evening I'd like to call the town of air select board meeting to order for Tuesday July 16th 2024 um the meeting hearing of the air select board will be held in person at the location provided on this notice members of the public are welcome to attend this inperson meeting please note that while an option for remote attendance and or participation via Zoom is being provided as a courtesy to the public the meeting SL hearing will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast unless otherwise required by law members of the public with particular interest in a specific item on this agenda should make plans for in-person versus virtual attendance accordingly this meeting will be live on zoom and channel 8 the public May access the proceedings by joining Zoom meeting ID number 897 980 0793 or by calling 92925 6099 for additional information about remote participation please contact Cari an tanellis assistant Town manager at ATM a.m. us or 978-772-4864 [Music] God indivisible with liberty and justice for all fix my chair um there are two changes to the agenda this evening um the Devin Crest tenant association presentation will not be here and um the voter ID uh estate ballot initiative will not be here um other than that any other changes I have none I have none uh I will make a motion that the agenda be approved as amended seconded all those in favor I chair says I approved um no announcements tonight I have n no um all right so then our first item up will be a recognition of the volunteers of Independence and air celebration Mr chair if I may abut if I could ask uh Amy meser Becky Williamson I hope I proun that wrong the throw the spelling throws me okay and Beth con please come up what you guys stand over there get so Amy Becky and Beth on behalf of this board and many in town I would like to thank you for stepping up to the plate to create a fun-filled Independence Day celebration the hard work and organization Stills used to put on this event cannot be taken lightly the hard work the the working with various departments vendors trying to Rally volunteers to assist this was without a doubt hard work and we commend you for it to put on this event you often took two steps forward and then three steps back but you never lost sight of the goal to create a day of fun and a memory of fun and you did people loved to the parade and the events in the park people saw the effort put into it and they did appreciate it just like the path to Independence was not done in a day you worked hard over the months putting aside some of your own personal time to work on this because you wanted to give back in a fun in a way back in a fun way you did never forget you did I also want to take a moment to request that next year this board ask Mother Nature to come to a meeting so we can discuss having a no Reign on Independence Day Celebrations and Air in the future and now with pleasure on behalf of this board to Amy meser Becky Williamson and Beth cond on certificate of recognition the certificate is presented to each of you on behalf of the town of air the select board extends their sincere gratitude for your hard work and dedication in planning the IND Independence and air celebration signed Shany Copeland chair Christopher e deas Vice chair jasle Livingston clerk air select board presented this day on July 16th 2024 thank you again thank Youk you let's do picture yes cheers we have three short ones so so you can it can be in front of us okay short people in the front never made I'm I'm always in made it to the back row okay over here 3 2 1 and a couple more great and actually um Becky can you hold up your certificate yeah there we go it looks more framable good thank you be possible to say a couple of thank yous Mr chair absolutely yes oh where's my chair yeah that way we get it on okay first let me thank you for the recognition on behalf of the three of us and everyone that worked so hard for this event yes Mother Nature has not been very cooperative and it is uh quite disheartening when when that happens so we would appreciate uh Chief Gil does a great job for the parade and make sure it doesn't get rained out but the rest we may need your help on so I would just really like to thank the the folks that when we came to them with questions they were there no matter what to support us and chief Gil for one Chief Johnston deputy chief Bigalow superintendent Dan I call you DPW Dan in my house my father was a superintendent Highway superintendent for many years he was DPW dad so DPW Dan uh Allan manoy of course he got all of my what does this mean to the thank you so much right he got all of the in between Janice help quite a bit throughout all of this she became a huge contact person for me her husband Sam I am telling you that man flew I don't know 752 hours and still showed up to line the field and make sure that every vendor had a spot had a space everyone was safe the field did not get ruined and at one point he just looked at me and said can I go home yes go home we are getting rained out go home Becky and Beth there's no way this could have happened without either one of them we are we are truly truly a team and I appreciate everything that they give to this community we come from it from very different places some of us have been here a short time some of us have been here almost our entire lives and somewhere in between I'd also like to thank softball happened on Sunday somehow the sun came out and softball happened so a a thank you to Nina and Becky for making that happen but the appreciation does not go unnoticed we we appreciate your support and thank you for all three of you being in the parade that was a big hit so thank you so much it was fun that was a nice model tea yeah it was very roomy that had some excellent leg room in the back it was really impressive we have to request classic cars that only tall people can appreciate it thank you thanks again everyone you okay um is there anybody on or here for public input okay um moving on to our next item um which is the request for a host Community agreement waiver for Central a Compassionate Care Inc and late spring Inc Mr chairman uh through you and members of the board if there isn't objection I'd ask Mr Mark Hillier and Mr John Hillier to just come up to the to the table sure um what is before the board for your consideration um as the board is aware um with the medic uh with the marijuana um industry um many communities um have had host Community agreements um these Agreements are often um necessary where a facility may have impacts to Municipal services and so forth to spell that all out they're they're not required uh but they're often for communities and Facilities where there have been issues and so forth as the board knows since both um Central AV and uh late spring um both facilities since 2020 when we started this um there have been no not only have there been no issues of impact to the town of air but there have been no cost um impacts as well um there is a a strong positive uh relationship between this entity in the town and therefore in reviewing it you know with Town Council and the other departments did not see any applicable reason to have uh host uh agreement so we're respectfully recommending waivers um for both there's two one for Community uh for compassionate k care and one for late spring um the parties can mutually request in the future uh host agreement if if needed and in the event that um these entities were to sell or what have you that would also open up another opportunity there um so that's just to sort of frame it and I don't know the assistant Town manager I know worked on it if I I missed something or yeah so originally when the the law came to be it host agreements were absolutely required and what was happening was a quidd pro quo kind of situation where you donate this much money we'll give you a license the state saw that as uh impeding business obviously uh it if we had one uh you know just expired uh with Central AV and Gage um the beautiful welcome to air sign down the street that's a result of that um Mr Hillier has also both have donated um funding for the Youth Works program that DPW hosts every year um so the legislators uh legislature uh changed host agreements basically you couldn't ask for money in exchange right you're basically treating one sector of a business much different than any other business in your town um we track the costs um as prescribed by law uh it's negligible under $50 a year for Central LA and under $200 a year for gauge cannabis that's a fiveyear average uh so each department tracks if there's any extraordinary costs or um contributed by the operation of both facilities we've never seen that um so we you know talk with Town Council we think the waiver so I'm sorry with the change in the legislation you can either do a host agreement or a waiver one is required we you know in reviewing all of our finances and certainly the donations that Mr Hillier has made to support the youth Works program we feel very comfortable that the waiver is the best route for the town of air and uh Town Council agreed that you know not every town has a great working relationship with their owners we do we're lucky um and they're always just a phone call away and um we've had a great working relationship thanks any questions I have no questions I mean it's been a pleasure having them around and I know that the gauge sign is very popular so but yeah it's hard to believe it's been this many years I know yeah oh y I'm okay good I'll take a motion so respectfully we'd request uh two separate motions one for G in one Central app just um Central M and it's a signature by the chair all right so I will um make a motion for um a host Community agreement waiver with um Central AV Compassionate Care seconded all those in favor I I and chair says I and I will also make a motion um for a host Community agreement waiver for this Gage right that's the second one for um Gage is that what we just call it I don't see it written out here uh late spring late spring okay late spring uh Inc okay seconded okay all those in favor I I chair says I and it's approved thank you well thank you all yeah we have appreciated your faith in us from the beginning and um we have had a great a great relationship working relationship and I thank the town for recognizing way back when that the host agreements weren't a friendly way to do business and um we just we appreciate the opportunity to sit with you at the table and anything arises we are just a phone call away and we're not going anywhere so yeah great Mr chair if I could just add U publicly to thank John and Mark um and it was really John's vision from the beginning the DPW youth Works program and this is many years ago it was a modeled after a program as I understand it that was transformative John's young life it was his idea and it has been transformative here and air and the DPW director and his team do a good job with that and we appreciate their continued support and we're just finishing Session One this summer but it's really changed the life for a lot of young people in air and just wanted to thank John because that was your idea yeah thank you Robert it it was a great program as a kid and and uh the thanks go to Dan really for uh the putting the effort in to you know to get the kids through the process and give them the opportunity so oh yeah I'm sure it's extra work for you and I really appreciate that yeah they get to learn a lot you know we have a lot going on water sewer roads STM water they get to see everything and do do a lot so it's good it's a great opening for them for sure okay all right well thank you guys very much you thank you nice to see you again tomorrow J it's nice to see you have a good night guys thank you good night thank you so much right next up damn all right good evening good evening all right so I have several items um the first one is the monthly water supply update um so just in general the the recently um input outdoor water band has been helping um so for the week of July 1st that Monday uh that week we did end up needing Devon's assistance Midway through the week the tank levels got low around 36 ft is where we sort of give devans a call see if they have any excess capacity so we we augmented with devons that week last week we didn't have to um we did get down to about 38 ft in the tanks and so we monitor them daily and and just try to keep up with the demand so it does seem that the outdoor water band is helping and people are adhering to um to that we also did put together an educational web page you may have seen if you drill down through the Water band notice um which kind of tells us exactly what's happening it's a treatment capacity issue so the treatment plan of grow ponds the issue not the water supply there's plenty of water supply we just can't pump it through the treatment plant um and then the solution the clear well storage tank that designs moving forward um we just finished a design um uh workbook and concept design that's completed it's going through the Army review they are looking at it as well as us the town and also at the same time we're conducting a pilot study that mass D requires and I should mention that's funded through a grant fund through Mass d as part of the bipar and infrastructure law which we're able to obtain um so and the schedule Still Remains the Same aiming for construction in early 2025 is what we're we're going going for so any questions on water update at this time or okay next item the execution of the contract for 2024 water system hydrant replacement so this was designed in house um you know combination of our engineering Division and Water Division as well as Kimberly water sewer superintendent myself and there'll be uh 16 hydrants around town which are are old which may only have um um two valves um and not just the the three with the steamer so we we like to replace these on occasion we did it probably four years ago we did that um so this project was bid and the low bidder is Five Oaks construction out of groten I should note there's also an adult alternate to the project which is to replace um water service lines and abandon a a water M on on West Main Street in front of the fire station to Mechanic Street there's actually two water Ms there and when they put the new one in they didn't transfer the services to the new one so we occasionally see this on some streets which is um not not pretty so now we have to go back and transfer those cuz we wanted to pave that section of Road this year but we don't want to do it with this here so that's part of the project as well um and so um I'd recommend a vote to execute the contract um with Five Oaks construction for $14,250 and that's signature by the board any questions straightforward no okay I don't have any either I'll make a motion that the select board execute the contract for the 2024's water system hydrate replacement project in the amount of $194,200 dcr's rail trail um and so that involved State Legislature action um and article 97 disposition so we finally have cleared the red tape and the hurdles and we've moving forward with the project um so for the project the the low bidder Prime Time development um is at $188,600 recommending reallocating $30,000 of arpa funds from the spec Pond treatment plant filter media project so that spec Pon filter media project was completed in May of 2024 and it was completed under budget and so from that project there's a surplus of approximately 70 well it's of a surplus of $ 77,78 7 and so um that Surplus is arpa and we could take 30,000 of that to augment the Jonathan Drive project which came in higher than we expected and that would help give us a cushion for um contingency on the project um so the recommendation would be to to take 30,000 oura from that leftover from the spec Pon filter media and then um and also vote the contract for the project I think you see the requested motions in the um in the memo Mr chair yep just to add um just for the record um the town confirmed both with the Department of revenue and our Opera consultant um that we can do that transfer so it is appropriate if the board decides we work with Carri and barar yeah okay any questions no okay I'll take a motion all right um I'll make a motion for the select board to vote to execute the contract for the Jonathan drive cross country water main project in the amount of 8,675 seconded all those in favor I and CH says I and then the second motion um I will uh make a motion for the select board to vote uh to authorize up to $30,000 of arpa funds for the Jonathan drive cross country water main project seconded all those in favor I Sharon I okay great would you like me to continue sure okay um next item execution of contract for the Wastewater valve installations at Main and Central Pump stations um so we've we have funding for this project um in about 160,000 we bid the project and and the uh project payment at 141,000 and the low bidder is Sherburn Consolidated uh they've done work in town before they they um replace the West Main Street pump station for us and they did a good job so um we're happy to have them for the project so um um that's essentially we're replacing 17 valves inside the two main major pump stations in town which which is needed um we already have the valves on hand so um that's for Signature by the chair questions all right I'll make a motion that the select board vote to execute the cont contract for the Wastewater valve installations at Maine and Central Pump stations project in the amount of $141,300 for Signature by the chair seconded all those in favor I chair says I there's three they're marked with the green yeah this is old school there's three it's for the chair um thank okay the next item is related to uh the RightWay sewer pump station so we've completed the design for upgrades to that station and after a lot of analysis and design work um and including going out to a factory site visit we've concluded that it's in our best interest to use a proprietary pump system it's it's essentially an inline pumping system so um as the sewage comes in it continuously pumps it um um up to the gravity main through the Force main so being a proprietary system in Massachusetts curement laws you you're technically supposed to if you do bidding you're supposed to have up to three um models listed with an or equal option um but you are allowed to for in certain instances where it's in the best interest of the Town um to to um to vote to use proprietary equipment for a project we did it for the the past project when we we we went forward with the treatment plant so um long story short we're requesting the board vote to author authorize the proprietary pump specification which is included in the rway pump station bid documents and included in the packet through a memo through our consultant time on any questions no okay um I'll make a motion uh for the select board to vote to authorize the use of a proprietary pump specification for use um in the right way Pump Station upgrade bid documents seconded all those in favor I chair says I great all right and the last item I have is an agreement um intermunicipal agreement for our central Massachusetts Regional storm water Coalition so essentially the town of Spencer would do the administrative work for the central Massachusetts storm water Coalition and now that's um moved over to the town of Shrewsberry so the amendment basically is is Shifting the the uh the um Shifting the burden to the town of Shrewsberry and we we'll still pay the same amount of money per year it's $4,000 per year to be part of Central Mass stormw Coalition which has been very useful to us so um just uh vote to execute the amendment um um based on what I described any questions no okay um I'll make a motion that the select board vote to execute the amendment to the uh intermunicipal agreement with the town Spencer in the town of Shrewsbury for participation in the CM rswc for Signature by the chair seconded H those in paper hi hi the chair says I all right a lot of business that that's all I have that's it thank you slacking all right thanks D thank you have a good night thank you have a good one um Robert Mr chairman members of the board uh good evening uh good to see you again uh in terms of the administrative update you have in the packet the town warrants that have been reviewed and approved uh since the select board uh last met uh a couple of just brief items on the administrative updates that the board last met were just about uh completed successfully closing out uh the FY 24 uh budget um which is good and we're believe it or not starting initial preparations on the FY 26 budget uh which we'll keep the board updated with as we get very close to the budget calendar for the year ahead which we'll discuss um at the August meeting ol in looking at the calendar historically for your August 20th meeting We'll be asking the board to already open officially the fall town uh meeting warrant to to start that process uh departments are in the process of completing Uh current capital projects and many of the ones that were just approved it town meeting have either started or they're preparing to start on that front uh the town planner and the planning board um and other departments are working on the MBTA zoning which is going to be a state uh is a state law requirement so the MBTA zoning uh which the board will be updated and briefed on shortly as we get closer to town meeting uh will have to be considered by uh town meeting in October additionally as the board's probably aware the storm water utility group it continues to do its work in preparation for a recommendation to the select board in town meeting and the senior center site selection and building committee are also of three major things on the Forefront one is their narrowing down two potential sites for consideration as well as sort of the as the conceptual design layout of the building so I Envision Envision they'll want to come with another um update at that uh on that progress um so in in addition uh to that I think everybody's just trying to trying to stay cool so I don't know if there are any questions from the board on any administrative items and then I have a couple of action items nope I okay um the first is a couple of appointments for your consideration uh the first one I'm respectfully requesting and recommending that the select board vote to reappoint the town manager as the town's representative to the Mart Advisory Board and that's an annual appointment and the form is is in the packet what day is Mart day Mart day is generally Tuesdays now they move from Thursday okay yeah um I don't have a problem with that so no I'll I'll make a motion that the select board approve the reappointment of the Town manager as the town's representative to the Martin Advisory Board seconded all those in favor I chair says I you are reappointed thank you and then I am respectfully requesting and recommending that the select board vote to reappoint Mr Bob Williams to the air cultural Council for a term to expire on June 30th of [Music] 2027 so moved huh yeah okay all those in favor CH say okay thank you um I thought you said but Mr chair members of the board unless there's objection can I move the parks department proposal just to last to give the parks they should be here any minute so I'll just I'll take that one up last if there isn't objection um the next item is the Opera funding spending plan which I do promise to the board by August 20th uh we will have I think finalized all of it but as you heard from the DPW director um which is a positive thing on the spec pwn came under so there's the goalpost moves a little bit um more but there are two things uh for your consideration so um up in until tonight it was 665681419 [Music] [Music] the um planning design and initial um any engineering um for the use of that site for a parks recreation open space purpose uh and a key piece of that is to have the public input in public component in the process so in talking specifically with the DPW director Parks director and planning director we are recommending and um the board consider authorizing up to $25,000 for the purpose of obtaining a professional consultant to work with the town uh for these reasons and to include a real um robust uh public uh process um as far as what will come out of this process we will have a sense then of not only the community involved as to what the project will be but also what other funding we we will need so just to be clear this is not I know the board knows that just for the record is not towards whatever the project determines but for planning um so that's the the first one if there's any questions I I'm looking forward to it it's going to be fun okay so I would um I don't know if the board wants to take both of them together or individually as far as approval um oh did you want a motion for that one I'm sorry yes please somehow that's right that piece got lost um I'll make a motion that the select board approve arpa funding up to $225,000 for the sandy1 Sandy Pond Road initial planning and public process Perfect seconded all those in favor I and Sheriff says I okay thank you and so the next steps the DPW director I will will be back I think in August with the with a plan for the board on that the second one is the the update and review of the town's non-union classification and Compensation Plan so air like many other towns all of the non-un positions are classified in in in terms of compensation in in the grid um and we it's been some time since the grid since this has been reviewed and um updated and the key piece of it is though we have I will argue we have the inter internal expertise to do this the best practice and we've always done is to have a third-party professional consultant look at the whole system and make recommendations to implement it that way it takes all of the people out of it that could potentially benefit from it I want to point out that this would be just to do the update in the review of the system and this is not you know for any funding that's another discussion if funding is even is is even warranted um as you can see uh it's been a while and then with you know covid um back in uh 2012 2012 town meeting had approved uh $6,000 to do the study um taking into account some re initial research in in time up to $10,000 would be sufficient um to do this uh project I think it would be um beneficial um for the town town uh that we get this updated it was something that we were looking to potentially come to town meeting subject to availability of free cash but there's an opportunity here I think we could get it I know we could get it done um before the end of the year and when I say get it done is then we'll have a review and an update in in next steps questions that's a good idea yeah no questions take a motion all right uh I will make a motion for the select board uh to vote to authorize up to $10,000 for the purposes of obtaining a professional consultant to work with the town reviewing and updating the town's non-using nonunion classification and Compensation Plan second all those in favor I I chair says I I want to thank the board and so that original plan put us down to 31568 which for August 20th we're finishing up a couple of the proposals for your consideration I want to add the caveat that we have to add for about 47,000 to that so we have 78,000 uh but we're confident um when we come to see you in August we'll have everything in place and we'll be in good shape wait a minute so now we're up to over 70,000 right so mhm so there was okay yeah so we just approved the 30,000 so if we hadn't approved the 30,000 it would have been 100,000 right am I I I just feel like somehow I got lost here if we hadn't have given him the 30,000 so I I the spec pond filter media project that tossed back 77,000 okay and we already had 66,000 so it was around 130 140 yes yeah so now if you need project Dan's too good at this in designing it is such a wonderful problem to have but it's also humorous because every time we think oh yeah so we are not to sound like a broken record but on August 20th in your packet I think we'll have a final plan okay um the so the next item and and if they they I'll do that one last so the next item um just skipping over the parks's proposal is a continued discussion of the 20 of the 2024 goals and objectives U moving forward so as discussed last time I did put um a copy of the implementation plan in the packet along with a memo that was done by the planning board on sort of the status of the implementation plan and as you can see and I think the board and the town should be very proud of we've have and continue to accomplish a lot on that implementation plan some of those things are ongoing some of those things um have have changed um with that being said um in looking at that um I took sort of an initial Approach at some goals um for consideration um the obviously the storm Water Utility Fund recommendation is is underway but I think that's a big um um goal uh the recommendation of the proposed site and funding by town meeting for the senior center project uh again um is another one um the review and update of the select board um policies um is due for just another review and update uh review and update of the town's Personnel policies and procedures manual so we're about to start that and I think that will work well with that in the non-union comp study we'll get all of that updated because the Personnel policies also were last updated I think in 2011 so we need there's some areas there um obviously and I and I the review and update of the um I mean the preparation and of the balanced FY 26 budget subject to review and input from the select board Finance committee the public and other stakeholders I know that's our responsibility every year but I think it's warranted that it is a huge goal cuz you're all involved both as the select board but as individual Representatives on various committees that's a huge undertaking of the Town establish the FY 26 time wide budget calendar which we'll start to talk about on August uh develop a final plan for the IT department uh as I mentioned to town meeting and so forth this is a transition year on it we want to be in a position with the new it plan uh for this year uh to complete the review and update of the non-union class and comp plan and the complete the initial planning design funding for the future of 71 Sandy Pond Road so those were some of the things I was brainstorming with I also put the implementation plan as I said in the packet as I think if members have some other ideas or thoughts you know maybe by the August meeting or the first September meeting at the latest we could you know sort of finalize the goals so that's sort of just an overview and I just wanted to keep this discussion going so I don't know if there's any questions or it's good to me okay last but not least Sarah through the chair if there's no objection Sarah parents come up good evening sir hello so the last just to frame the the the issue and I know that uh selectman Taris is very aware of this when he was in his previous capacity as the chair of the parks um commission but this has been um a need for some some time the the Parks Commission um in the parks department continues to grow there's no question over the over the years even with the covid um pause they did a lot of things the program continues to grow the services continue to grow the infrastructure continues to grow whether it's the new playground the beachfront Etc it has always been a one person it has been a one person show the commission is very involved there a lot of volunteers and people which is great but professionally it's a pretty large department and it's been a oneperson show for all these years and which is great but when that individual were to go on vacation or what have you and so forth It's Growing to a point that it needs some level of of professional support just like uh all of our other larger departments so the Parks Commission has been um supportive of as is uh the the director and the previous uh director and myself of um creating an assistant director dtor of parks and rec for the the department and the issue is um we would like to um get this started sooner than later so what the plan is and what for tonight was a we wanted to present it formally to you in the sense that you have in your packet the draft proposed job description which was developed by uh the parks director and the and the commission the Next Step as we do with every position would be we grade it and classify it and that's about to start so that we follow and it's on the website whole process to come up with the grade in the step which will determine the funding for the position that's the next step then the final step would be the funding for the position now normally if we put it in the budget it the normal cycle it would not be available subject to town meeting approval till July 1st of 2025 we did it in the normal cycle we are respectfully asking for consideration subject to the availability of certified free cash which we anticipate will happen is that if the select would would continue consider support of a warrant article for the fall town meeting for voters to vote the funding if the funding is voted and it would come from from free cash uh for the position we could then begin the hiring and implementation of the position as early as say November 1st get that position in place so that when the Park season really ramps up in the spring we hit the ground running so the purpose of tonight was to give you a brief update of sort of the plan and the proposal um take any questions or concerns The Next Step will be to grade and classify the position which I will will have done for the August 20th meeting and then we'll know what the salary range is and then the final The Next Step from that would be if the board does approve a warrant article and we have the certified free cash would be up to the voters to fund it then that funding would become available right we can start that process and then the position would then moving forward be funded in the regular budget did I miss anything all right Mr chair through I don't know if Miss ER has anything to add from the need of the position or so forth from her perspective and also I know that select M virus um is B was working on this um in great detail yeah I think the one thing that for like the public um per se like conception of this project would be like we're going to consolidate the existing positions of the part-time adman which was me before I became so so right now we don't have one since we're still in a transition period with the old Park director Jeff Thomas um and by doing so we also are taking away a part-time maintenance workers position which is about 10 to 15 hours which once again just kind of taking on that role as he's staying on with me and then our seasonal Waterfront supervisor would we'd hopefully um incorporate that into the admin uh the assistant Park director's position as well so kind of eliminating those areas so we see the the fluctuate of what we already technically have budgeted and how we can essentially make this and Save a little bit of money this way I think that's like one key point we wanted to make yeah that's a good point because you know working with this in the past year we you're right we had you know 10 hours of admin and then you know a seasonal person for the Waterfront and part-time people that you know part-time is tough because if they get a full-time job they're gone um and you never know if they're going to come back and you know this this position I always felt was um extremely important and the part about you know going on vacation you know the parks director goes on vacation and there was no other professional there um and the former Parks director did such a good job just getting things done that when you do a job really well no one knows that you did it really well right because there's no complaints so um you know I just want to make sure that that there's you know this conception out there oh you just you know adding another person and you know and got to pay for this person um But as Sarah said very well um you know it's it's kind of consolidating these little pieces into one professional and then you have a backup that you know the parks person isn't called on vacation three times in one day which I know happens um so that you know that that's just my input to to speak on it okay so Mr chair there's no action item being requested from the board at this point we wanted you and the public to be aware of where we're at the next step we'll be back I'll be back on the 20th we'll have the position graded in steps so we'll have an idea of the funding we'll have that as an update for you and then ultimately the the the ask will be when the board does the warrant to have a warrant article for the funding for consideration by town meeting okay and Mr chair I'm sorry I see Jeff how are you we just sort of finished the overview uh did you want to add any as far as the need on the position well I don't want to be redone it with any points that were taken U Can I step forward yeah yeah sure sure um Sarah did a good job presenting uh part of what we were looking to do the reasons why we wanted to do it and some of the justifications for doing it uh the biggest point I can make and again probably a reiteration of what she's talked about is how the Parks Department uh role in the town has expanded uh since that position was first invented about 30 years ago and it's um it's encompassing a lot more especially with the programs and then also with uh some of the actual details of Maintenance and things like that that we're doing so with that it's become I believe an possibility for uh one person to be the only employee of that department so having uh a second full-time employee in the assistant role I I think would be essential I wouldn't even consider it a you know something that's a benefit it would be essential at this point so that's uh uh my main points to it and I can get into more details on another time if you'd like all right very good thank you any other questions no sounds good to me right all right thank you both yes thank you both very much and M Dash from the field sweating you all know it was a great time though look at soccer it's beautiful Mr chair members of the board unless there's any questions that completes my report for this evening all right thank you Robert um next up would be new business or select board member questions didn't see any does anybody have any questions sir no business all right next up is the approval of meeting minutes for June 18th 2020 24 I didn't see any edits or no I I reviewed them they no they look fine to me I saw nothing so I'll make a motion that the meeting minutes from June 18th 2024 be approved is submitted seconded all those in favor I chair says I minutes are approved and Mr chair yes to return I will second that all those in favor hi hi and we are a chair