[Music] good evening everybody rough start uh Monday May 6 2024 at 6:30 p.m. and I'll call to order the free toown border select meeting um this meeting will be recorded and will be available on the town's uh YouTube page um so we're going to jump right into it and agenda item one are open session minutes from 47 2024 so with that I will entertain a motion to approve the Open Session minutes from 4:17 2024 for motion made second all in favor I I all right item two is uh vote and approve the summer vote on approving the summer concert series proposed by the community direct uh program director and whether to allow exclusive use of the band stand for this purpose on July 2nd July 16th July 30th August 13th and August 27th from 4 to 99 p.m. uh 6: to 8 6: to 8 p.m. do you need time for setup though oh yeah you're right yep you're right do let's do 49 that makes more sense I think it's always better get more than all right and do you want to discuss anything about this uh Kylie uh yeah uh the band standand was like the most feasible option in my eyes even though parking's a bit challenging um I got permission from the vet um to use their parking lot they were kind enough to let me use it that's awesome yeah um they just said on the stipulation that no one parks there before 5:00 cuz their work hours um and to you know clean up whatever debris but they were very generous and letting us use that space so that'll be very helpful great and then so will um admission be free for this yes yes okay and uh I'm sure these will be kind of advertised through our different all our different kind of mediums that we have yes that's awesome and we have town hall to park at right so Town Hall normally closes at 4:00 so we would have at least there I know we were try and keep people over there you know not having to cross the road where we're possible but if we have an overflow because of people and let's hope that it continues to grow in popularity we can we do have some parking over at town hall as well so yeah and so are we going to have any vendors or anything like that we have we talked about that at all I'm trying to get a food truck yeah that's a great idea um so Luen and Deb recommended mad yeah um I've reached out to them they haven't gotten back on dates yet cuz I know that they have another commitment on Tuesdays yeah um so I'm waiting to hear uh what their availability is and I've reached out to some of the food trucks Kevin actually just recently permitted and I'm waiting to hear back from them as well what's the what's the barbecue one that's the I went their website after last time we somehow that came up and it looks really good so that be awesome awesome even an ice cream truck I me yeah one of the ones he actually just pered was an ice cream truck I forget the cool cool licks something like that they have beer and wine trucks is that I not say that I said to her what might be good is a wine truck like at the halfway Park we might we might have just had a brilliant idea why don't we see this more out talked about that with a movie night like have a movie night for the kids and have a be and wine truck for parents yeah my daughter's wedding had a little trailer that they brought in behind them and it was a full service bar but it was in an old horse trailer that they that's really cool it was really cool it was super cool so many picture I'm just saying I think the board is open to potentially having a beer white your thing I'll look into it had discussions on how she would have to get a one day lior Li and that but yeah we can make that happen right oh yeah sure we have exciting yeah so I'll look into that I'm sure we can figure that out yeah unfortunately just sometimes to get things to be successful you need to have wi to agreed all right so any other questions or concerns on this anything else you want to add say thank you I'm excited hopefully it goes well it will it will like you build a they will come that's that's the saying right so we did we did just so people know we did try to go towards the center of town at the COA but given the pods and the construction that we're going to be having this summer it was a concern about what that what that was going to look like so that's why for this summer at least sit at the band stand so yeah but in the future we're you know Kylie's going to look into being able to maybe alternate that was my original idea like half at the Band Stand half at the COA I'm doing two at the COA before the pods come but yeah yeah you could probably even use the Babe roof field back there it's massive behind the Council of Aging and you mentioned the the U the beach the I think that's that'd be kind of cool there's no power right is that our issue a 400 amp service at the football field yeah so they can go there and then the Old Stone does probably be good enough for staging yeah so I think it's just um bathroom for the first year yeah yeah we're going to work out the king's here and but I I I just want people to you know know that there was consideration given and there will continue to be consideration given as things evolve yeah to moving things more centrally located so everybody can enjoy them yeah sense all right great so with that I'll entertain a motion approving the summer concert series proposed by the community program director and allow exclusive use of the band stand for this purpose on July 2nd 16th 30th August 13th and August 27th from 4: to 9:00 p.m. motion made second all in favor I I awesome thank you thank you all right and then you're still I think you know yeah one yeah still in your I wanted to plug the kayak rack yeah that's great I I I did I saw that so yeah so this is just an announcement that the kayak rack uh rental space at halfway Park um from the community program director so you want to just speak a little bit about that please yeah so we have um a lot of lots available I think eight because one person just recently reserved it and it's um available May 1st to October 31st um so if anyone's interested in storing their K kayak waxs it's right at hathway Park and I put like um number labels on them so everyone knows what Lot number they'd be assigned to um and all they have to do to apply is just go on Freetown ma.gov and then go to community program on the website and on the left hand side it will have like um like a little tab that they can click on and it'll give them more information and then also have a waiver for them to sign their application how much does it cost for free free wow actually I have a kayak that I don't use have to drag it all the way yeah it's a paining you should most definitely all right great thank you very much if I can just say something um I wanted to say this later on in the agenda but while Kylie's here I just want to give a shout out to her everybody got the events uh calendar newsletter that came that went out by um we used the new we used the flash the pre time flash but the email and the text uh option only so it didn't bringing people's phones and we've gotten just a great great response people are super excited about it and we're going to continue to evolve Kylie's going to work um on the next quarter to get some um maybe some news article type stuff in there about local news that's happening within town so I just wanted to say shout out to Kylie what a great job she did on that and getting that out and there was a lot a lot of information in there and people I've had great feedback from yeah residents this is something that like I think our really needs and I think it's huge and it's like this kind of fun cool stuff that brings people together and so I'm really excited that you know we're making this happen you're doing a lot of hard work on it so appreciate it thank you so much just just to update too I think she said if changes happen in the events it will automatically update the link so say next week you want to go in and say hey I I want to see what's happening the the information will be updated to the latest information that Kyrie has cuz it automatically updates in that link so so that's something that should be free L checked if like you you know were thinking about going to somewhere it probably will be updated like any information I get since canvas so kind of user friendly um in the link that I have it's like um anyone can really access it and you don't really need an account either which is nice yeah um so I can edit internally and then you refresh it and then I'll have whatever information that's new and I'll do the same like if there's um a plethora information that I'm putting on there I'll re-update it on the town website as well if people can't access the like link from the free town all right perfect thank you thank you great job all right great so now we'll move on to a item four this is um session vote whether allow exclusive use of the band stand for uh the library run children's music program is that correct it's run by the library the library ran children's music program on 7:24 2024 uh 12 to 4: p.m any questions or concerns with that no that doesn't conflict with any of our other dates it doesn't so far all right so with that I'll entertain a motion to allow the exclusive exclusive use of the band stand for the library ran children's music program on 7:24 2024 12 to4 p.m. motion second all in favor I all right uh item five uh vote on whether to open review finalize and close the annual town meeting and special town meeting warrants for 6:30 2024 63 what I say 6 sorry 63 2024 thank you aome all right so we have two new are these new articles are they yes um one was in there like a placeholder we had the retiree health insurance cost this is for the spouse of a retired um employee legally right now we're not supposed to pay any portion of The spouse's um health insurance this option um if voted in would give the Selectmen the authority to vote any amount of payment towards The spouse's retirement um surviving spouse health insurance um 50% or higher I think it actually has to be higher than 50% so it might be 51% or higher there were options to do just 50% or less than 50% but I I thought that um this one would be the most appropriate since we're paying 95% currently that after this is enacted then the selectman can make the vote to approve whatever number they want up to 90% 95% is actually outside the statute this it's between 50 and 90 um so this just kind of again we're trying to correct some um prior things that were already paying but we don't have the right statutes in place to technically be paying these amounts so sort of a housekeeping thing gotcha um the second one that I I handed you is that we get a grant um I applied for a grant and I get a grant that will pay to map the water and sewer infrastructure in the town so the grant the total cost for that was $25,000 the grant will pay for $125,000 of it and we'll allow um about a third of it to be like employee hours so out of pocket cost is about $47,000 is what we'll have to pay out of cash um but in order to facilitate the grant they want you to allocate the whole $25,000 because they want to make sure you can pay for it because it's a reimbursement Grant got so we we have to allocate the money then they'll get they'll let us do the work and then they'll reimburse us the money and this is how all of the grants kind of work although they don't always require us to allocate the funds now these funds as as um this is amended will come out of you know the water and sewer Enterprise funds reserves okay um so to be allocated uh so that's what that's about silly question obviously once we get reimbursed does it go back into their same funding mechanisms you know I'm going to have to check with Matt on that um that's a good question so I will follow up with Matt I don't know like the general fund I'm thinking it might go to the general fund and then we'll have to reallocate it back to the water department yeah just because I mean they you know if they're going to have the money if they're saving the money to use towards projects I don't you know oh I don't want to take their money right yeah know that's what I'm saying I know that I guess so I'm just saying just to be clean as possible if we're taking you know4 something, today and we can give them back the4 something th000 tomorrow then it's fine yeah and honestly we're going to talk about Opera tonight but the 46,000 or the 7,000 that needs to come out of the the actual cash that needs to come out of the town I think it might be appropriate to take that out of Opera so we'll talk about that further but I didn't want to have to get a vote for so much oper and then so much from the town just because it gets messy and it's just sort of one of those allocations that isn't actually going to cost money it's not going to actually come to fruition so that's what that article is I don't know that there was any other oh there is another article I added um when uh the chief the fire chief was here we talked about getting a new ambulance and I wasn't sure on where we were with the funding and whether we had the funds he him and I have had discussions he said he could wait another year at the end of when we kind of pulled the budgets all together we have the available money to purchase the ambulance so I added that article um to the warrant to fund the purchase of an ambulance the the the reality of it is um it takes 2 years to get an ambulance so where we have the funds will allocate the funds locking the price now right as soon as possible and then the funds will actually sit in our in our investment accounts and earning interest at hopefully close to 5% so you know we'll be able to get some money out of that um but I did add that one as well I don't believe I added um any other articles since the last time we learned with the the price increase of equipment it's why not exactly yeah I don't think um do you remember adding other ones I think I'm looking through now yeah there's quite a few zoning articles your phun I think you took off the cruiser one I'm not sure I took off the article for to fund the planning board um online permitting for $30,000 I took that off I put it in their budget okay so I put it in as an expense in their budget y um as opposed to an article it it I don't know that there's a particular reason but it was a small number in relation to our overall Warren articles and Matt thought it best to put it there so I I didn't I didn't disagree with them I did let let them know that I changed their budget and I added it to their budget $30,000 and I took the waren article off okay the cruiser was off I don't know if it was here the last time I did the same with the police cruiser there was a police cruiser to fund um you know replacing a a police cruiser but I believe that was already in our capital budget in the last [Music] meeting all right cool so then how do this B have to work so do we close it already so you need to yeah I think you did so I think you need to open it to add these articles so you need to technically open the warrant to open it so I'll motion to open the annual and special town meeting warrants yes because the mapping one is going to go on the special town meeting uh for 63 2024 motion me second all in favor I then I think you need I don't know if you want to go through now I don't know that you have you you went through already did you I you have to official just recommend them so unless you don't want to recommend them I guess you could just recommend them all at once but the second vote will be to add these two articles one to the special Town meaning and one to the end you know we didn't have any issues with anything I don't think so no not the last one we haven't had any issues with anything no I didn't think so either it's actually two to the annual time meeting it's the ambulance one and it's the so a vote to add those so yeah I'll a motion to add the so the retiree health insurance costs um article to the annual town meeting as well as the other one we just talked about the annual ambulance and the purchas of the ambulance to the annual town meeting motion made second all in favor and then I'll make a motion to add the um mapping Water and Sewer infrastructure article to the special town meeting motion meting second all in favor I and then I'll entertain a motion that we recommend um all articles on both the annual and the special Town meetings motion made second all in favor all and then I will entertain a motion that we close the annual and the special town meeting uh warrant for 63 2024 motion made second all in favor they need to finalize or dis close I think I think okay that might be most motions per minute as efficiency them that so okay Six Sigma that's best right there that was good all right so I have some proclamations so J item six is discuss and vote whether issue a proclamation recognizing free Town's First Responders in honor of Emergency Medical Services week which is from 519 through 525 2024 so I'll read this Proclamation right now so EMS week Proclamation uh to designate the week of May 19th uh through 25th 2024 as emerc Emergency Medical Services week whereas Emergency Medical Services are a vital public service and whereas the members of Emergency Medical Services teams are ready to provide life-saving care to those in need 24 hours a day 7 days a week and whereas access to Quality Emergency Care dramatically improved the survival and recovery rate of those who experience sudden illness or injury and whereas medical uh Emergency Medical Services have given have grown to fill a gap by providing important out of hospital care including preventive care follow-up care and access to Tele medicine and whereas the Emergency Medical Services System consists of First Responders emergency medical technicians paramedics emergency dispatchers firefighters police officers Educators administrators prehospital nurses emergency nurses Emergency Physicians trained members of the public and other out of hospital care providers and whereas the members of the Emergency Medical Service teams whether um career or volunteer engage in thousands of hours of specialized training and continued education to enhance their life- saving skills and whereas it is appropriate to recognize the value and the accomplishments of emergency medical service providers by designating Emergency Medical Service week now therefore we the free toown border Selectmen in recognition of this uh event do hearby proclaim the week of May 19th through May 25th 2024 as Emergency Medical Services week with this being the 50th anniversary of the first uh National EMS week we encourage the community to observe this week with appropriate uh programs ceremonies and activities so entertain a motion that we I guess accept this Proclamation motion me second all in favor I we have some of the best teams here in Pre toown you really do yeah and I'm not just saying that I've heard that from people who work in the hospital that they say like free town is second to so it's good to hear that about our team here um so just want to give that shout out to them as well absolutely to all of them you know just right down the line police fire dispatch everybody so all right and now oh also I should know I saw some post that you know they've been doing for like have been doing and it's really cool just kind of shouting out different people that you know yeah people don't you know generally don't see that you know they're not and it's just really cool that giv them the the proper credit all right so AG itm 7 is this is this another Proclamation um to recognize the 55 55th annual professional Municipal clerks week from 55 through 511 2024 so I'm going to read this one as well where uh Proclamation f fth annual professional Municipal clerks week from 55 from May 5th through May 11th 2024 whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk a time honored and vital part of local government exists throughout the world and whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk is the oldest among public servants and whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk provides the professional link between citizens and the uh local governing bodies and agencies of the government at other levels and whereas professional Municipal Kirks clerks have pledged to U be ever mindful of their neutrality and impartiality um rendering equal service to all whereas the professional municipal clerk serves as the information center on functions of local government and Community whereas the professional uh Municipal clerks continually strive to improve the administration of the Affairs of the office of the professional municipal clerk throughout participation in educating education programs seminars workshops and the annual meeting of their state IAL um County and international professional organizations whereas it is most important that we recognize the accomplishments of the office of professional Municipal clerks now therefore we the board of Selectmen of the town of Freetown do recognize the week of May 5th through May 11th 2024 as professional Municipal clerks week and further extend appreciation to All Professional Municipal uh Town clerks sh uh Estrella and all professional Municipal clerks for the vital Services they perform and they oh wow it's tough wor for me uh explor I can't say that for some reason dedication to the community yeah I can't say it I can't read it dedication to the communities they represent dated this 6th day of May 2024 right so I a motion that we also accept this Proclamation motion made second all in favor you just did a water reading in a short am of time I just you know some words I just can't and again Cheryl does a great job for the town absolutely and she I mean she works hard yes she does and especially like both of them in that department work extremely difficult that role is evolved like and it's you have to be very Tech savy now and there's so many different regulations and we all know that you know just voting in general is a very hot topic with a lot of eyes on it and so definitely uh a lot of kudos to her and her team that have to navigate through these very tricky Waters and it's obviously extreme important part of government function [Music] so all right so that is Gen item [Music] seven all right so now J item 8 this is a vote whether to close the transfer station for training on 6:20 2024 8:00 a.m. through 100 p.m. and 6:20 is a Thursday Thursday is this the this is the yeah this this is this is really important that the highway department and these uh individuals get this training at this point okay me any questions or concerns no long as we post it to our normal Avenues and do what we can to educate the public then absolutely the point needs to be done yep all right so with that one motion to close the transportation for training on 620 2024 8 amm through 1 p.m. motion made second all in favor I I [Music] um now we have a ped's license request from Sunrun uh JLA a Consulting is that two different ones or is that just one I think it's all yeah looks like one I think it's all the same thing because it's the name on the must work for someone maybe yeah the way that I don't want to call their name out but it's Jennifer something you know so I think that that's what the JLA must come from so this is like a Solar Company yeah so so it's a business named Sunrun JLA Consulting so she must work or consult for Sun Run well I'm actually happy to see them apply for one of these because I get solar people at my house three times a week and I don't and I know I'm not issuing them ped license so yeah I just think that they they need to have identification on them it would be very helpful and and let the police know that they're in the neighborhood yeah and if they could let Lan know we could put something on Facebook you know because we always get these calls does anybody know who this is people are knocking on the doors the more communication we can have the safer everybody will be they seem to always knock on the door right as soon as my baby falls asleep the dog the dog start buing which is almost 100% going to happen so I would definitely Echo the the idea of making sure that they at least call the police station right because I mean if they can let us know great but a lot of times they might also be out on a weekend so but yeah the police should know because they're going save a trip to of why there's a stranger walking up to theill and just exactly have be well identified too right having the shirt with a logo or a pass or something you know that indicates where they're from I think that helps a lot all right but I'm no problem approving this you know all right so without l a motion to approve the pedal's license request from Sunrun JLA Consulting motion made second all in favor hi hi all right uh next we have vote on whether to approve the business associate agreement an agreement between the town of Freetown and coastal medical billing for 71 2024 through 630 [Music] 2025 just the agreement this is just the U medical uh the the billing for the ambulance runs yeah they they this is their second year I believe so um just the contract they they charge 3% of what they buil and that's is that same as was in the first contract is it went out to bid and that's it was a threeyear contract it was 3% for each year yep that was the cheapest uh bid all right any questions or concerns no no all right great so that a motion to approve the business associate agreement and agreement between the town of Freetown and Coastal Medical buildings for 71 2024 through 6:30 2025 motion made second in favor I hi all right now we have jna item 11 which is discussion vote and awarding Chip Away milling and pavement RFP and it looks [Music] likeing Keating company yep better yeah so they came in at I can disclose this right yeah 550,000 850 compared to everyone else was well almost you know close to 700,000 all right any questions or concerns no no all right so I intend a motion to award the chip away milling and pment RFP to uh TJ heating company motion made second all in favor I I and now agenda 12 is to approve the contract between the town of Freetown and PJ keting company for chip milon pavement so I'll in motion to approve that contract motion made second all in favor I I the only question now that I think of it is is did we because it's and I don't think it's going to matter they broke off uh center lane as being separate so I don't know if we have to approve that it's all part it was all part of it's all part of it yeah no it's fine just because it's called out is Chip Away in here and then it's broken off so I just want you want to just add a motion to it that it you know that the the bid and the contract both um include that sorry I'm not trying to be that's probably C Lane it's all into the same company one again right so it's I so how about this you in that second piece do you know yeah they built it with the RFP for various streets yeah right but it's an alternate one that yeah that's the thing right see how it's alternate so may maybe it's like potentially the top one is inclusive of yeah he is adding it by the price on the contract he's adding the um Carpenters Lane he's adding the alternate one and that's a part of the agreement right it is part of the so we approved the the agreement yeah I'm probably overthinking it 38,500 to do that extra portion I'm sure Chuck was waiting to see what the bids came in to see how much money he has because this is pretty high U cost and he's got his chapter 90 money and his what's left over from article money and he probably wanted to make sure he had enough to do something but it looks like he's got enough to do both of them so that's part of um that's part of the agreement and was part of the bid that went out perfect so you think we're good I think you're fine sorry no it's good rather be safe and sorry all right so now 13 discussion to vote whether to approve supplemental contract between the town of Freetown and geman Pon for Kelly and quog Road pavement slope stability improvements yeah this was a this already went out to bid and went out um I mean went to them to do work on it they just changing the contract they're taking something out adding something else but because the original contract was paid for out of chapter 90 it just made it easier to put a second a new contract a supplemental contract to the original contract then amending the original contract it's just really for procedure at this point okay additional $8,000 for the work that Chuck requested them engineer for that job all right any questionss or concerns folks no looks pretty straightforward all right so that a motion to approve the supplemental contract being town of free Town Green P Peterson for uh Kelly Quant Road pavement slope stability improvements motion made second all in favor I I all right so now J item 14 is a warning the RFP for the fence at hathway Park and it looks like we received two quotes straight line fencing at $1,084 and Southeast fence and Supply uh well there's two of them all uh alternative one is 12655 and all2 is 9,128 alternative two was leaving the rails leaving the um post there but it looks like that's not going to be a viable option okay um so looks like we're going to replace the whole ra I mean the whole fence and this is something that that that you approved she used Opera money for a couple weeks ago this at the halfway Park along the water the fence is pretty old and and worn out so this is to replace that all right so [Music] you you just approving the quote for All State it's just approving is it not it's not selecting a um it's not no contract or anything just you're just approving the quote for All State for all state is it all state no line St line I don't know which one you're doing it says it says awarding the request for proposal so and I have so the cheapest is straight line okay sorry I don't know where I got I'll state from I made that up okay all right so with that so a motion to award the request RFP for the fence halfway Park to straight line fing motion made second all in favor I and now we have another RFP it's very RFP heavy day so J 15 vote on awarding their RFP for it support services for 71 2024 through 6:30 2025 looks all right so we got one quote what we at one and the next one of a different [Music] location so you're just awarding the bid that's the only bid we got from yeah we got one bid is from nrpc yeah which is who we Ed now okay perfect it's at 125 bucks an hour which is what he charges now so he didn't go off awesome it's fantastic so with that pretty fair yeah yeah actually very fair very fair um so without motion to request uh to award the RFP for IT services for 7124 through 630 2025 to netro spec motion made second all in favor I I okay moving on agenda item 16 this is boot on the 63 2024 town meeting postcard design print and mail it's a typical postcard that we do we just didn't know what size because we have the MBTA information and I think you reached out to Victoria to have her draft something for like a portion like we were think going do a full page because like one pay one half of it Victoria can draft something some facts even a link to more information about the MBTA zoning um because we know that's going to be something people are going to be asking about so that was kind of what we're just looking for the direction if that makes sense yeah it's an extra $300 to me it's an no brain to give ourselves the extra space I agree yeah I absolutely agree I get as much information out there as possible keep it as neutral as possible all sides of the conversation because we know that's going to be probably the uh the big ticket item for that night so yeah I agree is better that um we draft something up and get it to as soon as we have it and here I guess here's the other flip to that coin so you're looking at roughly another two or $300 say to go to color does it make sense to go to color and I almost wonder and say yes because once again I want to be able to grab people's attention and a lot of times black and white looks cheap and looks like you know just something else so if anything we can do to make it pop to people to notice it um once again $2 or $300 is not going to make or break this town but if it gets even 10 more people to look at it I'm going to say mission accomplished so yeah I I I agree um no I agree with you if we can make sure people have eyes on it when they receive it not just throw it in the trash or put it aside that's what we want so if it cost us $300 that's easy money um do we like spending money no but this is worth it because now people are getting the information they need regard as MBTA whether you're Prov or just like it that's at least you're getting the information we've done everything possible to put it out there so as well as other things I mean obviously MBTA is going to be the Hot Topic and I so I know why you're saying that but there might be some other stuff that needs to end up on there as well right so um there's going to be things out other people are very Pro or against let's face it um that could be on there that they can not know so and now that that um Lola she's the one that worked on the um getting out the newsletter via the Flash without the phone ringing I think we could also get this postcard out that same we it's a link that you have to do but we can also get you know utilize that to get this postcard out that way as well as mailing it just trying to get to as many people as we can I agree so are we saying just to be get this article right we're saying that 8 by 8 and half by 11 Y in color yes yep that's it right do we have to pick who to go with it's it's the um under $110,000 it doesn't have to go out to bid it can just be the um best business practices so in this case I think um we've worked with uh one company consistently that's been very receptive to us and sometimes we're under the gun so that might be the better option for us mhm I think we can leave that to your discretion okay I don't think anyone else will have a question that but you know I only ask just for clarity that's all yeah all right so that motion um to utilize this 8 and half by 11 folded colored post cards um for the 63 2024 anual to meeting and um give the Town Administrator discretion on what company to utilize to print those motion me second all in [Music] favor okay 10 I'm 17 discussion of vote on Freetown representative for Union negotiations with the regional school districts so the the school district are negotiating their Union contracts and we're supposed to have a representative at the table for those negotiations has not happened in the past um however it should we should have somebody will you know sitting in on those negotiations as we know they're important and they ultimately the town is paying a portion of the bill I I worded it this way because we're working on the uh Freetown Lakeville Regional District but we're going to also have Briston Plymouth I don't know what their when their Union contracts come up but I it it'll be for both Regional districts I I would assume so um if if they have the same operation so just somebody who's willing to sit on those um is it should be one of us it can be one of you it can be me it can be whoever you think I mean um I just I wanted to put it to you to the board for a vote anyone uh well I've already reached out to the unions mon a couple months ago just to say hello low so I have no problem stepping up for the board of Select and if the a few folks don't want to do it I'll I'll continue that relationship and fostering that that bridge between us and them so worse me yeah you chance yeah all right great so with that a motion to um guess appoint Carlos Lopes as the union negotiation uh for the represent free time representative for the negotiations with the regional school districts motion me I'll second it all in favor all perfect thank you oh you're welcome just uh delete that on the video so my wife doesn't see it that'll be fine I think it's good for them to know hold the S and be able to reach out to you and talk to you too right yeah absolutely yeah I know when I spoke to them a couple months ago to say hello introduce myself and to them um they were very very happy that we reached out to say hello and just to listen what they have to say um so this is continue that relationship with them with the teachers union make sure that we understand what they're coming from and we have that nice dialogue back and forth so this is positive absolutely all right so J 18 discussion of vot whether to declare the map table currently in the planning and conservation office a surplus incentive transfer station wow this seems like a big one yeah I've heard a lot of this map table here it's a big table is big is is is there going to be any kind of uh anyone be upset at the town hall for I don't know I don't know but I don't even know if they can get it out of the room like I think that's a whole another discussion for Carl and Tim and the highway department maybe think the legs have to be cut off of it it's a big table but it is just this big it's wasting a lot of space so yeah I mean I guess every time I've ever seen it it's just kind of a holder of paper right like it's not really much more than that well I will say that um Victoria and Nicole in that department have been working diligently to scan all the documents it's no longer a holder of paper it's cleaned off and uming out of there so sounds like send it all right send it over with me so a motion to declare the map table currently in the planning conservation use Surplus and sent to the transfer station motion made second all in favor I abandoned boats okay this is discussion vote whether declaring three abandoned boats as abandoned and disposing of them where are these boats I know where some boats are these boats are at the highway department apparently I I don't really know they were left on the sides of the road like throughout the I don't know they just left there so we talking about here they they dropped off at the um highway department and now they've been there for a year nobody has the title nobody's claimed them I don't think they're good I think they're they left them side the road chances are they in reality some ripped off the whole numbers and the you just have to declare them as abandoned and no good or dispose of them and I just put disposing of them because I'm going to let Chuck figure out how to do that with the between the transfers I don't know how he's going to dispose of them we might have to we might actually have to pay to get I was going to say my argument is probably going to be is he is how is he going to fund having to pay for it if we can bring him to the transfer station crush them into the maybe into the and that might be what happens and and the transportation has money in their budget it'll ultimately have to come out of that budget because you know but I don't know if truck's going to have to bust them up and get a dump separate dumpster just for them or if he'll be able to crush them up and put them in the dumpster at the transfer station but I'm going to leave that up to you know chucking Vicki to figure it out but Vicki does have money in her budget that she'll be because rather than him having to bring them over there if they can just have a roll off brought there and crush him up into at the highway Barn so he's not having to whatever he's a smart man he'll figure it out yeah I that's what I said I will have a conversation with him but um I think ultimately the funds are going to come out of transfer stations budget all right so that I'll intend a motion to declare three abandoned bootes as abandoned dispose of them motion made second all in favor all right so now uh aging discussion to vote on whether to approve the request for an extension for the agreement for the creation of a hazard mitigation plan until 1231 2024 it's just a contract extension with uhley L who's working on our a a mitigation plan awesome nice funded by a grant as well but all right any questions or concerns no no no so I a motion to approve the request for extension of the agreement for the creation of the hazard mitigation plan till 1231 2024 motion made second all in favor 21 uh discussion of vote whether to approve paying reimbursement of expenses to Witnesses called on behalf of the town in the Lawless ver vers the town of free Town case so looks like you got some we got some feedback from Council um yeah well I've got multiple feedback but I mean basically we've got this trial coming up June 10th we've got multiple Witnesses having to go to Boston they're expecting it to be a 10-day trial um so these Witnesses are going to be um on standby I would expect um and they're going to travel back and forth to Boston they're going to have to park in Boston which is exorbitant at the moment I don't know how it might be $1 $150 a day for parking I don't know depending on where they Park they're going to have to eat while they're up there and some of them may lose time out of work so I think we we cannot pay them for their testimony but we can reimburse them for their loss wages or their expenses out of pocket so I'm not sure what the thought is Town council's opinion was that we don't really have the vehicle to pay them in other words what line item am I going to take these expenses out of right um my only thought is u the professional and Technical line that is in the administrator's budget at least I think at the very minimum you've got to reimburse them for parking and mileage and mileage and and maybe a food stip in $25 for lunch or something even though it's a 10-day trial they should not be going up there 10 days it may only be usually you're on standby and they call you and say hey you're going to be up tomorrow plan on being in Boston right so it's probably only going to be a one day thing maybe two if they have you go up there and they don't get to your testimony just because they're not on time or you know all kinds of things can happen um so I think that they will be subpoenaed so they will have to testify um regardless of or or face the consequences of not showing up in court if you're subpoenaed um I I did talk to the Council on the case and um he just wasn't getting the same feedback that I was getting from certain people so I'm not sure what you want to do yeah I mean I don't think we can the wages seems I don't know how I don't think we can do that but I mean a parking and a lunch stiping Mak sense to me yeah parking mileage lunch yeah um definitely because then to your point two is I think if you do for one you have to do for another you have to do all of them you can't do so how do you have a retired person you know and then someone else who's a professional that you a very well paying job and so it's just I mean some of them are currently still employees for the town rights they're going to get paid anyway um some of them are retired so you know I don't think they were losing a day's pay but there are others that have gone on and work for other things so I'm just bringing it up because um yeah I listen I feel for people too because it's you know we get a witness from the court but it's very ins insignificant I don't remember what it was last time I remember when I practiced lot it was like $8 how do you even offer that like good Fe I don't know I don't know I don't know what it is now I'd have to go inflation is probably 9 925 so any thoughts on that yeah I understand if you had to take a day out of out of work but most people have PTO but that being said I guess they shouldn't have to use it right not I pcjs are behind yeah yeah I get it it's it's it's a but it's a part of our legal system I mean that's just how it works right I mean I guess at least if we can say the mileage the the lunch s and and then submit for reimbursement for parking because the the parking thing we can't even do a flat rate because it can be different yeah no obviously I think expect right yeah absolutely just for our own accounting and you know mhm so then you say lunch up to a certain amount all right because and if you're expecting I would say no more than what $25 I think you can get lunch up there $25 yeah no and I think that's fine I guess just saying rather than just saying okay we're going to give you $25 and if we're going to expect receipts and we say up to a certain amount that's a good sandwich for 25 bucks well in Boston right right not really much right Boston might be half a sandwich but all right so I think motion to pay um actual expenses parking my mileage reimbursement and up to $25 for lunch yep I'll entertain that motion motion made second all in favor all right all right all right now take over Personnel all right thank you item agenda 22 ack knowled the resignation of Amanda F farmer sorry Amanda from the parade and fireworks committee effective 423 2024 thank you Amanda you've done a great job with the fireworks and prey committee we'll miss you uh item AG 23 acknowledge a disclosure form from Nick foso Stark Architects regarding the vestule at the COA uh this is a as a the chairman of the zoning he is also a partial owner of the company so he did the right thing by disclosing this to the town clerk and to the town so thank you Nick for do so item Agenda 24 discussion and vote on whether to approve the following appointments a through I a Harrison goette Lauren Goyette Katie wowski okay and James Byers as parking control officer effective 513 2024 through 99 2024 B David Cross two one tax Finance board as planning board chair effective 51 2024 through 4:30 2025 and two public records Clerk planning board effective 41 2024 through 6:30 2024 C Margaret French as public records Clerk Board of Health effective 41224 through 6:30 2024 D Amy Cipher as public records Clerk Library trustees effective 41 2024 through 6:30 2024 e Victoria Alfaro Duran asured joint Transportation Planning Group jtp representative effect itive 61224 through 531 2025 F Deborah L Petty is Sir ped as joint ction Planning Group jtp G design effective 61224 through 531 2025 G Margaret French Trevor Matthews der Petty and Patricia rodri rodri to tax increment Finance board effective 51 2024 through 4:30 2025 H James boan is affect as planning board asso member effective 57224 through 6:30 2024 I Betty Ferrera as part-time senior clerk town clerk effective 57 2024 through 6:30 2024 all right any concerns objections or comments no no I think as long as everyone's okay with it um I can make the motion and you can second it because Trevor is involved in one of them yeah so that way we can keep him out of it just to keep it clean sure all right I enter the motion to approve the the appointments just read a through I on item Agenda 24 a motion made second all in favor I I all right thank you you very much and then Board of parks Mission nothing tonight heav you LIF for me and then Town Administrator so a couple things I just wanted to update the board the radio uh you know the public radio communication project the work has been completed on the three towers um which is the anners are up awesome the wires are run down super excited we are expecting the equipment to arrive June 1st and then they have to do their magic like and and and install it but we're expecting it to be up and running by the end of June fantastic on track for July 4th weekend to actually have working radios down at that's hug we'll take that project has been so such a struggle but I think we're finally getting momentum and it's moving so super excited about that um you because you've done a great job of continuing to stay talk this has been a long road too before we get into the Opera remaining Opera funding I wanted to give some shoutouts to some employees because we've had some great things going on and um I want to make sure that I do my best to try to recognize them I recognized Kylie earlier for the event newsletter you know call and at call with the team of people put on the Earth Day right our second annual Earth Day which seemed to be fabulous a huge success made that little video I I don't know if you get a chance to watch it but um John came out and uh filmed and and put that little video together awesome I mean kudos to K for organizing it kudos to everybody who has helped him and all the volunteers the fire department was there a lot of the employees who don't live in town were there um great turnout I can't say enough about how awesome that was it's it's one of those Community things nobody wants to do it but everybody comes out and does what they have to do abolutely and I think it brought a lot of Pride out from a lot of people that would there and were involved in a lot of people driving by were noticing it and saying things right we had talked about the people who was stopping and thanking and honking their horns and doing things right so I think it can build momentum and only get bigger Bigg I think so and I want to I want to thank a special thank you to our sponsors Copart for donating money Advanced Air for donating money Stop and Shop always a great partner in the town for donating money and Borg's brothers who donate the money for the t-shirts and whatnot to make that possible so thank you to to those uh those sponsors as well I want to um shout out to uh Dena Hayes and Patty Roger they they put together the first um I think it's the first at least since I've been here health fair for the employees M so that they could come down and get some information and it was it was pretty neat um we had representatives from alac and from the smart plan which is our retirement you know 4 403 457 plan um we had uh someone here I think from South Coast that was doing blood pressure and doing um A1C levels and uh there we had somebody giving head massages we had somebody here from Maya for the our health insurance benefits in case you had questions and there was somebody doing um little seedlings from town she's a I think a a chiropractor right here like down on the QuickPic Plaza I think she was doing little seedlings for free for for the stuff so it was good and then there was uh the food pantry donated some healthy snacks so there was fruit and water um so that was I think that was a great success and there was a lot more work than I think it appears when you just walk into it you know yeah this is me there was a lot of work that a lot of coating a lot that's that's awesome and and and just behind the scenes Kylie's been supportive of everybody but you know this was spearheaded by Patty our treasur and Dina in that department so I want to give them a shout out for doing that um I also wanted to uh give a shout out to Victoria she applied for a grant to community Project funding with um Congressman Aang gloss for Community Building funding would help with our engineering and planning and it's made it to the next level which is is impressive because it's not easy to do they're hard they're federal grants they're hard to get so we're still in that um you know you they get they get recognized by um Congressman aen glass and he ask for more information and you supply it and then you sort of this back and forth thing to see if it keeps moving forward so we're in that process but it it's um it's exciting even you know where it's at so I wanted to uh give her a shout out for doing that and also um I was speaking with Senator Rodrick uh you know he's he's busy in his budget season up there but he asked the town you know what is it that we need and I said well you know we need I I know at the budget meetings you heard Chief Ashley talk about the gear and how the firemen only have one set of sanctioned gear yeah and that he'd like to start getting them second second set so I mentioned that to Senator Rodricks and he's going to fund that so oh that's great uh $64,000 for gear for for the fire department so we'll see what he gives us for an air Market you know um but that's super exciting because that takes to burning off the town and I think uh the firemen will appreciate having the two gears so if they use one while the second one's being clean they have one that's commissioned so I just wanted to say thank you we have we have great staff doing a lot of hard work for the town I don't I I don't think I always do a good job of thanking them but I I want to get some of these out there and hopefully do a better job of recognizing all that is going on in the town and how hard we're all working to get things done here AB so I just wanted to get those out there especially lately there seems to be a lot of stuff going on and then the last thing that I wanted to discuss is we still have some remaining Opa funds we have Federal APPA funds I think most of our Bristal County Apper funds will be utilized just depending on their um applications whether they're approved or not but I wanted to get a sense from the selectman of what your if there's any projects you have that you're passionate about that we haven't addressed or that we're not addressing as we move forward and I don't necessarily need an answer tonight there's no vote being taken but I wanted to throw that out there I've also sent that to the department heads like if their projects that they have because you know they don't I don't always have the information in front of me and I I uh so I have gotten some feedback already on that some things that Cheryl's looking for and I will bring them to you um once I give everybody a chance to respond but I also wanted to ask you if there was things that you were looking to get done in town that we could put together before this Opera funding yeah um ronzo if there's any you anything thing I thought of real quickly when we and we I actually reached out to Victoria already asking if there's any grants available basketball courts right up the road MH it's been years before they since they've touched the rims are off the backboards are off the Pavements off n enough seating it's just a almost like an eyesore just sits there not being used they used to be used all the time right I think if you change a few things add a few benches shouldn't be much money to get it recoded new r maybe even some lights on those poles that's what the poles were there for and that's really the big money item is maybe some dust Dawn lights right so that way it gets us too right so that I mean it makes sense to have it there lighting security so yeah I I don't have that's I think that's a great idea I think that it also makes sense for us to get everything before I that's a good idea so I'm not going to just spit ball something off always needs always wants I should say but let's see what everyone else's needs are first kind of get everything in front of us and then say okay you know this is what we have left this is what we you know kind of prioritize from there but beyond that which I keep commending you for it because I really do think that's a good idea um I don't have anything for say they say I want to hurry up and get this the only other thing I thought of when I this is like one how much money would it cost for you know I think about the train right we have all that metal fencing around that's not really a big sound barrier is there anything we can do potentially for the residents that are around the train that help reduce some of the noise potentially you know how you go on the highway you see those like almost like those walls on the side yeah I think that that's G to be a lot more kind of funding but you know I could think about for a grant if coming down the pike I don't know um right yeah I'm sure it'll be you know 13 stops it probably a little bit of money but because you know the I know I know South Coast Rail and MBTA they're non responsive to anything just it's just such frustration so even if we could fund it and we wanted to do it it would be on their property on their stuff I don't know that they would it yeah yeah I'm sure we can all get a list together and how much money do we have I'm just asking you guys to start thinking about it um at the next meeting I probably have something put together um at the you know and and present it to you as far as what I think and what people have asked for and can make decisions but I also wanted you to get have the opportunity to be doing the same if there's something that you you know you think oh I wish we could fund that okay cuz you know yeah is going to be tight moving forward in our budgets I believe that um so I if there's any of these small projects yeah I guess my my thoughts are is listening to the employees but then also seeing kind of because the reason why I think that that's such a great idea is because it can affect a large amount of people potentially for a small amount of money right so I think that that's the type of stuff if we're not going to say okay gez we could really use this for something at Town Hall that's really going to make a difference and whatever let's do something that's going to be the best for the most amount of people that's not going to be that's not going to be a lot of money I mean l nothing's cheap but it's not and I'm thinking I might just word it like um you know Park improvements or something and we can go as far as go yeah I know that one of the employees is looking for some Ada improvements at the Town Hall in addition to the bathroom so that will be probably high on my um on the list and I don't know the cost I'm I asked I've asked them I've turned around and asked them to then get me quotes Okay so this is what you want to do give me a price because otherwise I have no way to gaug it and some of them are from the police and some of the new stuff that you know the survey that he spoke about and some of the programming that he likes to do so I've asked him to put dollar figures to it so I don't know I will pull it together um but I just wanted to give the board the opportunity to do the same and if you need to have a conversation with me just give me a buzz and I'll see what I can do well thank you for reminding me of the Ada there's one more thing I'd like to throw out there for this this arpa funding for Ada so access to the water very it's very hard the way we have things set up at halfway Park even even the pond and everything else on the other side of haway Park there's the conservation area but is there a way to build a deck that a floating deck so it rises with the ups and flows of the river that allows people to go down there enjoy the river River maybe some fishing but also Ada accessibility for those folks that don't have the ability to get down to the water um because you know there are times that I use a wheelchair and that I would like to do things and and I tell you it's it's it's tough sledding sometimes are you talking about a halfway or you talking about you know with so halfway Park that you have the main park on the other side of the Reeds is like that open space area a lot of it conservation I understand that go in there they can't cuz it's all muddy it's all muddy and it's always uh it's always I mean I guess it would I would we would have to I mean just you'd have to get permitted right that's a big but when you say that what about P I have not been to Port pasture is that something that would make sense you know how they do those mats like those they're just like blue or green mats that you just Spike into the easier to walk on at the beach for people with mobility issues that could be as simple as that absolutely um yeah no poris pasture it has that long driveway to get to the down there and then it's pretty you know it's like it's brackish water but it's also great great views um I see a lot of people down there all the time so put that water explain a lot about me don't eat the showfish um Victoria in as well because you know she was instrumental in the Ada transition plan and what's in there um just I'm throwing out things that have been already asked for by me and I know I think Mike was asking uh for some of the some work in the cemetery as well so I'll put it together I I know it's going to be difficult to distribute it in little amounts so um I'll work on it I said I just want this needs to be wrapped up so I wanted to throw it out there and then figure out where we're going to go from here yeah because to your point the last thing we want to do is give it back right no I have I do have a couple of big things that I can fund um I think I don't know if you heard Chuck saying he needs a new load coming up soon so um but I guess so to that point is it's sorry to cut you off is and we should also have that type of stuff where we can think about in and saying what does make the most sense right so we can weigh it out so we're not saying oh let's just do this because we have the money I'd rather use that money towards something we need right so I did ask Chuck I did ask him actually at truck Department like okay out of the two the sweeper and the loader which one do you need more and get me a quote so I do have that as well so I do I am pulling it together on my end I just I just want to give it to you as a board to say okay if you had anything that was really pressing that I have that I'm not aware of let me know I pull it together as far as quotes and what me yeah that's a great idea P off Jared it's one of those opportunities that we're not probably not going to get for probably ever again ARA funds or things like that right unless we have times that way and um might as well just use it for those things that we always say hey maybe next time this is a good opportunity for getting those maybe next time agenda items out of the way and um make our town a little bit better you know so um great work uh and you said kudos to all employees I want to say kudos to you and sign and then jde let's do it but while we signed you you know Deb you said a lot of kudos to a lot of employees and and uh let's say kudos to yourself Lan and Lola for you guys work your tails off and uh it's we notice it the town notices it and we thank you for it absolutely second that motion I third that motion I'm I'm actually not going to be at town meeting by the way guys I'm not sure if you know that I'll be in Canada Oh Canada um which is unfortunate because it's going to be an interesting one I want that house packed at night will be as it should we are trying to get something the week before some kind of an informational meeting for the MBTA zoning the week before have you talked to [Music] Victoria so have a weekly meeting we we to get that information out to people as much as possible I'll probably being the week before too yeah no no not necessarily but just so that people know that we are going to try to get out some information prior to the meeting yeah that's important I can tell you this Trevor the internet connection in Canada is not as great as that in the United States I can tell you that for a dollar it's tough for me TimeWise like well I can't really zoom into the town meeting there's no point of thate just a pre meeting I tried that I tried that Canadian Zoom meeting and it just kept cutting out [Music] although my hotel does have really good Wi-Fi it's [Music] nice did you just get back I got back on Satur Friday night at like 2 in the morning and then I go back I go back on Sunday or parking control for two [Music] weeks now we need the manager find the [Music] manager Clos sir [Music] yep speaking of the the B ramp is um is the water received at all haven't been out there ping not much I went by there two days ago to look and see and yeah been meaning to get out there it's just my schedule for May is absolutely disgusting just full good reasons but it's still full [Music] [Music] [Music] another certificate for Debbie to add to Waller I want to Saw's on the wall I just can't wait renals are coming up too so it's going to every time you walk past that's right to they're going to grab you I need to sign well I saw the one for the associate member and I was like 6:30 I'm like uh 6:30 after that it's going to be everybody's so stop stretching it's carple tunnel [Music] [Music] season things [Music] I try to sleep by and she just pulls me in she's like I need [Music] you all right so with that motion to adjourn motion made second all in favor I I