good evening and welcome to the select board Board of Health sewer Commissioners meeting of the town of Deerfield for July 10 this meeting will be held in 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 techn 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 for in-person versus virtual attendance accordingly the meeting will be held in person in the main meeting room of Deerfield municipal offices in accordance with Mass General Law chapter 3A anyone intending to record the meeting must identify themselves to the clerk Blake Gilmore and provide their name and address for the record so call the meeting to order at 605 um at this moment we'll have um public comment from individuals who want to make some comment for up to 2 minutes and we will be sticking to the 2 minutes so if you have something you'd like to say please be recognized come up and sit at the uh table here and speak into the mic and identify yourselves I'm Charn ginsky we live at 342 River Road in South Deerfield and I'm Arlene tney her twin sister also resident at 342 River Road and um we're here to um thank people who recently helped us out in a very very very unfortunate situation um for those who don't know our home at 3:42 River Road on June 29th was hit by a driver and uh the driver's car ended up Catching Fire which then caught our home on fire and our home is now condemned um it's very sad for us because this home has been in the family for three generations and we're just hoping we're hoping that we can save part of it but we're here to thank the people who really we can't say enough about Dearfield Personnel who happen to have to unfortunately be at the site and the first person we wanted to thank is um Mark Wilkins he was the first police officer when we got there he actually uh was the one that called called in the fire because initially the report was not a fire it was something else and he uh because of his quick action the fire department was there very quickly and was able to save part of the house so we can't thank him enough for that he was instrumental he also calmed us down which was signif a significant um situation to do yeah uh the second person we'd like to thank is um uh officer Tim capuano he was was on site after Mark uh Wilkins and he actually made the arrest of the man and uh followed through we never saw him at all when we were there but he was instrumental in uh creating a incredible incredible police report with specificity with data uh it it I I I'll say this in a joking way because we're trying to find some humor in this but a lot of us had Tim as a student at Deerfield Elementary and I was so proud when I saw his writing I I jokingly said to him A++ cuz he really did a great job yeah and he also um called us during the week to see how we were doing as a family so again the the support has been phenomenal and then lastly is Sergeant Adam sakasi he came uh to the scene and he was helpful in so many ways in particular he told us what we need to do for the insurance company and what we need to needed to do to secure the house so vandalism wouldn't happen um we would have never thought of any of this and when you're distraught if any of you have ever been in that situation you just don't think clearly so he was helping calm us down and also make us understand what really we had to do right away and uh my daughter was with us so I thank her too for helping to calm me down especially but these people were wonderful and they did their job and they did it Beyond uh what I would consider the norm and then the last group we wanted to thank was the uh fire department and chief suy uh they were there so quickly and so were we don't know if it was four or five other departments but um Chief suy those people are trained and there was a point at which the fire was intensely uh in the back of the house we've totally lost that but they knew that the fire was spreading toward the other room so he he sent an officer in through the front door and they took the water and pushed the Flames back which actually saved water damage in um a lot of the other rooms the smoke and heat damage is every room in that and that's a big house every room in that house was affected so now we have the luxury of dealing with you know all the insurance things and everything else that goes with it but our hearts go out to all these people who were in our minds Heroes uh for the the day and even though that fire only took 20 to 25 minutes to extinguish I guess we were shocked as was everybody else at how much damage it could do and we have a dear friend who retired recently as the fire chief in the city of Boston and we he knows about the the situation and he was so impressed by a small rural Town's fire department doing the job that they did and so um what we've done is just because we feel when people go above and beyond the Call of Duty and these all these people did we've written letters of accommodation and we'd like them to be put in their personnel files because they really and and have them shared with them because we we can't we can't say thank you enough because it it was very important to save that house for sure thank you thank you so much for sharing and I want to thank the community we have had over a 100 correspondences from people in the community whether it's offering US housing bringing us food bringing us support giving us advice the outpouring has been tremendous and again Charlene and I cry every day cuz that house mean it's not a house it's a homestead our dad was born there we waked him there our mother died there we've had weddings every single every single holiday was spent at that farm and it can't be at least for a year we were told today so I Echo Charlene's comments about all the efforts that this community did to save that house and to help us and are still helping us and in particular um I want to thank Blake Gilmore Blake was on the scene twice you can you helped us lug out valuables in the house you personally kept us from losing it you helped us understand the whole police process you truly showed leadership for us and helping us in the community helping us in the community you also said you were going to contact UM the DPW and I know there's been discussions with Charlene's husband my brother-in-law about putting some large Boulders at the end of that corner so that um another car can't do the same thing and Trevor thank you too your words when we were coming in here really meant a lot to us absolutely you know there's not much you can do when you have a catastrophe like this and the trauma that it's done to us and any kind of support that we've gotten has been a tremendous impact and you know it keeps you getting up every day because every time we go in that house it's heartbreaking it's absolutely heartbreaking and you know there's so many places we see our mom and dad we see our grandparents right and we don't see them anymore because it's burnt to a crisp so I I want to thank you I want to thank you for your leadership Lake I it really it meant a lot when you came over there and started lugging stuff out of I mean the smell in that house we went in there we had to stop because we were the toxicity you know you didn't hesitate at all you went right in there started helping us pull out the valuables and put them in um a safe place and you didn't have to do that you didn't have to do that you're welcome that reminds us we really want to thank you and and thank you to the community of shefield it reminds us how luckily we are to live in a community with volunteers and um good good people of all will trying to come and and help you out in a horrible situation it was phenomenal phen there's no other word to describe it very proud of absolutely absolutely we're very grateful you did that too and thanks for sharing this with us it's important to share so best of luck to you all right um any folks elsewise um Mr Davis thank you very much sure David John Johnson I'm sorry that's okay John many people today about this horse David Johnson 112 North Main Street um here in town um I want to talk about a couple of things regarding the U deceased horse that was buried immediate to my property U first off I I did receive your email thank you very much um and in your email you indicated that the the select board had had gone and met with Miss price at her property and was everyone present not everyone no I went there I believe that uh both of the health agents went or I could be just just dick kesesi I don't know U independently said he went there I went with you when I was there with you yes that's right okay so that was my question um also too I I sent an email he probably received it with my concerns regarding what was going on um and um I because you have that in your possession I'm not going to reiterate that um what I do want to talk about ever so briefly is um in your update um you said the UMass Agricultural Extension Service has been contacted and M price apparently closely followed the guidelines developed by the extension service um that's inaccurate and the reason it's inaccurate because the extension service says um that which is why I recommended you talk to the excavator um the plus it's a it's a residential neighborhood it's not a farm um that the barriel must take place must occur no no less than 6 ft deep with 30 in of soil cover only excavator would know that it has to be well- drained soils at least 2 feet above the groundwater elevation um the water table is very high there so the excavator would have to like address that and determine whether or not um water was found on the property more importantly than that um it says that the burial site again the same Source you provided me with has to be 50 ft from the adjacent property line at best it is 10 ft from my property line not 10 50 uh It also says that the burial site for a horse has to be 500 ft from a residence it's 97 ft from the back of my house and it's 9 94 ft from my grape and black raspberry bushes so it's not it's not compliant there at all it it also says again the Agricultural Extension Service says that you cannot bury a horse uh in Wetland or a flood plane that's a flood plane it's a zoned flood plane I had to get flood insurance in order to get a mortgage on my house so while miss price may be compliant with a few things recommended by the extension service um there's there's a gross ill atten to all of the things that need to be addressed um in order for this to be accurate and for lack of a better word appropriate legal um so I wanted to bring those things to your attention um because this is not going to go away I I I know it's taking time to to correct this uh and I I believe that you're working on it but um I'm looking to you to do your due diligence because no matter how long it takes to address this it is not simply going to go away it's not like that horse is not going to be buried 10 ft my from my property 97 ft from my house The Biohazard that it presents the the fact that no one is has come and asked to do to do soil testing my property to make sure it's safe for me to live there um as I said to you the first time we met I don't know if it's going to affect um the value of my property uh given the water table I don't know if water seeping through the ground from this biohazard is is going to be an issue in my business basement so I I I guess I want to say to you um there's a lot that needs to be done and uh however long it takes um something has to be done because um it is just not okay to have someone have a horse in a thickly residential neighborhood and then bury it where they think they want to bury it um with disregard for the rest of the people in the neighborhood I mean if you look at the houses to the north south east and west not one of our houses is is 500 ft from that barrial site nor is Miss Price's house 500 ft from that barrial site at best maybe 25 ft so I mean there's a lot of irregularities here and things that need to be addressed and taken care of so I just wanted to let you know that um I'm I'm still very concerned and I'm I'm looking to you to do do due diligence on this because it's not going to go away thank you thank you very much um anyone else with a two-minute comment anyone online with a two-minute comment an's got one ah yes anal wolf cool for Mountain Road in South Deerfield and I understand you're doing appointments tonight so I just want to speak very briefly um in support of uh four different candidates first of all I know David Potter is up for renewal on the zba and and I think he's been a very um thoughtful and thoughtful member with um very good comments and very measured approach to the issues before the zba so I I I really appreciate that and hope that he will be renewed um in terms of uh also for the zba um I'm supportive of um Mark Brennan Tia and Dan um Mark Brandon at for full membership um Mark has been very um a very interesting uh member on many committees in Deerfield and I've especially appreciated that he he often has um will come to a a meeting with um as we all often do certain ideas um but then he's very open to other opinions and often will change his um initially stated opinion and I think that this is um especially important in something as um measured as the the zba and can I ask you to speed up I I I was conscious of letting the other people speak because they had specific issues and particularly the ginsky family but no I mean just two minutes we're going to we need to let other people have two minutes okay um Tia as a new Resident I mean my gosh how wonderful to have a new Resident who also has management experience and um Dan who has a lot of private and public um experience in uh conservation commissions and planning boards and I think um all four of these would be excellent appointments or reappointments to the CBA thank you thank you thank you did I see another hand we got we got started late so I'm going to let this go another five minutes I I won't be over two minutes um hi my name is Juliet Low and I would just um I appreciate you all being here I would like to speak on behalf of Buddy the horse and Martha price because this has been an emotional toll on a lot of us and I really appreciate your due diligence working with this but that was a really can you speak a little closer to the mic yeah thank you that was a really um important horse and um Martha has gone through all of the correct steps to deal with it and you can't see the horse you can't smell the horse you can't hear the horse um and so I would just encourage all of us to be kind and courteous when thinking about how um I don't know hurtful comments can be to a person and how if the board is taking care of it and if the board believes that um the horse has been taken care of in the correct manner which I think it has been then maybe we should allow these matters to go to rest and not continue um beating a dead horse thank you all right thank you for your comments thank you for your comment anyone else uh looking to make a comment all right uh don't see any other hands or any people online who want to make a comment so um at this point we'll move on to um hearings uh actually we don't have any hearings but we do have an appearance from Christopher Dunn is Chris online he's not yet Chris not on yet okay okay well wait here he is just like that give him a minute I just saw the Adent oh you have to him yes yeah Christopher over to you how are you oh okay great good how's everyone doing very good great uh just got a couple project updates uh I guess we'll start with the senior center feasibility study um so as everyone recalls we uh selected EDM Studio as our preferred consultant for that project uh it's funded by a $75,000 Grant from uh DLS it's an efficiency in a regional regionalization Grant um and at this point uh you know we we had a little back and forth over their specific proposal and we're now ready to contract with them I have not uh received a signed contract from them just yet um so Casey I think what we're probably looking for tonight is just an authorization for the chair to sign um since they are it sounds like still work on okay thank you I'll um I would uh yeah I would um make a motion to approve um the contract between the town of Deerfield and EDM studio in the amount of 75,000 for the senior center feasibility study subject to final review and approval by Council um as presented and to allow the chair to sign um at their convenience once all review has been completed second uh any further discussion thank you for your work finalizing the contract and getting it ready to go I know we're on a tight timeline so appreciate that I think there's going to be they were looking at maybe doing some um some meetings at the end of the month at the end of July right we were looking at possibly getting together and having some public input and all I know you're still working on a schedule but yeah yep just preliminarily we are looking at doing some workshops uh the week of July 29th I believe yeah great so it really encourage public you know participation just please get involved it's really important that we get as much uh feedback on you know what's needed for for our seniors uh going forward this would be a long-term project so really important people come out and tell us what they what they need great so if there's no other discussion all those in favor Trevor MC Daniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim h i so what's next Christopher uh so the L lot uh so we have um a contract with Taylor Davis landscape and construction uh they were the low bid for the site civil construction at the site um and at this point um we're ready to to move forward with a contract with them as the grant with fhwa is finally fully executed um I'll make a motion and then we can discuss so um I'll move to uh approve the contract between the town of Deerfield and Taylor Davis landscaping and Construction in the amount 1,177 764 for the construction of the Larry lot Municipal parking lot subject to final review and approval by Council and allow the is it the chair signing uh no wait no no all three of you all three will sign okay so and then we'll sign at our convenience I think it's there I'll second is there you you had some discussion Trevor I I think Trevor would like us to be reassured about the funding sources I think I sent you a text about this and I know we've reviewed them about 15 times but you know the budget keeps changing so right if you would be right I I just wanted to make sure you know I I it's a big project it's focal point right in the center of town and um we're using arpa funing uh which is great and we got a giant Grant uh from the federal government which is also great um so we're not providing any taxpayer money resident taxpayer money of course it's taxpayer money and other ways but um but just there's been a lot of work going in we're going to have some level three charging level two charging there it's a fantastic project I just wanted to nail down and make sure and I think I've since I've started you before the meeting I I spent about an hour just kind of going through the different things um of the meeting and this was one of them and I feel like we're good with the funding Pockets that we have set aside we have arpa we have um MVP Grant and then we have the the Federal Grant and and uh of course there's always some match but um but I feel pretty good I think we're so we also have a contingency of around 10% um set aside to cover any other anything that comes in more than we thought uh we were hoping for some Grant from ever Source but that didn't come to FL fruition but we do have again arpa money to cover that as we expected we would so I I I do feel comfortable I don't know if there's anything you want to add or you feel feel like we're in good shape for the funding yeah no I I think we're in good shape uh given you know the arpa the MVP um and and you know the the inine match as well for staff time um and then I would just add that I believe um you know we're still in the process of nailing down uh the equipment side of things um but it looks like the Chargers are also going to come in lower than expected good um so that's that's another positive in terms of the budget but yeah we have the funds are at hand with that fhwa Grant we're in a good position to move forward okay and the final piece of um that we were waiting for from the mass historical commission came through so that the federal government is now okay with the the project moving forward and we're ready to actually break ground as soon as we finalize the contracts with Taylor Davis is that correct all I can say is that fhwa reached out and said we've countersigned and here you go great so great so uh it seems like MHC just allowed that 30 days to expire and then we're moving forward good that's good anything Blake no all right if there's no further discussion uh uh all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim hilchie I excellent all right um is there anything else from you uh Christopher just wanted to see if the the board had any questions on the any of the ongoing public works or public building projects whether it's Town campus or the shared streets or sidewalks happy to to give an update on any of those if there's interest well excited to see the sidewalks going in and I guess my only question I assume this is the case that they'll come in and fill in um they'll grade on either side of the sidewalks once they're finished I assume cuz some of the sidewalks are then higher than what they used to be and you know with all the construction work it looks like they'll probably loan on either side or where they need to to to to finish it out assume that's part of it right good yeah but one of one of the budget items is loan to to do that exact rating y yep great and they're in the process of putting in a base coat and then going over it with the Finish coat uh and they've started up at the North End of North Main Street and heading south so do we have an expected completion date for the actual sidewalk portion of it uh I I don't have an ex exact date just yet um Chris Miller and I have been you know going back and forth about different elements of the pro project um but it'll certainly be ready before school's back in session I'll say that did you have something BL yeah Chris are they um ripping up anything more than the sidewalk as they come into the center of town where that side area off the street itself is all black topped in there are they making a cut so that it's just the sidewalk itself yeah so they're they're not going to come all the way into the center of town there so the project is going from Jackson Road South and and stopping at Pleasant Street um so the the center of town there which obviously is a concern the way the you know it's black top next to the sidewalk um that's going to have to be a separate uh project yeah I went by there today and I was they were on the other side of the uh bloody Brook Memorial and uh it looked like they were ripping up a little bit more than what the sidewalk was I was just questioning so before they even got to bant street so I don't know if they were just trying to even it off or what they were doing in there so I just drove by it so I just didn't know yeah I can take a look and happy to reach out to Chris Miller and see if he knows what the story is there okay nothing else um I think the final thing we may have is any we we've been negotiating with the architect for 1888 building do you want to discuss that or do you want me to talk about it later no I'm I'm happy to mention it um so as everyone recalls we had C riddle as our preferred architect on the 1888 building project um and we've just been in contract negotiations with them and we're now pretty close to the finish line so Tim I think it's safe to say by next week we'll probably have a contract for this body to sign um and that will be for not just this initial sort of study um but also you know full design through construction Administration it's my understanding yep and that would be contingent of course on voter approval of the project this special town meeting in the fall okay thank you anything else great thank you have a great night all thanks yeah you as well thanks Christopher night so does anyone have any they'd like to discuss selectboard wise um um yeah I was just uh one of the things that I've been I've been looking at the the sore plants and all the uh things that have been going on with that I didn't know if we wanted to um look into putting a committee together not a commission but a committee together to look at the issues with the sewer plants as far as operation and you know continuing on with the old Deerfield plant and the uh maybe set up a timeline for being able to um replace some of the infrastructure under the you know the streets in the town and uh actually to even look into some of the other issues that we're dealing with up with diic and that sort of thing I don't know if that was something that we would be interested in I'm I'm happy to have the in I mean I felt like it's kind of been under my wheelhouse a little bit since I kind of pushed for the other plant back in 19 but um and and before that we had a committee um of of you know a lot of people that were in town kind of came together different skills and came up with different ideas and then they um just because it's such a complicated large expense thing kind of got to a standstill and that's when the select board kind of took it over and said okay we're just going to move on and pick a pick a designer get things going and get it started so but I I I definitely think it it's worth having some input on um I think we should really think about a charge right on this committee before we pick and an add so what what do we want them to do and then um and then what what are we seeking for what you know what are we looking for are we looking for advice anywhere are we looking for other Engineers to give us ideas or you know what kind of produ projects that we're going so I think it's worth coming up with a charge and having you know more more input's always better more ideas are better I don't know it all nobody does uh it's always good to have other people come up with other ideas so I'm definitely open to that okay but we should think about a charge think let's you know I think let's let's do that okay I I can work on that yeah yep yep that be great try you got any um no do you want me to hit the next item well I was going to do some Board of Health oh yeah go ahead sure no I'm I'm good other than not go ahead Trevor are you going to bring up something with a the pipe yes I've got that right after the board of health stuff yep I do all right yeah and it's sort of under the Board of Health so um I didn't want to basically we don't like to respond to people who are making comments but there was additional information that is related to um the burial of the horse uh I did speak with the head of the equin Department of the Massachusetts UMass extension service um and his name is mud hashimi and he's been there for 24 years uh we discussed whether there was any reasonable reason to be concerned about a horse burial per se I appreciate that that uh Mr Johnson has raised uh some actual deviations from the guidelines that UMass presented particularly with regard to burial near properties Etc uh Mr ashimi said that the hu the the biggest concern would be if there were people using Wells anywhere near this since all of the people that are on kellaher are on public water and public sewer that issue he says is it's good that it's it's not an issue to be concerned about um when I wrote when you write an email you you're not writing uh you know precise so when I said appeared to follow the guidelines I was especially talking about just the depth of burial um and we have since gone out and asked the person who actually did the excavation to send us a letter which is in the record um he says that he dug the hole 6 ft deep that it was dry when he dug the hole there was no water in the the Hole uh and that he um the reason why he was called in is because there's a lot of trees on the property the horse died in a position where they would have had to cut a bunch of trees and delim a bunch of other trees in order to get a large piece of equipment in there to pick up the horse um I Believe Miss Bryce had spoken with a farmer who uses the land near there to farm and that the original idea was to take the horse carcass and bring it out into the periphery of a field and bury it um but it was determined that that was going to be more destructive there was no way to drag the horse over the ground they were worried that dragging the horse would cause it to you know damage its its skin and Etc while it was being hauled out of the field so the decision was made rightly or wrongly to bury the horse near where it died we also asked that a Veterinary uh person who handled this um discuss was the horse diseased the horse apparently Desi of died of um complications related to COPD which is a you know pulmonary disease um and that it was euthanized because uh it couldn't get up anymore so um it would have been nice if the horse typically what happens when you euthanize a horse is that you you try to get it to walk to the place where you're going to do the euthanasia and then you um dig a hole there and put the carcass into the hole after it's been euthanized um the horse was in a condition in the morning according to miss price that um it could it couldn't move so the veterinary uh person euthanized the horse where it was where it was collapsed and the hole was dug next to it um I'm the select is involved in this and the Board of Health is involved this after the fact would we have advised her to bury this horse there no our initial our initial uh contact with the D about this was that um if the horse is buried don't dig it up a a month or so now has passed uh and we would have to ask ourselves you know at what state of the carcass in at this point I mean if we were to dig it up would we be doing more harm than than good um Mr hashemi also mentioned that people often overestimate a concern about u a properly buried animal and they disregard things like Farm fields that have cow manure as fertilizer that water flows across and goes into your yard or naturally deceased animals like deer porcupines uh Etc who die in and near the brook um so we're in a position of trying to solve what one person wants us to do based against what experts are telling us to do so Mr hashemi as I said mentioned we could do water testing and we could potentially do soil testing but soil testing would probably be inconclusive because there are farms there so nitrates from Farm fertilizers and phosphates from Farm fertilizers would disrupt any ability to to determine anything really so he said the only meaning test would be water testing which I'm certainly happy to consider um but I'm just one person you know and the Board of Health would have to make a ruling about this um it's an unfortunate situation uh but I will continue to see if there's any other step that the town can reasonably take but at this point um absent any action from somebody who doesn't agree with this decision I basically think it would be more harmful to dig up the horse that's pretty much decomposed at this point and try to transport it somewhere else essentially we're going to have to cut down a bunch of trees in Miss Price's yard to do that and um an examination of the G you know the the Topography of that area most of the water appears to come from the farm field that flows across those properties and the horse is in an elevated position so I know this is not what Mr Johnson wants to hear but that's where I am at the moment and I will continue to look into whether there's any other course of action but I don't see it as a nuisance at this point and that's apparently what the Board of Health would have to determine that this is somehow a public nuisance before we would be involved in having to take action so it's a long-winded explanation but um you know it's an unfortunate situation we don't have bylaws in the town that govern us this sort of thing um and I'm not sure whether we should have them or that complicated the situation fortunately it's something that doesn't happen very often but I will continue to look into it uh so South Deerfield wastewater treatment plant effluent pipe updates um so we have uh as people know that we have finished the project mostly down at the South Deerfield wastewater treatment plant we have um I think some SK testing and finalization to do which is the alarms that go off and notify our operators if something isn't working um you know in the middle of the night all of that is um is getting finished but I think pretty much everything else is done there um the Project's been closed out short of that um the uh so right at the end of the project with all the rain we had over last year and this winter and into the early spring uh with the high levels on the river we noticed that the pipe that takes well there's two pipes just to reash this again there's two pipes that lead to the Connecticut River one is a just storm water from the plant and everything around it um dumps out on the embankment and then you have the pipe the effluent pipe which is all the treated water from the from the sewage plant um after it's been treated it it heads out to the river so when the plant was built in the' 70s there was a head wall and a structure out in the river and the pipe LED from the plant out to the river so um at some point and I have been told it wasn't that long after it was built with the ice and everything else in the river and the flooding that kind of head wall had been damaged a long time ago uh but the pipe still went to the river with the amount of rain we've had in the last several years we believe that the water from the um well the pipe is Clay too so not very solid in today's terms of building material uh the this the waste the not the Wastewater but the storm water pipe kind of was right over and above the other effluent pipe and we think eroded that bank enough and and that pipe kind of broke in half so we have a pipe our effent pipe comes out in the embankment and is really just eroding the side of the bank M out to the Connecticut River and no longer goes out part of it goes out to the uh to the old head wall so we need to rehabilitate all that stuff and our thought is to take the storm water pipe and tie it right into the effluent pipe for a couple of reasons one you wouldn't have a pipe over the top of the effluent pipe to undermine the embankment and two uh we have a pump we call Big Bera that can really pump some serious water um so if we ever got into a situation with the high water you know trying to back up the river we can turn on big Bera and pump the water out uh so if we have a lot of rain coming in we have a lot of flow going through the plant we have we have a way to force that water into the river out at the head wall so the idea is to um to get an estimate to do this work and uh the only places for funding of such a thing that we know of are the um the state revolving fund uh that they they they put so much money a year for Wastewater and drinking water um projects so there are there is emergency funding which is kind of any money that's left over in a year that hasn't been used up um and then there's the every year you can apply so the every year normal path for srf funding for this project um applications need to be put in mid July this month we're also going to apply for the Emergency funding we won't have that answer till later in the summer So the plan is to go with two paths to apply for both the emergency and our normal path and see which one pans out if the emergency happens we'll just discontinue the other application but um you know and it depends on how much money they have left over on this other one um you know we don't have a solid estimate now we have an engineers's back of the napkin right now now for what it what it might cost and it's probably around 2 million bucks a little more a little less um but until bids you know go out and the final design is done or any really design is done um we won't know so the first step is to apply for an application uh for funding once we have an application for funding and a funding source we can hire an engineer we can design the plan bring it to 90% or excuse me bring it to 20% really get a solid idea on cost and then start you know hiring somebody going out to bid so the path right now tonight is to um to approve those two applications to the the srf finance uh either the emergency and the standard so that that's kind of where we're at today on that part of the project so I'd like to make a motion for both of those pass for funding applications and then we'll you know we'll go from there generally with a srf fund so gen if we go out for a for a loan you know loans rates are very expensive the the benefit of using an srf is that it's a 2% note for two for 20 years uh we were fortunate to get a USDA USDA note for the other uh a good portion of the South Airfield upgrades and that was a one and a quarter there were two different loans for that but one and a quarter one and 38 uh for 40 years which was much more affordable um so this they also with this program you have the you have the option or depending on how the project goes they can forgive some of that note as well so once you get out to 20 years or a little less they'll they'll just knock it off depending on what they have for funding so there's always an opportunity that some of the money will get granted to us at the end of the project but um it's the only place that we know of to get funding at a decent rate for a good decent you know 20 years so um so that's why we thought we would apply for these and then we're always looking for other grants federal funds any other way to help on these projects because they're expensive so I would make a motion uh to move to support an application for emergency State revolving fund loan for repair and replacement of the effluent pipe at the South Deerfield wastewater treatment facility with the application to be developed by DPC engineering and to authorize Trevor McDaniel to sign the application second um any further discussion um this is just for the application yes not for approving money or anything like that that's plenty of plenty of we can we can apply for this is just to to to do the app to allow them to do the application of both of these Avenues emergency and standard so basically this will allow us to find out whether emergency State revolving fund loan is available or whether just a regular State revolving fund correct financing is available we still have to do the engineering yes um now one thing that I want to clarify with Town Council is that since since the original plant was approved um the bylaws have changed concerning um whether uh there is any taxpayer component in this so I just want to clarify that we will need to look into whether this is going to just fall on the Enterprise fund alone rather than people who are on septic systems correct because previously we paid 25% in taxes Capital so um I just want to make sure what law applies to this um because I know that septic system users are going to want to know that answer sure yeah and we'd have to take it to to a special town meeting in the fall and get approval for funding and all that stuff and and that's where all that would come up and in in just my two sens is that it and any new project would be just solely based on the users unless the town would like to participate and town has the ability has the ability but it's not forced to right correct and um the other thing is that um the alternative to this is we are not in compliance at the moment correct with the pipe broke we're not in compliance anymore so at some point the Army Corps or some other Federal agency might decide that they're going to start to F us MH um we're putting clean water into the thing but we're causing erosion on the bank correct I mean we're not like the communities of turnis Falls regularly put 60,000 gallons of raw sewage into the Connecticut River because their plant doesn't work uh and we get notices I get notices almost every day that there's been a a sewer release from Turners anytime you have Heavy Rain y so we are not doing that we're being good citizens we're just putting clean water onto the river bank but uh doesn't mean that that somebody in the federal government won't decide that we need to be incentivized to fix this right is there something in the future that uh to monitor that pipe to make sure that if there is erosion taking place that can be on top of definitely need yeah it's we're going to definitely change the uh what callop the standard operating procedures for the plant to be inspecting that more regularly okay yeah that makes sense yeah for sure okay so on the first motion is there any other discussion uh hearing none all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim HG and then the second is is very much the same uh motion to approve an application for state evolving fund financed for repair and replace the effluent pipe at the South Deerfield wastewater treatment facility with the application of develop uh developed by DPC engineering and to authorize Trevor McDaniel to sign the application second any further discussion NOP hearing none all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim hch I thank you all very much and I'll keep you all in the loop and um I also Blake I was going to in um I was talking with Eric the operator to he was hoping that we could all kind of get together down there and maybe we could post a meeting um because we just for a site visit you know to meet Eric and and and view the plant you know anything you'd like to know as well but he was away on vacation a bit but and when you're back in town maybe next Wednesday or something if you're back we could do something absolutely you want to try to do it Wednesday yeah why don't we since we've already got meetings for the do um I guess we could mention that in our select board reports and I think we have before but there's a DOT meeting next uh next Wednesday the 17th looking it's a scoping meeting to look at the possibility of fixes and what what that would all entail to um make the intersection of North Main mil Village Road in 5 and 10 uh safer whether it be a light system left turning Lanes or rotary so that's the um we had an initial kind of discussion about it but this is a more formal get together of many different partners of Dot and town to kind of get started looking at that what time so oh uh great uh so we could do um remember we have the the 2:30 meeting and yes one and then something Happ so we could do like um we could do noon or or why don't we do like 11:30 uh or are you are you around before that or you got other things I've got I've got an appointment at 10:00 so it's going to be at 10 yeah so I could I think make more towards noon let's do noon then yeah won't take long just and we can always meet again I you can go anytime you want but just thought we we do that 12:00 p.m. yep at the plan great that's all I got all right um do we have any minutes I don't okay all right no we had lots of people out yes exactly vacation um okay so uh going go turn the lights oh yeah thank you [Music] right all right so the next thing on the agenda is to uh continue uh and hopefully complete there were a couple of appointments that we didn't make uh at the previous meeting uh and the first um the first of those appointments is to fill out the uh South County EMS board of oversight membership and um so I would like oh go ahead do you want to make an Appo a motion yeah I was just going to you know to appoint Blake as Fiscal Agent and uh I'll second that motion yeah so the motion will be that we would appoint Blake Gilmore as the Fiscal Agent for the scems Boo and that Matt Russo and Tim mili would be appointed as voting members there a second second that for discussion you're good with that BL good okay yep um yeah and uh I'm going to have to meet with Brenda to find out what a Fiscal Agent does and and I assume BL as well yeah I think it's really oh sorry I'll wait to you no no that's fine go ahead uh I just think it's super important that we uh keep a really good focus on the finances of of that entity it's at a transition point right now um with new leadership and um it's expensive uh but It's a Wonderful service everybody loves it um they're always looking to save lives and help people and I think um it's an amazing thing but there's also a cost right so there's that balance I mean we we would you could spend millions of just always coming up with new stuff and hey new ways to save people's lives and bet there sooner all that kind of thing but there there is a cost to Residence so you have to find that happy balance and it's it's almost cruel because you think you know why wouldn't you spend more money but you don't have it so it's like trying to find that balance and and and it's hard with an Enterprise fund like that uh be because it because it doesn't um you know it's it's always easy to go oh we'll just take it out of retained earnings you know instead of like a regular budget where you're out you're out you know and you need a transfer or something like that so yeah just keeping an eye on that is really ke you're you're going to be the break on spending so when when somebody wants to buy a new piece of equipment well what's the plan to pay for it yeah and uh you know so you're going to be popular over [Music] there well it goes to the territory that's right right and I actually did that before so I was in volunteer service I was and I'd like to you know explore some other ways of getting income so that would be another thing that I would be very interested you have amazing amazing resume for it so we really appreciate you um you doing it and yeah we um we have seen some good progress in the last uh few months and uh um some exciting new possibilities for helping our communities um and uh responding to the other other towns who are not in our system who need our help while not minimizing service to our own residents right and and the technology that's out there right now I mean there the new director or chief is working towards that and getting trying to get that new technology in there which will save time and in by doing so save lives right and also protect the uh the EMTs who are actually providing service by using more modern techniques for intubating and Etc and expanding training for things like tracheotomy training and so forth so we're going to end up with a really robust service so but hopefully we can start balancing the cost that we're putting in with the revenues that we're bringing in so right right that's a tricky balance for sure yep thank you that's great all right so the next uh there's been a lot of interest in the the zoning board of appeals there have been I think seven different people who put themselves forward we heard one resident speak about um her her thoughts on the subject um I have uh when I look at pointing people to boards like this the zba is particularly important board I know that Dan Graves who's the moderator has a similar kind of thinking when he appoints to the finance committee um how can you diversify the skills that individuals bring to the board and so we're fortunate in this and that I I looked and saw you know three people to to my mind who stand out um as bringing different skill sets that the zba could benefit from um so I'm going to make a motion for discussion only uh to nominate Mark Brennan as the full-time member to nominate Dan nii who's an environmental soil scientist as an alternate and to nominate Tia Christensen who is years and years of experience in the entertainment industry and um working with Community boards to put on things like as we get more involved with treehouses we get more involved with the entertainment overlay Zone this skill set would provide valuable information to the zba when they're asked for special permits or things of that nature we'll second the motion for discussion so open it up for discussion okay um I think with Mark Brennan I feel comfortable with him I don't know about you I do too okay I do yeah I think Mark's got a demonstrated history of being able to work collegially on boards he ran for the planning board so he's got a long-term interest in Planning and Zoning issues [Music] he is an engineering background although I think it's maybe more in the software end of things but engineering you learn a lot of basic engineering when you study it uh and um he's a level-headed person so I think he would make uh an immediate contribution to to the board and um yeah um as far as the alternates go I know that we've had people that have been on the board in the pass um Alex Ider was on that and um I know that Cheryl banit also applied for that yeah which your late husband was right and then there was a gentleman named Vincent Russo who applied and I believe um I think that's it at the moment there was I thought there was a seventh person oh Dennis auror but I think he's he stepped aside okay let me look at the list he was looking as an altern as an alternate but he he felt he didn't have the time available at the moment um good um well I I was hoping to avoid you know I I have no problem with um considering other people um I would merely suggest that uh one of the candidates uh who Alex hrer who previously served on this committee um this is the only time that we ever had a problem with uh the zba being sued uh by a decision that was made while he was serving as a full member so I would like to give somebody who's new to the process an opportunity to participate but that's just me okay I I think Dan's um would be a good pick and I'm open on the other I was thinking Tia Christenson because of the experience um but I'm I'm open for sure on that last appointment for alternate well again I'm okay if you want to go with those but if you wanted to put uh Cheryl bahon the other alternate I'd be agreeable to those three okay so we we have a motion currently is there a a reason to withdraw the motion I I what would be uh is Miss ban was here tonight to talk about her background I mean as I as I read it she lived she was married to a longtime member of the zba so she probably talked about these issues at home and it's education by all means uh you know so um but I I beyond that I'm not sure what her professional or uh you know credential that she would bring to the board whereas I I think um both I think 40 years of experience in environmental science delineation that's obviously a skill I think we all agree about that for bichi he worked for GZA recently I think he's semi-retired um and as I say this there's this whole component of entertainment issues that are going to be if we had had somebody with the Tia's experience on the zba when we were considering a special permit for um Treehouse we probably would have come out with more rigorous standards for um decel levels for concerts uh you know working with uh emergency action plan for you know emergency situations to develop in a large scale um you know concert environment so that's why I think she rises above any of the other candidates but um so I'll leave it to you too well I know your your input's important so I you know I think that you know again she's uh Cheryl's been a uh longtime resident of the town and she's you know part of the community wants to serve I think that again is an ultimate position I would be happy to is there any other entertainment is there any other um committee that you think she would be well suited for because I certainly would like to encourage people this is a very encouraging sign we've had vacancies on the zba for a long time and um that's nice to see it's nice to see that there's six or seven people people who want to serve on this board um so you know I'm very encouraged by that but we have a lot of openings on a lot of committees I think we have a um two people that we need to have on I think the human rights advisory committee uh we have um other openings which you know will arise in the near future I'm sure and uh so is there anything that you think I don't know I don't know Miss banov so um I um I mean do do we want to appoint the two and have um have more information sent forward from Tia and Cheryl and if it's down to those two it's up to you guys I don't I don't no I think we should settle this tonight okay let's get so okay well then I've got a motion on the floor is there and I'll for another committee for her to go on Okay so if there's no further discussion all those in favor chman McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hy I okay um and now there's a there's a a member who's been serving on the board and is up for reappointment uh renewal David Potter I will make a motion to reappoint David Potter to another three-year term on the zba I'll second the motion any further discussion no uh David's an educator he's served well on the board for the last 3 years I think he's in a position he was the vice chair uh and I believe he's going to he'll be a candidate for chairmanship of the board but that's up to the zba to decide when they reconstitute so um if there's no further discussion all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim helch I can I make a motion to appoint U Vern Harrington as a local building inspector um alternate I think or Building Commissioner right is it an Al it's inspector building inspector okay this is Comm let me just change this yeah so Vern Harrington for many of you probably know him um was involved in theer Street Associates and he's been a builder for forever great work he was he helped out on the most recently on the building advisory committee for um hiring a new Architecture Firm to design the 1888 building project so more than qual ified I'd second that okay any discussion about Vern no I'm just thrilled that he's willing to serve as well and you know um and and I want to thank um dick keski who's been stepping up and stepping up and stepping up as we've been waiting to try and find somebody else that would be a backup to Bob Robert Walden so I'm very grateful that ver Vern was willing to do that and Vern knows a lot of the construction companies and so he's well informed about um you know codes yeah codes Etc and and you know knows how to deal with other contractor types important is just being able to converse with people and solve issues rather than create problems that's what you want so I any further discussion hearing none all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim heli I and um is that it for appointments we have the um cable advisory right um so we need to vote a charge too right it's in your packet is the charge there y yeah is this look behind your charge this one here that's the appointment the appointment yeah this is the charge right the charge is actually in here somewhere else dra oh okay draft charge so um you want me to read the draft charge so that people know no just you can read just the top read the top terms ofice this is the cable advisory committee each year um every every excuse me every 10 years we need to um approve um another cable supplier to the community um so this is we we con it's it's in statute that you get a cable advisory committee together to to look at that um so in accordance with the Massachusetts General uh General Law chapter 166a there is hereby established a cable advisory committee comprised of three members the members of the committee shall be appointed by the select board which uh serves as the appointing authority of the committee and uh the issuing authority for all cable franchisee license licensing agreements on behalf of the Town um uh committee members Shall Serve three years oh excuse me so serve three-year terms which shall be staggered all subsequent appointments shall be for a three-year term commencing on July 1st um I won't go through all the duties but um so I would make a motion to approve the dra the charge for the cable advisory committee second uh any further discussion hearing none all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim hch I and it's my understanding Casey that you would pull this together by looking at the existing charge and other more recent charges that other communities had well actually what I gave you is a is a charge from another community that really covers what is required under the general laws I looked up the law um and those duties reflect what's in the law so it's basically a synopsis I wouldn't mind reading them just so the public knew it was uh to inform and educate the public about cable television service assess the cable needs of the community and recommend policy changes conduct regular meetings with cable company representatives to discuss matters of mutual interest report to the select board on company compliance with the license supervise the cable operator response to complaints respond to Residents questions regarding the cable television system keep a breast of community program issues manage the public educational governmental access fund which is Peg a lot of people hear us say Peg access or Peg that's you know FCAT gets that funding to support you know uh broadcasting these meetings and other events in town uh to develop policies operating procedures for the peg access television with approval from the select board and advises on issues related to the operation of Peg access television in concert with the Town Administrator and other subsequent staff and vendors uh contracted to provide related services in support of the recording and broadcasting of local government meetings fostering the production of local events and making production technology and training available to the public those are really important I think in a in a democracy that we have open government people can see the meetings and we have funding set aside to to make sure that these are broadcast out and people can join and they can come and get involved and get trainings and and be be a part of all of that um really really important for me I think so and also just to follow up on on the peg part of it um I did have a discussion with Fat's director Jonathan ban um to continue to explore restoring the broadcasts um he's going to a local town has invested in some technology that will allow broadcast to be interrupted when occasionally things might pop up that are not appropriate for Community viewing and um I asked him to find out the cost of those fixes and then to bring a report to us in the ne at hopefully the next select board meeting so we can find a funding source or maybe we can use some Peg access money that we already have to put that in place so we can return to the traditional way of broadcasting because I know that's important to a lot of people they they don't want to have to leave home or try to figure out how to zoom in so um we are working on that we were also notified um recently through through the Federal Government funding there is money coming uh to different venders like Comcast and Verizon Verizon got the contract to bring um fiber optic to to Deerfield and cuz it's is all money that came out of the um Biden Biden administration's um was the infrastructure fund and and allowed um trying to get that last mile trying to get underserved communities where people live kind of far out um to get them broadband service so but it's also fast 100 Megs down 100 Megs up that'd be really nice I don't think a lot of the Town even has that so uh chap P could AFF he he follows these things because it's important in police and Public Safety to be aware of these sorts of things and shared with us that um the Franklin County area is going to get $37 million to do this and I think Deerfield is slated to get a large infusion for bringing FiOS to make it available it's the Verizon's highspeed product I know a lot of us struggle with Comcast Xfinity and uh you know some satellite Based Services but this would give people another option which I think which we need we need absolutely so I think this is really important technology is changing really fast and uh to be great so I you know so we have some um is this uh appointments to put on so motion those are two people that have expressed interest but then there's the motion to reform this should I read that okay so we'll make a motion to move to reform the Deerfield uh cable advisory committee purs to General Law chapter 166a as a three or five member committee to perform duties outlined in the cable in the draft cable advisory committee charge as uh presented by the select board packet second so for discussion on this um I I think we need to approve this tonight and I think we need to decide whether it should be a three or five member group sure then once we do that I think we need to advertise to the community that there is uh if you you have a technology background one of these people would be great if we had an IT person um so that we get a group of robust a robust group I know Mr pachar senior served on this previously so he's experience with this um but I'd like to see three or five candidates before we sort of make a decision I feel like I was thinking five but I feel like the amount first we need decide the amount I think five would be enough that they could have a quum with three right and so um and and it allows us to have you know somebody who may not who may have gone through the project you know this process before but may not be super up on new technology but but still has a no a knowledge of you know I think of Jack pich and his knowledge of how this works and the other thing I think that having that me those members you've got to look at everything even though FiOS is the up and coming you got see what see what spectrum and are just you know don't overlook what might be coming down the road yeah so so I would make a motion for five members to reconstitute it for five members I think you can get enough diverse look but not overwhelming group of people to do it is that a motion yes a motion for five second thank you all right and so for on this motion to reconstitute with a five five member uh board um all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim helch I and then um I do think it's uh worth spending a you know a couple of weeks there's no huge rush but I think this is we have two members that are interested and I'm fully support and then we's see who else comes forward right right so let's find a way to put that onto the town website and do want one of the select board members to be on it are you waiting to decide that you had offered right were you interested in that one or are you interested in something else I forget for for on the advisory committee do you want to do it or do you want to wait and see who comes in for people let's wait and see let's okay I don't want to put a bunch of stuff on your PL put you on there right now all right anybody off I'm like I actually saw I actually saw fos coming into the town I was living in so I do have a background in it but not a technical well no it's just it's experience I had FiOS once but that was long ago in another Universe actually when you did the war game between uh Verizon and uh Comcast next meeting you get the better deal after 6 months switch back the other one cuz they give be a better deal yeah I wish we could have a lot of choices all right well um okay so we'll appoint next meeting yeah yeah or we'll we'll yeah sounds good in a in a coming meeting at a coming meeting great all right um so we needed we need do we need to the next thing is to vote to authorize the Town Administrator confirm designation I give you a motion we do have you want to read Blake do you want to take care of that I think it's uh where is it Casey but we need to um accept the resignation of The Keeper of the CL just accept the resignation is all at the moment oh okay yeah he that is in there his res all right so I move to accept the resignation of Robert oette with regret and thank him for his service to the town many years on behalf of the town for his many years of service as The Keeper of the Town clock oh second second that motion okay we're good all right any further discussion hearing none all those in favor Chev McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim h i great okay okay and uh you want to make the final motion Blake I think it's uh this is about the DPW interim Public Public Works superintendent this is the highway contract yeah yeah for move to authorize the Town Administrator to confirm that the interim Public Works superintendent is the Deerfield signatory for all for f furog furog furog Highway procurement contracts until such time as a permanent Public Work superintendent is hired effective July 3rd 2024 second uh any further discussion um I think Casey has been able to do this for us but this is the right place for it to be so um all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim hchi I thank you thank you Cog thank you yep all right um transfers now we have a couple of of transfers that I'm going to ask Casey Warren to describe to us okay do you want me to make the Motions first sure if you want okay so make a motion to move uh or to move to transfer a move to transfer $112,000 from General Highway expense to the town office building expense to cover unanticipated maintenance of the electricity cost for South County EMS building okay so we need a second I'll second it for discussion there you go all right all right so it's the 12 yes y worried that I got him out of no you got it right so this covers extra costs for the EMS building for electricity and um the there was some installation costs for a couple of items the E Chargers and for the um vent system that was gifted to us yep so the reason it's not exactly the amount is Brenda asked me well Brenda told me it should be a little bit higher in case we get outstanding bills um now the there were one of the things about the EV Chargers is there was some issue in terms of billing with EV Chargers here yeah so Town Building Maintenance covers all of those buildings so it isn't I'm not trying to say it's the EV chargers at EMS it's actually the EV Chargers here um and so we're transferring between two different accounts that are associated I think and normally I would say this should come out of the rent but um but I know that I think Kevin had talked about that he had this he had this available in the highway yes and it is Town building that we manage uh so I think I'm okay with that so what I think you're talking about Trevor is well we we physically own the skims building as the Deerfield because it was G given to us from d and that we have a rent fund that pays for physical improvements to the property that's why this is going to be done this way as opposed to retained earnings or some other means correct Y is that correct case all right that is essentially the issue all right so is there any further discussion nope can't hear Speak oh okay case I'm sorry ordinarily she's the one that's sorry about that thanks for learning us thank you appreciate that whenever you hear or can't hear let us know yes that is correct so if there's no further discussion all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hy I and I'll make a motion to move uh to transfer $900 from the town clerk salaries to the town clerk expense uh bylaw maintenance to cover the unanticipated cost uh to update the bylaws as voted in April 2024 town meeting second for discussion you all right Casey so we were actually expecting this bill in July but it came they did the work and sent it um ahead so our first transfer did not include this amount so we're requesting a second one and we're taking it from town clerk salaries which does have some money left in it so we're not doing it through a reserve fund transfer right okay does that avoid having to go to town meeting okay well it still has to go to finance finance will take care of this tomorrow right it was uh and they even called and they said you're not going to do this until July right they said yeah then they just did it in June and then they did it and sent us a bill so okay got to pay for it so s out of last year's money yep all right so did we did we vote need to vote okay so any if there's no further discussion all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I thank you all all right so the next order is um Building Commissioner recommendations for increases for to Electrical Plumbing and gas permit fees for review and approval now this is something that you had shared with us previously for review correct we' had it you've had it at several meetings so essentially there's a recommendation from The Building Commissioner to increase certain fees those are electrical fees Plumbing fees and gas fees these fees have not increased in several years so his recommendation to better offset the cost of inspections and processing is to implement an increase now so for the people in the audience I don't since we don't have the ability to share the screen basically um what um Bob Walden did was and maybe with the help of amyan uh pulled together a list of all the different types of building department fees that are uh assessed in Deerfield monteu Hatfield um the Franklin Regional Council of governments sort of I guess average and then Northampton just for comparison sake and then made recommendations about what we should be charging for these services and um did you either of you see anything that you were concerned about no it feels like we're still you know in many cases lower than our you know communities and it does you know show that we needed to raise them some uh to keep up and obviously we you know we have these fees to cover the cost of paying the inspectors to go out and do the work so it should be close to break even um and I think so every once in a while you need to adjust those to make sure that you do that and looking at at the comparisons we're still kind of you know under you know new residence coming fee is you know 200 bucks in Deerfield and it's 350 in monteu so um we're still you know I think we're still okay as far as not overcharging people and still you know keeping up and it looks like most of them are about that if if we're a little bit higher here and there it's not much um most of it were under it looks like or even so a lot of these fees are are basically you know they're most likely to encounter these fees when you're building a new home or M when you're doing a major renovation and um you absolutely want your electrical components to be rigorously inspected so that you don't have a fire and burn your house down and so um we're fortunate that we have uh very knowledgeable people on staff Y and uh if the fees can help offset the cost to the community that's that's a plus so I definitely support the notion that we need to make adjustments uh and periodic adjustments and to reflect the cost of increases with providing these services so so uh for electrical I'll make a motion to a move that this uh residential and commercial electrical fees be increased as recommended by The Building Commissioner in the proposed new electrical fee schedule as presented effective August 1st 2024 again like with uh Trevor I've been looking through this and it looks like we're still middle of the road with the these fees so some of them are a little bit up but the rest of them are looking like I said we're not at the high into this which I assume we don't want to be yeah you want you you want to cover your cost but you don't want to make it unaffordable for people to build in your community as well right it's already expensive enough yeah and I mean the fees look reasonable particularly in the commercial area for electrical for instance you know um you're we're looking at like a $350 charge for an Institutional inspection right and um you know there's a lot of work that goes into that too and that can be that could be several hours could be several days depending on the complexity of the system and so you know it does seem does seem like we're not we're not being Northampton but occasionally uh we're even more expensive than Northampton but that's it's but not by much not by much exactly so okay no I think that's that's about it like I said I'm more interested in making sure that with Renovations and that sort of thing we keep the the cost down because they're from town that sort of thing it's expensive new uh new construction they can they can actually slide that in there with the contractor will be easier than with the yeah people that are trying to renovate their homes and stuff exactly I mean safety is the thing right that we want to Ure big thing yep yep all right so there's no further discussion all those in favor for Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I so make a motion to move that the residential and commercial plumbing fees be increased as recommended by The Building Commissioner in the proposed new Plumbing fee schedule as presented effective August 1st 2024 second for discussion sir we all feel roughly the same on okay about the same yeah there's no further discussion all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I moveed that the residential and commercial gas fees be increased as recommended by The Building Commissioner in the proposed new gas fee schedule as presented effective August 1st 2024 section for discussion uh again any any discussion no no say hearing none all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I yeah I really like to thank um Robert Walden and and um Amy and and Casey and everybody has worked on this to try and um try and get these back in order y y that's good definely the inspectors yep really appreciate that work it's not easy to compare take the time to do all that so okay so um the next up is uh maybe you can take care of this Blake um it's the uh motion on yeah um skims has a very old former police vehicle that became a for it became a a an action vehicle or a vehicle for use for the South County EMS for uh the chief and it's passed it cell by date but go ahead so I make a mo move to declare the South County EMS Special Operations vehicle Surplus property and authorized disposition through an acceptable General Law chapter 30b process second so basically what the chief Sparks is looking for is to be able to put this out to auction through the state system maybe get a few hundred maybe we'll get lucky and get $1,000 probably not um and that can be put into running the service over there yep so if there's no further discussion all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim hilchie I um okay this is over to you Trevor sewer abatements oh okay so um we had two abatements come in um one of them uh made complete sense to me um let me just get to them so I can speak clearly on them think I you did yeah I think I know you you added them okay so um I'm going to take uh Fred Betis first uh frerick Bea this is uh for 43 Eastern AV um so he was in last year he was not hooked up to our system at all because he um demolished the home or removed the home and he's putting in a new home so normally you know the bill is 180 I think cuz we have a minimum usage charge and then a um you know a service fee uh so it's hooking up and then a minimum usage charge but um he he wasn't really hooked up at all so and zero usage so I would I would uh be in favor of um abating his bill for for that billing period um and it's Bill number 780 and the amount I believe is $180 so I'm I'm in favor of that I would make a motion to um approve the abatement for 43 Eastern AB for the sewer uh billing period from November 2023 to April 2024 at $180 and I'll second that um any discussion so the the actual what was the fee that he so he he got so anybody even if they use just a little bit have a minimum usage fee which is um which is $80 so somebody barely uses the home or something like that they there's just a minimum usage charge um and then there's a service connection fee that every year every Everybody pay or every cycle everybody has a connection fee and we set that rate every year to be connected to system this building wasn't even there so it was taken out removed wasn't connected so you know yes you could you could legally charge this but I think it's only right he wasn't connected to the building to the system didn't use it at all I think it's fair to to wave that this this time yep and we have a supporting um letter from Dan Dion the superintendent of the southe for water supply District saying that the uh water had been shut off at the curb stop during that period so seems pretty clear to me too he'll be back at it soon I'm sure so we had a motion in a second then any further discussion hearing none all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim hilchie I now the next one I was not in favor of after I I read it um it talked about having you know have a leaking the pool and having to fill the pool uh or having to take the pool down halfway and then filling it up again now generally we don't you know that's why we do um we do the not um people don't we they can't pay more than 125% because we know people are going to be filling their pools or watering their lawns or whatever and I know it's not this winter cycle but I don't know when the pool was taken down and put back up even still th000 I mean it's 20 bucks the rate is I mean if you used 1,000 gallons it's 20 bucks uh so $21 it's not um uh and normally I would say if it was it was it was way out and there was a massive leak and there was filling a pool all the time or had some other leak we usually look at leaks like we want a we want a bill from the plumber that it's been fixed we want um we want to see that the usage was way out of line if you look at the usage this reading it was 33,500 gallons if you look at last Winter's reading it was 39534 G uh usage and then um so it's not outside the realm um you know in last last last Summer's reading was 27 um you know the summer before was 52,000 so it it just looking at the history there's not a um a massive over usage there's uh it's underused compared to last year uh you know uh five of 23 was 39,00 this year it's only 33,500 so there's not a glaring reason to Abate um there wasn't an amount asked for to Abate other than the last reading what but that was a summer it was just not the same cycle it wasn't the summer reading um it was the um you know if you look back I always look back when I'm evaluating whether somebody deserves an abatement is that and look at the last you know cycle that matched this cycle and it actually used used more um the last time than than now so I don't see a trend of like having to use a ton so oh sorry I fixed it sorry so what's your recommend Patrick yeah got it Patrick no that's fine what do you have a recommendation that we shouldn't Abate this correct that's that's my I mean I'm open to hearing anything else if somebody wanted to bring another I think you you understand this better than I do and uh I basically look at the similar periods where the usage is like the uh May 1st 2024 I go back to May 1st 2023 and as you point out there's actually less usage in the current cycle than there was in the previous cycle of almost 6,000 gallons right so it doesn't seem like if anything less is you know he's used less and he could have changed his you know it it varies when people read the bill and that kind of thing and the there's always some flexibility you know this water readings to sewer charge is is always a little bit murky because it's you know we're relying on the Water Department to give us water readings and you know it's different time frames and whether they use irrigation or not or you know it's it's you know at some point as sewer Commissioners I know and maybe this is a charge that we look at we did the last time when this Sewer Commission was in in seeded was to look at whether we change the way we do our billing and do we you know we are very grateful for the water department but they're short staff too they don't have a ton of time and like and so we're waiting to run our bills out so do we change to an edu usage instead of you know just per bedroom this is you have three bedrooms in the house that's your bill you know and it's just you know whatever our cost is it's divided out you know there's been a lot of study on this and that's how a lot of places use it um that's the amount y that's why I think you put that into the charge as part of the job of the Comm to come up with those those ideas and to look at some of these other issues that have come up in the past where I'm sure we have records of people trying to get that sort of thing but it looks like this guy's had a problem for a while because he was at 51 at one point yeah 52 and that per that was a summer usage probably fill in the pool and again he wouldn't pay um cuz the the the season before it was low was 25 so he only pays 125% of that 25 usage cuz every every summer we only you know we'll we'll automatically Abate anything above 125% of the Winter's usage cuz we know you're going to water we know you're going to fill your pool and that kind of thing so but then again you know when we do all these abatements every year it's still still cost a lot of money to run that plant so it's you know we're abating but we're you know you got to pay it sometime we all have to pay it so I mean obviously people who are on the system more than me who am not on the system I pay through tax but um just for the not the usage but for the for the sewer um construction Capital stuff but um I don't know so I just didn't see a um a clear you know and we're pretty forgiving on a lot of stuff and anytime I see aite we get a bill you know it's clear like hey there's a problem the water department says there's a problem but I don't see a reason times this is related to like you know a toilet's been running and you know the apartment unit has been vacant or whatever nobody saw nobody was aware of it and it's obvious that there's a huge discrepancy y I don't there's no big discrepancy here so I'm going to all right so there's been a motion made and uh seconded all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim hch I take no action motion to deny yeah motion to deny yeah um all right I I think we already covered the L lot updates um did you have anything on the Stillwater Bridge or was that something you wanted Christopher to talk about so I just have a quick thing um we need to start working on surveys for the SP the areas y um Town Council has reached out to do to see if they have a preferred can't hear method they Town council's reached out to mass doot to see if they have a preferred method they want to handle those surveys because we have to survey any land that we might have to take um with the expansion of the bridge I have not seen a response from them I'm hoping we'll see it by the end of the week or early next week um because there's a whole process here we also are waiting to and Chris Nolan was working on this a little bit but Christopher and I have talked about it um we have to balance the article 97 land that we have so there's a portion of article 97 which is uh conservation restriction land that we have to take out of conservation restriction through a legislative action at Beacon Hill so in order to do that we have to balance that amount find some land somewhere else find some land the town owns that balances in the same did that across the street for somebody I know we cuz that was we put maybe put that land in something and traded something in norfield I think at one time but what where's the property right now that is is in conservation restriction I would have to show you the map you have to look at the map think and this is where the bridge is where the bridge is yeah it's on either so we own the road on either side of the bridge and so there's lots of small areas they're not huge but lots of small areas that we will probably have to do eminent domain takings which require uh um investigation surveys we're actually going to have to have appraisals done and it's very strict about how you do this so um Town Council specifically wanted some guidance from dot in case there's something so that we can follow their process and not yeah we got to get going if they're if they're going to need a and that's the thing we have to be ready to take this for at least a request to request to Joe and Natalie on is any of the sides where the bridge meets the land belong to the state mhm well DCR owns part of it DCR owns part of it yep and then because that's why dve rails are up things like that on this side and then on the other side you've got the homeowner but on the other side there's several spaces I could show you the approved plans I don't have them in front of me my only question is on the opposite side of where that homeowner is where it's all brush and everything else that's either town or state I think that's the one that might be in conservation might be that it's that side there a parking spot or something you might you probably know you parked there to dive on the we we come in on the other side down right next to the river we used to I think there's a gate there now yeah yeah um so we definitely need to get Natalie and Joe on that well if we need help we will but we aren't ready to call them because we don't have any idea of what it's going to look like what that article 97 language is going to look like maybe have we reached out to ESS I mean uh uh surveyor yet so I started to and Council reminded me that this is very specific they have somebody they would like us to use counil okay and that's why she reached out to do because she Council has one or do has one Council has somebody they would like us to use CU it's very specific yeah but she wants more guidance is clarification from do is anything we should bring up at Wednesday's meeting on at the end just say hey by the way I don't think the same guy's going to be there okay it's Zach Fury that we that we work with all right um if I don't hear back from him I will nudge him yeah so we'll have to keep that on the top Yeah because it needs to be getting away from us yeah easy afraid that it was but then remember and Blake won't remember so I'll back up a bit um we were considering putting an article on annual town meeting about this but we didn't have two things um we didn't have any idea of the value of the land and we didn't know what the approved plans would be so dot asked us to hold off until the fall right we still have time but now we're hitting these points where we're running into hiccups because we don't have all the information we need we need to start thinking about a date for for time town meeting too you guys talking that okay good can we talk about that at the next meeting any yeah that's about the time we settled it last year about two ideas good okay I'm with you I'll try to write myself a Tickler all right I'm good yeah so that's what I have for still water thank you okay um and we already covered the uh 1888 um Town campus stuff um we don't have any employment policies or anything to deal with tonight do no we do have a job description though okay so that job description is public job description those revisions were made after some after a recommendation to add specific certification language correct so what you see is a job description that's dated 71 yep it's a draft of 71 and I've highlighted the language that was added and how did so it's one page to another it's two to three I think Y how did you highlight it down at the bot it's very faint but it's down at the bottom but it's down at the bottom and to ability to acquire credentials many via online training as included but not limited to the public health Foundation course within 18 months of hire Title 5 soil evaluator Title 5 system inspector certified food protection manager certification Mass uh fit housing Mass Fit Food uh housing sorry and uh certified pool operator within 18 months or so of higher class D driver's license and own a vehicle so it's really just making sure that you know we can hire somebody but within 18 months they need to have and we did this with one inspector too you know when Alex was hired at some time we had had him make sure he got his his soil stuff does this has this already been reviewed by Personnel or does it need to go I to take it to Personnel next week which I plan to do so if we approve it's subject to Personnel Department approval that works yep so it doesn't even have to be subject as long as you guys are aware that these are the qualifications that have to be identified so I'll make a motion to approve the job description for the Board of Health agent second any further discussion nope as presented you got another oh do is there is there a motion somewhere with any clerical Corrections with any clerical Corrections oh okay is that somewhere sorry friendly requested Amendment yeah okay okay yeah there is a motion there we have to do it again no we're good doing a friendly Amendment so in other words if we have a good candidate but isn't necessarily trained job subcriptions as long as we feel comfortable with them then they have to be trained within 18 months correct okay official policy to provide training to get someone up to a level if if they need it's hard to find these jobs combination of the expectations in the job description well again you're going to have somebody that's going to be doing long hours and yeah and intermittent hours intermittent yeah I know that um the uh Valley Health U Regional committee Cooperative they're having trouble finding Health agents who have all the qualifications themselves so this is this is going to be an interesting process yeah it's hard it's hard we have a we have a few applicants but not many but as long as they're willing to go out and get it get the training we that's good my only question to that is if we do put somebody in that position and we do train them is there a stipulation that says you will give us 3 years before you move on because we just trained you I don't think you well you I don't think you can but um but I I don't think we paid for Alex I think he did it on his own we paid for one of his trainings one of the trainings Okay so it's a risky take I you know it's en I've always wanted to do that right like you you got to stay here so many times but I don't think it's squash that I think wishes that were the case I know he does I absolutely know he does train him up and send the trth FBI steals them Secret Service steals them State Police steals them yeah so um all right so do we have a motion I think we had a motion in yeah we had a friendly you want me to write write down what the friendly amendment was so I'll revisit the motion move to approve the revised Board of Health agent job description updated July 1st 2024 and allow the Town Administrator to make any clerical Corrections yep that sounds good um yeah that sounds good did Blake make that motion is that right oh did I make it I'll make it we got a second it again all right and uh there's no further discussion all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I more I Tim H ey thank you um Welly I really want to credit Casey on these motions they make things they do and I know how much time it takes it takes a while it takes a lot of time I was a little I was a little cranky we may um I had to take a few breaths at some point pair back a well I just wouldn't want you to spend all your time on Mo we have to find somebody toad this find that I'm trying to figure out what I should give you what I shouldn't and to some extent for Blake this is a learning experience sure it helps it helps um so sometimes what you trying to give you the the the ability to get things done within that motion yeah so work okay so um before we and the next thing is this this um South County uh assistant program the the senior center yeah the senior center program assistant um I think I put the wrong term in there yeah when do they need to have this decision made I know that the probably the Buu has talked about this so at last Saturday's meeting um we well excuse me uh two months ago um Jennifer brought it up that you know we had we had hired Tom on for I think 10 hours or something like that or maybe a little bit more or 19 or what 19 or something like that um and you know there there's just so much going on at the center that and now that they're in multiple locations the travel time and the setup and getting staff there and it's it's become very difficult and I wasn't in favor two months ago um and I asked uh Jenifer to go back and and look at the um look at the funding and make sure that she had enough Grant and this is funded by grant grant funding to support this position um and if she did then we we would would approve it um evaluate it in 6 months and it would not be guaranteed for FY 26 until we saw that there was enough funding to do it so it's really to help with the grant funding and I think once we get into a space where it's one spot uh it's going to be a lot less work but um but we're growing we're growing the numbers growing the program we don't need to know to if you want to take some more time and think about that fine but I think um the who approved it last Saturday and requesting that this board approve it so not this past Saturday the Saturday before Saturday before July 4th thank you yes sorry the 27 so this is again this is funding that's coming from other sources she gives you an outline I specifically asked her that she texted me Saturday and I asked her to give us a memo and I specifically said look we need to know what the funding sources is are and and so I went through her memo and I suggest if the board wants to take this up tonight I have a suggested motion and that's to increase the work hours for the program assistant to 35 hours per per week subject to review of the position after 6 months and funding availability correct cuz that's exactly what it's going because what that does is it sort of gives puts a I don't want to say puts a parameters around it and it's going to protect us from having come up with the money absolutely outside fun sources dry up and we absolutely made that clear that we cannot continue this unless there's funding so this is the you know there are two sides to this coin it's amazing what Jennifer's doing in terms of programming and services Etc and I know we're in a tough spot right now because we lost the church which apparently was very conducive to Senior Services both the the town nurse had a great spot to work in ETC um but we can't make hiring decisions based on growing a program without a finance committee component to this so two things I'm concerned about is where's the insurance going to come from who's going to for insurance he doesn't have to be this person doesn't have to be that was that was the reason I approved it has to be clear that if the funding drives up from an outside Source unless the senior center brings it to all three communities correct justifies putting the cost of these employees into their budgets correct and find finds a way to pay for their insurance that the position has to disappear regardless of what that does to the programming correct not disappear but go back to the original original 19 hours you know but it still has to be Grant funded CU it was Grant funded before it was so I don't know if the 19 hours for I think it was it was 19 I think it was s I'm pretty sure yeah so if the grant goes away the staffing has to go back to the level at which correct outside money or we make a case that we need this person and I'm not saying that that wouldn't be a good case I'm just saying that I'm not willing to sign off on something if there's Absol you a commitment that's being created so it's good that we have a little time to review that's how all three Town members felt about it we said show us the data make sure you have the funding we will not support you know if we needed we couldn't support if we needed uh benefits and then we couldn't support um you we're going to look at it in 6 months and then and then by FY 26 when we're building that budget if if the grants aren't there it doesn't continue so well if you if you don't mind and that there's no pressing need to do it can we can we push this to the next meeting to make I don't know if she has a pressing need for but I know they need it it's difficult right now for time and and everybody spread all over so this was going to be very much appreciated but if if you need what's your thought I mean I'm you're on the boo I'm fine with it all three towns supported it they looked at it heav as long as it's it's worded correctly I'm okay yeah I think that's in that motion right as long as as long as the motion covers the fact that so what's the effective effective today uh let's see the beginning of the payroll period July 1st Tim I also it it still has to go to the finance committee let them go through it July uh I think it would be effective today think it does not our money I think commit has to go through this grant it doesn't yeah it doesn't go to the finance committee only only 20 FY 26 it does if they wanted to continue and put this in as that position well I was just thinking we we sent it to them as an FYI oh for sure they should be aware absolutely this is a grant funed position and it's supposed to be reviewed in 6 months right and it may continue or it may not continue and but we're just alerting you that this is happening yep exactly no that's good good to do so I would say one thing before here do you have to read I I have it written so if you if you want to move on it today I wrote it we wanted to add these other items that was um oh oh yes subject to review okay great perfect that's great you got it why you read I'll make a motion uh to increase the work hours for the South County Senior Center Program assistant to 35 hours per week subject to review of the position after 6 months and funding availability effective July 1st 2024 second any further discussion yeah who's going to review it after 6 months us the board of oversight cuz we'll look at the budget and and at that point are we going to get report from them why don't I why don't I um I'm going to make a friendly amendment to update the uh and provide upate provide an update to the Fiscal Agent Fiscal Agent of south of south of dear deerfield's a Fiscal Agent so um so update the fiscal yeah before renewal uh Fiscal Agent of position review of position review before approval okay all right so that's okay you want to read so a move to increase the work hours of the South County Senior Center Program assistant to 35 hours per week subject to review of the position after 6 months and funding availability effective July 1st 2024 and update the Fiscal Agent select Board of Deerfield um of the provision uh of the position review uh before um extension extension right sorry um any further discussion hearing none all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake gilmar I Tim helch I thank you thank you Jennifer thank you so the final thing um is there anything else in that section case that I'm missing I don't think oh the ATA position well oh you wanted an update on the ATA position so I'll give it to you so we did several inter interviews the work group did several interviews and we recommend two candidates for final interview by the select board Rebecca Torres um and Greg snedaker um Christopher Dunn and I are trying to schedule interviews we're hoping to do that next week because everybody's very busy um so we were hoping and I did ask before the meeting um whether we were hoping maybe Wednesday or Thursday in the afternoon because I know we've got meetings on Wednesday um I know you guys are all moving in three different directions so I did reach out to the candidates and ask them if they were available um either of those days in the afternoon not heard back but I wanted to ask the board to keep it on no radar screen cuz I'll probably send you a text about scheduling yep and I once I have an answer and I haven't checked my email in the last hour so yep and I think the committee did a really good job reviewing and uh was uh um pleasantly surprised by the quality of the candidates and um so I hope that uh we can all agree on on someone and that we can do this next week CU I know it would help the Staffing yes um thank you what's this paint thing what's what an acry paint stewardship okay so the pain stewardship is that the next thing yeah yeah sorry Tim paint stewardship this is something that Janine up at the Franklin County Solid Waste Management District has been working on for years oh sorry thank you all of a sudden I can't talk into the mic I know you've always been the one that everybody has said you we can always hear usually loud um so this paint stewardship is a program that Jan mean's been trying to facilitate for years what it would allow the town to do is save it help with you know our recycling cost and actually that's what it is um but it's been moving very slowly through the legislature and so needed so needed what it would help us do is reduce improper disposal of hazardous waste and the cost for that disposal to the municipalities um it would create sort of a collection Network for unwanted paint um and that's one of the biggest disposal items at hazardous waste collection areas so she sent out an email actually in June and it cycled back around in Stam questions so I put it out there for consideration to have Tim add to the agenda and then made an adjustment to a support letter sort of a draft she had sent us that's what you see so people would uh for for the public please accept this letter of support of a paint stewardship law from the town of Deerfield select board a paint stewardship law will reduce improper disposal of hazardous waste and reduce the cost of waste disposal for municipalities this legislation for a paint stewardship law would establish a convenient collection Network for unwanted paint elevating municipalities that of disposal cost a leaving excuse me a leaving municipalities of disposal cost for this material paint is one of the most common items dispos of at hazardous waste collections the legislation is revenue neutral and establishes sustainable funding for recycling or proper disposable disposal of paint experience from neighboring states such as Connecticut Rhode Island Maine Vermont New York demonstrates the effect effectiveness of such laws this is a common sense program which is a win for residents homeowners and municipalities we sincerely act ask you to act to pass a paint stewardship Bill H 823 uh s551 into law we urge the house and um the house committee on ways and means to move favorably on pending paint stewardship legislation I wholeheartedly selfishly my basement would love you if you would pass this is we just I just am fearful of you know it's like they say all dump sand into it and just throw it in the trash but it' be really great I I just have so much paint I'm sure everybody has old paint in their basement or garages that you know really needs to get disposed of correctly so I would be in favor of this legislation so is that a motion to so I make a motion to support the letter uh to to um speaker of the house uh second uh and if there's no further discussion all those in favor tror McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim El I yes and I have some paint I would gladly deliver um I got four houses with paint cans I know some of mine are from when I bought the house which is my fault some of mine are from 1809 I think so these are the things that I didn't get you to sign before and I didn't the the Lang abatement we just don't sign those right uh just the one that we didn't do this is exact a copy that's in the yeah I know I just turned it over um was there anything else um that we let's see did we did we deal with um those are on for next time we just put them in the signature file so we didn't forget and the um the are we supposed to sign the town of Deerfield contract for the lery lot we that right okay I I lost track of getting people to sign these things so I'm doing that [Applause] now all right cuz there are we okay so we're at the um did we have to talk about the swap shed policy we already did I don't don't think so we already did and it's it's effective July 13 yes great right so I mean um I think that's going to be a great thing to hopefully uh people will be um Cooperative with those folks who are running it yeah maybe just uh remind everybody that we'll have a swap shed open very limited hours volunteers only do not harass the staff um and whatever the volunteers say goes um and please do not use it as a Dumping Ground for Chach keys and stuff you think somebody will like and you just don't want to throw away or have to pay for throw away so it's really used to kind of uh find a place to reuse stuff that is still good you know is good somebody would want um but if it's abused obviously it can't continue so it's really important that this program I know a lot of people have asked for it for many many years so um I'm excited to have it come and uh donate some stuff to it yeah and the nice thing about this is if it's not open don't leave anything correct because not a Dumping Ground it's you know it's got to be approved for for you know admission to the the [Music] service um all right so that might be something to think about fut is to put one of those ring doorbells on the on that shed so that the guy up at the that's sitting up at the uh transfer station have an eye on it keep an eye on it if somebody's trying to dump something off there that's a good good thought um all right I think that's the last thing we need to say so now um uh we're on to mail mail and so in the mail you see lots and lots and lots of stuff related to the this upcoming right away National interest electric transmission Corridor designation process which is a mouthful but I actually have a brief that one of our colleagues gave to us um I think what they're so this is the federal government trying to figure out whether they should or they evaluating the potential designation of you know Corridor changes for electrical transmission lines so right now Department of energy is evaluating corridors but they're not looking at a specific project eversource um has some thoughts on this but what you see is a series of emails and packets um with information one's from the Cog one's from the birkshire Planning Group MH one's from an independent group thank you uh Nesco I think is what they're called um and they basically have a slightly different take on all of it but and some information is a little more in-depth than others um Berkshire planning sent a lot of information with pretty pictures um but the upshot is is we can see this coming down the pike and I think depending on how long uh Department of energy takes to think this through and what their process is going to be it's something you should keep on your radar screen that's why I wanted you to have it I know how much interest there was in other utility changes that were proposed several years ago so I wanted to not lose track of that for you I know yeah so I went up to the webinar when when with all all the various planning commissions and one of the things that was of concern is that in the third phase of this which I think is not here yet um there was concern that when you turn something over to the Federal Energy regulator C committee uh a mile wide Corridor y that that basically relinquishes local control over decisions now the the electrical companies have represented that they have no desire to have a mile wide Corridor that's what they representing one of the things that came up was well what if F decided to run a pipeline through there exactly after you donated you know you said that this my why cordor is is you know under their control so yes it there's going to be a point where it's very important to say you know what are we giving up what rights are we giving up as local communities because this thing goes right right along uh parts of where the pipeline was going to go you know up through Clarkdale farm and so on so and so to that point I think everybody this is why I tried to put Jessica Atwood's information towards the beginning of that mail because Jessica is there's going to be a lot of work that the Cog does to support the towns and to support um making that we have good information about Doe's process and you know the firk FK and all of the implications that are around how this progresses um the board it would behoove us to stay in touch with them about this because they do and I don't maybe Trevor can speak to the details I don't go to Every council meeting but um they have a whole planning process with funding for f for related activities and they're very in touch with how to reach out and connect down in Washington yeah I think um you know reading reading everybody's um comments it it it's clear that they are really you know one ensuring that they do not approve a mile wide thing and that it's um only um their existing you know ever stated that they have uh communicated are as part of this potential designation process that they do not want or need a wider Corridor um than they're existing right away and do not intend to um as they uh can do their their intended project within the existing right away um I there there's a couple of things that we you know as a nation we need to um work on our electrical grid is it's woefully unequipped to handle all the the Renewable Power and the changes in power and how much demand is being required you know every house being built required to have solar and uh all run all in electricity well our grid is in nowhere near the condition that it needs to be to handle all of that and so there is going to be projects coming up but I agree I'd rather you know not we need to keep an eye on this really close and not not just say yes we need to upgrade this stuff and then wind up as you said with a pipeline that nobody wants to send you know Oilers gas out of the country so um yeah I'm I'm in I'm glad that everyone's keeping an eye on it and we'll be in touch with the I know the furog will be all over it they will be all over it that's why I wanted to sort of show you but it's not just it's not just them it's not just them definitely I think ber Planning Group um Planning Group is going to be doing the same thing yep they've done a they've done a good job that was the other reason I wanted you to see that you're getting mail from different places yep it's good and then uh so agent update and is this um is this email from Valerie bird something we that basically just for our information that the 91 and 97 Still Water Road um process continues another error has been found but we have no update on whether that person is willing to take on the properties has an interest or not what's really interesting is to find out how many people are actually related to those people up there that I never knew about and I've been in this town for you know the first 50 years of my life y right yeah Run Deep and uh yeah it's good and then um we did get some mail from um Martha price about her about the horse the timeline that I referred to and also a letter from uh Mr bernis about the conditions of the whole and I back the beginning that was at the beginning thank you for that and I asked um Casey to share have that shared with Mr Troxel and Mr Johnson um maybe that will help um them understand the process totally agree about uh you know not all of the letter of the law was followed but I I I believe a good faith effort was made and we'll continue to look at whatever effort we can bring to bear on it um but sounds like um maybe our efforts are not going to be you know accepted as being adequate but we'll let the that play out um do you have any count administrators reports that you I do I have a quick one thank you all right so I just wanted to get bring you up to date on a couple of things I've been working on uh Brenda and I were working on that fy2 Asset Management grant paperwork so we have two grants we have two grants one is storm water one is sewer and there were specific requests that we were asked to fulfill and so it took us a little while to get that done but I believe it's satisfactory did Justin tell you there was any problem no uh oh there is uh but I oh I did get an email they're still asking for uh I know the the we had to show that we had the funding right which Brenda did um and then there was an email about several things to sign um let me just see here oh um did when did Justin send it oh uh there was one at 10:15 this morning oh no that was yours that was a different one um find it here Asset Management stuff so um because this is what's happening it seems to come incrementally it does it does I just wanted to make sure that we were good they were asking for some signatures on a couple of pages but I think that's all good as again I'm I'm going to meet with d pricket on Monday and just pick off everything we're doing to make sure that we're good on all that so because I was trying to make sure we were good on this because the AMS it was very tricky so it that's what it it took a little longer than I thought because it was very tricky and how they wanted us to certify the availability of funds um they had very specific requests um so I did that and I worked with Brendon that and last week was a holiday week so people were in and out um some things didn't get done because there just wasn't a person um I've been coordinating with Council on several issues such as requests for amendments to host Community agreements we received two Deerfield Naturals was where Greenfield Road which road which one Greenfield Road interested I'm going to have a convers ation with Council I will bring back some information um so background Blake um over the past year there have been changes in both the legislation and the regulations around host Community agreements for cannabis both and and it covers the gamut of cultivation sale so it covers everything there were specific terms that were outlined in other words draft or excuse me template agreements we were expecting this um so when I received the first request I sent it to council and it was a little something happened I have to go figure something out but I also received a second one so I also sent that to council it will come back to you in at upcoming meetings once I have more information because there's certain things that we had in our old hcas that we could no longer put in there so we're going to have to find what that template looks like with council's um suggestions and we should all think together long and hard whether we want to continue a host Community agreement with anybody that has one with anybody that has one that has not made any um progress none because I think there's at least one that hasn't made any progress I've seen progress for the other one right um we also have a limitation on how many retail sales agreements we can have we can only have two so that's that's out there too as a as a concern yep um I told you about still water and I did process the nuisance dog dog order with uh Matt Pro proventure okay um I've been monitoring noise complaints And discussing those with the appropriate personnel um we did get notification from John Briggs at the mosquito control district John runs the Pioneer Valley mosquito control Control District they actually rent space from us at the 1888 building um they would like to consider a continuation but there is some discussion in his office about possibly moving so he thinks that'll be all settled before they even send us a lease agreement for review or an extension for review I just want you to know what's out there and do we know when the uh the existing lease is up is it in the next couple of months or it's I want to say August so we he warned me the end of June okay yeah I saw that email thanks yeah so we also trust repairs over at the sanctuary at the 1821 building affectionately used to be known as the old congregation South Deerfield Congregational Church s AO reached out to me they've been working with a fabricator for the materials they need to start doing the work but they're also mobilizing and I think they're going to be here end of this week to check out the property and to get the keys and stuff so I have to find all the keys I don't know where I know I used to have one but I took it over I have one if you need okay if I need one I you just reach out to me that one yeah and one thing the the keyh holder at the back of the church no longer at least the last time I accessed it it didn't have any keys in it I see so the police department should have them you should that's what I was thinking y I had them put my key in the vault just I have that one for the back door I've had since day one but you but if you need it just let me know all right I will or if you want to get a duplicate made okay um we've also been the four Town administrators are trying to coordinate a meeting um to discuss various topics that affect all four towns but we also have a meeting specifically to talk about the senior center feasibility study tomorrow good um and I'm going to invite I'm going to make sure Christopher gets to that meeting great um we're investigating a new way to prepare minutes for past meetings and Cassie sent me some information but I also met with a relatively longtime resident who might be interested in just working for us part-time to do minutes for us um if you guys are aable to that if she wants to start soon I would like her to start soon put the minutes out there this this person has a background in she's actually got a very wide background in all sorts of things she started out a lawyer oh um she's been she's been a lot of things in her life um no that'd be helpful the just as for an admin yeah you know your basic admin thing I would love to be able to get her in here and show her the templates and be able to say hey can you take this take you know three meetings and get them to me in two weeks because that will help start to catch up that doesn't mean we won't use the AI features we have on Zoom good but any meetings that predate that right we have to find different ways to do this there could also be I've mentioned it before there's AI functions that we may want to use that would require us to have a small subscription to Y one thing that I would say is that we're relatively in good shape for the current meetings and it would be nice to get us all the way up we need yeah from January 1 one meeting you know that's not like this meeting is not posted for two weeks that's reasonable right you know and if we could get that and then go back to the other ones you know cuz we got a long slug from Co till now and I'm thrilled at least since Co we have everything uploaded on YouTube through furog you know we there's people have access to our meetings minutes yes we need to get caught up on and that's very and we need to figure out just how detailed the minutes need to be since we have if we could put a link to the YouTube of the specific meeting on the minutes then that be helpful then everybody could say okay I can go to this link and I will find and be able to watch the whole thing painfully yeah sometimes uh all right so you want the most recent minutes yeah I I unless you have a different thought I mean I think that the most current issues are the ones that people should have a right and expectation to have I mean they should have all them but you know this this predates blow Blake in me this problem has been in existence yeah because meeting minutes take a while to do and they don't have to yeah I think that depends entirely on what the board wants to see for a synopsis and that's what Amy and I were working on that what constitutes a synopsis if somebody wants their specific sentence reflected that takes more time yeah right I mean bottom line it's action items it's topics that came up theot and then what we do is we provide sub you know a way to find out additional information for additional information you can watch the meeting at such and such right um I think that's super important because then people can verify what's in the meeting yes they did vote 30 on this or know there was an abstention and this person voted this way this person voted that way yep exactly all right um and then we've had several public records requests that Cassie and I are trying to manage some of them are are old friends and other ones are new and in some cases Amy has stuff to do because they're inspections data um the good news is that she can use some of the new the new software system but a lot of this is background that she has to dig out so it does sort of take a toll on how much how much time we can spend doing other things um but that's the gist of what we've been doing um I think now that we've got July 4th behind us we've got a little more time to start especially working on minutes that's the thing that keeps me up at night there's a lot of things that keep me up at night but minutes is one of them yeah I'll be done now unless you have any specific questions for me no I think there's one other so I saw your other email that we got tonight from uh USDA that wanted to kind of put together a um you know an acknowledgement of the funding and a little event cuz they're showcasing their funding and how it worked in different communities so I think they want to put a little event together for this for the treatment plant so I'm going to just email back to Benjamin um from USDA and say we love to help you know I know the um waterline want to be involved and they they said they' you know throw in some money for burgers and dogs or whatever and I think it's it' be really important to get it open to the public I mean I think everything's pretty much cleaned up now and safe and I'll check with Eric maybe when we get down to see him next Wednesday and or yeah next Wednesday and just talk about um you know where would be a safe place to do it is it cleaned up enough I mean I think everything's pretty pretty spotless right now so right be great to put that on and maybe you can say oh by the way um we need to fix this e PL you have a $2 million Grant you want to give us bingo bingo yep talk that up Trevor I will will just let me know because I want to make sure that we that at least the Administration has a chance to visit during that whatever that situation is yep yep if they want to yep and one final thing I just occurred to me that we had an occasion to to meet with uh Senator cord and uh representative bla and um we have a commitment from them and from ourselves to continue working to see if we can fill that $800,000 hole in the road damage uh repair work that we did perhaps maybe it would be a supplemental request for FY 23 24 when the actual damage occurred so we we got the benefit of an FY 23 when when they had some Surplus money but we're going to continue to pursue resources to fill the hole in our budget that was created by that um that situation so good to know and if there's nothing else I will gladly entertain a motion to adjourn I move to adjourn I'll second that motion all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I thank thank you so much for everyone staying and enjoying the show