Select Board: January 7, 2026

Transcript captured from MHTV’s Vimeo auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:00 We’ll do this after call This meeting to order on January 7th, 2026. Announce this meeting is being recorded. We’ll open up the new year. Happy New Year to everyone with public comment. We want to get us started on a anthem lines. All right, we’re gonna move on.

0:21 So we have some contracts to approve. The first one is Gary School Playground Phase two. This is the funding coming from the Gary School Playground donation account. Uh, they raised all their money publicly through donations. This is phase two includes, uh, adding irrigation plantings, a DA accessible, and I think that this is also the equipment. Any questions on that? For signing a contract for 433,000, again, all this money was transferred in from the playground of donation. Does anyone recall what the total cost of the project was? Um, well with that, I think it’s, I think we had an ARPA about 200 when we were done.

1:07 Yeah, I’d have to go back to phase One. It’s, no, it, it’s just very impressive that the amount of money that was raised. Yeah. So they raised about half a million. Yeah. And then the rest of the phase one was done through us. Yeah, it was amazing. They did a great job down there. Wow. That’s really good. Yep. All right. If I could have a motion to award contract 26 dash oh nine phase two of the Gary School playground improvements between the town and Belco Landscaping and the amount of 433,000 authorized chair to sign the contract on behalf of the board. So moved. I All in favor, unanimous. Second one is to replace the overhead door at the DPW yard. This we paid through our repair and maintenance. Um, did I turn any insight on that other than replacing the door? Uh, no. I mean, it’s something that’s critical

1:54 for their operations, actually in the winter. Sure. To, um, keep the building heated and Yeah. Able to get the trucks in and out very quickly, efficiently. Okay. I get a motion Award contract, 26 dash 35, install overhead door at DPW yard between the Town and Commons overhead door amount of $14,695. Authorized the chair to sign the contract on behalf of the org. So moved. Second. All in favor? Unanimous. The next one, we have 50 Windows on C and Ave. That’s the one that we, the hos house improvement fund. Is the money coming out of there? I know. This is the second thing we’re doing. We did the, the deck and Yep. Some other work before Anyone have

2:40 any questions about those? Looks like the amount is just under 25 grand. Yeah, that’s a, that’s a great price for 50. Yeah. For 50 windows. Yeah. Yeah. It’s not to say it really is. Yeah. Um, we’ve put a lot of money into this building over the last few, few years. Is there, is it like, do you know if it’s kind of like this is it for a while? Like it feels like we’ve done a lot of pro projects Over, we, yeah. We’ve done the new boiler. We did the back porch, which also was an egress issue doing the windows. I don’t know if, if Steve’s here who help manage it something. So the, um, little Head counseling center has made their improvements using their funds for internal improvements. So we’ve been making improvements to the outer shell

3:25 of the building, and they’ve been making improvements inside the building for their, their needs. And that’s been predominantly ARPA funding. Yeah. The early, earlier stuff. Yeah. Well, because it’s probably about 80%, I would say. Right? No, Probably. I’d have to go back and look at the numbers. Yes. The siding building is, especially in the back, they only painted up top of the building. So, um, I have a capital, I’m putting in a capital request next year to do some siding there, there that should be hopefully hit for a while after that. How is that the Hobbs Improvement Fund funded? Do we have fair endow, fair amount of endowment for that? No. So I think this is just a, a, a, a,

4:11 a a line item for maintaining. Okay. So it’s coming out operating. Yeah. Okay. I, I think we need to look at how we deal with that property in the future. So, right. This is one, one of our assets mm-hmm. Of many that we’ve talked about with Steve Cummings and, and Alicia, of coming in with sort of a comprehensive look at all of our buildings, what their needs are, sort of doing inventory and building a legit facility maintenance plan. In fact, you, you, you’ll be hearing more about this Sure. In the sense that one of the, one of the financial challenges we have in our budget is that we’ve not, over years and years and years adequately funded maintaining our facilities. We’ve been doing capital funding to do things,

5:00 but we’ve not allocating enough funding to actually maintain the buildings, which at some point we’re forced to having to expend funds usually at a higher price and at a, you know, at a time of not our choosing. So we are looking to come forward with a more systematic Right, uh, funding program for maintaining our facilities and get out of this crisis, you know, jumping from crisis to crisis, fixing things. Well, remember though that we have a buildings article that we vote on every year that traditionally we’ve just kind of voted a fixed article and then prioritize the, you know, the ma the so-called maintenance projects Yeah. Uh, for the year based on that fixed amount so that,

5:47 you know, the projects then you projects that were still outstanding you roll over to the next year. Yeah. So I’m assuming that this comes out of the, of the article. So that’s, you know, I think think that was, that was marble head’s way of saying, okay, this is the amount we think we need every year for maintenance in the article. And, you know, obviously distinct from capital expenditures. Right. Yeah. So, so you’re, so you’re not actually drawing from the operating number, you’re kind of looking at the article to Well, We’re hitting the operating and so it’s happening is that, Uh, we’re hitting the operating number for, for this? Yeah. Okay. The, the needs that, that list is growing faster. Understood, understood, understood. Than What we’re peeling off the Top. Well, I think we have to figure out whether we wanna, you know, to, to correct it. Yeah. You know, do we up the article number? Yeah. Which I think is a useful mechanism to kind of highlight

6:35 what, what kind of the ongoing maintenance that we’re allocating To the town. I mean, I think we need a more robust buildings committee and oversight as well. If you look at how much we’re spending and, and the deferred maintenance think is something that we’re, We need something Into, right? Yep. So, and luckily we have Steve looking into that and has an ability. That’s Right. Yeah. Well, I mean, Steve, you know, you probably, you know, there’s a list, there’s a list of, you know, of kind of requests from the departments around buildings and, and that prioritization process gets done, you know, typically in coordination with the town administrator and, and, and the, you know, the professional staff around how that gets done. Uh, you know how that gets allocated. That’s the way it’s been done historically. So I think what we’re looking to do is centralize that and take it away. Well, It Is it away, but to centralize it so there is more efficiency. Well, there, it’s centralized on

7:20 the, on the town administrator, But as far as identifying what needs to be done as opposed to the departments from a professional taking Off, well, it comes well, yeah, that’s right. That’s right. No, obviously it comes up from the departments, right? Their requests. And then now that we’ve got, you know, more dedicated, you know, buildings manager, obviously that gets, gets vetted that way with your supervision. So as you, so we look forward to hearing more about that, that report as we go forward and how to deal with it. Right. So if I could get a motion to approve contract 26 dash 32 to replace, well, this is interesting. Originally our scope is 50 and we’re doing 35 windows. Yeah, That’s correct. Then it’s 50. So it’s still a good price. I know. So, motion to approve 26 s 32 to replace 35 windows at 66 Cliff.

8:05 Now, between the town and GA construction, the amount of 50 50 is the Correct number. Which one are we doing? 55 0. All. Let’s start all over. So not, so again, great, great price. It’s better. Again, look At that. We just, yeah, we save much up and down here. All right. That’s savings Motion. I’m just not even gonna read what’s on the same one. Motion to approve contract 26 s 32 to replace 5 0 50 Windows at 66 between the town and Gambal Construction, the amount of $24,950. And to authorize the chair to sign the contract on behalf of the board. So moved. Second. All in favor? Next one. Waterside cemetery expansion. The system articles 42 and 43 from last year when the money was transferred over to expand, um, the actual future variable sites.

8:54 Remove some granite trees, stumps, and the cemetery commission met on the 18th of December and voted to approve this. If I could have a motion to approve contract 26 slash 13 to expand the waterside cemetery between the town and Rafael Construction, the amount of 99,000 $130, and authorize the chair to sign the contract behalf of the board. So, all in favor? All right, we’re gonna move on to the school lease. Copper equipment. I just saw Mike walk in. Mike, you wanna, since you came here. Good morning. Happy New Year. Do you need PowerPoint? I, I, no. Okay. Right. How are you? Good morning. Thank you. Good morning. Good. Appreciate you, uh, having me on your agenda for Today. Anything for you? Absolutely. Um, so a very brief overview. Uh, our copier contract is up at the end of this month,

9:41 and, uh, we went out and solicited, uh, at least three vendors to give us proposals for replacement copiers. Um, through that process, we also looked at extending the term of the lease that we current, not the current lease. Currently we use a three year leasing term doesn’t require any additional approvals other than school committee. Uh, we looked at a four year, just because we’re looking at cost savings. We know how, um, strep we’re gonna be for the next couple of years. So we asked for four year quotes also, and we got two quotes that were very similar, uh, both lower than what we were paying currently. And, um, there are two different differences with one, you pay for the lease and then you pay for service and supply separately, and you actually pay for the to of cartridges. You get full cartridges, and you use them

10:28 where they sit in closets sometimes, which is a concern. Um, the other option is that you, they provide all the toner and service upfront and you just pay a click charge a co per copy charge, which means we have no outlay for toner sitting in car in closets, which is, which is huge for me. I, I way I’ve always wanted to deal when I, when I had to work copiers. So, uh, our request is that the select board approve our, um, four year lease term versus a three year. And because it’s over three years, it does require the, um, approval of the sitting body. That’s pretty good savings. Almost 22,000 a year. Yeah, it’s about $22,000 a year, you know, um, you know, it’s not gonna balance our budget for next year, but, um, you know, as we like to say, crumbs make up the cake.

11:13 So anywhere I can find a little bit of savings, it’ll be great. I Appreciate that. Great. Well, appreciate it. Um, I don’t have any questions. We trust you. No, I mean it, Thank you, Wayne. Question, Go ahead. Yeah. Um, did, it looks like 29 machines. Did, did anyone take a look at, you know, I know at my work we determined some just weren’t being used these days. Is That So There are, there are some that are lower volume, so we will be, um, replacing them. We, we will do some shifting of resources. Yeah. We’re not gonna reduce the number of units, uh, because, you know, certain departments require the confidentiality Yep. And the, uh, need to have a machine there, but maybe not the machine that they have or the, or the speed or the, or the, or the functionality that they currently have.

12:00 So, um, we, we did review all the, all the machines. We have their annual copy op, annual copy volume. So on every machine, uh, how much is in black and white? Um, each machine, each building does have one color machine, but it’s under strict control. That’s a, that’s an expensive, um, that’s cheaper than gonna Staples or, or Yep. That right. Or wherever else. But, um, it, it’s certainly something that we keep our tracks hand fingers on. The other thing I forgot to mention is these new machines will have, uh, the ability for us to scan our badges. So when we hit file print, we will go to one print driver, not an individual print driver for each 29 machines. You walk up to the machine, you tap your badge, it identifies how many print jobs you have in the queue. You release your job at that time. Um, it does two things for us. One, it allows us to see who’s, who the heavy users are, um, which, you know, not, not play big, big brother or,

12:47 or whatever it is. Um, but also it allows us to, um, well, two things. Print confidentiality. So if I print something, it’s not sitting on the printer for somebody else to see. Mm-hmm. And then also, um, a lot of times, not, a lot of times sometimes, uh, a staff member will print something they forgot, they printed it, they forgot to pick it up, it’s not there when they get there. Um, it’s gonna reduce our paper, paper waste. So, you know, if I don’t release it within 24 hours, it deletes the job. So again, reducing the waste. So, um, couple of things that we’re looking to do. But that is all included in that 21,000, $22,000 a year savings. So that’s, you know, for us, we got additional features for less money. That’s correct. And, and, and you did go with the, uh, where the company replaces the cartridges, is that right? Yes. So they, they, they provide the cartridges up front

13:33 and we pay it per copy. Right? Yeah. Great. Like, uh, I think it’s four mills or four tenths of a cent per black and white copies that include just service interest supplies. And I believe it’s 4 cents per copy for color. Now, your copy usage is pretty consistent. Uh, yeah. We’re hoping that this, we’re, we’re hoping that this is going to, um, drive it down a little bit, you know, um, not only copies, but the paper. Yep. And, uh, I will say on a totally different unrelated topic, um, for years we’ve been using the Crest Collaborative. It’s a educational collaborative. They do a bid every year for paper. They did not do one this year. And we went out and, um, we got a deal with Staples, and I think we’re paying 38 or $39 for a case of paper last year. And we’re down to $30 a case of paper this year. Which is weird because commodities paper’s one

14:20 of those things that just seems to have been skyrocketing over the years. And to, and to get a almost a 20% discount or reduction in cost was, was huge. Hopefully they’re coming down across the board. I hope so. Yeah. Yeah. Any other questions, comments? Second Question. You guys, you’re not currently using the bad system. Like, have you guys tested that before? So I’ve used it in my past two districts. I had it in Wakefield. Um, we saw that about 10 years ago in Wakefield. And then I, it was already in place in Have when I got there, so. Okay. Uh, and Steven, quiet Tech has experience With that. You’ve seen it where Yeah. I could just imagine. Yeah. You’re like trying to print a test and now you’re like, this badge doesn’t Working. No, it’s amazing. And, and actually, if you walk up and you tap your badge and it doesn’t work, you can log in with your u your username, which is your email address and your password. Like, you log in into your computer in the morning and it will then identify your badge. That’s how they first program their badge. Perfect.

15:05 First time they use it, they walk up, they tap it. It’s not your email address, it’s your Yeah. It’s your login name. Yeah. So mine would be Ping M. Yeah. And then I would put in my password. I’m not gonna tell you what that is. Yeah. And then it would, it would then code my card. So anytime in the future I use this card, it’ll only look for my jobs. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. That, that would just be my only thing if it was like, ended up Yeah. Being more of a headache, maintenance headache for you guys to then Have Not working, but it’s been pretty Seamless. Like two districts I was in previously. Not a, not a floor at all. Yeah. It sounds great. It it is. It’s amazing. Yeah. Especially from the waste procedure too, you know, waste and Tracking. Yeah. ‘cause then you’re actually showing up there. So, no, it’s great. Thanks. Thank you. Appreciate your presentation. Absolutely. Thank You. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Great. Have a motion to prove the school department entering a four year lease with UIO Business Services for the purpose

15:52 of procuring copier reproduction equipment. Second. All in favor. Unanim. Did, um, I probably should have said this. Does that need, I heard on your last one that somebody was authorized to sign the contract. I would think that you guys can actually, Because the you sign actually signing the contract is school committee. Okay. You just need approval of That. Right. Just allowing greater than a three year agree. Just didn’t wanna have to come back next week. Yeah. Thank you much. I appreciate your time. I’ll be to I’ll, I won’t be in time next week, but I can, I can remote in. All right. Perfect. Thank you. Thanks, Mike. Appreciate. Thank you. All right. Thanks. Ground, or we good? Uh, we’re good. Thanks. You need to come. We’ll be seeing a lot more of you, Mike, I’m sure. Okay. All right. Let’s move on to select board announcements. Any announcement we would like to make?

16:39 I have one. Okay. A, a, a good news one to start the year. Um, some people might know Dave Dragon, he works down at the COA and his granddaughter Hannah Friday, graduates from Paris Island Bootcamp. You’re kidding. Which is a accomplishment in itself. However, she is going to have an accomplishment. Very few Marines have in that she left for Paris Island for the 13 week bootcamp immediately after graduation. And in week 10 of 13, she sustained an injury. So the Marine Corps said, you can do one or two things, go home, no harm, harm file, won’t be mad at, or you can stay here. You can’t leave Paris Island, do your physical therapy till you’re well enough,

17:25 and then you can start bootcamp again. However, Restarting. Right. How, how, However you have to, How far into bootcamp did she get into Week 10 of 13. Oh, you’re kidding me. And she had to, as Moses knows, you can’t restart at week 10. You have to start at re week zero. Right. So she’s going to graduate, uh, Friday and Wow. And as most marines say, they glad they did Paris Island, but they wouldn’t Do it again. Well, she gets to say she did it twice, basically. Twice. If, if you see Dave around or his wife, em, congratulations. Awesome. Thank you. That’s great. That’s a great announcement. That’s a good announcement. Yeah. Thank you. Anybody else? Um, successful tree burning. Successful tree burning. There you go. Yeah. Good job with the, that’s the fire department. Yeah. That’s a great crowd. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. That was absolutely. Are they still picking up the trees? Do we know? Yeah, they’ll pick ‘em up

18:10 through the 16th, I think. 13th or 16th. Yeah. I think it was the 16th. I’ll have the 16th as well. You can always bring ‘em to the brush pile too. Yeah. All right. With that, could I have a, will we have a meeting next Wednesday? Yeah. All I, we meeting. So until then, if I get a motion to adjourn, so moved second. All right. All in favor? You. Thank you. Thank you. New.