you you you you you you you you you you you All right. Good evening, everyone. Time is now six o'clock and we're going to have a little talk with you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Excellent. All right. Good evening, everyone. Time is now 6 o'clock and today is night two of our three-day work session on the fiscal year 2026 budget for Narragansett. And tonight we will be discussing the following budgets, towers, town clerk, municipal court, board of canvassers, engineering, water enterprise, and wastewater enterprise. So I will pass the baton back off to you, Christine. Just like what I said in night one, we go through the whole budget and the salaries and benefits are done by the finance office according to contract and negotiated costs and Next is the towers David it's all yours Good evening guys Two of you up there probably already are familiar with my budget, but Alex you you are not. Basically, the Towers budget is pretty consistent with last year's budget. The only significant change is the total revenue projected is down slightly because we changed our table and chair program to where we own all of the tables and chairs. So our gross revenue is down a little bit on that. But we actually net more money because we don't have the rental expense and that rental expense is that line 502 09 last year was budgeted at 12,000 this year it's budgeted at 8 and that 8 is is probably high. So we don't actually, you know, now that we've got a little history on that, we don't actually have to read hardly anything anymore. So that number will be much lower than the eight. Other than that, the total tower's budget is about $390,000 and that includes any capital work that we do there in the year. The $50,000 appropriation from the general fund is primarily used to increase the fund balance back to a level prior to COVID and also to supplement the capital that we do. The 50,000 does not go to help the operating budget at all. Any questions? Well, I think it's, again, it's a pretty well-defined budget. It seems pretty flat year over year if I'm interpreting that correctly. Can you just explain just a, because since we were a new council, just explained the quick sound light on the direct obligation that I'm reading, the direct obligation, transferred to the terrace from the General Fund. I know you had mentioned it, but can you just explain what that obligation means? It's not an obligation. Now, unlike the trust, the land trust, which is codified in the ordinance that created the land trust, that the towers commitment to the, let me back up a little bit, the towers committee's commitment to the town is that our operating revenue will cover 100% of the operating costs. Any surplus beyond that is used for capital projects. Recognizing that major capital work on the towers is more than what our operating revenue can cover. So for many years, the town has appropriated that transfer of 50,000 and it was used on major capital projects. Then during a few years prior to COVID, we were doing well enough and we had a fun a lot of things that we had to do a lot of things that we had to do a lot of things that we had to do a lot of things that we had to do a lot of things that we had to do a lot of things that we had to do a lot of things that we had to do a lot of things that we had to do a lot of things that we had to do a lot of things that we had to do a lot of things that we along, we had a lot of operating expenses that continued with no revenue to offset it. And so the fund balance for the towers was dramatically depleted. I would anticipate in the future, once we have an adequate fund balance to cover any unforeseen circumstance like the COVID, we would for go the $50,000 appropriation again. One of our committee priorities for the year is to identify specifically what we need to have in the fund balance to cover unforeseen circumstances in addition to properly funding our planned capital work. We have not completed that task yet. Excellent. That's the only major question I had. Councillor Dirk, do you have any questions? I just have a I have a comment. I have been on that Towers Committee for a long time. If I am not on the Towers Committee, I am on the friends of the towers. It is one of the most efficiently run operations that I see that we have. The place makes money, people are very productive, and there's a lot of volunteerism there. It's proud to be part of that. I've seen it go from nothing to something. And we're very lucky to have that gentleman right there in front of us. Still at the helm. When he goes, it's going to be a big problem. Stop, stop, stop. So his history and what's in the head and the amount of time that he volunteers there is incredible. So thanks Dave. Excellent. I love the job by the way. Great Chair. Councillor Turelle. Did Oda watch him said? Yeah. Thank you Dave. Appreciate you putting together the report. The only question I had was just regarding the purchase tables and chairs. What other, you know, investors do you think will be making in the next couple of years to try and make the towers kind of like a one-stop shop, you know, really fortify it for events? Inside the towers or outside? Yes. Yes. Okay. We've, we, the courtyard, especially the fountain, is in need, is some loving attention. There's some repairs going on on the plumbing for the fountain itself right now. There's gonna be some more expense to do some masonry repairs and refresh the landscaping. Inside, we don't have anything really sexy. There needs to be some lighting improvements in the attic. And we're toy in with the idea of illuminating the cupola in some nice way, as opposed to tacking up strip lighting for the holidays. Was it historically lit over the years by lamps or something? Who knows? I don't know. There used to be a chandelier under the arch over the roadway. No. Which is kind of interesting. That's pretty good. That's pretty cool. I think it'd be primarily ornamental as opposed to functional. Yeah. But hopefully before the current fiscal year is up, we're gonna try and do a refinishing of the third floor. That's about it for now. Going forward on the outside of the building, a major repaint of all the blue trim it's due. Some security cameras on the exterior of the building. All right. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate all the work that you do. You're welcome. Thank you town clerk's office. That's three budgets and pretty much overall. I think it first one is the 502-01 professional services. That increase was due to stenographer fees for the public hearings that we've been having as well as the increase in the codification. We've been doing that more frequently. So that's the increase there. The the application is of the ordinances just in case you don't know about this. How does that work on the codification? Like, do we do that ourselves? Yes. We do that ourselves. Yeah, the proof comes through. Unicode does it for us, but then we have to proofread the supplement when it comes through. We previously hadn't been set up on a schedule to do it on an annual basis or anything like that Which is why they got behind But we are changing over to a by annually system So we're going to be doing the codifications in March and September moving forward so that we're always up to date with the online code So something that gets passed in April has to wait until has to wait like six months to get codified? Well, moving forward, if it was passed in April, it would be part of the September codification. So it would get woven and then. Yeah. But now, I mean, it was a few years before it would actually end up codified into the online code. Yeah, because that was, you know, that was hard to look up. I'm not really. Believe me, I know. I live it daily too. So I'm sure that in the last few years, moral audiences have passed in the years previous, maybe. Correct. It's probably half the reason. Yeah. So that's why you see that increase there. That's gonna be that increase will stay moving forward because we're gonna stay on top of it The next increase would be 502 await which is advertising and promotions that is due to all the advertising we do for our public hearings We've typically always gone over budget on that anyway it needed to be increased but especially with all the zoning changes that are coming down from the state it definitely needed to go up. 50304 is the copier agreement shows it's an increase on that that is only an increase of $500 but that's to supplement the surface agreement that's needed for the copy or scanner that's in the community development office that we share with building. We scan all of our plat maps and for the land evidence through that copy. So we're going to share that agreement. 50310, you'll see a large decrease for the professional meetings. That's because we've now added new line items. Excuse me for professional development. We didn't have a professional development line item. So we created that and it's been moved. Going down to the next page, slight increase in mileage that's due to professional development. Mileage two and from conferences for the education. And that's it for our town clerk for an increase is everything else remains the same. Looks like there's like some traditional just insurance as well, right? Sallies and benefits. Yes, yep, which are all based on contract. Yep. All right. Yep. So I don't have any questions or the only, you know, comments extremely well organized. I expected nothing less. Councillor Tariya, any questions? Anything for you? Excellent. Perfect. Thank you. So we will flip the page to the municipal court budget. This one is pretty easy as well. Just the contracted salary and benefits that finance tells us what we need to put for that. There's an increase in 50303, the printing services. We're budgeting. We're leaving that still a little bit high. We're unsure with how many tickets we need to purchase for this year for the parking tickets. And that also comes out of the parking permits. We ordered that through that account. So we needed to increase that a little bit because we did go over what we had budgeted last year due to the increase in the parking permits needed for the three hour parking that was added. And the one other increase that you see is 50607. It's on the second page office equipment. That would just increase a few hundred dollars. That was to order a printer to have upstairs here a municipal court for the administrator to utilize. But overall that budget actually decreased six and a half percent. Excellent. Any questions on that one? So the revenue that we bring in, the revenue that we bring in is, what's the total revenue that comes in through minutes of the court? That's tomorrow night. Oh, oh, oh, that's a spoiler. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. To be continued. Any other questions, Jim? No. I'm surprised how expensive printing is by today's standards. I'm sure that is a difficult number to budget for, but that really is surprising. But again, happy to see you overall. We're 6.5% less than we were last year. Yeah, parking tickets are expensive, but they generate a lot of money. That's true. But so. I have one question though, it's probably, it's coming to my mind, but it's not topic and maybe you can make a note. Okay. Could we find out How many pockets tickets get issued to residents in Narragansson? Is that possible? Or is it they all going to some big lump pool? I'd have to see if the report can generate by address. So registrations that are registered to the answer residents? Just if you could. Okay, I can see if we can figure that out. If it's possible, I wouldn't want to done manual. Okay, yeah, I can see what we can do. Excuse me. Sorry, go ahead. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'll just give you a little hint. Now, the revenue, usually, from municipal court is about 400,000. Okay. Last year was 386. This year so far, it's 354. Yeah. because I remember when it was started, you know, it was supposed to like kind of pay for itself. I guess it still is. Councilor Terrell, do you have any questions? No notes. Excellent. Thank you. Okay. We're going to flip over to the Board of Camusters budget. This is pretty, pretty easy here. This budget actually decreased overall 23.4%. That's what happens in a non-election budget. So there's absolutely no increases here. Even the wages went down because the clerk that we had as a Board of Camusters clerk was a 10-year clerk. So she had longevity, her pay was higher, she was a clerk for. So even the salary and benefits went down on that one. Any questions, Councillor Durgeon? No? Yeah, no. You're right. This one was pretty straight forward as well. Council, turn out any questions? Nope. Excellent. Okay. Yeah, no, you're right. This one was pretty straightforward as well Council to our other any questions Excellent. Okay easy That concludes my budget presentation. Thank you so much And next up we have Jonathan gear hard for engineering water and wastewater Excellent good evening same type situation, obviously salaries and benefits from finance and his engineering budget actually went down 1.6%. Amazing. Shocking development. Yes, as Chris mentioned, the wages and all the personnel expenses are all generated out of finance based on contract. And we really don't have a whole lot budget. The rest is just all the supplies for the most part and some mailing services and alike. So the engineering budget is pretty straightforward. And the only other item we have is we're doing capital too. So the capital Ims we do have in there is the copy machine is going on 10 or 12 years old now, I think. I think 2013 or 14 is when it was purchased. And I can show you some of the things that were printed out of it. There's some lines and striping that are coming up. They continue to come up and there's a lot of maintenance. We have a maintenance agreement, a service agreement that probably not making money on us anymore on that one. That's one of the cap capital items budgeted and in addition to that two iPads for the engineering staff can use those when they're out in the field as opposed to taking paper documents out with them and have access to more information instead of trying to guess what you're going to need to copy of printing it out which we'll save on the copying and printing expenses. So those are the only capital items. And other than that, the engineering budget is, as Chris said, has dropped a bit from last year. Excellent. Now the two iPads are those going to be set up the same way, connected through the same server as the town there. Yeah, they'll have Wi-Fi and access, so whenever in town hall they'll be able to access the town network and it'd be secured that way. But when they're out, generally I think they be able to access a public network somewhere or I believe we are setting them up if we're going to set them up to have cell phone access so that if we need to go and can generate that way, but generally we're going to load them up with a lot of the documents that are on the server here so that they're there and they're accessible on the drive. That the small devices have such a huge amount of memory right now. We just bought some for the water side so that they get out their water maps and things like that on there. And there's tons of memory available to put as much old paperwork on the devices as possible. So, but they'll be wireless compatible and fully integrated and we buy them through IT and IT sets them up. So we know that they're gonna be secure. Thank you. Is there any reason why they couldn't be 4G or 5G enabled? I don't, I don't see why not. I mean, I think it wouldn't curl a slightly larger cost and probably, you know, network fees. But if you guys are going in the field with no guarantee that you're necessarily connecting to a public network. Oh, yeah, no, no, exactly. Like I said, the primary use is that they'll will load them up with the documents that they have. A head of time? Yeah, they'll be holding this. A lot of it is plans or field cards or things like that and around the field. And it's like, oh, we might have a plan for that. So they'll have, essentially, they'll just They'll go and upload and then back up, almost like it's a backup for some of the files that are here. But like I said, they'll just go and upload and then back up. Almost like it's a backup for some of the files that are here. But like I said, they'll probably sell enabled and we'll have it access. I just don't recall of the quotes we got. Generally, it's almost like you've got to pay extra to not get that option. I believe we've got them wireless both Wi-Fi and and sell compatible I would definitely advocate for the cellular connection Sorry, I just noticed you know myself. I noticed whenever I go in there John the staff is always very helpful And they dig through they go out of their way to dig out the history and find different things they ask and for. How is the other topic, which just comes to my mind. So the sewer infrastructure thing, is that coming to it? We're going to see a report on that soon. Which sewer infrastructure do you, the one they keep talking about? Well, there's a lot. I heard it mentioned quite a few times. We've got a couple of things going right now. One is the M-TAP municipal technical assistance program, which was a grant where we are looking at the capacity available, is the impact and capacity needs for developing vacant or under utilized properties that are town owned. It may actually, it may be all for if they're just town owned, but the potentially available properties, sort of in line with some of the zoning changes, although it doesn't really have capital join. all, if they're just town owned, but the potentially developed properties sort of in line with some of the zoning changes, although it doesn't really, capital-gilling changes just counts for the vacancy. That we have the initial report that's identified the vacant properties and the potential that can be potentially developed, we've got a workshop coming up in a couple of weeks, and then after that they'll do the rest of the report to find the impacts and then that'll be presented. And then we'll have the final report on that. We haven't developed a schedule for that, but I would expect it'll be done in less than three or four months. And in a wasteful facilities plan is the other one. That's the big 20 year planning document, which I assume you were talking about as well. That is scheduled to be done by September. So we've got to go through public hearings with that. So that'll be a long, they'll be meetings here in town hall for public as has the right yet by statute regulation. We have the whole public hearings to get comment and incorporate all the public comments and everything into the document. And that and that that's a project is being worked on by a consultant and another one it was we got a grant from from the Department of Economic Development Federal grant to do that because it's tied in with trying to create some additional capacity and and Not so much volumetric capacity the treatment capacity to accommodate additional seafood processing in Galley, which we had some back in the day and mid-90s and that's why the treatment plant really never met permanent in the mid-90s. And now the pre-treatment or regs are in place so that the plant is operating better, but it really Makes it difficult to have any kind of real Significancy food processing down down in Galilee. So that's that's due to be done in September And that also includes the townwide All the town with pump stations and the like so it's a 20 or 20 year planning document for all the serve all the facilities And then what about the upgraded the water meters? Is that something that you... Ah, the customer meters? That is, that's one, it's been budgeted for a few years here now and that contract is gonna go out. We were holding off on that, basically, because you can't change your customer meters and that technology and programming at the same time as you're changing out your utility billing system which we finally just completed after two plus year or a deal and two different vendors that we went through but we are live with utilities now. We have not sent out the bills with that new system yet, but we are processing payments. But that's the contract that's coming about this year. So that's on our budget. When we get into watered up, we'll talk about that item that's in the budget. So we will be replacing all the customer mirrors. Thank you. Councilor Chair, any other questions or comments? No notes on my end. Excellent. Thank you. Councillor Trafford, any other questions or comments? No notes on my hand. Excellent. Thank you. All right. And the next up is the water budget. Again, the personnel, wages and benefits are all driven by the contract and the longevity employees specific to the positions. We get down into most of the budgeting for chemicals and other consumables and normal operations based on what our history is and budgeted in accordance with last year's numbers with some minor increases if we are aware that we are expecting cost changes in any of the contracts. There are a couple items of note. One of the items that we talked about the printing earlier. Printing services for the water and it will be the same for the wastewater or show a significant increase over last year that's due to the current costs and that we've had up to now on printing the bills out and mailing the bills out. We just bid the contract that's scheduled to be awarded coming up on Monday night for the new printing service. The old printing services were through our prior vendor as we were retiring at the prices were changing and the increases kept coming. So we're expecting that number should go down but we budgeted as though it's we're going to incur the same costs this year so hopefully when a new contract comes through we'll see some savings there and again in the capital projects just go through we've got what remain replacement program and that's just generally, we've got that. It's kind of a token of mountain air in case we have to do any kind of some small and minor repairs or replacements of anything. And then looking forward, we're going to have to start. We've got some real aging infrastructure in the town and we're going to need to start thinking about Think about Replacing and we have to develop a plan for that as well. So that's that's moving forward on that that first item and that's line at them 003050651 I forget that he's still going to same order as the numbers. The other ones we have a general capital item that we carry each year for unexpected or needed items that's line item 50704, $100,000,606, $604, $506, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $606, $60 some old numbers we increased it a bit here and then I think the only item to note on that is in terms of budgeting. It's budgeted with F. I mean I have flipping pages here. Is it for? Yeah, it's part of its budgetate under the revenue of the general revenue and the customer fees in the other part is possibly a special assessment. But I know we're in terms of the fund balance where we're above on our outside our range. So we maybe it'll modify those numbers a little bit, based on, depending on what the, what the bids come in at. When I get, and get a contract out to bid for that. That's a good question. Yeah. Yeah, John, I don't get to see you that much, so I just wanna ask you some of these questions. Yep, that's my line. So the water meter program, when it comes online, when all the meters are replaced and stuff, will people have access themselves to the reading? Like can they check their reading on a phone or some sort or? In theory, yes, all the new AMI technology will have a lot more access and alike. But what will happen is it'll end up being, it all depends on the system we get and how we integrate it with our Tyler system and whether it's through Tyler or whether they can or whether it's through the meter vendor and that program. They'll be software support and they'll be a metering system, but they will have increased access to the information and be able to get it quicker. And I'm trying to address what I think one of your other questions will be is whether we be able to increase, you know, go from quarterly billing down to more frequently or add electronic billing and those are all items that our new system has the ability for electronic billing, but there will be increased access for people to be able to see what their flow is. Yeah, I don't think, I don't think the increased, like the number of bills would be the important part, but I'm sure you spend a lot of time or your staff spends a lot of time with you know people finding out three months later that they had this huge water leak and they didn't know where it was going and you know and I'm sure you get those calls every day. And that's another thing where those will those systems if it will have the ability to notify if there's a, you know, an increase, you know, that there are some warnings that can be set in those things depending on the level of access and the amount of access. But, you know, the whole purpose of, you know, improving the meters one is because they're, you know, they're old, the meters were replaced 20 years ago, so they're in need of replacement again. but also to try and reduce the amount of lost water, whether it's lost, just lost, and not used, but the customer has to pay for it or, you know, catch those things more quicker in time and have better and have better accountability for. Yeah. As a whole. That'll be, that'll be a welcome. Yeah. That's the other one that sings I'm going to try to get to get to. Let's see here. So that's the water meter radio read, water meter replacement program 50654. That's just the regular, that's our, that's customer meters, you know, when for for, that are existing in the system and, and damage and alike. So that's just a set aside and we use that as, as we replace existing meters to customers. Because again, generally the customer pays for the first meter and that's why it, it come out of user fees or the like. But, or the special assessment, the previous, the meters that were installed, the major replacement program had, I believe it was half of it, was a special assessment and I built it over time. But we don't go back and charge them again for a new meter if the meter replaces because the town owns the meter. But the customer is responsible for paying for it, at least the first time around. The next item is the, and that's the replacement program. The next item is new services 50614. That's just generally just for new water services and contracted costs and the new meters where we would charge the customer directly for the new meter, but as it gets installed there, so some of that money gets recouped from fees to the new customers. MasterMeter replacement program is the main meters where we purchase our water from North Kingston and the Olya, and we're scheduling for one meter pit, one, one, eight, to be, and the one meter would be replaced in some piping upgrades. It needs to be cleaned up inside that meter pit, and then move it forward a couple of the other pits, and then down the line we have some emergency meters that there's a backflow meter where it's across from Scarborough Beach that if the Olya takes water back from us on the backside in the summertime, then it charges there so we'll replace some of those meters because they're old and the Department of Health is requesting that some of those get replaced in the near future. And then building and tank improvements is just miscellaneous improvements to the facilities and those are just generally budgeted. You know, we've got, we've got somebody just to maintain our facilities and I think we've got some painting, roofing, painting and re-roofing the garage, and I believe we have, we want to upgrade and replace some of the fall protection equipment in the tank, in the tank ladders, and where they have the staff has to climb the tanks. And that's 50613, and then the last, what a project is, the vehicle request program, that's, there's nothing this year, but this is in because we've got, you know, next few years we've got some vehicles that we expect to be needed for placement and we'll just show that shows the budget planning moving forward. That's everything on the waste water side. I'm sorry. Did you say we purchased our water from North Kingston? Yes, some of the water is purchased from North Kingston and that's basically the North End and on the west side of Bridgetown Road or I'm sorry, Walson Lake Road, North of Bridgetown Road, Chammley, if you can draw a line. And then the rest of the town is service by the oilio, whether it's directly diasco or our purchase, what are we, the oilio, water for the North end comes from across at Middle Bridge, but comes up down West Bay, West Bay Drive and there's a meter pinned down there. Do we have, I just wanna make sure that I'm reading the right lines and this budget plan, do we have an approximate expected expense, or expenditure, excuse me? Yeah, that's, but that we pay each. That should be a town. Water. It's purchased water. Should be the line item. It's. Yeah, it's five of four one zero. And it's where we're budgeting a decrease this year based on. We generally budget based on what the previous years usage was or some Proximation of Several years were the use and Whatever increases are budgeted The the oia has a like a two and a half percent markup that they're allowed under their PUC agreement. I'm trying to think if they may not have increased it last year, but we've included that. And then North Kingston has some scheduled increases in their rates as well, which are all accounted for in there. So the budget for that is $705,000. Next. Thank you. Councillor Dirk and any other questions? No, I'm good. Councillor Tauri, how do any questions? Two questions. One, could you expand a little bit on the elevated storage tanks that Juan to install in three locations. Storage tanks. What was just just at the three locations? Oh, could you expand on a little further? Okay. Um, I'm just trying to figure which one you're going to. So we've got we've got three tanks to two in the south end. One is on both proximate to point you to throw. One is at all point you throw Kenny Avenue. That's the Kenny Ave tank That's 750,000 gallon elevated storage tank And then the other tank in the point you the section is the point you to tank at the end of the escape road Another seven or 50,000 gallon elevated storage tank and those are basically there to hold you know They'll essentially pressurize the the system force. We have the bout, we have the supply to the oil, is that root 108 in the field, you know, by the front of the eventually land and next to Dunkin' Donuts there. You know, the meter will open and close as the tank levels drop and then they fill the tanks up and then we hold and then as the tank levels drain and that provides pressure in the system and you know mercy fire suppression for a few hours and things like that. So that's the two tanks in the south and again like I said the budgeted item for this year I believe both Kinney and the point you to the tank we have we're going to replace the full protection equipment, climbing harnesses and safety cables and all like there. The North End Tank is behind the fire station, fire station three on Boston, Inc. Road, in front of Christopher Park. And again, that's a different type of tank. That's a standpipe, so it's not an elevated tank. So it's just a a big column of water that's a half million gallon tank but generally you only have about 300,000 gallons worth of storage inside it you don't fill it up all the way and again we're looking to replace the fall protection equipment there. All right thank you. the full protection equipment inside the tube that goes from the ground. At point Judith, yes, there would be. There's you go inside the tank. There's the cone at the bottom. You go inside the tank and there's an access manway that goes up in there. And the same at Kenny with one exception is that you go inside the tank. There's another level you can walk up before you get to the tube, a couple of separate patterns. So that full protection system is gonna be budgeted for a little more expensive, because you got about three or four different ladders, but essentially it'll be a safety cable. Right now it's a notched rail on some of them, which is a piece of galvanized pipe with notches in it, and then your safety, you put the climbing harness on, and then you've got a safety carabiner clip that you clip on to the notch rail, and you climb yourself up the ladder. The new ones are cables, and they're a little easier to climb, but you kind of have to hold them there. A little awkward, some people say that they're, if I could put both hands on the ladder, it'd be a lot less likely than a fall, but that's where they are. But there's a part of it is it fixed to the ladder and any other park who's on a harness that the personnel wear and then they clip onto that device and then they climb up and things. Is that our own personnel that actually climbs up to those two? Yeah. So good exercise. Yeah, there's some stuff going on up there And it's like, I keep talking to our water foreman. I'm like, I really don't want to have to. I don't even know if I could physically do it at this point. That's a good one. I can't run to have to. I don't even know if I could physically do it at this point. That's the last time I came around last time I was on a treadmill and long trying to climb up 140 foot ladder. And then the fear of heights has kind of a little bit to do with that as well. So. Any other questions? Excellent. Thank you. All right. Okay, we can move on to the waste water side. The same drill with the personnel expenses all budgeted based on finance and in our actual personnel needs. One item I will note is we are short staff right now in wastewater. We had some personnel leave and we're trying to replace those. We just had one new hire that started a couple of weeks back. We're interviewing now and we're expecting a retirement soon. But we're pretty certain that that's not going to happen until we get to the other positions filled. So the actual expenses for this year will probably be a little less on payroll, but for next year we budgeted based on based on what the personnel were at the time. So that those budget numbers may come down a little, if we end up end up hiring, you know, lower level entry level, the lowest level on the seniority and the wage rates. Anything else in here? A couple of the major items that we have. Again, printing service, we budgeted for as much as we're paying this year but we're hoping that number goes down. And we've got, let's try to find some other numbers. the sewage treatment number, the 50411, that's, 50411, that's 50411, that's $1.3 million, that's our cost to the regional treatment facility for our operating expenses there, which is we generally run about 45% of the flow. So we're paying about 45% of the operating costs there. That's how the bills come from South Kingston. It also includes the $70,000 for the lease we have for URI. And another $70,000 if we manage to get an increase in that lease, but I don't know if that's going to happen. whether that course would be there or not. We've the lease expires at the end of June and we've got a request in to extend it for another year till we get the facilities plan complete and then we can try and negotiate a long term, something a little better than what's been in place for the last 20 or 30 years here on that aspect. Other items are really just general operating expenses and chemicals, gases and the like, which are all budgeted either based on past history for consumables or current contract and bid prices or bid contract prices. So the operating is pretty much self-explanatory. One through the capital. We got the, we can go through this, and we'll leave here. Three pages. Scarborough flood proofing is 50617. That is waste work two. And that's really the Scarborough treatment plant. The account was named after a prior project, but we use that for the capital projects. And we've got some projects generated for that. And just grab those real quicks like a day of work. I'll just ask those real quick so I can save a day of work. Please work out. I'll just do what I have to one sheet and finish. Okay, so with that, that 625,000 includes some upgrades to the Salis Hand handling equipment, which is the sludge processing equipment. It's old, a lot of equipment at the plant is old, so that's one of the items. We split that project over the next two fiscal years trying to spread the cost out a little. Another project is replacement to me, generator, which is a design of that contract a schedule to be complete in December And we split the cost over The capital cost over part of the over those two counties or over the next two fiscal years as well Those are long lead times basically generally from the time you award a contract to the time you See and receive a generator can where we've been aware from like eight or nine to 12 months base because they equipment takes a long time to get And then there's a miscellaneous Miscellaneous improvements we keep in there for, uh, to cover other costs as well. So, that's what's covered under that first. Um, capillight, um, 50617, 50628 is pump station repairs. That's our budgeting for all the 19 remote waste sort of pump pump stations we use and that includes, you know, can be painting or roof replacement, pump replacement, replace some pumps that are aging or are used some control equipment, things like that or building improvements and the like. So we've got it was the 440,000 on that item which again includes all of the 19 pump stations and it looks to we're doing some piping repairs and or equipment electrical repairs. You know, I need us to say these facilities are, you they see the kind of the most rough and severe conditions. So they need, they need, and some of the equipment has been, has been in there for a long time and is, is a need of replacement. And part of, part of the waste sort of facilities plan included an assessment of all those and there's been some recommended, recommended maintenance repairs there which will get incorporated some of it will be you know real major capital improvements like replacing the whole pump station but some of the smaller items we've got budgeted in now to try and get resolved and completed. The 50629 is the Wayswitter University of New York. I think that's the, I believe that's the, isn't one. Is it? Who would you see? I wonder why she took her clothes out so quickly. I'm sorry. It is a regional dream of facility. That's the regional plant. South Kingston is the managing park. They operate the facility and they give us a six year plan to see where we put together. So those numbers are straight from projections from South Kingston on the regional plants, capital improvements. And again, those costs are broken down based on the total cost of the project and whatever our flow contribution was the year that the project gets constructed. Peer I and I, the next two lines, I'm 630 and 631, Peer I and I and I are removal, that's for infiltration and inflow projects, whether it's investigations or us trying to do any kind of repairs to get extraneous flows out of the sewer system. Those we carry those numbers across each year, so we have money available to implement projects as they become available. And 50704 is the general, yeah, that's the general. a general catch all if we something big breaks that we didn't have, didn't have scheduled for repair or something that we decide we want to do. That's that $100,000 that we use for that item as well. And those are the only out of there, right? That's the last one, the last one I think we had. 505.068. And that's, uh, yeah, we've got, we've got zeroes in there. We're not up to that yet. So we've got a couple years down the road. We'll be looking at some waste-footer vehicles, but we've got new vehicles there now. So... Yep, and that's it for the capital projects there. So as we mentioned before, the big planning document for the waste-foot the facilities is due to be done in September. And that's going to give us any handle on where we're going to go with a lot, you know, moving forward from here. Excellent. So speaking as this is this might be a lot of people, including myself first time looking at a budget for wastewater. Can you just explain if not getting into too much detail just like a quick sound by on how the contributory flow is calculated. I see that URI South King Senate and Air Gants that are all sharing this regional system, but I'm wondering if the South King's town pay for URI's portion or who's paying for URI? No, the way the partnership agreements are set up is that the operating cost at the plant is based on your flow contribution. So all of the flow from the North end of town, and even some of it comes, we've got a small pump station over Seaport Village on the other side of Westmoreland. Literally comes up, flows past the treatment plant, comes around and gets away all the way back down to Weed of Street, and we have the main pump station of Weeda, takes all of the flow from the north end, is collected there, and then pumped in one one force main and we meet it there so that South Kingston knows how much we're sending and the same goes for URI. They have either one or one or two pump stations that direct flow directly to the plant or they may be metered before they come into South Kingston system, I'm not positive. It's probably the latter. And so that we know specifically the amount of flow that is coming from each, it's metered continuously. And we get those rates. And South King Sound sends me the flow figures on a monthly basis. And then every, every, you know, it's all checked on a fiscal year basis based on, based the like. So that's the contribution and then the bills, you know, they estimate the bills budget for it. And then at the end of the calendar year before the next, before the first set of bills comes out for the following calendar year, they'll do a true up where, okay, here's what we budgeted, here's what your flow actually was, and you know, we have got money back the last several years. It's been appreciative. I really appreciate it. Very thorough look at it. But again, I'm still confused in regards to whose responsible for URI. URI pays their own bill. URI pays their own bill. URI pays their own bill. So they're billed the same way the town would be on all those things and alike. So, for instance, the capital improvement plan for the South Kings town has, they have, they send me their whole plan. There are certain facilities that are just the towns or and are split up. They share the costs of you know some of those pump stations only with you are I and I was not with our gantsons so they're they're they bill and are responsible for their own costs. The exception to that is the Bay campus where they are they are just a customer of narrow gantsons so we build them as a customer so that's how you know we recoup the money that way and then they're brought in. I've had a chance to check what their flows are recently, but that's another area where I think looking at the future and URI and a cost sharing and who sends what to wear is going to need to get reviewed and possibly modified. When was the last time, or when was this agreement put into place? If that's testing, you were. 1971. 1971? 1971, 72. I think it's the original agreement to take a look at it. The party's was 71, I believe, and then 1972. There was a supplemental agreement. And then there's been 15 or so different additions, modifications, and other additions on it that over time. Yeah, there's a lot of a lot there, but the agreement goes back to that. And my final question, I see for the first capital project 50, 629's based on a contributory flow July, 2023 through June, 2024. Does that mean that when the final numbers start rolling up, we could see this be either more expensive or cheaper? Since this is based on those years or that year. What would happen is, just the red sheet. Yeah, all the numbers would change, again, basically the way they bill. And it's almost like we get billed like three years later. They fixed it all up. They went through and they did a major adjustment a year and a year and a year and two years ago. year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year and a year up, could go down, but generally we've been running right around at 43%, 45% of the total flow over there. And I don't know that SK has had any real expansion. URI has had a little bit. I would say, but their numbers haven't really gone up there. Still well within their own capacity over there. You know, I had one find. Oh, the fiscal, sorry, I do remember it. And does your eyes have Kingston and Erigan so all have the same fiscal year? Or is it slightly altered? Do you know? You are I and SK do I believe it's July. Okay, but I'm it's yeah, I think everybody in the state does the same. Yeah, well you are I was on the stew bar the states are on the states. Yeah, yeah. Excellent. Thank you. Councillor Dirkland. So the Bay campus, so you're saying that the Bay campus is a different animal and they pay us to use not our portion of the usage going out. I percentage. pay us to use, not our portion of the usage going up, our percentage of the plant. Their flow, we build them as a customer based on their what are use. So that's, you know, where rate-based and it's all there's a flat fee. And then if if they go over the the um, allotment for the excess then they get charged on a per 100 cubic feet basis. So but there, because they're in Narragansett, that whatever flow is going there is part of what Narragansett is contributing to the, the regional plant. So it's not, it's not backcalculated out in any way, shape or form. So it's probably not a huge amount of water or huge volume, but it's something that we could consider potentially. But then if we did it that way, we would have to revise the way we build them because part of being a customer for an air-gantzant waste water water is that you're built for conveyance and treatment. So we would just be building them for conveyance and we'd have to come up with a formula to build them based on just their flow because they would just use, they would pump, because they have their own pump station, they pump it into our sewer system and then however far down the line it goes we would have to build them for that that conveyance but Ultimately they would be paying then they would pay They would have to pay South Kingston based on the total flow that they sent And their their treatment would be their bill from SK would be a little different too So I would SK be involved Because the SK ultimately still gets it because there it's at the regional plant. Oh, OK. It sits in the North end, so it's all going to Westmoreland. So where is like South Fairy Road? So they pump up South Fairy Road? Yeah, they pump. I think across and over to back off of, you know, down behind Celeste, you'll drive. Yeah, that's it. There's a pump station down the bottom of the hill and it comes, it comes overland and then comes back up over in the bonnet. Huh? If I'm not mistaken. Yeah. So you one of those times where it's like, you know, as you're going through these and you are I is talking about negotiating and how many students are never against it and this and that and I should look at that. But again, it would complicate other aspects of the building system cell, but I mean just for a point of information, it would be simple to do and I have thought about it several times in the last Several weeks, but just never actually got to the and being able to physically do it and look at the numbers yet. Right All right, well, that's that's really interesting. Thanks Councilor Tarioli I'll be brief just a quick question looking towards the future since I don't believe capital improvements project number four is included in this year's budget. But it's the access road from Sprake Bridge to Metatuxet. Could you just detail that a little bit please. What is the proposed route? Yeah, that's the existing Interceptor runs along the river down there and it's just, you know, it's, we, I think we don't actually have an maintenance right. There's permitting issues involved and some accessibility there and the idea is to be able to set up a program and go in there and kind of maintain the the easement so that if something bad happens, you know, if we got to get in there to go fix something, it's done. It's more like we have an operating easement but the maintenance easement is not in place and you know, if something, it would be difficult to get all the way, you know, ideally, you know, it's a paved path where you can walk right down it and you may get a walking path or something like that. But I believe there are some maintenance and or environmental issues associated with actually maintaining it and keeping it completely accessible so that that item has been there. And that's an item we haven't spent since I've been here. It's always been there. It's just I think it's kind of a wish list and That's why it's not budgeted in the current Caldier. It's if been there. I think it's kind of a wish list. And that's why it's not budgeted in the current calendar year. It's if we get around to have in time to do it and can negotiate with people to get it all done. Okay. Understood. This would wind all the way up narrow river, all the way up to the other tuxet. I don't know exactly where the ends are like spray spray and whether it ends up, it may only get up to Connecticut or South. where the ends are like spray spray and whether it ends up. It may only get up to Connecticut or south of there. The interceptor, I'd have to see, I think I'd have to look at the mapping and see exactly where it would daylight back to a paid road or where we can act to it. Okay, I'm just going to thank you. Well, that's everything I have. And really appreciate, again, Christine, how very easy to navigate this part of the budget is. And the inclusion of all Ford Capital projects as well, even if there isn't something covered this year. It's been very clearly outlined in the packet for us. So as a reminder to everyone, we'll be back here for at night three of three tomorrow to go over the remaining portion of the budget and have additional conversations. So everyone have a