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Home My WebLink About2017-01-17 Finance Committee Minutes TOWN OF NORTH ANDOVER FINANCE COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes Meeting Date January 17, 2017 Meeting Location: School Administration Building 566 Main Street Bill Callahan, BC, Chairman X Sasha Weinreich, SW X Jennifer Goldman, JG, Vice Chair Divya Bhatnagar, DB X Karin Blake, KB X Angela Ciofolo, AC X Thomas Ringler, TR X Chris Nobile, CN X Timothy Tschirhart, TT X Liz Gerron, LG X Note: All FINCOM votes are subject to change upon receipt of new information. Note: Documents used in this meeting are listed in Document Table, herein. Non Finance Committee Members in attendance DPW-Bruce Thibodeau (Thibodeau) IT-Christopher McClure (McClure) Facilities-Stephen Foster (Foster) Town Manager Andrew Maylor (Maylor) Call to order 6:46 BC: Tonight we are doing a portion of the CIP DPW- CIP Discussion starts on or about 6:47pm/000:30 on video time BC: Before you get started the Committee had heard of your retirement and we are all sad to see you go, but happy for you and you will be incredibly hard to replace. Thibodeau: Thank you for that, the Finance Committee has been great. We will start with Public Works CIP first. Not a lot has changed, from what we put in the plan the year before. Streets and sidewalks (Directing everyone to page 32 of the CIP Report), The biggest part of the Public Work's CIP is the Pavement Management Program. 1 January 17,2017 What we do is every 5 years we contract with a consultant and they ride and rate every road in town and rate them from 0-100. Based on different criteria they put together their recommendations on what kind of rehabilitation needs to be done. From that I put together a 5 year CIP. In that usually is a section for Chapter 90 State aid money and it is around $807,000.00 and Town Meeting usually gives another$400,000.00 to that. We spend about a million dollars a year and it roughly does about 10 roads. Thibodeau: went on to say that doesn't mean we don't change the schedule of road repairs that need to be fixed sooner if we find a road is deteriorating a little quicker then what was originally planned. Work will also consist of crack sealing,milling existing paving and repaving, or reclaiming depending on needs determined by the study. TT: Is there a risk of Chapter 90 money not being there? Thibodeau: Responded it is always there, even in bad times, it just would be reduced. Maylor: Stated that Chapter 90 is the most protected aid. It is the most obvious ways to return dollars back to communities from the lottery. Sidewalk Reconstruction (Directing everyone to page 47-49 of the CIP report) Thibodeau: Commented that the reconstruction of existing sidewalks in older sections of town with priority given to school areas and elderly housing areas BC: What are the challenges to sidewalks? Thibodeau: Responded that it is trees Water and Sewer (Directing everyone to page 83 of the CIP report) Thibodeau: Spoke of the improvements to various pump stations and also the one out near Rae's Pond that has been running since October and is doing great. We also have 21 other pump stations that will need to be evaluated. Thibodeau: Also, spoke of future replacements and improvements of generators and pump stations. Water (Directing everyone to page 99 of the CTP report) Thibodeau: Spoke of the ongoing Ozone system designed as a major part of the treatment plant. Thibodeau: Also spoke of the fluoride tank that are also in the plans of replacing. Thibodeau: Spoke of how they always need to monitor for lead in the water and stated that they are in good shape. 2 January 17,2017 KB: Asked how the ground water is and are we still in a drought situation? Thibodeau: Responded that we are close to a drought situation, the water is still low in the lake. BC and the Committee thanked Thibodeau. IT-CIP Discussion starts on or about 7:19pm/033:18 on video time (Directingeveryone to page 16 of the CIP Reportl BC: State what you are looking to do (explain what you need) and you can give us an update on what you did last year. McClure: Traditionally there is about $50,000 but that was not an adequate amount. We put that money towards miscellaneous items. McClure: We found money in the operating budget to replace computers, laptops, and workstations and that made more sense. McClure spoke of how department heads increasingly use laptops in place of their workstations Computers are replaced about every 3-5 years. McClure: we just made a big push for everyone to standardize and focus to make the backend simple. McClure; spoke of how agendas are now posted and the material that is attached to some of the agendas McClure: spoke of some of the new features that the North Andover website has and the usefulness of mapping, and GIS. McClure also spoke of the new Dog License software that has been implemented. Also spoke of the new Chrome base Kiosk type permitting processes that the Building Department uses. McClure: Spoke of the savings to the Town using Google Chrome devices vs. Mac. McClure: Spoke of the mobile app (Report it) and how it works and how the appropriate department and staff receive it. McClure: spoke of how beneficial many of these new features will be to the residence. McClure took the time to instruct the Committee on using some of the new added sophisticated features that are now part of the North Andover website. The Committee was impressed with these new features. BC and the Committee thanked McClure, it was very interesting. 3 January 17,2017 Facilities-CIP Discussion starts on or about 7:50pm/064:10 on video time (Directing everyone to page 55-57 of the CII' Report). Foster: Stated that the projects are similar to prior years. Spoke of developing work plans for each building and expenditures. Foster: Handed out a list of projects to the Committee. Foster stated that there is a big push on improvements for the school (1st and 2nd pages of the handout are school related). Foster: stated that S675,000.00 was provided during 2014-2017. Spoke of the 2 big projects, one being a mechanical project at one of the schools and the other was the roof project at the library. The Board reviewed and asked questions of the Handout that was submitted by Foster. TT: Asked what constitutes a Capital Improvement Project Foster: Responded it usually is not an annual maintenance item BC: How is the EMS (Energy Management System) working? Foster: responded that it is working super, you can look at a screen and see everything in town. You can do a lot of problem solving by just looking at one screen, it saves time and is a wonderful tool to manage energy. We are looking forward to getting other buildings attached too. BC AND Committee thanked Foster and enjoy hearing of the progress Public Comment Discussion starts on or about 8:05pm/079:55 on video time Stan Limpert, (43 Stonecleave Road) addressed the Committee and Maylor and wanted to comment on the outstanding job that the staff is doing. Also wanted to comment that the IT function in our town and the school side, is cutting edge. Limpert: Went on to say that it was a no-brainer for the schools to move into Google, it was offered free to our schools. We just pay some additional cost for support. BC: Discussed the future schedule for the Finance Committee Meetings. Next week we will finish up the CIP. Adjournment Discussion starts on or about 8:32pm/102:50 on video time CN: Made a motion to adjourn KB: Second the motion All in Favor 4 January 17,2017 Document Table * Capital Improvement Plan 2018-2022 * 2016-2017 School Department Projects and Facilities Project 2013-2016 (Submitted by Stephen Foster) --------------------------------------------------------------- * Hard copy 5 January 17,2017