the permanent lot of committee i'm a member of the advisory committee to the late but would and i've had the pleasure of being involved as a volunteer here for a number of years and with the financial aspects of this substation in transmission project since it was first discussed probably ten years ago right most recently as as mark says i went over the status in the flow of funds with the management of the department with the town treasurer and with the project accountant i spoke a number of times with him but i don't i didn't review any particular invoices and it's a little premature to say that i'm representing the permanent audit committee here because the permanent audit committee will be meeting in about a month floyd at which time we're going to go over the results of  the the light department with the independent c p a s who are actually reviewing the figures now as we as we talk so today you talk about the status of the project  and the for the funds the sources and uses of funds for this project you've looked at some information before we thought that it would be helpful to aggregate this maybe in a different way s little more understandable the project objectives we've been over those a number of times there were three main project objectives that the department was seeking  february of two thousand and twelve the project was approved and the bonds were approved for fifty three point seven million dollars a year after that the joint development agreement  the town meeting approved the joint development agreement with ever seward's in which they eventually took ownership of a part of the assets that we're talking about food i mean it so the next slide here there we are is a graphic of the status of this project and this came out of my meetings with the management here so currently substation which is then prepared to distribute it at thirteen point eight k v so that's that was the status of the project in december right now the project is continuing with centrally this phase of the project will eliminate the line from the grid to belmont that the separate lines that are operating at thirteen point eight will get rid of them and power will come in on the hundred fifteen k v transmission line to blair pine and then out to the three substations and at this point the transmission agreement that we have with ever s will be cancelled with a savings of about a million dollars a year so this that the hope is that this is completed by october seventeenth and then the next slide shows the the third phase of the project and this phase of the project eliminates the substations it eliminates the line between blair pond and those substations and power will be distributed to the town at thirteen point eight through the player pond substation so that's this sort of the status of the project you know we kind of we're going to be by the end of this to in which phase of the project c in c some of them will be upgraded some are already upgraded and they remain as part of the master plan some some of the equipment and some of the cable has already been upgraded over the past ten fifteen years to the higher voltage cable percentage that would be in the master ok and and we'll be distributing thirteen point eight so in order to increase the distribution as belmont grows presumably does that mean we'll need additional substations  now this substation will be good this is a substation is good for our sixty megawatts ok so what that saying is currently it will be distributing thirteen point eight but it has a capacity the capacity is different yeah this is this is the voltage the capacity on the substation is sixty sixty mph transformers right now we only have capacity of up to maybe thirty four max so this is good for the next forty years  town receiver you what's on track for member sewers for forty five million dollars for their share of that and we have an opinion i think that was distributed from town council that the forty five million dollars must be credited back to the fund from which the project costs were paid and i haven't wagered slide on just what those project costs were but they are legitimate project cost of the project the first thing that needs to be done with that forty five million dollars is for the town treasurer to pay off the taxable note that were taken out when the project looked like it was going to cost fifty three point seven million dollars and you plan to do that in may and believe  so that will leave seventeen million dollars and if we are to credit those funds back to the department back to the fund from which the project costs were paid then some of them need to go back to the operating statement of of the department and some of them need to repay the money that was spent out of the long term debt for those particular project costs because the mix  of costs was different as the project went along so there's about four million dollars that would go back to dole mine whites operations and then there's another thirteen  million that will need to go back to the long term debt and of the thirteen million that needs to go back to the long term debt two point six million of that are the estimated remaining invoices on project that there had been invoices of at least that much better come in since the check was arrived and belmont why do it's been paying those out of their operating  so they need to know that needs to be repaid out of the long term debt project b that we had before which was i think the orange one has seven million dollars and seven point two million dollars she had to run between now and october and we we need to source some money for that and so that's that would be a use of the the long term debt and then that leaves three million dollars as potential funding for the decommissioning project see the year the green project that that we had jim is that quite frankly the three million is not budgeted so it's not excess and really can't make that determination until october two thousand and twelve town meeting vote you could easily sweep this in to that language was written to cover the upgrade of of the system which i think i'm a bit less comfortable with the town councils opinion i'm not an attorney  accountant but i think it might be worth going back to the town council and getting an opinion on that but i think if you read his opinion he says it should be spared for the project and not something else thinking of something else being a totally unrelated town activity this is pretty close to the language be in in the situation of well if we don't do big well i have a bridge to nowhere we've got i but you know but if we if we do believe he will have power going at  to what motions say and you know meaning true because because of my experience in the last two years we waste so much time on misunderstandings and like what i consider the legacy issues and it's my belief and i think this is true that the project c was not presented to town meeting when the fifty three seven was approved now common sense might dictate that we keep that three million and you know do something different with it but i think i'm uncomfortable unless the town council says of that that's ok end you know from the from an audit committee meeting the accountant had come up with forensic review from another town and was concerned about the same issue so i'm comfortable either way but i want to be told that would be doing it anyhow for you to three million is definitely we have to go back to tell you you need to tell them tell them what the plan is yes i mean that's that's what has to happen right i guess my point that i was trying to get across is realistically it's not this town meeting its next but please continue ok it's no you're seeing right now we have three million three hundred seven dollars and we you and i spoke we met down in prince street it was three million three hundred seven dollars left over that's three million three hundred seven dollars three hundred three million three hundred  seventy thousand dollars over there is three million three hundred seven thousand dollars the forward from the from the sources of funds correct yes which is what is ok well we have a slide on that but let's certainly came up in my mind as to just what are we paying for here so the ever source payment of forty folks would five point five  es for the costs that are good that are shown up there the trees mission substation development financing the other there is the initial cost on project be right it happened to be funded out of that side of the house the belmont assets at this point are twelve million dollars and the future costs we just we just went through the three of the three of them so that's a total of seventy one million dollars of costs and that's easy to understand and you'll see in the next slide it's forty five million f plus twenty six million of long term debt for belmont equals seventy one million ok it must be animated so here we are with another animated slide and this this will show you the progress of the sources and uses over the history of this project so we started with the vote in two thousand and twelve and what you're saying there is the estimated cost of the project which was  get the slide here forty forty eight point nine million plus the distribution phase the previously which was estimated at that time at four point eight million and the funds that we thought in two thousand and twelve and got a town meeting approval for was fifty three point seven million so that's the uses and the sources as of two thousand and twelve when we move over to two thousand and thirteen and consider the joint development agreement we now have ever source assets which were estimated at twenty nine million and belmont assets at eighteen million and we have the the debt and the the difference there was again project b and the borrowing at this point was twenty six point one million long term and twenty seven point six million of short term beignets so we  same basically the same but it was split now between over sewers and belmont as of the date that ever source paid us the forty five million we've got the forty five million dollars of cost that we considered the seven point six million dollar estimate that we just saw for phase b is seven point two that's to come in the three sixty five that was spent and the belmont  to still have bonds outstanding we have the advance that was made by the lake department and we have twenty six point one million dollars of long term debt so the forty five point one million if it if the the board agree will be returned to the funds from where it came so if we look out in october we no longer have the forty five point one million we have costs that are somewhat different by virtue of the three point three million we were just talking about and we have funds of the same amount it's the forty five million that ever source paid us and the twenty six million that we approximately the same amount are right but right there is i understand when you say funds available they have forty five there we have two outstanding loans to buy and we get seven point to draw down from our operating account right from right correct yeah so you so i understand that if you look at it independently there's one hundred five million of available funds out there again the forty five point one in the twenty s forty five when in fact includes a twenty something right so so that is soames that the short term debt has not been paid yet that's right which is the case so this is the case now but it's not like there's light sources one hundred five there isn't really it's available funds t might give us forty five point one correct and we spent twenty six point one we saw in the event fifty oh yeah we saw i mean for the forty five breaks yeah the forty five breaks down to the twenty seven six plus the portion of that is the twenty six one and the money that came from the operating fund as well that's what that seventeen million is that's why we need the money back it's not there's no extra cash the total cost without c is seventy one point two yep that's the way  five point zero that's right correct jim yes because the master plan was another eighteen even though you know c is a ten year ten year plan your window of projection eighty five point nine may not be the mean that it's may cost may not be the real cost i mean we're we're projecting ten years out right now we're going to spend on decommissioning the three substations we have in upgrading is jim indicated distribution minds and can connect to everything together  could you go back to the slides right before this one i'm with you we had one hundred five point two hundred five point nine million i know that for a fact it's not it's not an opinion it's a fact because we issued fifty three point seven  even though it actually hasn't done all that so now my only question is is the fourteen point four where did that come from and are we going to see a presentation of  money's going to come from and if george says we can use the three the three million then we can put it against that so let me address a conversation that jim palmer and i had with one council when we borrowed the twenty more than just six men at a point time i thought it was six man dollars ten a can up to fourteen ultimately it was seventeen may and that and star is given us over and above the almost twenty eight million dollars for shot ter main needs to go back against the project that's why we pay that point count i understand well i don't think you do i do gosh i just looked at a cage one of this thing and it said town meeting approved project they in the it didn't say that they approved project  c it said a and b we don't we don't have a beef here george can straighten it out you know in a half an hour what's on the table is three million if you're fact he doesn't agree so here's the point right you get the fourteen point six to the seventy one point two and magically you get eighty five point nine correct i think that's the remaining cost precis fourteen point six nine three by seven point two as if my math is correct then i think it is the five million the five point nine be paid through rate increases that there's a potential of that right ok has any thought been given as to whether it would be more advantageous to pay it from the death were retiring that w is his ten years worth of it presumably could be more than eight hundred ten years worth of expenditure so every year when we work through that the commission process we're going to have to expend one tenth of the eighteen can credibly you know if you've heard me say that publicly credibly favorable joint development agreement with ever source that which they bought the transmission line and what certain assets within our substation that we can now tax a fairly significant rate which reduces the cost of this project to twenty six million basically right absolutely right so there are some words which i think that i think that's of a more than you know proper thing to communicate in some way we can to use the ever source reimbursement to pay off the short term debt to refund the advances that the department made and to put the money back in the long term de seventeen one and the remainder that's going to be allocated so that's where the three million dollars will be joe will be in that seventy one on account of it's going to be in an operating account after it's over right now it's going to be sitting in  borrowing authority ok that's all fine so why do time of the debt will be done through the payment that done right in the forty five you're jalen need to approve how the forty five one will be used ok all right so the slide indicates that the first thing we do is to pay down the taxable no correct correct tactful note plus interest cost the twenty million twenty seven hundred forty two all in that includes interest so we need a motion to is to authorize the authority to rebar or any of that right ok and i mean again are we prepared to do that without talking on how we're going to pay for the fourteen point  has that has been advanced so that's from the operating counties well yes so that needs to be reimbursed to right to their motion to utilize every source payment to repay the advance from be a method of the operations for fin seventy thousand for sixty five to be paid on the project is not been paid so my question is the project's going to continue to move on you know how do you want to handle proveable of getting these bills paid these are the seven point one right so that the balance of what i would recommend is the balance after these transactions to the operating funds have taken place which is really nothing but a journal entry and then take the remainder of that cash in put it refund the long term bond which is zero so that we can pay our bills again that's really all you have to do and then we'll just do our normal accounting that we always do and so basically what you've got in front of you is probably the mob point presentation and you've got a timeline of the of the project and then there's an executive summary that lays out lays out the plan and the e we have an engineer estimate that is fossil minus twenty five percent and you know the first part of the project is is estimated to be twelve million to get out of get out of fo do boring things of that yet yeah absolutely yes as if it is in fact yes i'd have to check the history on that they may have been test was done already we have to classify it in the yeah i don't have that the three point three million that we discussed earlier being available to us and we're also looking at five hundred thousand dollars a year out of our capital budget which would go up to five million and then out of our capital reserves well looking at seven point five million and then we have the bond premium which is one point eight and then another other which is three hundred  thousand bridges up to the eighteen million so that's the that's the plan right now for financing this project without having to borrow  care i do have one question about the eighteen million that is is that based on cost or based on the idea that we don't have to borrow need to borrow i think that's pretty clear i mean everything subject to change i was just wondering if you had steered in that plan and you're saying you know what we think that we're comfortable right now with the five year five year projection which is to get out of station one that we have the funds to do that if we can keep three point three which is we'll find out ok all right great so that's that's a high level where we are with that i can get into can actually i know you guys have got a packed schedule and you've got another we have we have forty five minutes we can do this is fifteen and i grace was going to fifteen and governance and commits and so basically the concern is that before we did wholesale replacement of street lights with l e d s which is a prudent thing to do that it would be i think useful to be thoughtful about the technology that would be utilized in order to do that replacement and there's so and having experienced the you know the price you pay sometimes when other choices are made like with airplane flight paths i just thought it was worthwhile kind of bringing this forward because many others who have made certain choices have found that those choices have been reversed and have had some costly replacements it really comes down to the feel of our community i don't know if  you know at home when you switch from l e d christmas lights to you know from the old christmas lights there's a noticeable difference and a lot of it has to do with the way the light is generated using  technology and so pretty bright yeah it's actually a different a different type of light so i'll just run through this very quickly and then you know we can we can kind of discuss it but you know cost of come down obviously it's  alternative from a main and standpoint and it's a you know it's the future technology and you know you can't even buy incandescent bulbs anymore i think the state has allocated some funding for doing conversions to l but the color temperature is really what influences the shade or glow that light generates and there's been some recent concerns about blue light i don't know how many of you have an i phone but the latest version of the  kadian read them basically blue light is really good in the morning because we crave when you're supposed to get it it's not good for you at night because it tricks your your brain into thinking that that it's daytime  so a lot of studies have been done on this and the other issue that has been noted with l e d street lighting has been glare because of the way the fixtures are mounted i mean currently a lot of the sodium into the fixture for have like a lens over the top of them and you know i'll give you a couple of examples of where i think in town you'll notice this this difference and then like pollution which is another scale you know sodium vapor a lighting that's typically used in street lighting is about twenty seven hundred to three thousand calvin which is kind of a yellow i mean when you drive around town or drive a common street at night you'll see sort of a is a lot bluer and when you see places where some of the lights have been replaced with with l e d s of a higher color temperature compared to another one it's very stark there's  some sections in watertown on mount auburn street where the left hand side of the streets been upgraded to in the right hand side has not and you drive down it and it's very very obvious we've got a couple spots in town as well i think  in a few other places where there's been a few l e d fixtures replaced and so i just really wanted to kind of bring this issue forward for you know for a consideration of some options so  decreases the amount of blue light so basically the a m a has made a statement and it's not without controversy but that basically street lighting or any lights at night should be no greater than three thousand calvin which is kind of similar to what the current street lights are again there's belief that this disrupts circadian rhythm tricks the brain into thinking that it's daylight  there is some glare issues and as i mentioned previously certainly the technology industry is starting to realize that you know laying in bed reading your i pad to try to go to sleep is probably not  thing for you to be doing if you're not decreasing the amount of blue light because it could actually be making it harder for you to sleep so gloster actually one of the things that motivated me to look into this was th gloucester had recently done a study where they installed a number of different types of bulbs i think four thousand calvin and three thousand calvin and basically made the choice based so the you know again this is the visible difference and it can really change the looks the lights that are that were replaced in belmont center are actually four thousand calvin and if you  that's you guys those are been switching l e d and they're they're bright i would be interested to see whether those were really three thousand or four thousand in the city  davis in california they actually installed four thousand k l e d fixtures and there was so much complaint there were so many complaints from residents that they basically i wrote about this impacts when making decisions and also think about whether there might be some opportunity to do some smart street lighting in cambridge and cambridge has got lots of money but in cambridge they actually put in a system back in two thousand and ten from a company called ashkelon where they're actually able to dim the street lights which they do they can either reduce the intensity by fifty percent or by twenty five percent and they do it  they've got a program that they basically run every day in order to in order to do that now their lighting was four thousand k because that's really what all that was available in two thousand and ten or two thousand and eleven there are some products out now that and there's i think there's a link to the case study from cambridge there are some products now that actually allow you to change the color temperature again from actual on so wirelessly you transmitters throughout the town we have a mesh network so we can communicate with having wirelessly and we can piggyback on that same mesh network and use a device for the that replaces the photocell on the light and you can control the mapped out the whole city with different zones of you know of reducing things i know that if if the lights in my neighborhood were replaced with the lights that are in front of the in front of the high school  did i think would be a good idea for myron to talk to the belmont light advisory committee and you know get with them and then and then they can work with jim and then you'll get the whole picture ok you know on what they're doing ste he's the chair and i do have one of the questions about the does it have an effect on the wildlife it does so birds rectums the whole nine yards right yeah but i think you know again it's one of those  one of the things that came out of that was that that report had never been submitted to the town clerk so we made sure that paul was able to you know so the work got lost so now that was submitted to the town clerk and it was part of the deal as you know i think i think we all agree we're overwhelmed with information data things to do and to to have a different board manage the light company  with jim and like company management in the advisory committee i think would really give us some time back so that we could turn our attention to other matters that we are not able to take care of now so that that's the gist of it and the idea was as you know i submitted another citizens petition to move the this body from three to five members but it's not written in such a way that says this is why we should do it it's written in a way that you know we can have a discussion a town meeting in the in that the board of selectmen you know we will have time to discuss it before before a town meeting i think that when it's not as easy as this one but but in general managers at the time and jim kind of board and sort of cleaned house and got the road again in positive way i think that i've never felt comfortable with some of the technical discussions we have to have it's one way to get us out of the details you know and have experts really look at this so here's the situation i could have put this on as a citizen petition you know it's would tend signatures and i don't partisan signatures when they do these things they use people family neighborhood ok and you know of course you know they know me and when i knock on their door and i say i have this idea and then they say well we don't have to agree with you  know all we have to do is decide whether we want to discuss the town meeting him that's kind of the spirit of this and i can work with georgia very quickly because april third is the deadline i think it's too quick jim i think this is a very significant change be the but i think we in the uk am sorry but i think this is i fully support the idea of an appointed board i think it's something with our new colleagues we need to sort of flush out a member that might be and really think about how  can deliberative tommy they're going to say well how does this work how do they report to you how does this we need to work through all of those sort of issues in terms of how does the point like board report to the board of selectmen what is the reporting responsibility what's the accountability how ok and one of the things i try to do is to get the light board to meet more often ok now granted you know it's an expertise in and of itself but you know the idea is if we meet more often where the responsible party or the elected party we're responsible to the voters we meet more often we get our arms around the issues better and and then and then the other thing i tried to do was to make the advisory board truly an advisory board which they weren't they weren't before i fully support the notion that we need an independent body of experts to work with our like  director we don't have the expertise we don't have the time however i would caution and i disagree with my colleague mark i think you know the way this is drafted and appointed commission and appointed commission that can only be removed by the board of selectmen for cause none of our committees are set up that way you are creating a body that's not accountable to the voters and has a certain range of immunity by statute ok and i would caution against that the same fiasco that we went through through net metering was because we had an advisory board that felt that they were much more than that  k and i'm all for a commission but you know what they've got to be answerable to the voters that's me and if you want to put something on as soon as this town meeting  are being given to this appointed commission that we cannot remove a member except for cause ok and my my my my my point is if you're going to create such a powerful body there's got to be accountability of the voters here but that's all i guess my question is who knew your reading then we were given that we don't necessarily have to mirror one of the employees i'm not suggesting there should be this commission as i haven't read we take with them and you look at the other communities and i mean what's the objection with a elected like board but they'd have to run a campaign that through any campaign going oh well i don't get the expertise that you need it's a very expert very sort of nuanced ok very expert think the timing could be right to do begin to consider it in in the spring you favor the idea don't you jim i think it's in the best interest of the town  i think roy is also the chairman of the warrant committee roy what do you what what are you willing to support from the warrant committee are you willing to support putting it on the special town meeting in the fall indifferent as to whether it's elected or appointed at this point but but i do believe that the board of selectmen needs to move move away from this responsibility because i don't think we have the time to do the work