Limerick Budget Committee reviews code, constable, transfer station budgets

[11:13] Susan Kerr: Okay. Welcome to the budget committee meeting of October 1st, 2026. This is our first actual night where we're going to review budgets and ask questions of the department heads. With us is Cheryl Edgerly, Amanda Mason, I'm sorry,, Linda Friedrich and the Chair, Susan Kerr. And if everybody can just put their phones on silent so we don't have any interruptions, that would be terrific. Yep. Okay, and then we have with us tonight the Code Enforcement Officer, Mr. Stan Lee. [Stan Hackett: I'm sorry, Hacklett.] Name's not my strong suit. Okay, so if you want to start and we can, so you can get on with your evening, that would be terrific and then we'll, any questions we might have? [12:26] Stan Hackett: Well, I'm Stan Hackett, Code Enforcement and Constable. Which budget did you want to start with? [12:32] Susan Kerr: which is the least complicated neither one are okay so I guess we'll start with [12:39] Stan Hackett: the Constable okay I mean Constable is the only thing that really changes whatever the call is gonna be and my the mileage did change because the federal rate changed July 1st so okay [12:56] Susan Kerr: so that's that's the only increase right I didn't [13:07] Stan Hackett: SEE ANY NEED TO RAISE ANYTHING OUT. I DO HAVE MONIES LEFT OVER IN THE SUPPLIES OF $1,600 AT THIS TIME, BUT THAT WILL GO TO SOME OTHER THINGS I'VE BEEN WAITING TO GET BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO SPEND OVER THE BUDGET. BUT WE'RE GOING TO NEED, BETWEEN CODE ENFORCEMENT constable and assessing we need to get some filing cabinets so oh okay i'm sorry you need [13:39] Speaker C (unidentified): to get filing cabinets okay that was my question and [13:52] Speaker D (unidentified): that was included in the amount that was included in the amount that's here or left over from this year right there will be what's used [14:00] Stan Hackett: this year and then again if I need more next year I should be able to do it. It [14:10] Speaker C (unidentified): does seem that the last time I looked there was only 40% of that budget spent. Is that correct? Still stand? [14:22] Stan Hackett: But we didn't we didn't use all of the training and the travel expenses is off because they didn't start actually dividing it until about June. So I'll ask Julie to readjust those so that they're equal. Last year during the budget process, I believe they wanted to split my mileage between the two. Code enforcement carries the most mileage, but the nightly responses or other things is mostly constable or traffic control. This is my personal vehicle. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And it is logoed and decaled accordingly. Because when I first started, I don't want to hide from people, but I scared an elderly people when I was checking on open permits and they didn't know who I was, so I just felt it was more professional and to do it. It's always safer. Yes. [15:24] Speaker C (unidentified): It's really good having your code enforcement officer on there. [15:28] Susan Kerr: So personal vehicle and then you get paid mileage? Yes. And is that like the federal rate mileage? [15:35] Stan Hackett: It is. The federal rate is.765. Okay. [15:40] Susan Kerr: Very good. Okay. And so then on the code enforcement. Again, [15:52] Stan Hackett: the only thing that really changed on code enforcement is the COLA raises. The other thing that I did change because last year there was confusion, it isn't my vacation. My vacation is actually part of my salary. The vacation is for deputy code enforcement, which would do the inspections while I'm on vacation but they also required to maintain so many hours outside of that in the office for training so that's why I put the four weeks in for the deputy. Okay. So how many hours of vacation do they get? It's the deputy should be for 40. Yeah. It should be for four. Excuse me, four weeks. [16:43] Susan Kerr: WEEKS, FOUR WEEKS, AT 17 HOURS A WEEK, OR, NO, WHAT ARE THEY? [16:48] Stan Hackett: IT ISN'T 40 HOURS. IT'S, AGAIN, IF IT WOULD BE. [16:53] Susan Kerr: THE SECRETARY IS 17 HOURS A WEEK. CORRECT. SO SHE GETS FOUR WEEKS OR HE GETS FOUR WEEKS. YES. AND THEN THE DEPUTY GETS FOUR WEEKS. AND THAT WASN'T A DIFFERENT LINE, THE BUDGET LAST YEAR? [17:08] Stan Hackett: WELL, THERE WAS CONFUSION DURING THE DISCUSSION IF IT WAS VACATION, BUT IT REALLY IS JUST for the debt of it. Yeah. And for the additional required training. So [17:22] Speaker E (unidentified): you've got that combined the yes training is right in with the deputy has training and vacation and it's in one line. Right. Okay. Yeah. My [17:35] Stan Hackett: training my training is for my certifications. Yes. Yeah. Definitely. Can you [17:48] Susan Kerr: just walk me through the, like, what the computer IWORC is, because I don't know what you actually use for, you know, what, I mean, if that's a fee, or is it... [18:06] Stan Hackett: Oh, for software, I use the same as TRIO. We also have what they call iWorks, which is your permitting software. Okay. On the constable side, I use NIMS, and I do have contact with the sheriffs in the state [18:22] Susan Kerr: police database. Okay. So, and that's like a fee every year, kind of? [18:29] Stan Hackett: The sheriffs and the state police, those are in your dispatching fees already, so they just combined that. They didn't add any extra. So that just allows me to contact them either via the computer I have on board in my truck or via the radio dispatch so [18:50] Susan Kerr: and that's kind of set in [18:53] Stan Hackett: that's not negotiable no it was it was a free add-in for the town they didn't change the dispatching cost at all so it was just we added another service for of the constable you [19:09] Susan Kerr: do wear another hat kind of with the this whole when you sell the properties [19:19] Stan Hackett: the tax acquired properties yes that's we put that under assessing liaison and I do all of that and I offered to help the town in 2024 without any additional monies or any cost to the town because I'm certified tax assessing tax collector treasurer I also belong to the National Town Managers Association so I have the experience and I'd rather use it benefit the town and that basically is so I [19:56] Susan Kerr: guess there's a lot of question about where that money is coming from and [20:01] Stan Hackett: going too it sounds like there's a lot of confusion the tax acquired is much more complicated because of the statutes and this is the thing I'll be addressing probably in the future budget committee meetings because I have some ideas that will really help that are initiated from the budget committee but I also need to educate a little more of the bad habits that over the years the town has adopted in there they're causing the financial issues they're having now okay but one of the things with tax-applied properties because they took it out of trio which is you're assessing and your treasures and stuff software I had to go back into the vault and actually create the past taxes what interest was due any lien cost etc so if it isn't in trio it gets applied to what the account is called is not in TRIO. And then we're going to let the auditors deal with the rest because they have to, I have all the interest and cost all broken down. Okay. And they'll let the auditors do that so that Julie can get the things corrected where they need to be. Put the money into the proper accounts. Right. So it just keep right now to keep the process simple and not overload Julie or Judy, is all the money is going into 186. So the town-owned properties, which were caused either people deeded the properties back or it was created out of the settlement with the lake arrowhead. So those properties, those monies, other than the cost of the sale, which is the real estate cost, all goes into, right now it's supposed to go into capital reserves according to the Warren article, okay. Right, so those, it's once the legwork and the paperwork is done, it's simple until you have to go report [22:02] Susan Kerr: it on the state website, but we have to wait until they do the prior. We can't just go forward from Jan 1 with everything, doing it proper from Jan 1 on and then figuring [22:18] Stan Hackett: out the rest? Well, again, because we didn't have an accountant or an auditor. Once the auditor does what they're supposed to do, RH Smith did create the accounts that we needed to have, but it didn't get done. Now there was a lapse of almost a year, so to eliminate the confusion and potential finger-pointing and accusations, we just putting it into the 186, not in trio, and then anything that needs to be done can come out of that, and there's, there's a starting point and there'll be a trail. But if we try to do things, it's just going to [22:59] Speaker D (unidentified): complicate it. Why did they take it out of trio if it was so much simpler? Well, [23:04] Stan Hackett: that many years ago, not when i was on the board and i was never on the board here, but the select board would remove it from the tax roll. Instead of in software, when soft came around, you can put it as exempt and still allow it to accumulate the interest and stuff for record keeping, but in the past they would remove it because they felt it's exempt, which it is. But the other thing is they didn't want the state revenue to know that you have X amount of revenues that you're not collecting, and also would show up in your annual report from your tax collector that this is the interest in principle and penalties that are owed to the town. So one thing, doing it for clarity. The other thing is it never got addressed to resolve the issues. And you can't sell them all at once. If you do, it's going to burden the town's emergency services, the public roads, your, you're administrative, and more importantly, your school district taxes will go sky high. So we gotta manage it, and we're doing really well. We've stopped selling the properties this year because every single one of them we sold has produced a dwelling permit, and in this past week, we increased 10 alone. So we need to do that. And the other side of it is, so that you understand in code enforcement the planning board and the comprehensive plan committee we need to review the comprehensive plan for the growth then we need to take a very good look at and amend the ordinances to adjust to the 2027 laws that are coming into effect for this town which one is if they're on water and sewer it doesn't matter what the size of the lot is as long as they can meet the setbacks they can put four dwellings on okay so that can create a large demand and we need to take some looks at it and there's some review processes that we're doing and some processes that we're doing that we created out of reactions and I think if we have a solid ordinance throughout and a procedure to do I think it's going to calm that fear the other side of that is you want your commercial your business district evenly across the town that way you can increase your commercial which is the other side of offsetting your school so it's more educating Stan I'm [26:09] Speaker C (unidentified): looking at the expense reports yep and I see from what I can see the budget seems to be 8% higher than last year when I look at how much you're proposing this year against last year's it seems about eight percent that's this was in there that wasn't in last year yeah so I'm wondering whether there's anything you can do because I see there's a couple of things on here one is contingency which I don't understand and it doesn't have a budget. [27:00] Stan Hackett: Your contingency is not mine. That's not his. [27:03] Speaker C (unidentified): That's not yours. Okay. So it's just the 35. Okay. So then I would ask, is there any way that with the using the computers more, et cetera, can we have the supplies reduced a little bit? or because you're only what 62% through those cell phone is there any anywhere that you see that you could maybe reduce it and I know that you are self funding [27:41] Stan Hackett: I understand that last year I did reduce the supplies and those things -huh I'm not I looked at it this year and considered it very thoroughly the issue is the supplies are more expensive the gas is more expensive and we are going to need especially after we cleaned out the room downstairs filing cabinets to accommodate the statute one of the statutes says digital copies are not acceptable forms of record keeping you have to maintain a permanent paper copy problem. The reason for that, digital can be altered, all right? The only form of digital that is acceptable in the state of Maine is the microfiche because you cannot change that. But until they find some more fail-safe ways to protect digital, we need to do that. And that was the other thing. We have a lot of digital records that I need to transcribe I've been to paper records because not all of the minutes contain everything that was within the meeting. And I need those when I do violations or I'm mitigating or mediating other issues. One has been more well known and that's the IA salvage. And a lot of it is over the years this has been said, that's been said, but when you start looking at the actual records in writing then now you have something solid to use so [29:20] Speaker E (unidentified): One of the things that I 'm looking at is the computer and the printer yes have you looked at [29:26] Stan Hackett: How much that would cost if you bought it that's coming up it we got to look at the buyout that will probably be coming up next year wonderful so the other thing we have not done any permit increases since 2023 and that is the other side of the coin to help offset what my department assessing and whatever activities I do that will be under review because there's certain areas we still need to fix from the old habits one is the residential is 50 cents per square foot and commercial is done by Gross value it needs to be done by square foot to make it fair okay in other words somebody can put a storage building up for three thousand dollars that is 120 square 120 000 square feet but your home is 1400 square feet and it's costing you of $1,400 now. So we need to even the board across it. Some things will need to go up maybe on the residential end to offset, again, the emergency services or whatever, but those will have to be reviewed as well. Of [30:45] Speaker C (unidentified): Course, there's that possibility of the [30:48] Speaker F (unidentified): Impact fee, which would be in the future. Yeah. And we're looking into the growth [30:55] Stan Hackett: Ordinance MMA is actually doing that for me now because we're going to exceed our dwelling units again this year by leaps and bounds so we're going to look at that and if we can enact an emergency moratorium to stop all dwellings at this point but I don't think that's legal but we can enact a growth ordinance that's going to have the side effect so that is just like taking that good old blood butcher pill is you got to reserve so many extra permits for low income so that's the side effect to That the impact fee, depending on how it's written, we need to look at where it will be applied, what it is for, whether it's roads, this building, because we're growing here too, the fire department and emergency services. So we need to look at those and decide what the impact fee is going to be. And sometimes it's 500 per dwelling. I know there's another one that's fifteen hundred dollars per dwelling, but we need to look at that. And the impact fee has to apply to commercial businesses too, because that does have another side of impact where law enforcement may be required. So there's different things. We need to level everything across the board so things are consistently reviewed and handled. Thank [32:28] Speaker C (unidentified): you, Stan. Thanks for looking at it and giving us a great explanation and all the good work you do. [32:36] Stan Hackett: And if you do come up with any other questions or concerns, I'll be more than happy to come back. [32:40] Speaker D (unidentified): We know where you are. [32:41] Stan Hackett: As you know, I love to talk. [33:33] Speaker C (unidentified): I can see that I reviewed it, and Joanne actually has a budget that's less than last year. So I'm hoping that this is a trend that you're starting, Joanne. Thank you so much. [33:49] Speaker E (unidentified): I'm sorry, Stan, but I think her budget is better than yours already. [33:57] Speaker F (unidentified): Actually, the tipping fees for the household waste has actually gone up $24,000. [34:03] Speaker D (unidentified): Yeah. Oh, boy. Page 10, I think it's the one that, I think it is. [34:08] Speaker F (unidentified): I went up from 1,500 tons to 1,600 to 1,750 tons of household waste is what we generate. And the increase is just, well, we've got 60 new houses this year, 40-some new houses last year, and but 33,800, I believe, below last year's total budget, and that's because of the special 57.5 for the paving. So and I don't have any projects for this year. Last year we had the 57 500 project. Then what was that, the project paving down there [35:02] Susan Kerr: Okay, so I have to tell you, I've never been there. I know, I know, it's the place to be. Have never been there. Everybody tells me that, I know, and I keep saying, but it's just, oh, my husband takes care of that stuff, you know. We have our one little trash bag that we put out at the curb, and then we actually take the recycling out of [35:30] Speaker F (unidentified): So we also pay the tipping fees for businesses too in this town. They don't, they don't pay their own tipping fees. We pay all the tipping fees that down, really? Yeah, that hasn't been talked about changing. It was, and if they, if they hire a dumpster, it was my understanding that the company that supplies the dumpster, that monthly fee covers the tipping fees, but I'm not, never been able to verify that. [36:07] Susan Kerr: So a tipping fee is? [36:10] Speaker F (unidentified): What it costs when it goes over the scale at EcoMain. Okay. They charge so much a ton. And next year they're going to be charging, that fee changes mid-year as of July 1st. The average for the whole year will be $93.63 a ton. Every ton that we send to EcoMain, that's what they charge us. And I multiplied that by the 1,750 tons and that increased that line from 140,000 to 164,000. Everything else is pretty much on line. [36:57] Speaker E (unidentified): So can I go back? If the grocery store hires the vendor or whatever you want to call them to contract the garbage, the dumpster, he pays the tipping fees, right? Yeah. And then it goes, so they charge the store tipping fees? [37:22] Speaker F (unidentified): Yes, but the other businesses that don't have dumpsters. [37:26] Speaker E (unidentified): Oh, okay. I get you. All right. That goes, okay, we pay for those separately. Yeah. There's a few small businesses, [37:37] Speaker F (unidentified): but even in that, should be something that we discuss with the planning board when there's a subdivision. Yeah. That if, they have a, well, I can tell you right. If businesses generate a lot, they should be required to have a dumpster. [37:56] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, and where the store is, there's Ace Hardware, and then there's the other two stores, and they all use those two dumpsters. So that area there is covered. [38:08] Speaker F (unidentified): That area is covered, but we've got a couple of businesses in town that have tons and tons out every week. If it were in place when they started their business, they had to have a dumpster, that would have eliminated a lot. Yes. So that's an ongoing talk with the planning board. [38:29] Speaker E (unidentified): I was gonna say, is that something that can be administered? [38:33] Speaker F (unidentified): We need an ordinance change to do that. Yeah. I don't know if there's any other. I have like line 71, bulky waste, OBW and demo. That's the burnable trash that they put in number six and seven. A few people have been down there to see the numbers on the containers. I took out 5,000 and made line 15 so I can keep track of those expenses separate from the expenses on 71. That's, that's the only change I did there. Special services grinding, I lowered that from 12,000 down to 6,500. Are you taking [39:25] Speaker D (unidentified): a limited amount or why? I'm not complaining, but why would the, it's quite a drastic, well [39:31] Speaker F (unidentified): We were basing that on what happened in 2020 and the and the bad storm that we had and it cost so much more. All right, so keep your fingers crossed we don't have another big storm. Yeah, some of this, I don't know what's going to come in there, and we've still got three more months to go. So I don't know what's going to be generated. It's just I have a database, and I keep track of it. I kept track since 2003, so I can kind of judge what's going to happen. But you start adding 60 houses to it, but it does create a change. [40:14] Speaker E (unidentified): So the equipment that you have there, like the compactor and all that, 's all ours, right? All that machinery, all that equipment there? We no longer lease anything. [40:24] Speaker F (unidentified): You what? We no longer lease anything. Okay. We own it. [40:28] Speaker E (unidentified): So I guess, and I don't wanna increase your budget, but I guess what I'm thinking is if the compact is gonna be good for 20 years, 20 years, if the lifespan of the compactor is 20 years and it costs $20,000, should we be putting $1,000 in every year so that when you need it- [40:55] Speaker F (unidentified): Like a sinking fund? -huh. Yeah. We could do that. We could do that. Yeah. [41:01] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, that way there, I mean, down the road, your budget's going to be really solid every year without any surprises. You're not going to be surprising yourself. [41:14] Speaker F (unidentified): The one thing we're going to have a big surprise I think next year is the door-to-door pickup. I anticipate a huge increase for next year. Because of the diesel? When that contract runs out, I anticipate a huge increase just because of the added stops and the fuel charges and the increased tonnages. [41:35] Speaker E (unidentified): But that's not in this budget here. No. [41:37] Speaker F (unidentified): That will be in, we'll have to somehow cover that. I want them to put it out to bid so that we have time for next year's budget to compensate. [41:47] Susan Kerr: Do we have, are we already thinking of options possibly to mitigate that or, I'm sure. [41:56] Speaker F (unidentified): Our contract with EcoMain is up in 2028, March of 2028. And our contract with them for our recycling, that's also up in 2028. So that'll be probably big increases. Right now they can't increase us on anything of more than 7% a year. year. So the other change is on the attendance line. Last year we had a new attendant only for a partial year and this budget reflects a full year for him and I'm asking for a dollar an hour merit raise. He does an exemplary job and right now he's only making $16.45 [42:54] Speaker D (unidentified): Now and yourself in one attended be myself, yeah, in the cost. So you have just the one attendant that's being paid, that's being an increase, yeah. Okay, just one attendant, okay, that's that's so 19 hours, just under 20 hours a week night. [43:17] Speaker F (unidentified): They average nineteen point sixty five hours a week, eighteen and a half hours was in the winter, 21 and a half in the summer. [43:25] Speaker D (unidentified): So we have- Oh, I see, okay. There's more than, okay. Yeah. [43:28] Speaker E (unidentified): You have two attendants. You're just asking for one of them to have a raise. We have three. Three, yeah. [43:36] Speaker D (unidentified): I thought the personnel policies indicated [43:39] Speaker C (unidentified): that it's at the select board's discretion for any merit for employees. Yes. [43:45] Speaker F (unidentified): Yeah. And that you're requesting this [43:48] Speaker C (unidentified): because he started halfway through the year? [43:50] Speaker F (unidentified): No, I increased his hours to reflect the full year instead of a partial year that we budgeted for. He only worked 36 hours last year, 36 weeks. This coming year he'll work 52. [44:10] Speaker C (unidentified): And he was just earning $16 an hour and so Joanne's asking for a merit increase [44:17] Speaker F (unidentified): just for him. A dollar an hour just for him. [44:19] Speaker C (unidentified): to bring him up to 17. [44:21] Speaker F (unidentified): He's been with us a year and six months, I think. [44:25] Speaker D (unidentified): Yeah. There's no vacation there. And I see there's no vacation on yours. You're on a salary. I'm on salary. There's no vacation. [44:36] Speaker F (unidentified): No, they get paid. If they take their vacation, they do get paid. One of them was just out for a week and he got his allotted hours. [44:48] Speaker D (unidentified): and they get one vacation one week one year one week yeah they [44:59] Speaker F (unidentified): only get holidays if it falls on a day that we're open [Speaker C (unidentified): I] did lower the light duty equipment I lowered that one and I also lowered the special services line meaning [45:31] Speaker D (unidentified): also yeah if you look at your the travels not gonna come back and bite you because the gas mileage you're not you're not required to have much training you lowered that yeah training okay is that mileage in that's the only training that i take is online [45:50] Speaker F (unidentified): so i don't have oh okay so there's no oh gotcha okay yeah and i did i also lowered my [45:58] Speaker C (unidentified): Supplies, I think. Your [46:04] Speaker E (unidentified): supplies went from- [46:05] Speaker F (unidentified): I lowered the supplies, yeah. My training I lowered because the 600 included going to the state conference every year. Last year I didn't go at all, that's why I've got that big balance. and I'm not going again unless they have unless they have some courses that I find relevant yeah for us they have a lot of courses for the relevant to Portland and Bangor and stuff like that but not a small town like us yeah so [46:46] Susan Kerr: So what is like the light and heavy duty and special services? What does that entail? [46:54] Speaker F (unidentified): The special services is for grinding and compact and maintenance for the special services, the lice duty equipment, backhoe and excavator. If I need someone to clean out those bunkers that the cement is in and the China is in and crush it and bury it, which we're allowed to do because it's in there. I have to get somebody with a backhoe on a truck to do that. [47:24] Speaker E (unidentified): Does that include like what you did? [47:26] Speaker F (unidentified): There's other annual maintenance that I have to pay for. And it's much cheaper than us owning a backhoe on a truck. [47:36] Speaker E (unidentified): Like that steel you pushed the other day? Like that steel that you pushed that- [47:41] Speaker F (unidentified): Yeah he pushed up the metal pile the metal pot and they just came in and did our grinding that one yes that one yesterday you hire a contractors to do [47:53] Susan Kerr: That stuff yeah they [47:58] Speaker F (unidentified): Come every two years they come every two years to do our grinding now we don't I don't have them annually it's we've got enough room to store for two years which we're allowed to do we're allowed to store for two years and then we have to grind it and get rid of it just [48:21] Speaker C (unidentified): On an administrative basis I think that we need to have the 300 000 for melon moved over into the 27 budget and the tipping fees the 164 000 yeah I did that oh you did that I've got an old oh you've got the old one that's why I Thank you. Thank you. Then that's perfect. Sorry, I don't need anything. I'm fine. I just wrote it up. [48:50] Speaker F (unidentified): Can you go without my glasses? [48:52] Susan Kerr: Oh, this one? Okay. [48:53] Speaker F (unidentified): Sometimes me and that Excel program, I'm so... [48:56] Speaker C (unidentified): You did really well. You did really well. Thank you. [49:03] Speaker E (unidentified): Mine has a mind of its own. [49:06] Speaker C (unidentified): I think you need to take on a new role as boutique manager as well. Okay. Joanne's. Should we call it Joanne's Boutique, where the everything is? The Take It Shop? Yes. The Take It Shop. It should be changed to Joanne's Boutique, I think. [49:30] Speaker F (unidentified): Well, it would be the Take It Shop of the Limerick Walmart. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they refer to it as that too. [49:36] Speaker C (unidentified): The Walmart, I like it, very good. [49:39] Speaker F (unidentified): That estimate that I give the state every year. Last year we estimated to take a chop and in 2003 we were estimating only 64 tons. Right now we're estimating 150 tons a year is given away. That's fantastic. Multiply 150 tons per yeah so much more and then it really pays for itself and [50:17] Speaker E (unidentified): Then some it's a huge benefit to the benefit to the people is yeah [50:38] Susan Kerr: If you want some toys oh no okay any more questions for Joanne well thank you so much for coming in oh thank you appreciate it yeah we didn't I know I know I kind of wanted to go get them yeah go and get them in it's approved [51:08] Speaker E (unidentified): Well, we could do that. Okay, so I didn't miss anything though? No, you did not miss a thing. [51:13] Susan Kerr: Okay, so back to town business, I guess. So did everybody get a chance to review the minutes from the past two meetings? Okay, and any questions on the minutes? So we're good. Do I make a motion to approve the minutes from November, September 24th and September 10th? Motion to accept. Yes. Well, did you see them online though? Yes. Okay, so that's, you didn't have any questions on, because that's when we just, all we did was do the board, the chairman and vice chairman, and that's basically all we did. Okay, so the minutes have been approved. And so any, so I guess next is just new business and we'll go, we'll review the schedule. [52:20] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, let's see who's coming in. [52:22] Susan Kerr: And who we need to come in and who we feel like we can just quickly check off our list. So she has a, she has a schedule. Did you get the ideas? Okay, I honestly I got [52:39] Speaker C (unidentified): bombarded with emails today. It's almost as it should be, I think. Okay, I don't, I'm, I'm not sure if I've printed out, Joanne was supposed to be down here and she's now up here. [53:03] Speaker E (unidentified): So we're ahead of the game already. [53:05] Speaker C (unidentified): So we've already taken two. Yeah. Did you put what we arranged, the way it was arranged is that the Board of Selectmen, they wanted everyone, all their budgets to be on the one day, or sorry, split into three days that they were coming three different times, but always to put the board of selectmen to attend, those are their budgets, and again so that was the 15th they would [53:48] Speaker E (unidentified): be coming and again the 19th and the third. So when they come in as many budgets as they have [53:58] Speaker C (unidentified): done. We'll just swap them around to the ones that they've done. They might not have completed [54:05] Speaker E (unidentified): the ones that I've put down each time. So you might end up not having them three times. You might have them twice if they're really efficient with this stuff and they get it through. When we can use that last one for stragglers. [54:21] Speaker C (unidentified): And then I hear that the fire department's budget is in, so it's possible we could move them up. Where do we have the fire department? [54:32] Susan Kerr: We have them at the beginning of November. So no, I'm not going to be back until the 29th. [54:38] Speaker C (unidentified): That's the earliest then. We could swap those two around. And if the Treasurer hasn't done her budget, we could move it to the... [Susan Kerr: Well, I think...] Just keep it the way it is? [54:51] Susan Kerr: Yeah, I mean, that's fine. [54:54] Speaker D (unidentified): And was that a deadline of... [54:58] Susan Kerr: Well, that's when we'd have the department head in to discuss their budget. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so... [55:07] Speaker C (unidentified): So if everybody's okay with this, with the small adjustments, I'll send it out again and it will be posted. I think Gail is going to post it [55:18] Susan Kerr: online as well, the schedule. Let me just see what, let me go against the list that I kind of made for the easy stuff, so assessing [55:37] Speaker E (unidentified): we put all the stuff that was [55:42] Speaker C (unidentified): was in fairly early and that wasn't so many, but I believe today there's been some more. These newest ones that we got, there's been some more that have been the newest ones, the ones that she put out tonight. Okay, these guys right here, no, that's the transfers I think. No, the ones that you just got. [56:19] Speaker E (unidentified): Oh, no, that's all I have is the ones that I just got. [56:23] Speaker C (unidentified): I thought she'd leave the one you gave her. Okay, [56:29] Susan Kerr: so you all are comfortable just discussing. I mean, if you want, you can just probably do it all on the 15th. I would like to be able to hear the tax collector, deputy tax collector, town clerk, if we can move that up to the 29th and the treasurer, we can do that all in the same week if that's okay. [56:59] Speaker D (unidentified): And fire department on the 29th also? [57:01] Susan Kerr: No, the fire department stay on the 5th of November. Okay. But you'll be here? Yes, I will be here. Okay. Yeah, I'll be back on the 29th. But I would like to, because I really want to figure out this whole, you know, transition from tax collector, town clerk, deputy town clerk, tax collector, everything. So, you know, elections, recreation, that,, and, you know, so you could, you could almost. [57:29] Speaker C (unidentified): Do you want, just mark your name, your initials, oh, that's fine. [57:34] Susan Kerr: And then, again, you can, yeah, we can just put them up here. [57:38] Speaker C (unidentified): To the 29th, perfect. [57:40] Susan Kerr: and then so if you wanted to I mean you could probably eliminate one of these weeks if you know not meet instead of just taking yes yeah like just skip like the 8th and just go wait for the 15th because it's just kind of it's gonna kind of be you know I mean from looking at last year's it's you know the increase unless there's something, because first of all, you're not gonna be able to ask any questions to anybody. So, you know, it's just kind of like, if you do come up with a huge, but then maybe, you know, if the Board of Selectmen did attend on the 15th, you can just get everything. Through Lynn. I mean, the only one who would present probably would be Cindy for the library. [Speaker C (unidentified): We'll invite her.] And the transfer station we just had, so that's done. Animal control is simple. Street lights, that's, you know, all these things are just why we put them up in there. Yeah, well, that's what I mean, it's like, so do you really, do we really need to have a meeting on the 8th just first, you know? Okay, if that's agreed upon, you know, I'm not gonna, I don't wanna, but I just think it's kind of silly to have an extra week where really, I mean, the only one, we can actually ask Cindy if she could present on the 15th, and that would be really the only department head that you would need to come in. [59:21] Speaker C (unidentified): But then we will have the Board of Selectmen there as well on the 15th. [59:27] Susan Kerr: If they are available to attend, we can request. [59:32] Speaker D (unidentified): Okay. So what about the 22nd? [59:35] Susan Kerr: And then the 22nd... [59:38] Speaker C (unidentified): We've got elect... No, we've got recreation. [59:42] Speaker D (unidentified): Okay. So we will meet that. [59:44] Speaker C (unidentified): Public areas, cemeteries. [59:46] Susan Kerr: I mean, that's, again, see how much you get done on the 15th? Yep. If you can do, again, elections, recreation, that stuff, it's not... [59:59] Speaker D (unidentified): Kind of set in stone. Yeah. [1:00:00] Susan Kerr: Yeah. Well, and it's, you know, there's, there's not huge budgets there, so there's not, and there's not a lot of, change. You can't, there's not a lot of things that they can actually do to increase, decrease their budget, but it's, it's small potatoes, I guess is what I want to say. So, and yeah, so if we move that, so on the 15th, depending on how much you get done, you, all can decide whether you want to meet again on the 22nd or just we could do everything on the 29th and have a big party. Okay, so do we with Gail, do we have to make a motion to not have a meeting next week or just we just make [1:00:47] Speaker C (unidentified): the schedule ourselves? I think if we make the schedule and just see how it looks. Okay, so then I will. You'll put that in the notes? [1:00:56] Susan Kerr: Yes. Okay. I will. Okay. So we'll skip this. So the next meeting will be October. October. October 15th. What happened to September? At 7 p.m. No. But [1:01:15] Speaker C (unidentified): we've got the treasurer's budget. [1:01:17] Speaker E (unidentified): And they're not going to eat meat on the 22nd either. No. [1:01:23] Speaker C (unidentified): I don't think we'll get through everything on time if we don't meet at least twice. [1:01:31] Susan Kerr: In October. Yes, but we would be. So, I mean, today and then the 15th and the 29th. The 15th and the 29th, and then we'll meet weekly. And I think, I mean, I think the timeline's good, you know. Again, the, and the major ones that we have to look at is the safety, public safety, and then, you know, the tax collector, town clerk, treasurer. [1:02:00] Speaker C (unidentified): So the treasurer's budget is already in. Okay. [1:02:04] Susan Kerr: Hers is here. Okay, but we'll have... And is the town clerk's be assessing? I need to be here for the treasurer budget. I mean, I would like to be here for the treasurer budget. We [1:02:21] Speaker C (unidentified): have Public Works. I'll go through what ones we have in. I'll move things around a bit and send out the schedule for you to review and send it to everyone and we'll get comments. [1:02:38] Susan Kerr: Okay. And then the other one that will need a good amount of time is the Public Works road. We need Ricky to come in and, you know, the repair tower, snow. I don't know where you put that in. Okay. Yeah. That's the 19th. So that's, that's the huge, that's a huge. so but again so you have the road commissioner on the 12th and then snow removal snow that can all be lumped into one so because he this is all kinds of so then we have to have the [1:03:24] Speaker C (unidentified): so this the board that we can move him down or we can move the board up we've got to have the board of selectmen there for those ones why they said that any other BOS had to [1:03:39] Speaker E (unidentified): be put together yeah it's it labeled BOS they sign off they sign it you know so [1:03:47] Susan Kerr: this I mean that well yeah I mean they make they make their recommendations and then we sign off on what they recommend so whenever you know whenever we're together whatever you know even if the department head isn't here they can you know make their rec tell us what their recommendation is for the budget and then we can tell them we can go back and forth with them you know we don't necessarily have to have you know like stand here or you know we can already have our but i'm just saying for the department heads. So like Ricky can come in on the 12th and present his whole thing and then we can take that and you know like we'll take tonight and go back through and say okay you know this is and when the board select one comes in and they say okay we approve Stan's budget we'll say okay and we vote on it with them. Okay. Okay. [1:04:54] Speaker E (unidentified): but I think that's how yeah it sounds yeah reasonable no yeah it's just that the those sections there are not stand are not Ricky's budgets they're the board's budgets they sign [1:05:09] Susan Kerr: those budgets what board the selectman yes but Ricky's the one who knows about what we need for snow removal and what we need for, you know, how many roads we have and, you know, I mean, yeah, the actual money is allocated through the Board of Selectmen, but, you know, the nitty-gritty is from the people who know how much, how many roads and whatever. Yes, so if you can do that and just combine those and we'll move that up to the 12th. So then and I mean it so if by the 19th, it looks like by the 19th before Thanksgiving, we should have the bulk of everything ready for the warrant. [1:06:16] Speaker C (unidentified): See there's quite a lot down here on the third, the revitalization committee and capital projects. We've got a lot of that still to do. Okay. [1:06:29] Susan Kerr: But capital projects is basically the money has already been allocated and it's just, you know, does that budget change? [1:06:39] Speaker F (unidentified): There's new requests. Okay. Okay. [1:06:53] Susan Kerr: That would be, I mean, it's not, it's not, I mean, does that have a lot of back and forth? Well I guess I mean I guess we'll see where we are here -huh I mean that still gives us a couple of weeks yeah to [1:07:32] Speaker C (unidentified): work on warrants yeah sounds good any [1:07:39] Susan Kerr: Any other new business? No. Any [1:07:46] Speaker E (unidentified): questions? No. Any concerns? It's just on the schedule. That's all. Okay. [1:07:53] Speaker C (unidentified): I have to vote to adjourn. Hmm? Okay. I make a motion to adjourn. Okay. [1:07:58] Speaker E (unidentified): I make a motion to adjourn. I second. [1:08:03] Speaker C (unidentified): All in favour? Yay. Yay. We've got our first meeting over.