Video recording

captions Language: en Builder Creek sanitary sewer conveyance pipes so Aaron I'll hand the Baton to you awesome thank you so much so yeah as mentioned I'm Aaron Ryan with Barton and Le Judas and I am going to give you guys all a followup on the condition of the sewer infrastructure in ship Builders Creek that I previously had been here to present on back in June so we will uh um I'll walk you through what has changed since the last presentation so a little history um as I discussed back in June there is some exposed sewer infrastructure in ship Builders Creek a handful of sewer pipes that cross the creek as well as a manhole in the banks um so when we were here last time uh we walked through four different possibilities on how to address that issue and the proposed solution that we all landed on was um the full comprehensive protection of the sewer infrastructure as well as stream restoration so that included lining the sewers with concrete encasement to protect the pipes and then doing the stream restoration which would include flood plane reconnection to allow when we get the large heavy storms with a lot of flow um more pathway for that flow to go so that it reduces the speed and reduces the erosion so that project had a price tag of a little over a million dollars we had submitted a wqp Grant application to do that work and that was unfortunately unsuccessful so we discovered that back in October is um so at that time the town had us go back out to see what the condition of the pipes and the infrastructure was since the last time we had been out there was back in February so we did a site visit on October 24th um and this was particularly important because um it was after that very very large storm event you guys got in September so wanting to see if that affected anything and what we found was the majority of the infrastructure was unaffected the condition was the same um as it had been back in February except for one pipe so there's a photo here this is an 8 in sewer that crosses ship Builders Creek as you see it's totally exposed um but back in February it was laying on the bank of the creek what we found when we were there in October was the section I have bracketed and red um the pipe was actually the stream scoured beneath it and that pipe was undermined so it was not supported um for a period of about 10 ft um about half of the length of the creek so that is um particularly concerning because that provides a lot of stress on the pipe um and really primes it for say you get a large storm event and a piece of debris comes by headset it's definitely a lot more susceptible to Breaking than it would be if it was um laying on the bed of the creek so definitely a concern there um a liability uh for the town as it could you know if the sewer pipe breaks we'd have sewage in the creek and then that would be problematic um so what we would propose as to how to address that would be to take large Stones um you know maybe about 18 in tall by a few feet wide and um long and take that large Stone Place it beneath the pipe as well as upstream and then also a little Downstream of it obviously the stone beneath it will support it and then the stone placement Upstream is intended to prevent further erosion um these Stones would be large enough that they would not be able to be moved by a large stream event um so they really would provide like a stable surface for that pipe um and to prevent further erosion so so I want to stress that this really is just a temporary solution um we still recommend doing that larger project I had previously discussed and potentially doing a wpip Grant application for next season as well um because we're going to continue to see issues here until the stream is restored um erosion is going to continue to happen so um until that is addressed issues like this will continue to pop up maybe not at this specific location but at the uh other um infrastructure locations so let's get into the details on um the proposed solution and what that would mean for the town so unfortunately because this is in a stream there's always going to be permitting requirements there we really see two Pathways forward for the permitting um option one which is what we would pursue initially would be to try to get an emergency authorization from DEC for their Article 15 stream permit um so what that would entail would be a small scale permit package um we would pull together that would include the design um of the the stone and a couple other smaller things uh this would be submitted to DEC and they are supposed to um much more quickly than a regular permit package review it and get back if they agree that it is an emergency so I will say the sewer pipe is not currently actively leaking sewage so there is a potential that they could not deem it an emergency and require some more information such as secret documentation um endangered species reviews impacts on the Hydraulics of the stream stuff of that nature so if they don't deem it an emergency our plan would be to then provide them that information and then that would affect the schedule which I would get I'll get into in a second so how that affects the costs um if we can just do the emergency authorization um we would have a base permitting and design um tasks that are summarized in The Proposal you all have for $16,500 if we end up having to do the additional permitting um that would also require us having to go out to bid which would mean assembling a spec book um doing the bidding process and that obviously increases the costs so um if it is the worst case scenario of having to do all of the things um the engineering costs would be about $40,000 we've also estimated that the construction work itself would be about 60,000 so overall this would be about $100,000 effort from the town so for schedule um assuming that we received authorization probably around your next board meeting we would get the um work started in January perform the design work and get the the small permit package assembled assuming that would take about a month and then um we are assuming about a month return time from DEC until they give us the okay if it's a emergency or not we would also during that time make sure to do coordinate any easements with you guys make sure that we have the proper access so that the contractors can actually get in and do that work um I know that there are some like drainage easements in the area so we just want to review those and get any additional easements we may need so if the EC deems it an emergency I would then recommend that the town pass their own emergency resolution um that would preclude you guys from having to go to bid for that work um and then we would coordinate with contractors you know maybe get pricing from a couple different ones and then move forward with a springtime construction if the DC does not deem it an emergency um the schedule would be the same in the beginning but um we would receive that they don't think it's an emergency around uh the end of February so we would spend March um assembling the additional info that they would need and then the long piece here is that it could be up to four months of their review until we receive um authorization and the permit so that would then push us into bidding over the summer and then um a late summer and or early fall uh construction season so um that is pretty much the summary right there um do you guys have any questions for me um I know that this is a very you know um unfortunate circumstance that we are in and we have to fix the issue and the safety you know for the environment and our constituents um living condition my question is how are we going to go and fund this project and are we going to still you know um waiting for the grant try to apply and Hope hopefully get it again or how are we going to fund this can I answer that Aon because uh unfortunately Paul Adams is not able to join us tonight um and I had asked him uh via email yesterday or the day before um if this ends up being 100,000 which is the non-emergency if it ends up being 80,000 if it's an emergency how are we funding this Paul what is your suggestion our finance director uh is this in the budget for 2025 is this come out of sewer reserve and he responded sewer Reserve is that correct d that' be correct sir okay so that's how we would fund it okay thank you and of course my understanding is that this is not something that that the engineers feel that we can wait uh to do the work on and wait for the next Grant cycle so this is looking at more of a temporary fix and certainly still applying for that Grant to do the project the way we looked at it several months ago so my question is that should we do this and we try to reinforce this with stone will any of that be useful in the full project moving forward um a piece of it would be um that stone placement might be helpful for the design I not actually the uh stream restoration designer so sure um I don't know exactly how that would play into it but I know that that would be an element of what we' be planning on doing um some of it may have to be removed cuz we would eventually want to fully incase those pipes in concrete because you know having it supported beneath it's important but also protecting it on top is also important so it would be partially helpful but really I think the million dollar price tag would still be around there we wouldn't eat into that too much some of those stones are sizable enough that I would think they might be moved and put it put to use at other portions of the project right we could potentially if we had to remove them reuse them somewhere else okay who and when um applies to the uh DEC for the permits um so we would do the the permit package for you guys potentially have to get a couple of signatures from you um but we would do all of the the ground workor for that and how soon would that be I mean do you have any idea um uh my Environmental Group estimated it would take about a month to pull everything together um and then assuming about a month of time for them to review it when is the next cycle I get closer when is the next cycle for the it's the wqi yep so uh they would receive applications in June of next year and then um we typically hear in December if we're successful June December so this this presumably all of the work would be completed in October or potentially May so we're saving like a year or so approximately yeah because once we received the grant for the all-in you know project uh there would be design time you know all of that so it would probably be another year until that was constructed and of course you could in theory risk it and wait until then um but but seems like a significant risk and one that we would be very sad that we did should it should we not have done this and it breaks yeah and I I can't remember art I I know I want to say it was 2020 there was an incident where it was so this has been a long long standing issue uh predates me many many years uh in the first presentation we showed the manhole uh that was undermined um I think and you go back to your first um picture yep uh there's a pipe underneath that that has been like that's concrete encasement that has gotten worse so this has really been a long-standing issue you supervisor you're absolutely right few years ago I think when you first started uh we had a wash out on one of the uh pipes uh and it uh broke yeah and we had to get a contractor in there an emergency status and uh and try to secure it uh as best we could at that point and I think even some of that is starting to move as well so it uh it definitely begs to be done properly and thoughtfully uh to armor that uh that whole system yeah and I don't I don't remember it was maybe June of 2020 is my guess and uh I remember the some of the construction vehicles had to go down through an easement through people's backyards they really thrilled uh but you know and then there was a DEC auditor inspector that was on site who wasn't really uh he wasn't really happy uh no for lack of better terms and I didn't expect them to be and I know that we were concerned at that time art uh what kind of uh ramifications that was going to have um I was happy to hear you know later on DC didn't really uh punitively um you know do anything against us but it's in our record and um and to be honest with you well you know I'm hoping of course I'm an optimist that that record from 2020 along with showing that we're trying to shore up this thing on the short term you know as we write the grant through wqi in June of 25 for the long term instead of banding it uh that might work to our advantage but you know that's The Optimist in me and this is not the first time I mean I've even looked at it in my time here I think Pete Baker actually looked at this as well and um so yeah we keep we keep uh keeps revisiting us that's for sure now I just you know obviously when I say any questions comments because at the 7:30 board meeting tonight um there is a resolution it's number eight oh I'm looking at the wrong one thank you Yes actually Kim yeah number eight is to authorizing the emergency repair fix um and you know that authorization uh by the board would start the the Gant chart that that Aaron showed and you know it's got there's some angles that could go off it depends on whether we get the emergency permit if not even if we get the emergency permit we'd be be back here in a couple of months doing a resolution for the Emergency um so just so the board me Members understand we're about to do a resolution in an hour on this so by all means you know if there's any questions or things you're not quite sure of if I understand this if the [Music] emergency permit comes in it'll cost around 80 grand the emergency permit doesn't come in we're guessing it'll be 100 Grand and the $60,000 construction cost estimate is just that I mean um you know I don't know our it's an emergency we don't have to go out to bid so you have an idea of who you would go to to say Hey you know uh do this for us I would work with uh just just to do our due diligence I would work with two contractors okay just to get two different prices yeah and then obviously if it's not an emergency where the full I won't say wix's law but bid low bid advertise all that stuff okay I do have a question Aaron does this include uh some construction observation y as well y okay yeah and that line item is specific in The Proposal I forget the number off the top of my head okay I know it's hard to predict this but if there was an issue what would the potential cost range of the potential cost be if there was actually if it was compromised and then there was sewage leaking I don't I don't think we can answer that unfortunately um and the reason being is don't know what the damage is don't know what the infrastructure failure is and uh you know what the impact uh is it localized to that stream section or does it how far down the stream it goes um I if you want to throw a number feel free but I don't I would agree I don't think I could throw a number exactly at it but you'd be looking at having to do the same process of the emergency permit this time they would definitely say yes it's an emery um and then we would have to go through and um get a contractor in there to replace the pipe if I'm assuming it's broken in the scenario um but yeah to the extent what that would be and then and then DEC finds right venture to guess it would be more than well like I said back in 2020 we were we were guessing uh that we were going to be fined by the dec and we weren't yes um I don't know if they would sit here five years later and say you know oh okay well it happened again we're not going to find you I don't know but I moving this along at least shows hey we're trying you know we can show them we we applied for a grant we were going to do the whole kit kabut and fix it permanently and the dec you know whatever and we will continue to do we'll do that Grant again in in May or June think keeping in mind this is just the one portion remember there are you know numerous pipes that cross the creek there's a manhold that is undermined so this um this is what the second evaluation did for us is okay what is the uh most critical if you will critical path to try to at least short up some of it right if we had gone out there and saw that the condition of all the infrastructure had been the same we would just say you know do the W qip again but yeah the the condition had changed the the storms came through and you know eroded the soil under that pipe so yeah um the risk is that it can happen again yeah and I would say uh the other risk on not doing it and if something happens in addition to finds from the dec is just bad public perception um particularly because this is right in a neighborhood well eron thank you and uh Art thank you supervisor I I would like to say something sure so I got a visit the other day uh from a resident uh much uh further Downstream that I I don't know how he gathered this information uh and I don't know if it was in online or in the paper or something he came in very conern his great guy by the way um that uh he had read that the pipe had broken and obviously you know to straighten that out but uh I don't know I don't didn't see it online or didn't read the paper but uh I'm sure it was on Facebook I get Mook we we want to avoid that we want to be very clear the it's not broken and we want to uh armor this so it does not break until we make a full a full Improvement on the whole area thank you for that art thanks Art thank you Art thank you eron thank you um okay well our next item up tonight um I got to tell you since we're in the giving time of year is that correct Charlie bced on your hat um I'm in a pretty good mood tonight because uh uh the month of December hopefully is going to end up being a very good one for the town residents um for years to come uh back in November at Thanksgiving around that time I had uh queried the board to say hey uh you know what do you think is the most important item for us that we have an ongoing effort going uh in 23 24 to to really move forward in 25 and get done and uh unanimously the town board said EMS let's get that EMS thing tied up and two weeks ago tonight we started the process of tying that up uh by doing a resolution to enter into negotiations with Penfield volunteer ambulance on a long-term contract well back in November I also asked the board you know what do you think what is a what new initiative would would be worthy uh in 2025 to start and unanimously the number one item from all five board members was getting a revaluation done or started because it hasn't been done in years and tonight uh knock on wood um we'll start with Donna comar the esteemed uh Webster Town assessor uh with a presentation and a Q&A by the board uh of a process that has been done in the last month or so um and then uh depending on how things go we have a resolution at the 7:30 board meeting um that would basically be taking the recommended revaluation firm and uh getting into contract before December 31st this year because Mr Adams our finance director says then we can use arpa money for it so that's a long preface huh but without further Ado I'm going to hand the Baton to Donna kmer thank you thank you for that introduction I also uh want to say that I I am the spokesperson then for our seven member committee and the members were supervisor Tom flare Town council member Jennifer Wright myself as assessor Marisol Montalvo assistant assessor Bridget Harvey communications director Paul Adams our finance director and Kim Doyle the assistant to the supervisor and also I would be the uh department head supervising this project so to begin um kind of to recap a little bit our charge from the November 7th 2024 discussion was um for this project to be considered for funding for the arpa funds as supervisor flarity just said and that they need to be under contract by December 31st of 20124 and spent by December 31st of 2026 our charge was to solicit quotes for Professional Services based on standardized outline that was of our own creation so that we could easily compare the quotes that we would be receiving because the time is so tight and the turnaround was very aggressive in a in a nice way um our charge was to interview and compare the interested valuation firms presentations their contracts their experience and really vet out and see um what we could find out about the services that they would offer and return here today with a recommendation based upon our findings now this was a very aggressive tall order for any business during the holiday season it was November 7th when you sent me out I'm coming back on December 19th so I think at this point it is very fitting for me to give many thanks to the firms that um participated and especially for their very quick response um our committee had several questions we went back back to them a couple of different times and this report would not be complete today if they had not made this quote a priority on their end so my thanks to the firms um and also I wanted to point out that this report is not about the project itself tonight's topic is about presenting these quotes that have been obtained and to recommend a firm the Revel project itself and its details will be shaped by the seel that selection and therefore that would have to be a future present we're not prepared to get into those weeds tonight this is just really step one in formatting the plan that we may carry out so um in assessor lingo I've been telling you that this is for the 2027 assessment role what does that mean from today forward basically what that means is it's a 30mon project timeline with uh three key points there will be the first 12 months as in sort of beginning now if you can put now in quotes right uh starting as soon as the um the calendar turns and it would be convenient to all the parties we would begin a 12-month public education program and I want to stress education because there's a lot to learn and we are fully aware that there are people who have purchased homes in the town of Webster that have never seen a reevaluation so I think that it is very very prudent that we educate our public they're not accustomed to revaluation projects that come up cyclically in other municipalities so to take the advantage of this 12-month before we had actually engaged the The Firm into the part of the business that they would take up the Baton and go forward on that's the second part 18month engagement and that would run from the beginning of January through the completion of the project which would be for the final assessment role in the year of 2027 and that's what I mean when I say the 2027 assessment role um we would do the public at um education in the first 12 months of course we would have their support and um as supervisor F flarity like to say we won't do that in a vacuum we now have many participants and we would make sure that all of us are on the same page and the results from this project then would be reflected on the tax bills for September for your school bill in 2027 and the January Town and County bill of 2028 and if you live in the village it would also Encompass the June Village bill of 2028 no bills prior to those three dates would be affected by this project and I think that's important because the calendar year and the assessment rule year don't line up and sometimes that's a detail that's missed by the public an overview of the engagement period um which I said would be the January 2026 through July of 2027 generally breaks down into do three key phases of course we want to begin with the public education so that's the separate box outside of um The Phases that we have identified there are three main phases they typically overlap but yet they are distinct in their processing and the completion date would be as I said July 1st for the 2027 final assessment rule starting now does allow us to have that additional time for a public education campaign um meet with residents have them ask their questions have us explain as much as we could possibly explain so that there are no surprises we do not want any surprises three firms in Western New York were invited to provide quotes two of them replied sorry this is a PDF and I'm trying to get that scrolled and the mouse is there gar Associates comes from Williamsville and Clifton Park and alw Municipal Inc comes from Buffalo New York there was a third that um if I if I quote them they said unfortunately due to other project commitments we are not in a position to be able to bid on the project at this time so we did have three very qualified firms both of the firms that did reply boast that all of their completed projects have been accepted by the office office of Real Property Tax Services which is the agency uh underneath the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance that oversees reassessment projects and both of them have said that all of their projects have been completed at 100% of Equalization rate and have been accepted by that agency they have decades Decades of experience in completing such projects they both employ State Certified appraisers on staff and they have a broad range of experience and they boast that they have courteous and professionally trained staff specializing in this industry I think it's noteworthy to know that um while we only got two quotes there aren't really tons of companies that even do this and we were looking for those that were closest by and had experience here in Monroe County both firms will promote partnership with the town via communication and timelines and timeliness of the project both of them requested the exact same set of data which makes sense to me so um they were both on the same the same wavelength and knowing exactly what it was that they would need to ask in order to quote the project and both of them would be able to begin the execution of the upon execution of the project uh to maximize the time that could be invested by giving a really thorough um a time and attention to the project they've asked could we have your property record cards early since we've got this extra lead time while you're doing that that uh PR campaign so both of them I feel would be qualified um to do a complete compl quality project in a very professional manner and we would be satisfied with either one so the quotes the quotes came in very different one from the other I'm just going to let you reflect on this for a moment and digest that GAR Associates quoted $65 a parcel roughly when you count uh how many Parcels there are in the town which is sometimes a point of reference for assessors to say hey what' your ril project cost you know uh $65 a parcel is typically a a price that you would find when you are doing a complete data collection so their total is 1,100,000 klw's quote is 41,500 that's about $25 a parcel both firms are very well aware that we have good data in Webster we have taken the last 20 years to make sure that we collect the building permits when people question um what we have on file for their property we're we're very happy to go and review it and to update our data so that our data is good line by line these are the categories that we had laid out for them to quote this is the summary of it and you can see that the highlighted portions the parts in bold are where there's a very distinct difference it is also noteworthy that once completed maintaining this project is significantly less costly in future years in addition to the 1.1 million or the 41,500 quote down below you will see um the additional costs which are typical additional costs um for any any project there are going to be specialty properties that will not fit the mass appraisable um approach and so there is an additional cost associated with each of those properties and I've identified 8 to 10 of them so far just to give you an idea some are more complicated than others think Xerox and fair life those would be our most complicated properties but there are also a few other properties that just wouldn't lend themselves well at all to a a computer assisted Mass appraisal format and they would give us an additional price on that so that's above and beyond the price at the top of the column so after having considered this asking questions and uh follow-up questions our recommendation is to move forward with the plan to complete a townwide 2027 revaluation using klw Municipal Incorporated again I want to thank the committee members for their thoughtfulness and their time and attention and freeing their schedules in order to turn this around on a timely fashion and I'm happy to take any of your comments or questions at this time be back up two slides please sure I it's just the Stark difference in the data verification and collection between these two companies and the valuation processing is yes pretty stunning if I go back a few more slides in this three-phase part phase one the data analysis and phase two the valuation production those are those fields that you see down here on the quotes that are in bold and that is where the majority of the labor on their part comes in John you clearly have done a great job vetting and um I appreciate it it's just I see these numbers and you you did a great job comparing side by side and it's can can I and Jennifer since you were at the table as liais Zen um having done these comparison and committee bids and looking at Huda whatever over the last five years this one was very unique because when we saw the Delta of $700,000 yeah the thing thing that came to us was and I know it came to me like what are we missing that that just is something's what is going on and it caused us um well we went out and asked a lot of questions of these two firms like there's got to be something missing here but Donna's quote to them was pretty simple pretty consistent right and so then we went out and we were like okay we're still we went out to other towns and said well okay you did a revil then and this how did what did you that Delta caused us like come on man there's got to be something wrong but at the end of the day Donna and I think you described it best was that um and with no disparaging toward G you have a very big outfit that has a lot of overhead and you have a more small boutique firm that can get this done um and you'll be dealing with just one or two or three people okay is that about what it is it is yes and I I think I think Boutique is a good word for it um trying to think how I was going to say this um what Bob Kazar would bring to the table is a small town fi he's he is a smaller firm when he does his PR it's in person when gar Associates does it they're they're very modern and they're very webbased and there's there's a lot of bells and whistles that they would bring um and I think at the end of the day what we decided was he has a very personal touch and we were interviewing the person who would be doing the work instead of someone who was presenting a presentation who brought you know names of you know all the people in the company and that and and again I I I know both of these firms well for other reasons and I have great respect for for both of them would just think that KW is the better fit for us because he will he will be at our senior citizen centers he will be in our schools he will be asking to meet people face to face and he will not be sending you to a website that says fill in your paperwork and we'll review it not I'm I'm oversimplifying that and that is not exactly how guard does it I want you to give you the impression that that's how guard does it but um the modern View and then kind of an old-fashioned Hometown person would you agree I would agree I I I I would agree and their presentations were very different in in that regard and those styles were reflected in what they shared with the committee um and I do think a big piece of this is the public relations piece being face Toof face given we haven't done a reval in 20 years or over 20 20 years um that is probably one of the most important aspects of a reevaluation is to be engaging with the community and explaining what it what it means and what impact is it going to have on you and and allowing to ask questions and doing that with um I think the videos and the podcasts and those other um means of communicating are are good and they provide the same information but it's one way um the the other things that firm provided was an 800 number so when when the revaluation letters go out they take they would take the calls and Bridget had a lot of questions about that because those calls now are going to a 1 1800 Center and there was no there there wouldn't be that data coming back to us of how many people are calling who are calling what's the nature of their concerns and then is something that we would want to have that information and and be I guess more in control of that or having Bridget have that information and one of the big things I think Tom that you've brought to the board is when you have Community interactions you are amassing information and so we know who's out you know who's out there what their concerns are and in leveraging that to have the digital newsletter and this is just going to be a way to collect more of that information so I O overall um I I I mean and you look at the price and I think klw has the experience in the ability to do this and being fiscally responsible for something like this um especially given it's really a net sum zero gain that gets just every property up to 100% of the market value we we have to take that put the fiscally responsible hat on as part of this process as well I I have complete confidence in the committee and certainly Donna in your recommendations as well I will agree with Council M kahill that the the discrepancy between the two quotes is astounding it's where you wish you had the third so you could see which one really wasn't lining up um but I will also say certainly say that I don't think think that we need to pay for bells and whistles we want a good product at the end of the day and one that all of our residents truly understand um and as I said I I have complete confidence in the recommendation I want to add one other thing about our data and uh Donna was talking about that Donna and her team have amazing data and part of that it's going could be feeding into these prices as well if you you look at at towns even in Monroe County that do reassessments on a more regular basis you will see once they get to 100% they in the following years they they tend to go down at a more rapid rate than they do in Webster so even though we haven't done the re-evaluation in 20 years our our values because of the work that Donna's team does in going out in the community and and and uh updating the properties with permits etc etc um make our data um better going into this whole process to start with and that's an esate to you and your team so for that well the pr campaign is going to be instrumental in this Venture for sure and I think people will be I don't want to use the word shock but I need I know that house prices have gone significantly higher in the last few years um so the more frequently we can educate the residents I think that's going to be important and just because your house is reassessed at a higher value does not necessarily mean that you will be paying more in taxes amen and and and I think that is something that will need to be explained to people um over and over and over again because I know there's certain areas in the county where people will re they'll have their reassessment done and they'll be told oh look we we we lowered your tax rate but you're paying more in taxes so that's that's where people tend to get a little bit skeptical when it comes to revil so again just to reiterate the pr campaign is going to be so important so important because you you can have all the meetings and and and people will still say I didn't know this was happening and how many times have we heard that that you know it's funny uh arpa kind of drove the bus saying hey should we look at this now and is there a way to get into contract at the end of 24 and meet the arpa requirements to to use the money but the the best part about this is be the the firm is not starting until January 26 which gives us that whole year 25 and it's funny John because you know talking to other supervisors and some of the you everybody's seen the news about revals and different towns and death threats and just craziness right them and some of the super seriously and I mean some of the supervisors said oh you're not going to be able to avoid it this and that and that's never plant any seeds well I'm just saying that's never been an acceptable answer when you're like oh you can't avoid it you know whatever I'm like no we we can do our best job to avoid this and I think about when John when you say how many times have we heard I I've never I've never heard about that and I I remember a gentleman it was at the podium about six months ago and uh during the five minutes open to the public and he he said he hadn't heard about this thing and uh Deputy supervisor Cal is a lot more uh articulate than I am Charlie would that be the way to put it right and in a nice way she said you know it was in the Webster today we we emailed it out it was a here it was there it was there it was there the only thing we didn't do was go to your door and knock on it and say we're here to talk about this isue other than that the the means or mediums of communication we exhausted them on that item 6 months ago remember that but the guy can take the podium and say I didn't see it we heard it over over so I think about that and I'm like here's here's the reality and Bridget uh Harvey is our director of communications she's here tonight we're Discerning how do we do this public relations education in 25 and maximize it out um whether that's going to be done all in house whether we would consider having a PR for we don't know we aren't going to wait until December of 25 we will be on this in January of 25 and the way I see this is and I think everybody knows I'm not running for supervisor again so I won't be here in 26 when the actual engagement starts and I would be it would be I would be very embarrassed and feel terrible if if I left the new board the new supervisor and the new uh you know there'll be at least one new board member with a headache for 20 26 and 27 on a reevaluation when it hasn't been done in 20 years that is certainly not our intent no and in fact that's why to me like this is kind of my uh I don't want to say vocation I don't want to be you know um sailed but this is something I really am going to emphasize in 25 whether it's you know I'm just thinking out loud fireside chats going out to neighborhoods going to people's homes all that putting five pages in the April Webster today and again in the July Webster today that goes out to all the houses in just pounding on this communication that shows what you already know John you and I know this yeah our tax rate is $5 per thousand my house assesses at $200,000 that means my tax bill for the town is $11,000 a year did everybody do that math 200,000 $5 per thousand My Town tax bill is a th000 bucks in a revaluation my house would probably come up to $400,000 market value and the tax rate would be $250 per thousand we'll do the math it's the same $1,000 tax bill now that is basically the premise of this revaluation but as we know John and that's the component right there some houses May during this find out that you've been under assessed for many years and and your taxes may go up some will find out that they were over assessed and their taxes will come down and then some will stay exactly the same the tax levy from the town doesn't change we're just splitting up the pie differently and that's what I think makes people very nervous that they're going to be in that third that their taxes are going to go up and I don't even know if it's a third a third a third Donna because your data is so good as Jennifer said and other Town assessors and have have corroborated as have these biders saying that our data when you go online you go online you can go and see what they say on your house JN or Jenny's house or any of our houses and it's it's pretty spot on uh Jennifer we did that test like on on your house and at least what it showed it was spot on I think parents house right well um whatever where some of these reevaluations start with no data like you said they have to go out and really create is that a 2,000 foot house how many bedrooms how many bathrooms Donna's staff over the years has done such a good job keeping that up to date I think that's one of the reasons why I mean we all thought this was going to cost a million dollars and G corroborated that yeah yeah yeah but um and part of that with it may possibly was just in their response because they do have all of the bells and whistles and it was a very short period of time they just responded with yeah and that's in your world John I mean sometimes like when you go and bid and you're like you know what we're busier than a one arm paper hanger we'll bid high yes and if we get the job especially when it's 12 months out right they're like we'll figure out how to do it so there's the bid process is is not science I did that years ago there was a project I did not want to do yeah and I doubled what I normally would have been did you get it yeah I got it I don't feel sorry for so there's a few other companies out there that didn't want to do it either so yeah I I okay on that job I I I have to I got to do my Paul Adams impression today I I got blessing from him on this okay he should be here to say this because obviously if it came out of his mouth the board would be like I believe that coming out of my mouth but Paul said that the three firms and only two uh replying and giving a bid does meet our procurement policy we made the effort to get three firms it's a specialization there's not a thousand firms that do this he felt very good that it meets our procurement policy and in his above approach here's a good problem gang I want you to think about this um we assumed we were going to use 800,000 of un um contracted arpa money and it would pay for the majority of the Revel well guess what right if if we go with this recommendation we still have about $390,000 left um and Paul when he gets back he said he would send out to us his recommendation I mean that the plug is we just put it toward the highway garage cuz that's in contract but he thinks he can take some other contracts West Webster 600 rig and he might be able to say we can use it for this use it for that all that so he'll he'll send something out to us before December 31st to you know um give that the the third thing and I don't really this will come really as we get into the contract negotiation if the board uh does a resolution at 7:30 to authorize a supervisor to go with the recommended firm we really have between tonight the 19th and the 31st to execute the contract so Charlie uh the last I heard you're still Our Town attorney is that correct sir right no short time in this right um but we do have a template contract from KLM k w sorry too many acronyms um you know I would get that over to you and I might also have Kyle Taylor yeah I do I have a copy submiss to us was a sample a sample contract they've been well vetted by other municipalities we're meeting we're meeting on Monday we can that can be one of the things and you're going to need Paul at the table to because you know were there's things that I want you Andor Kyle to look at from a legal perspective I didn't read the contract I mean it's premature because if we don't vote on this tonight then it's moved but if we do and I already told Donna today if we vote Yes on it then you get get that template contractor that sample over to Kyle and Charlie and then Paul wants to make sure he's involved in that too because he technically we have to pay out all the arpa money by the end of 26 and Paul has asked a very good question during these well if the engagement is January of 26 through July of 27 how do we do that it's a good question and he's got to work with either the federal treasury about you know can you prepay it all through December 31st and have it as it's an accounting whatever or does he have latitude on that where he can make adjustments in 26 and put some I don't know that's it that's where I'm not going to speak for Paul the way he explained it it made sense but I he's better at explain I've got a question Mr supervisor what about you you you talked about the possible uh I won't say overage but the extra 390,000 from Mara funds are you able to are you going to do that without a meeting with a meeting before the 31st are you able to do that or is yeah because I don't think it's a resolution per se because we did think about it this way when we filed uh in April 30th of last year we we said Our intention was which the federal government says you're not married to this was $800,000 and there was 170 for I don't know you remember that we had five or six different categories and then as the year went on certain things and and Paul would be better to explain this we could sit here and say without a resolution you know what we didn't have any other contracts so we're just popping it onto the highway garage cuz we're in contract and that money let's just call it what it is 390,000 if it goes to Highway garage which we're in contracted in would be $390,000 less that we have to go into a bonding 30-year Bond on that project it's as simple as that um so no I'm not I I don't think and you'll you you'll talk to Paul about it but the way you explain it I just you know I don't think there's any um he has some contracts already that are Inked um that obviously we've been involved in because contracts Don't Get Inked here unless we come to the board and authorize the uh supervisor to sign them so he's got an idea and some of them where he could you know kind of backfill the arpa money it's all legit it's just you know like I said we thought it was going to be a million bucks we'll use the 800,000 for it and then figure out next year what do we do with the additional 200,000 is it the budget year of 25 and 26 we go for a grant and lo and behold it looks like it's 400,000 it's a good problem it's a great problem I love problems like this yes so Devil's in the details though Charlie um but uh don thank you for the presentation yeah thank you thank you Donna thank you Donna is anybody else have any comments or question I'm chasing people out see this is what happens when I talk too much the crowd says I've heard enough of this guy I'm leaving you know last you never do though it's amazing huh okay well uh then I guess that concludes Our Town board workshop for tonight and in about two or three minutes we will come back and start the regular December 19