Limington board approves fire station cleanup, discusses squad truck vote

[0:00] Speaker A (unidentified): $25,930.28, which includes the MSAD assessment, for a total of $458,583.65. [0:12] Speaker B (unidentified): I will make a motion to approve warrants for week 42, payroll warrant number 101, appropriations [0:19] Speaker A (unidentified): warrant 102. I'll second that. I'm going to motion the second. All in favor? Okay. Review of office hours today. We spoke with a resident about the abatement process and informed him that O'Donnell and Associates is currently reviewing his application. We also appointed Oliver McAvoy to the Saucer River Community Media Board of Directors for a three-year term. I made the motion. It was seconded by Tammy, and it was unanimous vote. We received an update from the Buildings and Grounds Tech about the dust mitigation issue in the fire station. Our insurance company will be covering the cleanup cost, and we've decided to hire Octagon Cleaning and Restoration for the cleanup. So that will be taking place and starting, I believe, Monday, morning. There was a motion in office to go with Octagon Cleaning and Restoration. I made the motion. It was seconded by David Salzar and was unanimous vote as well. We reviewed the November 14th budget presentation schedule with the towns, with the town manager. All departments and requesting agencies will be meeting with us and the financial advisory committee on that day. It'll start at 9 a.m. and go to about probably 3 o'clock or so or more in the afternoon. Be a long day. If we can back up a little [1:58] Speaker B (unidentified): bit, the motion was to have the town manager sign the contract, sorry, for Octagon Cleaning and Restoration. Thank you. And that's what we both know this [2:08] Speaker A (unidentified): will also all be on the agenda minutes, which rolls us into town manager weekly [2:17] Speaker C (unidentified): updates. Oh [2:25] Speaker D (unidentified): sorry [2:28] Speaker A (unidentified): I'm just getting you. We're trying a new layout. Just finally getting used to the other one, and it's throwing me off. So sorry. Oh good, we'll get it. So we're rolling the department updates now. Which one of you is that on today? [2:47] Speaker B (unidentified): Tammy, she hasn't been here. [2:51] Speaker C (unidentified): Came in for a little bit. Yes, you did. [2:53] Speaker B (unidentified): You were. Absolutely. Okay, [2:57] Speaker C (unidentified): we'll start with the Leamington Department of Public Works. The weekly update for week ending October 10th. The road crew finished mulching Beaverberry Road. Retrieved the grater from the shop in Cornish, cleaned up a tree on Whaleback Road, stockpiled salt delivery in the salt shed, started mulching Gammon Road, assisted transfer station offload the new roll-off cover from the shipping truck. We got the new cover, cleaned up a tree on Staples, and chipped limbs. For the fleet maintenance, they serviced the excavator and the tractor, serviced the mulching head, and worked on truck 5. For buildings and ground, received and took care of cleaning supply delivery, worked at the fire station with floor refinishing company, worked on surplus equipment disposal, cleaned the municipal complex, attempted to clean up fire department dust left from the floor project, and worked to identify a potential water leak with the Leamington Academy Water Association. And the director was out on PTO for the week. The department worked a combined 156.5 hours this week, not including the holiday. To carry on for the Leamington public works, transfer station numbers for October 7th, 10th, and 11th. The total number of transfer station users was 202, and the recyclers, 166. For a percentage of 82.2% of recyclers. The fees and total revenue for the week was $1,098.71. We have a two-week report for the code enforcement officer, a week starting 9-30 through 10-13. There was one growth permit, six building permits, four electrical, three plumbing, one shoreland, one fill, one business, and two entrance permits for a total of 19. The total dollars in fees for those permits were $7,086.74, year-to-date permits $267, and the year-to-date fees $93,146.48, and he has been on 11 inspections during the last two weeks. The Leamington Fire and EMS weekly report, the number of calls for service this week were 12, 3 fire and 9 EMS. There were no vacancies in the schedule this week. There were no trainings this week. For maintenance conducted or needed, the fire station floor was stripped and refinished. And for special notes, month to date, we have four calls behind last October. Year to date, we have 46 calls behind last year. There were no requests for mutual aid this week. Was this missing from last week? [6:25] Speaker B (unidentified): There was one missing, yeah. [6:27] Speaker E (unidentified): There's two weeks' worth of transfer stations. [6:30] Speaker C (unidentified): Okay, so transfer station numbers for September 30th, October 3rd, and 4th. The total number of transfer station users was 196, and total recyclers, 154, for a percentage of 78.6% of recyclers who use the transfer station. Do we have that many numbers of tickets added to the raffle? Did they all ask for a raffle ticket? And the fees for that week, September 30th, October 2nd and 4th, $755.61 were brought in for revenues that week. And that is the end of the department updates that we have. [7:17] Speaker E (unidentified): And we do have some yearly tonnage updates from Steve. [7:23] Speaker C (unidentified): From Steve Kelley? [7:24] Speaker E (unidentified): That Jay's going to be sharing with us. All right, wonderful. On the new business. Okay. Perfect. Thank you, Tammy. [7:30] Speaker A (unidentified): Who's got them today? We will now move into town manager updates. [7:38] Speaker E (unidentified): All right. There's now a link on the town website for govdeals.com. So whenever the select board votes to put items out to bid, they will be posted on this website. And when Jake comes up in a few minutes, he's going to put that up on the big screen so people can see it. The town received four proposals for the rooftop solar array system. Next week, the select board will review and possibly vote on what proposal to accept. And the rest of my time, I'm going to talk about the employee of the quarter. So last quarter's employee of the quarter is someone with a large presence in the town. At times, he's working with school-age children. At times, he's working with the senior population. population. At times, he's working nine to five, while other times he's working evenings or on the weekends. Wherever and whenever he's working, he's always doing it with a positive and infectious attitude. During all seasons, Madison Moody works to enrich the lives of Leamington's residents. Under his leadership, his department has breathed new life into the old town hall. The fact that Leamington now has a recreation center is a testament to the hard work and vision of Madison Moody. I asked Hannah Mason, Madison's assistant, to gather a few shout outs for Madison and the children whose life he has impacted and from those who work beside him and here are a few of them. From the workers, thank you Madison for making my first job the best one ever. You made me and the staff plus the kids feel like one big family. We appreciate all the things you do for us. I'm forever grateful that you always laugh at my jokes, even if they aren't funny. Madison has created the most welcoming and positive work environment I've ever experienced. He's consistently the busiest man I've ever met and still finds time to joke, laugh, and make the most of a hard day. Working with kids isn't always easy, but he's sparsely seen without a smile. The town is immensely lucky to have him, and I'm forever grateful that he's my boss. It's been a privilege to know and work for Madison for about 12 years. I've witnessed firsthand the care and passion he brings to both the kids and the work, the kids he works with and the staff that he has employed. Madison consistently goes above and beyond, always putting others before himself. Thank you, Madison, for being a great coach,, counselor, boss, and friend. From some of the kids, Madison, you've been a great counselor. Thank you for all the field trips and fun things. I appreciate your kindness to everyone in the recreation department and the people outside of the recreation department. I'm glad you're my counselor. Madison, thank you for making rec a fun time. Madison, thank you for keeping us safe. Dave, Madison, thank you for treating us so kindly. You have the best mustache. That's awesome. Madison, thank you for coaching rugby. Madison, thank you for doing track with me. I love you, Madison. Thank you for everything you do for us. And another, Madison has the best mustache. So Madison you do a great job for the town and we really appreciate it so if you would come on down you are hereby recognized for the strong work ethic, positive attitude and team spirit that you bring to the workplace I believe congratulations [11:26] Speaker F (unidentified): I just want to acknowledge I just want to acknowledge [11:31] Speaker G (unidentified): All my staff and staff and volunteers there's there's a lot of people that make the rec department it what it is and it's not just me but thank you thank [11:42] Speaker F (unidentified): You very much we're [11:48] Speaker B (unidentified): Gonna need you to cut the mustache oh goodness and that [11:57] Speaker E (unidentified): And that ends your update. [12:01] Speaker A (unidentified): Old business. No, I'm going to skip that. That's Jake. [12:04] Speaker E (unidentified): Actually, Jake's next to you. [12:07] Speaker A (unidentified): He knew. He just. I was just messing around. So, yes, old business. We've got Jake will present the results of the online auction. [12:17] Speaker E (unidentified): And show that to the website. Yep. [12:30] Speaker B (unidentified): I love Goosebumps. Hey, this is the fire department. [12:38] Speaker H (unidentified): We can watch the game instead. Of course this worked twice earlier. [Speaker F (unidentified): There we go.] Just had to threaten it. [13:09] Speaker B (unidentified): Okay. Like everything else, it takes a while. [13:12] Speaker H (unidentified): So Richard, if you can see that and project it to the folks at home. So these are the 29 items that we had here listed on the GovDeals auction website. So this just shows the results of all of those items. The one thing that you do see in red was the things that we chose not to sell for that price. So we had a right of refusal on a couple of items and that was one of them. So the grand total down the bottom is the $21,321 that we brought in to the, I believe that all goes right back into the capital fund. And cleared out a lot of space. So it's been great opening up some places that have been blocked up for years, and we can actually use some of the space now. [14:10] Speaker E (unidentified): And that will be in the meeting minutes. [14:12] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah, I was going to say, if the people at home are not seeing this, you can check it online. It'll be right. The whole sheet will be right in the meeting minutes. [14:20] Speaker H (unidentified): Yep. So, yeah, that'll be online. And, you know, if anybody has any questions or anything like that, certainly reach out. We can help you with it. But, yeah, long and short of it is $21,000 back to the town selling stuff that we weren't using. So keep an eye open. I do have on the town website, so if we went back home, maybe, [14:47] Speaker C (unidentified): how do we get home? Get the guy down. [14:53] Speaker H (unidentified): Oops, not connected. Hopefully. This looks promising. Okay. So if you're on the town website, if you go over here to more, it'll drop down, and right down there, is surplus and unused equipment. We've put a link right on there. So when there are items on there, that's where they'll be. There's kind of a permanent link to it. And this will take you, if you click on the Leamington main link, that's going to take you right to the GovDeal site where anything that we have would be listed. And as you can see right now, there's nothing there. But you're welcome to bid on boats and cars and stuff if you'd like to. But yeah so with stuff out there we'll make that announcement yep as we put stuff on there we'll announce it select board will announce it any we talked about if there were any large you know big ticket items like vehicles or things like that it might be worth it we throw an ad in the shopper's guide to let you know a lot of the locals know that it's out there but with facebook and all that we were able to drive quite a bit of traffic there and the fun thing looking at those auction results This doesn't say on here, but they went all over the country. We're shipping stuff to Indiana, Ohio, South Dakota, some fire truck seats going to Chile, and they did today. So I don't know how they're shipping them, but don't laugh, we have a fire truck in the Netherlands. Right, yes. So yeah, so that was kind of the advantage of using the gov deals website, is it got up to a much wider audience, a broader audience, and all over I guess the world apparently. So and then all we got to do is put the pictures and put them on there, they collect the money, they do all of that, and then they just wire us the funds and tell us who's coming to pick this stuff up, and it really worked pretty well. So any questions you guys have for any of that? [17:26] Speaker E (unidentified): Okay, anything else you want to talk about, the eco main information that we received from Steve? Sure, that's [17:41] Speaker H (unidentified): a new business. So Steve Kelly, our representative to eco main, sent us over, sent out over some figures today, just today. Yeah, today. So the Lymington figures for 2026 are in. We're not at the end of the year yet. [18:02] Speaker E (unidentified): Well, they're on July 1st and June 31st. [18:05] Speaker H (unidentified): Okay, so this... That's why, yeah. Okay. So, 26 over 25. So, waste this year was 1,765 tons, which is 124 tons more than 2025. And recycling was 87 tons, which is 8 tons more than 2025. So all of the waste has gone up, but it is encouraging to see that recycling also went up. I'm not sure whether it's what the percentage is on that, but hopefully with everything that we've got going on, we continue to grow that and reduce our waste. So was that last week we [18:50] Speaker B (unidentified): talked about food waste, did we look into that? Yeah, I've got a meeting in two weeks with [18:56] Speaker E (unidentified): Agri-Cycle. Steve and I [18:58] Speaker H (unidentified): are meeting with them. Agri-Cycle is the place up in Maine, right? Yeah, they [19:04] Speaker E (unidentified): were in Maine. Yep, and they come out and sell food scraps. Yep, so we're going to see if we can get a system in place [19:10] Speaker H (unidentified): in town. So Agri-Cycle is who EcoMaine sends, they have a cooperation with them, so they send food scraps up there, like from Hannaford or whatever, these big companies that have a whole bunch goes up there. They have a deep packager, so they're able to get all the plastic stuff, and then they send all of that back to eco main for recycling. So and I know there's some other towns that have, you know, the big rolling totes that they provide, and they come down once a month, week, whatever it is, empty them out. So kind Of excited to see if we get something like that running up there. Food waste is heavy and there's a lot of it, so if we can find someplace other than the landfill or incinerator or whatever to put it, that would be good. [20:04] Speaker B (unidentified): All right. Anything else? So we'll just hear in a couple weeks. [20:10] Speaker C (unidentified): So will you find out how it would be packaged, like if we put it in buckets or something like that? [20:18] Speaker B (unidentified): Yeah, I'm so I'm sure that'll all be part of the area they drive around in a flatbed truck and they pick up the containers from each home like you would have a trash can out. [20:27] Speaker H (unidentified): They come pick it up and leave an empty one. So in Portland they have a garbage to garden which is a private company that does it. I reached out, they don't come this far. Yeah, but it'd be something similar to that. But in I know town of Conway uses this company and they just have the big rolling totes and they have three or four of them sitting there at their transfer station. [20:46] Speaker C (unidentified): That was what I was getting at. The homeowner's going to put it in some buckets, or will we take it to the transfer station? [20:53] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, I'm not sure what they're going to propose, but I will include email and Jake and email conversation so they attend the meeting as well. We'll have plenty to bring back to you in a couple weeks. [21:10] Speaker B (unidentified): And when are you going to put the roll-off cover up? [21:13] Speaker H (unidentified): As soon as I've got time to do that. It is in. we have it 's sitting down back so we just gotta assemble what's on the pallet down here yeah we're just gonna assemble it 's it obviously it's in pieces so it's several pieces that get bolted together to get the length but so yeah and then set that up there the goal is before winter not mowing as much anymore [21:41] Speaker A (unidentified): Yours okay thank you Jake. No other new business I don't think. A comment or is it is that what it's going to fall under or you had a question is what's chief here about the [22:08] Speaker H (unidentified): About the special town. Oh yeah, we got to have a special town meeting. Oh I got a town meeting. [22:13] Speaker G (unidentified): I didn't know what. Well, I was going to give an update on the tank truck so everybody knows. [22:18] Speaker A (unidentified): Okay. I didn't know with new business. [22:20] Speaker G (unidentified): Yeah, and anything that you guys want to talk about. But the tank truck that we ordered a year and a half, two years ago, is officially built, and I'll test it now. It's down in Florida at the factory still. I just got the email today with proposed dates to go down and do the final inspection. Inspection. Once that inspection is done, it'll probably be the first week in November that I go down and do that. Then the truck will make its way back to Brunswick where our dealership is at, and they'll do the finishing stuff like lettering, install the radios, anything that we want done to it locally, and then we'll receive it. So the ballpark is figuring towards middle to end, and probably middle of December, but certainly by the end of the year, we'll have it and start training on it and all that stuff. So it's been a long time coming, but I don't know what all was talked about publicly with the floor out back. I don't know if anything. So as had been voted on in the Marchtown meeting, we had the floor redone. Jake got three or four different quotes. We went with a company that offered a lifetime warranty on the flooring and would grind the floor. They did that. The floor I think looks pretty good. The problem is they didn't capture the dust from the grinding, and they left a huge mess out back. We removed what we thought we had to from the station for them to be able to do the job, and there's a ton of stuff that, I mean, it got into the offices where doors were closed, even got out here some with that sealed off. So anyway, there was a claim filed, was it yesterday or the day before yesterday, and the insurance company has approved the claim, and Jake had gotten three different cleaning companies to come out. I don't know if we got all the prices back, but we got one that's, that's able to start, I believe Monday, and seven to 10 days, we'll have the project complete, which was better than the estimates from the other companies. So I believe you guys decided on Octagon to do the project. So right now that's why all this stuff is out here, because we can't sit out there in the, in the dust. The trucks are back in the, in the bays, and people can go out and get in the trucks. But as far as being in there amongst the dust, we're not doing that. There's going to be some medical supplies that probably just won't be able to be cleaned, but that will be part of the insurance claim that we'll get reimbursed for. I think that basically covers it. I heard today a rumor about the tires on the ambulance that they were bad on the primary ambulance. The tread so we have summer tires and winter tires on their own rims. The summer tires are the ones we got with the ambulance when we received it two and a half three years ago so and the ambulance has around 66,000 miles on it I think at this point. So for two winters it hasn't had those summer tires on it 's had winter tires on it so all of that mileage isn't on those tires. People had mentioned that the tires were getting low because what they thought was the wear bar was not the wear bar all Our apparatus goes up for inspection in July. It was inspected in July with the summer tires on it and they said the tires are starting to get low but they were inspectable. So the plan has always been to replace the summer tires while the winter tires were on it. We just put the winter tires on and the summer rims and tires are off. The new plow truck that we got that was approved in March, we got it sometime this summer. The tires that came with it were summer tires. They wanted winter tires put on it or more aggressive for plowing. We had those tires put on out of the purchase price of the truck and we had essentially brand new summer tires are the same size as the tires on the ambulance. They have less than 1500 miles on them so we're taking the tires that came with the new truck and putting them on the summer rims for the new ambulance so that in the spring when the winter tires have to come off the ambulance the summer tires will go on and are essentially brand new. So I'm not sure what the complaint is with that we're We're saving money in the budget by using the capital money on the purchase price of the truck and we're saving budget money by using the brand new tires that came with the truck that would otherwise be gone to waste. Which while I'm at it is one advantage to have in the departments managed by a person because I'm confident that if this was done under two separate departments and two different leaders those tires probably would have gone away and we would have spent money for brand new tires for The ambulance when we didn't need to. So I see it as a win but apparently the rumors are that it's not. So if it's getting around town that's the truth. I think you guys had some questions about a policy or policies that I submitted for your consideration. I don't know that's what I was asking are we [27:48] Speaker A (unidentified): Discussing that out here, or we can, yeah, you guys can, the question, the policy was in question was the, holiday pay, isn't that, well, yeah, is what they had a question. You had a question of [28:08] Speaker B (unidentified): what the i don't want to so the per dm policy came across our desk again yeah so normally it hit my desk first and then went over to your guys's and disappeared so it's there it was asked what the difference was on there and i brought up the holiday pay yes the only change yeah from there so there was discussion that it didn't seem fair for people who worked overnight which I talked to Jason about and then that posed a question [28:36] Speaker A (unidentified): await another week to talk to you, yeah, I wasn't sure how he made a valid point of the separation, but I'm having you explain it, wouldn't, so because like I [28:49] Speaker B (unidentified): told him, I said as a full-timer I apply under the full-time now, right, which is [28:54] Speaker G (unidentified): Which that policy says six to six. So that was the point between the other two policies that I brought out. It aligns it with the policy that you guys already approved. So there's three different policies, one for full-time people, one for per diem people, and one for paid on call people. Those are all areas of employees within the department. Payroll right now ends at midnight on Sunday or 1159 on Saturday and begins at midnight on Sunday. Day. So generally, holidays are on Monday, but it doesn't matter. Right now, employees get paid on a holiday from midnight to midnight, time and a half during that holiday. But our shift changes at six o'clock. So an employee that works Sunday from 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. Monday gets six hours of time and a half, the midnight to 06 time frame of the day of the holiday. And then the other employee on Monday who comes in at 6 a.m. and works till generally 6 a.m. the next day we'll get 18 hours of time and a half and then six hours of straight time. So I'll put it in context of observed versus holiday. Limiton observes holidays some days not actually on the holiday. So part of that policy clarifies what days the holiday pay is. So we pay out back, we pay for the actual holiday, regardless of when it's observed. So employees know that if, trying to think of a good example, but let's say 4th of July is on a Sunday and Limington observes it on Monday, the employees are still working on Sunday out back, right, where the town generally isn't. So I don't want the employees to have to work on the holiday and not get holiday pay because the town observes it on Monday. So the people who are working on the not holiday would actually get the time and a half for it. So it's the same idea, in sorts. I've changed, I'm proposing changing the start of pay for six o'clock so that the shift worked on the holiday is the holiday pay. So it simplifies payroll for, I think, all of us. So the employee, whether they're full-time or per diem, if they're working a shift, would get their shift paid for the holiday. Yes, the person who's working the day before that the holiday begins at midnight would not get six hours of time and a half, but we all know there's one employee who pays attention to that. So he would just put in for Monday instead of Sunday, and the advantage to that is he would get 12 hours of time and a half and not just six. So again, having the policy is important so the employees do know that if they're really worried about the money, they'll put in for the time or they won't based on what they want, right? I'm actually proposing that the town and its personnel policy changes actually move payroll start time to six o'clock on Sunday morning instead of midnight Sunday morning because the only people it affects is out back. And if we're doing a policy that does that anyway, the whole town will be aligned, and once in a while when plowing happens, they might be out during that time change, but the pay week would still be on Sunday to Saturday. It's just that it would move the six hours to six o'clock versus midnight. So I don't know if that's [32:29] Speaker B (unidentified): confusing or if it makes sense or it was, I brought it up as a change, so and I used examples as the call guys come out to a fire at one or two in the morning. He would not get holiday pay coming out from home because we didn't do it at midnight. We started at six. Or the people who want to work the night before are not available on the holiday will miss out on six hours of holiday pay for working. So that's the discussions we had in the office. [32:59] Speaker A (unidentified): But if we're going to align, if we can align the policy, the personnel policy to match that, if it only affecting, like you said, the department, the fire department, fire EMS. [33:11] Speaker G (unidentified): But, David, that's a valid point. So you guys have to consider that, right? [33:14] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah, I mean, yeah. [33:16] Speaker B (unidentified): And my only other thing is, if I'm at home knowing that I won't get holiday pay, and it does come down to pay in our current environment, I might not come out. So it's different for me because I'm on the full-time schedule, so I might not get holiday pay. [33:32] Speaker G (unidentified): But I guess the call people is, the full-timers are at an advantage that work the holiday because you're coming in at six anyway, but you're getting 24 hours worth of holiday pay I was looking at. [33:44] Speaker B (unidentified): For the other guys, right, I'm trying to explain to him the change on that and how it just affects some people, so okay. [33:53] Speaker G (unidentified): Any other, I don't know if there's any, it'll be on his desk to die. [33:58] Speaker B (unidentified): Do you want to make a motion to accept that change? All we need to do is sign the policy, right, but we have to change the personnel policy, which I'd like to see. [34:09] Speaker A (unidentified): That put, if we're gonna do that, just a line, if it's only affecting your miles. [34:17] Speaker F (unidentified): Just make them both a line, okay, but was there any other questions on the policies though? I don't, okay, I think he wasn't, I don't think you're here for the. [34:26] Speaker B (unidentified): Mall, so she has to still read them, but we signed off on two of them, yeah, there's. [34:31] Speaker A (unidentified): A couple of them that are signed. I think, if anything, maybe in office next week, if you're around, to discuss the remainder. We have a special town. [34:39] Speaker B (unidentified): Meeting next month, next week. Yeah, it's after. [34:41] Speaker G (unidentified): So next week, I'm going to be out of town. [34:43] Speaker A (unidentified): That's right, you're out of town. Monday night and Thursday. [34:45] Speaker G (unidentified): Afternoon, I have a training up in Fairfield. So I will be back, but I won't have a lot of time. I don't know when I'll be back. [34:51] Speaker A (unidentified): I guess the following. Yeah, we can do it the following. [34:53] Speaker F (unidentified): Week. All right. [35:03] Speaker C (unidentified): Any other new business? No, just to elaborate on the very first thing on the notifications. Oh, yeah. The special town meeting. Just so that it's fully discussed instead of just. [35:21] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah. No, it's, it's been advertised in the paper. I think it's on the website as well. And if we, I guess the best explanation can come right from the fire chief. If you'd like to come back up here and I'm sorry. [35:37] Speaker B (unidentified): She asked the wrong person. [35:39] Speaker A (unidentified): She waited until she got back there. She wanted to know. So, yeah, I mean, we have a special town meeting coming up next Thursday at 7 p.m. to vote on the purchase of a, or vote on the funds available for a squad truck for the fire service. We lost our current squad to state inspection, and it's more costly to try to repair at this point. [36:03] Speaker G (unidentified): So I'll start with what the vehicle is. It's the old ambulance tube. We kept it because they wouldn't give us anything for trade-in for it. It currently has 184,000 miles on it. It's 18 years old. We, again, in July went out for inspection and it failed for a serious oil leak that was spreading on the exhaust or spraying on the exhaust, creating a fire hazard. And then three of the body mounts on the box itself, the ambulance portion of it were rotted out. So I've asked for a quote of from wild one to just throw out a number of what it's what it would cost to fix. I haven't gotten that yet. But the question comes in is it worth putting money into an 18 year old vehicle with 184,000 miles on it. And so that vehicle holds our water rescue equipment. Originally we kept it to use for traffic control and It's not a secret that a lot of people die at crash scenes because people are too busy on their phone and they don't pay attention to flaggers or the other equipment. So it's very common to have a blocking vehicle and so my thought was if that's blocking and somebody crashes it then that helps pay for the new ambulance. But as time went on we started getting into water rescue again which was a result of having water rescue calls but the pusher behind that was actually when Mike Barton was here and witnessed the boat capsize on Pequocket Lake through a microburst. Who would think that we would have a boat with four people on it get blown over on Horn Pond right but it did happen and we have had residents lost to the river. We've had people from there's there's areas that have shut down their public beaches. So, Limington has become very popular, both the river and Moimedeo. And then, of course, the summer camp is growing. So, we got into water rescue because we had some calls. We got a grant for $15,000 from Maine EMS, which helped get some more of that equipment. So, as we got the equipment, what we call the squad, the old ambulance, got filled up. And so, it was used less for traffic and set up primarily for water rescue. And now that vehicle doesn't pass inspection and we need to put the equipment somewhere. Back up a little bit, not too long ago we had a squad truck that a previous chief decided to sell. And when he did that, we lost space for equipment that we had. Some of that equipment is the stuff that's covered in dust now from the grinding because we didn't have room on the trucks anymore. more. So here we are again, we're without a squad. We have water rescue equipment and what are we going to do with it? So we started looking online and unfortunately what appeared to be a very good deal has now been sold because it takes too long to have a special town meeting to get the money. But we were looking at a 2000, so certainly not a new vehicle. It was a little bit bigger than an ambulance had a walk-in rescue body is what it's referred to as, that would have held the water rescue equipment it would have been the changing room which is primarily what we want in having the vehicle versus like a trailer so in the winter time you have to heat because you have issues of hypothermia in the summertime probably not so much of an issue but you might want to cool people so it was listed for thirty thousand dollars and it had just under 19,000 miles on it. And so that was what we were hoping to get and then be able to do the lettering and radios, things like that, we have to do with every vehicle that we get. I went online yesterday to look for the number to call him and let him know we were getting closer to the special town meeting and it was listed as sold. So now the search goes on, but I'm not going to search too hard because a lot can happen in a week. So until we have a special town meeting to know if I'm wasting my time or not so right now the proposal is to take the money out of EMS billing revenue which currently has I believe somewhere around 486 000 dollars in it 150 of that will go to the offset that gets voted on I don't think Patty's pulled that out yet for this year and it's not committed but the plan was to take 400 hundred thousand out of that to pay for the new ambulance when it comes in which is proposed for 2028 I didn't know I Was going to be talking about this or I would have brought the numbers, but I want to say we've added about 126,000 so far this year from the billing of just this year, just to give you an idea what we bring in. And it doesn't always go up every year. It's based on call volume, so you know, if we have a slower year, then the money is not going to go in at a higher rate. But the average over the eight years I've been tracking it is it's increasing. So the money is there even after those things that I just mentioned, so [41:27] Speaker A (unidentified): yeah, this is just, I think, an overview to touch base on what we're going to be dealing with next week. [41:33] Speaker G (unidentified): The question of mutual aid comes up. Of course, we're going to use mutual aid. We use mutual aid on anything larger than an accident, essentially. But we're about four minutes, if my numbers were correct, from the river. Standish is the water rescue mutual aid for us. They're coming out of their central station down on Route 35, between Standish Corner and Sebago Lake Village, so their response time is much longer. And the last time we called them, their squad broke down, and they weren't able to help us. So every department, we've been preaching for a couple years now that every department's getting busier and busier. So when we say mutual aid, that mutual aid isn't always available either because they're busier too. We have a lot of things that we have to be prepared for that we don't need a lot, but when somebody calls 9-1-1, we're the ones that are supposed to be able to have the answer, and whether that's right or wrong, it doesn't really matter when they call 9-1-1. And so we've been training, we've been getting equipment, and we have, my numbers might be backwards, it's 12 and 15, is 12 people that are either Swift water techs and 15 that are ice, or the opposite, but definitely an involved crew. We train pretty regularly. Our certification is good for three years, but not necessarily every month, but regularly. We're touching the equipment, it could be getting in the water, it could be just deploying the boats, it could be practicing throwing ropes. Most recently getting in the water, we went down to Hollis and got in the boat launch down there and trained with Hollis. We have some equipment they don't have and vice versa. I think that covers it. I'll say it all again next week. That's a good run. [43:36] Speaker C (unidentified): I guess we covered that very well. [43:38] Speaker B (unidentified): Do you want to pull back up again? [43:40] Speaker A (unidentified): It gives everybody something to think about, or if they've seen it on TV. If they see it on the agenda, [43:46] Speaker C (unidentified): They know what they're so it's good to have that information, and we've been advanced, so thank you. I'm sorry that the truck that we really wanted is gone, so we'll be prepared now. Yeah, hopefully. [43:59] Speaker E (unidentified): My question in the meeting draft form of the meeting minutes that'll be online tomorrow, so now that [44:13] Speaker B (unidentified): the truck is not available anymore and we're still moving forward with the special hotel meeting for a certain dollar amount, what happens we don't find a truck by the end of the year the [44:26] Speaker F (unidentified): money just goes back to general funds, so are [44:31] Speaker G (unidentified): we gonna be a lot of so the that approval won't expire unless as an expiration as part of the warrant, I don't know if there is, I haven't seen the war is not so because it's not the operation budget, it's just much like capital reserve, right, if you don't set the deadline, so and if we don't find a truck within that, then we can't buy one, right, but it gives me direction at least whether the people want one or not, and then what I can spend, right, and that so if we do find one I can say yes we'll do it because we know we have the approval to do it, so does the warrant number include what if the radios and the lights the other stuff, so it was an amount not to exceed 50 000, correct [45:18] Speaker A (unidentified): So with what we were looking at it would have been able to most of the online ones that we had been seeing range from 20 to 40 000 for a nice good used unit, and then you figure roughly 10 $10,000 in essentials, letterings, radios, portables. [45:40] Speaker F (unidentified): As long as it's clear the way the warrant's written, so the town people know. [45:44] Speaker B (unidentified): It's on the door, I think. [45:46] Speaker G (unidentified): It's all in something with the operational amount. [45:49] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah, the total amount, I think, is not to exceed $50,000. [45:52] Speaker C (unidentified): I just want to make sure people at home know what we're discussing. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. That's okay. Okay. We had a resident that was just asking about the radio cost and outfitting it to be ready over and above the cost of the vehicle. [46:11] Speaker A (unidentified): If no new business, we'll move into public comment. [46:19] Speaker D (unidentified): Step on up. How are you doing? I just have a question on the dust and the company that we had that ground it. And why is our insurance responsible [46:32] Speaker C (unidentified): for cleaning it up? [46:38] Speaker A (unidentified): Do you want to answer? You've dealt with it. [46:41] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, well, we put in a claim and the insurance company is going to pay for it, but then they're going to be going after the company that we hired, their insurance company. We were relieved to hear that they were going to pay. And then they can settle with the other insurance. Yeah, because most of the way [47:04] Speaker A (unidentified): it's a very time sensitive our EMS, fire EMS personnel are displaced right [47:10] Speaker E (unidentified): now, so. As you can tell. Yeah, it's so. But the chairs are comfortable. [47:18] Speaker B (unidentified): Well, we're going to need new ones because this uniform has dust on it. [47:23] Speaker A (unidentified): Any other public comment? Anybody? Anybody? Sure, come on. [47:33] Speaker D (unidentified): Bonnie Laughlin. I sort of hear something that might have been said in jest a moment ago, but I thought it might help me get clear about what Emil's trying to help us all learn about holiday pay, when it starts, when it doesn't. Has there ever been an issue or is there an issue now about who would respond if there were a fire? [47:59] Speaker B (unidentified): On a holiday I heard a little comment was it said in jest there could there could be if someone was really in looking at their pay and wanted extra pay they could we're not responsible to respond from home we're not obligated to respond from home we're not obligated right once we're home we're home but if we if we know we're going to get holiday pay for that some people might not come out knowing they're not going to get holiday pay so has that ever happened I don't think it's [48:27] Speaker A (unidentified): Ever happened so I and I serve the community and the pay doesn't matter to me yeah so and I think for the most part that it should you just bought some stuff well no the diehards it's just you know it's what we do so I mean we left office today for a fire yeah we did so but there is a couple in town in the alignment there's a couple of them that a couple of individuals that stop their pay at midnight and they split it up so instead just making life easier for payroll purposes and everything by Aligning our policy our personnel policy to go to six it just is going to fix that because trying to chase six hours here and six hours there it can be a pain so it's just if it's everybody's on the same page as the personnel policy and it's only affecting one or two and it's and it's only firing EMS so [49:23] Speaker B (unidentified): So, yeah, it's just because being in the dark side and posing questions that people might not think about. [49:33] Speaker D (unidentified): So, again, I'm just hearing things that might be jocularly said, but might not be. [49:38] Speaker B (unidentified): So I thought I'd try to some people do stay home, though, and not come out to calls. But they're not obligated to come. Yeah, it's not required. [49:49] Speaker F (unidentified): Required yeah but I'd say most people will show up we had a bunch of people show up to the fire smoke just in recent when we were here earlier we just had a smoke investigation call [50:02] Speaker A (unidentified): Right up the street here by the by the trailer park, and it looked like the trailer park was on fire. But we also had, I think, eight or ten individuals from the fire service show up that, you know, weren't, we have two on duty, the rest showed up from home. So it does. [50:20] Speaker D (unidentified): You made that statement, Jason, that you thought that people. [50:24] Speaker A (unidentified): Yes. Yeah. In my dealings all the times, I mean, I've been to calls on Christmas, you know, I've left our Christmas parties to go to call. So, and generally. [50:34] Speaker B (unidentified): That was my thing to you in office. Like if I'm at home on a Christmas day, I might not come out if I'm not getting extra pay to get my family for the extra pay. [50:42] Speaker D (unidentified): And so you're saying that? [50:44] Speaker B (unidentified): I just said that. I know, so... I don't go home anyways. They live 3,000 miles away, so I will be here. [50:52] Speaker A (unidentified): But no, it's just, yeah. Everybody's different. Yeah. So, but... [50:58] Speaker E (unidentified): I can't tell you how other people might think [51:00] Speaker B (unidentified): while they're at home with their families. Well, I... [Speaker D (unidentified): So... But still...] It could be an incentive to come out if we're paying them midnight to midnight. [51:09] Speaker D (unidentified): So, yeah, there's still there's there's leadership, which is which helps people find within themselves the support and the will and which they probably have any way to do the right thing. And I believe we've got that in email. But this is so money, which you're trying to clarify now. [51:26] Speaker B (unidentified): But I'm just one person who is curious about whether we're all per diem, too, which is the other thing, too. I'm sorry. Per diem. We're all per diem employees. So as needed right except for the full-time staff but if they're a big fire on a holiday in livington still they may not come out you can hear you can hear other departments [51:48] Speaker D (unidentified): I'm still trying to hear what you said I'm sorry still you might or might not come out [51:52] Speaker B (unidentified): Okay there are other departments in this area that might not go out on the holidays because their volunteers are per diem right just because all right it's hard to explain I feel like we're getting out of here in a big old circle but people are not required to come out their per diem as needed okay so if I'm that person and I'm not getting holiday pay for my time to be here or go out on a call I may not come out and I'm not saying I'm not going to but if it's not an incentive to leave my family Or leave my home to come out here and do what I trained for people might not come out does that make sense but most probably I'm not saying we don't for [52:34] Speaker A (unidentified): The record, I'm gonna get out of bed and I'm going to a fire call because if somebody's house is on fire on Christmas, my kids and grandkids can wait to 10 or 11, 12 o'clock in the morning, but I'm gonna help somebody. And it was, and that's for the record for me. So that's, I speak for myself. [52:51] Speaker D (unidentified): Thank you. There's something, there's, there's kind of an aspect of per diem and then there's an aspect of on call. And I think for any of us who've ever been in a situation where many people where we're on call, we go, so I'm, so we're on call, we're here, might be [53:12] Speaker B (unidentified): different. It's sort of like, well, if we're on call, we're in the building already, we're on duty. In your, in the case here, I see if we're, but we're, most of the department is per diem, so it's as needed. We put in our availability, they give us days as needed, right? And if a call comes out and I'm home, I'm not required to come to the station. I can to get paid, right? I can come and collect a minimum of an hour or I can come and collect two, three hours if I take an ambulance. That's right, which I've done from Freiburg and transported people, you know, in all reality in [53:49] Speaker F (unidentified): all reality, David, you've done it a lot, but I'm just throwing it out there to be the [53:53] Speaker B (unidentified): black sheep of this conversation. There may be people out there that do this and that was my worry, if we, if we limit those six hours, right? So yeah, some people live paycheck to paycheck in this fire department. You know, not everybody has parents who will pay for paramedics well. No, they don't. Thank you, Bonnie. It seems confusing, but those were my side arguments to his, because he wanted to know what was different in the policy, and I pointed those out. So, and there has, like, people might not even take the shift, right? If I was that type of person and I knew I wasn't going to get paid for the night before as a per diem employee and employee, I don't have to put in for that time, I can make myself unavailable, right? And then I'll just put in for the six, but somebody else will, because our, somebody else will [54:52] Speaker A (unidentified): we have younger people. Our scheduling's done a month in advance, yeah, so they know the holidays coming. So if he doesn't want to take it, that's his choice, but I'm sure there's eight or are nine other people that are going to take him. So we're always going to have coverage. That's the simple solution, I guess, to the situation. [55:10] Speaker B (unidentified): There's always two people here. Yeah. [55:12] Speaker A (unidentified): 24-7. Sometimes four. Anybody else? [Speaker B (unidentified): No? No? Okay.] Then notifications. Mr. Salzar. Yes. You want to take us home? [55:27] Speaker B (unidentified): She can take you home. Again, there will be a special town meeting next Thursday at 7 p.m. To vote on the purchase of a new squad truck for the fire ems department. The select board office hours will remain on thursday from 4 p.m to 8 p.m with an on-air meeting time at 7 p.m for the foreseeable future. That would be january 7th class starts yeah we're gonna have to talk about that too. Transfer station hours are saturday and sunday from 9 a.m to 4 p.m and wednesday from 12 to 4. A transfer station sticker must be attached to your vehicle windshield shield for the disposal of all items. Transfer station stickers are available at the town office for 20. No sticker is required to use the swap shop. The transfer station does not accept does not accept a brush yard clippings or hazardous waste. Riverside recycling in portland takes hazardous waste. A friendly reminder to all residents that building waste furniture mattresses tvs tires and electronics should not be left at the curbside. We have a transfer station for those items. Residents who recycle at the transfer station can have their name entered into a monthly raffle. Do not forget to ask the raffle do not forget to ask for the raffle ticket when you recycle. This month's prize is a one month membership to soccer river martial arts for an individual or family. General assistance applications are available at the town office during normal business hours. Applications must be filled out and accompanied with supporting documentation and must be signed and returned to the GA administrator or town clerk. The Planning Board meets at the Municipal Complex the first and third Monday of the month at 7 p.m. [57:14] Speaker A (unidentified): Thank you, David. And with that, I will make a motion to adjourn.