Mike D'Angelo
Any structure that is owned by the town we cover. Electricians, plumbers, roofers, etc. We handle all major construction.
Everything I touch cost more today, plastic bags, etc. The labor market hasn't changed much but all the supplies have.
Signed a natural gas and propane contract, only going up 2.5% is great. It is a significant piece overall but controlled.
Electric put in at a 15% increase.
Water/sewer up due to the rate increase.
Telephone - bringing the police online so all the buildings will be connected and on the same network
How many FTEs?
35 full time, 10 part time and then 4 management staff
The things that are hurting me. The cost of the products that we are buying to replace are killing me. Not labor, just parts.
Will you exceed the $362,000 this year?
I can't. Stuff won't get done.
Remington-Jefferson is 14 years, no longer new; Keller-Sullivan is not new
The King St Fire Station is 10 years.
Can we look at a 5 year period?
But we have new buildings, new town hall, senior center, fire station...
Need to look at the increase in square foot increases year over year, at window sq footage, windows need to be washed
The telephone consulting is actually giving us money back. Reducing lines, keeping numbers. Eventually we want to go with fiber optics, that will help us save more.
5 leased, 4 at Parmenter, one at the High School. All the original ones were leased to own.
Bartlett - What is the life expectancy?
At 15 years, you might expect a total replacement. We did 8, 8, and 10. The first ones are 10 years old.
If you can help us with a narrative description?
Yes
You got to fix the things that you need to fix. As you go towards the end, you hope things don't break that cost a lot of money. You make it though the heating season, and then adjust.
Request is to add staff back at both the school and town. We lost 8 custodians. we clean bathrooms, we clean cafeterias, the rooms are lucky if they get cleaned once a week.
You can always make the schools look good on day one. Going through the year, it gets tougher.
We lost 8 out of forty, that was 20% of the staff. When a custodial system starts deteriorating, you go down a trouble road.
At an elementary level , the standard is a custodian can clean about 25,000 sq feet.
The high school is continuing to grow, maybe it will stop in a couple of years but it is a constant activity day and night.
We would add back four in the first year plus some part timers.
We don't pain enough, we could use the summer help to paint at least in year one. Then try to get the proper amount of folks in to maintain it on-going.
Using students as the part time help, gave them a job and ownership. They gained some respect for the work and effort to paint, clean the school. They would help police the other students to not write on the walls, etc.
Big difference in using students for help between what you can do with a public school versus a private school.
How much more do we spend at the high school due to its age versus the other schools?
I budget by school so I could look at the details. we actually have replaced a lot of systems there with 20/20, etc. If we had not done that, I'd be in trouble. A new high school will increase utility costs but reduce maintenance costs.
No more presentations for next time. Let's start to work on the model.
Look at minutes for the 4th and 18th to see. We should have them on the agenda to approve them next time.
Motion to adjourn.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Live reporting - DPW
Brutus Cantoreggi - presenting the insights on the DPW
We are already $100,000 down due to fuel costs. The salt bid came in at .71 vs .51 cents which is what we had been paying.
Budgeted for 550,000 for snow and ice this year; 500,000 last year just on salt. The past year was 1.1 million spent.
We have been trying to catch up by budgeting another 100K each year. We are short each time and can't catch up.
State reimbursed 3 years ago and 6 years ago.
Last year was an average year, this year will be more just with the salt increase. Over a million, probably 1.2 million.
We use 70 outside contractors, we only have 30 employees. We could not do it all ourselves. It is cheaper to do it ourselves, we pay overtime for our employees and we already own our trucks. Minimum we have to pay the contractors is four hours.
Initially we like to start bringing up the snow and ice budget by $250,000 per year. We need to get closer to the actual yearly cost.
All our road work is paid by Chapter 90, State funds, the Town has not budgeted for sidewalk or street repairs. Typically we are able to get 750,000 from the state. We can keep fixing stuff, it is going to deteriorate.
$28 per square foot for a concrete panel.
25 miles of unaccepted public way, sitting for 6 years in legislature in action
Water line replacement program, at the same time we rebuild the road. We use some water funds to rehab the road. 60% of the water funds, 40% of the Chap 90. Approx $800,000 to do Wachusetts St. They put down three inches.
The hot top is sometimes the cheapest thing to do. The money is in the drainage, storm water issue. Mandates coming down from Federal and State government, but there is no funding behind it.
Cantoreggi - They have targeted the Charles River basin (which we are part of) to reduce phosphorous by 60%. We are going to have 4-5 years but we will have to implement this. Without compliance, there will be a fine, possibly up to $25,000 a day.
Nutting - Police and Fire budgets comparison town to town is easy, they are generally apples to apples. DPW can be configured differently amongst the towns and therefore harder to get an apples to apples comparison.
Cantoreggi - It is a difficult thing to explain, we are out to respond all the time. water break, sewer back ups. Mowing fields can be fill in time. There is no way I can get rid of the guys doing the emergencies, that is what the people see. You need the bodies in house. I don't have the luxury of closing a park and keeping all the others up. What will happen will be a slow down in service, in stead of mowing every five days, it may be mowing every eight days, grass is longer, soccer may complain as the balls will slow down.
Cantoreggi - In DPW there is always more work than help.
The assessor needs help moving things, who are they going to call? DPW
Asphalt along the road is actually more expensive than the stuff on the road itself. We do all that hand stuff to save a ton of money.
Nutting - If we did outsource, we could use less mowers/equipment, still keep some but may not need all.
Cantoreggi - Outsource cutting the high school fields perhaps but use the DPW folks to do the Town Common.
D'Angelo - Pesticide handling is a problem. It actually costs more to print the paper to give the notice to the school students to take home than it does to actually cost to do the fertilizing. There are certain things that are cheaper to do in-house and others are cheaper to do via outsource.
Cantoreggi - The DPW guys are skilled and multi skilled. They paint but they are not painters.
Hardesty - How do you prioritize the work you do?
Brutus - A large chunk of what we do is water and sewer. Wells need to be tested daily. A lot of other stuff is seasonal.
Nutting - Public safety gets the big headlines, but DPW is far more complicated. 33 FTE's.
Whalen - We will need your help to craft the story. The public will see snow removal, fuel costs, salt costs, field conditions. We should target attempting to budget 85%, how do we get there?
Bartlett - Is there anything else we can do budget or legislative issues we can help with?
The street issue is the big one.
Whalen - What do people think about charging field use fees?
Trahan - If we outline how many fees people will pay, it can offset what the override would cost.
Bartlett - If we go with an override and a fee, the override won't pass.
Cantoreggi - a lot of the leagues are good and leading the way to take care of the field. I can't get them to pick up the trash though.
Ogden - we were losing 30-40,000 per year where the building use fees did not cover the expense of maintaining the space. Girl scouts, Cub scouts, and other groups are giving the School Committee a headache about the increase in fee. We charge Recreation for use. We charge Adult Ed.
Bartlett - if we decide to go down this road, we need to get all the leagues together and let them know.
Nutting - they all come together at the Rec Advisory Committee. It is a very difficult issue to address.
Whalen - I don't think we can take it off the table.
Cantoreggi - it is not much money to take care of the the parks and fields, but that is what the people see.
Roche - what about the recycling the older vehicles?
Whalen - this has been really educational. There are so many moving parts, it might be good to do a subcommittee to look at this more closely.
Nutting - Water/sewer is self supporting due to the fees but we get some of the roads covered.
Cantoreggi - They are self funded but not self managed
We are already $100,000 down due to fuel costs. The salt bid came in at .71 vs .51 cents which is what we had been paying.
Budgeted for 550,000 for snow and ice this year; 500,000 last year just on salt. The past year was 1.1 million spent.
We have been trying to catch up by budgeting another 100K each year. We are short each time and can't catch up.
State reimbursed 3 years ago and 6 years ago.
Last year was an average year, this year will be more just with the salt increase. Over a million, probably 1.2 million.
We use 70 outside contractors, we only have 30 employees. We could not do it all ourselves. It is cheaper to do it ourselves, we pay overtime for our employees and we already own our trucks. Minimum we have to pay the contractors is four hours.
Initially we like to start bringing up the snow and ice budget by $250,000 per year. We need to get closer to the actual yearly cost.
All our road work is paid by Chapter 90, State funds, the Town has not budgeted for sidewalk or street repairs. Typically we are able to get 750,000 from the state. We can keep fixing stuff, it is going to deteriorate.
$28 per square foot for a concrete panel.
25 miles of unaccepted public way, sitting for 6 years in legislature in action
Water line replacement program, at the same time we rebuild the road. We use some water funds to rehab the road. 60% of the water funds, 40% of the Chap 90. Approx $800,000 to do Wachusetts St. They put down three inches.
The hot top is sometimes the cheapest thing to do. The money is in the drainage, storm water issue. Mandates coming down from Federal and State government, but there is no funding behind it.
Cantoreggi - They have targeted the Charles River basin (which we are part of) to reduce phosphorous by 60%. We are going to have 4-5 years but we will have to implement this. Without compliance, there will be a fine, possibly up to $25,000 a day.
Nutting - Police and Fire budgets comparison town to town is easy, they are generally apples to apples. DPW can be configured differently amongst the towns and therefore harder to get an apples to apples comparison.
Cantoreggi - It is a difficult thing to explain, we are out to respond all the time. water break, sewer back ups. Mowing fields can be fill in time. There is no way I can get rid of the guys doing the emergencies, that is what the people see. You need the bodies in house. I don't have the luxury of closing a park and keeping all the others up. What will happen will be a slow down in service, in stead of mowing every five days, it may be mowing every eight days, grass is longer, soccer may complain as the balls will slow down.
Cantoreggi - In DPW there is always more work than help.
The assessor needs help moving things, who are they going to call? DPW
Asphalt along the road is actually more expensive than the stuff on the road itself. We do all that hand stuff to save a ton of money.
Nutting - If we did outsource, we could use less mowers/equipment, still keep some but may not need all.
Cantoreggi - Outsource cutting the high school fields perhaps but use the DPW folks to do the Town Common.
D'Angelo - Pesticide handling is a problem. It actually costs more to print the paper to give the notice to the school students to take home than it does to actually cost to do the fertilizing. There are certain things that are cheaper to do in-house and others are cheaper to do via outsource.
Cantoreggi - The DPW guys are skilled and multi skilled. They paint but they are not painters.
Hardesty - How do you prioritize the work you do?
Brutus - A large chunk of what we do is water and sewer. Wells need to be tested daily. A lot of other stuff is seasonal.
Nutting - Public safety gets the big headlines, but DPW is far more complicated. 33 FTE's.
Whalen - We will need your help to craft the story. The public will see snow removal, fuel costs, salt costs, field conditions. We should target attempting to budget 85%, how do we get there?
Bartlett - Is there anything else we can do budget or legislative issues we can help with?
The street issue is the big one.
Whalen - What do people think about charging field use fees?
Trahan - If we outline how many fees people will pay, it can offset what the override would cost.
Bartlett - If we go with an override and a fee, the override won't pass.
Cantoreggi - a lot of the leagues are good and leading the way to take care of the field. I can't get them to pick up the trash though.
Ogden - we were losing 30-40,000 per year where the building use fees did not cover the expense of maintaining the space. Girl scouts, Cub scouts, and other groups are giving the School Committee a headache about the increase in fee. We charge Recreation for use. We charge Adult Ed.
Bartlett - if we decide to go down this road, we need to get all the leagues together and let them know.
Nutting - they all come together at the Rec Advisory Committee. It is a very difficult issue to address.
Whalen - I don't think we can take it off the table.
Cantoreggi - it is not much money to take care of the the parks and fields, but that is what the people see.
Roche - what about the recycling the older vehicles?
Whalen - this has been really educational. There are so many moving parts, it might be good to do a subcommittee to look at this more closely.
Nutting - Water/sewer is self supporting due to the fees but we get some of the roads covered.
Cantoreggi - They are self funded but not self managed
Live reporting - Financial Planning Committee 10/2/08
Attending: Jim Roche, Roberta Trahan, Steve Whalen, Doug Hardesty, Jeff Nutting, Wayne Ogden, Miriam Goodman, Mike D'Angelo, Brutus Cantoreggi, Gwynne Wilschek,
Not Attending: Shannon Zollo, Matt Kelly,
Roche - let's publish an agenda prior to meeting, Steve has been good getting the meeting reminders out. We need to figure out a timeline to determine our financial model, build some assumptions, we are not here to arrive at the right number, we need to determine and understand the cost drivers, set the assumptions for the model.
Whaelen - without assuming we will go for an override, if there is one needed, we are going to need to start earlier, the work product will need to be good, explanable, etc.
Roche - next three months, build the model, start telling our story, circulate it for feedback
Bartlett - the Council will need to prepare in February that if no money is coming across, we are going to need to make some hard decisions
Nutting - the Town budget will need to come together, it likely will come out in the same time frame, one driver will be the School budget
Let's start - DPW will go first
Not Attending: Shannon Zollo, Matt Kelly,
Roche - let's publish an agenda prior to meeting, Steve has been good getting the meeting reminders out. We need to figure out a timeline to determine our financial model, build some assumptions, we are not here to arrive at the right number, we need to determine and understand the cost drivers, set the assumptions for the model.
Whaelen - without assuming we will go for an override, if there is one needed, we are going to need to start earlier, the work product will need to be good, explanable, etc.
Roche - next three months, build the model, start telling our story, circulate it for feedback
Bartlett - the Council will need to prepare in February that if no money is coming across, we are going to need to make some hard decisions
Nutting - the Town budget will need to come together, it likely will come out in the same time frame, one driver will be the School budget
Let's start - DPW will go first
"From a fiscal standpoint, it's a small action"
GHS
FRANKLIN —
Town Council last night voted to fund the late bus service to the town's three middle schools at a reduced price of $10,000.
Only Councilor Judith Pond Pfeffer objected to the funding. Holmes Bus Service offered to provide the service, which normally costs about $40,000 annually, for $10,000 this year after school administrators announced the district could not afford it.
The town will pay for the service out of an old account, Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting said.
The money comes from funds "donated" to the town in 2001, he said. In 2000, he explained, the Zoning Board of Appeals rejected an affordable housing application for Franklin Commons at 575 East Central St. by The Gatehouse Cos. The town lost an appeal and negotiated a settlement that reduced the number of units and gave Franklin $40,000 to be used for extending the bus service to the development or for other public purposes, he said. Since the GATRA, or Greater Attleborough Transit Regional Authority, bus passes by the development, the town no longer needs to fund extending bus service there, Nutting said.
Chairman Christopher Feeley thanked the owner of Holmes Bus Co. for his generosity, noting that he is "not even a Franklin resident."
"For the amount of money it's going to cost us, for the service we're going to get - we'd be foolish not to do this," Feeley said.
Read the remainder of the article in the Milford Daily News here
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Live reporting - Councilor Comments
Zollo - publicly acknowledge the efforts of the teachers stepping up and going beyond under tough times. Secondly to acknowledge the quality of the recreation programs in town. Acknowledge the DPW and grounds maintenance crew have been doing a good job.
Doak - question 1 on the ballot, don't like taxes, but the fact of the matter is Franklin would be hurt significantly, I will be voting against it and would like folks to consider this.
Whalen - if question 1 passes, the loss to Franklin would be $11 million and that is the probably close to the cost of the Fire, Police, and DPW.
Vallee - will bring something to new business about doing something for the Police Dept.
Feeley - thanks to Mr Holmes for reducing the Late bus cost.
Move to go to executive session and not return
approved 7-0
Doak - question 1 on the ballot, don't like taxes, but the fact of the matter is Franklin would be hurt significantly, I will be voting against it and would like folks to consider this.
Whalen - if question 1 passes, the loss to Franklin would be $11 million and that is the probably close to the cost of the Fire, Police, and DPW.
Vallee - will bring something to new business about doing something for the Police Dept.
Feeley - thanks to Mr Holmes for reducing the Late bus cost.
Move to go to executive session and not return
approved 7-0
Live reporting - Administrator Report
School building committee met tonight, good meeting
The Cable TV has a $500,000 gift account
- Tom Mercer, chairman
- Chris Feeley, vice-chair
- Scott Mason, clerk
The Cable TV has a $500,000 gift account
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