Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall March 14, 2024 Present Members: Chair Evan Watters, Vice Chair Chris Menard, Clerk Tiffaney Tavares, Board Member Tom Gray, Board Member Dave Passios, Board Member Jean Russell (Zoom), Board Member Jay Simeone 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:01 PM. 2. Pledge of Allegiance Announcements There were no announcements. Public Comment There were no public comments. Town Manager Report A proposal was received for Marshall Park. There was a request for qualifications for the OPM owners project manager. A review will need to be completed to ensure all qualifications are met. The Parks Commission will then do interviews and rate the firms. The invitation for bids for the Flat Hill Culvert Project is due March 27th. The bids are out for cleaning services for the town buildings and are due April 4th. Last week the DPW Director indicated the bids for road maintenance came in and the bid was $127,000 under the estimate. This bid was awarded to PJ Keating for a 1-year contract totaling $634,000. The new growth and certification were approved at $630,220. The assessment figures from Monty Tech were received and were the same as proposed in the preliminary budget. The overlay of $120,000 in the budget is not going to change as per a vote from the Board of Assessors. The additional new growth of $236,025.50 will be added to the school’s budget. Finance Director Report Ezequiel Ayala received an email relating to the chapter 90 funds and plans to get those to the Committee next week. New Business Fire Department FY25 Budget Presentation The Fire Chief, Pat Sullivan, provided the presentation. Personnel Chief 1 administrative assistant/EMT 3 Career officer/EMT’s 5 Call Fire Officers (4 EMT’s) 5 Career Firefighter/Paramedics 27 Call Firefighters, EMTs and Paramedics The department is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Monday through Saturday there are 3 firefighters/EMT’s or Paramedics and the Chief. On Sundays, there are 3 per diem Firefighters/EMTs or Paramedics and an on-call duty officer. Current equipment includes: 3 engines/pumpers 1 ladder truck 2 forestry 2 ambulances 1 water rescue unit 3 support vehicles The proposed level service budget for 2025 consists of an overall 2.21% increase from last year. This includes contractual increases and 100% paramedics coverage. There are additional above target requests including EMS supplies, IT related software/hardware, replacement of public safety grade radios that range from $3,000 to $5,000 per unit and have a lifespan of 10-25 years. There is a $10,000 increase in radio maintenance. A grant for replacement of units was applied for but was denied. Evan Watters asks how many radios are needed for replacement. Chief Sullivan states they will need 4 to 5 radios a year but need more than 40. There has been an increase in ALS requests/ ALS transport because the call volumes are increasing and also the types of calls for service have changed. The private service is suffering from manpower problems thus falling back to municipal services. Evan Watters asked for rates. Chief Sullivan states there is a rate for transport at a basic life support level, a rate if you transport at an advanced life support level with minimal skills, and a higher rate for more serious calls. The more serious calls include cardiac monitoring, IVs, and administering multiple medications. Chris Menard asks how the bill from insurance is received. Chief Sullivan states the money goes back into a general fund. Dave Passios questions if they have been able to maintain a shelf life on EMT supplies. Chief Sullivan states some medications have a longer shelf life while others do not so it’s tough to maintain. Some medications due to the expensive are not always used but when you need it you need it. Dave Passios questions if the medication is under a contracted service. Chief Sullivan confirms there is a yearly fee for maintenance. Capital Plan FY 24 Update The replacement of Rescue 1 is ongoing and is estimated to be ready in early 2025. Phase 1 radio infrastructure replacement is currently underway, and the Fire Department is working with vendors. Capital FY 25 includes Phase 2, the replacement of public safety radio infrastructure. Not included in this budget request but will be needed in the near future includes additional money for staffing and equipment. The specific equipment is an ambulance. Currently there is a 10-year life cycle, and ambulances are retired at 100,000 miles. Chief Sullivan anticipates the life cycle will decrease to 8 years in the future. Grant Funding A state grant for firefighting equipment was received in FY 24 and $18,853 was used to cover 3 portable radios and the replacement of power saws. In FY 24, the EMPG Grant was awarded and totaled $3,750. This was used to replace 2 outdated cold water rescue suits and equipment was purchased for the inflatable rescue sled. Additionally, a grant for S.A.F.E. / Senior Safe was received and totaled $7,430. These funds were used toward the smoke detector project, senior safety, and fire safety education/ awareness for kindergarten through 3rd grade. Dave Passios questions if the Chief sees an opportunity in the near future to mitigate some of the overtime pay. Chief Sullivan states if a career person is out and none of the other career people wants the time it is then offered to be filled by a per diem person. If there are no per diem people who want it, then it is offered to a career person as overtime. Dave Passios questions if there are any additional opportunities or funding from government that can be applied for in the next couple of years. Chief Sullivan shares that there are grants but they do not directly apply to Lunenburg. Evan Watters inquires if we are fully up and running to support the 12,000 residents. Chief Sullivan states it is a balancing act. We are still covering a lot of the calls. We do not drop a lot of calls or have to call out of town for assistance. Evan Watters states that inspections are decreasing, fires are plateauing, and EMS is skyrocketing. He asks if we will need a third ambulance. Chief Sullivan states we aren’t able to staff an additional ambulance right now but there is discussion about having a mechanical spare. Evan Watters asks for confirmation that we are not at the call volume where we need a 3rd truck and Chief Sullivan confirms. Evan Watters asks when the last salary comparison was completed, and Chief Sullivan confirms it was about a year or two ago. At that time, we were considered lower middle in comparison. Evan Watters questions if we are set to make it to mid-2025 if the new truck isn’t here yet. Chief Sullivan says yes. Tiffaney Tavares thanks Chief Sullivan for the thoughtful and relevant presentation. Lunenburg Public Schools FY25 Budget Presentation Presentation by Superintendent Dr. Kate Burnham, Director of Special Services Julianna Hanscom, and Facilities Director Eric Hevy This was not the full school budget presentation and only consisted of questions by the Committee for the above 2 departments. The full presentation will take place on March 21st after the school has voted on their budget. Chris Menard asks about the circuit breaker program and inquires if the school sees this coming into play for FY 25. Julianna Hanscom does a forecast and creates estimates based on OSD tuition. The last 3 to 4 years the reimbursement has been at 75%. There is a discussion about Keystone Education Collaborative program and the rates being raised almost 11%. Dave Passion questions how the 14% increase was absorbed last year. Julianna Hanscom states it is probably absorbed with a lot of the carry over for the circuit breaker monies and that’s why that account has gone down. Dr. Kate Burnham puts emphasis on the need for mental health in schools. Last year there were 12 mental health crisis hospitalizations requiring home tutoring for a long duration of time. The prior year there were only 4. Dr. Kate Burnham states we can’t lose any social workers. Dr. Kate Burnham states we don’t find out our grant allocation for federal grants until late July or early August. They then need to be approved as quickly as possible because school starts 2 to 3 weeks after. Dave Passios questions if there is an absolute drop date under collective bargaining agreements that members of those unions need to be notified, Dr. Kate Burnham confirms, and that date is June 1st. Chris Menard asks if there are cuts in the needs-based budget for special education teachers and if they would still be able to keep up with IEPS. Julianna Hanscom states the cuts are not impactful as far as us not being able to implement the IEPs. The implementation may have to be done in a different way or consolidation of programs. Tiffaney Tavares is requesting more information on the number that helped decide what was put down on the proposed budget. There is a question of how the school anticipates more educational contracts and more children in need of separate services. Julianna Hanscom states there is no formula. The school is aware of what students are in programs who will then go into a program next year. There hasn’t been a large or small caseload, and the inclusion of teachers is between 15 to 20 students. Tom Gray questions why there was a $25,000-budget line for high school department heads but wasn’t there previously. Dr. Kate Burnham states it’s a stipend that they get on top of their teacher salary for their responsibilities as department head. Previously that was covered out of a revolving account, but it is contractual. Jay Simeone questions why line 2110 has risen. In FY 24 it was $234,000 and in FY 25 it grew to $271,100. Dr. Kate Burnham states that number is a combined total for that section of the budget. If you look at it broken down that is the instructional services director and curriculum director. The reason for the jump is that the last time the district had a curriculum director position was in 2012. When that position was put in, we partially funded the position in the local budget, and some offset through grants. Gradually we added a little more FTE into that budget until the full salary would be carried in the local budget. This doesn’t reflect raises. Dave Passios asks if the collective bargaining agreements are expected to be negotiated in 2025. Dr. Kate Burnham is currently engaged with the teachers’ union. The current contract expires June 30th. The first meeting with paraprofessionals union is next week. Those are the 2 bargaining groups. Additionally, Comparative analyses are being completed. Tom Gray asks if there is enough money to do the things that will maintain the schools at a decent level. Dr. Kate Burnham believes that is hard to answer. There was a problem with the middle high school elevators. Someone came in and assessed the situation and it cost $14,800 to repair. The state came in and did an inspection to get the elevator back online and it failed inspection because there was a leak in the hydraulics. Any day there is something that can go and it’s the kind of situation where I can’t wait until the fall to put it on a capital plan to submit for capital plan funding. School facilities director, Eric Hevy, started in October and did an assessment of all school buildings. There really needs to be some service levels agreements in place for maintenance. There are a lot of heating issues district wide. Eric Hevy received a quote for having 2 technicians for an eight-hour day to start going through the building would cost roughly $3,200. There will be unexpected costs. Chris Menard believes there are 2 things at play. Immediate repairs and what can be good for a 10-year plan. Chris Menard wants to know if there is equipment that could be purchased as capital and if there is anything on the operating budget that could be a capital plan. Chris Menard asks for a copy of the bus contracts. The schools will be going out to bid for school buses in January. Chris Menard asks why there is a line item for snow removal. Chris Menard doesn’t agree that this is their responsibility and the DPW should be handling snow removal. Dr. Kate Burnham states the only problem is we may have to cancel or delay schools to wait for the DPW because they won’t come to the schools to clear out the lots until the roads are cleared to their satisfaction. Tom Gray believes there may need to be more discussion after budget season. Tiffaney Tavares asks for what is considered a contracted service. Eric Hevy states that current contracted services include replacing air filters and belts. There is a service level agreement with one vender to come in and service the units on the roof quarterly. The fire suppression inspection and fire alarm inspections are service level agreements. Currently, everything is under 1 line item and it’s tough to sort through. Chris Menard asks if there has been a decision on whether to pull school services from TC Passios and if there is anything left in the Brooks house. Dr. Kate Burnham states this is still being assessed. The ACE program is a special education program for 18- to 22-year-olds that is housed at TC Passios. That program could be moved. The challenge is it’s a life skill, doing laundry and learning to cook. The ACE program could move down to Turkey Hill but there are a lot of other factors. An electrician is going to look and assess to see if there could be a potential move. Tiffaney Tavares asks if there are any contracts for things such as paper goods and dispensaries. Eric Hevy will look into this further. Tiffaney Tavares asks if there is a BMS system for the high school rooftop units. Eric Hevy confirms. Tiffaney Tavares asks if there is capacity when there is an outage or electrical issue on the rooftop that a notification is sent out through the BMS. Eric Hevy is unsure and will be looking into it further. Warrant Article Discussion The Committee received drafted warrant articles from the Town Manager. There was nothing to report out of the normal. There will be an article from the assessors regarding decreasing the age for the low-income senior exemption. There will be 2 articles from the Planning Board relating to the water district and battery energy storage systems. Chris Menard questions if Letter L from the OPB trust fund could be skipped for a year. The Town manager states it would come down to the bond council but it a sign of not having good finances. Tom Gray wants to confirm that SAP comp class is going to affect this year and next year’s budget. The Town manager confirms that is the case and that impact would come out of our salary reserve account. Evan Watters questions if Article Letter E doesn’t pass then it will fall back on the budget. Town managers states that will be a decision for Tuesdays upcoming meeting and potentially paying out of ARPA funds. Chris Menard asks the Town Manager if there are plans for Chapter 90. Heather Lemieux states there is 1.9 million in that account. Chapter 90 funds haven’t been used because those were being exhausted to get all the roads done that were on the old pavement management plan. There is a Bridge and culvert inventory plan that should be completed in the fall. This grant was applied for through the community compact. Town manager was informed that there needs to be a yearly voting on exemptions. Public Comment on FY25 Budget Presentation Anna Lockwood believes we need to explore creating redundancy in facilities in towns and create a succession plan. We’re not talking about saving money in operations we are talking about being more efficient. Anna Lockwood suggests meeting in the spring and do a 5-year plan. There are great conversations happening, but they are within 2 months of budget season, and they need to start back in August. Old Business FY21-FY23 Revenue and Expenditures Recap Discussion This topic was skipped. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion Previous FY25 Presentation There are no additional discussions. ii. Upcoming FY25 Presentations Upcoming presentations including Monty Tech & Administration, Sewer, Unclassified, & Debt Services. Minutes All minutes will be approved at the next meeting. Committee Reports Chris Menard states the Parks Commission was granted a 1-million-dollar grant bringing their secured grant money amount up to 2.5 million. Topics for Future Meetings Tom Gray would like to talk about consolidation of certain functions that should be done after budget season. The Board requested a presentation after budget season relating to the health insurance plan. Evan Watters states at the last Select Board meeting the Chair mentioned that the town side employees don’t have paid maternity leave. There may be a warrant article coming forward. Upcoming FY25 Budget Meetings a. Mar 20th – Monty Tech & Administration, Sewer, Unclassified, & Debt Services (FinCom) b. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public Schools Update (FinCom) Important Dates a. Jan 9th-Mar 18th – Town Meeting Warrant Open b. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing c. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant d. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting e. May 18th – Annual Town Election Public Comment Dave Passios reflected on where we are now compared to when the budget season started and where we are going to end up. There were many unknowns then and many unknowns now. The budget to be presented at the town meeting will be the best budget we could possibly bring forward and doesn’t believe an override is going to pass. Adjourn There was a motion to adjourn by Chris Menard, seconded by Tom Gray. All in favor. The meeting closed at 10:26 PM.