Capital Improvement Planning Committee Meeting - April 23, 2026

Welcome everyone to the um April 23rd meeting of the capital improvement planning committee uh here in room 30 315 at Dartmouth Town Hall and just a reminder that this meeting is being recorded. So, um we uh we had finished up some of the uh larger meet um departments at the last meeting and I wanted to revisit a couple of uh of items that um came to fruition over the last month and uh and wanted to invite

back uh Steve Melo Harbor to speak on uh one of the items that he had presented originally. Uh Steve, if you want to come back up and just uh refresh the group on um the request for the uh truck. Hello. Again, I wasn't here for the vote um of the meeting, but I presented for a new department truck for the harbor master and um there've been a slight development since then, but um

the deputy truck is going to be auctioned off. It's not reliable. It has an electrical problem that we've been chasing. It has something to do with the way the fire department used it as a command truck and then removed the electronics and we have a short that kills the battery. So, we've spent enough time and energy trying to trace that down. Um, that Tahoe is beyond the 10 years and it's although it looks good

and it when it runs it runs fine, it just doesn't run reliably. So, that's not good for a response vehicle. Uh, the idea would be to take the truck I'm now driving and cycle that down to the deputy and then get another frontline truck that would tow the boats and do everything and essentially what I have now, but I'm looking at replacing what I have a fuel caddy in the back of my truck for the

boats. I wouldn't duplicate that. that I'd rather get a utility body for the back where I can carry the tools, the life-saving equipment, the first aid stuff, have everything have a place and put everything in its place rather than loose in the bed of a pickup truck or the backseat of the pickup truck. Um, so Cody and I discussed it at our our monthly meeting and he thought I should

bring up that factor. Since then, the only thing that has changed is I was driving the harm truck and heard a scraping noise. And when I found almost as if it knew I was in this process, the large speaker that is the siren horn had rusted off and was dragging. So, I've now got that tied on. I will put that on another bracket. But it's like given the road conditions and the rust factor of

being on the water, the bracket just rusted out on that. So the the need to get something more reliable, I think just keeps coming in and uh Steve, what year is the Tahoe?

The Tahoe is a 1990 2000. Wait a minute. It's um Yeah, it's a 97.

Okay. And it was a fire chief's truck before we got it. We bought it for a very short money. We did not have two vehicles at the time and that allowed us to get a very short money uh second vehicle for the department. And it's it's served its purpose. We really it doesn't owe us anything.

But being that it's um probably too old to put much money into, we wouldn't get a return on that. It it doesn't make sense. It's one that should be auctioned off and uh somebody that can tinker with it and get it running would have a fine family vehicle, but that's not what we're in it for.

So, we do have two full-time, you know, responders in the department. As I get older, I rely on somebody else to cover half the time. U and they just they need to be able to respond. And it's not like we can trade off the vehicle because there are going to be times where the first person to respond may need someone else to back them up and that's where we both come in. So,

in what year is the truck that you're that you have right now?

I'm driving the Ford F250 that was ordered and delivered at the end of 2014 and then for medical leave reasons in 2014, I was out until April. So, the truck came into service in April of 2015. Okay.

And it's been in service since then.

All right.

My concern when um with not approving this is a we're basically down to one vehicle because the Tahoe is out of commission.

B that one vehicle isn't a new even necessarily a reliable vehicle. Um, and so Mike, there there's a concern, legitimate concern that we could be down to no vehicle in the harbor master department, and that's that doesn't work.

Yeah, I I think I can give a little bit of a background as to why we made the decision that we did, and that was because uh when Steve presented um we weren't exactly sure what type of vehicle, there was a discussion of maybe going with a Ford F250 or maybe going with a Tahoe, which is a different price point. And because we really didn't have a clear answer and I think Steve said

that the other one, yes, it was old, but it was still somewhat reliable.

Obviously, you know, now that we know that there's electrical issues, I think it was more of a we didn't know exactly what the need exactly what kind of truck or vehicle that they wanted. So, it was difficult for us to approve uh something that $90,000 without knowing do we really is it $90,000 or is it a $40,000 truck or is it what what the issue is?

So, if we have clarification and go, hey, we really we're going to get a truck 250. It sounds like you have an exact idea of what you want now with a utility body where before it was I could use an SUV. I don't really need this.

But if the need has changed and there's a logical reason for it, I don't think we have an issue. It was just more of that's why that's our thought process which was there was no clear idea and so it's difficult for us to approve especially when we're talking like we have limited funds. So that's why we went in the direction that we did.

So what I'm hearing is there's a change in the specification for what you need in effect. Cody and I have discussed that and my thought was that we could duplicate what we have, have one pickup truck and one smaller vehicle, but it makes sense to have the two vehicles be the same, similar enough that they can each do all the jobs. At some point, maybe in the next 5 years, that 2014

F250 would then get recycled and we could evaluate again. But having if the existing truck is the only one that can tow and it goes out of service, getting a smaller truck will not allow me to move boats or pull things that need to get pulled. So that made sense. The difference in price really would be somewhere in the 60,000 to the 90,000 which to me is significant, but in the

scheme of things it isn't going to change, you know, the waterways budget of retained earnings. So Steve, now this is what you use in predominantly the utility bodies for the tow. I mean, you need a truck that's can obviously control tow.

We need to tow, not just our own, but we sometimes get abandoned boats at the landing or someone breaks down and the boat's stuck and we're called in to help, you know, stuff that you can't even think about that pops up. Every day I say, "I've seen it all." And the next day disproves that. Um, so yeah, we've pulled we've pulled logs or trees out of the landing up the ramp because they're

floating, they're a hazard, and that's what we do. So, we need the towing. We need to be able to get down a beach for shellfish issues. Um, yeah, it's So, we're looking at four-wheel drive. We're looking at the towing capacity and, uh, the ability to carry our first aid equipment and our tools where we need to go.

But back to my question is and not necessarily for this decision but you know establishing now what may be for future decisions is you know a simple spec one page paragraph saying what is this spec this truck would say unique capabilities you need in terms of towing. Um did you mention carrying fuel?

The the truck I have now can carry fuel.

Yes.

Okay. and you want something with a tool um you know put in the bed right which is reasonable. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not saying make this is necessarily or, you know, if it'd be easy, just write down the spec, just simple bullet points. What does this truck have to be, which in particular might make it unique to make why is it six 90,000 versus 60,000 and that was done in 2014 with the

existing truck. We went to the winch.

Winch on our truck can be in the front or the back, but rather than buying two winches, it plugs into a trailer hitch and we can move the winch where we need it. Um the the fuel caddy because we don't buy our fuel uh commercially. We use DPW fuel and the savings there. So, we cart it to the boat.

You have an existing spec?

Yes.

Oh, okay.

Yeah. The only thing that I am looking to change from the one I'm driving is we don't need two fuel caddies. So, we would replace the fuel caddy with one of those utility bodies that has the door on both sides. And every door is a compartment. And that would be more of a utility bed than a pickup bed.

Okay.

So, it it's got the basic specs of what I have now, what I did in 2014, but tweaked so that they'll be hand glove the two trucks with the um the openings. You said the openings behind the cab, the doors, the doors. Are you saying they can cross all the way through?

No, I'm looking at the the the it mimics a pickup truck bed, but rather than it has boxes down the side of the truck.

Yep. on both sides and the one that goes the driver's side obviously closer to the driver would probably have the first aid kit, the AED and some other emergency equipment and then around the truck would be the tools that I could use and come along or whatever. Halagan.

Um yeah, it's similar to the utility bodies that I've seen at DPW or the school department. Yeah, school department truck is what made me think of it because I saw the white ones that they just something like that, Steve.

Yes. Yeah, something similar to that.

We do that I've speced out the crew cab again because if we do need to carry extra people that makes sense. Yep.

Well, how many extra people would you really have to carry? I mean, I would think if you're doing a rescue like that, you're going to have ambulances, police, whole nine yards. So, oh, but if we pull if a boat washes up on the beach and we've got to get people back without them needing ambulance or anything, we go to training, it's usually more than just one person or two people going to training.

So, any idea that the boxes would lock and everything that I would need would be there and not have to go back and forth to pick things up? Are these vehicles going home?

Um Steve's as the harbor master, he is allowed to take his vehicle.

Not the deputy because it stays there.

I believe the deputies in his contract that he keeps it at all reasonable times for emergency response because again, look, I don't I don't know. I know it's in Steve's contract. I'm I'm sure it is.

If Steve's saying it's in the deputies, I think it is. I don't want to swear to that, but it's the same logic at 3:00 in the morning if there's a response. I understand your logic, but if say you're on your shift and you're already somewhere else and another call comes in that has to go out there, you don't have that vehicle.

You don't have a vehicle to go out to to the beach like you say you have to.

That's why the deputy would have his Yeah.

Yeah. But deputy's off. You It was your day on, he's off. He's got home. You've gone off and done something else. I mean, it's just sometimes I don't think it makes sense that it should be at something should be at the site myself.

Yeah. at the that's a that's a select board per purview thing right I I understand I understand that's been going on dy noted but it's just and this will come out of retained earnings their retained earnings yes and I know one of the questions we had was uh and I think Steve had mentioned it they don't have they don't get the money for moorings and stuff until later on is that correct

this this time of year we're we're collecting our fees it's at the tail end of every fiscal year it's tough to gauge and I It would put it at a pretty tight budget, I think.

Right. I think there was 15 150 in retained earnings.

Hold on a second.

You were going to be only left with a $60,000, I think, when we looked at it.

Yeah. I I don't I know that there was it was tight, right?

152.

So, top end was 90. Let's say Steve at 90 62,000. It was 90,000 was a request.

So, it' be like 62,000 left in That's not super abnormal. It's a it's a smaller budget. So, um and and when we look at revenues and expenses, we don't see any concerns.

I think there was articles that we were looking at closing too there that might uh return some of that money.

We talked about the um Steve at the last meeting. I think you had already left, but we talked about the the engines that's still pending because we haven't replaced the engines. So, that but it was not much money in that article, Steve. It was like very little.

All right. That might be the one that we did replace the pumpout boat engine. We went with a Suzuki rather than a Yamaha.

We saved $17,000 or something like Yeah, it was it was I forgot Gary knew.

Yeah, it was it was the pump out boat.

Okay.

Yeah, we saved a little bit of money going to Yeah, I went with Suzuki rather than Yamaha for a lot of good reasons and that saved money that I didn't.

So, that's one we could resend.

So, if we can resend that, that'll add to that. So, so there'll be money in there. Okay. I mean, as long as you folks are comfortable with with having a less in there and retained earnings that's we're also I mean, I don't want to put this out there as a promise, but we're we're using this truck to pull the pump out boat. So, there is some service being done to the pumpout program, the

Clean Vessel Act, and at times like with the outboard, we get reimbursed for expenses related to the pumpout program.

And I would certainly try to run at least some of this truck through that and bring in Yeah, I think if we approve the article, whatever doesn't get used gets goes back into your retained earnings, right? So that's Yeah, it's less great. If it's more, that is not good.

And we also were auctioning off dive boat, the Tahoe. Uh, last time when we did when I purchased the truck I'm driving now, we had auctioned off some military surplus that brought in $50,000.

Yeah.

Plus, that's not going to happen with a with a with a Tahoe that's got a leaky uh the Tahoe and the boat that we're auctioning off that won't bring in anything close to what we got for the crane and truck.

I mean, as long as as long as there's enough money that if there's an emergency that arises that you have retained earnings to cover it, then I'm okay with it. I mean obviously we don't have perview to to see what you like what you need for retained earnings on a yearly basis to know whether it's adequate or not. We have to trust that you get you know that that is adequate

for you and if it is then I don't have any further questions.

Good. Okay. Thank you Steve.

Thank you.

Enjoy your day off. Steve's here on his day off. Took a vacation today.

Thank you.

So, um the other uh I'll go back to talk about the vehicle first.

What vehicle?

I talked to you about Yeah.

Yeah. So, um one other um addition that you haven't seen yet is we talked about we replaced two administrative vehicles in the fall. Um and we got rid of four four of the Priuses. I thought we for the town.

Yeah, this is for general. I thought we were going to get away with just having to replace the two. Um Gary and I are going through and we're consolidating operations in several departments. One of those is in assessing and so you've probably heard right right now we we pay consultants in our assessing department to go out and do the site work. We're looking to bring that inhouse um in

instead of paying someone $65 an hour like 25 or 30. And we actually think in recent conversations our current staff can actually absorb it. So it's going to be like a huge savings to the town. The point is is they need they need a vehicle to utilize. Well, they need to be more familiar with the fieldwork, right?

Because they're not doing it right now.

So, yeah. Yeah. So, there might be some training and but but the idea is is they'll be inhouse. Um and so with that, they they need a vehicle. I thought one of the Priuses So, we initially had a plan getting rid of three of the Priuses, replacing it, the two which we already replaced.

I thought we were going to be able to keep one. We had DPW look at it and and we actually took it out. There's no way we're going to be able to use it. So, we've they're all on the auction list right now. The point is is we're we're short a vehicle and so I'm adding this in for this this spring because I think we we we really need it. Um so I have a

I have a sheet you guys can Yeah. I mean the like when we had gotten the Priuses obviously was the techn I mean technology but you know it it served its purpose. Um but what happens with those vehicles I mean obviously you know they have to you have to keep maintaining those things and and and we we've got them on the auction right now.

Hopefully we're going to make a little bit of money on them. Uh, so they'll come back and that could I mean it doesn't really offset this. It comes into the general fund as as cash as um, you know, free cash. It'll fall to free cash. But if you look at it, those four vehicles would potentially pay majority of this.

And we're still at least half we still are technically not replacing one. We got rid of four.

If if this is approved, it's three that we we essentially replaced. And so the idea of of this one is it would be more of that like general, you know, shared assessors needs to use a vehicle, they go out. Um, probably would be the primary purpose because I see them using it the most. And then after that, it would be, you know, youth advocate needs to bring bagged lunches over to the library, can take a vehicle.

The town clerk, for instance, on election day is running out. Just kind of that general um going from poll to pole.

Yeah. Or meetings. I mean, people go to meetings. I mean, I thought that we were going to be able to save one of the Priuses and just You didn't? Yeah. What What do you replace it with? You don't um We're We We have a request in for just an all-wheel drive SUV. So, something from like a Ford Escape, an Explorer, or something along those lines. It all depends on availability because even what's available now after

town meeting, if this goes through, they might not have it anymore. Um but but typically, that's what we're trying to get smaller all-wheel drive SUVs. just are you doing a hybrid or is it it doesn't really mention if we do hybrid um it will it won't be a plug-in hybrid um so like the partial hybrid electric vehicles if if they're a again if they're available we try to we don't get too specific because the

whatever is available can change and if we're overly specific then it technically limits us in so for instance we when we were looking at vehicles in the fall we had planned on getting um an Explorer and an Escape we went they had explorers available and we requested the quote. Tom meaning approved the funds.

No more explorers available until May of this year. So we were going to it was going to be like 7 months. So it we we end up getting an Explorer. So but the Escapes are usually more um more available. And so that's what we would look to look to replace with. I mean, I my thing is is I would highly recommend if hybrids are available to go with them

just because the cost of gas is is going up.

And um that's going to be a you know, not a capital cost, but a recurring cost that you're going to have to have to deal with that if you didn't budget for it. And I'm sure some budgets are taking a hit now because the cost of gas has gone up significantly. So So you saying hybrid over electric or hybrid? I mean ultimately I mean electric it would probably be more money

than what they have here. So a hybrid would be to me would be more desirable.

We do anytime as part of a green communities through the state designation we have to um essentially seek those out. And so anytime we're able to we do um it's just tough because we're not explicitly saying it on here because if it's not available then you're going with a you know a you know an internal combustion engine and that's it. It is what it is, you know. So, yeah, unfortunately that's the um and we

also can only buy from a state contract.

And so, like when we when we saw out a list, there's like two hybrids available right now.

I don't know what's going to be available in June. And and and if it's if they say, "Hey, you can wait a month or two," that's fine. We'll get by a month or two. But if they say like last year, 6 months, 7 months, we we can't just can't wait six or seven months. Um we've looked at all electric um going all electric. The problem is that um we don't have any of the level three

chargers. Brian talked about this, the police chief. They have the benefit of they have officers that sometimes have downtime writing reports and so they can go sit at the mall for instance and and and charge up. Um I mean technically I guess we could do that, but now essentially I'm paying a town hall employee just to sit there because they're not going to work on reports and stuff. So

but yeah, anytime we try anytime there's availability, we try to go uh hybrid at the very least.

Are we uh watching the like the mileages? Because I mean we've always done it, you know, okay, building department needs this, border health needs this.

Are we looking at the mileages? Because if the board of health's not really putting on a lot of mileage and the building department's putting a couple of water, you know, are we buying this so we can say, "Okay, let's take the building department and put this as our our spare or our It's exactly what we're we're doing and we're going to be doing more of it in the future. My my ultimate goal is

particularly at Town Hall, they're all town department vehicles. I don't necessarily think we need this is a specific building department. Hey, that's a primary assignment is building department, but like it's a town of Dartmouth vehicle. If it's sitting and someone needs to use it, well, that and I think at that point that would preclude you to to getting electric vehicles because again, if

they're available to everyone and electric vehicles take longer to charge, right?

You can take one of the other ones and then rotate through and not there won't be a need for a level three, you know, because these are short distances that you're doing, too.

Yeah. primarily.

No, the the the L3s are great for if you're doing like 250 mi, but if you're not if you're doing 40 miles a day, that's a good reason to maybe go with electric because Mhm.

you know, you know, by the time you're done charging, it'll take you like three or four hours and you're back to to running again. So, do the charges here have to be upgraded because they've been there for one time, right?

No, they're still working. No, they're still working. They're still working. Um those are level two charges, but they work. Yeah. Like like Chris said, if if you're able to charge it, you know, like to even 10 hours, which all night, it can work. It can definitely work, right?

And it's not like you're going 250 miles, right? You know, you're doing short distances. So obviously on hot days or really really cold days, you know, your your mileage goes down, but still it's, you know, you charge it overnight and you're good to go the next day.

Yeah. I mean, if if the committee wanted to increase this um and we can certainly prioritize an EV. This this price does not prioritize an EV. It's a we prioritize a hybrid. But if we wanted to look at full EV, I'm not opposed to it.

So, I would say the only reason I'm reluctant to it is cuz I need you guys to like figure out what you need to do with your fleet first before we say go electric.

Yeah. Yeah, I think that's what that's what Bruce was saying like prioritize what your needs are and say, "Hey, if we're going to go with just the fleet where all the departments use it, then I would say electric is the way to go." But until you do that, until you get your ducks and it's tough to say do that because then if it doesn't work for you, you'll be asking, "Hey, this didn't work for us."

Um, I mean, I think and I'm not saying your ducks are not.

I'm just saying if if if you're saying like, "Hey, electric is 100% going to work for us." And I think, you know, maybe it would be worth it. I I mean to be honest I think you could probably could make electric work for any of the vehicles here un maybe without with the exception of one or two for you know people you're running to a conference right and you might not have that ability to charge or

something but generally speaking but the electrics are doing 400 I I've always liked the option of everything both hybrid limited to 250 uh it depends it depends on the vehicle um and then you know the other part of it is is we like um We we're pretty much I shouldn't say only limited to, but through the state contract now almost all the dealers have fallen off with the exception of of GM and and Ford. That's

pretty much all we can get now.

Yeah. American. And I think the thing is though is everything that I've read is you don't want to get you don't want to get a a vehicle that does 400 miles when all you're doing is 150 because you're paying a lot extra money for something that you'll never end up using. So if 150 mi range is more than enough and you can do that by just looking at your odome odometer on a regular basis if

that's good enough then you save a ton of money and the depreciation is a is maintenance costs alone are less you don't need oil changes right I mean you don't have to if you're driving brakes and tires you know yeah well I do I do my daughter lives out in California and she's got some friends that have total electric Yeah and they had a accident on the highway and they end up sitting on the highway

and the next thing you know they getting towed to the dealership for a battery.

Had to spend the night in a hotel.

I mean, I don't like to go total electric myself.

I'd rather see I think I think though for the town like to have a fleet that you have a like just internal combustion, hybrid, and electric I think makes sense cuz you're rotating through all the vehicles and you're showing that you're like saving money. You know what I'm saying? Through the town and you're less impacted by gas prices when they go up like crazy. You can rely more on the electric fleet.

When the gas prices come down, then you can easily rotate through. Do you know what I'm saying? Like it's I think there's enough vehicles where it's not just one. You have how many vehicles for the town for the general government?

General government. Yeah.

Oh, probably 10 or 12.

See what I'm saying? So, are people working together well enough to be able to manage that? You know, they will be. Yeah, they will be.

Because that's what it takes in order for that to work.

Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, again, you're still going to have to have primary assignments, you know, know and and you need to know, hey, if I need to go out and do an inspection, there's going to be a vehicle for me, right? That does it doesn't work if you don't have a system in place. But I think for some of the the vehicles that aren't utilized as much, they're still utilized. Um like I

I don't really know, but conservation recently got a truck. I guess it's been a year or two. Um do do we really need a designated truck for conservation?

Exactly my point and I think that's been a goal for a long time. So, it's good to hear.

Yeah, we're we're looking at that and like that would have been in my opinion the perfect get one of those Lightnings, you know, an F-150 Lightning all electric. You're they're not out a ton the conservation, but when they're out, right, they need something four-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, they needed the truck. Um, like that would have been a prime thing to get all electric.

I mean, that's what DMF, Department of Marine Fisheries do at Smass. They're all Lightnings. They're all lined up at the Chargers at Smest. So, they don't do a lot, but when they do, it's they have the truck, they have everything they need to to haul. So, yeah. And I think if we were going to do it, we also have to keep in mind we have we have two chargers here, of course.

So, we only can put a couple in. A couple but sort of going to the North Dartmouth Library and use.

Yeah, but our chargers, right, we have we have some at the North Branch and then we have the two here. Um, so I'd be hesitant to go more than two, but it's definitely something conservation. I wouldn't do it because you're going to be near salt water and stuff like that. And we we found out in Florida when they had the hurricanes of how many cars started on fire because the salt water affects the lithium

batteries. So, wow.

We we could probably make that argument for any of the vehicles here, right?

But, but I'm just saying, why increase the odds at that point? That's true. I still Yeah, you're an old school guy versus Sorry.

I I I think it's good to diversify and just I'm not saying you go 100% with that fleet, but diversify and then, you know, you're less likely to to succumb to like gas goes to $5 a gallon.

You're like, "Oh, well, all we have is this now. Our budget is out of whack where if we had electric and you know, we can offset some of that cost. Why not?" I mean, it's, you know, you have a internal combustion engine that sits there that literally does nothing and that will slowly rot away, too. You know, it needs a regular maintenance and right, you know, you have a vehicle like the

Harbor Master does, that's a 97 that has not many miles and he's got,000 miles or something.

He's got to get rid of it, you know.

I mean, that's all the Priuses we we're getting rid of now. If you look when the auction goes live, um, I think the one with the highest amount of miles is is 30,000 miles. I mean, so that that's not if that's not a reason to to Now, I will say there was a big people didn't like the Priuses. So, a lot of times people would choose to take their own vehicles on inspections because the

Priuses were not conducive to the operation. Hence why we're going the small SUVs. Allwheel drive.

Yeah. There's a couple people that are very uncomfortable in.

So, but but the point is you're still not talking a ton of miles. Um, yep. I would say I think we have to leave this like this until you like cuz we don't know how much to increase it by.

Yeah.

If you did did do that. So I think in the future maybe that's something that you look at but I think we have to leave this like it is now. Yeah.

And then the only other thing that we want to talk about is obviously the the change with the um potential state supplemental funding.

Uh yes. Let me just Uh so I spoke with um as I mentioned Jim Kylie a little while ago and um the only the thing that he fears is that if it doesn't pass and we don't fund the bus for instance the bus doesn't go through he would be without he would be without a bus right well that's why we're going to do ba basically what I'm going to ask you to

do today is not take the bus off approve a backup plan essentially and so if we hear from the state that we have final approval Plan B goes into effect. We take the bus off. If for some reason we don't have that in place, the bus stays on. Your original plan stays on. I just didn't want to get to, you know, the 11th hour.

We're finalizing the warrant and then we find out, oh, you know what? Yeah, we actually have final approval from the state and now we're going to bring forward a bus and well, we already have the funding for a bus. So, essentially, just to get your thoughts on can we do that on a warrant?

It won't be on the actual warrant. It'll be essentially we'll have it and then right before the warrant if we know what we're going to do, we'll change it. If not, um when does the warrant have to be written?

Uh May 11th is when it has to be voted on.

All right. So my contract is on that bill.

Mhm.

And we're hearing that the earliest that it'll get passed is May, like miday.

Mhm. Yeah. I had heard I had heard the same. I was being hopeful maybe to the earlier side. Um if not, what we'll what we would still do is it'll be on the warrant with the bus because that was your first kind of recommendation.

And then we would have a um an amendment prepared if it did pass prior to town meeting in between that period kind of when the warrant was posted, but prior to town meeting. And then we would look for someone to make the amendment um at town meeting to basically take out the bus and plug in whatever you guys agree.

I'll be there. I just didn't want to be I don't want it to be the 11th hour and us scrambling.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. That I mean that's that's fine.

So we're looking for maybe something like I talked to Jim say HVAC.

Okay. Is that what he's looking for?

Yeah. When I spoke with Jim this this morning he had mentioned that uh if anything he he would like to have additional funds for the HBAC system.

Okay.

Because um obviously that's a big project a lot of the schools uh and that would be his number one ask if there were additional funds.

I think we funded we funded that. a little bit.

We funded a third of it. $200,000 is what we funded out of the 600.

Um, and then I think what we could do we cuz we're going to have some money.

We still have money. How much do we still have left in in retainer? It was like 1.

Yeah. 1.6 million.

So, there's a little bit of I just did the math right here a little quick. So, uh, the current ask is let me make this a little bit big.

But waterways is is not part of the general fund. Right.

Right. Right. So it's just it's just $40,000 is so the current ask is that 1597560 out of the what was originally done 40,000 for the say the town hall vehicle uh 1.6 6 million and then um this is what we had available originally. So this is what it leaves us under 1.5. I think we had 1.5. This brings us well the 40,000 brings us under 1.5. Okay. So, uh,

so I think what what we could do, and you can hear me out on this, is if we fund two an additional 200,000 towards HVAC and then we find out that the supplemental bill does go through, then we can reallocate at town meeting that 150 towards that and then he'll just be shy 50,000 of his full ask of $600,000, which should be more than enough to get HBAC stuff done. So this way

at least start to get the whatever we've already we've already put in 200,000. If we add an additional 200, now we're funding 66% of it. And then if the supplemental bill goes through, that'sund an additional 150 at that point that we can take out of the school bus replacement and add it to the HVAC, which will give him $550,000.

Yeah. I mean, in theory, he'll still be short 50, but he could come back to capital. He he also said he could do partial and we've you know we already kind of threw them a bone of doing where other departments didn't get their number ones funding.

That's what I was going to ask you. Do you have concerns about other departments that didn't get I mean the departments I did look at the police they we did not fund we no but I'm just saying like if we're going to go in order I'll be like so with the police we didn't fund their number one which was the four cruisers but we also did approve four in the fall. So

we did approve a couple of their two and threes. So we the three was the um staff the staff assessment and we approved 50% of their number two ask which was the uh the vehicles.

I think something that we didn't approve that might have been the number one was um parks and wreck.

Well right up here I go the um the cemetery parks and wreck. Hold on a second. We didn't approve that and that was I think that was to 250,000 I uh community park playground resurfacing you approved.

Yep.

No, it was uh Allen Street garage was the cemetery cut park and wreck. It was the cemetery 250,000 I think was you just had it in the purple there.

Evergreen and did we fund did we get the library started on there?

Library libraries library the evergreen stop go up couple with the purple.

Okay.

So the library got funded.

Well that we didn't ask for that until we did pretty well. Huh.

Yeah we did we did a good job of trying to get the number one request as best we could. Um yeah for pox we gave them um we did the gate. We did the one gate because we kind of felt like the others were our our thought was the others are pretty public like Ponagansit and this is and this is the park they were having problems with north

and I'm not even going to say what it is cuz I already forgot the DPR DRPT Dartmouth Dartmouth Regional Parks and Trails.

I cheated. I started there. DRPT that's I cheated. So we approved that one. Uh, but I think they had other asks that were number one that were ones that were Yeah, they had Jones and they had they had all the other No, but they were I think the cemetery was another one of their See, hold on. Let me go back.

So, this is Pox right here. So, let's see. Green is falling until meeting.

I thought he had it was in purple right above it. The purple and it's in the white automatic gates which we did. We just had a box fan and evergreen.

Evergreen. Box fan and you know they did they did have two requests. I know they were number twos but like we did fund a couple of other twos like the we did 50% of what the of what the uh uh schools were asking for the uh renovation of the bathrooms. So we gave them 100,000. Uh that would be something else that like was the potential like instead of doing the HVAC, but the HVAC

was a number one.

Um keep in mind also on the roads, uh we didn't Usually it's a Usually it's a million dollars.

I think we funded like 400 I think.

I think he asked for 1.2 million this time.

Yeah, we did a third of it I think is what is what we funded. So the the the road and maintenance, they do get a lot of grant money that helps pay for a lot of it. And they have open articles in the P. I think they have a few open articles that they haven't fully used. And certainly I think we didn't want them to run out of money.

That's why we approved the 400,000 as opposed to Yeah, that's why we held back a little bit because we looked at the open just wanted to get them caught up.

There's only so much they can do. We' be only tying up money for another year until they can get to the project. Oh, right.

I just want to comment that I think the process has really improved this process since just the little bit of time I've been here in that the committee is really weighing in. It's not just a rubber stamp. There's a real good discussion going around about the things that need to be funded and the things that don't need to be funded. And that's pretty nice to see.

And then like Chris mentioned with the police vehicles, we funded we didn't fund them in the fall. Yeah.

Yeah. four of them in the fall.

And I know he's still going to be behind, but I mean it's that would be eight vehicles in a year.

In a year that we're kind of like hardressed to fund a lot of all the department's uh needs, you know.

Yeah. I mean I mean we're open up for recommendations if and you don't have to, right? If if you think, hey, we're we're in good shape.

I' I'd recommend that you still keep 500,000, you know, on on the table. We were literally talking a million. I'd recommend at least 500,000.

I mean, and you know, we know that the the the with the this vehicle isn't we, you know, that's a definite because obviously Cody, we've talked about not having that.

No, I think I think we're at 1,492,000.

If we fund the if we fund the 200,000 for the HVAC, that leaves us with still 1.292.

Uh 200,000 of HVAC.

Did Did we find the fund the library 29 292 the feasibility study? Yes.

Yeah. I was like, yeah, we did.

I know we discussed it and we did one of them. I knew for sure and I was like, I wanted to ask what do we have in long-term capital planning now? Did we put a million? A million.

So, we didn't put more in this year. No, but we haven't we're not we haven't touched any of that. We use some of it for the um uh fire fire fire alarms for school, right? But we're not going to put money in there every year.

We typically do, but that's more of a fall. Yeah.

So, we typically you do appropriations to the staff the rest of it. Okay.

Yeah. The process should continue with that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, that leaves us with 1.292. I think as a good faith thing, I think that we approve the second administration vehicle for the police. So this way they have the 45,000. I mean, I think it's like we're giving the schools a lot and I kind of feel like if I think the police department has a lot, but I understand what you're saying because it's a change in practice.

How old are their their their cars that they need to be replaced?

So the police So Chief Leve actually does a really good job of rotating vehicles on a regular basis. So when I first started, they were no there were no vehicles replaced and they would just ask when they needed. But then you need like eight cruisers at once and we didn't have the money to do it. So he put them on a program where I think every year they get four cruisers and then retire four cruisers.

So it's like a a running basis. This was for two admin vehicles and what we did was we approved one um and then they asked for a study. So, we approved the study and one of the vehicles, which was pretty close in price. I think if we approve the the two admin vehicles, it puts them back on their schedule and they don't have to ask for a third in two years. It's just

two and two and two and two.

So, they'd be getting 90, right? As opposed to 45. So, that would subtract another 45 from that.

90 one, two.

I mean, they will they will take their vehicles and bring them down to sometime you now you'll start people that doing road jobs and stuff like that.

They have a cruiser or something with lights and so they have something there for their own safety really to be out there.

Yeah. You don't want those cars breaking down either.

No. So, so everything gets shifted down quite a bit. And years ago, we did do a whole thing on um the amount of the repairs that we used to spend and the amount the value that we would spend on repairs just in transmissions and stuff like that. We found out that it was better to just keep replacing them before those problems came up because then you were spending money and they weren't last.

Yeah.

So that still leaves us with 1,247,000.

Um, yeah.

The only other thing that we could do that would impact us is maybe do the roads uh fund him at 50% as opposed to 33% and that would give them 600,000. So that would leave us at just over a million dollars of free cash that we can rotate towards or that'll carry forward towards the Do you think that's needed or do you think there's enough open um POS that haven't been you know the work hasn't

been done yet? Um, I think it's good to have. I mean, the the challenge is they obviously they start picking up this time of year. So, now they're using kind of what was what they had open and then anything appropriated here. And then the problem with the fall is by the time we appropriate it in the fall, it's almost too late for the road work for that money. So, you're always you're kind of

working from behind. So, I I think 600 would be good.

And I think that leaves us with a million dollars in in retained earnings.

I know you that seems like a reasonable amount to carry forward.

Yeah, I re make the recommendation that um we at least keep a million in there.

Um you know, as as budgets get a lot more, you know, tighter uh the fall, uh when we do certify free cash, um you know, we typically have about $5.5 million of free cash every single year.

Some of some years are larger, some years are smaller on the general fund side. So, this gives a little bit of a buffer and and a cushion to to add to that. Um, so I think that's a a good a good process and our financial policy say that we should be maintaining a certain level of free cash and not spending every single penny of it every single year. So, which we've done in the past, we use

every single penny.

Every penny we like just to for for the new folks like we would spend like almost to the dollar.

Yeah.

And not carry any uh retained ear.

And to Terry's point, I think that that shows the tightening of the process, you know, that we're now we all these projects have been vetted to the point where we're actually looking at, okay, do they have um money sitting on the table? Do they really need these these?

And it's not, you know, that we're arguing the fact that they don't need it. Um, in the scheme, in the whole scheme of things, do they really need it? You know, is is it Well, and if plans go forward, they'll have a business manager that will be able to give us a better report about what's been going on. Right. So, so I think the process is working. I think the

Yeah. from where we came from when I started. I know Bruce has been on the committee for a long time, but from when I started on this committee many years ago to where it is now, I think we've done a good job of becoming more efficient and like actually scrutinizing stuff and not just being, you know, okay, you know. So yeah, there was one context because they've gone through and done an inventory

doing what we really needed and tracking the tracking the um items that are out there, making sure that they're, you know, being put up for auction, not being registered, you know, the departments are being held to their requests and um you know, like we saw with with some of the project this year, they showed the before and after pictures like for the schools. That's that's big, especially with vehicles cuz you're

paying insurance on vehicles that never get driven. I mean, that's got to sit in the yard somewhere.

It's just a massive liability for the town.

How many items do we have with this auction? 25, 30, close to 25.

And when I say items, I mean big items.

I'm not talking like a keyboard, file cabinet.

Like we're talking like pieces of equipment, vehicles, um, and most of them have just been sitting.

Yum.

And we were able to repurpose some of that stuff plows that we thought would be advantageous to put another so it's not just, you know, buy the buy the equipment and then get rid of it two years later. That's not what we appreciate the work that you guys do.

Certainly. So, do all these departments come in and like present a budget and you guys have gone over that's the piece they usually starts in like January uh February they'll come in uh they'll I'll send out the memo they'll they'll come back with the requests and then we we schedule the meetings with them.

Okay.

And usually the question that I always ask is like okay I know you're asking for this but if we had to partially fund something are you okay with that? And some department heads are like yeah we can make do with it and others are like no we either need it all or nothing at all. And that helps us make in to make informed decisions. So, especially with like, you know, an HVAC upgrade, if we can get

them started on a project and then the next year, if we have the money to fund it, we certainly do. But at least allows them to keep moving forward on projects versus, you know, on a vehicle, you can't really partially fund it. You either get it or you don't.

So, and some and some of it we make decisions on the timing of it.

Correct. Yeah.

If we if we give them money now, well, they're not it's not going to make any difference. And you know, like snow plows, you got to order a certain point so they're ready for the snow. You know, you don't want to get them right now and have them sitting there. They're not going to be used.

So, you can sometimes hold off into the fall to um knowing they get something in the spring and then that, you know, like especially like school projects, there's only so many projects they're allowed can do during vacation time and sometimes they need that summertime in the schools like the the flooring, the asbestous removal.

We know that's, you know, we usually approve that during the vacation time and stuff like that in the summer. So, yeah, in essence, we're not project managers and but we're tracking the projects in kind of like well, some of us are project managers, just not for the time, right?

But we're we're you know, we're we're looking at the progress of all these a lot of these projects, the vehicles and um you know, like the like the the renovations that go on. So, it's it's come a long way, I think. Yeah. the last few years and and also what I've always been happy about is just because you'll get a librarian that comes in here and says this is what we need and this is what

I'm so I she they came in years ago and they asked for a roof and I says okay what about the AC units well we'll have to cut into the roof afterwards I says no no they goes your warranty then you know and then you know then you get a crane that the first thing they actually wanted was the parking lot new pavement I said but you're going to need a crane truck to put

everything up onto the roof, all the AC units and everything else like that. Now you're you're putting pads down and you're ruining the pavement, you know, get it in order.

But to their credit, like they said, it's like they're not they're not construction project managers. They're just, you know, managing.

And that's where I feel we come in quite a bit trying to get it.

As you leave today, take a look at the back parking lot.

We're finally going to That's We approved that a couple of way 19.

They're they're digging the holes for the uh light post today and then we're going to get that paved this.

What's going on in Crossroad? It looks like they're having to redo something there. There was flooding the other day.

Or is that just Eversource?

Uh that might just be Everest cuz they already did I mean the the rest of Crossroads on the tip and we haven't gotten approval for that yet. And then they did that section which has been so much better.

It's better. Yeah. I mean it's is it perfect? No. But it's like a lot better.

A thousand times better. So yeah.

Yep. Yeah. They're making a lot of progress on a lot of good stuff.

Roundhill Road. We're anticipating that's going to get done this spring.

So, yeah. Great. That'll be good.

You'll be next, Chris.

You'll be next.

Which I'm fine. Listen, the the fact that they're even repairing roads is great because it's, you know, it's like someone dropped a bunch of mortars back there. It's Oh, yeah. You know.

So, Gary, do you need a motion? So yeah, I think I would entertain a motion that um we increase the uh um the ask for the 45,000 for the police admin, 40,000 for the town vehicle, 200,000 to add to schools for the HVAC, and 200,000 for um DPW roads, and then 90,000 for the waterways, leaving a balance uh of a million47047 for the general fund and roughly um 60,000 for uh waterways.

So, I'll make a motion to increase the general fund um by $485,000 to be used, leaving a balance of 1,47,000 and then also increase the waterways spending by $90,000, leaving them with a balance of 62 and their retained earnings.

I'll second that.

Okay, second. All in favor?

Yep. I I opposed.

Unanimous.

Do we have to do we have to vote on the 150 or we just going to just have it pulled and let it go back to the general fund for the bus?

No, I think I think we do that.

You're going to leave it on there?

Yep.

And then at town meeting as long as you're all in agreement that that's what we would do.

But we would take that 150 and put it back into the account or we're going to Hback. I thought you said no. So I think that that would happen at town meeting. So if that mean amendment. So all right. So we're going with the two now and then adding the 150.

As long as Yeah. As long as the bill passes, which I hope it does, then and that's on there. Then at that point, someone who's in town meeting. I'm in town meeting. I think you're a town meeting member.

We'll have a if if it happens, we'll write up an amendment and give it to someone and and we'll have you guys make the and we'll give it to Melissa. Yeah.

So um any old business?

No. Uh three sets of minutes here for approval. I've sent those out to the committee on March 10th, March 17th, and March 23rd.

Make a motion to approve.

Second.

All three at once. Can I do that?

Yeah.

Yep.

Second.

Okay.

All in favor?

I couple abstensions.

Okay. Um, thank you very much for taking the time to uh Is it the uh communications person that does the minutes?

No, we have minutes. Uh, she just she does the minutes.

It's fantastic. It really is. It really It's so helpful.

I mean, we don't have AI doing that.

That's what I was just going to say.

No, the problem is is they have to be in conformance with Mass General Law and there's no AI software yet that does that. So, they're they're working on some, but we've tried using it. The amount of time we're having to have someone go back through watch the meeting to make sure it's accurate.

Yeah.

It's better off just doing the minutes anyways.

Yeah. Scott's embedding like the the actual meeting because now with televised so it embeds the video a lot of the lot of the minutes. So, yeah. We'll get there. Maybe in a year or two, we should find something to go with the the harbor master uh or the waterways, should I say.

They had acquired uh a tent, a military tent like we have for the salt house. There's still pieces out there or they're still out there at the town yard. It's been sitting there 10 years, I think.

Um question is can we finally talk to them about you know here we are giving them money for things and the boats are sitting outside on the majority of them.

I mean the that pumpout boat sat outside uncovered all winter long.

The problem I have it with is because if ice builds up in the in certain areas that's when things break. You can winterize the engine. Yes, that can be.

And yes, it's out in the weather all the time during the summer and the rain.

It's it's the ice that's a killer for boats. And you know, I mean, there's got to be a way to build up his thing so we can actually afford to. We do have town land that we could find, I'm sure, that we could put a building up.

What? Yeah, we could probably put a new cover on the one that's back there now.

No, that's only a small one. That only holds one boat. You know, this other thing is a lot bigger.

Oh, really?

Yeah. It's It's smaller than the the salt shed, but it's the smaller of the two, but it's a good size.

Okay.

And I know at one point they were we were going to do something at Allen Street, and then that didn't work out. Nobody could they couldn't get along with the park department, vice versa.

So, they end up with nothing.

Town administrator to deal with that situation. And so I'd love to see something finally get done because I mean they were left outside uncovered.

You know, talk to them.

Meanwhile, we're doing something for DCTV to protect the, you know, the vehicle and stuff like that.

There's no reason why we shouldn't be doing a little bit more or having him do a little bit more, but it's going up.

Well, it'll be good. We're getting rid of all these boats that we don't use anymore with this auction. I mean, you ever go by in the old police station?

Oh, yeah.

I couldn't believe we have that many boats.

Are the trips going out for auction?

There's the trip boats. There's two of them that are trips.

I believe manufactur everything's going out.

That was at the old police station that we're not using.

Y So I need a motion to adjourn. We haven't before we do.

Oh, okay.

Next meeting date.

Uh we won't have to meet now until uh later. Yeah. Closer to the fall.

Fine. Okay. For so we'll reach out what basically once free cash gets certified. So the department of revenue certifies is basically our excess fund balance um sometime usually August September uh and then the group will start meeting to to determine what appropriations that you'll you'll hear from departments at that point their request and then you'll make that's when you typically make the

bulk of your uh recommendations for appropriations in the fall.

Yeah. The process starts over again.

Gary do you because I'm thinking about the schedule I usually like to know at least a couple weeks in advance. Do you want to have somebody on the committee be a secretary to do that kind of polling before we get going rather than leaving it to you to do it?

What polling?

To figure out when we can meet to figure out when people can make whatever meeting.

Oh, um, that sounds like something for the vice chair.

I could just get emails. Never mind.

Well, we can um we could we could I could send like some general um I'd be willing to do it. I'm not just saying that. I mean, but just cuz it's a it's an issue for me. I don't know if it is for other people, but I'd be willing to send out like a a doodle poll or something like that to Yeah. to feel feel what people's schedule is once we get when we get

closer to Yeah. If you maybe a couple weeks before Yeah. I'll I'll I can talk to you about that.

Okay.

All right. Anything else?

Um just Oh, thank you for everyone. Let me join your support.

Good.

I appreciate it. Um sounds like it's a highly functioning team as it is, so that's a relief.

So, thank you.

Yeah, thank you for being and also from Rick attending the other members. I mean, obviously this is I don't want to say short notice, but uh I think we got a lot accomplished today. So, thank you.

Thanks for meeting.

A motion to adjurnn.

Okay. Second.

Second. All in favor? I Thank you.