Capital Planning Committee Meeting - March 10, 2026

Okay, welcome everyone to the uh March 10th um capital planning uh committee.

Um this meeting is uh in person is being recorded. So today we have harbor master uh library DCTV for departments. Um and uh next week we'll have uh parks and recreation. We have to reschedule that one. also talk about the um uh master capital plan and then also some applicants to the committee that we uh could review.

Oh, great.

So, um we'll uh have Steve Melo Masta give a brief introduction. Uh the committee has gotten the uh all the documents on this too. Steve, it's it's been a while since I've been here, so I'm not sure the procedure, but we've listed a uh department truck as our capital need for the current session. And that's um crew four-door pickup truck, 2500 Ford or the equivalent to replace the one that I'm

driving now that I got 10 years ago. It has 50,000 miles on it, but under the town policy, it's 10 years old and it's starting to show some spots where mother nature is done in the metal. Um, little bits of blistering. Um, nothing that's unsafe, nothing that's unreliable. It's basically the age and not the mileage.

So, pass inspection.

Yes.

Okay.

And we'll pass inspection. It is reliable. The only work that I've needed to do on it are tires, battery, air conditioning, uh not for comfort, but because it was pumping the air conditioning um gas into the cab of the truck. So, I had to have that fixed, but other than that, it's still reliable and it still does the job. I've also explored possibility of keeping that truck for the deputy and using it to tow

the boats. That's why we need the larger truck and getting something smaller that could be the everyday drive and could haul a smaller boat. So, pickup truck has gone in 10 years from 399.99 for the one I'm driving to $90,000 in that range. Could be 85, could be 95.

I'm working with MHQ now to narrow it down and look at other options. Tahoe or Jeep like truck for an everyday drive.

Um, but those are that's where we're at.

Now, Steve, is this um is this truck 4x4?

It is.

Okay.

It needs to be. I do get on the beach sometimes. I do have to It has a winch front or back. It's removable. Um, it has the four door so if I'm taking assistance with me or um I can carry things that way. Um, and standard shorter bed.

Okay.

Now, this new truck you're looking at, diesel or gas?

Yes.

Diesel is an extra upcharge of $12,000 currently for Ford. I don't put enough mileage on it to warrant the diesel. And although it's a stronger engine with greater longevity, the town will never see the uh the don't last that long.

Yeah. So I I've looking at the eight cylinder gas which I know is not favored by the state and there is an extra wrinkle. I believe I need permission to get a large truck. Um this truck the 25 or the 250 or the 2500 puts it in a category it's just about a pound under the heavy truck displacement. So, it's 9,900 pounds, which is able to carry the lot or tow the larger

boat. Um, and every time I go for a sticker, I'm reminded that while you're a pound away from needing the heavier commercial inspection. So, it's um it's a good compromise. It does have the tibberin spring enhancer so that it can tow the heavier loads and give it a little bit more robust work truck, not so much comfort truck. Um, but that's what we're looking for. The solid front

axle, the ability to tow from the front with the extra receiver hitch, uh, that also doubles as the winch holder front and back.

But you've got all that right now with the old truck.

So, if we buy the new truck to match the old truck, we would we would still want the same thing. We would carry the winch over. [clears throat] If we get say a Jeep, Tahoe, something like that, we would probably get the receivers again, but we would not get another winch. We would not need to duplicate all of that.

So, this is letter lettered and everything Steve.

Um, 90.

We've been using magnets uh on and off.

We we could do, you know, we don't spend a lot on the glitz. I know that other departments have thousands of dollars into the lettering and all of that. Um, there are times when I don't want to announce my presence. If I'm looking at something going on in the river or something going on out in the water, um, low key is sometimes a little bit better.

Okay. No, you don't want to look in like a 1500 double cab instead of a crew cab.

It's just I mean they're more prevalent around so and you can get them you know and granted you want to tow but I almost have the same towing capacity with the 1500 with a four-cylinder turbo when I I'd rather see the 5.3 but yeah when I speak of a smaller utility type thing like a Jeep that the the 150 or the um 1500 series is also an option.

I'm not what I'm trying to say is we don't need to go the full 250 big boat um towing capacity. We get something smaller. Could be a Ford Explorer. It could be a used police truck. I mean something. What we did last time is we took the fire department Tahoe used and deputy has had that as his vehicle. That works well. So having one large and one smaller will work. I don't know if if a

Ford F-150 costs more or less than a Tahoe type Explorer, Jeep, something like that. But that's the second option. I know the town administrator was pretty certain I should just duplicate the same truck. So, we're we're exploring all the options basically. And if it comes out that it makes good sense to do that while we can, we will. Um, important to note. Can you say how what vehicles you have right now in the

department?

Sure. We have a 19 uh No, I'm sorry. I forgot the year.

It's it's a Tahoe four-door. That's deputies four-wheel drive truck. And I have a Ford F250.

That's it.

That's it. Yeah. There are only two of us that are full-time. And Terry, we just did a um an inventory of all the vehicles in town. So we uh we purged some of the vehicles that um Steve has. Mainly a boat that we're getting rid of.

Trailers, you know, they can come in under vehicles. But um yeah, I I had a I had some military surplus.

Those have all been auctioned off. I have a there's a Ford F700 that I got through the surplus program that I've never really used. It's been in the police department. It's been at DPW.

That's going up for surplus auction. So, that shouldn't um be attributed to my department. But, yeah, those two vehicles are it.

So, I I have a couple of questions. Uh the first one is uh if we do approve something like this, what's going to happen to this vehicle? And the second question I have is we haven't seen I remember the last time you were in front of us, but the we don't really get a good lookout to know that this is coming up. So, we didn't know like um when we look at your long-term plan, we don't

see vehicles. I think the same thing happened with a boat where it just kind of came out of nowhere and kind of surprised us. Um I think hopefully we can get a better idea of what these requests are coming up so we can better prepare uh in the future.

Okay. Um, what's going to happen with the vehicle if it's purchased is that I would drive that. That would be my assigned vehicle, response vehicle. Um, this the vehicle that I'm driving now would go to the deputy. The Tahoe would be auctioned off as surplus.

Uh, the truck wasn't on my radar to be quite honest. I when I got the one I'm driving 10 years ago, I thought that would be the last vehicle I'd need in this position. things have changed and I've been directed to replace every 10 years. So, that's why it uh it wasn't really on my radar either.

What uh what's your what do you have in your uh coffers, should I ask, let's say at this point?

It's always a tough question because because I know there was a couple years ago that it was very low.

It goes up and down.

You had to, you know, you had to increase the rates just to make up for it. I know Greg at that point was very concerned that you weren't bringing in enough money to we're we're more than meeting our needs.

The problem is that we collect our money at the end of the fiscal year. So we collect it March, April, May, and then the year ends at June. So we're that's the fiscal year. Then we start over again. We might collect some fees in July and August, but for the most part, we're starting at zero in spending and our money is in retained earnings. The last report, Greg, do you have that? I

mean, Gary, the last report retained earnings was So, currently they have 152,330 in their retained earnings. Yeah. And we figured this would certified take up more than half of it. So, And we're and that's again now we're collecting for the fiscal year, right?

So that'll go up hopefully.

Has the board been or the waterway has been talking about increasing the rates at all?

Not for the current year, but for next year for the 207 voting season, which would be fiscal year 28 budget. is that I mean that gets tight because if you have to replace one or two motors on some of your boats, you don't have enough right now. We have some warrant articles outstanding for motor replacement which we haven't done because they've been reliable and not needing [clears throat]

but that is on the that was put on the CIP radar a few years ago.

Quite a few years.

Yeah, I hate to say it.

Yeah. And surprisingly, I'm still running those engines and they're reliably running them through the winter. So, um, that concerns me. That's all. You know what I mean?

No, I I I believe me, I don't that's like my explanation on the truck is that it wasn't on my radar. It wasn't on the waterways radar. It got put on the radar by the current town administrator, and I'm following the orders to do that.

So, all right.

All right. Anybody else?

Anybody else?

All set. Thank you.

Okay. Just let the um uh the viewing public know we have one member that's uh remote and also I just got a message from our IT director. We might lose internet within 15 minutes. So that happens we'll have to reset.

I it already it already blipped out once or twice.

Yeah. Okay.

Steve, I have one suggestion on [clears throat] that capital uh report that you put out. If you put the truck and you know you can anticipate in 10 years you're going to have to then then it's prepared you know we know about it and it just moves along now that I'm aware you're very small department so it's it's tricky to do that but I think that would make it a little bit more uh

and with any of the stuff that you have in capital now that I'm aware it's every 10 years I was looking more at the mileage and the reliability and I didn't have a concern with 50,000 miles for a truck like that is not much But I understand the policy now and it's easier to plan 10 years. Not that I'll be here in 10 years, but yes, it's good to plan that far ahead.

Yeah.

But yeah, we're supposed to get presented a 10-year plan no matter what.

Right.

We haven't gotten that quite some time. We know that. So, it we know things move.

Yeah. Throw one hurricane change. I mean, it's more of a guesstimate but at least if you see it out there, it's a little bit easier to plan a little bit um instead of waiting until it hits the fan.

Yep.

All right.

Thanks, Steve.

Thank you, Steve. Thanks, Steve.

So, uh next we have [clears throat] Dena, library director.

Good morning.

Talk about her request.

Have a round of applause.

No, that's very kind of you. Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning. Well, until I I also don't have a 10-year plan for you. I'm also here um after much discussion with our current town administrator. Um Dana St.

Pierre, library director. I've been here for almost three years now. So, this is my first time coming to you all. Yeah, it'll be three years in May since I started. Um and uh we did a strategic plan two years ago. Um we wrapped it up in June of 23. Um, and a lot of the commentary in that plan, and if you've been to Southworth Library at all in the last, I don't know, 10 years even, let's

say, there's it's it's not the it's drab. And then when you compare it to the beautiful new North Branch library, it's hard for I think people not to compare. Um, anyone who attends a meeting in the community room at North Branch that's full of light. Um it very high ceilings, can fit 125 people. And then you go to Southworth's community room, which is lovely except um it has, you know, much less capacity. It's about

75. Um in the basement of the library, it's very dark. Um so a lot of the feedback we got on the strategic plan was, um I don't go to Southworth anymore. It's unpleasant to go to Southworth. The seating is terrible at Southworth. like the negative things about the library were geared to the physical appearance of Southworth Library. Um, again though, you know, we did this two years ago and I had only been here for a

year, so I wasn't really thinking of how we're going to fix the problem even though I know it's something we're going to fix. So, in multiple conversations with our current town administrator, um, he suggested requesting money now for a feasible feasibility study for Southworth Library that would happen in FY27. Um, and then we would be able to base a capital plan off of what the results of the feasibility study are.

So, a feasibility study for a new building or a feasibility not for a new building, for a renovation of Southworth Library. Um, no, no, no, not not for a new building, though. Boy, do I wish we had just consolidated two buildings into one in the center of town somehow. Um, but anyway, we've we've got a beautiful main library and a beautiful branch, not a not a relocation request, but looking into how can we remodel

Southworth so that it can meet the demands of the public. I mean, we do our um circulation, our door counts are twice as high at South Worth as at North Branch. I mean, North Branch has increased tremendously. I'd say particularly over the last year and a half, two years, we're seeing it's finally out in the community that North Branch is open and it's very wellreceived every day, but South Worth

is still the main library with the much larger collection um and a lot more resources for people. So, we do see much more traffic at Southworth and um higher circulation. So, how do we meet the needs going forward? We had a lot of requests for study rooms on the strategic plan. Um, at Southworth we have uh three study rooms. At North Branch, we have sort of one. At Southworth, it's the passport room. So,

we we do we are a passport agency at Southworth. It's a small room. It's primarily used for um passport appointments. So, how do we create study rooms in that space so that we can give people that uh you know, the world is has changed quite a bit, particularly in the last six years with remote meetings.

People need a space to go to to be able to, you know, access the internet. We have a we had a Wi-Fi upgrade uh three years ago at Southworth, which we used our state aid um funds to cover that. Uh so we we've got great Wi-Fi there, but we don't really have quiet spaces where people can meet. So that's something we'd be looking at. Um also, uh Southworth was built in 1969. It was

renovated in 1990 to add an elevator. uh when the elevator was put in um it changed the main entrance of the library essentially. So prior to that everyone was entering in from the front entrance.

Um now the majority of ma vast majority of people use the lower level entrance to get in. There are no staff sightelines to that area whatsoever. So, we did upgrade the camera system last year. Um, and I do monitor that from my office and other staff can moni monitor the computers, um, the camera system from their computers. Um, but there's no one to say hello to you when you walk in. If you don't know the library,

there's no one to direct you where to go. A lot of people end up in the children's room at a desk that is way far from the entrance to the children's room. So, how do we redo that so that we're better meeting needs as well? So, it's not just that it needs new carpet, it needs new window treatments, it needs paint. It had it when it was renovated in the late 80s um or excuse me, rather

the mid 90s, they moved the children's room from the second floor to the basement. It never got repainted after that. So the colors of the children's room, which are red, green, primary colors, blue, those are you still see that throughout the upstairs. It just never got done. So it's but it's not just the cosmetics. It's not just the paint, the carpet, the window treatments. It's also what do we do to

put that library up to the level that it is, you know, that and the level that it is received by the public. But we could probably increase that even more if we were providing people with what they need from it nowadays.

Would it be um HVAC? Anything like that?

No.

New roof windows.

New windows. [snorts] We had an issue with the piping though, didn't we?

Yeah. Down in the We did, but that got taken care of and that's all set now. All been replaced.

Yeah. So, that should last us.

Wasn't expecting that when that happened. We do have an issue right now where there was water going into the elevator shaft with all of the melting we've had um from the snowstorm. That's the first for me since I've been um here. So, the past three winters we didn't have that. Now we've got that. Um and they're figuring out DPW and facilities are back there this morning.

They're just trying to figure out exactly where the water is getting in from so they can address that. So hopefully they believe that's something they can fix and that wouldn't have any impact on um going towards this. So let's hope that's what do you have an estimate for feasibility stud?

So um town administrator Hadad when he and I spoke and we decided this was the time to put in for it um he had recommended going with a $50,000 request and that the study would hopefully cost under 50,000. So this I mean it's an estimate. We don't have any supporting other than you know I think um town administrator Hadad's prior experience estimating it would cost about $50,000.

Yeah. There's been no vendor.

There's been no request.

This is just a placeholder.

Yeah. Yep.

At this point, and um you know, if it were more than that, we you know, I my board of trustees, I'm sure, would be willing to put in money from our um state aid fund to cover the difference of that. But also, once we had this knowledge, then we could make a very realistic capital plan going forward. you know, it's it's very hard to say what the needs are or what

the expenses would be when we don't really know um what they are. Um so that's that's why I'm here today.

I'm wondering, you know, when they designed, you know, you know, was was it a common architect that designed that back then? that was, you know, because a lot of times you have the same architects building the same libraries or similar libraries and stuff like that. I wonder if there's any other ones that are similar to it.

They're probably that you could look at, right, that we could take a look at. I'm sure they've done this already because this how they've improved theirs, right? I'm just wondering if there's other um ones out in the towns and see and that definitely something that would help you give a head start thinking about out of the box a little bit of what somebody else has already done. Let somebody else's work, right?

Well, when I worked in a cushion, we moved from a very old building on um Main Street uh to a renovated school building that was renovated for the purposes of a library. And it was amazing what they did with that, you know, and they they built in study rooms there and it was, you know, at first when you looked at the designs, it was like, oh, that's impossible. That's never going to work. And it's worked out

beautifully for them. So, I I know there are ways that we could certainly um by shifting things around a little create these spaces. Um it's just a matter of figuring out the best way to do that and um you know what would what would be the most cost-effective way of doing that? I mean, they also sell, you know, there are vendors now who sell study pods and you, you know, I know Foxboro Library is

doing that right now where they just purchased like two or three pods, like freestanding pods that people can sit in and there's a little desk in there and you can shut the door if you want. And so, I mean, that's always an option also if we can't do but I think we could do something with the physical space just putting up some walls um that would allow for that.

So, okay.

Yeah.

Chris, have any questions?

No, I I I I was on I think I was on that strategic uh plan uh a couple years ago.

You sure were.

And I think I was Yes. Uh I think I think you did a great job. I love what um some of the things that were implemented. Um you know, my wife goes to the library and gets way more like reads about 80 books a year. So, she's there all the time with the kids. Uh, I think one of the difficulties that you'll have at the South Worth Library though regarding um your blow is the

parking lot does not face the entrance, right?

Uh, and then there's I mean it's the same entrance that I took when I walked from Dlo School down the road to get up.

It's a lot of stairs. They're not evenly spaced. Uh, I think that's going to be a challenge for you folks like, you know, try to maybe move that that that circulation desk downstairs. I don't think that will ever happen.

Yeah, that's that's something that in in my [clears throat] imaginings that circulation desk would be downstairs and it would face the doors and it would be the lower level entrance and it would be right there when you walk in. Um, I think that would be a shock for a lot of people, [clears throat] but when I think about how I would like to see that library grow and that is something I

would love to see because also when you go to the upper level of South Worth, that circulation desk is sort of smack dab in the middle. It's not really near the entrance and the front entrance and it's not really near the staircase and it's certainly not near the elevator. So if you've needed to use the elevator to get upstairs, you then have to walk quite far to get to the circulation

desk. So again, you don't even you come off the elevator and you don't see staff there either. So um there's there's definitely um I think things we could do to improve that and it's just how do we do it and do it you know the study efficiently. Yeah.

Yeah.

It would be nice to Well, I hope this study will uh will will help you guys out and and point you in the right direction because I think it's uh it's a valuable resource that the town has.

Thank you.

Put the community room up there.

Yes.

In that end, you'd have so much more light. You'd have flip an entrance, move everything down.

Correct.

And work it, you know, flip it around and that great.

I mean, we're able to use the community room um at North Branch after hours because it is separate from the rest of the library. So, we have a key fob system and people borrow the key fob as if it were a book. Uh, but it's a key fob that allows you access to just a small part of the building so that you can hold your meetings after hours. And we have many groups that do that um

quite well. And that is a big trend in libraries um for sure. Any new renovation that happens or or a new building rather, you've always got that after hours entrance. And we could feasibly do something like that at Southworth if the community room was relocated.

So yeah.

All right. Thanks.

Thanks very much. I appreciate everyone's time this morning. Thank you.

Thanks.

Really?

Okay. Next to learn about could you do this? Could this DCTV his request?

Yeah. Peter Chase, director of media.

DCTV. Um, so we have three proposal uh three um items before you today. Um, we'll go from the top to the bottom there. Uh, the first one is $50,000 for our uh building uh phase 2 project. We just uh finished a feasibility study or on the outside the exterior of the building. Um we're um have an application in front of CPC that's being heard tonight for um the total cost of

the project is just over $500,000. I think it's $511,000.

Um we're proposing to uh reshingle the outside with the same type of shingles.

Uh we're going to change all the trim to uh a PVC trim uh painted, which uh I guess is historically okay to to do. Um, also putting some PVC trim board along the bottom because we do have some um, sill problems where the grade of the land around the building is splashing up and and causing some rot on the wood on the bottom. So, we're going to PVC all that. Um, and then the other the only

exterior other exterior stuff that we're going to try to do is um on the two side doors, we have uh it'll kind of cover our dormers by those side doors and it we'll have like a a lot of ice build up in the winter. And so we want to put uh a couple domers on there to to kind of cover that walk area. And then also there's a staircase that's on the old

police station side of the building. um doesn't have any handrailing. We don't use that that often, but the talk was to just put the handrailings there to make it, you know, compat, you know, safe if anyone has to use those. Um so we're we're going for CPC funding at the tune of $460 470,000 and then this would be uh our like a 10% kind of match to them to kind of put a little carrot out there

for CPC to to hopefully fund that. So, we can start with that project first.

Weren't you also changing the grade of the uh ground alongside the building?

So, [clears throat] we're going to we're going to grade it out a little bit, but the problem is is if we go too far down, then we have the parking lot and then we have to get into redoing the parking lot because that it's it's more the north side of the building, the northeast side. Um I mean the northwest side. Uh and on the west side is where all of our

mechanicals are now. So the HVAC units are back there, the the generators back there. So if we change the grade too much, you know, as far as bringing it down, then like I said, then we have to get into replacing the whole parking lot because then you're going to have a, you know, a foot drop off of the parking lot into it. So So the thought is is we could just regrade it a little bit to

grade away from the building, right? because I mean that was where you know like I went through it with you years ago and that sill area was touch and go is too close to the ground at that point and that's the reason why I'm wondering if you're taking some of that out at all.

So I I like I said I think they're talking about just regrading not not doing much removal just trying to pitch it a little bit towards the the parking lot. Um, we did in the meantime put um gutters on the whole building. Um, so now it's not just rolling right off the roof and going everywhere. Uh, and there is part of the plan is to extend some of the gutters to have um some outlets that

go further away from the building too.

Um, and that that might be on that north side. I I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure it's like right where that kitchen area is that they were talking about putting some extension tubes on the ground basically to try to really get the water away from the Yeah.

building a little bit more.

I hate to see spending all that kind of money and not mitigating the real causes of the problem.

Right. Well, I mean, I will say when we put the gutters in that that cleaned up our basement a lot um which is on the south side of the building. um the it's only a partial basement and that seemed to dry out that basement a lot when we when we put the gutters in. So, cuz we were getting water down there, there's not much water down there. Now, um in this plan, we are talking about putting

a a commercialized dehumidifier in that area and tying it into a sump pump. So, this way we can keep it kind of dry because it is musty and old. It's a you know, smell it. So, you open the door.

So, we we just want to we don't use the the basement at all. The basement is kind of our dungeon that we call it. We we uh don't go down there that often.

So, So, Pete, I have a question. Uh uh the windows uh have they been replaced recently if you're going to be doing all the siding work?

So, the windows were all replaced uh when we moved in about was it 10 12 years ago now? So, all the windows were replaced at that time. the the windows, the roof. Um, we're all done. Uh, this this would basically finish up the whole outside of the building. Um, they're they're going to look at the uh the stairs. They're going to patch all the stairs because it's all concrete stairs.

So, they'll they'll patch that. And even the front um handicap ramp, there's railings that I think they're going to go to PVC railings and um and and do all that at the same time. And then update the overhang over the front. They're gonna scrape it and and paint that and repair it as needed.

Is the exterior of the building um PVC or wood?

It's all wood right now. And so the shingles are going to stay wood shingles. Uh but the trim, I guess there's some uh under historical preservation, you can do PVC as long as [snorts] you keep it looking and painted properly. So they have shingles that look like wood, but they vinyl, but they that's not going to be approved.

No, we didn't. We we thought we'd keep the the the wood look. I mean, it it should last, you know, it's going to last, you know, it if you're going to do a quality one, you know, you're still talking about 25 years before be have to be replaced again, right?

um PVC I mean vinyl.

There's a couple of houses I could show you where it doesn't look at all right the color fades.

Yeah.

Things it just it they change. They're not they're not perfected.

Yeah.

And I don't like I don't like vinyl myself because I don't I believe there's always a condensation issue.

Right. So, we that's why we kind of said, you know, if we could do the trim in vinyl, it's kind of like one of those happy happy mediums, like, you know, we can we can because we do have a lot of rot on the on the wood uh window sills, you know, and and there was first there was talk about, oh, we'll just replace the ones that rotted really bad and we'll

repaint the old ones. And I said, no, I I think, you know, we want to put the same trim throughout the whole building.

So, so we're going to we we've, you know, and then we also built in a a very good contingency. I mean we have about a 20% contingency built in. Uh the architect wanted to do 10. We made them double it. So um and then also uh I the latest contract the latest estimate we had also was going to replace the whole sheathing behind the behind the uh shingles because once we open that up we

we just feel like it's going to be rotted back there. So hopefully we've done [clears throat] everything to keep keep the costs where we need to be.

All right, there's no other questions on that one. Um, our second one is uh both of them have to do with our production truck. Our first one is uh the video equipment inside the production truck.

We have our video switcher which is uh probably about 10 years old now. Um and there's another piece of it that's probably two or three more years before that. It's well past its useful life. We need to replace it. Um we also have some other miscellaneous video uh switchers uh amplifiers and stuff in there. Uh I just got the first round of quote on that.

It's around $80,000 to replace that. So we're asking for 100 uh right now just to make sure we we stay within that ball, you know, within that um range. I think we'll be well underneath it, but it'll give us the little flexibility to replace. Hopefully once that's done, all of our equipment have been replaced now for the p over the past few years and and the equipment wise will be will be

good for five years, six years going forward. Um, so right now you have the Euro style van and I'm not even talking about the van.

Yeah, I'm not even talking about the vehicle itself. I'm talking about the equipment inside the truck, right? But you're also looking for the um Yeah, that's the that's the third one.

Yeah. So, so you have the Euro van which is is that got equip that doesn't have production?

No, the the Euro van is was built to move equipment and move personnel. So, when we go, you know, it was when we when we bought it, we were doing a lot more stuff on the road and bringing equipment with us. So, that um that helped.

Just lost the in. Oh, we just lost.

Um, so that that um I can still hear you guys.

All right. Yeah, you can we can't see you though. All right. So, that's all right. Just talk, Chris, if you need us to.

Um, so, um, yeah. So, so the the equipment is just in the big white production truck, which is the big box truck. Um, and that's the $200,000 that we had on the to replace that. So when we purchased that, that's over 20 years old now. That Yeah, it was uh 2004 is when we bought that. Um when we bought it, it was around 100,000. If we go to replace that for a like vehicle there,

they quoted me at $350,000 and I I could not stomach that at all.

So the nice thing is is it was built as a box on top of a chassis. So, we're we haven't um officially talked to vendors yet as far as but the the plan is to remove the box off the chassis that's on there now and then put the old box on a new chassis. Um talking to DPW, they were they were um quoting me about $125,000 for the chassis in the cab for an E550.

Right now we have an E450 which they keep on telling me we're overweight for the E450. Um so they definitely recommend going up to the E550. Um and so [snorts] 125 for the chassis, 2540,000 for the actual work of pulling the box off and putting the box on.

and and then at that time we would like to change over our gas power generator that's in the truck to more of a battery style um generator. So this way hopefully it'll be more reliable and it'll be less maintenance in the long run because we've had nothing but problems with our generator that's on our truck and it it seems to be air flow and just too hot in the location. So,

um, with the new garage that we're hoping to build within the next couple months, we're going to have charging, you know, a charging station in there.

So, when we park the truck, we can just plug the truck in, charge the batteries, and the batteries should run 10, 12 hours easily. And that is plenty for most of the stuff that we do off of battery power that we normally would need the generator for.

That that's included in the price, Pete.

The battery generator.

Yep. And the 550 still keeps them under the CDL, I believe.

And that's what we're trying to do. We we definitely want to stay under the CDL. I mean, I know we're we're getting close to the medical card. [snorts] Um we're trying to stay underneath that, too. I I don't want to have to stop making my staff get a CDL license.

Yes. Yes. Get CDL licenses or even the medical card because I know that can be a little bit of a issue at times. And so, um so we're trying to keep it all under that. used to be every two years until you start putting blood pressure medicine in.

You have a question, Chris?

It's everyone.

Yes. Uh what's Peter? What's your plan to What's your plan with the uh um the equipment that you're getting out?

Are you planning on just trashing it?

Are you going to try to like offer it to the schools? Are you just going to So, I I would not offer it to I mean, if the school wants it, they can have it.

But I I will tell you that I you know I'm routinely opening that thing up to get through a production. Um you know every couple months I'm usually in there inside the computer fixing something. So I think uh we'll just put it out for auction would be the best thing and list it as parts and um you know let somebody else buy it if they want some parts or or try to play with it themselves. But

I, you know, as much as I wouldn't mind offering it to schools, I think it would be more of a headache for them in the long run.

Yeah. No, that makes sense. I just wasn't sure if it was just going to get scrapped or anything like that. But yeah, no, I mean everything's all of our equipment goes through auction once we uh once we get to that point. Um I actually have, you know, a whole room right now full of stuff that I need to list on an on the auction site to try to

get rid of. Uh but most of the most of the time it's for parts, you know, that's how we list it because when when I retire it, it's it's been through the paces.

Absolutely. Thank you.

Yeah.

So, and and right now we have all the funding in our uh retained earnings. I think right now we have a $985,000 balance. So, this would be a you know be a good chunk of it be 350,000 off of that. Um, so but it's it's much needed right now.

Mhm.

So just to confirm, none of this will come from uh CAPC money. It's just going to be retained earnings that that you're looking at.

Correct. Yes. The DCTV retained earnings account. Yep.

Thank you. That's it.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

So, um, at our next meeting, that wraps up the, uh, departments for today. Uh, at our next meeting on 3:17 at 9:00 a.m., uh, I will be, uh, we'll be listening to park and recreation, ox and wreck. We also will have, um, the master capital plan review where, everything will be on there. um and um the candidates uh interview for the for the group. So, we'll have we'll coordinate that and whoever's um applied to be a

candidate in the group, I know that we had a few um we can interview them on the 17th. Um and then and then that should wrap up the um the session for uh for us and make any recommendations. I I would recommend that we make recommendations on the 17th, the town meeting. Uh we we'll review again the um the balances just so that we know what's there.

Um and then uh we can we can proceed with the uh recommendations. So Okay.

I don't know. Chris, hey Chris, are you there?

Yes, I'm obviously here somewhere.

Somewhere with no Wi-Fi. They No, that was the first time I've heard that that 10 years, you know. I know like um fire trucks, certain fire trucks have to be pulled off uh front line.

Mhm.

Is it because like the hover masters truck is considered a frontline vehicle?

That's the reason why it's 10 years because I've never heard that before of the reason of replacing something, you know, something you're saying.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I would only say that not [clears throat] knowing the um the uh technicalities of why uh you know, he would have waited 10 years. I'm sure it's probably because he was trying to get the most out of the vehicle.

And I'm not saying he is. He's saying that the town administrator told him that since it's 10 years, he's going to replace it. And that's that's the question I have. Um, you know, is it sounds like he's it sounds like he's not replacing it.

He's going to he's just going to hand it down to he's going to he's going to buy a new one and then pass that on. He's not going to get rid of it.

Um, but you know, it's got 50,000 miles on it. You know, it's not breaking down on him. It's there's nothing. He hasn't had issues with it, but because it's 10 years old. Um, and that's the first time we've got a lot of trucks that are a lot older than that. But is it just because it's a considered a frontline emergency response vehicle that kicks in the 10 years? That's clarification. I

Yeah, I'd like I'd like to find that out why, you know, the reason why.

Yeah.

Um, you know, I can understand I can understand that law. I just I want to know why it correct.

All of a sudden it kicks in.

Yeah.

We've never had it. We've never had it before. discussed it before, right? Or is it just that um uh Mr.

Hadad wants this on the radar and it hasn't been? Like I think with the Bahab Master, he's always kind of out there.

He's not really connected to the other departments and he's not in a system.

So, in that respect, I think it's good that he's putting it on. Maybe it's not for for this year. Um I think the idea of planning for the library too is good idea. Anything involving planning for the future I think is a good idea.

Yeah. on the on the capital plan, if you remember back about oh three years now, we didn't have a 10-year plan. We had a only a five-year plan.

So on the on the capital plan now, it goes out 10 years. So when I put the capital plan together, we ask departments, you know, what do you see in the next 10 years? It's important because we talk about schools, we talk about um infrastructure that could need replacement within that 5 to 10 year time frame. It's important that the committee knows that, you know, uh on an ongoing basis every single year,

right? uh you know and and [clears throat] a good good point of it well actually you know we mentioned it to him that we hadn't seen any right 10 year or fiveyear plan from the waterway at all or the harbor master um engines we've seen engines I saw engines yeah and I and I hate to say it but I I'll bet you that's at least eight years ago or so and we

haven't seen anything for quite some time and the proof is in the pudding then you look at what he's got for a budget and now you take 90,000 out of that budget. He doesn't have enough to pay for a motor or anything else like that.

So, it's a lot more important than, you know, ah, that's all right. We have money in our account.

Well, no, not really.

You know, and what that's got to be looked at.

I to talk to that Bruce like it also sounds like there are a couple open articles for those engines. They never got exhausted. So, uh Gary would be able to tell us, right?

Yeah.

Well, they might kitty, you know. Well, which I understand, but if if they have an article for say, you know, I don't know, 100,000 for an engine, that engine can now be 200,000 and he won't have enough in that article to cover it. So, it's that old it needs to be right. And I and I think if [clears throat] it's that old or those articles are old, they've got to be revisited anyway because technologies

changed. Maybe they shouldn't be looking at what they presented at that time. So, I think we really have to Yeah, I'm not sure what he I'd have to go back and look to see what he has for open articles. Um, I'm not sure if he has an open article on on any motus.

Uh, he stated it during it, so I'm just going to go based on what he said. Maybe he doesn't. Uh, but he said that he had a couple of open articles on engines uh that they haven't used yet. He's continued to use the engines that he has and hasn't had to replace them.

Yeah, I'll take a look at that. that because his last the last plan had you know buying these motors these motors would go to this one this would go to that one and keep on working and that was a cycle that was in plan but it hasn't it hasn't kept up the plan hasn't stayed current and that's I think that has to happen yeah I'll take a look at that what he

has for open article make sure that that's what I mean though about having a system and having things kind of rotate and followed and um when I joined the finance committee it it see it seemed like everything that was on the list was a reaction to something that was happening right now and we had to deal with it right now. So the fact that he's thinking ahead is is

not a bad thing at all, I think. But he's probably not used to it because he's kind of, you know, yeah, we we when we do the when when I review the open articles, we reach out to the departments to make sure that, you know, hey, do are you going to be using this? Are you going to be do you need this in the next two three years?

But right, I mean, you know, $100,000 motor today is $150,000 two, three years from now. Oh, yeah. So, um, you know, it's it then we would try to repurpose some of that money and put it back into the retained earnings or put it back into the into the um general fund stabiliz general fund uh retained earnings just so that we could use that money for other items. So, we did that

last year for we closed out a lot of articles that were just sitting out there and we keep on doing that on an ongoing basis.

Right. Right. Yeah, but with his budget right now, if he spends the $90,000 and he has an open article and they say, "Well, I've got an open article. I'm going to go out and get those motors."

And he depletes that even lower without having to come back and having any discussion with anybody. Yeah.

I think that's it's it's dangerous. It's it's not Yeah, I'll take a look at that enterprise to get us down to that point.

Okay. Anything else?

I'm No, I'm good.

Chris, did you have anything?

Pretty straightforward today.

Uh motion to adjurnn.

Okay, Chris is ready to go back.

Second.

Okay. Second by 30. All in favor?

I Okay, thank you.

Thank you.