Capital Planning Committee Meeting - February 18, 2026

Good morning everyone. Uh welcome to the Feb February 18th, 2026 meeting of the capital planning committee. Um today we're continue our our meetings with the department heads uh and the individual departments. Today we have the police chief Ryan Lec present his capital requests to the committee.

Meetings being recorded.

Meeting is being recorded and we're in person.

Yep.

Morning everyone.

Morning.

So for this year um standard request for the cars keeping with our plan four police cruisers and this year being one of the other years is also two administrative vehicles um adjusted for inflation and so forth with the costs on that. Uh that was nothing changed since last year's plan on the cars.

So that's a total for four four police cruisers totally built out along with the administrative vehicles.

New last year continuing on this year is the uh Axon the Taser 10s.

Costes for 20 of those. It's a a lease to own program. So, it's a it's a fiveyear lease and then you own the product. Um, that cost includes everything that goes along with the tasers. Um, we have to expend so many darts per year and training targets, stuff like that is all included in that cost. So, this is year two of the five years. So, you'll see that there for the next three years as well.

The new item is a staffing study.

What that is is um a third party company who specializes in doing studies.

We'll look at our department, how many officers we have, calls for service. They'll take into consideration the size of the town, and they'll come back to us with what they think the appropriate staffing number would be.

um 70% of our budget is allocated to police staffing and um it's also been shown to have the the highest correlation with response times if you're staff properly or delays if you're not. So, we think it's an important item. I don't believe uh we've ever had a staffing study.

There's really no no easy way to determine the right number of police for an agency just because every agency is so different. um it's based on population, but also if you just base it on population, Dartmouth as far as land mass goes is quite large.

So if you you know there's there's places that are cities, you know, could be three, four square miles and have the same population we do, but you might want to staff that differently just because the officers can get around so much quicker and easier. So they take into consideration they they do a deep dive into our calls for service um and then they come back to us with allocation recommendations so that we

know that when I'm asking for a certain number of officers that it's the right number for the town. Um things have changed quite a bit in the town. Like I said, I don't think it's ever been done in the history of the department. So, I'm I'm requesting funding to uh to have that study done to help us determine the right the right number of officers for the town allocations, things to that effect.

Will I have a couple questions? Is staffing study something that should go into operating budget as a new item rather than capital? Because it's not something that it's not a thing.

Yeah, it doesn't technically meet our definition of capital. However, we don't anticipate it being a reoccurring expense. It really is a one-time expenditure. So um I think we can make the argument that the effects of it are going to last five or more years which could kind of make us meet that definition of capital.

And and the other question is I know was were the police included in the um the study that was done they were. So this study would not be to review that it's just to look at population ratios etc. Yeah. to look at the compliment if there are enough officers and I'm not sure the criteria because we haven't Yeah. and how we have them allocated things to that effect whereas the other

studies focused on how how we pay them basically but not necessarily do we have the right number of officers.

It just seems like a lot of money to figure that out. Like I think about going to the division of local services and pulling the information from that to see if uh I understand why and I think it's a good idea. It's just a lot of money.

I was surprised myself. And that's not a concrete number. It's just an estimate because in order to get the actual number, you've got to kind of put it out and get people to, you know, give us some idea what they're going to pay and bid on it, stuff like that. So the number is not concrete. I just looked at some other studies that were done in similar agencies and kind

of what they were paying for them to come up with an estimate of uh what I anticipated would cost.

I think some consultants um sell something because they may say we're the only ones who could do this and I think there's other people. I I wonder if it's worth checking with DLS to see if anybody in their uh database has done something and if they could make some recommendations on that. There are a bunch of companies that do this. I did look around. I easily located about a half dozen companies that do it. So, the

good thing with that is if you did put it out to bid, which we would do, um you could find out who's willing to do it for the for the least amount of cost.

Um and in talking with these companies, there might be a way to scale it back based on the scope. We could limit the scope potentially to to see some cost savings too once we explore it further.

Um, but we didn't get too deep into it until we wanted to find out if the town has an appetite for doing something like this. Um, because it is a it is a big expense, but at the same time, you know, 70% of our budget goes towards hiring police officers. And so, if if we end up saying, hey, we either need less or more, that's that's a big that's a big

change in our budget, and we want to make sure it's the right number.

If you look at other studies that we've done, uh, even like for water and sewer studies, Yeah. They're they're well north of $60,000. Some of them h 100,000 50,000.

So, I guess it all depends on the scope of work that they're that they're doing.

It is a big number, but I think at the end of the day, the results that come out of that, I think the town's going to benefit from it one way or another, as the chief the chief mentioned, and it's really only going to be looking at the personnel and how your personnel's distributed and if you have enough for every area and stuff like that, and you your call logs and stuff, they'll go

through all the call logs.

Yep.

Figure that out. Yeah, I'm sure there are guidelines that you best practice guidelines that you follow right now. Correct. For uh you know there's this number that gets thrown around, but the FBI had come out with years and years ago and it's either two officers per thousand or I've heard 2.25 per thousand.

Those are uh very very general basic guidelines because those could never apply. Like I said, the example of how the town is even, you know, set up um and and some places just have more crime than other places. And so there's a lot of things you have to consider. So there's really no no just guideline you can follow that's going to, you know.

Yeah, that's why I think it's tough when you look at what they they have to use some kind of guideline, whatever consultant they use. And that's kind of what I'm I'm questioning like they're going to use a guideline because they just can't stop or anything. So, uh, I'm I'm hoping that we are following the guidelines and once a study is done that we probably are have the correct number and if it

justifies them, great. But it's just I'm just curious if there are any guidelines if we do follow them. Right now, um, there are no there are no general guidelines. No. And that's why they have these studies because to get the right number, you really need to have someone come in and look at all these different factors that that go into, you know, you look at the crime rate, your calls for

service, how the town is set up, how easy it is to get around, stuff like that. Um, and I did watch your uh finance committee. It sounds like some of the rates are going up based on like uh the mental health facility that we have there. calls are going up which are taking officers and uh off the off the street, right? So, yeah, there are some places that just have a high call volume whether it be

the motel that's been around for forever, but the newer thing is is the uh South Coast Behavioral. We are there frequently. Um and yeah, it it does have an impact on our calls and it's a secure facility, so it's it takes a while for us to get in and get out. A lot of times you send two officers because once you're in you're kind of like locked in. Uh so it can be timeconuming.

It looks like they're expanding as well.

Yeah.

Yeah. The the background of this is the chief and I were speaking um and we have 74 sworn officers, right? That's right.

We've historically had 74 sworn officers or the not necessarily active but the the space for 74 sworn officers. And we talked about well why why is that right?

what what what is that the magic number and it and it was because well that's what we've that's what we've always had right so and that's I think we need particularly as you know financial times are only becoming more challenging um we should have at least a basis for why maybe 74 is the number right we go through this and it says okay you know what this actually works the structure

works maybe they recommend some changes within your supervisory structure whatever it may be but I think it's important for us to do our due diligence particularly and and bring that to the town and say this is why yeah there is a reason for this you know we we're down eight officers right now you hear that at a town meeting well you've been down officers for year after year do you really need them

let's look at it you know may maybe we do maybe we need more maybe we need less but let's look at that and then um determine the best path forward I just have never heard of a consultant coming in and saving money after the report is done it's always a recommendation for more staff or something and if you think it's you need more staff, you know, put them in there.

But some sometimes a recommendation too is is different staff. And so what you've seen I've seen some studies recommend is basically replacing certain police positions with civilian positions, which could be a cost savings as well.

Okay.

Um so it might not be less staff, but it might just be different staff, too.

That's a good point.

Yeah. Just in looking over some of the studies, that's some of the things I've seen them recommend.

Yeah.

Um Yeah.

So, a financial analysis will be done with this then too. Is that because at some point, you know, are you paying is it worth paying the overtime before you end up bringing on another police officer and paying his full benefit package? You know, how when when does that equal out?

You know, when is it worth getting that extra officer to offset that?

And you know, The ch No, I get No, no, I get what you're saying. The challenge with that is, and the chief can speak to this certainly a lot better than I can, but the challenge is um we're in a different generation now of overtime, not just with police, but generally where there isn't as much of an appetite to work overtime. 15 years ago, that's what you did that you and

that's you you saw very commonly police officers, firefighters would make a lot of money in overtime that that they wanted the overtime.

Now there's cases where the chief is forcing people to have to work. So then that's not good for morale in the in the department if people are being forced time after time. So maybe maybe on paper there's some savings, right? to an extent, but but you also have minimum manning during shifts, which it was that good. Um, and then what's the long-term effects kind of on the department if

you're if you have to continuously force people to work overtime?

What generation is that? Generation X or generation Z.

Well, there's also the difficulty, I think, too, with with staffing like replacing officers. I mean, we are having that on campus, too, where we just you can't keep them or they just the appetite for becoming a police officer, I think, is less.

Oh, yeah.

Whether it's a climate uh or whether it's generational or whatever, it's just not a desirable position as it once used to be. So, that's one of the fears is that we need need to increase staffing and then you can't because you can't find the people to do it.

Oh, it is. It is difficult to do. Yeah.

Because didn't you have difficulty this past year after? Well, going back two years ago, we had about I think it was 10 officers leave in one year. And it wasn't just the ones you'd expect, the ones that have kind of got to the end of their career. It was a lot of officers with under 10 years who just decided they didn't want to do this anymore because, yeah, it's it's not as desirable as it once was.

Um, you know, you see what's going on out there with with policing and stuff like that. And so, getting new people to replace them is very difficult. And um it's good that we're doing the uh compensation study, I think, because you need to remain competitive in this environment in order to attract the remaining candidates that are out there, you know, because all these departments are fighting for a

very small pool of of candidates that that want to do it and and are qualified to do it. You know, we we don't want to lower our standards. I mean, it's an important job and we need people who are competent out there doing it. Um but at some point, you have to fill some seats, too. You know, you need you need the bodies. So, it it's been challenging, which is really why I'm also very

concerned in having the right number of officers because it's it's harder now than ever to get these officers. And if somehow we determine we actually don't need 74, we need 70, well, that's four less people I technically need to find, right?

Um, and it's not easy to find them. I' I've got two more officers this year who have announced their retirement. So, we're we're down. I we added some, but now I'm I'm losing more. And I'm, you know, at the end, I'm still not in a good place here at the end of the day.

Um, but the officers now feel as if they're short-handed, too. And like I said, if somehow this study comes back and say we need less, that would be able to reassure them, too, that this is the right number versus just saying, "Hey, we can't fill these these arbitrary number of offices we came up with."

Right? So, um, that's kind of another reason I was I'd like to get this done just to just to if it somehow is less to reassure the staff we have that we have the right number of officers. Otherwise, they're going to feel like they're they're working short short-handed, which isn't a good feeling, right? Um, so I don't know what the outcome's going to be at the end of the day if we end up

doing this, but that that's one of the potential outcomes. Like I said, maybe replacing some officers with civilians.

We don't have a ton of civilian staff.

um some agencies have have a lot more um especially the larger agencies. So you sometimes think hey what because police officers are so valuable these days is is there are there jobs that officers are doing now um that could be done by a civilian to free up the officer to go do more police work you know and that may be a recommendation.

I do know that a member of the finance committee, Deedra, she was at one of the meetings that we had recently said that she had met with you and that the amount of money that you turn back every year, it just made a lot of sense to her um to do this. So, it's interesting to hear the other the other reasons for it.

Yeah.

So, I if I could switch if I could switch gears like um you know, we're obviously, you know, we we're dealing with a limited with a finite amount of money that we can use and I see that you're asking for four cruisers and you do that on a regular basis. I think there was a couple years ago we had to not fund it because we didn't have the money. Uh how are you doing on cruisers?

And if we had to um subtract one or two, is that something that uh with the um are you turning back four when you get four or uh like so how are you with the with vehicles right now and the conditions if you had to deal with the lack of say one or two to be able to maybe fund one of these the staffing study and um we can use the money for

other say priority one um projects for other uh departments. you know, this has come up every year and I'm wondering if this consultant could look at that as well.

I was going to ask that because, you know, I mean, years ago, I've always been an advocate of making sure you get the police cruises and it was probably 20 years ago where Joe Vieira actually came in with a nice report of all the costs that were coming in for repairs and how much, you know, so it was a great explanation of how much it really was costing and that's the reason why we started doing that.

The question is now is are cars lasting longer because I mean most people are getting you know 150 to 200,000 miles out of their cars where back then and if a car went to 100,000 miles you you were blessed you know of the older cars. So are we still on that same track? And I'm just wondering if we should start looking again at the maintenance to to see how it's fallen in place with

everything else. We're in the process now of transitioning software systems and that is one of the one of the items that our new software can track is is um not so much maintenance cost but I'm I'm more interested in repair costs because maintenance is just maintenance right um getting a new car is not going to make maintenance go away.

Uh it's the repairs I'm interested in at what point I would like to see I see those numbers as well to track those more closely to find out. Um, we we do get quite a bit of life out of our cars, especially if you account for idle time.

Um, it's not uncommon for me to say it's like 250,000 mile equivalent out of these cars.

Um, in excess of 10 years old in a lot of cases, especially living around here with the amount of salt on the roads and stuff like that. Once the cars get to be a certain age, you know, the bodies they they become unsafe quite honestly with the bodies starting to rot out and stuff like that. Um, so I'm I'm very confident that we we definitely maximize the lifespan of our cars that we have. Um, a

lot of the times when we're getting rid of them, quite honestly, they're pretty much scrap. Um, they've either got significant repairs that need to be done where it doesn't make sense at at that point in the in the vehicle's life. U, but I like to have numbers, too. So, I'm I'm certainly a fan of being able to I'm looking forward to being able to track these repairs more closely to find out,

hey, at what point does it make sense to maybe get a new car um to answer the question about, you know, can we forego a car? I I wouldn't be a fan of that.

This is a priority one um item for us as a police department. This is one of our most important pieces of equipment. It allows us to get to the calls timely, safely, and just get there. quite honestly, it's what the offices work in day in and day out as as their primary office. Um, and just to give you an example of what happens sometimes, and I I I don't think I've ever asked for like

an extra car, but the dilemma we face is we have cars that get totaled. We had one get totaled a couple months ago. So, how do you replace that car? Because, as you can see, it's 70,000 to buy a new one. The insurance is going to give us about 20,000 in this case. Um, so I have to try to find some money to make up to replace that car. And that's one of the

things. So now if you say you're gonna cut another car, well, I'm down two cars now. You didn't know about the other one, right? But yeah, I'm actually down two cars at that point. Um, so we do the best we can to to manage the cars and we do have cars. as I get told and uh I know my fleet guy works very hard to maximize the amount of money we can we

can get out of the insurance company to uh to try to get some of these cars replaced without having to come to the town each time and ask for I need an extra car because we lost another one.

Um but that is something we really try to manage the money and and and make work out. Um, in the last round of cars we were approved for, we ended up um, purchasing it's going to be two electric vehicles, which now costs the same amount as the the regular cruisers. The the cost has come down where they the it's actually $300 less per car. Not a big difference. So, I just say the same.

They cost the same. But on top of that, the state has a uh $7,500 rebate on each of those cars. So, we're going to be saving almost $15,000 just on purchasing electric cars. Um, at the same time, we're able to reuse some of our older light bars. We put a whole new lens kit.

They look like brand new. They they operate just fine, but because of dimension differences, they don't fit on our new cars, but we've got a bunch of these, and those things are probably close to $4,000 with the electronics that go with them. So, with the purchase of the electric cars, we're saving money now that we can put with the insurance money hopefully and maybe some other money and eventually replace that car

that was totaled. But these are some of the things we try to do behind the scenes um to keep our fleet in good shape and up and running, you know. But if you do look at the cars we get rid of, it's pretty much time to time to get rid of them.

Um we we rotate them through kind of a their lifespan. and they might start out as frontline response cars and they they move into different positions as they age. Um just so we can keep them keep them running as long as possible before we get rid of them.

I do appreciate your your attention to detail with this. It's very helpful.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it's good because we're asking for a lot of money and I I'd like to have answers to that, too. So, I you know, I'm asking for the right things. Uh, and I, like I said, I'm looking forward to being able to track expenses more closely. And it may help us to make better decisions because sometimes you kind of lose track of how much money you have sunk into a

particular vehicle. And at some point, like, yeah, we should have probably replaced that a year ago because we're we're, you know, you keep putting more and more money hoping the car's going to last, but then it just keeps breaking, right? You deal with that personally sometimes, too. Do I get rid of the car now or or do I keep this thing going?

So, yeah. I think to maybe answer Chris's point a little bit, we a few years ago now um and the chief does a good job with this. We we've looked at what the inventory is and if we're because also we're ensuring those vehicles. We want those cars on the road if they're not being used. I think it was like the motorcycles we the committee had a question on. So the you know if they if

those cars are like dead they're they're getting rid of we just did a we're doing an auction now with all the vehicles in town that no longer no department wants them. They're already beyond their use for life. So, um, we're we're monitoring that and continue to move those cars along and those vehicles along.

Gary, how does that work doing an auction? Do you have to hire an auctioneer or Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

You specifically deal with something uh Gov deals.

You go you deal with Gov deals.

Yeah. So, they specifically work with us and um they really do all the work. They come in, take the pictures, uh you know, post it on their on their website and um most of the equipment goes whether the people buying it for pots or or what have you. But um that's great.

Yeah, it's a good program that we that we use and and whenever possible too, we've we've um basically given given our cost to other town departments, school department, parks and reck um you know, if there's a if there's a need for it and it's still somewhat serviceable, we'd rather give it to some other agency in town because whether you auction it, trade it in, you don't you don't usually get a ton of money,

especially for used police cars. like everyone understands what you're buying when you're buying a used police car and it's not that desirable.

No, other than some people like the look of it, but short of that, they're not in very good shape and they've had kind of a hard life. So, so I I totally understand the police cruiser. Uh how about the I mean, I know the admin vehicle is probably going to be a similar story, but um since those get a little bit less wear and tear and I know that you put them on a cycle

where it's not as often, right?

It it averages out to one a year. It's it's two every other year. Y um so yeah, it's not nearly as as often and those are the um those are the vehicles that all of our detectives drive uh myself, the deputy chief. So we have we have quite a few of those vehicles and to just be replacing basically about one every year.

Um it would it would be a little bit of a strain to um because if if you do remember back um I swapped an admin vehicle, I think it was last cycle for a cruiser because we were just down cruisers. So I we made that swap. Um, so the last time around we actually only bought one avenue vehicle.

So last year we bought none and now we're looking for two.

That study might help that too might change that.

Who's an admin? If they're instructive, you know, evaluating where your personnel is, the allocation, you know, the allocation will change on that, too.

I will say for a department of our size, I know four crews seems like a lot. It's really not. Um the town I was previously in, we were a department of about 20% of this and we got two cruises every year about 20 20% of the size of the department here. So and that was an abnormal you know that. So we definitely use the vehicles a lot uh longer here

and the chief does an excellent job of keeping up with them um beyond what a lot of towns do.

That sounds like something that the school department does, the police do.

It sounds Well, we do a great job. the town town.

Tim Barber does it too that it sounds like it's something that like we're pretty talks to the town and how fiscally fiscally prudent that they are.

And so when we ask for money when you folks ask for money, it's obviously because you need it, not because you want it, right? So and that's why I can't just say, "Yeah, I'll give up a car this year." No.

can you will you be able to sustain going a year minus not necessarily a cruiser but an admin vehicle to offset the cost of your your study. And if you're saying, "Hey, yeah, like that, you know, maybe that might be worth it."

Then for us, that's that makes it a lot easier of a decision to maybe allocate some or switch the allocation. So, I'm not I'm not holding it like saying like, "Oh, that's we made this decision because you said so." So, we're just trying to gauge, you know, the importance, if you will, um, and whether you'll be able to continue to operate at a high level like you do, uh, you know, minus something like that.

I think that's all we're trying to I think that's what I'm doing. I don't want to speak for the but that's what I'm trying to gauge and that's what we do that's what we do to all the you know all the department heads. So that's your job.

Yeah. Right.

I know also spring and fall too you know because we break that down a lot of times we'll just say okay we'll approve the two first make sure we you know we're all set in the fall then finish up the other two. Mhm.

I mean, we've always tried for them it's it's like they need they can doesn't matter when they get the cruises, right? Like they can when they need it.

So like where like the school they can only do a project in the summer. Yeah.

So makes no sense to approve it, you know, necessarily in the spring. It's, you know, too late to What's the turnar around time chief if you want to order one?

It's it's gotten a little bit better, but it's it's quite a while. Um what we're finding big delays now is not so much getting the car for a while co era type stuff. It was actually getting the vehicle. um we're able to get the vehicles pretty quickly, but the problem is we have to have them built.

Y and um like like every many industries, they're struggling too with uh getting people to work. And so the car could sit there sometimes for four, six months just waiting to be built.

So the the but the timer doesn't start until we get the car sitting on the lot.

Then they schedule it to be built and that's another, you know, months and months to get that done. And just to to clarify th those costs include the full buildout like the electronics, the NC everything is uh all the cost to build out a new car.

Yep. Um and so I know you guys are focused on capital and you're trying to free up money, but just I'll just point this out over our our bigger budget is is the turnbacks from the shortage of police officers. So, I mean, you know, to say we could easily cover the cost of a staffing stud with the amount of money that we anticipate turning back just due to us being short staffed quite honestly.

Um, it's hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries that are going to go unused this year.

Um, so yeah, when would when would that show up into free cash then after? Well, um, we' certify that in the in the, uh, fall, but I think what the chief is is speaking in the in the history of those officers not being not being at a full compliment, well, we think it's a full compliment at this point, um, those result in turnbacks to the to the um number in free cash. So, a portion of

the free cash is part of what the chief turns back.

Okay.

Right. Anything else, Chief, you want to add anything else from the committee members?

I don't think so.

How's the new drawer working out?

The new drawer? The uh access?

Oh, the drawers. Yes, they're working out. Wonderful.

Great.

Yep. Everybody's happy for the time being.

That door was the what? The front entrance door has been the nightmare since the station's been built. Yeah.

Did she say draw or no door? The the ADA door that you um Oh, the doors. Yeah, those have been there for a little while now.

Yeah. And uh and that's been a big a big help because the doors are they're kind of hard to open for some people and uh just getting in the building. It's embarrassing when someone can't even get in the building, you know, like they're almost getting crushed through the doors. I get dispatchers running out to try to help people get in and Yeah.

Yeah. Because there's a certain poundage or percentage, especially for exterior doors. Yeah.

Because you don't want you don't want it blowing open, right?

But it's it can be it can be a little hefty sometimes. get the doors open. Um, and uh, we had we had Rick Rick did a great job with the installation on that retrofitting. He knows I'm kind of particular about the building. So, I I did make him do some serious drilling because it's the concrete block and I didn't want the I didn't want the surface mount stuff on it. So, he had to really

do some drilling to hide those wires.

But, he did a great job with uh with hiding the wires and making it look nice, too. So, I have a question with the previous year's expense. The firearms. Did you get the uh the money that you were expected to get back for them? Uh was the item fully used, the um all all the money's fully used. Was any of that turned back or how did you make out with that? Because that's one of our

questions is like previous uh requests, how do they end up going? Did we use all the money? Is was any of it turned back?

So, and I think that I remember that was one at town meeting that we voted on that had some questions from from the folks. So, how did how did that go? Uh, is it complete and was that article fully used? Was any turn back or did you need more? How how did that go?

Sure. So, we haven't used the article yet because we haven't received the product yet. Um, I think I had kind of mentioned there's a there's a long lead time on getting those firearms. So, I was kind of pushing to get that approved so we could place the order so we could get them. I'm still hoping they come in by the springtime so the officers can do the training on them. It is two days of

training that they would need to acclimate to those new weapons. And um, so order's been placed. We're hoping to get them in by the springtime.

Finance-wise, we we anticipate utilizing all the money because we ordered the the amount of of guns that I had asked for.

Um the trade-in value was negotiated ahead of time. So, the only time that would deviate is um they do reserve the right to inspect all the guns individually and they may reject some potentially. I don't think any will be rejected. We take good care of them.

Um they all work. So, I I don't think there'll be any problem with that. So, I I anticipate using all that and not having any issue with the amount of money that we were promised um as a as a trade in value um for the for the guns that we have now.

So, I asked the same question to Mr.

Kai. So, in the in the in the for future ones, if you could let us know on articles, I mean, it's not too bad. It's cruisers and stuff like whether they the articles were fully expended just so we know. Yeah.

Like whether the asks were I mean, for you guys, it's pretty simple. It's like you get you get a thing. But it's just for our you know Yeah. school department and the DPW have been bringing back like pictures of things that got accomplished from from previous and stuff.

Pictures of cruis.

We don't need a picture.

We don't need to see a picture of a firearm. We know. But it's more of how was the article was it was it actually used? Was it fully expended? Did it go over? So we know like hey in the future like you know do we need to allocate less or more or whatever. So yeah just just for our edification.

So with the guns I mean I got the a quote up front um and uh we were to order them. We haven't spent the money yet because we don't pay for it till we get it.

Um otherwise the last big thing I think we got was the uh the boxes to store the rifles in. Um those were all purchased, installed, and they're in use. So that's that's been completed.

Yep.

Um with with the gun boxes.

Yeah. Your your yours is pretty easy.

Like I said, if you get a quote, so you have pretty exact numbers for some of the other departments. It's a little bit It's a little bit more.

It's a rough estimate.

Yeah.

But anyway, so I just pulled up the chief's um 95 capital expenditures. He doesn't have any unexpended.

Perfect.

There's there's a couple that are encumbered for like a couple vehicles that are on order, the firearms, but everything else is completely expended, which is fantastic. That's that's what we like to see. We haven't, you know, I've been on the committee for a long time and like that wasn't always the case. We'd have articles open for five, six years.

Yeah. We we look at those annually now that and it was no it was no criticism of of what you guys did. It was more of like man like how you going to use that article and actually get it for that price now? It's going to be double. So that's not reality.

Okay.

We also want to make sure that the departments are using the articles that are voted on so that you know because that frees up free cash, right? Uh, and if they're not, when we resend those articles, it puts that money back into free cash to be used for other items in in the town. So, it does close the loop though for the town meeting if if we know what has been

turned back and so that people know that you're being responsible.

Yeah.

Well, and the fact that you're spending like or or you're utilizing it right away. Like I think you that's fantastic that you have those articles that are all closed. I mean, that's goes to speak that like you're getting the job done so speak. It kind of justifies your uh Yeah, we're buying pretty straightforward things. we can get quotes that are that are real accurate and stuff like that. Other departments

probably have more of a difficult time maybe, but the stuff we're buying, we can get solid quotes and we turn it around quickly, which is which is good for us because that means that like it's not going to go over uh amount. So, good.

All right. Thank you, Chief.

Perfect.

Thank you. Thanks, guys.

So, uh, next on the agenda, we have, um, first I'll go over some of the dates that we're going to be doing before I go on to the next item. Uh, the next meeting is on 2:25.

Uh, and, uh, we'll have, um, a couple few departments in. Uh, we'll have the harbor master in at 8:00, library in at 8:30, DCTV in at 9:00, and pox and wreck at 9:30.

So, I sent that calendar out to everyone. And on on March 2nd, we'll have the DPW water, sewer, trash on uh at 9:00.

What day?

32.

So, we're meeting at 8 that day.

On 2:25, we're meeting at 8.

And so, that will wrap up the department, chief.

Thank you.

That will wrap up all the departments that have sent requests to the to us for um in front of the committee. Um you said the second 32.

32 is the DPW.

Yes.

Yeah. So, that's going to be a long one.

Yeah. That Yeah, that's the only So, adjusting for this for one second.

8 a.m.'s tough for me cuz I got to put my daughter on the bus.

I'm just going to send out invite everybody.

Yeah, I need it in my calendar. If it's not there, it'll doesn't exist.

So, you should just let the invite for me.

Okay.

And what time is it? 32 9 uh 9:00.

So, let me just open up.

Yeah, I would say.

Yeah. March second.

March second. Thank you.

So, um I've put together the master the schedule for the uh capital. Now whether or not we want to go through this today because we haven't heard my suggestion is is that we we go through the um rest of the departments we go through the rest of the departments and then we we look at the um we look at this in the total. I mean we look at this per department like we do every

single year. Uh but I will tell you that um I did run the numbers for priority for level one two and three and uh this is what we've come up this is what I've come up with. So out of the priority one's request for 27 uh it's 116 million but that includes uh 100 million for a new school 6 million for the high school roof and uh 5.2 million for aation uh at

the sewer treatment plant. Um priority 2 in uh is 12 million 312 that includes 1.2 million in uh road maintenance, 5.6 million in stadium reservations and 1.2 two um million in uh in um replacement of Force Corner and I believe that's Haway Road where schools corner Haway Road. So those are these are skewed a little bit but those are the reason why that they're they're higher because there's there are some

large amounts large projects in in those in those numbers. So my only suggestion is that we wait until we hear the next few meet uh and then um maybe we schedule another meeting because we're still a little bit early in the process after the DPW and then we we sit at one of the meetings and we we finalize this and we can go through every single one of them. But it

is everything in in in purple if you focus your attention to the purple. Uh these are all the requests for the department. So this has all been built out.

That's my my suggestion that we Can you Can you send that to us ahead of time? It's all blurry.

Screen's a little It is a little wavy too.

Yeah.

So, I think for us it's it helps for us to to look at that and you know, be prepared.

And and will that include the amount of free cash that we have to uh I can send that schedule to the group.

I think I think we have it. But if you can send them together so this way uh Yeah. because it's it's I like to kind of go take a stab at it before uh beforehand just to see like I know Bruce I think everyone likes to kind of look and go yeah so you'll have it for a good few weeks where you can do something you'll have it for a good few few weeks

you'll hear the requests from the rest of the departments that come through and then um I would suggest that after 32 we schedule another meeting to discuss this this schedule. Uh I will say that um as far as the balance that's left, we talked about the 3.1 million. Um I would only recommend that some of that be save uh you know held back for the for the fall town meeting only because uh you

know we're not we average $5.5 million over the last few years. Um and and I think that because we've kind of tightened up a lot looking at the articles and so on and so forth. We the departments have done a great job with coming with requests on the four priority level that we use and to use some of to use all of that money. I think pushing it forward makes a lot of

sense you know and not spending everything that we in the past we've spent everything uh we spent most of it at the fall town meeting and really had nothing to spend here at the springtown meeting. So the only request the only suggestion is I that we save some of that money for the fall you know and add that because free cash just rolls over.

So whatever we don't spend now is just going to be reertified in the fall.

We're not going to lose it. It doesn't have to be spent uh for the spring.

I think I think the tough thing is is it makes our job more difficult in terms of like what is important. I think some departments are going to have to deal with the fact like you know the chief was like we can't really we need all four.

Yeah.

You know and our goal is to try to fund all four but that might not be the goal considering there might be other number ones that might you know that we feel might be more you know important if you will. I mean, if you look at the if you even if you stripped out the balances that I had there for the $100 million school, the roof and um aation, you're still north of what we

would ever be able to fund completely with free cash.

So, I think maybe a level of conservativeness to to then relook at these projects again in the fall uh allows us to, you know, obviously we want to we in the perfect world, we we'd want to do all the priority ones, but even with and remember, we had $8.1 million of certified free cash. So, in the in the fall, we took care of almost $5 million of of of items, which is a

lot of a lot of money to put back in the capital.

Yeah. We also put quite a bit of it away too right?

Yes.

We had articles.

We had articles like to to fund stable term stabilization fund. So, long-term stabilization. We did uh the um did the employee we did the uh employee uh stabilization fund.

So, of that 5 million, I think would we use like four million for for projects then?

Yeah. 3.99. Um, and then yeah, Bruce is right. We we used we put 500,000 into the long term because we used 500 for the school for the uh for the fire suppression.

Carrie, how will how will the conversation about borrowing come up? Is that something that is discussed at capital? Is that we um so the the u we're finalizing the long range presentation which you guys will get later this week. Um, that's something we're going to talk about the ninth meeting with the select board, which is why I think it'll be imperative that your final meeting for you to make

recommendations be after that meeting because, um, I anticipate there will be some level of recommended borrowing for this round of capital. U particularly with some of the enterprise funds. Um, Tim Barber will get more into it, but there's a number of of projects that need to be done. they're only increasing in cost. Um we feel as though we have a really good financial handle on the

enterprise funds at this point over there. And so why continue to push this, you know, push this off? It's going to require and the the benefit if there is one of the enterprise funds is it's not a debt exclusion to borrow. We just need to make sure the rates can can cover.

We'll need authorization to borrow through town meeting um and essentially the the approval of the expenditure, but we won't need a debt exclusion. It won't go to the the voters because it's an enterprise fund. So, there's at least two items that I can foresee in TPW where we're going to want to borrow. Um, but the aation Yeah, the aation and the other one it's a water project. Um, it is we need to

replace the main on Route 6 and it makes sense to do it now because the state was going to be digging that up anyways when they start the construction of the um the Tucker Road and Hathway that in Route 6 there. So, do you wait? Not only is the cost of the construction going to go up, but also the road's open. You know, they're ripping it up anyway. So,

it's going to cost us a lot more if we wait to do it.

When is that when is that supposed to start?

This fall. They're going to mobilize construction.

Oh, wow. Okay.

Is that the intersection path or over the over the river over the Pasi?

Yeah. Yep. So, they they're replacing the bridge because then after that they're coming up to Bishop Stang, I understand or Tim needs to do that.

And I think he talked about having that also overlap.

Yeah.

So, you save money some money doing that way. So, I mean, in the grand scheme of things, that actually isn't a huge project. That's, you know, probably a million and a half, two million. Um the aeration project though is a six to8 million project and and you look at it and you say okay well we need to do something with our sewer treatment plant anyways that's part of it. So it's not

like we're doing it out of waste that that's something that has to be done. It actually will just help knock down the cost of the of the um final treatment plant. So again it makes sense we can do it now. It's been recommended in all the studies we've had done. So we should and it's 100% designed.

It's designed out.

So it's show ready.

Yeah. Could we schedule our next meeting after the second now or the reason I asked is I'm usually pretty busy like two weeks out and so if something gets scheduled it's hard for me to Yeah. fit it in schedule. What does it mean for Well, you said the 9th. You get do it after the 9th.

Right after the 9th. Yeah.

Right after the calendar, Terry.

Um, so the select board's meeting on the 9th.

So we'll meet we'll meet here.

Second. So, do you want to make it um the 11th or the 18th?

I can't do the 11th. Okay. I'm flying back. So, 11th. Well, I I don't care what day on those.

Um 18.

How about the 18th?

18th is wide open for me.

18th is fine.

Yeah, because we're still early in the process. We have March 18th.

March 18th.

I can't do eight, but I could do nine.

Nine's better for me anyways.

Well, well, the the 9th the select board meeting.

No, no, nine. 9 a.m.

9 a.m. Okay. All right. Yeah. Yeah, Luke. Luke has to get his daughter off on my I put my daughter on the bus 8:40.

That's why the the sec the 25th I'm going to be a little bit late.

Okay. So, what's better for the committee?

9ine is better for me.

The only thing on the 18th is we have collective bargaining. Gary and I do at 10 a.m.

So, if you think we can get it done in an hour, how about St. Patrick's Day? We can bring drink beer or whatever it is.

I think we'll be able to discuss this in in in an because that only thing that'll be on the on the It'll mostly be it's going to be about the bar. whatever we can put together.

Well, it'll be it'll be going over this in your in what you're in the recommendations, but we'll we can do that.

I just don't want to limit you because I I we're going to have a hard cut off.

Yeah. I I don't think I think we should schedule more just because I I ask a lot of questions. I'm tough, you know. So, maybe like the 17th or the 16th or Yeah. Doesn't matter.

Either one of those works. You guys do the 17th at 9.

Okay. So, 317.

You cut into my holiday. Yeah.

And we'll we'll be reviewing the um we'll be reviewing this schedule, but you'll have had it for never knew that about a month now. So that's perfect.

I'll talk later.

Okay. And um just in other news, we um we through through Cody and and our new communications uh u manager uh director, we uh have some other applicants, not applicants but people that are interested in the committee. Perfect.

So, uh, they've been emailing Cody and and the office to, um, sending send in their information and so potentially we'll have additional additional people to serve on the committee.

Yeah. Cody said we could go over it and see.

Yeah. So, what we'll do over the applicants ourselves too.

Yeah. We we'll um actually that might not be a bad idea for the 17th. Uh, we'll invite in anyone who's applied that has an interest. You guys can talk to him and then make your recommendation to the select board of who of who you think.

We have room for two. Is that Well, we haven't heard an official resignation from Bey.

Okay.

So, technically, we have one opening. If Bey does resign, want to Yeah. So, we'll have to get the She's I don't I don't think she's going to meet.

Yeah. She She wanted to do more long term. Yeah. You know, m I just saw her yesterday, but I didn't I could have asked her, but we'll um So, we'll have two openings.

Yeah.

Yeah. possibility. Yeah.

Up to two.

So, we'll we'll have how many candidates?

Right. Last I looked, we had um six or seven.

That's great.

It's good.

Yeah. So, we're going to have all those on another I know.

We have another I don't see anyone who's interested. I mean, you people people will submit it and then when you reach out and say, "Okay, can you come in?" You might have a couple drop off. But I think Yeah, it's important that you guys think you find a good fit. You want someone that's going to work with you.

So, no. And I like the makeup of, you know, who we get the information, you know, I love the financial background over here, the electronics and project management background over here. I don't know what I didn't have to go through I'm glad I didn't have to go through that process because I don't think I would have been picked.

So, I'll add that onto the agenda that we'll review the um any candidates that come forward.

It's fine.

Be great.

And um along with Synics on the agenda, we have the minutes.

I'm going to approve those.

Did you send those to us? Yes.

Quite quite well, aren't they? Quite.

Yeah.

Is that AI?

I wasn't used to that.

Everything's AI generated now.

AI generated. The No, no. Really?

Yeah. We're use it as a tool and then we have to go kind of through adjustments and stuff.

The the Gary, can you send it to me again because I I can't find it here.

Um, I have the agenda and I have the warrants stuff from the police department, but I don't have the minutes.

It was sent on 5th. Yep.

No. Uh, the 13th.

Oh, maybe maybe Terry, could you switch your email?

Oh, the 13th.

Did you switch your email? Tam11176.

Yeah, I think that's our old older Gmail, right? I can send it to you.

Thank you.

It was sent on the 13th. I can forward it to you. Is this uh the TAM at 1111176?

Is that it?

Yeah, I switched it to uh Gmail.

I'm getting scared about my emails being subpoenaed.

So, somebody want to make a motion to motion accept the I motion to accept the minutes as Bruce I'll abstain until I have enough, right?

One abstension. Yeah.

All in favor? I I I Okay, so that is it unless there's other motion to adjurnn.

Motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor?

I.

Thank you. Thanks.