Good evening.

My name is Peter Bazade.

I'm a councilman of the city of Danbury, and I am the chairperson of this ad hoc for public works and other departments.

With me, who are members of this ad hoc committee, uh Councilman Ryan Hawley, Councilwoman Diane Lepine, Councilman Ben Chinese, and Councilman Mike Coello who are present.

Also in the room, we have ex officio council members, uh Lou Giordano, John Laffinghouse, and uh Michael Flanagan.

And also in the back, uh Dwayne Perkins, who is uh a councilman and an ex officio member.

In the room, we have uh our finance director, Daniel Garrick.

We have our mayor, Roberto Alles, we have his assistant, Taylor O'Brien, we have chief assistant.

I apologize.

Thank you.

I stand corrected.

Um we have various officials of the various departments uh who are also in attendance.

Um, ex officio member uh Andrea Gardner is is arriving.

So with that, um we're gonna get started.

I'm gonna call uh some of the departments a little out of order from our sheet.

The first matter that will be called is the recreation department.

Uh and and that is found.

You can bear with me on page 212 of our books.

Soan, would you please get to a podium?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh this is uh Sean Ratchford, he's the director of uh of our recreation department.

Sean, you have just three employees on a full-time basis.

Is that correct?

That is absolutely correct.

Okay, and and most of the employees that your department has are basically part-time and seasonal employees.

Is that also correct?

I have one uh part-time employee, I have no seasonal employees other than the lake and my camp.

So, yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

And and with those employees, are you able to do all that you do on the many parks and playgrounds, the city of Danver?

We do.

Uh thanks to help from you know Antonio's guys, highway, parks maintenance, working in collaboration with each other.

We're able to get a lot done.

Okay.

Sean, um, in addition to the expenses of your department, your department also brings in revenue.

Is that correct?

It does.

And what are you the principal sources of revenue for for your department?

Last year at the lake, we took in over 100,000 for the first time.

We have the boat ramp, which takes in about $30,000 consistently.

We have the hall and we have the pavilion, which varies year to year.

Um between those four things, and now we have summer camp.

We took in about $404,000 last year.

Okay.

Thank you.

My goal is to break even that you're paying what we're taking in, you're paying us, so that it's a wash for the city.

That's my goal.

Thank you.

I'm gonna turn to uh my my fellow council members on this ad hoc committee.

I'll start with uh councilman Hawley.

Thank you.

Hi, Dr.

Rudgeford.

Um, so I see under a major objectives that there is an initiative to build a dog park at Hatter's Park behind the PAL building.

Um I did see that was also in our capital expenditures or just capital budget.

And then I also sell in the news times that it's breaking ground.

Could you um help clarify where the money's coming from?

Uh we did ask to uh get a dog park put behind the PAL.

The many of the people in the neighborhood use the girls' softball fields because they're gated, they can close the door, they let their dogs run well while they read, while they sunbathe, while they listen to music.

Sometimes the dogs do things and they don't pick it up, and now I have my young softball players going out there, going to feel the ground ball, going to run after something, stepping and stuff that they shouldn't.

So much easier if we put the dog park there.

Um nothing is is as far as Antonio's guys did a great job of designing the plans.

So the plans are there.

Now it's finding a funding source to be able to do that.

Councilwoman LePine, do you have any questions for uh Mr.

Ratchford?

Sure.

Um so Sean, I see your objective for this coming year is to establish a recreation center.

Is that a building or a new building?

It's a dream.

And the day I stand before you and I don't have dreams and don't ask for more money is a day that you should uh you should release me.

Again, the mayor and and his staff are in charge of a whole pizza.

I'm in charge of one piece.

So I want for my one piece.

I don't always, you know, take in mind what the rest of the city may need.

So yes, I'm always always gonna ask.

I would love to have a field house with a pool with a track.

I think that would be amazing.

Is that possible?

Probably not, but again, I'm gonna continue to ask because that's my job.

Would that be an indoor or an outdoor pool?

For you, it would be both.

We I mean we might as well and put one on the roof also.

No, uh, I would love it up at the new campus in the back parking lot if there's enough space.

Um just think of the optics looking out over over the airport, looking out over the city.

Uh change perception, some people's perception down county of Danbury, just like when the cross-country dream runs at Terrowell and they come and they're almost like, are we in Danbury?

Yes, you're in Danbury.

This is not a movie set.

We didn't bring it in for you to run here.

So I I think it would help our optics.

Thank you.

Councilman Chinees, if you have any questions, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um, so uh Sean, a couple questions, if I may.

On your in your budget, you have professional services of ten thousand dollars.

Do you know what that's for?

Yeah, we we we bring in people.

Um we're in our effort to have people that work for us that are good ambassadors.

Uh we pay new Vance to teach first aid CPR, we have Stop the Bleed.

So some of that money comes for that.

Um again, we have a speaker coming in up talking about how important you are to be a good ambassador for the city for uh the recreation department.

So those monies are spent in in situations like that.

Again, following up.

So that's a new program.

You didn't have that last year because I didn't see a budgeting last year.

Is that new or it is brand new this year?

Um and it's Wind for Life is the name of the company.

He's spoken all over the country, speaks at the uh Hall of Fame for the NBA, does stuff all over the place.

Um it's gonna be in conjunction with our training the people in the CPR for also training them how to run the camp, how the work to camp, also our lifeguard.

So it's gonna be pretty cool.

Again, can if I can continue, Mr.

Chairman.

Um you also listed materials and miscellaneous, you but you wanted 77,000, and the mayor proposed 275.

What's the difference?

When I stand before you and I don't ask and dream uh is a day that I think you should tell me to hit the road.

Uh there's things that I would like to do.

I like every park to have beautiful signs.

I'd like to have every park to have benches.

I'd like our trails to be cleared.

I like you know, all of our parking lots to be flat.

I'd like no goose, you know what, at the lake.

I'd like no goose, you know what, at the Hatters Park.

So I'm always gonna be dreaming of things that we can do to make Danbury Parks make Danbury places better.

Okay.

And now I know it was mentioned by the for the dog parks.

Currently we have two of them.

Do you currently oversee them or is that strictly um highway uh parks maintenance?

No, that's uh it's it's done in a combination.

People think, so they call me.

So I'll call Tim, I'll call Tom.

Uh they'll call Nelson to make sure that the fences are done to make sure that there's uh bags for people to change.

I did get um new cans for there because people were coming in and dumping garbage in it with the big round 55-gallon drums.

So I bought beautiful things from Amazon that have nice little holes.

So if your dog does make a mistake, we can throw that away, but you're not gonna come in from another town.

You're not gonna come in from Danbury and think that we are going to pay for you to dump your garbage.

Because the reason why I do ask, because I know the dog park by Mario Brooke is always a mess.

There's always garbage and litter, and it's just the you drive by there and you said you just shake your head because they just leave it a mess.

That's what I was wondering.

100%.

And um part of what we're doing for they're going to do their own clean Danbury Day on the 20 when we have clean dambre day on the 25th.

Um, we're then going to put up a sign that all furniture that is brought needs to be taken home that day.

And if you need something, contact me because I would be happy that all of the stuff that's there looks the same, is new and meets safety conditions so that nobody gets hurt.

I'm glad you said that because that's exactly what's happening there.

100%.

It seems like I get their household garbage is stayed there.

Right.

100%.

Councilman Coello, do you have any questions uh for Mr.

Ratchford?

Yes, thank you.

Through the chair.

Coach.

Sir.

I know we've talked about that.

I think uh we we share that same dream.

We thought you and I had that you know conversation a while ago when you're on the council together.

So obviously there's a lot of you know, a couple of commas and some dollar signs in there that we have to work out first, but um nothing wrong with dreaming, that's for sure.

Um couple of things.

Do you have a list of the items that um in your ask of the 77,000?

Is it something that we can accomplish through the the great grant writers that we have?

Oh, I I suppose I use the grant department as much and as often these guys will tell you if I could, I'd have them in my office.

Um, even if the grant doesn't technically apply to me if it applies to the schools, if it applies to another department, if it applies to the museum, maybe to uh ed and something to do with the with the trails or with the uh you know conservation.

So I'm always looking, I'm always applying, and uh anything to offset the cost, because again, like you, I live in Danver, live there my whole life.

I don't want taxes to be crazy crazy, so I'm gonna do everything I can to be fiscally sound.

Okay, so if there's any way you could maybe get us a list of that and just share it with us.

Sure.

Because there's other ways, you know.

Obviously, if the you know, we could they do a great job in that department, right?

And there's other departments that are asking for the same, maybe opportunities as well.

But maybe there's something outside of that that other people within our community that may be glad to either donate or whatever it may be, and that could help you along the way as well.

That's tremendous.

And again, our door is always open.

We had a gentleman come in today.

Um, he's going to have a car show September 12th at Hatters Park.

Um, they're gonna be Morgans, they're gonna be 20 to 40 Morgans from around the country there.

It came down to they've had it at Saratoga, they've had it at Rhinebeck, it came down to Richfield or Danbury.

They're gonna be at Hatters Park September 12th.

They're coming to us.

Fantastic.

That's great.

And we can promote that after the event that happens at uh Labor Day down at uh double memorial as well.

So maybe get some overlap there.

So that's great.

Um if you could elaborate a little bit uh uh with regard to the money that you guys bring in, obviously.

I know you kind of hit on a little bit.

You you quickly, you know, 30,000 from the boat ramp.

And maybe if you can explain uh in those four, I'll say um categories or columns, what brings the money in, and then also like what expenses go against that if if any or how much?

Well, the the summer camp brings in money, obviously the expenses are salaries and materials.

So uh that's I think why the budget went up because we're going to hopefully have more than 350.

Last year we had 350 kids at our camp.

We're hoping to have at least 100 a week, maybe more, which means it's gonna be fluid, Mike.

We're gonna have to ask for more staff and get more staff.

We may need to buy, have two nurses as opposed to one.

Um we hope to expand that.

Maybe a field trip, take a bus to a local place, whether it be miniature bowling, whether it be the lake, whether it be the museum, someplace to get these kids to be proud of where they live.

So um, yes, uh uh a hundred percent uh you know a hundred percent with you.

Okay.

Great.

Thank you.

Keep up the good work.

Thank you.

I had a great staff.

We're gonna turn now to questions from any ex officio members who are here in attendance.

Uh I'll remind I'll remind you, even though I've discovered I'm the biggest offender, it's important to push the button and turn on the microphone.

So uh is there anybody on to my left, which is just about everybody uh who has any questions?

Um no, thank you.

Asked and answered the questions.

Thank you.

Okay.

Anybody, any ex officio members who are in the uh main part of the audience who have any questions for recreation.

No, and I will acknowledge Mr.

Laughinghouse.

Apologize.

I just uh just again, Coach Rachra, I think has been echoed.

Uh you know, more has been done with your budget.

I think I get many compliments in terms of what you've done since you've gone through, whether it'd be blood drives and things like that.

Just mention the 77,000.

I think it's a short list, right?

Uh you know, I attended a meeting, there's somewhere like three million you had in there for a couple things.

Um so I appreciate the the dreaming.

Um, I just had one quick question.

I think you answered it in regards to the purchasing, but you know, again, keep up the good work.

Excellent.

Again, blood drive, movie night, flea market, art in the park, car shows, 5K.

We're gonna have 500 runners there, the 25th participant in that 70 vendors, uh, blood drives, signs around town.

So we're trying to do stuff.

If you have ideas, please come in.

Lou calls me about trails.

Yeah, uh I'm uh I want to meet with you, I want to hear from you.

It's my job.

So thank you.

Thank you.

If there are no other questions of uh Mr.

Rashford, you're done here.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for letting me go first.

I have a board of ed meeting.

So I'd also like to uh recognize that uh councilman Britton is now in attendance.

Um next, I'd like to turn to uh some of the smaller items on on the list of tonight's agenda.

Um I'll I'll ask if there's anyone here from the Lake Kenosha Commission.

Yes.

Uh and and that is found on page 223.

I have no questions for anybody from the Lake Kenosha Commission.

Um I'll I'll turn to my colleagues here on the ad hoc and ask them if any member here has a question regarding the Lake Kenosha Commission budget.

It's on page uh two 223.

Does any member of the ad hoc have any questions?

Mr.

Chinese.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

To the I guess the chair, is the chairman here.

Well um I'm gonna actually it's now on the other side.

Okay, okay.

So uh my name's Ed Sergi.

I'm uh actually a consultant for the city to support the Lake Kenosha Commission.

Um, so I can take questions.

I think that's my question, because I know we had some meetings prior regarding members of this commission.

Do you guys I mean how many members do you have?

Because you're meeting us tonight, not the chair.

I believe we have two new additional ones, which I believe brings the number to five, including the chair.

Okay, and you're gonna be meeting on a regular basis now.

Um it's been a little sporadic because we haven't had um uh really uh enough to have a quorum recently.

We've communicated, but they haven't, I don't think met uh, but now that we have a couple new members, I know the chair wants to get going with that.

So again through the chair, so because you gotta have the quorum in order to institute this budget.

So what are your goals then with the 20,000?

Because I know the lake has a lot of you know, a lot of weeds growing the and all that.

Right.

So um the commission has evolved from years ago when they managed a beach there, and a lot of the funds funding went for weed management at the beach.

But since the beach was closed and we vegetated that 20,000 square feet, um a big chunk of it is the maintenance of the buffer garden that the city installed along the whole uh perimeter at the edge of the grass area.

Um so that's a big piece of the of the 20.

Um, we also do water quality testing um every year in September um to monitor the the um uh condition of the lake.

Very similar to what um Candlewood Lake Authority does uh on Candlewood.

And we have a consultant who comes in, I go out with him, we take water samples, and uh he gets some analyzed and we put a report together.

So that we're tracking the nitrogen, the phosphorus, the chlorophyll, and most especially we're concerned with um the calcium levels in the lake, because calcium is uh uh a chemical that helps zebra mussels to thrive.

And we've already got them in the Housatonic, and we've got them in candlewood in abundance.

So we're concerned because the calcium levels in Kenosha are very high.

So we're doing a lot of monitoring uh for that for that purpose.

Um so those are the big items, Ben.

Okay, because I know there's a lot of invasive plants there.

That beach you mentioned, it's full of invasive species plants since you was first.

It's it's more than 20,000 is gonna cover right.

Well, we all councilman Chinese, this is the this is for the budget.

Yes, I don't think the budget would be high enough.

So my next question would be is you mentioned the water quality, but since that's a reservoir which we drink from, wouldn't that be the department of uh the water department to do that testing?

Well, I'll say they can speak to what they test.

We're more looking for the the um uh items that tell us what how the eight lake is aging, the nitrogen, the phosphorus, the things that might come in from you know, failing septic systems or uh fertilizers running into the lake um that promote things to grow.

And so we're not looking for coliform or things like that.

And you know, I I know uh Dave could speak to that in more detail, but we're looking for the things that tell us how the eight lake is is aging um and holding up to the the stress of having a very large watershed around a relatively small lake.

Okay, all righty.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Councilman Qual, do you have any questions regarding the budget for the Lake Kenosha Commission?

Yes, I do, and I'm sure you're gonna probably have the same comment that you gave to Ben.

But um because the question does pertain to I believe it's a backup reservoir.

You know, I could be incorrect with that, but um Councilman Quella, if you're gonna ask about the reservoir, Mr.

Day is gonna uh be here at turn his part of the budget, and we could best direct that question to him rather than Mr.

Sergi.

Very good.

The concern that I have is that what's in that budget needs to basically take care of all the requirements that are there.

So if it's in Dave's budget, I'll address it later.

Any ex officio members uh in the room have any questions regarding the Lake Kenosha Commission budget?

No.

Hearing none.

Thank you very much.

Well we're gonna we're gonna move on to the cultural commission.

Good evening.

Thank you.

Um again uh to my colleagues on the ad hoc.

Let's direct these questions to the to the spending uh of money regarding uh the cultural commission, and I'll ask any ad hoc members to raise their hands if they have any questions regarding uh the cultural commission's budget, which is found on page 220 of our books.

Councilman Hawley.

Thank you for the chairman.

So I see that the grant that we would be providing to the Cultural Commission is $84,000.

Um I just get an idea of what percentage of that goes towards any awards to individual artists.

And then my second part of that question would be is there a preference of Danbury artists to that um that program?

The predominant amount of the grants go to organizations like the music center, the concert association, um the um who else gets this music center gets a big chunk, and um then there are some other smaller artists.

So we break down our granting to approximately 54 percent go to sustaining grants, those organizations I just mentioned, and five percent of our granting money generally goes to new works to promoting new artists and new works in Danbury.

Any other members of the ad hoc uh commission have questions regarding the cultural commission's budget having no open this up to ex officio members?

Does any ex officio member in attendance have any questions regarding um the expenditure for the cultural commission in this year's budget?

Seeing none, thank you very much, Mr.

Winseck.

Thank you.

Moving on, um it the is there anyone here from the Danbury Museum?

Chief Harold that is found on page 225 of our budget books, sir.

Any member of the ad hoc uh who has questions regarding the budget of the Danbury Museum?

Thank you.

Councilman Chinese first.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I guess I know over the the last probably 10 years or so, the museum has been struggling to meet its needs, and and it's so I noticed here that you proposed 393,000 and the mayor's 225.

Is that gonna be enough to sustain you to for the next year?

Or is you gonna be financial straights as you were in prior years?

Good evening, first of all.

Thank you very much for allowing me to be here and to uh present this.

Thank you.

Um no, it's not enough.

Um we have uh uh a need for the 392 um that is in our budget.

Uh we do have some other monies coming in.

If you've got a copy of the budget, you'll see some of the other things that we have.

For example, we have grants um and other activities that we do fundraise with, and we do get some more.

And we expect that to be around uh another 75, just under 75,000 if it goes along, um, which will bring us up to just about 300,000, leaving us a shortfall of uh about 90 to 92,000 something along those lines.

Um and we'll continue to try to raise money uh through grants and donations and and other things.

Um I'd call your attention to the budget as you pointed out.

Um about sixty-three thousand of that two hundred and twenty-five is just basically to keep the lights on.

Um you know, it's our accounting fees, insurance, and keeping the lights on.

So we do have to work hard to continue raising other monies, and we have plans to do that as much as we can.

One quick follow-up, if I may.

So is there enough money in there to maintain the buildings to upkeep the buildings?

Because I know the city is ultimately responsible for those in the end.

So we just want to make sure in this budget is enough to keep go beyond keeping the lights up and maintaining the buildings that are already in existence.

That can be again the answer is no, not at all.

And that that's a real big issue.

As a matter of fact, I was just having a conversation with Antonio about a building that we need to have demolished.

It's a building that's no longer able we can't maintain it, we can't keep it up.

It's an old uh very uh dilapidated and uh school building on Rogers Park that has to be demolished, about call it ten thousand dollars or so.

We don't have the money to do that.

We need new siding, new roofs, painting on our two major buildings downtown.

Um and as you know, buildings and such, they and especially uh archaic buildings like this, they're very expensive to maintain.

So we we have hopes that we can continue to maintain them sufficiently, but to do it right and hire architects and to hire people that are known and able to restore historical buildings is very expensive and and and becoming more so.

Um and uh so we are struggling to do that.

And at some point uh we have we have some uh some plans to do that as we can uh but we have may have some options.

We may at some point have to close down for access some of the building.

Our roofs are really the issue on the Ryder House and the Dodd Frank, uh the Dodd Dodd Frank, um the Dodd House on uh Main Street, um the Dodd's hat shop.

Um my meeting tomorrow night is the financial industry, so I'm thinking that.

So yeah, it's right in front of my head.

Um but yeah, that we're still struggling.

Um and and we're not the only ones in the city that are struggling as a 501c3.

We know that.

We appreciate the 225,000 the city is able to give us.

Um we'll we'll work as hard as we can.

We have seven employees, um, three full-time, and the other four are occasional part-timers.

Um, and we're gonna try to make this work um like we do.

Uh so uh thank you very much for the money you've given us.

Um we'll try to stretch it.

So but the short answer is has to be no.

We don't have enough.

Um Chief of Staff uh Taylor O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I just do want to um make some comments there after uh Mr.

Harold shared that we are aware of some of uh the situation that the museum is facing the meeting soon to talk about LASIP uh funding.

I've met with Bridget to talk about some of the projects uh Mr.

Harrell just described um to see what's eligible or what's not, things we could fund other ways.

I also do want to share if I could plug it as well that the mayor is bringing back the mayor's ball this year, and we have decided to partner um 50-50 with the museum.

So we're hoping to get some funding outside of taxpayer dollars to help support our museum.

Thank you.

Thank you, Taylor, for mentioning that.

Everybody buy a ticket to the mayor's wall.

Mr.

Harold.

Are there any other questions from members uh of this ad hoc?

Councilman Cuelo.

Yes.

So what is that ball again?

Um what's that?

Um May 29th.

May 29th.

Traditional man, maybe Memorial Day weekend.

Here's a do here's a question I do have for you.

I'll I'll joking aside.

So I know there was some funds you didn't get with regard to ARPA.

We're past that.

Some of the questions I do have, um, and it may be through this loss of funding that the chief of staff uh Brian was talking about.

In the last couple years, have you received have you applied for or able to receive any grants through the city at all?

Yes, we have they've all been fairly small, but we continue to do that.

And and what we've run into recently, and I think I I brought it up with the last year's.

Um, a lot of the grants, because we are a government entity, although the grants are perfectly suited for what we do, because we're a municipal associated GERC or however we address it.

It turns out some of those grants were not available with are not available to us.

Um we continue to work any grants we get.

Um, and as Sean pointed out, he has sent us a few that we've looked into and we've applied for as many grants as we possibly can.

We get re referrals from the mayor's office.

It's just that we understand that it's it's it's hard and difficult to get donations.

We have a project, we're just in the middle of wrapping up now.

For example, our fence in the back had fallen down the fence between us and the parking lot behind us.

Um and we needed about $9,000 to put a new fence and a gate up, um, which we've just gotten, you know, a lot of the donations.

We're not quite there yet.

I need about two more grand, two thousand dollars.

But we've you know we're working on getting the fence back together.

Um but there's lots of little things.

Uh we're it's just a continual struggle.

Oh, antique buildings just take a lot of effort.

They really do.

I can appreciate that.

So thank you.

Councilwoman LePine.

Just quickly, does um the museum bring in revenue or is everything free?

Uh it's it's it's certainly yes, we do bring in some revenue.

If you take a look uh at the income on the budget, um we do have some revenue.

We we sell things in the uh gift shop, for example.

Um we do rent our hall uh to a number of organizations, including the DAR, the Danbury Mineralogical Society, um, and a number of others use our our hall for their weekly or monthly meetings.

Um we do get some small amount of money for that.

Uh and and that is uh, you know, at least it's an income, and we recognize it as you know a way to raise some money.

We can't get a lot, and and as you can imagine, you know, we're talking at the minimum about $90,000 we have to raise beyond our you know expected uh income.

So we're we're still working it, and if you have anybody that needs a hall that wants to rent a hall for a monthly meeting, give us a call.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any ex officio members have questions regarding the museum none?

The mayor, do you wish to address this topic?

I have a thing about in regards to uh the budget and the request.

Um again, um, when we propose this budget that we are talking about tonight to this council, um it does hurt sometimes where we can't just give departments what they want, but we have to acknowledge and recognize what we've done in the past while they're getting 225,000 dollars uh this year as last year, uh not too many budgets ago.

Our first budget we created here, we did increase the Danby Museum's uh historical society line by about 120,000 dollars.

That is a massive jump for the department.

Uh that's why we do everything we can um outside of this budget to help them raise more money as well.

So while they did not get uh the ARPA funds, uh that was one time we made sure that our increases to this uh authority was there year after year.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

And thank you very much, Mayor.

We do acknowledge that without the 225, we wouldn't be in the positive place we are.

Thank you, Mr.

Harold.

Um moving on to uh Terrywell Park Authority, which is found on page 217 of our books.

Uh and and we have um Mr.

Dwayne Perkins, who's in in going to speak for Terrywell.

I'll turn to members of the ad hoc uh committee and ask if uh any member of the ad hoc committee have any questions uh for councilman Dwayne Perkins.

Um Good evening, Mr.

Chairman, members of the ad hoc committee, Dwayne Perkins, Chairman of the Board, Terry Well Park Authority.

I am joined today with Susan Nolan, she's our treasurer.

Any questions?

Councilman Cheatings.

Can't let him get away without asking questions.

Can you just give us an overview of the expenditures that the 275 is going to cover and whether that's enough to meet your your budgetary needs for the upcoming year?

Yeah, I can I have a little bit of a cold, so I don't know if you can hear me or not.

Um we do uh recognize that this is flat funded.

I'm seeing that 275.

We did ask for 290.

Um but the city um offers 65 percent of our overall budget.

The rest of the uh the monies that for on the income is due to mansion income for rentals as well as um other outbuildings that we rent.

Um we are finding on this year or next year's budget.

What we're looking to do is hopefully be able to bring in some engineering fees for some park um activity that needs to take place, which Dwayne can speak to.

Um we also were looking for some salaries that obviously everything has gone up.

Um we were not anticipating snow removal to be so expensive this year.

So um so we are doing our best to stay with the flat funding.

Um, but um, but again, we're doing our best to bring in more mansion income and do fundraising as well.

Any other questions from members of the ad hoc committee for Cherry Wall Park?

Yes, Councilwoman LePine.

Just another question about have you been able to increase your revenue?

I know things have changed there the past few years.

Have you been able to bring in more money?

Yes, in terms of the mansion rental income.

Um we have some staff that's phenomenal.

They're all part-time, so we have no overhead in terms of um benefits, um, additional benefits for that matter, um, as we did before.

So the last few years we've um been able to, the net result has been very good.

Um and they're working really hard.

They're great.

We have all part-time.

Very good.

There's three.

Um, you know, but uh Lorraine who staffs the main and does all the mansion rentals, she's uh she does a great job.

I was kind of looking for an amount.

Oh, an amount.

My apologies.

So our overall budget is 443,000.

We um we requested 290 from the city.

Um 68,000.

We have income from rentals, but this year we've had some difficulties with some uh major improvements, one of which we had no rental income on Mountainville, um, and then another um rental income that unfortunately um recently had a major um issue with the HVAC, so we had to invest a lot of money in that.

Um so that's that would be sixty-eight thousand.

80,000 is what we um budget for the mansion rental, and that's her target.

And if she can come above that, we're happy.

Thank you.

That's basically it.

And Miss O'Brien, do you have any comments on that?

Thank you.

I just do want to clarify and apologize to the council.

Uh, we have a new system this year for our budget entries, and it looks like um Ms.

Nolan mentioned 290 was the request.

We have it in this 275.

So I just want to clarify that the proposal uh seems to be incorrect, and we'll we're checking our system to see what we appreciate the right one.

I do want to share um, you know, it was our intention uh to remain flat as we saw with the last authority we just mentioned.

Um, and as such, we are looking at lossip for both of these organizations.

Um, and Councilman Perkins has sent me many many of his requests.

He's very good at looking at grants, so we do work with them often to find other means of funding.

Thank you for that.

Um other questions from members of the ad hoc committee regarding terror park.

Councilman Coelho.

Yes, through the chair.

Um Councilman Perkins, I know you guys have your evasive vine cleanup day, and I'm guessing that saves you how much with all the volunteers you have that come do that work.

Yeah, so thank you, um, Mr.

Quiller for the question.

Let me just backtrack a little bit on those different types of initiatives.

So in our short time here, Susan came on pretty much the same time I came on.

I came on in October of uh 23.

She came in early 24.

And since then we have established what's called the um overwinter initiative.

Um that stands for optimize the tree canopy, verify forest health, educate community, and restore habitat.

We also created, like you just mentioned a second ago, invasive vines cutting day, and we have also the Arbor Day celebrations.

Uh last year combined, we had about 107 volunteers.

And if you all are familiar with the way uh at least Connecticut Deep grants are positioned, each of those hours of volunteer time has uh uh enumeration uh associated with it.

So if you take all of those volunteer hours and multiply it out by the factor and you get a value, my value alone was up over 200,000 since I joined the board just of volunteer time myself.

Um so like Susan mentioned a second ago, we do have some some challenges, but I don't want to go outside of your question because you did just ask about initiatives.

And it kind of gave me an idea.

I was just basically looking, I I think uh to share with everybody on the council and others involved when they ask questions.

I know a lot of people think that we just give money away, right?

That's not the case.

You guys work incredibly hard.

We do work stretch the money we give, and more importantly than that, you go above and beyond with all the volunteers.

Um so we want to kind of highlight the good work that you guys do over there and obviously the benefit that you provide to the entire you know uh community, as well as all the hard work that you do and you know getting and and recruiting your volunteers.

So we appreciate that and uh keep up the good work.

And when is the next evasive vine day?

The next invasive vines day is next year, but we do have Arbor Day celebrations coming on the 25th.

If you want to see a spectacular show of support, come on that Friday when BART's advanced, probably Lewis and Eversource come when those guys show up.

They must show up with millions of dollars, three or four millions of dollars of equipment just on behalf of Terrywild Park.

Um, if I can just add, I'd like to say that um, and these aren't my words.

We have a very talented uh grant writer at Terrywild Park, and we have been reaching out to the state of Connecticut as much as we can.

Um we have a pending uh urban green and community card garden grant that should be coming out of OPM pretty soon.

We have another one phase two of the same type of grant that should be uh coming into contract as well.

There is also a um recreational trails grant to build some flow trails on the castle side of Terrywild Park.

And Taylor mentioned a second ago that there's an opportunity to apply for a community development block grant.

The reason I'm excited about that is because we well, the the way it was written is to address uh drainage problems that are in front of that main area.

By the main area, I mean the uh milking parlor silo and three bay garage.

Uh because after any type of significant rain, that place wants to stay wet for days.

So, what this will do is catch some of that water coming off that steep slope, trench strain, rip wrap, channel it to the catch basin, and then do a swale to have that water run off the side of the um edge.

And we think that will make a substantial improvement.

Once we get that, we can start applying for um an ADA compliant park, which will allow people to go from that second-level parking lot down to in front of the pavilion, which I didn't mention yet, and then down to that main area.

I um I don't know much about all that ADA stuff.

If once I get past that one twelve ratio where you have to have a rise of one foot for every 12 feet, uh incline or decline.

Once I get past that, I start breathing through my through my gills.

So I don't I don't know, I don't know how to handle that.

Um so I'll have to have a lot of people.

Antonio can help with that, no problem.

He does that stuff in the sleep.

So that's part of a summary, and uh was mentioned already.

Three volunteers are up sorry, nine volunteers make up the board, and we have three part-time employees, two at 30 and one at 12 hours.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Perkins.

Are there any ex officio members who have questions regarding Terrywell Park?

No, seeing none.

Thank you very much.

Uh, and thank you for all you do and your volunteers.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I just like to thank the mayor, the mayor's chief of staff, um, all of the department heads, because I'm always on them, uh, Farley, uh, the whole the delegation, the finance team.

I probably shouldn't start naming this people because I'm probably gonna forget somebody, but all the department heads have been super super supportive in this whole endeavor since we've uh signed on.

I really appreciate all that effort and all the support that I've been getting from you all.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

So that concludes um the the authorities and and some of the smaller parts that get flat grants from the from the city of Danbury in our budget, and I thank all of them for the hard work they do to make Danbury a better place.

Moving on, I'm gonna move to Mr.

Iderola.

I and I'd like us to first look at in total for the public buildings and and other buildings.

We're gonna start on page 122 and go down to page uh 126 in your budget book.

So I'd like your questions to be in that grouping for Mr.

Irola.

Uh and and he's available.

You're he he can sit as desk unlike everybody else.

Does anybody have a question from the committee regarding uh those line items um which go from line 4180 to 418 found again from page 122 to page 126 of our budget books?

Councilman Chines.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Just an overall question to Antonio.

What are the conditions of our buildings?

Does this meet those conditions to upkeep them or are there major repairs that we need to know about the question?

Okay, there we go.

Yeah, the operating budget you're looking at is what deals with uh routine maintenance issues.

Um we couple that with uh capital requests that come in in addition to several years of uh doing bonds.

So it's a combination of all of them.

Um the buildings are heavily used, as you know.

Um any issue that comes up, uh we usually try to deal with it within our budget.

So um we're very happy with the um uh school buildings budget that we got this year.

It's probably one of the highest budgets that we've had.

Um, and that's one area of our budget that we always look to uh try to increase and uh take care of whatever needs we have.

Um, and we do significant amount of capital improvement projects uh in the school buildings.

So yes, I I feel that uh the budget that we have here uh should adequately address uh the day-to-day needs.

And this uh the no unusual items in here from the past, the same as always.

These are very routine operating items.

Uh uh, there's uh quite a few um uh uh outside consultants, uh contractors that do work like inspecting elevators, certifying elevators, things of that sort, uh fire alarm maintenance, um, all of that stuff that goes into a building maintenance department.

And we go now, is there anything in this in this budget here regarding the potential courthouse?

Um no, there isn't.

Nothing.

No, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Anyone else on the committee uh have any questions for Antonio regarding public buildings and school buildings?

Councilman Cuelo.

Yes, through the chair.

Hello, Antonio.

Quick question with regard to those two line items.

Um the maintenance and repair and the contractual services, you kind of hinted towards obviously maybe the contractual might be the stuff like uh engineering, et cetera, testing.

Um but with regard to the maintenance and repairs, uh we're performing that work in-house, are we subbing that out and specifically could you give us maybe a quick breakdown?

Because obviously it's uh an additional 300,000 part of it goes into the you know, I'll say the the professional side of it, uh consultants, and then their balance of it is there.

So maybe what we're doing with that money?

Uh yeah.

So um in addition to all the uh outside services that I just spoke about, we also do have uh uh on-call uh plumbers, on-call HVAC contractors.

Uh we have on-call contractors deal with BMS systems.

All of that is incorporated into the line items that you're describing.

Uh we do as much as we can in-house.

We prioritize um what we can with um it's you know, we have a I don't want to say a large group of uh mechanics, but we have a pretty good sized group of mechanics, and they'll deal with anything that needs to be triaged right away.

Um any longer or bigger projects like a major uh you know endeavor where we need to have an outside plumber come in and do some work, uh, then we would contract that out and it would come out of that line item.

Okay.

So if I may, just additional question follow-up.

So in uh 2425, 2526, it was kind of flat as far as you didn't ask for much more.

This is you know a considerable bump.

Is there specific things that you're planning to take care of with that additional, say 300,000 plus?

No, it's really just showing the need for some additional funding, which we did uh with Taylor and the mayor's office.

Um, remember every complaint I get, if it doesn't solve right away, it goes right to the mayor's office.

So uh they get to feel my pain a little bit, and I think it's shown in the budget.

Um they're responding to some uh additional needs, and as you know, our buildings continuously age.

Um I think you just heard uh the ex-fire chief talk about uh you know older buildings, the amount of care that goes into them.

So uh that's what we have.

We have an aging infrastructure when it comes to our buildings, and every year it's gonna creep up a little bit more.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions from members of the ad hoc?

Councilwoman LePine.

Um let's see.

Communication services.

You asked for 197,000, and the mayor proposed nothing.

So what's the that got moved?

I think Taylor can answer that, but I did I think it's moved to another department.

Yeah.

Yeah, it is moved to the IT department.

It was a line item from Frontier and the cost went up, and we were also kind of unsure why it found its way to public buildings in the first place.

So we got it rightfully in the IT department.

So it went to somebody else's budget.

It was a frontier communications bill.

So that's an IT.

Okay.

Thanks.

Any other questions regarding those those line items from members of the committee?

Seeing none, we're going to move on to our ex officio members in the room.

Again, we're focusing in on public buildings and school buildings found on uh pages 122 through 126 of your budget books.

Councilman uh Luigi Udano.

Uh thank you.

Uh to Antonio through the chair.

Um the uh under 4180, the first item uh salaries.

Uh there's about a hundred and twenty-two K shortfall from what you asked for and what was proposed by the mayor.

Um 516 101.

Uh was that was there a particular position that you were looking for on that uh um 122 or I um I don't know exactly um uh there there is an anticipated increase that we uh we had put in here when we prepared a budget based on the um increase in the uh union contracts.

Um so they ultimately will factor all those final numbers into it.

And um Taylor, I think we actually got another position too.

Yeah, one room mechanic for the public building.

So it's an increase.

Um I believe, right?

Councilwoman Jared on that we're looking at?

Yes, yes, okay.

Sorry.

So for members of the committee, I believe we're looking at uh line 516 101, which is on page 123 at the top.

So again, that just includes the new um the new benefits uh for the team service there and then the new and mechanic.

Mechanic three that was uh giving.

Yeah, so there's actually an increase in that line item.

That's why I think you threw me for a loop.

Um sorry for the state.

Yeah, so we we actually project out where we think we're gonna end up contractually with union raises.

Ultimately, the finance department does the hard numbers, and it also includes one additional mechanic, uh, which we've been um we're grateful to get.

Are there any other ex officio members who have questions for regarding public buildings and school buildings?

No.

Uh yes, Councilman Perkins.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh through you to I guess Antonio.

Uh Antonio, are there any um plans for integrating into bathrooms a wash area, soap, and air, hair hand drying, all into one unit as opposed to having uh paper towels.

Well, most of what we replace um as long as uh we have power nearby, we will try to do eliminate the hand towels and actually do uh hand dryer.

Um but uh that's you know, as as we lose uh uh uh paper towel dispensers and things like that, uh that that's what we're moving into as long as it's convenient to do it.

If we gotta spend a grand to bring power to a area, then it's not worth it.

Okay.

Any other ex officio members who have a question?

Hearing none, I'll go back to the ad hoc committee.

Any any follow-up questions by members of the ad hoc committee?

Councilman Coello, thank you through the chair.

Uh quick question with regard to uh anything at the high school.

We always get the complaints, you know, toilets clogged, not working, water fountains, et cetera.

Is any of that additional funds that are increased in your budget uh with go to regard to that prepares at all?

The budget uh does include the additional square footage that we're uh taken on.

Um a lot of that um a lot of the work that was done is still under warranty, thank goodness.

Um but next year you'll probably see a little additional request for funds as we get outside that warranty period for mechanical electrical systems and things like that.

You're talking about Danbury West, right?

Yeah, I was actually talking about Clappard Ridge, meaning we've got a lot of complaints over there with regard to you know toilets being clogged.

Yeah, obviously uh, you know, people they jam stuff down there all the time, whether it's vapes, et cetera.

So I didn't know if that was uh number one, the question always get we always get asked is we don't give enough money and the toilets aren't working properly yet.

When we take a tour, they are.

So I didn't know if some of this budget was request was the increase in it was partly for that, and are things working properly there?

Yeah, I mean, you know, you're gonna get a clock toilet.

You're dealing with high school kids.

So let's be honest with each other.

Uh you kind of know what that comes with.

Um but yeah, um the additional increases are related to the new school that we took on and we built.

So um that's really what you're seeing.

Gotcha.

And the other last question I had, if I may, with regard to the cleaning services that we have uh uh can we we have contracts with uh you know third party, so to speak.

When they get bought out, are they bought out uh per building or the entire package?

I think it's a package bid.

Um and I you're talking non-schools because schools have custodians.

Yeah, correct.

Yeah, so it will be other public buildings.

Typically it's bid out as a package.

So we'll have all the square footage in there, specific requirements for cleaning uh of those specific buildings.

Yeah.

Great.

Thank you.

Any other questions uh regarding buildings, school buildings, and public buildings from members of the committee.

Uh Councilman Cheneys.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

It's really quick.

With the additional new mechanic, the maintenance mechanic that you're gonna hire, will he be dedicated to the high schools and the new West of the Ho VT, all public buildings?

Yeah, no no one mechanic is dedicated to a school, unlike uh custodians where you have very dedicated groups, our mechanics are basically wherever they're needed, that's where they go.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you, Ms.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Okay.

Uh that concludes that part.

So I'd like to move on to uh what is line 4301, the director of public works that's found on page 161.

There are any members of the ad hoc committee who have questions regarding uh that line item.

Actually, the numbers are on page 163.

I think we're good.

I think we're good.

All right.

No questions from the ad hoc.

Uh any questions from any ex officio members.

Councilman Perkins.

This is on public works.

This is on one page.

Page 163.

I don't know.

I mean through you two and Tony Direct uh, I I know that we have been um engaged in some vertical uh integration over over over time, specifically in the um paving department.

You we have equipment that can kind of supplement uh having to hire outside sources.

Are we doing more in that area or have we um or not?

Can we tackle that in the highway department um line item?

This is basically me and my office manager.

Okay, sorry about that.

Yeah.

That that's correct.

I was just specifying that.

So since you brought it up, uh it I'm assuming there are no other ex officio members who have questions regarding the public works director's office.

We're gonna move to uh highways.

And and those are found, those pages are pages 165, 166, will include snow and ice removal and street lighting, which is found um at 167 and 167.

Everybody understand what we're focusing our questions on?

Fine.

So I'll turn to the ad hoc and ask members of the ad hoc committee if they have any questions regarding public highways, including snow removal, ice removal, uh, and street lighting.

Councilman Chinese.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Given our drastic horrible winter we just had, has that impact your budget in any way?

Did you increase it your budget as a result of the prior winter we just had?

We we uh we did have some uh adjustments, but they're minor.

Um remember, if we were to build a budget based on every bad, you know, one bad winter every 11 years, uh, you would have a budget that wouldn't really reflect uh the needs.

It would make me very happy, but um that this budget is not about making me happy.

Uh it's about trying to get things done with the least uh amount of resources and money to do it.

But um, yeah, we uh we were fortunate enough to get through this winter, as you know, it was probably one of the worst winters we had in about 11, 12 years.

Um, but um and we we we have uh accommodated in this budget some slight increases, but other than that, we're we're in good shape.

Okay.

In fact, maybe Mr.

Chairman, because I know in the past we had excess saw excess stuff, but all that was probably well depleted.

Yes, that's correct.

And we uh we are working on filling that back up uh utilizing some grant monies that we had.

Yeah.

Okay, Mr.

Chairman, if I on the page 166, you had um highways and special and sidewalks of 100,000.

That looks like it's a new item from the past.

Um and then you had contractual services of 80,000.

Can you explain what that would be the sidewalks?

Uh these are repairs to sidewalks, not large replacement projects.

So this could be a panel that's deteriorated in a two, three hundred foot run of sidewalk.

Um in the highway department, we'll tackle some of those.

You'll see in in the budget for construction services, we have a little bit more money in there that deals with more specific uh replacement of larger sidewalks areas.

Um, and this this not only does sidewalks, it does curbing and associated other items.

Uh if you were in front of town hall the other day, you saw the highway department replacing the detectable strips uh for ADA compliance.

They cut one in, they chipped it out.

It's to deal with that type of work.

Okay, and then and the contractual services, the 80,000, is that in conjunction with the sidewalks?

That is in conjunction with it.

That's where we actually farm it out.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Councilman Hawley.

Thank you.

Uh so through the chair, I think this might go to Chief O'Brien, because it's uh related to the the proposed by Maryland.

That's under 4303, it's on page 166.

Shoe allowance.

I've seen this across a few different areas on the budget, so I'll ask it here.

Um it seems like each of those items, uh, the mayor's office is continually giving a larger amount allocated to shoe allowance.

I guess my question to you is I I thought this may be connected to a union contract, some new uh new requirements or something like that.

Can you explain why there's more money going towards shoe allowance?

Yeah, absolutely.

So that is part of the contract.

So we settled team stores recently, so you'll see throughout some differences in benefits.

Uh what you're what you're saying, the 7755 was last year.

So when the department submitted, we were still looking last year's and we made the adjustments with the contract settlement.

Thank you, Councilwoman LePine.

Thank you through the chair.

Um I see street lighting.

Um a big increase.

Four five, six two two zero zero.

Or is that the electrical service?

What line items?

Yeah, electrical service.

That's another one that uh we went through the budget book after um what was put in just to adjust it with the 10% increase that we received with our contract.

Okay, so that's just the cost of this electricity for street lights.

Yeah, um yeah, that one's under street lighting.

For that one.

Yeah, for me as well.

But yeah, supply as well.

We had to do that.

Okay.

Okay.

Thanks.

Any other questions from uh members of the committee?

Councilman Coello.

Sure.

Thank you.

Through the chair.

Uh just to clarify, the street lights are not just for electricity.

There's obviously some repairs in there for additional things as well.

Um some of the decorative street lights will require some repair.

Uh, but this is predominantly for the cobra heads that you would see that are owned by Eversource.

We have a flat rate um number that we pay for them to come on, and then they get shut off in the morning.

So, yeah, it's a combination of both.

But uh the maintenance piece of it is very, very small.

Most of it is the electrical.

Uh what you're gonna see as Taylor mentioned to you is um we've done our best to anticipate what the electrical rates are gonna be.

Uh, when we prepared a budget, we were seeing different numbers.

The numbers are going up, and um uh finance and tailor adjusted them upward to deal with it.

And that's gonna be throughout my budget, by the way.

You're gonna see that everywhere.

Okay.

If I may just have a couple more questions.

Yes with regard to the salaries, um uh what you asked versus what it is, is that based on what you had mentioned before as far as with the actual numbers?

Are there no new hires in this?

Uh well, you can take a look if there's any new hires by looking at the uh I'll give you the page number.

That one's not one sixty.

That one's not.

Um this contract for the teamster is settled in between when we submitted the uh salary numbers to when we gave you that proposal.

So that's why those numbers are different.

But for highway, there's no new setup.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

And though I know you had talked about it previously with regard to the sidewalk repairs.

Do you have a uh because a lot of the questions that we get sometimes are hey, when is this going to get done?

When is that going to get done?

We'll get to the road paving later, but specifically to these sidewalk repairs.

It's not just the mayor's office that gets those complaints, and I know you get them, we get them.

So do you have like a uh a projected say list of the areas of hey, we're gonna tackle these over the next 10 months, uh whatever, eight months before winter comes back around, or you know, or the cold weather comes.

Do you have a projected list for that?

Or is that just where you're that's what you guys are anticipating is gonna have to be repaired?

It's based on the history um of uh calls that come in for repairs.

Um, but there is no current list for doing minor repairs as I described to you.

You also got to remember your city charter actually mandates repairs of sidewalks onto private property owners.

Uh these repairs would be whether it was a plow damage, uh potentially a tree that uh has lifted a couple panels, or something like uh frost that has caused some damage.

Um so it's related to that, but city charter requires sidewalk repairs to be done by the private property.

I understand, but I guess my follow-up to that FMA is that we went from a zero line item to 180,000 basically increase.

So I didn't know what was specifically driving that.

Can you give me the line item?

Because I'm not sure.

Um, answer that.

Okay, page 166, um those two line items, you know, um maintenance repair hidewa uh highway sidewalks 54304.

It's about halfway down the page.

Yeah, I can help answer um that is an existing line item, but we did not fund it uh for a couple of years from capital.

So last year we had um a large sum in public works capital that they were able to pull from for some items.

So you may see throughout some of the items uh um they pulled through there.

Okay, so it's not a new item.

You just slid it from one column in somebody else's budget to Yeah, we get um public works grants as well.

So we got the public works grant from the state, so sometimes those things can qualify.

So if um there's a way to utilize it for some of the operational work, we can in our budget.

Um so like this year, for example, obviously with a paving plan that we started last year, we're we're submitting a lot of uh money for that.

But in the past we could use that for some other items in the highway department.

So, yes, so that is an existing line.

Um I have some records you could see the actuals from 2425 did end up being 92,000.

And then the last time there was anything in 2223 was 89,000.

2122 is 247,000.

So, yeah, this is an existing line item that has been funded in the past.

Okay, great.

And the one last question, if I may, uh your department does a great job at with regard to saving the city money and self-performing stuff.

Out of that line item in the past or even projected for this year.

How much do you envision if there were a percentage that would be subbed out versus what you might self-perform in that line item?

It would be based on the individual repair that's required.

It's also based on how busy we are.

Um as you know, we're doing a lot of paving.

Uh we have multiple crews ahead of the paving crews doing repairs for drainage.

So it really comes down to our um general manager, our general foreman working with the other form is to determine how do we best utilize our resources.

Sometimes it's a lot easier to farm it out.

Um, and we can actually take care of doing some work that would cost us considerably more like drainage work on uh on a road.

That would be uh a lot more expensive than replacing one uh sidewalk panel.

Um so they do a really good job balancing available resources, potential cost of doing it in-house or out of house.

Um, and thank God I don't have to get involved in those nitty-gritty uh decisions.

Thank you.

Moving on to ex officio members regarding the highway expenditures on those lines.

Councilman Flanagan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um to Antonio.

I've I know that uh this is probably a contractual thing, and I get that from the unions and stuff, but breaking down public buildings, highway, snow removal, park maintenance, forestry, and equipment maintenance.

You got sixty-three thousand dollars for storm meals.

Could you explain to me how that works?

Do they have to go to a certain diner restaurant?

Uh how does that work?

There's uh there's a couple of restaurants that we have agreements with.

Um but those are uh separate from what I think you're discussing.

These are storm meal payouts that are contractually obligated by the union contracts.

Oh, I understand.

So they do we we make the payment, they can uh go to whatever restaurant we want.

Our managers, and there's only a handful of them actually will work with a small group of restaurants that will take a ticket during the middle of a snowstorm instead of cash, and then they will build a finance department.

Uh or actually they bill us and then we approve it and we send it to finance.

One last question, if I may.

Um do you know she negotiate the price of the meal?

Or is it whatever is on there, man?

No, it's set by the city.

So like breakfast 12 bucks.

Thank you.

Good luck finding breakfast for 12 bucks today.

Thank you.

Any other questions from ex officio members?

Ex officium members.

Councilman Dwayne Perkins.

I think this is my opportunity now.

Yes.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

It's not easy, not easy squeezing in the words uh vertical integration in the conversation very often.

So I had to take full advantage of it.

Um so I I know that we had talked um through through the chair too, and too.

I know we had talked in the past about uh the city of Danbury acquiring some of that equipment.

Are are we still in that cadence or or did we kind of stop?

No, no, we have purchased equipment over the last probably five to ten years that has allowed us to do a lot more in-house work.

Um our equipment and the use of the equipment is really what makes us very efficient.

So you have to stay with the times, you gotta see where the industry is going.

But whatever piece of equipment we can purchase to expedite, getting the work done and doing it more cost effectively is what we try to do.

Okay, that's my thought.

Um thank you for the uh cape seal and uh all the all the work to force you guys to do.

Sure, thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions from ex officio members?

No.

Moving on.

Um Antonio, um, we're gonna move to the engineering line, which is uh line 4305 on page 182.

Any questions from any members uh of the ad hoc committee regarding the engineering uh appropriations?

Excuse me.

Councilman Hawley.

Thank you.

So uh through the chair, uh for 4305, which one is that?

It's uh maintenance repair roadway safety marking.

I thought that there was proposed 400,000 from the department, and the mayor funded it 100,000.

Um just clarification.

I'm not sure if that'll be to you or to the mayor's office.

Yeah, we we funded this line item a few different ways.

Um Taylor this year can explain sort of what we're doing.

We do utilize a grant that we get once in a while to help out in this, uh, but Taylor can better explain that.

Yeah, I would only add to that um was a capital line that uh the council approved last year too that we took um a big bulk of that out of.

So at 100,000 this year, we're hoping to see how Vera does with the grants and how this line can grow.

Uh Vera has a lot of great extensive plans.

So we're hoping we do get these grants in so we could do some more safety work.

Any other questions from members of the committee?

Councilman Cheneys.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Just to follow up on that comment.

So is the 100,000 used just for the engineering of it, or is actually the actual work to correct the safety markings?

That's the that is the physical work.

The physical work, physical work, replacing um cross-hatching of um um crosswalks, uh turning uh turning um what do you call them?

Uh the turning arrows that you see, it's it's to do all of that type of maintenance work, yeah.

And that's contracted out, obviously.

Yes, yeah.

And my next question is again, I know in the past the the department was sure engineers did this hard to find.

Are you fully staffed now or are you still looking for engineers?

No, we're we're still looking, um, we we were fortunate enough to uh work with um uh a couple of um uh interns uh that we got very friendly with a couple UConn students, so as soon as they graduated, we kind of stayed in touch.

Um and we've we have two very young engineers that we're training right now.

Um takes a little bit of time.

It's um it takes actually a lot of time.

Uh but uh it's kind of the only uh way to move ahead and try to get uh you know some new blood in the department.

Um we're not the only ones dealing with this, by the way.

It is a industry issue across uh state of Connecticut, probably the tri-state area.

Okay, because the reason why I asked because it's it there's no budget for any new engineers.

That's correct.

So we we we have uh I think one more vacancy that we're we're gonna try to fill, yeah.

So there's a vacancy currently.

Currently one vacancy, yeah.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Any other questions from members of the committee?

Seeing none, we're gonna move to ex officio members.

This is strictly regarding engineering.

Any questions from any members?

Councilman Birkin.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um through you to maybe the the mayor's office.

Looking at the city engineers uh rate.

Is that like missing a number in front of one of those sixes?

It sure is.

It's missing like a two in front of the six.

Um for the uh city engineer work that our public works director does.

It's with the number, right?

That is that is correct.

It's a stipend.

Yeah.

The original salary you will find in the public works budget.

Okay, thank you.

Uh I appreciate your yeah.

Any other questions from ex officio members?

Um hearing none.

Back to the committee.

Any follow-up questions from members of the committee?

Moving.

If there are none, we're going to move on, Antonio.

We're going to go to the Yes.

Councilman Coello.

Thank you.

Through the chair.

Um in your major objective, you talk about rebidding the Kennedy Street Bridge.

Yes.

Right.

And redesign, maybe Ving it and so forth.

So do you have um what do you have anticipated in here to be able to do that?

Is there something without with regard to outside services to say redesigning it, rebidding it, or is that already taken place when you say it's one of your goals and that has uh that has been taken place.

Uh member, these are operating uh budget line items.

Yeah.

Uh something of that magnitude is is uh capital.

Uh so yes, uh the bridge has been re um rebid um and we are currently in the process of awarding it.

I just heard today all contracts are completed, so they should be signed hopefully by the end of the week, and we'll coordinate doing that work with the sidewalk uh project that's being done downtown.

Okay, thank you.

I'll ask my other questions then on there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

If if there are no other questions regarding engineering, from we're gonna move on to construction services, which is on which is found on page 185.

It's starts at line 4306 of your budget books.

Any questions from members of the ad hoc committee regarding uh construction services for Antonio?

Councilman Chinese.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh, just an overall again.

What would be the major accomplishments that this budget is going to do in the upcoming year?

Any major project it's going to be focusing on would be mainly bridges or school buildings, or is it just going to be an overall?

So um I think what you're asking is what does is this department going to be working on, right?

Because these are just basic operating.

Yeah.

So this little department is probably one of the most impactful departments we have.

Uh this was a reorganization uh that I did when I first got here, and it's probably been the best thing we've ever done.

Uh so these guys uh currently are working with me on the Franklin Street Extension Bridge.

Uh these are the same guys that work with me when we build a school uh to do the day-to-day management of projects.

Um and they do everything from replacing and managing roof uh to major drainage projects to bridges, uh building construction.

So they're very uh I would say well-rounded when it comes to managing those types of projects.

Uh we also have one individual that deals with all of the street opening permits.

We have the largest amount of street opening permits ever issued in the history of Danbury uh going on now.

If you drive around, you'll see Ever Source everywhere.

Uh every single one of those segments of uh work is uh got a permit associated with it.

And there's one individual that runs around, checks on that work, and also makes sure the restoration work is completed.

Any other questions from members of the committee regarding construction services?

Um Antonio, I have a question.

Sure.

That one person who does all those street openings, does he all not also wear a hat of the sidewalk inspector of the city?

That is correct.

He's also our right-of-way inspector, and during a snowstorm, he is the individual that will issue um warnings, uh fines, if you will, for not clearing sidewalks.

So he's he's a one-man army, uh, to be honest with you.

Yeah.

So um I know you don't know know the answer to this question.

I'm gonna ask Ms.

O'Brien.

Um, there are fines assessed for people who don't shovel their sidewalks or clear their sidewalks, and possibly there might be fines assessed for people who don't properly maintain uh get involved with the city right away with driveway uh aprons.

Do is there a line that recognizes our collection of those somewhere in this book?

Uh yes, thank you.

I could point you to page 48 under fines and penalties, citations for snow removal.

Um sidewalk inspectors this year um actually went out with the unit department.

Um the mayor had suggested they could even help considering how big these storms were this year.

So we had more of a team out there, and what we try to do, I want to say and be fair, because you will see the number here that we budget for is um not there because we don't want to give tickets out.

Uh we do work with our neighbors uh in Danbury to knock on their door, let them know hey, this is your responsibility.

Can you get it done?

We'll come back, and if we have to find, we will.

But what we find most of the time is is folks do listen and and we do try to make the sidewalks clear.

The whole goal here is safety, not to find individual safe.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm gonna open this up to questions from I'm sorry, Councilman Coello.

All right, thank you through the chair.

Um Antonio, if you could, with regard to the the road open the road opening permits and you know, overseeing that specifically with regard to uh restoration services.

Um I know one person handles a lot there.

Can you explain how you guys prioritize, say with EverSource, for instance, the gas company, when that uh restoration takes place?

Because another lot is a lot that goes into it.

Again, you probably get a lot of phone calls and complaints.

So does the mayor's office with regards to roads that you had nothing to do with, but it's been through a winter, you know, and there's a lot of gas work going on, et cetera.

How that one individual and how does how do they work with the utility company in your department to prioritize?

Here's our paved list for restoration.

So there's quite a bit of coordination that happens.

Um uh the coordination is important because these utility companies, if they start going and digging into a road that I just got done paving, let's say in the last three years, uh their restoration limits are incredibly uh extensive.

Uh curb the curb.

Sometimes we'll do curb to the center line.

Um so it works to their benefit to coordinate with us when we pave.

Uh there's some roads that we uh held off paving because there's extensive amount of gas work that's going in that they got delayed in executing.

Um as it comes to repairing uh old um uh excavations, uh trench excavations.

So Rob has a program.

He will enter into the program when the temporary patch was done, and it'll automatically let him know after like a two or three month period, we want everything to settle out.

Um that that patch is ready to be um final paved.

Uh and he works with one person that manages that entire process for Eversource, and they coordinate those efforts uh very, very well.

Uh we had an incident on New Street where we had a patch that failed this winter, created quite of quite a bit of chaos, and uh they worked very well together to deal with that.

Thank you.

And if I may, just one follow-up to that.

Thank you.

Um with regard to Westville Avenue, et cetera.

I know that's still under construction, it's been going on for a while.

When do you envision that?

I know you're gonna tell me it's not a budget question, but I have to ask.

So when do you envision that getting repaved this?

Um it really comes down to how quickly we can get EverSource out of there.

Um and there's different challenges there.

Um we we had a couple homeowners that did not want the gas company on their property.

Um they end up having to terminate the line that fed them.

So there was a major issue on, you know, what do you do with the gas service?

They're fed off of an existing main that's being shut down.

So little things like that really delay a project.

Um, because now we can't take the old the old man off service.

Uh we have to pay respect that you know, we're in a winter condition and people need heating.

Um, but other than that, it would be just how quickly we can get um Eversource out of there.

Um I could privately let you know uh sort of how much more work they have to do there if you're getting some questions about it.

I appreciate that, and thank you to your that group that you have there.

There may only be three, but they do a work of a lot more than that, and I can appreciate it.

So thank you.

I'll open this up to questions from the ex officio members.

This is regarding construction services.

No, and I will note that uh Councilwoman Jabbar is present and has been present.

I failed to note her when she arrived.

Uh okay, Antonia, we're gonna try to wind you up.

Um we're gonna move to uh equipment maintenance, park maintenance, and forestry.

So equipment maintenance is found on page 176 on line 4319 of your budget books.

Forestry is found on page 173, line 4391, and park maintenance is founded.

Excuse me, page 169, line 4390.

All right, I'm gonna turn to the members of the ad hoc committee and ask if they have any questions about those line items and those particular categories.

We mixed a lot up there.

Uh Pete, I think uh Councilman Coello.

Yes, thank you through the chair.

Um with regard to uh I may not be that was gonna say the fuel usage, sorry, I don't think this is that's in there, sorry.

Sorry, I skip the page.

Okay.

Members of the committee, again, just so we're gonna direct our questions to uh equipment maintenance, which starts at page 176, uh park maintenance, which is at page 169, and forestry, which is at page 1730.

Councilman Quella, all right.

I stand corrected.

Um with regard to it's on page one uh seventy-eight.

Um can you uh tell us a little bit about the biodiesel plant that would started and so forth and how much is projected in that?

Uh and then obviously you know our fuel costs at whatever it is now, six dollars a you know gallon for diesel, et cetera, what you have projected in here with regard to what we're saving with that.

So the biodiesel plant uh that was constructed um was highly uh speculative on um the availability of some APA grants, which gave us a substantial uh benefit to making biodiesel.

Umfortunately, over the last two years, a lot of those uh grants have been dried up, like we used to get a dollar a gallon for making it.

We used to get two gall two dollars a gallon for mixing it with regular diesel.

All of that is pretty much dried up.

Um so what we're using is the front end of that plant.

The rest of the plant is still there, and hopefully when some of those incentives come back, uh we can fire that plant back up.

The line item that you're making reference to is strictly for purchasing uh motor fuels, which includes gas and diesel uh for our entire fleet of the city of Danbury.

It covers everybody, covers uh police, fire, public works, um, geez, I think it even covers the ambulance.

Um so that that's what you are seeing there is uh is the funding for the purchase of uh gas and uh diesel.

As a follow-up, if I may, so the question is obviously you know, gas is and diesel is almost probably 50 percent more than it was last year, yet your projection stays the same.

So how how are you anticipating?

We're under contract.

Yeah.

So we're fortunate.

Um for the entire Yeah, so once the contract comes um undone, we're hoping that this little uh war thing that we have going on is coming to an end and things will return back to normal.

But there is a slight risk in there that it might not.

Fair enough, thank you.

Yeah.

Any other questions from members of the committee regarding those categories?

Hearing none, I'll move to the ex officio members.

Any questions from the remaining ex officio members in the chamber?

No.

So thank you, Antonio.

No problem.

And we're going to turn now to uh Mr.

Day.

And and I believe we're gonna we're gonna discuss at this point line 4390.

Uh I'm sorry, I apologize.

Nine line 4319 at page 180, which is recycling and solid waste, which I believe is comes under your purview.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

Are there any questions regarding that?

It's on page 181 are the actual budget items.

Okay.

Hearing none, we're going to move on and we'll we'll go to uh the questions regarding the the water and the water lines uh which which I believe are found at uh page 262 of our books and yeah, page 262 uh of our books, which is the the all the water lines.

So let's uh direct our questions regarding that, and now we're involved with discussing the water funds Councilman Cheneys.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

As it was as alluded to earlier in the evening regarding the Lake Kenosha and the quality of water they're doing.

Is that a duplication of what you're doing?

Or is that something you can do and to alleviate what they're doing?

It is it is not a duplication of what we do.

Uh the Kenosha Commission does annual sampling uh for certain parameters uh that they use for the health of the water body.

Uh we sample Kenosha when we use Kenosha flood skimming based on the need which is dictated by the Westlake reservoir levels.

When when we do need to use it, we sample the Kenosha uh raw water for the raw water qualities consistent with the Connecticut DPH uh raw water uh requirements.

That's it's it's a totally different uh uh set of tests.

So it's different testing.

And Mr.

Phillips, so do you oversee that testing or it's this independent of you of what you do?

Which testing?

The what the water quality testing they do.

We don't oversee the water quality testing that the Kenosha Commission does.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Anyone any other questions regarding the water fund and uh water supply from members of the ad hoc?

Seeing that there are none or only remaining ex officio member uh no questions.

Okay.

I'd just like to add before uh we move on, we have the cheapest water rates of anybody around us.

Um it's it's amazing actually uh how these guys do what they do.

And as you know, this past winter we had nothing but water main breaks.

Uh that was basically our entire uh winter.

Um but these guys do a great job managing it.

Um and they're it's great quality water.

Um so I just want to mention that, give them a quick shout out.

Thank you for that.

Um moving on, we'll move on to uh um the sewer treatment plant, the opposite end of of this, which would be on page 274.

Are there any questions from members of the committee regarding the items listed on page 274 of our budget book?

Mr.

Chairman?

Yes.

I get this uh this is just an overall.

I know we are increasing we were budgeting for an increase in the rates of 10 percent this year, correct?

It's uh it's 10 percent for water and five percent for sewer.

Okay.

So that would that five percent weird, okay.

So it's the opposite.

Yeah, so with the it's usually 10 and 10, but okay.

All right.

So with the 5 percent increase, is would that be enough to substa all the expenses that we're gonna have?

We're not gonna run a deficit in the sewers and nothing.

Uh no, we work with the finance department on that.

I mean, that's that's what we've you know calculated is needed to uh to to fund you know the water system upgrades we've been working on and maintain operational compliance.

Okay, I'll refer that to the finance director.

So is the water is a sewer fund solvent, I guess, with this budget?

We're not and we're not running a negative.

Correct.

We're we're f we're fine there.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I just want to clarify because we haven't really said that yet.

But it is accurate that it's 10 percent water, 5% sewer.

This is the first year we were able to go down on sewer.

that's that's what we've you know calculated is needed to uh to to fund you know the water system upgrades we've been working on and maintain operational compliance okay i'll refer that to the finance director so is the water is a sewer fund solvent i guess with this budget we're not and we're not running a negative correct we're we're f we're fine there okay thank you mr chairman i just wanted to clarify that because we haven't really said that yet but it is accurate that it's 10% water five percent sewer this is the first year we were able to go down on sewer so uh we're happy that we're at that point and hope that we could change it um as most of you know it was March 2023 that there was a decision to do 10 and 10 for six years but um I think it gives uh a show how healthy our department's doing with their funds that they have that we were able to lower the sewer increase this year councilwoman LePine um I noticed the revenue of the sewer and the expenditures are exactly the same so it's like just zeros each other out yeah so this budget is built on the revenue that comes in it's self-sufficient.

Um if they didn't match we'd have a big problem.

So the revenues that come in is exactly what David can use uh to maintain the sewer treatment plan and the collection system.

So they they you'll see that even in the water fund the two are always identical.

Yeah I saw they're both identical okay thanks if now you would have an unbalanced budget so okay so we don't make a profit from the sewer okay or the water elsewhere in Coolo.

Sorry to do this but I have uh if I may through the chair um I know it's on page t two sixty five but I didn't get a chance to ask this question with regards to the contingency of nine hundred and seventy five thousand that was added and approved um I'm not sure if you're you may going back to the water fund now yes sorry if you can elaborate on that yeah that's that's contingency that we use to deal with all these water main breaks and everything else that you can't predict yeah but but in years past from what I can see unless I'm missing it the year prior was 8000 you know they ask was a hundred or uh we're 10 times that so there's got to be something that's driving that increase.

Yeah it's all the water main breaks that we had this past winter literally every every week two three a week um i it's and and there's some insertion valves that we are going to be doing which allows us to better control those water main breaks we have a lot of valves that we have a break and they don't the valves don't hold so we have to go to a bigger shutdown uh this year we were healthy enough to try to fund some of that work.

Okay so you do you have a projected list for I know it's contingency but I mean there must be a priority you know uh you know stuff that you know is on some of that money is allocated and we know what we're gonna spend it on some of it is due to uh unforeseen conditions like water mains uh which are becoming more and more prominent not only in in Danbury but as you can see Waterbury, Meriden, Bristol uh the most amount of water main breaks in ever before um and it's really due to these cold snaps that we're having one day we're at 80 degrees next day we're at 29 degrees um not good for the uh piping systems that carry that water so I know you've done a lot of repairs I remember last year at West Street etc beyond some stuff you had to get special fittings you guys you know turn stuff on your head to get it done quickly uh thanksgiving everything you know the guys do a great department you know do a great job in that department the one question I wanted to ask was of that contingency fund how much do you think um is will be and potentially subbed out versus what you may be able to do in-house as it so a lot of the work that the water department does is in in-house the bat valve replacement that we're speaking about although they're getting much they're they're actually taking on a lot more some of the insertion valve work and some of that bigger work has to be done by a professional that has the tools to do it very dangerous work.

So um I I don't know I would probably say a third of it may be farmed out um there these guys are also installing water mains and replacing water mains uh we're doing a lot more of that work in house now um uh so yeah uh we're moving towards doing as much work as we can in house we finally have a department that's well staffed uh we are always short we always were operating on a minimal number of uh repairmen and um um uh work you know the pipelines that that's what we call them um but that's that's that's pretty much how we work now we do as much in-house as we can anything that's um gonna take maybe a month or two where we tie up our guys we we're gonna farm it out you get any help from anybody from an aquarium or no no we we yeah aquarium actually is one of our customers yeah add to that just with contingency we never plan to use it but we when we put it in this budget we're we're saying you know given the fact that our infrastructure is so old and we are doing a lot of work to replace it when these massive water breaks happen the fund can actually cover this versus if we ever had to ask our general fund which means customers who don't even use our water to to pay for that sort of break.

When these massive water made breaks happen, the fund can actually cover this versus if we ever had to ask our general fund, which means customers who don't even use our water to to pay for that sort of break.

So when it's in this fund, it's more self-sustaining if there were an emergency.

Hopefully, there are not.

I'll knock on wood now.

But um with everything that happened in the past few years, especially from what I've seen and being the person who did the robocalls for 10 years.

It's we have a lot of water meeting breaks, and we have to prepare for it.

So thank you.

Any other questions from members of the committee?

Just as a follow-up to that, this this excuse me.

This contingency is funded by the ratepayers.

Is that correct?

Not the taxpayers.

Correct.

That's correct.

Yeah.

All right.

Thank you.

Uh with that, I think we've we've covered every item uh in our agenda uh for tonight.

And um I'd ask for a motion, Councilman Hawley.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I move to recommend the public works budget as presented for approval.

Second.

That motion was made and seconded by uh councilwoman LePine.

Um I'll try your minds, all members of the committee.

Excuse me.

Any discussion about that?

Yeah.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Councilman Cheneese.

I just want to give just give an overall to the great work that the public works has done.

And in the past years, I always said that public works is always the backbone of this city.

There can never be enough dollars given to you for the amount of work that you really, really need.

So you guys, you and you to staff and your department, you really do a great work.

Even though you're dealing with us and the questions you deal and the problems you have to deal with, it's not an easy task.

And so we commend you and your staff for all the work you do do.

And you do do you I think you're one of the best public works in the whole state.

So again, thank you for all your oh but for thank you.

And we appreciate the kind words, and I'll pass it on to my very small management group.

Any other discussion or remarks?

Hearing none, I'll try your minds.

All those in favor of the motion is made.

Please say aye.

Aye.

Are there any nays?

Hearing none, the the motion carries unanimously.

Thank you all.

Thank you very much.

Sorry,