[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right everyone I'm Jared Zager I'm proud to be one of your Selectmen and I can't wait to answer any of these questions that you have good afternoon students my name is Carlos Lopes I'm also one of your town selectman and I am very happy to be here at FES looking forward yep that's Gemini he said hello G want to say hi no all right sounds like you guys have some questions is there an order all right so on a daily basis what did you do from dayto day so I heard on a daily basis what do we do dayto day all right can we start it off sure all right so dayto day we we actually have regular lives right we put our kids on the buses or get the lunches ready we go to work um and then there are days that we have to work with the town on different matters um whether it's someone Conta contacting us or someone like yourself coming up to us asking a question we do a lot of research we ask our administrators and their assist executive assistants working as a team make sure that we're doing everything we can for the town what do you think Jared so yeah so we um kind of go piggyback off of what he said is we all you know still live our daily lives and um about usually if you average out about every two weeks we have a meeting and that's where we do a lot of stuff because we can't we can't be at Town Hall all the time answering questions we can't all be together at the same time so we plan meetings and that's where a lot of the decisions are made so um it's it's not always but it's usually about every two weeks so yeah yeah great question um what can I do as a third grader to help my town oh great question what can you do as a third grader that can help your town that could be anything um gosh what are you passionate about I I would ask what your favorite things to do you know I know a couple weeks ago we had Earth Day right that helps clean up our helps clean up our time so a lot of um students your your your height your size and look just like you right so uh that's one way to help the town you can uh talk to your teachers to see if there's any projects that that you can be involved in with the town what else can you do ask moms and dads to help out as well or your grandparents or your Guardians loved ones we're always looking for some good ideas right um I know some of you also drew the parade competition right see who comes in first place right so you guys do a lot for our town we get a lot of feedback from yourselves and your parents um on what's going on within FPS and the whole District but there's a lot of things it um in my eyes it's be involved right to what seleman Lopes has just talked about different things different activities whether it's things that you're passionate about sports cleaning up the town planting a tree doing something that makes the community better um it it all depends on what you really find passionate and and running with that what inspired you to be a selectman the hard-hitting question yes all right so we'll change it up I'll go first this time so um believe it or not is my a it's two it's my love for the town I've grown up in this town my whole life and I love this town um and then recently well somewhat recently my daughter was trying to go to a school and for different reasons was unable to um so I got upset about it and was complaining and I said that I was going to do something about it rather than sit back and watch stuff unfold I ended up learning a lot from it but I've always taught my kids to to be part of the solution don't be part of the problem right so if you have an issue try and fix the the issue so that was my way of trying to fix the issue was running for this position yeah so we I want to say a lot of the same things he said but what it comes down to this is when you got here Mr Ward asked you or talked to you and told you guys you guys all did your research you were looking at different things in town to make sure you knew what was going on in town but also ask questions right so when I was looking at becoming a selectman I did the same thing I went to some meetings I watched some meetings on YouTube um I did the research and then I realized if I want a voice I got to stand up and take that voice right and and take action so instead of just sitting down and saying things one way or the other I decided to get up to get on the team and make sure that my opinion your opinion when you're speaking with your parents and yourselves here as well make sure that you had a voice so that's why I decided to be a selectman um I was going to be the the nosy iny face guy not so much but I think I'm doing okay so that's why I decided to be a select great question how do you come up with the budget for the town all right all right so um each department head actually comes up with their budgets and we so we have a Town Administrator that's where you know our office is and what happens is we kind of set some guidelines for them because it's really about the amount of money we have and are Avail have available to spend right we don't want to spend every penny we make but we don't want to hold on to too much and not be able to move things forward so each department head comes to us well really to Town Administrator first they kind of review everything and then after that it comes in front of us where we can and the finance committee obviously a huge part of it um and then we kind of approve or or disagree with what they're really trying to come up with so it's all derived from each individual Department yeah and if you think about it in your personal lives if you do a chore or a task maybe Mom or Dad or Grandma somebody gives you a dollar or some money for your work right you really want that piece of gum but if you save a little bit more you may get a whole pack of gum right so as a town we have to make sure that the money that does come in we have to save it as much as possible in case something does happen right what if a hurricane or a tornado to show up out of nowhere right we have to fix that or a flood or maybe a bridge or so we always have have to make sure that we have that money for that big pack of gum and not just the one stick of gum who likes gum I knew you would all right all right righ I think you're up buddy how long can you be a selectman for well uh we could be selectman for the rest of our lives but uh if you get voted in so to become a selectman it's for three years at a time and every three years you have to put your name out there and say Hey I want to run to be the selectman of our town and then if you get enough votes you stay as a selectman um there is no I I'm sure there's no limit how many times we could run so in theory I could be selecting while you're your entire School career right or I can say next year I've had enough I've had enough fun and next person can step in and be a selectman so as long as you can get voted in uh we have no limits right yeah yeah mhm perfectly said what can you do for our animal shelters that's a good one do for animal shelters yeah um so we actually don't have an animal shelter in town we have the Animal control officer um she she handles all that stuff but anything usually goes over to Lakeville where they do have an animal shelter so we've kind of partnered with them um because I don't know if there's a a great enough need for one in town right now what do you think you think we need one um but yeah no I it's at this point we've never really thought much of it because we have a great relationship with Lakeville just like we do with uh our our schools so um that's really where they all head that's right yeah no I I think you're your question is a great question emo shter I have an animal right he sometimes uh likes to go for a walk on his own you I'm I'm lucky to have an animal control officer that knows my dog and that's what she does here on our town uh she knows a lot of your dogs and and pets and peacocks and all sorts of things that we have running around um and protecting them is very important to us but like selan zeger said we have a very good relationship just like we do school and sports with with Lakeville and they Animal control officer and shelter they do a great job so great question what is your favorite thing about your job o that there's a lot of good things believe it or not there's there's a lot of times people will talk about the bad but there's also a lot of good um there's a lot of rewarding things that happen and this sounds kind of corny to say but this is one of them I love this stuff this is when I think of being a selectman I love things like this working with the community recently we did the the Earth Day cleanup right and that was rewarding um that that didn't have anything to do with being a selectman per se but it was something where we were involved and you feel like you're making the community a better place so um if I can make one more person in this group passionate about what we do then uh mission accomplished so yeah there's no one certain things it's just the love of the community and making it a better place yeah no I I I I agree with you I I think one of the most favorite thing about the position is getting things done right you have a list of items to do or you see an issue that needs to be addressed and we get together like you you guys do during home like classroom you huddle up you learn new things you make the best decision for yourself and for the town and for us we as you can imagine we have a lot of homework that we have to take home as well to make sure we're prepared for every single meeting that we go to so that when we do make the decisions uh we're doing the right thing for the right reasons right so getting a list together and then checking off that list we have a lot of hardworking employees in town very good people that work for us uh work in our town because they love our town like you love our schools so seeing that done is fills my heart so that's one of my favorites good question how do you plan Town meetings town meeting MH all right so um Town meetings are really planned once again by our office so everything there's certain dates that are required um then there's different reasons of you know different questions that come up and it can spawn from all sorts of different reasons um it could be something we know that needs to go to the town's people um not everything that the three of us can vote on there certain times where it needs to be voted on by the town's people so something like that has to go to them um including what we had just answered not too many not too long ago right so we can come up with a budget we can approve a budget but inevitably it's the town's people who have to make the final say that they approve the budget so um there can also be people get enough signatures right they want to say in the the town of Freetown we want to make everyone call the color blue purple and if they get enough signatures it has to come up to the town for vote so that's another interesting thing so we get it usually you know couple of questions that come up that someone in town actually got put on the ballot it wasn't through us or anyone in town hall yeah yeah a lot of homework right I I think to cap to piggyback off of off of us s zegger is there's a lot of work that goes in the background we have to make sure we we talk to as many people as possible so we look at everything from Sing things in the mail emails uh free Town flash uh gosh social media the bulletin boards and just making sure that one everyone knows what date the time and date where when it starts then two making sure that they know the information we're going to put out there what we're going to discuss and for us we don't decide like he was saying we don't decide what gets voted on right you do so you you as the voters we represent you so this maybe three of us but we each represent a different district and part of town to make sure that we're speaking on your behalf to making sure you're getting things done seeing things get done and town meeting is a great place to have a few hundred people having a discussion about everything uh I think this year we have about 26 articles about 26 articles that we all have to discuss about from money to trains to um FES actually is on is on one of our things to discuss this year so a lot of things going the background all is done by the administrative staff uh of the select's office as well as all different departments across town from police fire and of course DPW everybody we all get involved to include the schools as well we need to know what you need and get and everything so a lot of teamwork most of the time is teamwork what are the top projects and our priorities for our town and how do they impact our community including our school can you say that again I catch the first half what are the top projects and or priorities for our town and how do they impact our community including our school oh okay so so here's a couple of good ones um right now they're going to be you're going to start seeing hopefully soon some work being done on our fire station that's around the corner um that fire station is is very small so the boys and girls actually have to to share the same room when they sleep so that's no good so we're um we're going to add on to it and they'll be able to sleep in their own separate rooms they'll actually have some room to be able to have meetings as well as having a couple extra Bays where they can put some equipment because right now we have three different fire stations and certain equipment has to be staged at other places because they only have so much space there but that's the one station where everyone's at so they um it'll it'll make the response time for a lot of things much better when the equipment's with them so that's one of the things um like something else oh gosh there's a there's a lot of projects a lot of phones let's see so fire station we like fire trucks so it's always a big one uh we're also going to be putting fiber optics throughout town right so that you can have fiber faster internet we're doing that um looking at fixing a few Bridges or a couple Bridges here in town one on Chase Road one on North Main Street what else is coming along uh we there is a train in in the in the works that's going to be has a station here so we have to make sure we keep an eye on the trains um housing that goes with it as well so that does impact our schools potentially in town so there there a as you can see there's a lot of things that that are going on to include the Four Corners they're think we're thinking about hey maybe it's time to change the traffic pattern if it's a good idea so there's always something that changes what our day-to-day tasking is but our number one priority is making sure that free Town people that live in free Town know that we're working on their behalf and I can honestly say we are we're we're working hard to make sure that we get everything we we need versus everything we want and that's a very important distinction so great question what do you got Gavin what are the plans for the old Dunkin Donuts in East Freetown near the um rotary so um at this point we don't know um stuff doesn't you know there's someone who owns the property so someone they either need to sell it or lease it and then it might come should come before us to make a decision on based on what goes there so at this point we can't speak of anything that's happened because it if even if you hear okay you know they're going to open this it's until it actually happens it's tough for us to say so yeah what do you think should be there that was be my question what do you think Gan what do you think you should be there I me maybe just like Another Place Another food place yeah maybe something different for food but food yeah I like it that's something that we have changed it's a couple new restaurants they have opened up since you know we've been on the on the board one is the ledge one's the tavern not to mention poke Soul a couple of new different restaurants so the variety has changed um yeah I don't think we'd be opposed for another restaurant in town all right so not a bad idea as a selectman how much time do you get to spend with your family that's a tough one um that's probably the hardest part about the job right so I made a promise to my family years ago that being a selectman wasn't going to take time away from doing everything that I like to do with my family so for instance I like to coach right a um I can see a lot of faces I've coached you this year or I currently coach you I have coached you right I also do uh I come to FBS right I read come me for years reading to you to the third grade second grade first grade kindergarten everybody right so but spending time with my kids right I have four boys and my wife so that's hardest time to do everything because you have to try to work your regular work week your 40 to 50 hours regular week then sometimes some weeks are busier than others in town so a lot more phone calls emails meetings and then of course sports right and and then school activities so trying to find that balance and it's called work life balance if you guys can figure that out for us please let us know all right uh we're still trying to figure that one out uh so we do the best we can to make sure we give enough of each other and make sure that it has enough of us in that project or conversation to make it worthwhile because that is important absolutely uh selectman W said it perfectly it's all about balance um sometimes as days knock on wood where almost nothing happens and then there's other days where you feel like you can't catch up and it's just about setting the time apart so that when I'm home with my family I have two girls and and a wife and I try to make sure that I set time aside for them and not just paying attention to my phone or my computer for work the Town um and paying attention to them so yeah good question how did you get elected to be a select all right so um any any position that's within Town um you need to get signatures first right so I have to go to your parents and different people in town who are registered voters and once you get 40 signatures of people who are registered to vote and live in town then your name can get put on the ballot then the fund begins then you have to you go out and talk to people and tell them why you want to run for this position and you do different things it's say stuff online it's putting signs out in people's yards going to events just talking to people you know and some of the people are your friends already and they're going to vote for you but um it's really getting people to understand why you're running and what you can do to make the place better yeah yeah but exactly what he said um hard work pays off right I think I told him probably every one of you hard work pays off you put in the hard work you do the job walking around talking with people um making sure they they know what they what you represent right and stay true to your word right and then they'll they'll trust you and if they trust you they'll put your name on that vote and um that's how you get elected so that's a very important step trust what is the hardest problem you have dealt with hardest problem we have dealt with gosh uh you know the prior some some problems that come up before us we can't discuss so some problems that we have we keep we have to keep to what's called executive session so only the the top tier or the executive session of the government which is the board of Selectmen are allowed to talk about it or discuss it so we have those problems um but then it's sometimes it's the easy things that you think are going to come before you that's going to be a simple solution then as you talk it out it gets harder and harder because you realize there's more complexities involved in those problems um do I remember any specific problem no they're all the same they're all hard nothing's easy to being a select and be honest with you you're not going to make everybody happy um and you try not to vote that way you try look at all the facts right do you take some of the conversation at you know part of the part of the solution yes is it the solution no um and then you do your best to make the best judgment in that in each single instance right um I think that yeah that's a hard that's a very hard question great question but that's a hard one it's yes there's no cut and dry answer and I can tell you that we all are human right and I can tell you that some of the hardest ones you have to do is if someone's in front of you that you know um making a decision but at the end of the day you make a decision that you feel is the right thing what's going to be the best for everyone and as a person I've always wanted to make everyone happy and one thing I've learned from being in this position I'm kind of going back and piggybacking off of what Selman Lopes just said is that you're never going to make everyone happy and that's tough that's a tough pill to swallow and um I'm getting better at it with time but it's still not easy so that that one is um it's a tough lesson to learn yeah yeah you just got to like trust in trust in the the homework that you did right all the all the things you read the conversation you've had you make a decision the best one you you can make and then that's your decision now do we get it wrong sometimes yes and then we'll go back and correct it if it's wrong right if we if we feel as though it needs to be looked at again or we didn't have all the information we're the adults in the room so we're able to go ahead and make mistakes and then correct them and that's okay as well so but I think most of the time it's uh decisions stay where they stay because decisions were made correctly so I'm sure some can point yes or no saying we agree or disagree with it and that's fine that's that's part of the process but you made the decision that's the decision that needs to stay that make sense yeah when is the new pickle ball court going to be done I knew it was coming pickle ball it's a growing sport America loves it um so right now uh we're going through all the the process of the paperwork the boring paperwork that the adults have to do for the pick a ball court but I I believe we're looking at putting it in Hathaway Park right where the old basketball court area was that was sunk down full of water most of the time we figured that'd be a good area to put the pickle ball court there what do you guys think good idea yeah who's a pickle ball player pickle ball I tried pickle ball that's a tough sport I've never played it but I'm excited to watch people play because I'm not going to lie I'm not going to be the first one on that Court yeah once we know when it's going to be finished we'll let you we sure to let you guys know all right all right good question all right what changes do you think we will see in the next 5 years what change es do we think we're going to see in the next 5 years well I know in 5 years from now you're going to be in eighth grade right maybe ninth grade some of you overachievers right um the Train's probably going to be here permanently right because we have a train station in town right we probably hear it and see it sometimes so that's probably going to be a change uh knock and wood hopefully we'll have two new bridges in 5 years uh in different parts of town pick a ball court hopefully it's but well used by then um other changes gosh that's a hard one that's Al that's also a hard question because all the projects we talked about today and maybe some ideas we haven't talked about yet will come before us that will take place in whether it's more important than the other one so gosh I hope not too many changes I like free town just the way it is I I will say that but change is change and we have to be okay with that as well so um you know there potentially some things that people don't want to talk talk about like housing that might be a thing by then 5 years from now maybe not depends on how people vote uh there there's there's fun stuff and not so much fun stuff that we can see happening in town that um kind of a hard question but the only thing we do know is this change will happen and it'll be people like us sitting up here as your Selectmen to help help with that change and help make sure that right decisions are made by providing you the information of those of the proposed changes good or bad right whether you love them or hate them a decision has to be made so our job is to make sure you have the information so that you know how to vote to let us know how to Advocate on your behalf so again we work in essentially for you we represent you right so the changes you want is what how will push us to to make those changes so yeah and I think um to piggyback off a lot of what select LS just said is you know change is going to happen it's all about being smart with the change in the growth um but we don't know what we don't know at this point so we we can control things like a bridge or the fire station things like that but there's certain things that are out of our control so it's tough to say okay in five years I'm going to see this we we don't know um you know I'm I'm going to be a betting man and say that we'll probably see a few more houses we'll probably see a few new businesses things like that but I don't have any specific thing that I could say I think I'll see this I'm hopeful that we see Bridges and a police and a fire station wall that would be good what is your favorite thing about free Town free Town [Music] foxes that that's a very long list I I I love our town it's one of the reasons why I I'm pretty sure he's going to tell you the same thing he loves his town as well so I know it's one of my reasons why I'm up here right um our town needs great people up here to make sure it's it's doing everything we can to be the best town in the world right and there are so many things I can add to the list of what I love about Freetown all right um and it really comes down to my number one thing is the people that live here I love having you as neighbors and community members all right that that is my number one thing I love about my town I can call you free town foxes for Life mhm y you are you're a free time foxes for life good please that was a good question how do you handle public speaking do you have any tips or tricks all right so as someone seleman Lopes is actually really good at public speaking I tend to get a little bit more nervous but I'm telling you I'm getting better with it and one of the things that I've done is try to stay calm confident in myself because like today I didn't know all the questions that were going to come up in front of me but I just try to stay confident in my responses because a lot of times my initial response to someone is going to be the most accurate one so I try not to overthink it and be confident in my answer and stay engaged with the person who's asked the question right continue to keep eye contact with you as you ask that question to let you know that I do care about what you're saying and listening to people right so that's it's big to me is always listening to people and then responding to them with the best answer possible so yes everything he said is yes absolutely yes um and even though I I I can I do well at times public speaking um there are times that I'm I'm nervous right I'm really nervous and uh I take a deep breath I come in there prepared knowing all the facts I need to know so that if I do get ask a question right um I'm prepared for it and then sometimes I won't lie I talk to myself in the mirror right as a little tip to myself and I have a little conversation with myself to make sure that I'm prepared um because even though I've done it a thousand times every time is scary every time I won't lie to you but I get through it because I know that I'm prepared the hard work is paying off and I am I make sure that I answer the question as much as possible and like something Zer said eye contact if you're talking up there making sure you you see everybody looking at you you make sure you know you're looking at them as well so that's my only tip for public speaking so if anyone sees selectman Lopes driving down the road talking to himself now you know why true story I'm nervous about this one he's right was it hard running for Selectmen what were your first ideas for the town town it's still scary yeah it it was um so I guess the good news and we can all say this our first time around we didn't know what we didn't know so you were kind of naive going into it right you I was prepared um through certain Avenues right with watching Town meetings being involved in the select meetings showing up to different things learning stuff but um I I went into it thinking I knew certain things and I learned real quick what I thought I knew I didn't um and then some other things I already didn't know and didn't think much about so um yeah it's that yeah I I'm trying to think of what else to say about it yeah no it's it's it's a lot of a lot of work you know you have to really like I know for me I talk to my wife and I talk to my loved ones and my friends to make sure that they're because it's at the end you're really doing it as a team right like you yes we're the selectman but I also have a wife and CH children right so are they okay with their my name being out there something I have to decide on right let's say we have to do something for the school and one group likes that idea the other group doesn't like that idea so that's a lot of stress that we get so I went to my family make sure they're okay with any stress that they may receive because I wanted to make sure I listen to them as well not just me cuz I was going to be go yes yes yes but if they told me no I don't want to be part of this right that's something you have to consider as well because your family is also involved one way or the other so you have to make sure you do the right things not just for you for the town but make sure you're taking care of family as well that's very important to all of us and in becoming a public figure it's just that you put yourself out in the public so you you kind of get noticed more and so like my kids times I'll go to the grocery store and I'll say do you want to come with me no I don't want to you're going to talk to everyone so it does it does change some things it's funny that you say that cuz I have that same conversation come on up I had that same conversation with my wife and kids every time as well we go somewhere it's like no I don't want to hang out with you dad because I want to be I want to lay low today and sometimes it does happen imagine us going to the Lakeside Festival how many of us would know us right so sometimes you want to come out and say hello which is fine and we want you to say hello but you have to make sure that your family's aware of that as well do you know when the commuter rail will be in use and will it go all the way to Boston so they haven't give us the act the date yet have they cuz they keep pushing it back so um we don't have a date and will it go to Boston yes but it's not a direct route it doesn't leave a son it and go straight there uh you have a lot of stops along the way so it's it's going to take a little while to get there um and it goes out as far as Fall River from this side from the assonant side of town and then on the Freetown side it goes out to new beff but does not stop in free town on the east side of town so you'll just hear it passing through town you won't see it actually stop right what you're hearing now is the not the commuter but the uh what was it cargo trains the cargo trains going by and that's what the noise you're hearing now once they do start I think they got to start testing sometime this year maybe later CU they keep delaying it because of different things you'll start seeing it more speed more one of our projects making sure we have railroad crossings and everything else in place prior to that so that's why there's a delay and making sure it's happening what's your question did you go to school to be a selectman did I go to school to be a selectman no I did not uh well I guess I guess in a way so I have a degree from Roger Williams University um a a bachelor's in social science with the with the art of communication well so what that means is um my I did go to school for a lot of the stuff that we do as Selectmen but as like public administration but I did it to make sure sure that when I speak to people I want to know how to engage with them and get their full attention and not just get their attention but also get their input as well so there's a way of doing that properly and there's a way of not doing that properly because sometimes it's not what you say is how you deliver it right how you deliver that good or bad news and that's really the most important part about the field I went into because now I just buy stuff to build stuff for for for the Navy so not really what I use it for and mine 100% no I'm I went to school and I have a degree in accounting and finance so I tried it and guess what I didn't really like it too much so I work in the business world and I I stayed doing that so I stayed passionate but in what I went to school for was um didn't really well I mean I suppose it helps when I'm trying because I've always loved numbers so when we're going over budgets and understanding budgets and why part certain people are doing certain things um it makes it a lot easier here for me yeah anybody else oh awesome yes did a great job yeah you know thank you we appreciate [Applause] it if he has you have any other questions if I'm sure you can raise your hand and ask unless you have to go what's your question have you done anything to help our school have we done anything to help your school uh we well we love FES we we do as much as we can for the schools so one of the things that we're doing differently this year is we're creating um a fund just for FS right that we're putting at town meeting um that's so that we can just do FS projects working with Mr Ward and Mr Goodwin um from the facilities so that's one good thing we did for the school we looked at your roof we're thinking about putting solar on there right see if we can can save some energy right so um always doing something make sure your schools we know that we we love the school but there are things that we want to do and we haven't done them yet so we'll continue doing them oo you can pick them all right um I want to get someone who hasn't asked I'm going to go with you yes biggest responsibilities um it's so really what we have to do is to make sure that we put our best foot forward to guide Our Town into the future right so we talk about a lot of things that have been problems and whatever but really it's how do we identify problems before they even happen and then move forward and fixing the problems so um that's really our biggest thing yeah listening listening listening homework homework homework that's how we prepare for every decision we make so that's probably our hardest responsibility is making sure we know what going on to make sure we make the best informed decision instead of just you know going from the hip all right all the way in the back I see you wa yeah did oh gosh uh that's a great question I believe it's something to do from my memory and I know the history Buffs out there I got to tell me I'm wrong I'm okay and if I'm wrong we'll correct it but many years ago when we first were founded uh we had a a government that came over with with the Mayflower and everything else and that government created Selectmen uh Governors and everything else so we're part of that that process of having a local municipality was called the home rule right state constitution that allows towns like freet toown uh the ability to self-govern right so we become What's called the executive branch of government for freet toown right just like the president is the executive branch of the federal government so where we are not big enough to be a city to have a mayor and a city council so in a so the three of us become the mayor and the city council all at once working with the boards and Committees of our town I think that's the correct answer if not I'll make sure to get more information on it great question you got me I had you over there would you when the first day when you um when you're a BL man so my first day was um I've never had so many emotions in one day in my whole life I was extremely excited and I was nervous I didn't know what was going to happen next um and funny story for me was I actually had to go on to a meeting that first day so I was elected one day the next day I was sworn in and then I had to go into a meeting that night so thankfully they reduced down the agenda for me so I didn't have a lot to vote on but yeah I went right into it and then shortly thereafter I also went and met with some of the different departments around town and listen to what they said so um yeah that that first day was a whole lot of emotion yeah you had it easy so I was elected in my first meeting sworn the next day my first meeting was an up open public meeting regarding one of our businesses here in town Excel um so walk I was at the meeting and everyone was very some were upset others were were there to listen to what was happening uh and here I am my first day and it's coming in you're just and you really have little to say because you haven't read everything on that subject so my first day was really oh hi Carlos welcome to Public [Music] Service all right all right we have time for more questions a couple more all right they up Mr zagger uh you right there in the red shirt yeah what did you do to help our community oo well I'm going to say this I haven't done anything we as a board have done a lot um and a lot of it has to do with the projects that we've talked about right so there's a lot of things that are happening currently or have hap you know going to continue to happen certain things that you haven't even seen yet that we can't discuss yet um that will help the community down the road because as I stated before it's really about how do we help the town move forward into the future so we're always trying to stay two steps ahead and making the community a better place so you really want to just say okay at the end of the day whether I'm here for 3 years 6 years or 50 years that when I leave that it's better than when I started all right way in the back yes [Music] you are we the only selectman is that your question yeah so we are so we're missing one selectman um selectman Matthews uh he's away today so there's three of us that make up the the select board uh for the town of Freetown uh if you probably been to Lakefield they have five members now so they make up five so every town is a little bit different between three and five so so it keeps it as a odd number in case there's a tie to break the tie so there's three of us and it could be select women too doesn't have to be a man it's anybody can be up here talking to you to FES doesn't have to be a man or a woman all right all right you in the pink back there I know that off at um it's something we have talked about recently a a survey came out from the chief of police that went to you know households um where questions like that were were asked um unfortunately um things always come down to funding and the availability so it's something that we have talked about um thankfully Lakeville has been a great partner and put a police officer in in schools that you know all of you will be at within well next year so um you'll start seeing them there so you know we having a second officer in those schools would obviously always be very helpful as well as having one here we're very fortunate that we have a police station that's couple hundred feet away from here so some of those police officers come here and check in on guys right so um it definitely something that's been thought about yeah yeah safety is definitely important to us so discussions are being had is to see what we can and can't do and and that part of discussion is like like s zegger said is we had a survey that went out and it overwhelmingly people said hey that'll be let's look at that so that's what we're doing with the next phase we asked the question the information came in and now we're going to discuss a little bit further how to make it happen right weigh the pros and cons right do the homework first then could get an answer all right you've been waving your hands all the way in back yep yeah all way the back so I've been selecting two and a half years now running for re-election next year all right um and I believe he's been SLE in four years now yeah so I was just reelected so it was three and a half years so I came in about a year before selectman LST did yeah so um let's see you and the tiedye right there y you is it a lot of [Music] pressure is it is it a lot of pressure for voting sorry like to get people to vote for you yeah yeah um it's definitely something you think about and it can weigh on you I can tell you that this year because I was running for reelection I was in very nervous guy on Easter cuz it was the day before election so it it does it's you know you care about something so it's it's tough um but that's okay that's that's part of it because then you know what when I was reelected it was extremely rewarding so I told myself that it was all worth it so yeah yeah great question okay all right I'm sorry all the people who didn't get to answer ask their questions but if you ever see us on the street never stop ask and ask ask us those questions okay if you have questions let your teachers know we'll collect them and take it from there you're welcome thank you thank you FES you guys are awesome and have fun next year at Grace [Music] [Applause]