41] Michael J. Morris: SECOND. AND NICK, YEAH, YOU WANT TO JUST GIVE US A LITTLE BRIEF? YEAH. HAPPY TO DO THAT.
[55:46] Nick Cloutier: I THINK IN 2023 THERE WAS A THREE-YEAR CONTRACT WITH THIS ENTITY WHO HAS PERFORMED PRIOR YEAR'S AUDITS AND WILL BE PRESENTING ON OCTOBER 20TH THE FISCAL YEAR 25 AUDIT. Myself and the finance director are recommending that we for one more year go with the same company, and that is multiple reasons. They've done a good job for us, and it's their last year performing audit services, so we won't have the option of more than one year. That is because it's getting hard to find people to do audits, and they're shifting gears to other types of tax services. They already know our systems, and we're already a little late in the game to put out an RFP, and they're willing to take us on this last year, and then we'll put out an RFP for future years as soon as possible. But this will get our next year, the year that just completed audit, up and running
[56:42] Michael J. Morris: immediately. All right, wonderful. Any questions, comments, concerns? I know the auditors are, it's gonna be, that's gonna be tough. I saw something as so, yeah. All right, with that, I will entertain all those in favor. Thank you very much. Okay, moving on to resolution 175, 2026.
[57:09] City Clerk (Patty): Acceptance of memorandum of understanding between the Friends of Quarry Road and the City of Waterville regarding funding a seasonal full-time outdoor recreation program coordinator at Quarry
[57:20] Michael J. Morris: Road Trails. Move to adopt. Second. Okay, just to be clear, so what we took a vote on before was to approve the funds, and then this is the allocation of said funds, right? Yeah, just a general
[57:33] Speaker H (unidentified): framework for the responsibilities for the city and the Friends. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Bill and Joan Alfond Foundation for their support, and the Alfond Foundation, they couldn't be more supportive of Quarry Road from the beginning, physically out there, marketing positions, personnel. They're completely on board with us, and
[57:53] Michael J. Morris: We should all be thankful. Yeah, I'm very thankful. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, any questions, comments, or concerns from the council? Anyone from the public? All right, all those in favor. Thank you very much. And now resolution 176 2026 approved the use
[58:14] City Clerk (Patty): Use of funds from the fire department cost recovery account to purchase DEA-compliant medical vault equipment from EMS Logic.
[58:22] Michael J. Morris: Move to adopt. Second. Good evening, Chief. Good evening, sir.
[58:28] Fire Chief (EMS): I think everybody's seen in the paper the new DEA rules that started to come out at the beginning of the year. They greatly affect EMS agencies and hospitals, by the way, too. So we did apply for our DEA license, and in the works of this going out, we did actually just get approved the other day for our DEA license. Basically, this affects how hospitals and EMS services not only store but also receive controlled substances, which we have to carry on our trucks. We have been working with our medical director because we weren't really sure where Maine General was gonna go with this. We kept reaching out to them, we really wasn't hearing anything back. We did see that Maine Health down in Southern Maine did stop providing to their EMS services down there. We did receive a letter which I put in the packet on August 20th of 2026 here, saying that Maine General will no longer be replenishing, managing or maintaining drug boxes for all EMS agencies that they service. That includes us. Starting October 31st. This means that every licensed EMS agency will have to apply for DEA license and come up with a way to store controlled substances for themselves. Like I said, we just did get our DEA license was approved. Deputy Chief Flannery has been working on that tirelessly. Working with that agency has not been an easy thing to do, but he did make it happen. In the meantime, he was just kind of looking at all these other ways that we can manage control lock up store make sure that we are doing the right things by dea rules because that's the last one we want to do is get in trouble with them looking at all the different outfits out there ems logic makes sense to us basically what it does is it puts a small med volt in each one of our trucks that is swiped badge so basically if our medic has to use a drug they have to swipe their badge which then Says this person is taking out this drug, they have to punch in the numbers for the drug. When they use the drug, they also have to put in how much they've used of that drug. So if there are any waste to be left over, just like we used to do at the hospital, now we have to waste it in front of another person who has to swipe their badge and so on and so forth. And really what it does is it prints this all out at the end of the day, stores it for us. If the DEA comes to us and says, we need your medical records for the last year, we can, here you go, for the time frame. And it just is a pretty easy way to do it. It just takes a change for us. So what I'm asking for is to spend up to $15,000. You'll see the EMS logic quote that's in your packet. Basically, that puts a MedVolt in each one of our four ambulances that we have because we can't move them around once they're put in there. So if a backup comes from downstairs, we need to have a med vault in it. And it does put in a med vault in the station for controlled substances there. So basically right now our cost recovery account has $82,295.50. If we use up to the 15,000, the remaining balance in there will be 67,292.50.
[1:01:50] Michael J. Morris: All right, excellent. Any questions? Counselor Trade Bomb, so my understanding of this is
[1:01:57] Speaker K (unidentified): because this is happening across all the EMS Delta and everybody's also having to deal with all of this, is there any, maybe this question is, I'm missing some information, but is there any chance that using the med vault we have within our fire station could be used to help say Delta to restock theirs and we can, you know, make up some cash on the side for that
[1:02:21] Fire Chief (EMS): or something like that? Delta already spent 80 grand and put their own in, so because we did talk to them about that, the only issue with this and it's the same reason why the hospitals are saying we're not doing this anymore is because every agency that has controlled substances has to have their own DEA license and they are not willing to put us under their DEA license because of the new DEA rules that are out there, which is why the hospitals are saying we're not doing this anymore, so we would have to work every other, the agencies like say it was Delta, we would have, they'd have to work under our DEA license and it becomes what we're learning from the hospitals an impossible thing to try to take care of. Okay.
[1:03:03] Speaker K (unidentified): So this in the broad scale thing, we've had a lot of conversations around kind of like a more regional approach to a lot of EMS things. This is going to be a barrier in many ways for the regionalization, since we can no longer support, say, you know, Fairfield's ambulance does work here, and they need to be on the road, and they need to go pick up, I don't know, morphine or something like that. We don't have the ability to give that supply to them. We do not. They go all the way back and get
[1:03:31] Fire Chief (EMS): their supplies. That is correct, and we actually, we've looked into that because we thought, well, we're a pretty central hub here in Waterville, and people have to come, well, mostly to the hospital in Waterville. So we thought we'd be a good space to do that. But basically, it's almost making it impossible to do that. What we are working on, though, is obviously right now we buy our controlled meds from the hospital. And because they have such a large quantity that they use, the prices are cheaper. That will no longer be available to us. So we are going to be working with our surrounding agencies to try to come up with one supplier so that the quantity of what we're using is more to drive that price down. So we are working, and we have been in talks with Fairfield, Winslow, and Delta right now to try to figure out if we can do something like that to work together. Council Bill.
[1:04:27] Public commenter: Was there a problem before with the DEA trying to address a real problem?
[1:04:33] Fire Chief (EMS): I don't know the answer to that question. I really wish I could. Have you ever had a problem? We've never had a problem, no, sir.
[1:04:39] Public commenter: Okay, so they're going to ask the city to pay $15,000 more in this case and more money for the drugs. It's a federal requirement.
[1:04:49] Fire Chief (EMS): It is a federal requirement.
[1:04:51] Public commenter: Why do we have to do that? You don't have to answer that one. I'm sorry.
[1:04:54] Fire Chief (EMS): I wish I knew the answer to that. I know that there were some senators who were reaching out trying to see what is really going on here, because that was what is the actual problem we're trying to solve. And I don't know where that ever went, to be honest with you. I know our own medical director was sitting on some boards trying to figure this out, and I don't know if they ever got an answer. I really wish I knew, because I do agree. And I feel we're in a fortunate situation where we do have this cost recovery account that we can do this with. There are some agencies that just don't have that type of money to just be able to do this, and I don't know what they're doing besides struggling.
[1:05:43] Public commenter: Yeah, I'm going to vote against this, and it's a protest vote, so it just seems not the right way to proceed. And if maybe enough organizations vote against it and we start not having medicine on ambulances,
[1:05:58] Fire Chief (EMS): it'll get someone's attention. I appreciate that, but we don't have a choice. We have to somehow lock this stuff up and control it or we're in violation of DEA rules.
[1:06:10] Speaker K (unidentified): That's at the state level. Yeah.
[1:06:12] Fire Chief (EMS): I wish I knew the answer to these questions. Councilor Brink.
[1:06:20] Speaker I (unidentified): Are there other implications with this change regarding, you know, getting access to drugs? Like you mentioned having to buy them from the hospital. I mean, I'm not sure what you did before this.
[1:06:37] Fire Chief (EMS): So we buy right now, we buy any controlled substances from the hospital. The other stuff we go with a company called Bountry, which is uncontrolled substances. We can buy those controlled substances from Bountry. So right now what the hospital has done is they've given us the October 31st deadline. They said that all drug boxes that we have that are ours that are stocked there, they are going to give them to us including the drugs. So we have all the paperwork with the DBA for that. So we should be good for a while, but we do contract right now, contract, but we purchase through Boundary. They can sell us all the drugs that we initially have purchased through the hospital. But during this time frame that we have now left over, once we get this going, we will be working with our surrounding communities to see if we can try to lower that price by looking at the amount of drugs that we utilize together.
[1:07:30] Speaker I (unidentified): Right. I guess my question is really, do you anticipate any change in the cost to the department for purchasing drugs with this new arrangement?
[1:07:40] Fire Chief (EMS): I looking at what we have in our account for that DC Flannery of I and I have gone over that I think we'll be fine for this year. I really do looking at what we're purchasing, looking at what the hospital is going to give us for drugs, looking at expiration dates on those types of things and how long they last, we should be fine this year. Yes, and like I said, we'll continue to work with our surrounding agencies because the more we can buy, the cheaper it's going to be what we really have to pay. Attention to moving forward is the amount of drugs that we have on hand, because they do have expiration dates to them, and I don't want to waste things. So we have to really, that'll be a big change for us, and one that we're working on right now on how best that works. And Boundary is helpful with that, because they will monitor our situations that we have with expiration dates, how much we're using, and only replenish us when they believe that we need to be replenished. So they've been helpful with that, and they're willing to do that across the board if we can get everybody on board. Do you have a ballpark figure
[1:08:50] Michael J. Morris: as the percent increase as to from what the hospital is doing to prior to the negotiation with the surrounding communities? If there was no, if there was, I'm assuming that you'll be able to work something out. You guys are pretty good, like, so I think so, but like at the end of the day, if there wasn't, what would there typically, what would you anticipate the increase to be from what we're purchasing now from the hospital, and if we were just standalone, it would
[1:09:20] Fire Chief (EMS): be a x percent increase in the cost of yeah i don't have that with me but i definitely can get you those numbers we have the price list of kind of what we're working with now with the hospital and we have the price list of boundaries so i can most definitely get that yeah it's a
[1:09:34] Michael J. Morris: high level percentage of the overall cost of the, you know. Thank you. All right, any other
[1:09:40] Nick Cloutier: questions from the council? Sir, just to chime in, I do respect that there's, you know, a desire to protest, and I'm not countering that. Just want to reiterate that unfortunately we don't have a choice in this matter at hand, but I do respect that the fire department leadership is taking whatever steps we can to try to find longer-term solutions. But my understanding is that in the short term, this is the advisable path forward and perhaps the only one, and the time is ticking for a solution. That's why we bring it to you with such urgency, because we want to do the right thing to maintain services. And then that's not to say there's no other solutions as well. As part of my advocacy at the state level, one of the initiatives we're working on is trying to figure out when there's mandates top-down, usually state but also federal, that there's more advocacy from municipalities demanding that we be recouped for any costs that were required and mandated services. And that is in statute, but it's not always followed. So we're advocating for that at the state level as well to try to get that a regular occurrence that when there's things that are pushed upon us that we get paid for the extra costs that we must deal
[1:11:00] Michael J. Morris: with. Excellent, thank you. All right, just very quickly, so say for instance we all voted no,
[1:11:09] Fire Chief (EMS): then what would you do? Cry? I think this is not something that I want to do, believe me. Oh, I understand. We have a DEA license. If we don't not lock these things up and control them, we will lose our license and we will not be able to operate anymore. Operate what? EMS. Okay, thank you.
[1:11:32] Speaker I (unidentified): Yeah, I mean, I this is I'm going to vote to support this because of the reasons that we've just heard, but I think it's really important that people who are listening, taxpayers, know that this is happening and this is not the first impact on the department and the budget. I mean, we are seeing more and more costs being offloaded to municipalities and it's really breaking us.
[1:12:07] Fire Chief (EMS): So you are absolutely right, council of verdict, it is an unfunded mandate. Absolutely, there's been this one has, there's been a lot of uproar about this one especially where across the board in the state of Maine. And we had this discussion with the folks that we talked to about our CP program the other day is we talk about how EMS is struggling. We talk about how hospitals are struggling. We talk about how healthcare is struggling. And then the next thing I know, this is what we're faced with. And we're struggling and they know that. And then here comes another mandate on us that we have to deal with. I agree. Council Member Burdick.
[1:12:52] Speaker L (unidentified): I just also want to build off of that and some of what Chief said and the importance of this because, I mean, I just read today that you all delivered a baby in the back of an ambulance because we don't have a hospital anymore.
[1:13:08] Fire Chief (EMS): That's the second one in the last year. Yeah. We don't usually do that. That is not normal.
[1:13:12] Speaker L (unidentified): Yeah, and people shouldn't have to have their babies in the back of an ambulance either, but this is the situation we've been put in. And we have to be able to provide care to people because we do not have and we are the resources in our community anymore, right? And to your point, we are
[1:13:31] Fire Chief (EMS): so fortunate that we have providers that are able to perform those type of I mean that's a high level, like delivering a baby is not an easy thing to do, especially in the back of an ambulance rolling down the road. But that's what they were faced with, and they did a good job, and they should be commended for that. But it is, I, you know, in my years of service, 26 years now almost, I have a stork pen out of 26 years, and we've done it twice now in the last year. I mean, that just goes to show where our health care is right
[1:14:03] Speaker I (unidentified): now in the state of Maine. Council Green, so when you say providers, did you call a doctor to come and assist, or it's you're talking about your own staff? Yep, so basically this
[1:14:18] Fire Chief (EMS): these, they picked this like this person was in labor, but the contractions and there was no eminent saying this person having a baby late right now, because they know when that's happening, right? So our protocol is well, there is not, they don't have a delivery unit there, we would go to there if it was like this is happening right this second, or that we felt like there was some type of complication. So mom is not delivering right this second, let's get her to the hospital where they really belong, and then it was I'm having contractions, and then it was like wow, this is happening very quick. Luckily they weren't too far from the hospital, but they were about, they could, they brought a mile from the exit, so they're now delivering baby on the side of the interstate, which is not a safe place to deliver a baby. We all see the accidents that happen on the eye, but again, these providers, we provided them with extra training when we lost the hospital in Waterville because we were fearful that this might happen, and I'm so glad that we had the extra training because they felt way more
[1:15:25] Michael J. Morris: comfortable doing that. Yeah, it was such a, I mean such a pretty cool story, I mean, I mean, that's a cool story to tell. I mean, the mother's going to and the kid's going to have a story to tell, as will the folks that were on the ambulance that day. And I think that's awesome, and I'm glad it was a good turnout. So, yeah, Councilor Krigbaum.
[1:15:50] Speaker K (unidentified): You mentioned that the community paramedicine program earlier, and I was curious how this new DEA requirement affects them. I'm not sure if the community paramedics or whoever is going out in the field previously had controlled substances with them. I know that 's not technically what they're doing, but I didn't know if that was something they had in their go bag just in case. And if that's the case, how does this new DEA protocol affect that?
[1:16:24] Fire Chief (EMS): Yeah, so most of the time, our CP providers, they have no need to have narcotics with them at all. But they are, they are paramedics and they are under our EMS license, so they do fall under our DEA license. But they did, there's no reason for them to carry narcotics with them. If they do need to do something, we would just send a rig out with them if that's what needed to be, but it, that's pretty rare that we would ever have to do something like that with us, with our CP provider. Okay, I was just always just curious. Yeah, but they do, but to your point, they do fall under our DEA license because they wouldn't work for us. Yes, all right.
[1:17:05] Michael J. Morris: Anything, anyone else? All right, all those in favor, any opposed? All right, thank you for the conversation, I appreciate. No, thank you, thank you very much. With that, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn, second. Thank you very much, all those in favor. Thank you.