[Music] good afternoon everybody it is Monday July 1st 2024 at 6 p.m. and I'll will call to order the free toown board select meeting um this meeting will be recorded and will be available on the town's YouTube page um today we will be going into executive session and then coming back into Open Session sorry we will be going into executive session for the following reason master in Law chapter 30A section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares and I do this is for Lawless versus Town Freetown and number two masteral Law chapter 30A section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the public body the chair so declares I do and this is um Avala versus town of Freetown uh so with that a motion to go into executive session motion made I'll second it all in favor I I Selman Zager yes Selman Matthews yes now an executive session welcome back everybody we are now back in Open Session um so I'm going to move on to agenda item three this is discussion and vote whether to approve the weekly warrants fisc year 24 53 and 56 and fiscal year 25 1-28 um any issues with that no that'll entertain a motion to approve weekly warrants for FIS 24 5356 and F gear 25128 a motion made second all in favor I I all right now we have open session minutes from 617 2024 any questions or concerns all look good thank you that I'll entertain a motion to approve the Open Session minutes from 617 2024 motion mid I'll second it all in favor I all right right now agenda item five discuss a vote on the oversight of the transfer station and this is the discussion here as to whether it's currently with the board of Selectmen we think or and moving it potentially to the Board of Health yeah I think the the purpose is to have clarification right but the board of Selectmen was the Board of Health and they did oversee the transfer station and so now that the Board of Health is a separate board completely there's some confusion I think as to which board has ultimate oversight of the transfer station um we you know Vicki is the supervisor she does the day-to-day operations but in terms of the oversight there's a lot we need to to look at OSHA requirements ms4 requirements things like that that really need to be looked at as a whole and um so that's really what this boils down to is Clarity on who's got the oversight of the transfer station and um the staff there and what's going on I think typically it's a board of health issue yeah it does feel like a Board of Health situation I'm trying to remember like when we talked about transer station in the past were we acting as the Board of Health when we when we did that yeah I I can't I'd have to go go back and look at the agend is but some of the things that we talked about for the transfer station were hours and whatnot that's more of a board of selectman decision I think um Board of Health you know will get into more specific of the conditions um Mo I I know in Prior years prior to me being Town Administrator the is usually the Board of Health agent that oversaw the transfer station and the staff there MH um and not that I'm suggesting that but what I'm Sugg justing or thinking the clarification needs to be is between the Board of Health the board itself or the board of Selectmen and some clarity yeah like and so then what are we saying there that like when it comes to Union negotiation so would a be a member of the of the Board of Health be leading those kind of so the the the transportation Union comes under the highway Union okay that makesense so it's the it's one of the Selectmen and the the highway Union's representatives and and and Vicki is in the Union as well as a supervisor right so she's a supervisor in the union but she's not really a department head because she can't discipline and that's one of the things that has come up um as of late so there really is no oversight Department if you will Al I mean currently I think it's the selectman but but I don't know that's that Clarity so do we talk to the border of Health do have we heard anything from the Board of Health in in regards to this I thought Margaret was going to come tonight I mean um and of course Carlos but Carlos it couldn't make it so I mean maybe you want to defer to them to have a conversation and then have them report back to yeah that makes sense I don't want to make a unal decision without you know them being at the table and understanding you know exactly what this really means and kind of think it all the way through yeah that's the other part of this right I mean there's no rush in any of this it's not like there's something pending it's just um for clarification purposes so you might want to just ask the Board of Health to have a discussion see what their thoughts are maybe we can have like an official joint meeting meeting you know yeah yeah I think sometimes to your point that's better right when you have two boards in here just talking back and forth rather than them doing it and then come you know and then going back and forth they just sometimes just get a couple people in front of each other make the decisions that need to be made and move on with it so all right that sounds good so we'll move on for that for now have a joint meeting some form and then uh Circle back and see okay MH okay so that brings on to agenda item six this is discussion of vote whether to approve exclusive use of pathway park for outdoor movie Nights on August 9th 2024 September 20th 2024 October 18th 2024 all from 6:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. sounds like a great idea M any questions or concerns no I'm excited any concerns from our Chiefs here no I think it's an ideal spot for that type of event parking should be pretty reasonable and uh I think people will enjoy the event idea and they're gonna have power they'll have power down there to do that yeah so there's power at half theway Park um I mean I know for the fireworks they must do so yeah there's there there's big poles along the um to the right of the park if you go down that property like not the property line but down there and there's a pole that's sort of middle of the park that we're in the process of trying to determine if it has power to it disconnecting it and moving it because it's just smack down in know an awkward location and then we're going to install a new pole with some lights for our pickle ball court mhm and for use down the park so I'm in the process of working with Eric and truck the highway department Tim and Carl at the facilities Department because we have to get the electrician out there okay so we're just we're not doing anything until after July 4th yeah we definitely wouldn't start construction nowag I'm not pulling out power right now so okay great so but there is enough for her to do what she needs to do sounds great all right so with that I'll entertain a motion to approve exclusive use of pathway park for outdoor movie Nights on the dates and times mentioned motion made I'll second it all in favor I I um all right so agenda item seven this is just an acknowledgement of Jack R camp for children with um diabetes we be held at Camp Welch uh on July 8th 2024 through August 16th uh 24 at Camp Welch at Camp Welch say at Camp Welch twice okay so there's no vote there just acknowledging that there's going to be um a camp going on during those dates M any questions or concerns no no I'm straightforward good cause okay now agenda item8 this is discussing Heating and Air at the police department yes or lack thereof um as I have brought to the board in the past we've had multiple issues with the heating and air conditioning system as it was designed we have spent a considerable amount of money in repairing the system hope hoping that that would fix the problem we continue to see very ex large invoices on a weekly basis like the last warrant I think it was $6,000 the warrant before it was $5,000 it's consistently these big amounts of repairs so I um at I talked with Carl and at some point I just at some point we have to look at the system and see if we don't we just rip it out and start over and I know that sounds drastic but that's where we're at in terms of the expense so um I did a little bit of homework and we have a Consulting coming in I believe it's July 9th I have to look at the Daya I'm on vacation but Carl's going to handle it they their job there will be looking at they're going to give us a quote but they're going to come in and look at the system to see if the system at as designed was installed correctly and what we have and then give us a report so we'll be looking at that so I just wanted to give you that um update that that's where we're at with the system in terms of is it how many years are we in here now yeah fourth yeah before in December right I mean I don't know if you have any more to add to that in terms of the issues or maybe TJ I know he's always uh working on it as well honestly I cringe every time I hear that there's a new incident to uh report back to car because he's been on top of things as as you are aware of and um it's it's disheartened obviously a new building we have expectations and U but we do our best to uh assist these problems when we can internally but uh whatever Carl and the town can do uh we definitely app on our end being yeah and I think to your point is sometimes we need to just take a step back and let an expert come in and you know we've been told that this system is very Advanced like maybe a little bit too advanced and that maybe there's some issues with that so um let's let's let the expert come in and tell us what they need to tell us good batter and different yeah I think that it's an engineer and they're going to tell us at least wasn't installed properly because me maybe it wasn't and there's a fix and we can just fix that and then it will work or Y and I will tell you that our opms on the um fire station has worked with similar Design Systems and he said basically it's the same in all of these systems they just struggle was this like a cheaper option I don't know because I wasn't involved in that process but I doubt it I think it's pretty Advanced I think there 52 units 52 like like mini splits that all supposed to talk to each other and they don't always talk to each other and um I don't know first we thought it was the maintenance and not keeping the filtration system up but we took care of that last year which was quite expensive I mean the maintenance agreement alone is 15 or 16,000 just to maintain the system year yearly the boiler has failed already um when we got that under warranty which Kyle did a lot of work on that the um they're not they're not making that boiler anymore because they had so many TR so much trouble with it and they would give us the money for the boiler but not to replum the whole entire system because now it has to be the pipes have to come in differently so I think we were able to get a contractor to fix it for now but we know it's on borrowed time so there's a lot going on with it that's why I said finally I I just me and Carl always just said like we need to not just keep throwing good money after bad if if it's never going to be able to be fixed we need to take a different approach so I'm not I don't have answers I'm just telling you at this point we're g to hire a consultant to come in and look at the system to see if it's been installed properly and get recommendations from them so my question is if this system is really that bad do we H first of all how much is a consultant do we know I don't know yet he's coming to give me a quote Yeah so um and then I wonder if we can find if it's at all possible to go and sometimes it's not even worth it for the amount of money you're going to get out but to go back after the company to try and get our money for this consultant right you know whatever the name of the system is that's in here do we go after them that we're having to pay a consultant it's probably not worth it based on attorneys and everything and it's probably out a warranty that they probably had a one-ear warranty on everything um unless like you know if I had a mini split that failed I might be able to get the manufacturer of the mini split to replace the mini split but this is more of a I think a mechanical I I don't know if sad Ashley can talk more to that but most of the problems seem to be focused on that unit on the uh the very tip top of the station that brings in the air from the outside it's been a lot of uh ongoing issues with the uh hype and low pressure for the condenser unit some days we notice that it starts getting a little humid here in the building I go on I log onto the system and I can see that there's they're an alarm we forward it to Carl Carl has Advanced Air which I believe has a contract come out and take care of it um they have been sending out the same guy every time who seems to be is is really fine-tuning his knowledge of our our system and how it's set up and it seems like he's he's one step closer to finishing or or fixing the issue um but yes it's been a nightmare we're not seeing the problems that we had when we first moved in like our first summer our second summer where we had tiles dropping because they were soak and wet because the system couldn't keep up with the humidity it's a lot better now but there are definitely fires that you're seeing on warrants yeah in the form of cash so yeah we'll see maybe he'll say it's good and we just need to tweak it I don't know we'll see but I just want to I wanted you to be aware of that because if it's going to require a new system we'll be looking for substantial money to do so understood that would be a fun conversation all right so I think we're good with that we'll move on to agenda item 9 so this is discussion whether to declare the items listed an attachment a a surplus and what to do with each item and we have the list here and the recommendations which you probably can't see um nothing here seems to be of substantial value no so it's definitely like some old technology type stuff and syn and you know I need to do this in my house it's just not yeah there's nothing really everything's Surplus um yeah I have no issues with this or the recommendation yeah nope especially where a bunch of the stuff at at the COA you know and then um with the exception of one item coming from the police station you know they they're always crunch for space so we get the stuff out of their way and free up a little bit of space you the only like the Bingo machine like I'm sure someone you know you could probably put that on the uni bid right someone might like that Bingo machine I hate to throw it away yeah it says in the thing that the balls get stuck so I don't know someone might want it and try to Tinker with it I don't know yeah mhm I think the value might be over stated yeah think so the balls get stuck MH I like some fix the Mach beautiful Bingo machine okay but I have no issues with uh yeah me though all makes sense to me all right we need to know where you want them to go like do you want us to send it to the transfer station so yeah I guess anything that's the recommendation is dispose of obviously sent to transfer station um that so that's just the grills really I mean a bunch of that stuff is still going to have to go to the transfer station to go really because it's it's trash right so um okay how about this anything with a$ Z estimated value goes to the transfer station 100% just put that off right off the bat mhm I think the air conditioners maybe we can have Tim see if they work and if they do maybe there's a senior that might need an air conditioner that they that we could um don't e them too that's a good idea you know um take them cuz sometimes they don't have them but then even like all right I'm looking the fil in cabinet they say there's a value of $50 but it's saying the draws get stuck and whatever it doesn't still works with lock does it makes sense to try and do anything with it for such a short we bring to the transfer station scrap it I think so scrap it all right I think that's what we're doing here you cool up I am I do like the idea of doing that with the air conditioner as well all right be the only cave to it all yeah so we're saying everything is the transportation except for the air conditioners yes all right so I'll a motion that we declare all the items on trans a surplus and um send everything to the transfer station excluding the air conditioners which we have maintenance try to fix well yeah just see if they work see if they work and if they don't work send those to Transportation as well yes works for me motion made second all in favor I I all right now we have discussion and vote whether to approve the police chief's request to declare Cruiser 557 a 2018 Dodge Charger as Surplus and uses tradein when purchasing the new vehicle and chief saw your report here that car has got some issues it smells like gas when you drive it it doesn't this car life and uh yeah it's limping along and we we definitely have to do something with it so as you know uh this car being six years old and the amount of abuse that we put it through the patrol function um we're at a point where we can't even fix the problems with it now without being more of an of an expense so um my recommendation is uh the company is willing to give us credit towards our the next purchase with the car if the board's willing to do that yeah that makes sense yep yeah I mean reliability is everything for both you gentlemen right so kind of goes without saying so you go with that yeah any questions concerns anybody all right thanks Chief so without entertain a motion to approve police the police Chiefs request to declare Cruiser 557 2018 do charger Surplus and uses a trade when purchasing a new vehicle a motion made I'll second it all in favor I I all right moving on to agenda item 11 so this is um discussion of vote on awarding the RFP for police station number three construction project and and um it looks like so we have a bid that's recommended by both the um Stark Architects as well as ACG um actually came in below you know our budget here which is great recommended by the uh some committee as well perfect that we met last week yep awesome and have both companies have worked with Stark and um well ECG thank you I don't know why I just drew a blank both have worked with this company and both had nothing but good things to say perfect and and we got what seven bids in right and they're all within a reasonable kind of it's not like this one's extremely low that would cause me concern that like well they're missing something you know what I mean they're all in the same ballpark so I that just gives me a little more Comfort yeah they were all vetted to their re their there references yep all right awesome so um so with that I'll uh entertain a motion to award the RFP for fire station number three to Vera am I saying that right y ver Construction Inc motion made I'll second all in favor I I now this is related 12 was related to 11 so this is a CH a motion to um approve the Town Administrator to approve and execute the contract for fire station number three construction project motion made second it all in favor I I all right agenda item [Music] 13 this is a transfer request so um and I don't have to this is not a vote here it's just it's just acknowledgement so acknowledge a reserve fund transfer request for fire chief for $330,000 for fire repairs and maintenance we all acknowledge that if you want to add you just we spent over $30,000 to repair one fire engine and my whole budget was 15 there we go that seems to be a problem it's but you know a truck is five or $600,000 and everything is non astronomical and you just can't you can't take it to the farmer next door and put in this Bond and fix it anymore it's all computerized and it's just very costly and it was unfortunate but yeah it's one of those unen things so understood okay well thank you when's that new one coming 2027 last night last September wow that's exciting that's I'm hopeful not optimistic but I'm hopeful crazy all right thank you so gen item 14 discuss disc to votee whether to approve the transfer request from Council on Aging director for $475 40 um um for from COA vehicular supplies tires and tubes to COA drivers um PBT salary and wages just moving some money around there y y all right so that I'll entertain a motion to approve that transfer request motion made I'll second it all in favor I I all right agenda item 15 discussion of vote on using Federal arpa money in the sum of $55,000 for the engineering cost to determine the property lines of the Four Corners intersection this should be interesting yeah so this is um it's actually $ working on trying to do some improvements there but we can't tell what the impacts are because we don't know where the property lines are and we've already spent a substantial amount of money trying to go back and look at the titles and whatnot so um part of this is for that engineering but I I probably should have added this is also part of this is for some additional engineering for the Su line that came up throughout the project where we had to do some surveying of the land for the pump station portion of the sewer line and it wasn't included in the original quote because I wasn't sure where where we were going with it well we were going to go with pump stations or or gravity fed system so um so that's in addition it's not just for the four corners engineering piece but it's to determine and I and I we've done half the work and I just think we need to finish it so that once in for all we know where the property lines are for the whole four-way intersection they're just not there you know I think it was an old cart path that got made into a roadway at one point and is this like the what is now the vet like that the the vet the UMES all four like um you know we're assuming that the roadway is sort of the property line but there is no real documents I and I do have a report I do have a report of what they actually found I think they found one point out of those four those four lots of where they can tie in one corner the rest they can't so at this point the engineers even said look we're pretty much have done as much of the work as we can do and now it's legal to see what legal can do um so it's yeah nothing goes that smooth very time consuming and that's why you haven't seen the timeline going to look like I don't know I don't even know what they need to do at this point but that's why you haven't seen more come through about the Four Corners intersection and what what cuz our next step was was to get definitive impacts so that we could you know show that to the abuts and make a decision based on the impacts to the abuts but we could never come up with a definitive line to do that so how do we move forward if we can't tell in a butter what or or the the town or you can't assess what the impact is to make a decision how we move forward so we're sort of stuck but I think it needs to be resolved yeah and it's it's opal money that M and so it is tied with the SE line as well I think it's just good for us in general to have that knowledge regardless right of where property lines for that region because I think like I said we're kind of stuck without it we can't move forward with any improvements in the four quarters and this might come up again when we work on the bridge right which is in the process where we don't we might as you come off the bridge there's a question of maybe where the property lines are as well I remember that discussion as well okay it's pretty straightforward to me so can you just amend it to 55640 55,000 yep got it okay so with that I will a motion on using um to use federal arpa money in the sum of $55,850 for engineering cost to determine the property lines for the four corner intersection motion me I'll second all in favor I I all right and then gen item 16 discussion of vote whether to sign the letter of support for house rule number 3931 and act authorizing the appointment of retired police officers as special police officers in the town of Freetown and I read that today that's um I think that will makes a lot of sense to me and so question for you Chief I was thinking about this like so that there's no like direct kind of contradiction with the the new reform like the police Reform Act or the with with this I mean I don't I don't believe so um a matter of fact I I believe could we waiting for this legislation to pass so we can update our um you know our policies procedures our job description whole nine Ys so this only puts us in a better yeah that makes sense and like accreditations no no impact there for anything I I've been waiting for this so I can change everything over on my end perfect so wait for it all right that makes a lot of sense because I think that yeah any I mean obviously it's tough to find new people and I think that when we have situations like the Fourth of July and things of that nature and you know events I think it makes a lot of sense to be able to call on you know those who've already worked here so specifically this um item reflects the officers that work in a full-time capacity here uh full-time position and then they retire yep and they wish to stay on they can be appointed as a special police officer until they uh max out at the age of 70 yep and um then they have change of status at that point but um obviously a regular full-time officer can remain full-time uh up to the age of 65 and then this option comes into play and um they can stay on for that additional five years and um like I said everything in line with the legislation and our our paperwork I just have to adjust things in L perfect and and do we think that this will pass like has have we seen this kind of legislation pass for other towns other towns have had it passed um I think initially when it went to leg there was some recommendations for changes and I think that's what's been the hold up so we did make those follow-ups and it went back for review it was so close so close yeah I think right now it's in the house waiting for approval yes I recently spoke to one of the state reps about it to say that it's PR so it's in the house and it has to be voted on by July 31st so I think what they want is for another push from us saying hey we really need this can you get it done in this session otherwise it's going to get pushed off to another session I think all right so that's what this is really about because we've been trying to do this for about a year now well over a year so it's it's the last sort of like uh ditch effort to try to get the house to approve it's up there um Carol Fiola had written a letter of recommendation for it they're aware of it but now we just going to say hey make sure you get this done while you're in session makes sense I'll probably call the senator as well and say hey can you make sure you get this one done yeah you good I'm good thank all right so that I'll a motion to um for us to sign the letter of support for house rule number 39 uh 3931 act authorizing the appointment of police officers special police officers in the town of freet toown motion me I'll second it all in favor I I Margaret welcome so I did you come today to speak about the uh Transportation oversight I'm not actually speaking about it I'm here to listen okay yeah so just to kind of fill you in so we kind of we talked about it a little bit we think it makes sense to maybe have a joint meeting with the Board of Health and the board of selectman um just to kind of flush out the idea and make sure that we're on the same page and kind of think get through a little more detail your opinion are you are you okay with that yeah I'm okay with that um we do have a meeting on the 9th I think it is I don't know if you guys are available then we could put you on the agenda OB no I won't I'm sorry okay okay then July 9th yeah yeah we'll we'll discuss it ourselves at at our meeting and then we can come up with that makes sense a day for a joint meeting okay we just you know the Trevor's point was who would we be to make a decision without you involved so we wanted to all kind of meet together and figure it out weigh out the pros and cons and Y so thank you all right great not a problem thank you okay so now um Personnel you want me to deal with it deal with it that's I think this is a great opportunity so for me to rest my voice a little bit so go for it all right so um rest agenda item 17 acknowledge the resignation of Alicia Travers as full-time signal operator effective 6324 and Katrina D Roa D Ro as part-time signal operator effective 6524 so thank you both and appreciate your time agenda number 18 resend the reappointment vote done in Era on 6172 four for Kimberly fails so he missed one is that what happened well she's at Contract now right de so she doesn't need to be appointed okay well we only have one of these so far we have like thousand appointments that day so you to vote for that yeah vote for the re recision yeah want to just I think we're we're going to vote on that so want just yeah a motion yeah so with that I will entertain a motion to resend the reappointment of the vote done in Era on 61724 for k fails I'll make that motion I will second it all those in favor I I agenda item number 19 discussion and vote on whether to approve the following appointments James Bo boen I I'm sorry hacking the name as planning board associate member effective 7124 through 63025 Mark Joe's as harber Master shellfish Warden effective 7124 through 63025 and then G I mean item number c uh Chief Scott Rose as lockup attendant keeper and lock of Keeper of the lock lock up effective 7124 through 63025 so I apparently can't talk today so um yeah I mean those are all pretty straightforward Chief I hopefully you can handle that one sounds cool yeah we're going to hang up a nice little certificate for you on that one huh love it so any questions or concerns no no all right so with that I'll entertain a motion to approve the following appointments as just read I'll make that motion I will second it all those in favor I I all right so 2021 will be passed s Lopes is not here okay yeah no good point uh we have only two of us here and it's so all right agenda item 22 uh discussion and vote on uh recognition of full-time continuous employment request for Kobe J Ambert so I believe um we have some of the police officers here yeah so and I looked like this is yeah there's a long history of US kind of doing this MH right um seems like the fair thing to do in my opinion MH I yes Chief you sure um as you just mentioned this is just another um way of recognizing The Continuous employment of employees that have transitioned from you know obviously dispatch to a police officer um Kobe started in in July of 2019 but didn't become full-time until May of 20120 and uh he's been uh with us uh in the asset um and we're seeing him now in the role of a police officer and his skills as a dispatchers nothing but enhanced him as a police officer and I'm excited to say that uh he's shown interest in staying on when we have uh dispatches that uh I need to be filled in for whatever reason he's willing to pitch in and um you know take some of those assignments going forward because he has all the credentials to be a dispatcher when needed we these people whether it's an officer or a firefighter um we are sure on dispatchers I think everybody's been seeing the advertisement that we got going on and um but we need those roles filled to maintain the safety here in the community so but um yeah Kobe's been U an asset I can't say any much more than that and recognizing him in this continuous service is just a credit to him and uh we obviously I think it's been very long track record of me saying I'm very Pro employee right like I want to do what I can to retain the good ones um my only question is are we going to have any Kickback of other employees if he's based on his time given more money than people who you know officers who have been on longer right we've been out in the field longer you know do we foresee that being an issue so I mean we're seeing it right now with this role going from dispatcher to uh know police fulltime police officer and traditionally it has been a stepping stone where um people get introduced to our internal Community here and law enforcement and Communications and uh they see their role um to go forward in the law enforcement angle or even firefighter so um I can't project that we we've it just seems like it's you know it does appear every now and then but um people are looking for their opportunities um to become a police officer back in the day it was more uh difficult to become a police officer it was more competitive um nowadays I don't think we see those problems that we can't find enough good candidates to become a police officer so using uh Communications is not as much a need to be a stepping I think it just shows that like starts the gra you know starts dispatcher and they do make those extra steps like like we're meeting them halfway there and and I think you know we'll do our part you know they stick with the towel right so I think that just shows good well I I said I mean I don't don't take anything I just said as being wrong or negative because I'm very Pro employee and wanting to do what we can to keep the good so um I'm I'm fine with it I mean I don't see any Debbie you don't have do you have anything to add to it or any issues I'm not trying to throw you on all here but I don't know I mean I think my concern is the the employees that we hired last year that are on that'll be um lower step than a brand new officer and I'm concerned about what that will have for morale but that's my only concern um you know speaking with the officers it's not really an issue doesn't affect seniority he'll stay at the bottom uh level it's just recognizing his years service that will affect you know his salary it also um affect his um vacation times as well um but I I you know I don't you know I see it I think it's just working it'll work out well okay and um I don't see it any other employees being affected right now so and I guess to to her Point that's exactly what I was talking about right so but I mean we hired from you know other places and we brought them in and we gave them to Trevor's Point we've done this in the past right so we hired from outside and we brought them in and we kind of used that um time but it was a little bit different in the fact that they were full-time police officers and but we've even done this for like dispatchers I think too as well in the past right correct s Ashley is here today he was also one uh started off as a as a dispatcher uh had at least two to three years of service before he had the opportunity to go to the academy and um we've seen his exactly yeah just tremendous that those skills from dispatch flow into you know the long field makes a lot of sense a different way of looking at things right from doing that to being out active in the field might give you a different perspective as to when you're going through a call and whatever right so I see him shaking his head over there so yeah so you know I mean listen I'm and hopefully I'm not making any big heads back there I'm pretty sure he'll stay humble so um yeah so so you're okay with that TR go with me y okay all right so um with that um I will entertain a motion to um approve the recognition of full-time continuous employment request for Kobe J Amber I'll make that motion I will second all those in favor I I uh number 23 discussion and vote uh whether to carry over up to 20 vacation hours for K bazaro from fiscal year 24 to fiscal year 25 so it's like two and a half or three days yeah yeah he just wasn't able to use his vacation and then the month of June one of the issues we have ongoing issues we have at the Town Hall is every you know a lot of the employees wait and then they take all their vacation time in the month of June and he wasn't able to take vacation time I would have had to close that office so I told him that I would you know ask you to carry over I he he was going to give me the he came back today I'm not sure how many hours it might be only 13 hours or so um but I he you know he's a bylaw employee I believe he gets 10 days he's he gets only 10 days of vacation so I'd hate for him to get back two days de with the project that's going on right he has a lot going on on his plate so yeah he's been a huge asset to the town so okay cool for me all right so would that a motion to uh carry over up to 20 vacation hours for calaro for from fiscal year 24 to fiscal year 25 all right make that motion I will second it all those in favor I I a discussion and vote on whether to carry over up to 16 vacation hours for Matthew parent from fiscal year 24 to fiscal year 25 same similar situation um he was trying to take time off I needed to call him back in I needed him to process payments um June 30th is the end of the fiscal year but it's also the end of some of our grants and things had to be processed and paid and I needed him to come and do it so he he he was doing me a favor by coming in or the town of favor so we wouldn't lose the grant monies um and so I don't know what he has left hours it might only be eight hours but um I told him I would put this on because he was coming in at my request to do do some near end stuff that's a no-brainer y all right so with that Iain a motion to carry over um up to 16 vacation hours for Matthew parent from fiscal year 24 to fiscal year 25 I'll make that motion I will second it all those in favor all I uh number 25 discussion and vote whether to post for a part part-time Human Resources Director um so this has been funded it's something that we've talked about heavily in the past as well as the burden that it creates for you Debbie um so yeah I mean you know there's roughly 80 employees um and with 80 employees there's multiple different things coming across my desk um good B an indifferent it just takes a lot of time um and with the grant opportunities and the projects that were in the middle of the Tower project the fire station project the bathroom project there's a lot going on and the HR stuff just slows me down incredibly um and also I've said this in the past it's hard for me to ask a department head to work with me and and you know jump in the trenches and help me out and work with me and then I have to be the one that has to reprimand them if there's something and not that we have a lot of that but every once in a while and it just it it breaks the trust right here I am saying please come on I need your help do this with me and then two weeks later I'm like you know you did this and and I it just it it doesn't work well for um for the relationships at Town Hall and getting work done when you're asking people to jump in and really give it their all so um also I think they feel like they don't have a place to go if they have an issue right I'm um they don't want to complain about me to me I was just love to say that that's part of it right is they Human Resources can also be in Avenue for them to talk to people and you know they're not therapists but they you know they can go in and talk to them about you know other employee issues and they you know usually if someone hir they've dealt with this in the past and they understand how to deal with it rather than and I just think it's good if we can get somebody a little independent that's not you know in the in the trenches every day um and just help with the workload the problem obviously which maybe we'll discuss at the next meeting is physically where will I put this person in right we have no space whatsoever so if if they're willing to work from home majority I that might you know just coming from meetings and they can use your you know you're like the office whatever there's so that's a detail that I'm I'll struggle to work out yeah I just think too like even like like there's the like the issues you run into with having employees obviously like the HR stuff but there's also like a lot of other like just like benefits and how those work drafting up Pro new new policies and procedures as things change and we need to adapt to different kind of realities like questions on Union contracts FMLA request um what do I do I have this issue how do I handle it there's just a lot of questions employees have and right now I I I handle some of them Lan handles some of them Patty handles some of it Dena handles some of it and it I don't know that it's consistent I don't know that it's the best so um this was the part-time position it's not a full-time position and I don't think we need full-time so just now we have the chiefs in here would that would this HR person also extend out to the to the police and fire well they're all employees of the town so yes I mean you know Harry's a little bit different chief chief ashy in that he is the strong Chief and has a little more um control over his staff but in terms of questions of benefits and all of that sure they they would definitely um be that I have questions about the benefits to be honest with you I don't I don't I don't have all the answers and I I think we need someone to develop the answers so sometimes the answers are well it depends on the town like you know what they allow well we have no written policies right this has one been one of my things since I've been here there's not a lot of written policies so I I don't know I don't know what they've done in the past and sometimes the things just to come in front of the select and say okay what do you want to do for the employees and I think these are the things that I need each hour to start vetting and getting together so that we at least know what we have what the employees have and you can always change it but at least have a baseline somewhere to start and a lot of it has to do with retirement right when you retire and do do they get this do they can their spouses get added on health insurance after they retire I don't know and I think also like you know we live in very litigious Society now and everyone's getting sued all the time like I think this will protect the town too from some potential lawsuits if we you know make sure we go through all the process procedures when there is an issue and we have to let someone go or something of that nature you know um because as we've seen recently I think there's just a whole document system too that we're looking to implement right now I think the police have that they have more of a document system that we don't have at the Town Hall but you know um again is collecting doents in our office Pat's collecting documents in our office we don't really have a centrally located document system I it's it's outdated right it's outdated it needs to be updated we need to be streamlined we need to have everything where it needs to be the employees need to be able to get into their own files to see their own stuff or whatever um so I think there's a lot that can work that can be beneficial to the town for the employees uh benefit as well as I just think I can get much more work done as well yeah be more productive if I'm I'm not Sidetrack because HR issues pop up not when they're planned you're in the middle something and can become very overwhelming to your to your day to your point is it's not something that comes up and you deal with it in five minutes sometimes it is but not many times either so they sensitive issues yeah and and it's part-time so it's you know there's no um designs make benefit issues and things like that where yeah we just looking to put the the job out and see what we can get for responses and again I think at the next meeting when we start talking about our space situation at the Town Hall that'll come up to is where will we put this person and and um how we make that work yep yeah but yeah I mean recurring issue yeah exactly something we might have heard before time or two um so um any other questions no all right so um with that I will entertain a motion uh to post a part-time Human Resources Director Human Resources Director I'll make that motion I will second it all those in favor I I uh agenda item number 26 discussion and vote whether to approve the parking control officer one job description with a pay rate of $19 an hour do you know the background on this one I don't so we have uh you know we have someone who's in a managerial kind of position now for this but but um to cover when that person is out we're going to have a um you know somebody else Who's acting as the as the supervisor is that the right word I should be using it's kind of twofold that she's going to be Bas I guess promoted to the parking control oneing you know to give she's been here this this is her third summer so she'll get an extra dollar an hour for that and then when the seasonal manager is unavailable she'll step up into that role and get an additional amount for that so yeah so and now we'll have coverage all the time because obviously it's like it's it's a tricky situation because you want to you want to have a supervisor there at least on call for the weekends all the time but it's the summer people go on vacations like you know so I think this helps making this other position I think this solves a lot of our issues there so I think it makes sense to me as long as there's some sort of agreement between the two to make sure that we have continuous coverage because then we don't have two people that you know we're paying someone more money and then they're both off so the Fourth of July they both say hey we don't want to work and then we're stuck with paying someone else more money or or giving this person a position and we still can't cover it so um that's probably something we would um we would have to discuss with with whoever we decide to put in that position right so but I mean beyond that I don't see anything okay cool all right so um with that I will obtain a motion to approve the parking control officer one job description with a pay rate of $19 an hour I that motion I will second it all those in favor I I item 27 discussion vote whether to increase a parking control officer one pay rate to $21 an hour when covering for seasonal Beach and boat ramp manager's absence so there we go kind of the same thing yeah they're related yep yeah so um all right so with that I will entertain a motion um to approve the increased parking control officer one pay rate to $21 an hour when covering the seasonal Beach and boat ramp manager's absence I'll make that motion I will second it all those in favor I I all right so then it's um Board of parks and commission which all is me so agenda item number 28 discussion and vote on whether to add additional Signs regarding no pets at ball fields so this came up with with a meeting when you weren't present and um one of my issues was you know car Carlos obviously being very heavy into the the fields and everything was seeing that there's a burden of people coming in not controlling their pets going to the bathroom and then there's really no signage in place that that talking about specifically or all all all all of them um so my issue was is it basically said that there was you know I believe it was that there was no pet allowed and I didn't want to go after the good person who shows up you you show up with your dog and you're walking your dog and you're a responsible pet owner and you clean up after him MH um so I worried about that but here's what I'm going to say is since then you know we talked about it I haven't heard a single complaint and normally if I talk about something or we talk about something in a meeting and people have an issue with it we hear about it right so I I mean have you guys heard anything in the office no is there signs that say no dogs currently I think there are but I don't I didn't go to Every field to check there's signs that say no dogs allowed and I think K's position was he wanted to say no pets because you can bring a service dog yeah I think that might be what was going on um but was wasn't there discussion that they wanted the Mass General law on it and stuff like that on signs so I wasn't sure what the change language on the signs is there like enforcable penalties if somebody doesn't pick up doesn't pick up their dog maybe if M says was never to prove but but we haven't got any complaints we were getting complaints about the geese on the beach MH that's what we're getting complaints about right now good luck with anything about that there a mean swan out there so I guess you know my point was is swans are mean situation myself I just didn't want to hurt the resident that does the right thing right and make them show because the person who shows up and is doing the right thing is going to be the one who's going to turn away the one who doesn't care is still not going to care and they're going to do what they want so true um so I so I listen I that was kind of my my gripe and now I'm like well you know what no complaints means something so I'm okay with it you have any issues Trevor no no okay all right so um with that I will contain a motion to approve uh adding additional Signs regarding no pets at ball fields make that motion I will second it all those in favor I I that help us with what they say or I think just no pets is like I understand I understand what Carlos is saying there right um say then if you know if it's not a pet if it's a service like part of me think like now we already voted on this but it's like really if someone's showing up and watching their kid play with their leash dog I don't see a problem with that right it's like that but and based on what the conversation was we had that night was it was more about people bringing their dogs out onto the field and allowing them to go to the bathroom and you know not for nothing these guys are all volunteers they're out there they're working on these fields and then you know then they bringing the kids out there and that stuff so it's I don't blame him I mean you know yeah I think the S should help kids are sliding into poop is what he said yeah I can having some like bad memories of me as a kid playing carart potentially running to the same problem all right that's all I have all right yeah I'll quickly update you on the projects um the bathrooms are under construction the sheetrock was installed today so we've had a frame a rough plumbing and a l electrical insulation and now sheetrock so they're moving right along I they're on schedule I don't foresee any issues that was part of one of the grants that needed to get taken care of uh Friday the um fire station as you know we we're approving the the contract so I don't expect any holdups on that I've got to get I've got to vet the contract and then send it over to the contractor to be signed but that's moving right along the COA pod I signed the order for that um I think today or Friday I can't remember I finally signed it the the site work issue is still an issue and I am trying to get the engineers to come together and sort it sort it out in terms of the site work that needs to be done before the Pod comes I'm sure I'll get it done but it's been a lot of back and forth Just because of the elevation and the grades and the we haven't been able to get the information to tell us how much how much space they need under the Pod uh one said the I beam's 18 inches but the plan says the I beam's 12 in so we're just trying to make sure that we dig down the right the right elevation and the concern is we're digging down up against a building we're going to undermine the frost wall to the foundation so I'm I met with um a company that does pilings that can just drive a piling in without digging up against the building a car brought them PE pilings I don't Goliath maybe so that was pretty interesting so he's working on getting a price so I'm trying to wrap once this can get done we can move right along so that's where the COA pods are uh the pickle ball court the basketball court was dug up the concrete was poured last week because it had to be done for the grant that Len was able to get uh that has been done and that was paid as well and that Grant was closed out the court will need to be painted and finished up my only concern is I'm not sure that um I think Chuck might fence it off because if people walk on it he's not going to be able to paint it so for the Fourth of July so um that's the only concern with that but the concrete's set and ready to to to Ru on that project uh the Tower project I believe I've heard that the equipment is here somewhere is cross I should be pretty soon the equipment is here and they St engaging it as they need to before they install it so we're hoping the end of July sometime we should be able to go up and live with that Tower project um some of the other stuff I'm you know we're still working on the municipal fiber I'm working on the bridge we're trying to get into a portal for the bridge Grant the water mapping Grant we're moving forward on that it's just now a lot of things are just waiting for me to do procurement which is my bottleneck um working on the three projects for the school that were funded at the special town meeting um because they will be paid for by the town of Freetown they have to be procured by the town of Freetown so I'm working on that procurement Lan's actually doing quite a bit of that for me right now so I can get it off the the my desk hopefully tomorrow before I go on vacation so those three things will be ready to roll in the month of August because they need to be done before the end of the year other than that I think that's where our projects are everything else is in Fairly good shape for us I'm glad you didn't use the term that's it at the end of it because I thought you were going to and I was going to give you a hard [Music] time I don't know any questions on any of the projects or anything no in public input no all right I think we'll sign and then close might make Pokey Soul Pokey soul go f you might make it thank you very much appreciate it appreciate it up here that's the hardest part about doing personal Char is say pronouncing everyone's names it's really yeah and I get nervous that I'm I don't want me disrespect anyone right not too bad okay so now that we have everything signed I will entertain a motion to adjourn motion made second all in favor I I [Music]