good evening and welcome to the select board Board of Health sewer Commissioners meeting of June 12th 2024 this meeting will be held in a hybrid fashion with the opportunity for both in-person attendance and remote participation please note that while an option for remote attendance Andor participation is being provided as a courtesy to the public the meeting 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 any specific item on this agenda should make plans to attend in person uh versus virtual attendance the meeting will be held in person in the main meeting room of Deerfield municipal offices in accordance with Mass General Law chapter 30A anyone intending to record the meeting must identify themselves to the clerk Blake Gilmore and provide their name and address for the record all right so I'll call the meeting to order at 603 p.m. um we're going to start off with public comment I know there are some people in the audience who like to come up and make some comments so come on up whomever please identify yourself you can sit at the table I think these mics might work better thank sure and uh you sort of have to get get really close to the mic otherwise get in the background Leah right you're ruining it no I'm not her phone is literally down upside down excuse me I'm going to mute you oh so sorry for that a little Interruption it's okay um so my name is David Johnson I live at 112 North Main Street um here in South Deerfield and I'm concerned uh about um health hazard biohazard about um a recently deceased horse it was buried immediately adjacent to my property line and I'm concerned for a number of reasons um groundwater contamination risks a disease spreading potential and the legality of of the entire situation um in in large part I'm concerned um because we have a regular problem with groundwater there to begin with um I live in a flood plane so water is always an issue um over and above that um I don't know what the cause of death of the horse was so I don't know if it was illness or some other incident because I don't know if there was any Veterinary assessment as to what happened there so I can't be conclusive about you know potential hazards um and and in addition in addition to that um the bloody Brook runs to the western side of my property so there's always water coming down off the hillside across the back fields um through the property immediately adjacent to my own um through the the property of Miss price that runs in the direction of the bloody Brook the water table there is very high if we Dig Down 18 to 24 in you can watch the water run by so we're very concerned about that in my own behalf I'm I'm concerned about bacteria I'm concerned about contamination um I have fruit on my property the the um historically noted grapes that the settlers stop to eat I I have grape arbors on my property I don't think it's safe to eat that this summer I have huge raspberry uh bushes in the corner I don't think it's safe to eat that this summer um because of something that was done in in a fashion it I I think lacked foresight in terms of implications and ramifications I really believe that it poses um a biohazard a health hazard um I think over and above that because it's a residential area I think it has potential impact for years to come in terms of the property itself because of the water table we all have some pumps in an area um M Price's property is the Eastern side the water runs east to west um what kind of assurance can I get that the water leaking into my basement won't be toxic at some point in time again a scientist I'm not but I've I've done a little bit of research and I've I've tried to find articles that were um not written particularly in legal ease so that I could understand them and I I found one article in particular that I provided a copy to all of you um that talks about um the stages of decom comp position the first of which occurs in days to weeks which is where we are now um bloat and active Decay uh characterized by risks of emission of odors toxic gases attracting scavengers and pests then the next stage is Advanced decay leeching of fluids soil contamination and that happens in weeks to months which means we're still on the very front end of this not knowing what happens subsequently um I'm concerned for a couple of reasons over and above that this burial site again is maybe six feet from my property and immediately adjacent to miss Price's house um maybe again I would have to guess but I have I have pictures that I took it's you know maybe maybe 12 maybe 15 fet at most um it it just seems to prent to present with with difficulties that are far reaching from property values to to disease and illness to soil contamination and as I said even in in terms of of fruit and produce I think it has lots of implications that uh we need to address in some fashion I also know that um having done a little bit of research that there are no particular guidelines and that historically in agricultural areas where there's large pasture land um cows and horses can be bu in in large open pastures we're not talking about a large open pasture here we're talking about a thick residential neighborhood um it's a very different set of circumstances I also know too that that in terms of of laws there are no General Commonwealth laws governing all this and that it's delegated to the respective communities um until we had this incident I suspect we haven't had any any laws or any bylaws to address this this kind of a situation but now it's upon us and and we really have to do something I also know having read the the UMass extension core that their recommendations are it's a terrible thing now to exume the uh decaying body because it it creates a potential greater biohazard I'm not challenging that I what I am wondering is is a lesser biohazard not a biohazard cuz it's not not a greater biohazard I mean I think there's a biohazard no matter what's going on so again am I I'm here out of concerned I'm not assuming an adversarial position I'm I'm not angry but I'm very worried about this I'm worried for another reason in that four weeks ago yesterday I had major surgery I was rushed at the hospital in the middle of the evening um and okay I'm doing very well and I'm healing quite well but I don't want to contract anything I I think that's a legitimate concern at least at least for me sure Absol so in terms of of initial concerns I guess that's what I'd like to present and and I would encourage um my neighbors uh to share their points of view as well I think I think it's important because it's it it's not an i it's it's a we we're very concerned about the implications the ramifications and consequences of this from house property values through including health and well-being of all the residents MH so so thank so um just to just one final question for you I mean it sounds as though you and your neighbors feel the horse should be removed from from where it's buried is that a consensus or or or what is your what is your desired outcome well I don't know because in the best of all possible worlds I think that would make the most sense um I'm also not sure that's possible based on what I read from UMass extension crops and their recommendations again again this is not my wheelhouse and I and I have to acknowledge that I also know that a friend of mine who's a contractor spoke to me today about coming in and digging a trench and filling it with clay and my property to prevent contamination I shouldn't have to do that I mean it I shouldn't have to remediate remediate a problem I didn't create so I don't know what the best solution is but I know something has to happen because because there's this big Mound and I have pictures that I can provide you with if you like um you saw you came ins the burial site as well um it's something has to happen I I don't know what that is but I do know that um the implications are far-reaching here you know it's it's a I think it's a difficulty it's a broadspectrum difficulty mhm in the interest of letting your neighbors speak we have a 6:15 hearing that we have to start so if one of your neighbors also wants to speak we got two minutes left to say a couple things sorry about that I didn't mean to cut you off I know it's important don't that soel 110 North Main Street um neighbor and my property is at the corner of Miss Price's property uh and again she she didn't speak to any of us and I share the same environmental concerns that that Dave does um I've got two small children 2-year-old a four-year-old this is the area that play in um I my house is built in 1905 it's a Fieldstone Foundation there's water that comes in there's there's continuously water moving from the field which is is a you know usually grows corn and is sold at the Farmstand down the street right in the corner of that field it floods right behind my house um I have a bunch of pictures which I can share with you guys but every time that it rains the field floods right next to miss Price's property and then it comes across my property and Dave's property into the turnaround by the monument and on its way to bloody Brook so it's a constant issue it's it happens in the winter when when there's rain it happens during the thaw and it happens all summer any time there's some sort of moderate rain event so this water is a consistent theme and there is contamination it's going somewhere and it's probably my house it's probably Dave's house she buried the horse on the edge of her property which is the least flow right closest to Dave's property so it's not going across hers it's going directly onto ours and I you know it seems like an odd place to to bury a horse um I I would like to someone to look further into what are the actual health hazards here and what can be done about it I know that we found we're early in the stage so this is something that we should deal with immediately and and and not ruminate about and wait a couple of weeks and then say oh well now it's past a certain point right we're still in the early stage of it so we should be able to do something and come up with a solution before before groundwater becomes an issue all right so one thing that I know we're going to do is we're going to share the information that uh you provide with us with our Town Council tomorrow morning and um find out what our options are as a town I mean we'll try to find a solution that meets everyone's concerns U what that solution will be I still sound sounds like you would like to see the horse removed and and that that if I were the neighbor I would perhaps feel that way too but let us consult with them and try to do something as quickly as possible if we're going to do something and go ahead yeah and just so you know we've been reaching out to different agencies state agencies to help us with this and this is a unique situation there's no question so I don't really I can't there's no definitive answer at this point and like I said we're we're trying to reach out to see if we've got um somebody that can guide us through this to try to get try to figure out how get an end result for you great and and and to the future I I think you know if there is any result from this too we should probably come up with some sort of regulations of how this is dealt with in the town and um I know when I looked into the zoning it's Central Village and I don't know how that pertains to bearing agricultural livestock um but it's something that we should look into all right I agree with you thank you thank all right so we'll sorry the if anyone else was looking to comment we have to start the the hearing that's scheduled for 6:15 uh notice a public hearing town of Deerfield in accordance with the mgl chapter 140 section 157 and town of Deerfield bylaws chapter 60 section 10 the Deerfield select board will hold a public hearing on uh this is which one of my reading uh do I this one has February 7 but this is a continuation that's the continuation of that hearing for reference that's what it there does it go into continuation later or I just read this um I don't I think you could simply say that you're continuing this reference yeah this is a continuation of the public hearing that began on February 7th and has had one or two other meetings so at this point um are all the parties here I see Joel Thomas uh I can't see see the last Adam Adams yes and uh Jeremy Cohen who represents um the uh the dog owner so um where are we good evening um again Jeremy Cohen for Kate Clayton Jones uh when we last met you may recall it was for Miss Clayton Jones to to take additional affirmative steps to to try to reduce the boing or the the noise coming from our property and so I submitted some um photos from a while back that my client she she wrapped her fences with um privacy uh material so that cuz we had discussed at the Herring that maybe if the the dogs can't see out they can't be triggered by a a moving a person or another dog walking by since it's a busy uh area and so she put those she implemented that probably two months ago I sent everything about a month ago um I'm not so she's done something uh towards this to amiliar the situation I'm not sure how it's I haven't heard any feedback yet if it's been effective or not yeah we we are receiving those photographs um Mr Thomas Adams have you um something to at also while we're waiting for all right does that work yes now we can hear okay um pardon me I was muted I would not use the word amarate um at all in fact in this spring and early summer because our Windows have been open and we like to have them open for the fresh air we have had the intrusive effect of the dogs constant barking much more palpable in our house in every part of our house day and night um sometimes for hours at a time it's very extreme and I am deeply frustrated that it has been take it has taken this long for something to be done about what is a very egregious breach of these bylaws recently even though I knew it wouldn't do any good um I did call the police at midnight because the dogs had been barking hour the $600 so uh I'd like I'd like to keep talking if I can yeah we're we're trying to get somebody to mute the person I just unmuted iPad 2 apologies for the interruption all right I so when I called the police the police told me and I thought this was really quite extraordinary um the police told me that they would not send an officer to the house despite the barking and they recognized that The Barking was going on but they would not send an officer to the house because the dog had bitten an officer off before and so they couldn't send an officer to um enforce the law which was really quite an extraordinary thing I was trying to think of an analogy for that and I couldn't think of one but whatever the Privacy wrapping is and I did notice that that had gone up on the fences it has done absolutely nothing to Abate or ameliorate the situation at all it is very very loud at our house my wife was awakened at 3:00 in the morning one day this week with a very bad migraine and I found her curled up in misery on the couch um with this dog just pounding and pounding and pounding auditorally away in our home uh so it it is an extreme situation it has not changed at all if anything it's worse because of the Season okay um we also have um an attorney from our Law Firm who's in attendance um Mr prer um what are our options in this hearing it sounds like the the steps that Miss Clayton Jones took haven't seen to address the problem um what are we empowered to do I mean I know that we can label the dog a nuisance dog but what are we able to do that will help Mr Thomas Adams uh so thank you Mr chair good evening everyone M reventure represent the town of Deerfield um so under a nuisance complaint you have a pretty broad set of power is you've got a the board has to vote to make a finding that the specific dog in question is a nuisance due to excessive barking but after that the board has pretty broad power to try to Fashion an appropriate remedy um but ultimately I would say that the board's choices should be guided by the fact that whatever it seeks to do it should be to eliminate the cause of any nuisance that it finds so where I think in this circumstance where the complaint is principally about barking and excessive of noise um and not the dog behaving in any other way that's a nuisance I would suggest that the board should explore options for compliance that would prevent reduce or amarate that I would caution the board though that it does not have the power to order that the animal be removed from the town of Deerfield um outside of that constraint though the board has pretty broad latitude to Fashion an appropriate remedy um and I think as in all cases the simplest way is to engage in a dialogue to see if Mr Thomas Adams is seeking any particular relief from the board or is leaving it up to the board's discretion um and then also just I I usually also inquire and just to make sure whether there is any obstacle with anybody who would be burdened like Miss Clayton Jones by an order entered by the board to make sure that there's no specific difficulty or unusual circumstance or hardship that would prevent it from being effective even if there were a desire to comply that that's generally my guidance so if you have any specific questions I'm happy to do it but generally this is a matter for the board's sound discretion and judgment to try to come up with an effective remedy that works for everyone involved so we're under a bit of a a conundrum tonight in that uh the only other board member who's been a party to these hearings is um not able to attend this evening so I'm on my own and uh Mr Gilmore is a new member of the select board and this is his first introduction to this issue um um so it sounds as though the remedies we've tried to pursue haven't worked um I'm not an expert in this area so the only other thing that comes to mind is uh you know in my engineering days there are noise cancellation sorts of products that create white noise and I don't even know if that's a reasonable thing to consider but it it doesn't sound like short of the dog being confined inside that it's not going to be able to be heard at all hours and and I'm assuming that everybody's acted in good faith here but the problem hasn't resolved itself so does Mr Cohen do you have any ideas about what Miss Clayton Jones would like to try next uh well in previous hearings I I suggested it could be mutual in terms of um White Noise machines Etc and I also suggested and again I don't know the lay of the land sounds like there's a valley in the sense and the noise comes up where um but it was rejected by the complainant that she could participate in putting it up as you talk about a s Barry it would have to be closer to his his property I would assume to to deflect the noise but this is this is a problem that can be fixed but it takes some cooperation and um because I think the next step would have to be an investment in some type of a this barrier whether it's uh made out whether it's trees or some type of soundproof barrier for um out of material that they have it's it's doable I'm not sure of the cost but when I previously brought it up Mr Thomas Adams I remember didn't want it anywhere near his property um if I remember correctly or it might have been the expense but um if he's still being bothered by it we and it's all hours of the night I think we we need to um think about something else so with with every respect I I find it absolutely Preposterous and and frankly personally insulting that somebody would suggest that the victim needs to be part of the solution I'm not breaking any laws um there is a clear violation of the Deerfield bylaw about disturbing the peace here so the the burden of this is on the person who is producing this noise and you know there there are certainly steps uh one of the steps would be not to let the dogs out at midnight and 3:00 in the morning unless somebody's with them and has them on a leash so that they're not barking incessantly that would at least be a step toward mitigating the intrusion of this um it seems pretty reasonable to ask some someone not to have the dog outside barking for 2 hours at a time at 3:00 in the morning um so I I I I haven't seen any actual genuine steps to do something about this well one one thing I would point out um is Mr Thomas Adam is never going to be satisfied but I've asked now this is hearing number four uh well fourth that I've been to not fourth of the complainant and take a video can you take a time stamp video at 3: in the morning so I I have no reason to doubt you but none of us have heard this or seen it you do so can we get something to be like oh my God that is I I I want to take your word for it but at the same time you've dismissed anything Miss Clayton Jones has done as being ineffective she's not doing this purposely if you if this is bothering you the way it is it would bother me too I want I you shouldn't have to live this way I agree but can we get a little bit of of proof that this happens day and night every day and night and in at these odd hours the proof is easily obtainable all you have to do is just stop on five and 10 in front of her house and listen for a little bit that's not a problem also every police department has decel meters um if if you want to come up to this house if the police want to come up to this house with a decel meter and listen um they can do that again you're putting you're you're questioning my credibility um to throw doubt on a case where the evidence is utterly explicit and you say that but you won't produce it you say it's utterly explicit my job to do that as the her job to stop making noise well U as a complainant you you're not a victim you're a complainant about a nuisance and you refuse now for seven months to submit any evidence besides your word yeah I'm not going to accept your word for it uh so without the evidence I can't really move my client further to take more expensive measures you just think everybody else should do it for you and we're not going to do it that way there's other steps you can line AR you can take steps too to amarate the situation you should be putting up using sound machines you should be finding alternative ways to to dampen the noise as well imagine if the police were called to my neighbor's house for very loud rock and roll music at 2:00 in the morning and that somebody representing my the complainant said well you should just put on noise cancelling headphones I that's a Preposterous line of reasoning so and and you you've you've artfully insinuated that somehow my my word is not credible and yet why would anyone waste their time in a proc I've seen the work you've done online I've seen all the letters you've written and articles you've written through the years complaining about things so I know you're a particular person who would put the time in I want to help you we can resolve this I've reached out you I've emailed you let's communicate You' never emailed you never emailed me so let's pardon me pardon me can I interrupt here we're we're arguing at no purpose at this point um Mr proventure um I don't know that um short of short of declaring the dog a nuisance and having no resolution to Mr Mr uh Thomas Adams problem um the only other thing I can suggest is I don't I don't want to make this decision on my own because you know there are even if I declared the dog of nuisance um Mr Gilmore probably couldn't vote to to make that so the only other thing I see is to continue this hearing one more time to our next meeting which is the 26th when the only other select board member who's been involved in this process can can be here to vote on this and um we will make some recommendations and they won't be you know they shouldn't I I I agree that the person who is complaining about an issue probably shouldn't be the one that bears the financial burden to solve it but um you know I want to do something that's reasonable as well so does this I know this is one more hearing um but what's your advice so my advice to the board is first I think your instinct is correct I think the you know the the absence of Mr McDaniel poses a practical issue I know that uh Mr Gilmore is a new board member um I know that you're very familiar with this but I think you would want to have Mr McDaniel present to vote with a quorum of two because you've both been present at all of the other hearings on this question um two I think that if you want to enter an order the order is directed at the owner of the dog found to be a nuisance um I I don't know that you really have jurisdiction to order anyone else to do anything if you a finding of a nuisance I think that crafting an appropriate remedy could include stating that the dog is not allowed to be outdoors at certain hours if it's outdoors it has to be supervised by an individual um you could order that the dog be confined for certain periods I I think you have some pretty broad latitude and there's some room to be creative and the other benefit of potentially allowing Mr McDaniel to weigh in is that you may have more capability in discussing the matter to come up with something creative and something workable um separately I also just wanted to make a point of order there there were some references by Mr Thomas Adams to you determining whether this is a violation of a separate bylaw enacted by the town of Deerfield the purpose of this hearing is solely to adjudicate whether the dog is a nuisance under chapter 140 section 157 of the general laws um you are not making a binding determination as to whether any of the actions violate any other statute or any another prohibition that's imposed whether by the town of Deerfield or the general laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts um I say that just to point out that Mr Thomas Adams and Miss Clayton Jones for that matter retain the rights that they otherwise possess under the law which includes the right to bring a private action seeking to enjoin a nuisance or to seek damages for any nuisance or trespass um that's entirely up to them I just want to make clear for the board that it's deciding a very narrow issue which is whether the dog is a nuisance under the laws of the commonweal so um I think then what I'm going to do is follow your advice and um continue the hearing to um 6:30 on June 26 um so that Mr McDaniel can be present uh at which time we will make a determination on the underlying question of whether the dog's a nuisance or not and um make some recommendations about um how this should be uh addressed um so I'll make that motion is there a second second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor Blake Gilmore I Tim hilchie I thank you for your participation tonight and uh we'll see you in two weeks okay thank you thank you Mr chair if there's nothing further happy to say if you'd like if You' give any further assistance no thank you so much we appreciate your attendance all right thanks very much uh I hope everyone has a good evening thank you for having me okay um all right the next order of business is um continuation of a hearing on application for new wines and Malt Beverages licensed for Primo Pizzeria and Restaurant Inc at 4B Sugarloaf Street is there anyone representing this party in attendance Mr chair it's supposed to start at 6:45 oh at 6:45 I thought it was 6 I'm sorry all right so let's deal with some minutes then you have two sets one from May 15th and one from May 29th have you had a chance to read them um I just start i' like to note for the board that the May 15 the May 29th minutes there's a revision in there I found a few um typographical errors and just some formatting that needed to be adjusted okay um I'll give you a couple minutes to to look through those BL okay and I'll look at the revised one for go ahead okay all right um so I'd make a motion to approve the uh May 15 2024 minutes as written second um any further discussion hearing none all those in favor uh uh Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I and I'd like to make the motion to approve the May 29 202 4 minutes as written as revised second uh any further discussion hearing none all those in favor Blake hilmore I Tim Hill um as we still have a few more minutes um we had to curtail the public comment period And I know that Chris Harris has one short comment he'd like to make so so yeah uh thank you um yeah I just wanted to reflect on this past Saturday where there was the time Buel and um and thank you much thereafter At Con Hall um on behalf of the friends of Deerfield and the 350th steering committee um we just want to thank everyone that attended we did have a kind of a Full House of what we expected over 70 persons uh for the elction and um uh it was great the participation with select board um and Carolyn scores nass did a great job kind of being an MC and uh we appreciated the turnout the support uh and all hard work that went into it obviously by the friends of Deerfield board members and the Marie Thomases of the world Peter Thomas's the world and um so that's all I want to say thank the community for turning out um and it was a great wrap up to a great uh 350th anniversary year yeah and I just also want to recognize Holly linkowski who's in the audience tonight she was instrumental in a lot of the 350th work as well so thank you thank you all right thanks Chris um we still have a little more time to go through I will make couple I attended a meeting with furog and several of other um other Regional planning commissions this afternoon about um a federal plan they're looking to expand a an electrical coridor between the New York State and the Northfield um Hydro in installation it's a 60m corridor where they're looking to um have a half mile on either side of the of this Corridor to um study and possibly install you know more and uh more forward-looking electrical systems we're at the early stages of trying to understand what this ultimately it would give a lot of power to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to make decisions about this land and what can go there so um we're going to be following and participating in uh a four-phase process to study what the implications are for Deerfield and the surrounding communities um it's too early to say what if anything will be plus or minus for us um do you have any uh things that you've been working on Blake no um not right now okay um and we obviously um know we're going to do some more research on the uh Health agent front for for this horse question so any other things that we can take up Casey you could take up the sewer commitment okay um and I did write a motion for it um how far it's probably about three or four pages in maybe hold on I I put page numbers on this thing so I could figure it out myself too much paper too much paper um on page eight is it the um okay SE can you can you just give us a little preface before I make this motion so this is the second sewer commitment for fiscal year 2024 we received the water readings um very recently and the treasurer spent a great deal of time getting everything in here so we can get these bills out um we are behind in the billing so this is she asked us to put a placeholder on so that we could make sure we had this signed as soon as possible so my recommendation is to for the board to vote and sign the commitment so this was after all the all the the water bills came in I the water usage came in we received the water readings I want to say it was the beginning of last week or the week uh the Friday before I don't have a calendar in front of me but yep um yeah we received them recently and I know Sarah work working over the weekend to try and get this done because she's got an important event coming up soon so um so you want to do do you know enough about this you want to do the yep y uh I move to approve the phisal year 2024 sewer billing commitment number two in the of 873,000 we don't have scams we do have the police department appointments in a memo from Chief peterk dated June 3rd and it it is pretty significant um it's two pages long let's let's hold off then yeah CU I didn't my my thought was maybe the board would choose not to read the entire thing yeah because it is in the packet um and available for review but it's up to you no I I'm just waiting until uh um the participants for the I asked Chief Sparks to make an adjustment to his roster so that it could show more information um so I expect to see that in the next day or so so we'll put that on for the 26th all right and I'm just going to okay all right do we know Pros folks are I don't they knew what time they knew the date and time um there he is Oscar just got on okay good yeah I thought I wasn't sure that was the applicant okay so it's now 6:45 um so I'm going to um move to reopen um the continuation of a select board Board of Health um public hearing on application for new wines and Malt Beverages license at 4B sugarlow Street South Deerfield ma uh from Primo Pizzeria and Restaurant Inc um and uh Mr Ras is in attendance um can you tell us Casey what uh what legal information we received since storm drain and shop around for quot little things valie I'm going to mute you I twe some of my coverages so hi Oscar um Mr chair we as you know there was a license that was approved at an earlier date this year in April for a wine and malt beverage license for another restaurant in town that license is still under review by the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission um I contacted Town Council and discussed it with Town Council and then I contacted Ralph acon who's the executive director at abcc and because the license that previous approval is still under review technically the board does not have a license a beer and wine license to award so director sacony suggested two things that the board because the board does not have a license there's one in review right now so technically it's not available is it was his was his thought that perhaps the board retain the information in the application that was submitted by by Mr Rus and that if a license becomes available we notify them um the other alternative is for Primos to apply for an all alcoholic beverage liquor license from the town um so to that end I did further discuss it in terms of what what the board could be expected to vote with director sacony and he gave me some suggested language which I've provided an emotion um I don't know if Mr Rus has questions for me or for the board I'm happy to try to answer them but I'm not a lawyer can you unmute Mr Rus can uh can you unmute oh good thank you we still can't hear still can't hear I'm sorry we still can't hear we still can't hear you um are are Chris Nolan can you try to mute and unmute him to see if that helps yeah I'll give it a try okay unmute okay can you try to speak again Mr Rus uh still unable to hear you so um I'm sorry uh about the technical difficulty um do you um did you understand what uh Casey Warren the Town Administrator said you can nod uh so um the options we have is to continue the hearing or if you're within five minutes you could come down to town hall we could wait for you to arrive here and then we could have a conversation or we can proceed with what she recommended which was to deny this application until we get clearance on whether the the whether there will be a new opening for beer and wine or you know you could pursue another path so what would you prefer to do would you like to come down here if you're close enough or do you want to we could continue the hearing until May 26th I mean June 26th um if you want to be present um or if you can signal by shaking your head yes or no so do you want us to continue this until J June 26 no okay so what we'll do is follow um the advice of the abcc and with the understanding that we will um if if the the the license that's pending doesn't get approved that we will notify you is that acceptable okay all right so you want to make this motion yep uh we're going to move to deny Primos Pizzeria application for an on premise pouring license for wine and Malt Beverages as there are no available licenses at this time second any discussion hearing none all those in favor Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I thank you and sorry about the technical difficulties so we'll keep you informed if something opens up or if you want to come and do the all liquor license well certainly entertain that application as well yes thank you okay I don't know if there's Christopher okay so he's on for 7:15 um maybe I'll text him and see if he wants to hop on sooner if he can't um maybe Chris Nolan would be willing to give you his updates on the ly lot yeah yeah Chris are you prepared to do that sure yeah just let me know I can do that whenever Casey I'm also available I'm just hopping on my computer right now all right um Chris Christopher do you want to go and I've got your motions ready fixed sure I'll start the I'm still hopping on here but um yeah um so top of the list I would say is the contract with p and bond for their complete street services on Elm Street uh so just as a refresher uh this is a contract that we're entering into with p and bond uh for surveying work on Elm Street uh as well as a conceptual design for sidewalk and crosswalk um in general pedestrian complete streets improvements uh between Railroad Street and and uh Main Street there um the total is 27,500 and uh let me know if there are any questions from the board regarding that that contract can you um can you talk to us about the source of the money for the complete streets that's a grant that we have yeah so I'll I'll kind of lay it out the funding sources here uh so for this particular $27,500 we have a $40,000 appropriation from town meeting specifically for complete streets I believe that was back in a 2019 town meeting um and then you know beyond that uh I'm actually in the process of working with pen Bond on an application for the municipal Ada Improvement Grant uh that application is due Friday um and essentially that would pick you know up to $200,000 uh you know specifically for the sidewalk surfaces and uh you know ultimately what we'll be doing with time bond is working towards a full complete streets application um and that would involve you know upwards of $500,000 potentially uh for you know all of the improvements we'd like to see on that stretch of Elm Street so you know changes to parking uh installation of a tree lawn or any other improvements that we ultimately uh decide make sense for the town Blake do you have questions no okay um so I'll I'll make this motion then uh move to approve contract with Ty and Bon Inc for the complete streets tier 3 Services Elm Street survey and conceptual plans as presented and to authorize the chair to sign second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor Blake Gilmore I Tim hilchie I okay and while I'm signing you want to go on to the next thing he got more he's got more yeah can everyone hear me okay yep uh sorry it's it's saying I'm the assistant pan administrator but I am not um so uh yeah I guess next on the uh the agenda here would be um the contract with Bureau happold uh again members of the board will probably recall that uh we got a grant for this project it's 50,00 from heat which is a Massachusetts nonprofit uh it's what's called a Kickstart Mass Grant uh and this is specifically to look at feasibility for a network geothermal uh system in South Deerfield um so as a reminder this was three iterations uh you know Network geothermal around the existing Town campus and some businesses downtown then going out a little further looking at connecting with the schools and then beyond that looking at connecting with picin and or treehouse um so it's just a feasibility study uh you know Bureau happold would basically be conducting some interviews with key stakeholders Berkshire gas Folks At Pelican Berkshire Brewing um and I've also invited some members of the energy committee to to participate in that as well um and then they would also be looking at basically energy loads for the buildings around T around town as well as the existing gas infrastructure um to see if this you know is a is feasible um so again it's $50,000 through the heat Grant and uh the pro project would conclude by uh the end of the calendar year so you are under constraint to get this done correct and it's uh it's taken a bit longer than we hoped to get under contract um buo ha hold had some initial issues with the Architects and Engineers contract that we sent them um so we had a little bit of back and forth but I think we're we're pretty close at this point uh I believe the version in front of you has um you know one change that Bureau happold hadn't quite gotten around to responding about um but it's very minor at this point I think we're pretty much ready to proceed so do we need to make a conditional motion is the motion you wrote okay yeah the motion I actually took the motion from uh I initially wrote one and then I revised it to meet his uh suggested motion language it should be all set so move to approve the contract with Bureau happold Consulting Engineers PC for the network geothermal feasibility study as presented and authorized the chair to sign second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor Blake Gilmore I Tim hilchie I you have one more uh Christopher got two yeah a couple more here um so um next one on there would be the letter of support uh for uh the Elm Street um application that I referred to earlier for municipal Ada improvements um so again this this is just kind of part and parcel of that um complete streets program we talked about on Elm Street between Railroad and Main Street um you know this the Grant application for this particular program is due on Friday um beyond the select board I've also reached out to Jen rard at the senior center to make sure that we get a letter from them as well so she's she's going to provide that at two and I think it should give us a pretty strong application for this funding okay so we are on the you have any other questions from okay they ready to go on this the letter support you're going to have to sign this one too or I can do it uh moveed to approve a letter of support for the application to the mass office of disability Municipal Ada improvements grant program to fund Elm Street pedestrian improvements as presented second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor BL Yar I Tim Hil I right there's one more Yep yeah and the last item I'll be speaking to is um a letter of support for a variance that hamshaw Lumber is applying for um you know this has to do with the building they're looking to construct on Elm Street uh next to the ly lot project um there's the letter has some additional details uh that the board could review um but the the long and short of it is building they're looking to construct has not quite meet our setback requirements in that District uh hamshaw is hoping to be able to get a variance from the zoning board of appeals uh and you know given the town support for the project overall we thought it would be appropriate to go ahead and ask the select board to support that application for a variance so happy to pull up the uh you know any further details about it if the the board would like to know a little bit more but uh this is for a June 27th zoning F game that'll be coming up um I if you can share um just show us why this was necessary and um for the audience as well sure can everyone see my screen okay up here yes okay I can anyway so great so I'll I'll try to walk people through this a little bit uh so over on this side is Railroad Street um this this building with the kind of Dash lines around it is or the you know the angled lines around it is ham Shaw's existing building it's 16 Alm and then uh this is the parcels that show um you know the land swap between the town in hamshaw Lumber um so with that orientation let me zoom out here little this kind of shifts things a little bit so Elm Street is on this side and railroad was on this side here's their existing building and then here is the proposed building which is a little over 12,000 Square ft um I'll zoom in here um this is basically the L lot driveway or the proposed driveway and it enters onto Elm Street at this point um between uh the property line oh this is this is showing the old property line um Al so here's the property line This dash line here and you've got less than 10 ft essentially between the property line and the the edge of the building um in that District we re require a 10-ft setback um so hamsha is hoping to be able to you know get a variance um they do already have a special permit from from uh the zoning board of appeals and so this is kind of just trying to confirm you know hey is it all right if we also forward with this um you know given that we don't quite have the setback but it it doesn't seem to be posing any major issues that would warrant um revoking that special coment or anything like that so Christopher you you explained to me in the conversation about this that because um often times the concern in setbacks is fire safety because existing structures that are too close together can become involved um can you talk a little bit about the the the f I think it's 5 ft at the corner there and then the 25t width of the sidewalk and driveway and why that um seems like a reasonable um way to address that concern yeah so setbacks obviously are pretty common to a lot of town zoning bylaws um it's not always spelled out exactly why the setbacks exist um but often fire safety is a major or any kind of emergency access for that matter is a consideration um in this case you know I don't think it's a major concern because there's a a driveway you know right there it's not as if it's set back from a property line that then has a building um so there's adequate fire access whether or not they have the 10-ft setback um Additionally you know you have setbacks for reasons of not obscuring light or air flow for other neighbors again not not really a concern here because the neighbor is the town and it's a driveway so um I think you know it's pretty reasonable to be asking for a variance given that all the reasons you would have the setback aren't really present here and a lot of this is described in this letter of support so I just I wanted to tease out some of the thought process behind it before you know um and to give Blake a chance to read through it if he hadn't uh seen it earlier I had I had the opportunity to read this before the meeting but um so this is directed at the the chair of the zba Y I actually um I actually was at the zba when they approved it so I actually know what it's saw okay good so um if there aren't any other questions you want to make a motion move to approve the letter of support for the application of a variance under Mass General Law chapter 40 section 10 submitted by hamshaw Deerfield LLC as presented second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor blink marai Tim Hill CH all right Hardy appetite do you have it could Joe's iPhone please mute themselves thank you do the does the board have any further questions Blake nope I'm good uh I'm okay Casey you don't have anything for him do you okay tried to get together everything you needed thanks for all the coordination on that I appreciate it all right thanks Christopher thanks everyone thanks Christopher all right so we've done the SE commitment yep um you did the minute yep we did this Chris Chris could do the lry lot updates unless you want to go through no let's go ahead and do the lry lot um which is a lot of news tonight so go ahead Christopher Nolan sure thank you all very much um so to give an update on the lury lot I think I've sent the board a lot of emails but so that everyone else knows uh we have been in the process of working with Mas do to handle some of the last bit of paperwork that are needed before we can have a signed Grant agreement that we've been trying to get for mons with the Federal Highway Administration essentially um there were two uh pieces that needed to be approved uh in order to get this Federal Highway Administration Grant executed one of them is the right of way issue so we were operating under the assumption for a while that because we had no plans to uh have any work take place on property other than the ly lot that there were going to be no RightWay issues that's what we had been led to believe um and it turned out that because there was a proposal to uh saw cut along the property line on the western edge of the lot next to hamshaw um that Masta would not certify that we would not need any easements or anything of that nature uh because people's feet Machinery uh anything like that might need to cross over the property line in the process of constructing a lot if they're saw cutting along the property line um I tried to find a way around that by asking if we could just push the saw cut over by a foot but we're already we're already up against our 25 ft uh width of the exit so we moved on um had a lot of help from Christopher as well as from our Consultants at rivermore uh and from Jeff Squire at Berkshire Design Group uh it's it's really been a great team effort um and what we have gotten is a right of Entry agreement which was the course of action that was recommended by mot um so the board approved that thank you very much again at your meeting on Monday um we have since had it signed by hamshaw meaning it is fully executed uh and we are awaiting language from ma doot that the town will need in order to it's a slightly convoluted process because what happens next is the town needs language from Masta to be able to self-certify that the right of way issue is taken care of so that's one of the last steps the other last step that I mentioned in my ATA report as well is the uh State historic preservation officer so aside from the RightWay issue the other major uh pieces of approvals that were needed for getting this grant agreement out the door uh was under NEPA the National Environmental Protection Act uh so under NEPA uh the piece that has taken the longest is approval from the state historic preservation office uh that is underneath the Secretary of State's office or the secretary of the Commonwealth rather um and that was sent to them on May 20th for review now we know that there aren't any historic properties that are impacted by this by this project um we we have access to the database that they will use to make that determination and we' already confirmed so several times that it won't be an issue but nevertheless they have a 30-day review period and at this point they will be at that 30 Days by next week so they have been eager to to kind of use that full review period that they're allotted um but on the bright side at the very latest by next week we should have that determination back from them and as soon as that happens and as soon as we have the right of way issue certified which we will have the language to do after we get a response from M do uh we will be be prepared to have this fully executed by Federal Highway we've been assured of that by our agreement officer over at Federal Highway Administration uh so that's that there's there's obviously been a lot of moving Pieces Just to kind of navigate through the bureaucracy that's needed to to get this Federal grant going um I know it's it's been several months in the making and I appreciate everyone's patience um and I I I think we're going to start seeing the fruits of our our labor very soon uh because of exciting update that I have on the ly lot is that we opened bids today um and they they came in a little higher than we had budgeted for but still well within our contingency um we we intentionally had a had a very large cushion because we knew there was a chance of certain cost overruns um so the the low bid uh was a firm that's already uh been working with the town and Christopher can definitely talk about that I think he took off for the evening but if you want to touch BAS with him privately I'm sure he can give an update on some of the complete streets work that's been happening with Taylor Davis and they submitted the low bid so we're going to be moving forward conention upon a couple of reference checks uh with Taylor Davis lanscape and construction out of ammer um and that's exciting news as well because that was another major step that needed to happen before we can see boots on the ground at the L lot so I think that is the EXT ENT of my update for this week does anybody have any questions at all um I had a question for both you and Casey and and and that's just a matter of so um are we going to have a motion on a on approving or or will we do that after we get the clearances from I think we have to wait don't we Chris you guys need to meet with Taylor Davis we don't have a notice to Award right we do not um then yeah we we still have to to meet with Taylor us we're doing a scoping review meeting on Friday to to double check that everything is good um with their bid that everything is covered that needs to be um and then by the next meeting of the board which I unfortunately won't be at um but we we plan to have hopefully a contract in place to a Ward and that's also contingent on us having a Federal Highway Administration Grant uh agreement signed because we can't be awarding construction contracts until that's done but I'm I'm hell bench for lack of a better term on getting that taken care of before I leave so excellent so that's uh you mentioned that the 30 days runs out some mid midweek next week correct uh 30 days is actually the 19th okay good well thanks for all the hard work absolutely yeah I'm really eager to see it finally pay off I know sometimes it feels like we're doing all of this and there isn't much of a reward but it it it's it's on its way mhm yeah thanks Chris absolutely feels like Groundhog Day sometimes yes the movie not the actual day yeah I know what you mean all right um so the next thing the next thing is um is Chris's position yeah so first I guess we um we have the sad news for us but happy news for Chris that he's moving on to a new job um and that we uh have received a letter of uh resignation that your last day will be June 21st and um so I reluctantly mve to accept the resignation letter submitted by assistant Town Administrator Chris Nolan with deep regret and sincere thanks for his hard work and dedication to the town of Deerfield second all those in favor blink Gil Mor I Tim HGI and so m Mr chair may I say something please by all means I'm going to this is really hard because Chris has just been amazing um especially with all of his work on the the L lot but so many other things that he's contributed um to helping move things along here since he started I know if Trevor was here he would say it's going to be so difficult for him to be gone on so I just wanted to make sure I say it because I feel that way but also because I know Trevor would say it if he were here Chris thank you yeah I I appreciate everyone's everyone's wishes um yeah I've really I've really appreciated my my time serving the community here in deerfields uh I've taken a lot of lessons with me and I'll only be the Connecticut River away just right on the other side of it so um yeah always feel free to reach out and Chris has presented um updated an updated vacancy notice for the board to review um the suggestion is to put the vacancy out as soon as possible I'm pretty sure that Tim wanted to wanted that to happen once he found out that um Chris was leaving um I discussed the job description with Chris and with Tim and they have both indicated you know there were some things that could change but frankly to get the vacancy up and running um using the existing job description is probably the best way to do that um so I did write a motion for everybody to immediately post the vacancy notice for the assistant Town administrator's position I got that one yeah take yeah move to immediately post the vacancy notice for the assistant Town Administrator position and use the current job description second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor blink Gilmore I Tim Hil I now it's final Chris good luck thank you very much and again yeah I'll I won't be a stranger you're not that far away nope I will be right over the river in mon so yeah again thank you all and I I look forward to continuing my professional relationship with everyone so now what do we do so now Crystal we've talked about this um Chris is going to throw it up on some of the the key places we need it um we'll send it out he'll send it out through Stam which is the small town administrators group um we're going to put it up on the mass Municipal association website because that gets the most traffic for municipal positions especially since this is sort of it's a key position because it assists the Town Administrator but it also is key assisting with the select board as well and I think that's probably our best driver we're going to put it up on the website we'll put it up on the bulletin board out here in the front and I think Chris you were going to put it up on were you going to put it up on indeed as well I was so if if Chris thinks we need to put it up somewhere or if I think of something we'll coordinate that but we'll get it up tomorrow okay so it's ready great um so now in the the latter part of this um we have some some general appointments just for the police department tonight right um You probably know most of these people BL mhm and uh do we do we need to read through all of them so normally Trevor does but I've it the appointments list is pretty strong I mean long and Y Chris included this in the packet so it's available for people if they would like to read through it but frankly I think you could consider making a motion that reflects basically the information provided in the memo dated June 3rd 2024 you comfortable with that BL yes okay so I wrote you a shorter motion than one that really included reading it into the record good move to approve the police department appointments sent in a memo dated June 3rd 2024 by Chief pachur as presented second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I excent all right so I will let John know um you can expect motion you can expect um sorry I was looking at the word motions um you can expect schems to come before you next on the next agenda um I asked I don't know if Blake heard me but I asked Josh to make a couple of adjustments in how he presented the appointments list that he has so he's going to do that and we'll get it to you as soon as we get it um I'll make sure it's on the next agenda and then I did provide the board members with an updated list and Pat's been updating this of annual appointments for you to review as we cons continue to get appointment applications for for people will let you know um and we're we've compiled many of them into documents that are electronically available I know Chris earlier this week sent out several I sent out one we received several more so what may be worthwhile for us to do is wait until next Friday to compile another set of documents for you all to look at because thanks to Chris we have an application for everybody to use and people are using it and sending things in I received two today so it's a lot to compile um and Since I'm receiving so many I think I want to give us a little bit of time to capture as much information as we can okay yeah no that's great and um if you feel that the board would benefit from asking individual applicants if they could provide any additional information I don't know that that's standard or it isn't normally standard but we don't usually get as quite the flurry of applications there's several applications for both alternate and um Regular zba okay membership um I think maybe between now and the next meeting if the board wanted and we have sent you several zba ones if the board wanted to consider some sort of a a short conversation with applicants that is something that could happen the board's done it before particularly with the planning board a few years ago when we had several applicants for to fill a planning board spot for a certain period of time Blake there was a point where we had a couple resignations and we had to fill spots so until that next election the board received several requests for appointment and then conducted what amounts to a short interview discussion process um with with those interested candidates so if the board wanted to do that maybe you guys could think about that between now and um the 24th and we could put it on the agenda so that there's some framework for that okay so we just notify you if we want to do that if you want to do that notify me individually yep okay um individually and then you'll see if we receive any other applications for other positions or for other appointments will include those for you it's probably going to be a lot of papers so I just want to warn you yep um we don't have any do we have any permits in review for we do not okay that I'm aware of and I don't think we have any updates on Town campus buildings um you guys conducted your process on Monday night to review the architect submissions and I know Chris Christopher isn't here but I know Christopher is working on that he and I talked about it earlier today because there's some information that's been requested for from the the EDM St The Firm EDM studio so he's working through that I'm trying to help him with it um but I got to think about it for a few minutes sometimes when he asks me something um so we're we're B down to mail we're we're about down to mail and the administration report so there are a few things in the mail that you might want to take a look at yep one of them is the signage notification we received from dot I have not sent that to Kevin but maybe it's worthwhile to send it to him because they basically are notifying us that we have a few signs that are deteriorating that we should replace MH so that's the on the mail list that's the the third or fourth item I believe South Deerfield Village Center tourist oriented directional sign replacement yep okay so your your your thought is to let's send it to Kevin and see if he can start setting up a process to replace it they the dimensional signs have specific requirements my thought in sending it to Kevin is to figure out who the vendor is he would use to do this because we know Kevin's going to be gone soon right um so that was my thought and unfortunately has the vendor pardon I think dot has the vendor because they're the ones that we put restri on they may do that and the rest of it so yeah so if he can give me some pointers on the contact information that would be helpful so that we can alleviate some stress in that sense because I don't know what they're going to say or I don't know exactly how to order it either so um before we we've we've had some conversation with the horse complaints earlier but uh and we'll acknowledge these letters but what about the um fire consumer confidence report that's a that's a routine report um similar to other types of report we get reports we get it has to be filed a certain way so they give us a copy of it and so this is basically notifying us that we yeah it's information and you take the necessary action if there is any I can yeah so we will need to consider this and then ask you to do something you could all right you could do that tonight I think it's a mail item I think if you want to consider doing something maybe we throw it on and you I I don't you know me I tend to try to keep things clear-cut so people yep can see the other thing is is you could have um Kevin and I confer about it because right if there is an action um there are times that Kevin does execute some of the responses to these y because it's it's within sort of the parameters of or the four corners of what we expect him to do as a superintendent if he confers with me and I I could then take that action if it's necessary yeah well why don't um why don't you I mean if Blake agrees why don't you and he confer and then bring any recommendation to us if we need to do something we can bring it back to you okay all right let me write myself a note so um Mr so these are all the the readings that they took from the water itself to you know to make sure that it was yep okay and uh This was done by Stanley y winsky I guess this is the the Deerfield fire district which is largely around old Deerfield right but there their Wells are out on Still Water up in that area there MH and and we also I think we received an a letter in the mail I I'm in this District so I think we received a letter in the mail about the findings which when I read it it seemed to a lame and okay but always better to let Kevin Scaro weigh in on it yep and then we have um we heard from Mr Johnson and we did um we didn't hear from Mr mono but we have a letter from him about the horse and then I guess Matthew spoke at the end um Matthew Trel yes um well they're they're the two that are affected where exactly where Mr mono is a little further or field it's across the road I believe it's across the road so and as we told them we're going to we're going to share this information and their their wishes with the lawyer um Casey will and and then I have a note to do that advise us what if anything we can do short of I mean obviously they're right if if you're going to do anything that involves disinterment you want to do that as quickly as possible you have to CU especially when it starts to heat up it's going to get worse but I now that I understand their concerns better it's you know D doesn't want to give us a Written Letter um which leads me to believe that you know well I don't know I won't say anything they just don't want to tell us right they told us you know in words that they don't think we should dig it up but uh you know um our lawyer tell us what we should do because there are legitimate concerns especially with young children next door the water in that area is so so uh persistent and so so high yes um all right um what's the next thing oh can you talk about this liability which one is it is that the the summary of liability under chapter 21e so May June 6 letter or is that just a not I think it's this I think somewhere I was in the middle of writing something I don't have a full copy of it all does this go with the William does this go with the does this go with the D letter yeah I said that's what I'm thinking is it goes with the d letter so they send us these letters um as notification that something happened so in this case it was um diesel fuel release oh right they let us know and so this is a the 21e I recognize that reference the 21e usually means you have to do some remediation to the site um and this happened on 5 and 10 actually so they're notifying us yeah we're always the CC on these we see we see quite a few of them um we've had releases in various areas of town um and this being on a state highway is that they're taking care of it they have to so D notifies the person that was alleged to have caused the release and then they notify us and then they'll as as things progress we will get additional notifications particularly if there's is issues mhm with um how the release is handled it's very prescribed so 21 years are very prescribed my reference background in terms of 21 years is how we had to deal with the old highway garage it required excavation removal of any contaminated material disposal of that material um and it usually requires an engineer to in our case it required an engineer to sort of shepher us through Pro through the process but D will keep us up to date if there's issues with that fix fixing in air quotes that release all right and then there's this telecommunications letter um that is the Telecommunications letter related to Comcast correct so Trevor and I talked about this because I and I was waiting to talk to him because I remembered when I first came back in 2020 he sort of gave me some background on the Comcast renewal that had happened after I left in 2016 so we're up against the Comcast renewal again and when he and I talked about it the other day um we're both going to do a little bit of background checking because I've never actually done a Comcast renewal the previous Town administrators had handled it because they're usually 10year agreements ours is up December of 2026 but there's a renewal negotiation period And there's two different paths you can take you can take the formalized process with which takes quite a while um or you can take a streamline process which is direct negotiation with Comcast itself generally this is done using what is called the cable advisory committee um so the first when I saw that the first question I had was do we have an active cable advisory committee and it seems like we may not because again this comes up every 10 years people may not be aware of it um so I think in light of the fact that we need to do a little bit of research on that it may be useful if we consider doing the streamlined approach but Trevor's question to me was what's that entail and is there any other way we can broaden you know what's offered we don't think so I think once you have a cable provider there's really really very little maneuverability there you another provider right because for some and I don't remember all the details so this is what I said to him I said look let me do a little bit of research and then I'll come back with more information but frankly it's probably useful if we figure out about the cable advisory committee and then research the process a bit more which is what I would like to do m yeah I think that's we definitely need to know more we need to get on it but we need some more information before you guys can make a better decision because it's going to be your decision how you how you move forward well I the other thing I'd like to find out about this is that you know you you do have advertisements out there other cable companies saying that they can come into town so we're finding out is they can't come into town well that's what I want to know and that's what Trevor and I both and I I think there might people in town that have some some background in there that we could put on maybe an ad hoc committee well there is a cable advisory committee and if it's not active you can appoint to it I would think right um if there are people interested have them send an application in because this is one of those things that we really could use some expertise on now I do have a friend that used to do this professionally um he worked in a cable access television group so he has some background but he and I haven't we're playing phone Tex right now so I wanted to ask him some of these questions too because anecdotally he's going to have some information I may not be aware of and it you know I don't know if Lisa has any knowledge about this either I she may and if I get a chance I'll ask her okay because that that's also one of the Avenues I thought so we'll we'll revisit this but from yeah we're going to have to revisit it okay and um I think that's all and then inward to to your report so I my first question I have a few things I want to give you guys in terms of background um there's a couple of things that have been hanging around that I know people are concerned about one of them is the landfill solar project so next amp has been a little slow to turnaround requests for information from our consultant Beth greenblat our consultant helped just for background Blake our consultant is part of the beacon in um Integrated Solutions I think she specializes in solar in Massachusetts and she helped Our Town Council and the town and the select board complete a request for proposal process to obtain a company to put solar on the landfill um years ago this has been years in process things like covid and contract negotiations really took a toll on on timing so then we had they had a slow a Slowdown the company that awarded that was awarded the contract NEX amp they had a slow down in the interconnection study and then the actual uh contract process for that so that took a long long time we we recently received in information from them that Beth could then evaluate through the lens of what's allowed and what's not allowed based on not only our RFP process but where the interconnection study indicates nexamp should fall within there there's a whole structure they call them tranches there's a whole structure that they would fall with on within based on the study itself so she finally received some information and she and I had a meeting with them this week and they provided they they sort of asked us some questions and provided a back and forth and basically what I told them I would do and this was after some discussion I told them that I would forward the information that they were going to respond to Beth with and then set a meeting up with Council because we need Beth and Council to sort of outline a path that then you guys can talk about in executive session because it has to do with contract negotiation not only for the pilot agreement but for the lease agreement for the land itself they both both those things are connected they balance each other out so if one's low the other one's higher and vice versa so there's more information you're going to need and you're going to need a little more background from Beth so I'm happy to to be the conduit for that um so that was the first thing I know that that there's going to be a change with the half marit route based on some communication from Adam because the dry bridge is closed so he's working on that and I think he sent me an email today but I haven't read it um yeah I think he he suggested an alternate yeah I think he suggested an alternate route and I know he's in um communication with Allison masley over at treehouse so that's going on I will let you know that we and I think I've sent some some emails but we've received at least two complaints about concerts at treeh house so we're going to have to address that and Allison's aware of them I shared them with her I have not had a chance to meet with Allison yet but I'm thinking that might be a good idea because the complaints really their noise complaints the noise carries in weird PL weird ways in the valley we know that so I want to hear what she has to say but there may be recommendations to at least get decel measurements I don't think we actually have that equipment it's fairly expensive equipment the last time we were measuring decb for anything remotely like this it was probably 10 or 15 years ago and I think we borrowed the equipment if what dick reminded me is true so to the extent that we can measure noise it's not an easy thing to do and we don't have the equipment that I'm aware of so that may be in the offing for you guys but I did want to you know publicly note for people that we had received some some complaints and I think that these might be complaints from people didn't claim they've changed the direction slightly they have and trying to direct it more towards the highway and and so maybe in changing it they they created a a problem that wasn't there before but you're right we have to actually know you know if if the decb are above what they're allowed to do um both on the site and if if they're you know distances away um I know my next door neighbor plays rock and roll music you know he's a young guy 14 or so it's really good um and I hear it but you know it's it's not as it's not the same as a as a public concert so right with with speakers that go to the almost to the roof right exactly yeah it's it's a different thing they have made some changes to how the stage was arranged that was the reason that I made sure that Allison knew about the complaints um I am very sure that at least one probably both of the people that I recall their names right now um we'll we'll probably want to talk about this so I thought I should get ahead of it at least by bringing it up with you and letting you know that I I'm trying to do at least a little bit of background so that you guys have a place to start keep in mind not only the the sound of it but the when you have a deep base like that the vibration of it too yeah and that's that's a lot of times people Mis interpret the sound for the fact that things are just vibrating because of those speakers are just throwing out sound waves that are vibrating through can vibrate for Miles yeah different herts levels create different kinds of problems for people some don't like the high notes and other people don't like the base notes as you said you guys know more than than I do that's a good thing um I cannot be an expert at many things um all right so but thank you for I just wanted you to know I mean I know I send you guys a lot of emails but there are times I think people think I don't tell you things and that's not the case I'm sending a bunch of email out compl yeah I know people don't want to see emails for me but it's usually because I want you to be aware of something so we also have a recommendation from the building commissioner on the permit fees this was saved in our M meeting materials files but I forgot to ask you if we could include it so I talked to um Amy this afternoon and we're going to put it on for the 26th okay so he wrote a memo up um there's a couple of other things that are just hanging around the police HVAC system I know if you're driving around that's the office you've seen the trucks they're putting that system in it's it should be done by the end of the month um and there's various things going on they need connections to different things so we're just trying to work with them make sure that happens The Still Water Bridge repairs we H still have some work to do on the article 97 and I think one of the things that I received was followup requests from open space and wreck and the reason they tie in is article 97 is something we're going to have to deal with in terms of the bridge repairs but also the goals that open space wants to achieve by putting more land in conservation and there's a parcel that's nearby that's near Still Still Water that might be useful so I've asked Council to give me some assistance and then thereby give the open space committee some assistance on this so that's out there for her to deal with as well okay um how so after we met I've been thinking after we met yesterday um and I had a conversation this morning with our soon to be retired Public Works superintendent how does the board want to proceed do you want to have a separate meeting and really hammer out a process to move ahead with evaluating divisions the divisions and yet we still need staff to run things like we need an operational plan here do you guys want to sit down and have a separate meeting to do that when Trevor's around we also talking about the DPW right we were also talking about interviewing Chris too right right I mean I I did I didn't use the same question so it would still be useful I did meet with them personally over at the DPW and walked around and just acquainted myself with stuff but my concern is one is that you know we've talked Mr berser on that was good interview um he needs to know something by a certain date but we can't have a process between now and then so it's going to be difficult we're going to have to find if that's a route we want to pursue we're going to have to lean on Casey to tell us how we do that um and you know right because with with Chris Miller if we wanted to him to be the he's he's acted as the interim chief on a number of occasions for health emergency gencies and for you know um other reasons and he's already employee so we could do something like we did with um South County EMS where an internal person became the interim chief for a period of time while we went through a process I'm not sure and I want to get some legal advice about and Casey's advice about how we do that if we go outside and we haven't gone through a process process because I don't feel comfortable and I know you probably don't either no um so we need to sort this out so I was thinking if we wanted to have a special meeting um you guys I can text Trevor and see if he could do a meeting or email him tomorrow yeah um but if you wanted to have a meeting just to focus on that topic I can tell you what we've done in the past um in terms of continuity of service it might be most expeditious to because we've done this in the past when we've had departments where we needed to have that continuity so we created a pathway where there was a temporary pay adjustment to allow for a person um to take on some of those duties and and receive appropriate compensation to take that on um it may be that it would be useful for us to hire a temporary laborer to add to the team since we're already down a person yep um there's there's I've had conversations with other staff people about sort of the administrative pieces versus the operational pieces I think if we could come to some sort of consensus relatively soon it would be easier and I think everybody would feel a little more secure but I do think there's going to have to be and so Blake has not experienced this but there was a period of time where we had a severe Staffing s shortage in the financial department and what we had to do was make adjustments with other departments to spread some of that stuff out so that we so the critical work done I'm very aware how that works yeah I bet you are we did it but we did it sort of on the much smaller scale scale than I think you might have experienced you've had a bigger job than me so we did the best we could and we tried to mitigate circumstances it may be that we're in a similar situation okay I mean I I think it would be useful to have a you know a four o'clock meeting and you know but Travers um with Stevie Nicks tonight so I don't really want to bother him but um but tomorrow okay we'll let that so we have to post for it the earliest we could post is Monday afternoon yeah cuz we've got the H um Personnel Board has a meeting at 6 o' too so I have to go to Personnel because that's one of my assignments um so the earliest we could do is Monday do you want to try to do it Monday or Tuesday can we shift it for Tuesday yeah if you want to because I'll be in Boston M okay I just don't know what time I'm going to be back Monday yeah take care of that um I will see if we can do Tuesday at 4 yeah do you want to do in person yeah I think that would be best I'm assuming Trevor can I will check with him if he can't then I'll see what we can do sorry to interrupt I don't know if this changes anybody's mind but the finance committee is meeting at 4:00 on Tuesday the 18th there's this remote but I don't know if anybody was interested in going to that uh if not then they could both happen simultaneously I just wanted to make sure people were aware usually I go um I mean I'm I'm available at 3 I don't know about Trevor I don't know about BL want to do um I can see if Trevor's available I'll make sure I'm available 3:00 all right I'll do it at 3 y okay thanks and I will talk to him about whether he can be here um that's most of what I have there was a couple of other little details but most of it you've seen in emails so okay well it's pretty comprehensive oh I had one question for you in terms of the agenda next for the 26th are you going to put arpa on there um I'm I'm hopeful okay I I don't I don't know I mean it's it's uh I got to see what Brenda says she says she's going to have the information I need but okay um so Blake had asked if we could add something to the agenda and I had sent the information out it was a questionnaire to the chairs of committees um so I just want to if if that can go on the agenda as well okay y all right um did I forget anything B you had asked me a couple of things no I took some of them off um we'll look at them a little bit further down the room and I I do have a couple that I may want to talk to you about before yeah anyways see if we can put them on so absolutely okay I think we're still working on some public records requests and and one of them is related to uh 85 North Main Street and it's really it pertains to the environmental study they're doing on that property senior it's a senior housing thing um we can't find those records so I'm going to reply back and let them know I've already done my best to answer their survey questions so they're going to continue to finish this environmental piece of it because I guess it's part of developing the RFP right and I have not heard from Lely about the RFP but she'll let me know if she needs anything from me you do have two requests you have land and they're actually land related I sent an email about one of them but I wanted to outline really quickly the other one so we there I mentioned the parcel that open space committee is interested in right and I have some of that information I will send it out to you but there's also a there's a request for consideration to sell a piece of property along Conway Road it's map 149 lot 18.1 um there's some background on that property that involves Board of Health so I'm going to speak to the Board of Health agent I did send an email about it but I want to speak to him hopefully he'll be in tomorrow I can talk to him about it and then I was advised this afternoon that someone a potential buyer for a property along pamuk Drive is interested in having the town build out the road beyond the culde saac and I can give you a piece of paper I was trying to make a copy and then I had to fix something before the meeting so I didn't have it printed but the parcel the town owns the parcel beyond the culdesac so at the end of pom truck drive there's a culde sack and it sort of stops but there's property Beyond there that the town owns and at some point in time I think the intent was to extend the road but there seems to be some resistance or may have been some resistance to that because the road end Com trck Drive ends in a culde saac you can see on a to on the one of the maps in the system the gis system you can see that there's a basically a trail that goes all the way down to River Road so somebody who's interested in buying a piece of property beyond the culdesac wants the town to build the road and I wanted you to be aware of it because it was brought to my attention frankly it's a pretty complicated thing it would cost lots of money and that area is not maintained so I wanted to give you just how would it affect the neighbors up there it it would be a significant process because the neighborhood would probably you know I I know that that area is interested in maintaining its quiet Solitude I've had I've actually had residents out there tell me that um but you should know it's out there yeah and I I also think that there's some Conservation Commission questions about I I've had discussions about that that's I know that Pete law lives out there so he might be a resource about understanding the impact the the the the types of land that's out there um yeah plus it's an expensive Endeavor that have to fund um and I'm not sure that's in with within our ability to pay for at this point yeah I'm just based on the last budget season I'd certainly want to hear from somebody that knows the law whether somebody can just say hey I want you to build a road so I can build a house somewhere I mean that seems a little extreme to me that thought did cross my mind so so that's for informational purposes the other part of it is you're saying that you think we have a par of land up there I know we own it I did look it up we do own the parcel beyond the culdesac but it stops and I can show you what that looks like ke I printed it Kevin showed me how to find it but for informational purposes at least you know that the questions out there and yes I think we would have to get some advice from legal council about it that's all I have all right Chris what do you have I got nothing all right um well in that case I'll entertain a motion to adjourn I move that we adjourn second all those in favor Blake gilar Tim Hill all right thank you