good evening and welcome to the select board Board of Health sewer Commissioners meeting for the town of Deerfield July 24th 2024 uh at 6: p.m. this meeting will be held in a hybrid fashion with the opportunity for both in-person attendance and remote participation please note that while an option for remote attendance Andor participation is being provided is a courtesy to the public the meeting hearing will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast unless otherwise required by law members of the public with particular interest in any specific item on this agenda should make plans 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 30A anyone intending to record the meeting must identify themselves to the clerk Blake Gilmore and provide their name and address for the record so you I'll call the meeting to order and um we will have um actually going to try and time public comment tonight so that we can limit it to the two-minute period so if there's anybody who would like to make a two-minute comment please uh come up to one of the mics and uh state your name and where you live good evening how are you good I'm Lori bronis I live on South Mill River Road and I was here at your last meeting when uh Cher banit his name came up for the zoning board and I was surprised um I asked her why she didn't provide any more information on her background and she said that she had dropped off her application to a young man here at the Town Hall and was told someone would get back to her no one ever got back to her she has over 30 um years of experience with this committee as her husband was the um chair of the board most of those years and went to every single meeting not to say that Tia or any anybody else that you put on that committee isn't worthy of it but I just think that someone should have gotten back to her and maybe given her an opportunity to apply for that position and especially since you said one of the people on the board was already on three other committees and this is where her expertise was so um I just would hope in the future that if people submit their name that you would um check check them out a little bit and maybe ask them a few questions or at least give them a call and let them know when it's coming up on the agenda because she wasn't notified that her name was even coming up that night and didn't have an opportunity to uh present her case so I'm just hoping that in the future that if we want to get some Town participation from other people um new people maybe you would take that into consideration in the future thank you thank you for coming anyone else Dave Johnson oh hi I'm William walr I live on River Road uh William can you speak a little closer to the mic apparently it's hard for people on Zoom to hear us yeah William Waldren on River Road um is this appropriate to ask questions here or you can ask questions but we we we can take it under advisement but we're not going to be responding to the comments you don't respond we can get back to you we'll we'll have Casey Warren you know take down what you want us to research but we may not have the the the answer immediately okay I'm curious I read in the paper about the um pipe at the uh salt Deerfield sewer treatment plant M and um I'm just a little curious about that I have a few questions about that and um my first one was when did anyone become aware that there was a problem with that pipe um and why wasn't it part of the rehabilitation of the of the sewer plant um that we just went through how does it just get discovered now or did it just get discovered now and um I'm also wondering where the break is um maybe it's right at the riverbank uh uh because I took a walk over there and kind of looked at it and I see that there's a hole in the ground and it looks like it's been there for a very long time and wondering what's the problem uh if you want to call me I can give you my number I'm happy to talk to you offline about all of that update you and give you any background you need okay I can um do you want to write that down or to me sure why don't I do that uh got a piece of paper I can write on for you did you have did you did you have other questions yeah one other thing not in regards to you are running out of time okay just a quickly uh I'm wondering about the minutes from all Town committees um where do we find those I know there's a place on the town website that says minutes but almost all of them are blank where where do we get that information so it is on the town website most of the time you can find them on the pages each committee each committee's page a lot of times has them all list all listed and then you can if there's anything current like in the last 3 years you you can always watch them YouTube the whole meeting if you want on fcap U but yes we do have have meetings minutes um usually on each board okay so we're we're responding and and thank you for your concerns I think both of them are very important and maybe we can uh uh have a report from Trevor about the sewer outlet pipe in a upcoming meeting cool thank you uh any other comments Mr Johnson call me anytime anytime good to talk to you [Music] evening gentlemen um I would just like to review some things uh regarding the burial of the horse adjacent my property horse was buried May 28th June 12th myself Bill mono and Matt Troxel came in to verbalize our concerns and to point out the immediacy of doing something at that point in time we also provided information regarding what was going to occur over time regarding a possible biohazard uh subsequently um whatever was going on was going on behind the scenes I understand subsequently there were some conversations with people um and U when I came back on the on the 26 it didn't appear that a whole lot of action had taken place when I was here again on July 10th um Mr Hil you said to me you had spoken to massud hashimi and he had reassured you that a carcass of a deer or some such thing dying in the field there aren't only 100 deer 800 lb beer um and that um in your opinion it was one person's wants versus an expert and and that's quote you can check the video it's there okay that's not the case the case is that bill mono one kellerer drive Matt and Samantha Troxel 110 North Main Street and David Johnson 112 North Main Street were are and continue to be concerned about this um you also said to me in the 10th That You Don't See this as a nuisance at this point however on June 12th you said and I quote if I were the neighbor I would feel that way too okay the question I have is there's been no soil sampling there's been no scientific anything other than a conversation uh with uh Dr hashimi can you definitively provide me with a statement in that the fruit in my yard is and will continue to be safe to eat that it's that it's safe for me to host my annual business barbecue and that the groundwater seeping into my basement is not and will not subsequently be contaminated that's all we've been asking for since the very beginning okay thank you thank you any other comments any other comments okay so um we have a public hearing coming up at the 20th but uh in the interim maybe we can take care of a couple of pieces of business that are scheduled for later in the meeting um can hold on check oh there we go that's why let me it keeps popping on and off there we go oh that's why there we go so Trevor can we um I'd like to take up these uh this one day liquor license for the Franklin Land Trust yeah I'll make some motion that let's get to those page okay I'll make a motion to approve a one-day liquor license um for the Franklin Land Trust um the D2 R2 fundraiser dirt Church Brewing Company selling and serving beer from Taps on site from 5 to 900 p.m. on the dates of uh August 16th 2024 is there a second second any discussion um Casey all the insurance paperwork and everything is in order y okay motion's been made and seconded um all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hill g i and then I would like to make a a motion to approve the Franken link trust one day liquor license um for the D D2 R2 fundraising that uh Berkshire Brewing Company BBC serving beer from Taps on site from 2: to 9900 p.m. at the main registration tent on mil Village Road that would be for the date of August 17th 2024 second and in both of these um we are going to wave the associated fee because it's a nonprofit charity event yep we typically do where his location this is on mil Village Road they they uh on the way to kind of the the fields and de and old deer field they set up the tents and do the bike ride each year to raise money for the Franklin land trust it's closer to Old Deerfield that's correct okay it's on yaps property yaps property yep usually yep um so motion's been made and seconded any further discussion hearing none all those in favor chor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I right you let me see got things you want to do the appointments of uh scems scems yeah why don't we start that okay um we have a request from uh Chief Joshua Sparks for new appointments to South County EMS um there are five uh people that he was going to request a um appointment on per DM basis so I would make a motion to uh approve Sam Samantha Baker um at uh FY 25 rate grade C per DM EMT basic Step 1 2362 an hour I'll make a motion to approve um Gabrielle Benz full-time EMT um for uh same position FY 25 rate grade C per DM EMT Step 1 2362 per hour uh Shan Duma which I make a motion to approve Shan Duma um he is a experienced paramedic um at the fy2 r grade e per DM paramedic step one at 3123 per hour and I'll make a motion to approve uh Matthew Hall also a full-time firefighter experienced paramedic in ties with EMS um FY 25 rate grade e per DM paramedic step one uh 3123 an hour and finally Nicole Thorton make a motion to approve Nicole thoron a full-time firefighter EMT at a FY 25 rate grade C per DM EMT basic step one at 2362 per hour I'll second that great any discussion nope so these these five people all come highly recommended by uh Chief Sparks um who's done interviews with them along with the staff so I'm I pleased to see that uh we have a renewed interest in pums yeah very lucky to have have these qualified people Serv in um Deerfield u s and wait so uh any further discussion hearing none all those in favor Trevor Mel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I great thank you very much is there anything else we can easily knock off Casey I think you could just pass over sunny days and ask me to make sure it gets on the next agenda since we don't have an HCA to look at all right okay yeah so um well we can get to that yeah let's uh let's um pass over the sunny days under discussion decision items uh the HCA renewal and uh take it up uh after town council's gotten back to us about some issues concerning whether we need to do this or not okay got a motion no I think we can just to um do we need to wait on on the Zach's barbecue or is that just also some work to be done that might take longer okay I see all right we can wait what else we got okay any comments do you guys have any announcements uh well I I just I know that um I'll just Broach a subject of the senior flu Clinic I know that you've been working on and everybody in the staff has been working on with um mag tudin a location which I think has been secured at the Deerfield uh South Deerfield fire district um meeting room that they they're going to be holding a the annual senior flu Clinic um and I assume it's just flu and not Co this year it's just flu just flu itself and hopefully there'll be the high doses as well um and uh I know that Meg's putting that together I can't remember the date do you do you recall she let me see I she didn't she don't think we have early okay not a date yet but just be on the lookout for a um for a flu clinic and then we'll still be looking to um you know each year we usually do a flu clinic or we have in in the past at at the highway garage a dry flu flu Clinic um and I thought we should probably have a discussion on that at some point to see if that's something we'd want to do again um it's usually pretty popular and one day in October we do it and it you know we get quite a few of the residents done um as long as people have their insurance card and all so yeah I think we should definitely put that onto a discussion for the next meeting yep so that we'll have it in time for consideration uh scheduling all right right um so are the are the folks involved in the spirit shop here in and are we in and I see Chief PS here so if um I guess we will start take three minutes to read it yeah there you go so in the matter of the Deerfield Spirit Shop on July 10 2024 notice was sent by a certified first class mail and electronic mail pursuant to the provisions of GLC chter 138 section 64 to the holder of the license issued pursuant to GLC 138 section 15 to conduct business at premises located at 53c South Main Street South Deerfield that a hearing would be held today July 24 2024 at 60 6:20 p.m. the purpose of the hearing is for the select board as the local licensing authority to determine whether the license holder has violated the provisions of said chapter 138 or any rules and regulations prolongated under the authority of that chapter and if such violation is found to have occurred whether such license should be modified suspended or revoked in accordance with GLC 138 section 23 the subject to be discussed is the alleged violation of applicable law specifically Al whether the leny or employee of said leny violated the provisions of General law chap 138 section 34 through the sale or delivery of alcohol to a minor person um so make a motion to open the hearing yes you want to do that y motion to open the hearing second great all those in favor I CH McDaniel BL him I Tim h i so um anyone who's going to be giving test testimony will swear in so um I'll invite sure come up whatever yeah come on SO prior to offering any evidence I ask if there is anyone here who will be presenting evidence to the board to to stand raise your right hand and repeat after me I state your name I John St uh swear that the testimony I'm about to provide is the whole truth I swear testimony provide is the whole truth testimony on provide is the whole truth all right so um Chief maor will you be U presenting the alleged violation sure good evening thank you so much for uh all the notifications thank you for Mr shly who's always been amazing and very responsive to any anything we've ever needed over at the Spirit Shop Sergeant ravish uh who I think most people know Brian ravish is the school resource officer uh he conducts semiannual uh check-ins with all the liquor establishments By Request of not only Deerfield he does them in Hatfield weightly and Sunderland so he actually grabs two seniors from high school he makes sure they don't have any money on them and he photocopies their driver's licenses they both have to be seniors in their 18 years of age he then takes them around and gives them money that we established out of the drug forfeiture fund they walk into establishments and they try and buy alcohol sometimes they're chased out sometimes they're cursed out and sometimes he has to intervene with the irate employees coming after them uh on May 1st of this year he did go in well the uh the 18-year-old male he usually chooses one male one female and kind of rotates them the 18-year-old male did go into the spirit shop in downtown South Deerfield and unfortunately purchased a sixpack of Budweiser out of uh the cooler in there without being carded by the employee working that day sergeant ravish went in and uh spoke to the employee he admitted that he just completely forgot to ask for the person's driver's license was extremely apologetic I had the occasion to meet with uh the owner Steve sherle who I've known for many many years um his business manager and and go through a corrective action plan that I think uh Steve would probably be much more um better off to describe than I would but I was very very satisfied with their corrective action plan that they were coming up with so the bottom line is is we did find one violation in Deerfield unfortunately was the spirit shop and we usually get Word of Mouth uh who's supplying a lot of the alcohol in the region and I can tell you it is absolutely not the Spirit Shop the spirit shop is normally the complaint that I get about my 57 to 58 year-olds being carded still and how it's an inconvenience for them so this is not the norm out of the Deerfield Spirit Shop so um would you like to make some comments yes uh thank you Chief I I appreciate the kind words um i' I'd like to be sitting here saying that this is not true um but I've read uh Brian ravishes report every everything that was in the report unfortunately didn't occur I'm not I'm not here to say it didn't happen um I understand the town is uh following State mandated regulations now which I fully support 100% um you know it I mean this is terribly embarrassing for me you know being town for so many years uh we do run a respectable business we we've procedurally over the years have fine-tuned to the point where I have 100% faith in in procedurally how things are supposed to go and how my management uh lays out the laws um the accountability for anyone who who does make a a sale or something against the law is they immediately are are fired which did happen in this instance um none of my management has ever um fail to sting or anything against the law we've we've always run a tight ship so in I'm not here to defend the actions but what I am I'm here to do is explain the uh what we've come up with we've racked our brains because procedurally we we've got everything laid out we've invested money in ID machines we've made it so simple all of our all of our employees every single one of them are repeatedly um trained at the bat level uh that's provided through Mass Package Store Association of which I'm a board member of which makes us doubly embar embarassing uh because that's our you know that's the our reason for existence is to you know promate uh safe service and and so that small business can um survive in Massachusetts MH so what we've done is uh We've racked our brains tried to figure out where our weakness is it's it's not our management it's not our procedures um but I think with as with many other Industries parttime help is is where our failure has been every time right and we can lay down the law we can um threaten them with you know losing their job it doesn't seem to matter um the amount of apathy that exists is is something that we we just can't work with so I mean to our financial detriment um but also with some some other safety issues that have occurred you know um in Sunderland [Music] recently we've decided that minimizing our exposure to the weakness is the best we can do right so what we've come up with is we are going to first of all shorten our hours uh so that we can afford to hire full-time employees full-time employment offers you know benefits vacation um you know higher pay something that would attract the type of employee that would take the job seriously right and and have the the uh the accountability is they lose that job they're losing a a higher paying job they have something to lose you know more likely they're providing for a family than a transient college student or someone who just doesn't care so what we've done is in all stores is have decreased hours um we're making arrangements and we've already done so in Deerfield uh to to hire we have all full-time employees uh except for I think we've minimized it down to like 3 hours 3 or 4 hours on um I believe Sunday which is an earlier closing anyway so the rest of the time management will be there on on site uh and we won't be exposed we're we be minimally exposed to having part-time help holding down the fort so to speak um it's it's unfortunate um like I said procedurally we we are bomb proof right all all these employees have to do is follow our guidelines which is you know if unless un you know that person or I mean unless you don't know that person right saying this wrong if you don't know the person um and you for sure that they are of age then you must card them if you've never seen them before you must card them um it is annoying for sometimes we do get employees complaining or not employees uh customers complaining because some of my employees take it over the top but if they haven't seen them before it's better it's the way it goes and what I I'm trying to avoid is carding every single person every single time they come in you know it it's just you know that would really upset my customer base uh because we see a lot of people you know two three times a week you know we know them we know everyone in our community uh um and my management knows ever in in the community uh Jake was born and raised here um everybody knows Jake um so I I have complete faith in in my management team and I think by making these changes it it's it's all I can all I can come up with all we came up with um it it's it's going to be an inconvenience because we're our operating hours are shortened for our customer base but we feel that the hours that we've cut off which are the uh the late hours um you know we're okay with foregoing that business in exchange for you know decreasing exposure to that things so thank you for bearing with me at that description but that's that's what we've come up with and I fully accept what the board uh comes up with as punishment uh fines whatever okay we uh will happily take them on so um do any board members have questions for either Chief or Mr she yeah Steve um is there do you have any other training that you might be able to do with some of these employees and again I understand that you're not going to have the part-time employees but even with some of your full-time employees maybe you bring in somebody that you know could be of age mhm to see if they get carded or they don't get carded kind of like and doing that on a you know it doesn't have to be every week or anything like that but doing it so that it just kind of keeps them mind their toes a little bit no Blake uh that's it's i' obviously forgotten that aspect because we have done that we've hired uh the bars program um which is a private agency that does come to each of our locations and does uh thingss and they let us know you know how our team has been doing and since uh I I think we've hired them well we hired them right after the incident um as another step to keep people on their toes and we haven't failed one yet so that and I can provide documentation for that if if need U but so we we are doing everything that we can think of and and that was a great idea and I'm embarrassed I forgot to bring that up but it's all good yeah Trevor no uh um I'm I'm good I think we'll to after you close the meeting maybe we talk but I don't have any question just a question for you Casey do we need to do the discussions um any further discussion before we close the hearing if you don't think you need to take any more evidence my thought would be to um you decide how you want to handle the next two pieces which is determine whether the violation has occurred and what a penalty might be okay so um if there's no other evidence to be entered U then I would take a motion to close the hearing make a motion to close the hearing second all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim hchi I okay so um discussion I think that um what they've done here is they've they've started to uh um and I think they've done a good job as far as uh rectifying the situation and making sure that it doesn't happen again again I think the fact that the weak link is definitely part time employees and that even can be in the you know the uh food industry again you know handing out drinks and that sort of thing I I know that I come from a community that's down near the uh the ocean and summer help is always there and there's a lot of violations that go on down there so I'm saying I think they have really taken this serious I'm I'm impressed with the move that they've already made um I well I guess I would just um enter and um make a motion to um affirm that a that a violation has occurred then we can move on so make that motion that a violation has occurred second they don't disagree y yeah I mean and it's both parties agreed that violation occurred so um there's ample evidence for that so um all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I um so in this portion of discussion what we want to do about this it sounds as though um with the um compliance is the thing we want we don't want to necessarily punish a business for a mistake that was made this is my personal opinion um and it sounds that as though the police have worked with the uh with the uh violation to to find a solution to um correcting the issue and uh so I personally think that uh this is the right approach to take um but I would like to hear from the other board members about whether um there's any motion that we want to make about future violation so I I think um not the first time we've been here right since since I've been on the board and I know it's always been part-time people who don't care right they get whatever an hour and like you said they don't have benefits what's it to them they lose job they pick one up somewhere else super easy um and it's not like you can panelize them they're not the ones getting the fines um and I'm sure you got you know you get a fine for this kind of thing um which also has increased recently too um so it it's serious and I know that you've addressed it I know you care about this deeply and I Know Chief has has looked at this as well um so you know we have to come up with a with a penalty and I think that um I think the action that you've taken and the steps that you're doing to reduce your hours is is somewhat of a penalty too and the cost to to do it but I think it's the right move going forward cuz I don't see another way aside from a machine that just cards everything that you're going to pull out of a cooler I don't know how you you do it any other way um it's it's human human you know Human Action so you'll have an error here and there um if if you know the options are to you know close the business for a couple of days I I think um with the seriousness that you've taken here if we were going to do that I would suspend that action in case you know so if we would suspend say a motion to suspend the business for 2 days but I would suspend that providing we don't have another violation for 2 years and then that would be lifted so um that's you know I mean we can close the business for two two days but that I don't know what that's really going to do for you other than the steps you've already taken you've worked with the chief and you obviously know the seriousness of that but I think that you know we have to set some it's you know it's a serious thing people can buy that go drink it get drunk smash a car lose a life all that so it is a serious thing and I think that if we made that um motion to you know to suspend operations for 2 days and suspend that um that penalty for 2 years providing there isn't any other interaction I think that would be a safe um it's penalty it's hanging over um and obviously it comes with a lot more violations if it's you know if if we're here again within two years so um I'm in agreement with tror on that except that I would say we instead of the two years one year mhm and again that's just my opinion on different violations I've dealt with in the past and that sort of thing so I would take I'm fine with that so do you want to make a motion along those lines so I'll make a motion to um suspend operations for two days two business days and that we would um suspend that uh that uh penalty for uh one year of uh business until um just July 24th 2025 if there's no other violations that'll be lifted I second that any further discussion hearing none all those in favor tror McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim HGI so I hope that uh seems satisfactory I I I want to thank you for you know coming and giving fourth uh fourth rate testimony that acknowledging the mistake and uh and having a plan place to address that going forward I appreciate your consideration and I'm I'm very pleased and happy to uh you know make this not happen again yeah all right thank you sounds a good plan thank you appreciate it Chief thank you Steve Steve thank you so we have five minutes until the next uh the next um meeting uh scheduled meeting so is there anything else Casey that we could knock off oh would you like me to go through some report stuff sure I can do that okay so I've been working after the select board meeting on Thursday I've been working on negotiating with the successful candidate for the hire he and I are going to meet on Friday to discuss what his counter is and I will let the board know what's going on once I have more information okay great that's good um I've begun I've actually been working with Dick and Valerie and I don't know if Valerie still here but she was she y um on reviewing the resumés we've gotten four um and I've started to set up interviews there's one interview that set up next Tuesday this is for this is for the Board of Health agent the health agent position yes um I haven't heard back from the other candidate yet but I'm hoping I hear from them by tomorrow if not I'm going to reach out again um so we're going to start doing that and hopefully have something to give to the board as soon as possible uh there's been several Road complaints that I've T been working with Chris Miller on you know one is the north Hillside Road runoff we received a call from John Stacy about run off that's impacting the road as well as his property and another neighbor's property so okay I saw those emails superintendent um Miller's gone out there they've put some trap rock out but he went out today to talk to Mr Stacy I don't know what the result of that conversation is yet but I told Mr Stacy that I would work with Chris to figure out you know what we can do certainly if it's impacting the roadway we need to figure out how to mitigate that damage um we really can't work on private property but we need to be careful about our own property right um River Road I met with Chris earlier he actually had two meetings with Weston and Samson Engineers this was the engineering company that worked on the fix for the area of River Road that seems to be deteriorating it's right in front of um's house yeah Board of Health agent kashes house it's near your house right but do they um did they look at the other one that's right in front of they didn't look at that they looked at River Road they were focused on River Road and so he met with two people from wsse and they seem to think that it's not a slope failure because there's other fixtures along that area that are not showing any leaning it's probably more of a compaction issue um so what they suggested we do is borings that's about 15,000 and a survey of that site area that's about 5,000 and using that information and Analysis they would develop alternatives to fix the issues it wouldn't be a design but it would be a suggestion for how we could go forward to a design um so I'm planning on meeting with Chris and Brenda as soon as we can to figure out fundings to pay for those two things right um I don't know what that will look like but we've got to figure something out before it gets any worse should we have a like a a a board meeting with Wes and Samson once they get something together that really need going around and around and around with this thing for you know is this in the 526 area or where is it I mean this is right in front of Dick K's house so it's beyond I think it's beyond the guardwell point Beaver Drive in there right before the um the guard rails are part of that it is yeah the guard rails are sinking in there too so this is right before the UMass agricultural area where the barns start it's right before that um I think we need to see what the analysis is before you guys can really chew on it too much because unless you want to take a site visit with um Chris Miller and look at it but they're not I don't know that they're going to say much more than you need to do borings and you need to do a site survey so that you get a better idea of what what the conditions are in the below the road and adjacent to the road um yes it has been deteriorating it's going to be forever with that Ro you know it's right on the river it is but I think the reason that Chris Miller contacted um wsse was because they had done the work they wor walked us through the mass Works Grant and then handled um the construction oversight after they did the design so he wanted years ago or something nope it was 10 they finished it 10 years ago and it was almost it was almost $800,000 um so I don't know taxpayers got it you're like I mean this is it's not just there it's everywhere I know it is we have roads that are just you know that's why we struggled to get that money to fix roads and that was just the emergency stuff let alone all the stuff that shows up constantly I mean we're going to have to I know that we're going to we're going to have to go into the next at 6:45 all right finance committee had a a meeting this week to talk about so let's come back to that later in the meeting we can okay all right so at this point um we are going to reconsider uh approval of mbz Inc Zach's barbecue section 12 wine and Malt Liquor licenses Peter langlo here hey welcome don't forg to speak into the mic yes please uh Iden ify yourself and speak swallow the mic Peter langoy president of nbz ank owner of Zach's barbecue yeah pull that mic closer to you little closer thank you so um Casey can you just give us a quick overview on where we are so we received a return no action from the abcc and for the request for a liquor license that Peter had put through with us back in April um I didn't realize it wasn't here so I didn't realize we needed to fix a lot of the deficiencies in the application so Peter and I worked together through the outline that the abcc official sent us of what needed to be fixed he provided the documentation and we reviewed it together and then I went back today and I reviewed the order of the items to make sure they're as correct as we can make them um and what we the necessary action is the board approved this in April the Board needs to take a vote of reconsideration for that approval to basically update their vote um tonight so everything's in order that we can make an order um and we've Peter and I have had a couple conversations about this so I think we're all ready to go if you guys are willing to take that vote I'll move to approve reconsideration of the application for nbz Inc DBA Zach's barbecue for section 12 on premise pouring license wine and Mal beverages as presented sorry second thank you and um for purposes of discussion what were the deficiencies or they is it is it minutia that were no it was a few questions that hadn't you hadn't clicked there wasn't there hadn't been boxes checked there were a couple of um items around proof of um mortgage proof yeah proof of mortgage mortgage proof of mortgage There Was an explanation required as as to the startup costs I have the entire file yeah so this is like the the the incomplete um representation of um Mr langlo uh full duties related to Zach and and a similar one for Teresa langoy did I I pronounce you do you pronounce the s or do you not pronounce the S Lang yeah langlo okay I I speak French so I Canadian yeah I kind of leave things the way I yeah so okay and so you've you've since corrected the documentation to list all of your titles and all of Teresa's titles uh and [Music] um you've gotten your Corey forms in order okay anything else that uh that you needed to do Casey in order to bring this no I think you just have to take the vote and we will process the paperwork and send it back to the abcc okay um so is there any further discussion from anyone else all right um all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I thank you thank you thank you Peter all right appreciate it we'll get working on that tomorrow thank you do we do we need to sign this you need to sign at the bottom right in this little tiny box in those little tiny boxes okay in that little tiny box okay it's just you though right all three of us sign yes and whenever you're ready I believe Christopher is here yes um over to you Christopher done right good evening everyone um just a couple quick updates I want to make sure all the select board members aware of um so first with the senior center feasibility study uh with EDM Studio as the consultant um they're going to be doing some workshops next week um I believe they're going to be stopping by each of the proposed sites on Tuesday Morning um so they'll stop by the church uh then weightly and then the Oxford site over in Sunderland and then they'll kind of wrap up that um by going to the Delta sand and gravel building in Sunderland to to talk with Jen about current space and programming um so certainly if you're able to attend Trevor I know I checked in with you I think maybe that's a special day for you also but y I'm G to try try and make it yeah yeah yeah um and they're be back Tuesday oh sorry what that was Tuesday Tuesday the 30th yep okay yes Y and then uh they are going to be back on site um I just let me double check the date actually I believe it's August 19th um to do some look at the mechanical Electrical Plumbing Systems for those facilities as well yeah Monday to 19th and again those are early morning visits so they'll be here starting at 8: a.m. 8 a.m. sharp um so just want to make sure everyone was aware of that um really quick on the lery lot obviously construction is is kicking off so they you may have seen the Hasty fence went up uh on Tuesday um and they're just going to be doing some initial kind of grubbing and removing of vegetation this week um and then they'll be moving forward with um you know all the the construction items on their list so let me know if you have any questions um I've been reaching out to a Butters to make sure they're aware and um you know if any issues come up they have a an open line of communication with Town Hall so we can make sure their needs are are met and any issues are addressed um and then real quick on the 1888 building um you know we are I believe still just waiting on some language from Town Council uh to add to the contract with C riddle architects um we're going to have uh you know I I believe a contract at hand uh for the next meeting of this body um next non-sp special meeting I should say um so we can move forward with that as well um so those are most of my updates uh any any questions or other projects any s board members wanted to bring up I know I saw conversations between you and Dot about the common and I know that somebody's back from vacation so they're digging through their pile of stuff and we'll reply back to you on that so thanks for keeping a you know following up on that yeah happy too and and we're we've got tentatively August 6th as the next meeting for the committee um but we'll see if theot has a chance to get us comments back in the term we can reschedule as needed and can you give us a little update on uh the progress of the sidewalks on North Main Street they seem to have reached down to about 144 North Main Street the last I saw in terms of the actual surfacing but uh any any more that we want to share with the public yeah I haven't uh gotten an update um from Chris Miller on that project this week um you know I've been talking to him every so often to make sure they're progressing along um we'll I'll check in with him and see if there are any issues that need to be addressed um I know their plan is to complete the work prior to school being back back in session obviously so we want to make sure they're they're making it down the full length North Bain um to Pleasant Street okay great anything else no that's that's it for me all right um well have a good evening thank you thanks and Valerie bird um wondered if you wanted to uh you know give us some any comments that you needed to make about uh any related to Board of Health I just wanted to give you a quick update um so the case that we had or that we didn't have but the case we were involved in um on a Greenfield Road that case has been resolved the occupant is is leaving September 1st and then so that's good news hopefully she'll be good um and then uh Trevor as you know the uh receivership cases moving forward yesterday he went to court and Mr O was appointed as the receiver immediately so he will be boarding and securing that property which is a good thing 91 Still Water Road 91 and 97 Still Water Road yeah so so that's a good thing get it gets the town off the plate of that MH it's not something we want to be involved with but it's quite a mess um so I don't know Trevor you want to say anything about that yeah it was it was an interesting process where um you the first day we couldn't do it because of Microsoft's downage uh on Friday but we came back on Tuesday and um and uh so so yeah went off without a hitch the the receivership was given to o and um he'll jump on securing it and getting going he's done this a bunch before he was there on another case of similar kind of thing so I feel pretty confident he'll be able to get that you know get the place cleaned up and hopefully auctioned off and you know turn it into some good property that people can build on or rehab the house and sell who knows or whatever whatever it's not it's it's going to take a while it's going to take it doesn't happen overnight it could be you know a couple years for sure by the time it gets cleaned up and what happens is that Mr or will will present um his list of what needs to be done to the court and that'll be done relatively soon and then he'll start on that process but the court has to approve what he's doing so you can't just like pad the bill that's not going to happen because the court has to put um the court has to approve everything he's doing and uh monthly the Board of Health agent or whatever the Board of Health agent may be we'll go there and just do a quick summary and send a report to the the Attorney General's office and the Attorney General's office we will go to court each month and say what's been done and what needs to be done so hopefully you know maybe less than two years but it it's a big piece of property and there's a lot of issues with it m so we're working on that anything else you can think of TR I think that's probably about it yeah yeah and we we had some issue with the uh redesign at da but you've resolved that internally with the building department yep yes yep yep looks good all right uh anything else Valerie um no but I know we have you you guys have some interviews coming up next next week maybe I don't know yes I don't know whenever whenever case you said that you know when you can get them together or get the um second person in line or whatever get them on on the schedule to be interview so what we'll do is um and I spoke to to Richard about it that we would stay on until you got somebody in place because we're certainly not going to just bail and leave you with an empty seat thank you appreciate the help we'll get on it right away okay anything anything else you guys have ask or whatever thank you thanks Valerie thank you Val okay have a good night you all right so uh um we earlier decided to move move ahead on um just passing over sunny days so [Music] um we have uh next up um is the possibility of setting the special town meeting date um we have a few issues that we need to bring before the voters um and we're looking at two dates the calendar this year is really full because we have a national election and and um uh which puts a burden on Town administrative staff so we're looking to consider October 7 and October 15 um Casey can you talk a little bit about your discussions with Cassie sandero about which which date might be the better of the two so Cassie and I have discussed this I've also reached out um and asked whether the space at the auditorium is available and I've reached out to council and the moderator and asked about their avilability so Cassie and our discussion Cassie and mine was really about the amount of work that's necessary on her part because she's between a primary election and the general election and there's a lot of tasks involved this is also her first election yeah um this only happens every four years but it's her first one so she was a little concerned about that basically we landed on the fact that October 7th is a better date of those two choices um because the closer she gets to October 19th the harder it is for her to be able to focus on that because her early voting starts the 19th and she has to do a lot of prep prior to that first day um so the 7th is better the moderator can do the 7th um Town Council can do either the 7th or the 15th and the space is available on either day over at the auditorium so if you wanted to pick the seventh we could do that do will we have uh could you I don't know if you've checked with Brenda yet are we going to have free cash C5 I did check with Brenda I had that conversation in fact that was one of the things that Tim and I discussed she believe she'll have free cash certified generally usually if there's any funding that we need we use free cash although you can you can additionally appropriate but that's I've never seen Deerfield do that no we always just use free cash for something so she's pretty confident we'll have free cash by then okay um it is a little earlier than normal but the sooner we get get the word out if that's what you want to do the better um I drafted a motion that does two things it sets the date and opens the warrant because we need to get that warrant opened in case people have y other items I already know of at least two items that we're going to see but if you guys want to the best date of the two dates is the 7th yeah so for discussion purposes I'm going to make a move to set the date for special town meeting of October 7 201 24 at 6:00 p.m. and declare the warrant for special town meeting open with said special town meeting warrant to close honor about August 30 2024 second so um any discussion um I'm just got to figure out the other things we're going to need to figure out for that fing for that and um is there a date certain by which we have to close the warrant yes so if you um August 30 is it August 30 or is that was my suggestion sometimes we go beyond that date if we're waiting for information but I like to give people a deadline so that we have time to finalize the Articles and present them to council for review mhm so that's the reason I said that but it's not a hard and fast rule we've passed it before right but basically there is like a is there a statute that says you have to do this 21 days before or you so you have to post the warrant not less than 14 days prior we've already Cassie and I already discussed the date that we need to have the warrant posted and that's got to be September 20th okay so if we close the 30th it gives people a little over a month and it gives us a little bit of leeway if we know something's coming through but we don't have complete language well hopefully this won't be and about 10 days to have Council review at the moment it's not looking like a huge warrant but things drive up things creep out of the woodwork work sometimes as you open a warrant they all come running yep any further thoughts nope are there going to be a problem with the fact that you're between two national elections that you're going to be working this thing so what I said to Cassie was a lot of the work that happens around the meeting isn't done by the town clerk the administrative staff in my office we prep the warrant we schedule everything and set up for audio work with FCAT um compile the warrant by doing the requests for articles um we process and make sure that the moderator Town Council and the town clerk have a chance to discuss the Articles and what their concerns might be internally but a lot of the work actually happens she has to prep things like voting Flags she has to make sure she has uh workers to to to uh sign people in and if we need to have if we think there may be a question where you would have a secret ballot or anything we have she prepares all of that a lot of that stuff is always is already ready um and I told her Point Blank we would help her with any of that that we needed to but the real work is actually taking the minutes and that's when I we provide the Motions the Town Administrator generally writes the motions works with Brenda works with for proofing works with Council and the moderator so we provide most of that stuff she hits the ground running when she has to make sure she has the materials the people and attends town meeting so I think we can minimize it to the extent that it's possible but that was one of her concerns so you know I other than that it's later in November which is it would be later in November if we had to do it and it would be between General and Thanksgiving we wouldn't want to do it the week of Thanksgiving but there's a period after each election where you have to allow for ballots to come in it's a 5day period to certify all those ballots so there's really not a great time um so we were trying to figure out how we could work within the parameters of the 7th or the 15th I think we good so um if there's no further discussion the motion's been made seconded all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim helch I so we've set the October 7 as the special town meeting date yep and I will notify I'll send an email out and notify people um that the meeting's been set and that the warrant's opened give me the closing date for the warrant again August 30 August 30th unless something comes up yep um all right so um do you have an update on Eastern I do hold on let me get to my notes so this is the this is the discussions we've been having about uh maintenance of a farm Swale along Eastern a to try and increase um and restore water movement in that area yeah we had an email from one of the residents Fred Bea about this so I've been actually um Christopher D and I have both worked with Chris talked to Chris Miller um Christopher did some research about the easement that we have to maintain that space and there was some back and forth with Council looking at that easement um one of the concerns was whether we would need a right of entry for other properties if we were going on a resident property that's generally how we get access if we need it but Christopher and Town Council think that the easement should cover us as long as we stay within the right of way because the it does outline what the right of way does is as well so the concern is actually talking to Pete law and perhaps going to Conservation Commission to work in the area um it may not be covered under the bundled noi so I think Christopher Miller is going to be he's already reached out to Pete law about other issues so I suggested today when I talked to him that he WR wrote into walking it wasn't I thought that we did it just because that was the whole point of that bundled noi is to do the ditch on Eastern to do I don't know I maybe not I think they have to I think they have to chat about it and look back at the bundle of we also need to come up with funding like who's paying like I mean where are you getting the money to do this and and how much I don't know what it's going to cost so those are the pieces I haven't even had a conversation about because the more the question really was do we notify the residents when do we notify them and what do we tell them after we know how much it is after we know whether we have to go to concom that's going to push things because that takes a while the other thing is is the issue that Christopher Dunn brought up after talking to Chris Miller was that it's easier to do something like this in the fall after the leaves have dropped and you have better access because the Machinery is going to be you know the tree Line's close to that too so that could also be the issue so to the extent that we have anything to say to people if we were going to do a mailing or a delivery of notification we don't I don't know that we have enough information right this second but those are the elements of what's being followed up on right now that's good right and um I think there was also some thought that the soil might be less wet or it might be firm up as the ground gets cooler so so that you could do a a better job of making sure the grade is appropriate Etc thank you yes that that makes sense that came through and a conversation between Christopher and Chris but this it turned out that um and correct me if I'm wrong that uh Kevin Scarboro had had this in his work plan as something that needed to be addressed so Chris Miller is picking up on that great yeah okay and we we've been back and forth with with Fred Becka and um hopefully he's sharing this information with his neighbors um but once we have a really right robust plan in place and figure out how to pay for it um you know we we will reach out to folks so I think the first thing I have to do is send Fred an email and tell him what we just talked about yeah so that he's aware and really I don't honestly I wouldn't recommend that the board put anything out until what you just said till we have an idea of what is necessary we know how much is going to cost and we have a timeline to do the work yep sounds good okay thank you all right um so Trevor can you talk to us about this old deer field sewer Rehabilitation proposed change order number one yeah so um so this is the the second part of the uh old Deerfield uh sewer line that goes you know a couple years ago da helped us with uh funding a rehabilitation of the sewer line as it gets to the plant through the fields there we did some of the units uh some of the pipes meaning uh uh filled them up inside you know put a sleeve in versus um dig and replace we did some digging replace we did some sleeving of them um we awarded a couple weeks ago the the bid that we got uh for for doing the rest of the project which was the you know sleeving of the original uh the pipe and we had one section of pipe that we needed to cut and replace uh dig up and replace and that wasn't bit on um because it was just one pipe and nobody really wanted to tackle it um but uh so we had asked the person the The Entity who in situ form who who got the original bid to do a change order find a contractor and and get a a price to do that last pipe he was able to get lllo who did the last project for us um so this is a change order to fund that um that additional project we had uh had a budget of around 500,000 for the project I think we're going to be around half that when we're all done said and done um and this is a project that that uh DA has helped us with we we paid for the engineering they're paying for the for the work and we're we're very grateful for da for stepping up and funding that so um so this is I'll move that the select board approv approve the old Deerfield sewer Rehabilitation project Phase 2 change order one in the amount of $2,221 for a total contract price of of the project of $239,200 this change order to be effective July 22nd 2024 and authorize the Town Administrator sign on behalf of the select Board second thank you yeah and just again just as a reminder um as Trevor mentioned um Deerfield Academy is paying for the construction costs related to this so this entire $239,200 is not um not coming out of residents's real estate taxes um so any further discussion nope hearing none all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I great this keeps us on schedule too because we're trying to get it done like around August 8th so yeah and they have an incentive to finish the work before their students arrive yep exactly so thank you for that appreciate it so we've already done the scams things let's see done the Frank the lust all right um and we've talked about the lery lot um you don't do you have anything to report on still water are we still in the I do just a little bit so I reached out to council um to see she had sent a an email to mass doot to see what they had for survey guidelines um and I did just let me quickly remind this is we're talking about the Still Water Bridge repl replacement project that's supposed to get underway two years from now two two years from now but we have a lot of preliminary work and possible land taking Etc sorry yes so as part of what we have to develop we have to do surveys and appraisals of any pieces of land we would take by eminent domain we also once we have the information we have a better idea of what we would need to appropriate to pay for that that project this has already got a placeholder in front of capital uh because we know that we're going to have to pay a certain amount for the land that is required after as part of the project to because they're going to fix the bridge and it impacts the two roads that are adjacent so Council had reached out to do to see if they had guidelines on the survey work and at the same prior to that she had said to me I need to use a the town needs to use a specialized surveyor for this so what I did I went back in my email I don't see a response from dot at this point but I did send Council an email and ask her for the name of the surveyor so we can get on their list I the town needs to contact them so that they're aware that we're going to need the work done so that's the only thing I have for an update for that but I'll wait and hear hopefully hear from dot before the end of the week at least whether they've acknowledged you know that they need to give us guidelines okay um and we've do we do we know uh the property that we're going to have to take is that something that's already on the table or is that something that has to be survey we have approved plans if you want to look at them I have them okay um and it does show the portions of certain parcels and I do believe we have all the ownership on the plans as well and was that I know we had approved a survey right or somebody to come wasn't Eaton going to come and Survey those spots well that's the thing we approved some funding for right but we haven't done the but we haven't done it so we need to know what our guidance is for the survey work so that we can accomplish it all right and and the uh town council's uh opinion of hiring somebody who's familiar with the state regs around this surveying work and then afterwards we need to go through an uh an appraisal process for determining fair market value or whatever the basis for the purchases whichever purchases we have to make um some of this land might be in DCR already is that correct so there is one element of this that we have to land on and that is we would be asking the legislature to remove a portion of land from article 97 which is conservation land and the requirement for that is you have to replace it so you have to dedicate the same amount of land towards um conservation restriction you have to basically swap is that that state or is that under town State it's in it's the state so what you have to do it's a two-step process and it's essentially a home rule petition where you ask the voters to approve this replacement land and ask the the legislature to approve the same so Council will give us language for that and the timeline so special town meeting this is a piece of all of this the timeline to get this done I'm kind of concerned if we don't hear back from do about us being able to hit a special in October so for this for these particular issues that have to go through town meeting um there won't be more information until we hear back from Council and do okay and um if we can't do the special town meeting we will have the normal spring annual time we will but it might be too late by then so we will that's that's going to be a followup from with Council once I notify everybody that you've you've set the meeting and open the warrant yeah and let them know we need that because she's supposed to give us some information too yep okay and is um is Christopher Dunn involved in this process are you handling it so far I've handled okay um I just wondered you know um I I'm fully happy to have one person do it just uh right you know do seems like a potential bottleneck so although we' had some good luck with them recently so we have uh just want to if if we're going to prod them let's do it weekly rather than every other week yep okay thank you um do I know we haven't hit on select board announcements yet but when we do I have a few yeah let's let's do that now um just yeah cuz I you were done with I think that Christopher Dunn talked about the uh campus and projects yeah so I think we're okay there um we've done the appointments to scams are there any other board committee things that we need to take up Casey under the um under the placeholder there is one thing okay that's the employment and other policies thing yes okay so I've been discussing the position that was approved the assistant Town accountant position that was approved with Brenda and she'd like to get started on that we need to develop a job description and so she I'm going to pass something on to her so she can start looking at it what the board will probably see next month um and I'm not exactly it depends on how long it takes us to fix it to you know fiddle with it but you could expect to see it as early as the 7th or on the 20 whatever the second meeting is I can't remember off the top of my head I would want to present this to Personnel Board concurrently so that we get approval yeah within a few weeks and the vacancy can be developed that'd be great so but we need to get that started because there's a lot of work that's going on especially around the bands I know and you know a lot happening right now there's a lot going on financially and this is um the the sixth month um is this the sixth month uh sort of position where they would be shadowing and learning from Brenda because in anticipation of her yes moving into retirement because she's scheduled to retire the end of the fiscal year especially it' be great if she was in with budget season you know that's one of the reasons that we want to do that so that they can uh see how the process works in a different different Community okay we don't know how long it's going to take sometimes it's hard to attract Town accountants it's one of the jobs that's very in high demand but there aren't a lot of people qualified to do it right so once we have the job description settled then we can pursue the vacancy and hopefully get someone hired now does Personnel meet earlier or later in the month they meet the third Monday of the month generally so they're scheduled to meet on the 19th 19th and then we would be able to take it up on the 21st okay that's what I'm thinking even if I gave you a first read even if there was a first read available for the select board at the beginning of the month um I would want the board to vote no later than the 2 first if if you could swing it yep okay all right um so we let's move on then to this announcement stuff that we did so um let's see the other day we had um we met at the fire station for the um Franklin Regional Council governments uh the co- U which is the emergency 800 system that everybody is on now all our First Responders are on to celebrate that uh that program and um uh Jim mcgoverin was there and uh all the representatives from local reps and Senate uh State Senate were there which was great um and so that that was great to kick that off um uh USDA had been part of that um program too and so Lyn and Nichols was there and uh he sent on an email we talked a little bit about um and here I'll touch on the affluent pipe a little bit um we asked it you know is there any programs that you know maybe there would be some funding some Grant some loan low interest loan we are applying for that um that work through the state revolving fund for funding but we won't know till the end of summer on that um whether whether you know we get any help from them and how much that is um so we you know always reaching out anywhere asked if they had any programs he talked about our cap and he sent on an email and I I hope it got to everybody yeah I we're talking about U possibly getting grant money to do the engineering right yeah yep exactly so um so that affluent pipe um we noticed at our last uh construction site meeting that had failed and it was a lot of the water that came from the from the storms we had so the river had been up and down up and down really high this winter and the the emergency storms we had in April washed out the pipe washed out the embankment uh we think uh the storm water washed the pipe the pipe had already been failing broke in the middle of the embankment um it was never part of the original project you know we only worked on the plant itself not the pipe going out of the plant uh cuz it had was working you know several years ago and wasn't an issue um so was never a part of the original project so um so we're looking at the cost you know to build a head wall Dam the river do all that was never part of the original project so um but feel free to call me anytime I can talk more on that um so yeah really excited about the coir project really excited about um you know hopefully working with USDA again in the arap to help with some engineering help on that and then um what else do we do I think that that's it I just want to hit on that CO's thing which right and just to follow up on that um basically this this celebration was for a $450,000 grant that was arranged through McGovern Warren and Mary's offices to um get um compatible radios to work with the the state's interoperable system it replaces uh the need for us to have our own infrastructure um as Chief P mentioned at the at the at the uh ceremony um the the region has been exploring buying used parts on eBay um which is not an ideal situation for for having uh you know Public Safety uh Communications so we don't know what future costs might be handed on to the towns but um we are fully compatible with the the state system and we're the first County to do that so um you know that's our schems that's our police that's our fire um and any other First Responders so it was a two-part thing it was couple million for all the radios and then all the pagers was the 400 something exactly huge help from USDA on that so there were a lot of Happy First Responders MH um I think that's that's it for do you have anything like uh just one thing I had a uh resident from up on sandly that was talking to me about a gravel the uh gravel in the roadway up there and before I got to talk to Chris Miller was already taken care of so kudos to the highway department for getting on that thing so good deal the resident actually uh texted me back to let me know it was already taken care of yeah and so I I definitely want to hook up with Chris Miller about the River Road situation just to make sure I know which section he's talking about and um you know cuz I know there are a lot of residents it's a long road and uh you know I'm sure that there are more than two or three areas of concern out there so so there one other thing I was uh that we had I had brought up was the uh formation of a sewer committee and I'm working on the charge now soon as I get it ready I'll see if I can get a copy so you guys so that you can help me put it into would charge sure so excellent thank you yeah be great um and we are continuing to look at the you know the do we need to make a charge for the Comcast or the you voted a charge so Okay so we've covered that ready just we just need to appoint some people we need to appoint some people right and so are we um going to notify residents that uh we need people to volunteer for that we you've mentioned it at meetings um do you want me to a specific notification yeah if you could uh get something maybe we could put on the website and and perhaps we could uh you know get it pushed out into the M public social media I mean it's a it's a want every 10e thing but it's an important thing gives us an opportunity to explore getting better service and hopefully at a more reasonable price question on that I think that with the last time this was done wasn't Sunland involved in this committee as well and too I think it's because that it gives us a better it gives us a vantage point if we do that so that's something we have to look into as well and coordinate with those communities sure it's on their Radars but yeah Joyce had mentioned it already too from from weightly right but each of our committees I also work together while we're saying a couple announcements I wanted to thank DPW and the police department and everybody who helped with the storms last week it was um pretty rough coming through the middle of week and a lot of trees down wires down um luckily our ditches work really good all the work we did last year we didn't have any flooding uh so that was excellent but um wanted to thank everybody that got on all that stuff and and cleaned that up that was was pretty serious coming through and and uh but cleaned up pretty quick yeah and I you know I know that uh particularly you know Hawks Road and upper lower Road were affected by that a lot lot and Old Main Street uh um champ m in had some flooding because of the just the the short period of time in which the rain comes down doesn't allow for the what typically happens in particularly with tree tree uh damage all the culs in the road get blocked which backs up everything and then then the water builds up into uh you know up into the doors of cars that are parked out in front of the that so yeah it was a great response so thanks for reminding yep yeah sure all right um do we have anything else Casey that needs I have a couple of other things I just want to give the yeah well in your report that's I've sort of been going through it yeah there's a couple of things I wanted to give the board an update on so Town Council is working with staff and the chair of the open space committee to do the research on that land that they want to consider putting into conservation restriction there were several parcels and I think there's five Parcels but there were some questions about one parcel in terms of article 97 what the allowances were so there is some research that the town clerk needs to do um to better inform Council before she can make recommendations for open space to move along with but I would expect that if that information is forthcoming you may need you may see a an article request for town meeting mhm and I I may have Mis Mard this but is is there any possibility that this one parcel would be a swap potential swap for still actually actually Christopher and I both wondered about that so that question's been thrown out to council okay she she was looking into it um but she is I think she needs to and I haven't checked when their next meeting is I think it may be next week but don't quote me um I think she wants to attend an open space committee meeting and talk to them directly Lisa does yes yeah oh good that's always better yeah that way they can have a straightforward conversation and get an idea of sort of where what Lisa needs um to to better help them um we've had I went to the I ran the finance committee meeting on Monday and finance committee discussed some budget concerns they reorganized um David Sharp is going to be on Personnel Board where he was working before he's there going to be their representative Mark Brennan is going to represent Capital Improvement planning committee um they discussed something that I did send an email out to you about because Margaret had sent it was something that was brought up by one of the members Margaret ntz and that that is the use of a special stabilization fund for roads so what she did was she found the igr which is the information guidance release from the Department of Revenue and sent it along to me so I made sure I forwarded it to you via blind carbon copy um it's something I think you could you'll hear from the finance committee about because they seemed interested in trying to do that so this may come up in future conversations during the budget season um they also reviewed Financial policies so at some point in the next couple months they will probably forward them to you because the select board actually has to approve them so there's probably going to be some conversation about that but you keep keep your eyes open you'll see it come forward so I know it was preliminary discussion that Margaret brought up but is there is this fund going to sort of encumber DPW funds or so what it would be is it would be it's a process that's very similar to a debt exclusion vote um what it would be is a request for funding for road maintenance specifically from the town we don't the town has never allocated true funding for Road repairs and this last year and early this year we've seen a lot of damage yeah so Margaret's suggestion was to use what they call a special stabilization fund so what you do is you create a fund and this has to go to town meeting right you create a fund and then you approve Pro funding to seed it that piece the funding piece is a two-part piece you have to have the request through town meeting and I would do this in one article if it were me and I think Council would write it that way too so you would set up an article for approval at town meeting but you also have to get a ballot vote and what the specializ special stabilization fund does is it continually funds Road repairs there's I haven't digested the entire thing that's why I sent it to you guys what I didn't do was print it out so I'm sorry I'll print it for you but it's something that if you read through it I think it would be a healthy conversation later on as you get closer to the budget season yep I just wanted to flesh out what we're talking about yeah it's it's money that you vote that you continually use the select board has to take certain votes throughout the year but you continue to vote it on an um the select board votes it on an annual B basis once it's established and funded right so is that cumulative is that something that you're going to continue to add to if you don't use it one year it stay it grows that's something that has to be discussed so you have to discuss your funding sources and the amount that goes in it every year is that voted by so this is the piece I've only SK skimmed it I haven't reviewed it in depth myself but this is what I this is why I think as you get toward the budget season which is coming up quick as you get toward the budget season season this is a healthy conversation to sit with finance committee and hold because I think even Brenda wants to have a more in-depth conversation she's going to read through the IG too we haven't done one before so we have to refresh our own memories about them we need to put schems into her so those are other questions but frankly it's it's not a bad idea to have consistent funding for Road repairs because we've just we can't keep up with the paving chapter 990 doesn't cover chapter 90 is keeping up with half the stuff that we need to be able to do and a lot of towns have done this I know roow did it recently in their last year and a half they did it they funded an account to deal with roads um and I don't remember how they did it I would have to talk to the I know the finance committee chair I would have to talk to him but there's ways and this is one of them so it's just she brought it up finance committee was interested she gave us information I just shared it with you it'll be on your radar screen and and Margaret is uh going to be helping our neighbor suland I I understand from the is going to be the inim over there yeah so they are losing their ta Town Administrator he's taking a state job Jeff critz is going on to an economic development job for the state oh so maybe you can funnel some money back our way I you know I did in fact say that to him good he knows he knows what we need he does good good so well that would be nice to have have her help there it would it would um so we've had Tre I've had some stuff going on with Treehouse I did talk to the Building Commissioner um and public safety personnel are still conversing with thbc staff um on ironing out the details of the EAP for the half marathon M there you will see a request at the next meeting to write a letter support because they've app they're begin getting they're in the process of applying to dot for their permit for the half marathon they need a letter of support you furnished one last year so I it was way too late for me to even draft anything okay but I'll just use what we used before and it'll be presented at the next meeting so um Allison had reached out to me today about it um so I've been working on those things there's a couple equipment requests that are going to require some work between departments on them um MVP is coming up so the MVP annual reporting is coming up I hadn't done it Christopher or Chris Nolan was doing it so I'm in the middle of reviewing the guidance and I'll be talking to Andrew Smith if I need help and Chris Curtis but that's got to get done by the end of the week or the beginning of next week to meet their deadline which means we do the report furnish all the invoices get it over to them and they'll review it so we'll be I'll be working on that too um the entry weight Dees looks pretty good I mean they're starting out there they're starting out there diing it out getting all the bush out there um and we've actually got bills that we're going to be paying soon for that okay so Berkshire design bills and I think we have some construction bills too but don't quote I have to go back and look at them I get a lot of email let's put it that way yeah um you'll there'll be some updates coming up from legal not just on the stuff that I've already talked about but steam Mill Ro litigation we'll get up to hoping to get an update on that um and then I talked about the oh Personnel manual so there's policies the board should consider and what I discussed individually with members of the board was presenting policies at the same time to the select board and the Personnel Board because that way you alleviate any shock about you know not seeing something there is a timeline in the bylaw for the select board to approve a policy that's been developed and recommended by the Personnel Board so to alleviate some of that lack of communication I thought the process should be to present draft policies to both boards there's several things that we need to include I thought and I mentioned this I think at the last meeting I thought I'd hand out a couple of policies and have people start chewing on them so that you can get better acquainted with the process you're going to have to take to approve them and things like it we don't have an ADA policy and luckily the study that we did that brought us to the point where we could create a manual identified a list of policies we need to add so I thought we' just stop start knocking them out um and we have draft policies from the study itself they do need to have a final review of council right so I'm hoping to be able to send at least two of them to council for review prior to the 7th so I can get the information out in time for both committees to review them by the 19th um there is one other thing that we need to talk about and that is you saw Valerie here earlier um because we haven't been able to hire a health agent I did speak to her about extending the appointment for her so that we have some coverage said she would hang on for as long as we need but hopefully hopefully we can get this done um so I actually wrote this is sort of an item and anticipated because I didn't wasn't able to have that conversation with her until yesterday um but there is a motion at the end of your set of motions to extend the board ofth Health agent appointment until such time as a new permanent person is on boarded okay that would be my last request to you guys so um I make a motion I move to extend the appointment of Valerie bird as the Deerfield Board of Health agent from July 31 2024 until such time as a permanent Health agent is on boarded into that position second um yeah this is a great thing U dick kesesi has also said that he would help out um and tell can fill a position and um and and thereafter I think we appointed in as an on call if somebody sort of a so an on call um thanks for following up with Valerie on that um any further discussion nope all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim heli I so the last thing I wanted to tell you guys about is minutes um we're still trying to catch up I started going through the old files of what's been what's been drafted and what has or hasn't been approved what I'm planning on doing is handing a schedule of of minute completion out to people and it would include me too because we need all hands on deck for this so it's a combination of using what we have for AI from our current meetings and using whatever AI tools we can find but it really does take time CU you do have to reflect at least some flavor of the conversation or the discussion and then each of the Motions now that we have motions written it's easier but staff are going to have to sit and watch the sections where motions are read or spoken so that we can craft so that we can grab that language and make sure everything's correct so I do have some older minutes that I'd like to be able to present to the board at the next meeting yeah not think get I'm done yes please and um in conversation with Brenda Hill um she mentioned that uh one of the people that was considered for the assistant town clerk might have experience doing this and yes I was going to reach us so that was my next question would the board give me the authority to bring him on board to do to start doing that work because most of this stuff is watching um watching the videos and being able to take take the video T take the video and and use AI to turn it into taxt summaries mhm yeah and um I think that would be great so do you need a motion for that if there's consensus from the board I'll just go ahead and do it yep that yeah okay so yeah that would be great and and I think we we thought that it might make sense to try and get 2024 fully yes that you said that before work backwards so that was the initial conversation that Pat and I had was work on the most recent ones and then work our way backwards so I started looking at those and that's when I realized that there are some older minutes of 24 that we need to deal with she's been working on the last meeting set of minutes but she's been sick so we're behind on that but I literally was trying to come up with a list so that we can organize how we deploy our time yes good so excellent um and that's all I have all right um well uh is anyone El got anything just one last thing sure when um tree house had their last concert I actually drove around town MH and sat at different locations where people were outside their houses and sat and talked to them the noise level was fairly low at that point in fact if I didn't shut my truck off I couldn't hear it so basically I think it's going to depend on each one of these concerts as to how it's going to affect the town and the wind and stuff too cuz some people are like oh I can hear it usually but today I can't and you I felt some of it on social to do atmospher anything atmospheric cloudy Sky cloudy night that kind of stuff humidity level um is Old Crow Medicine Show was that the one I there was some drumming in that and I think uh but yeah most of the comments pretty good on that mhm so okay and and it was like I said and I was talking to people that complained and they said I can't hear it tonight yeah I know that was a good thing that we were you know again it was We are continuing to pursue um uh you know working with Treehouse to you know keep it examining and maybe come up with a uh a reliable system of reporting and uh well and also we're working with Town Council to clarify what our bylaws actually say so right I oh sorry I just I read Adam sow's um you know report out of of the show and he said it went off without a hitch much they're getting much better at like crowd management crowd management dealing with issues people in and out parking the tickets and um and he said the noise was pretty reasonable there that night as well so I'm sure other people were complaining cuz you know it'll happen but like I he actually asked I I talked to him and he asked me to come in and I said no I'm just going to run around town and see how it looks but I was in front of the Treehouse itself I was in front of the building not over where the stage was and it was very reasonable right there so and again it depends on the concert because some of these guys they are a quieter group other than some others so I mean you're going to you may have some issues okay thank you Roger we had public comment earlier so um you can talk to me after the meeting or you can come back to the next meeting and and raise your issue I don't mean to be a stickler but uh you know um we need to you know complete these meeting so um is there anything else nope if not I'll take a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all those in favor CH McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hill thank you