good evening I call the meeting to order this is a meeting of the hamon board of Selectmen of the Board of Health being held in the townhouse on June 24th 2024 this meeting is being conducted in person remotely please stand for flag United States America naice thank you is anyone recording the meeting other than ourselves seeing no one if you do please check in um minutes of the June 10th 2024 meeting [Music] part several items with them planning board was here to discuss the help the planning board needs and the board of Select Cent transm regarding the changing the name from select into select board at some point be on the town meeting dispatch we sign the dispatch IMA we made appointments to the fire department the police department The Parking Clerk the town accountant the building department and the Senior Center building committee and the water district and the council agent second all in favor uh before we begin the meeting uh the the Town Administrator the and the best care to give us an update on the storm in to plants um yeah sure um so as you know B storm came through on Saturday it's caught a lot of people by surprise but the impact of the storm took out a lot of Roads Wendell Bennett South mson threr scantic Stafford St Germaine made pretty much the whole East part of the town in pass um the I think at the height of the power outages we had 500 homes without power as of this morning there was down to 112 and as of 5:00 p.m. we had zero reporting on National MOS that's that's good um we had a little bit of communication issues CU obviously dispatch was overwhelmed so um communication between the Departments was a little little tricky trying to coordinate closures and rounds and um car movement but we we managed um got a hold of our mimo rep we're looking to see if we can get one of their meteorologists to come down and take a look just to kind of determine what what it was that came through this area was it a Micro Burst small tornado unlikely but you know at least to get some professional eyes on it um want to thank the responses of Fire Department police department and highway coming in and you know all staff was on hand to safely get everybody accounted for in around town and no injuries so that's good um we did meet briefly today with uh safety personnel just to kind of have a recap of their events and uh I think the the biggest thing we discussed and took away was we need to get better communication methods between the the parties so something we're going to looking into in the future PR much sums up Brian yeah and I think there was a a general dissatisfaction with with National Grids preparation for the storm um it didn't seem to um it it it likely caught them by surprise I think MH um so they they had a pretty much a skeleton crew on from what we're understanding um and then I think there was some frustrations because we had some of our departments out there and we saw who saw National good track sort of idle um so there seemed to be some internal Communications or lack of communications within the National Grid process between their tree Crews and their and their line Crews so and there I don't believe we saw a site for around at all during the he of the storm so all the crews are relying on dispatch Communications of their dispatch yeah is there no possibility then there would be I thought I saw that the damage in mson was pretty much contiguous with our damage it and they really aren't determining it's a Micro Burst I mean when they reported a tornado in Stafford Springs at the same time you would think right that that was my hope of reaching out to Dema and get the meteorologist on site and right now I'm still in the waiting phase for the he respons that right what my question I think this came up in our conversation if we're going to ask for some type of reimbursement if they determine that do we need to retroactively declare state of emergency so that the money we expended which is pretty much just and I'm not sure if we can technically declare a state of emergency without a government government the governor declaring a state emergency yes we can we've done we can account for a town emergency maybe have something we have to look into but I Echo what Craig said I mean great job by the town departments you know in face of adversity they all bundled up and you know better go to me you saw what the fire dep prob I saw Nick Bertrand on the news very nice reporting on the car on staford car that was covered in trees and live wires yeah they safely extricated them was a came back at 8:30 and then a highway truck pull out in front of me when something's wrong yeah they're working on Saturday night and it's not snowing no um I'm curious was there other damage other than H and mson that would have would have hampered National Grids it was just isolated to um parts of wilam that ad join Hamden just that one area was just that little triangle between the two communities so that's from least what I was seeing on the maps yeah I I don't know about Connecticut Northern Connecticut I I know there reports of stuff in Connecticut further down I thought they confirmed it was a tornado in Stafford Springs Stafford I thought it was further down I thought in terms of National Grid operations you know when when they're expecting significant weather they'll open their what they call their Community their storm room essentially right they'll have Community layons uh they're dedicated and it obviously none of that's cuz it's a it's a thunderstorm that's rolling through and it happen to get severe we weren't expecting this they were expecting some storms I mean you know we went to that emergency preparedness meeting of National Grid a couple weeks ago they were touting their Readiness and preparedness for storms so good their marketing is right yeah it's where they spent all their money marketing he did just all right we have the town accountant town treasur and the Town Administrator here so we're going to catch up on the end of the year fiscal financial situation what say you don't we're not at the end of the year that's the first point we got fours we got some a lot of money to spend yet wow that way hear that home we hear that at home on occasion Pizza a lot of appropriated money that hasn't used yet so I'm hoping that that holds up um I don't know if uh Mark is going to load up his ice shed just like he does because we're only 20 some 20,000 or so over and snow and ice if he's going to load that up that'll probably push it up to 50 so I don't know um haven't seen anything yet but um we've got the obvious little things that were over uh no big deal a lot of them may be posting errors so I'm not you know P reports 13 payroll service 295 and there's enough money probably in dicks in M account that obviously absorb that um I think there's an error uh in Cruiser maintenance I talked to Julie about it I think they she posted something uh incorrectly most of that will end up in salaries um what was the other one she was over in was Electric not election yeah election over yeah elections is over but you know no way we can handle that and that'll be that can we move that up to police payroll salary why is elections over though that's my question it's not something major right well that's what we that's what C through we did through the town the uh the vote then we were extended on that because we had the two and a half vote so that required another full-time C we didn't have the two and a half vote Yes well yeah but that was during the regular election it wasn't like a special I mean nothing out of the ordinary one of one of the things about the elections though is we do get a small reimbursement from the state to help cover the early voting and that goes right into general fund okay so it's it doesn't offset this so um but yeah it's impossible to predict the election expensive totally okay and the hours that they spend doing mail in ball are increasing every year exponentially and that all that payroll goes to election expense what about employee benefits what about it well it says we negative 85,000 yep we'll get 100 well here's my here's the question I have the town voted but then in March that allocated amount was switched to 551 something that's not the allocated that's the total credits so you had a post it looks like you had a we had a posting error at the beginning of the fiscal year and we're on for a while uh without being uh actually U either Don or um Town Administrator pointed it out so I made the correction cuz I had charged $21,000 against uh the U employee benefits and it's not even close to the account that it should have been in so it's not like it was a wrong number put in but um uh Mark had some encumbered money that um he carried over from last year on contracts that he signed before the end of the fiscal year so I had I told them look you tell me how much those contracts are give me copies and then we'll overdraw the account and then I'm sorry we'll allow the money to stay in the account and then as we do the work in the next fiscal year we'll use that money to pay it off well I ended up putting it on in the wrong account so we still had uh I did make that a correction but it's not going to show it didn't show up up until um last week last week we did that uh two weeks ago right but employee benefits whether it's 571 or 551 or 574 it still shows expended 636 to this point and I thought we had done some work going up to the fall town meeting to project out what the increas is needed to cover it absolutely did what was what was the difference yeah the and and was like we said before the fall town meeting that number was based on our current health insurance enrollment new rates current enrollment we have a very attractive policy we've been adding people to the policy constantly but I thought they can only add in during the open enrollment period no not when we hire them or if they have another issue oh my husband's insurance is terminated all you need is a letter and they can join anytime so yeah our enrollment has gone way up we have a very attractive plan and people are realizing it's better than their spouses and they're coming over to us when is open enrollment open enrollment is uh it's the period's over it starts just um the policy changes fiscal year okay so um like March April everybody in May and you know by the end of May she's got all the numbers for that um so it's almost opposite of our funding schedule then like if if people open enrollment then is in May right and we go to town meeting in May well no they're signing they're signing up the start they're signing up for the fiscal year right but we won't know what those increases are going to be right if people see what you're saying technically we've already set that number in February right enrollment is hitting after the fact budget that's not where most of our our new joiners are coming again they're coming throughout the year because of qualifying events that allows them to enroll or we have new hires would you say then that's the bulk of where most to 100 Grand yeah there but can I go back I I still don't understand if if the town meeting voted 575,000 report this this report just says what's been allocated and what's been expended but it should N Out originally I had put in 21,000 against that so that's why it showed the lesser amount then I credit it over so it revers it so then it dispers so the 570 D talking about but there was already a negative amount in the thing so this shows oh yes a correction that during the change the and it would have it would have changed it would have it was knitted out into the actual uh dispersement and was moved against the highway department if you take a look at the detail report Don it would become a little more self-explanatory yeah I'll send it to you I think the other question is kind of and it's tough to project like you say you have four more warrants to close out the bulk of which are going to be payroll you know do you see with a cursory glance over enough opportunity to cover the shortfalls in other accounts with the excesses in the account you have well yeah draw them down to the point where it'll affect your free cash but right now it says here that we've got uh we have 109,000 in unused appropriation yeah 1 million yeah 1.1 million million now some of that includes uh Town meeing Appropriations but some of that I'll go by probably pretty quick the other Factor we don't know is um some of the reimbursements if the chapter 90 money comes in before Cliff has to file with with basically by end of July if we get the chapter 90 money that's a good what's that 30050 well that's some much it's overdrawn I don't know how much we've filed for that we're entitled to get the money back yet so it's been approved but it's a question of when the cash comes in other if that's if that's not reimbursed in time that goes against free cash right just like our concern about the the MVP money Etc if that doesn't come in that go you know so Ran's been very active and proactive in getting that money and getting some of those grants straightened out information I got originally from previous Town Administrator was conflicting um incomplete M and sound right wrong I think Brian is doing a wonderful job of forensic accounting my new calling yeah yeah now one thing is is that in looking at revenues versus dispersements um we've collected almost $200,000 more to this point then we've dispersed and that's with whatever might be sitting in unreported uh in June mhm and I'm assuming you're even greater than that over what you did for anticipated MH oh yeah we're way over from what we anticipated yeah that goes right to free cash MH um was there a shortfall in a prior year was that last year there was one and that wasn't reimbursed and you had to hit free cash was that two years ago or last year last so that could be 16,000 right all right no there was maybe two or three years ago there was like 130 that hit us that carried over well like they hit us with anything that's outstanding that we subsequently get okay that's if we don't continue to overdraw that sets up a little better situation next year um I'd like to see each year standing its own so we hopefully get that money in we got to at least another week a little longer than thats to go I did ask Mark over the weekend if he thought that the extra overtime for the storm would impact he said no I have more than enough capacity to handle it he shorthanded for few months so he's got a little you built up a cushion there but you know he's a generous guy he pays double time for Sundays you know it's just the snowplowing rules you know so those guys are paid well for out being out there working hard long days okay so I think uh don what was the date we were looking at for your final closing date was uh the 15th well we're going to have a warrant for Monday and we're going to have another warrant for the following week but we don't meet that day though no that's right we should go have a warrant through the 15th okay I think first and 15th not a lot on it first first and 15 not a lot on it because that'll probably be just the things people forgot to submit for trying to sneak in against 2025 um which will soon will catch uh and um we'll go from there I mean it's numbers we can't change what is Cliff Jaden asked me today if there would be a 25 warrant on July 1st no okay a free cash discussion or not now now Brian did you hear that what's that the the first fy2 warrant will be on the S okay I checked with our one of the big bills we have is Insurance obviously and they're used to it and it's due uh August 1st oh yeah to buy coverage they're going to buy coverage now but it's do I retir if we pay retirement early we get a discount or something yeah that's a good deal if that number it's real money y sure $78,000 we still appropriate the full amount but we get the 5% less than the check account what was it up to this and9 and cash flows very similar last year I I actually checked all the fund accounts and we're within $100,000 of where we were at this time last year and you know we're over a little over 2 million in general fund cash so you know it's within the margin of error so to speak so the checks are clearing the checks are clearing I had to take 100,000 of a high yield account today and my heart mostly most of your money in Bitcoin right now is that be smart if I can get 5% on the savings now why would I bother taking risk mhm that good that's that'll show up pretty good in our Revenue because we've been raking it in on yeah last year we were making 1,500 a month on interest and now we're making like 16,000 yeah and I'll send you that soon as I get home okay thank you actually I could go print it out here I can give it to you that would be nice okay I'll do that besides your um he's salary it doesn't cost any extra for him today um obviously we got big decisions to make for the fall town meeting M and the sooner we have hard numbers on warrant articles the more time we'll have to figure that out and I'm not saying in the next couple of weeks obviously three Cash number is the first thing we need and that's over a month away uh but we got to figure out how we're going to deal with the million and a half what combination of borrowing free cash and tax rate so we're going to want to be as soon as we have hard numbers we're we and the advisor are probably going to have to have a little planning session figure what to do I that's part of our plan app is quarterly financial review yeah that's good the the dates need a little bit of massaging though yeah yeah just arbitrary for one unless you give have a birthday cake for me I'm not coming all right never looks so good dick thank you birthday cookies put that down for ail cake I guess that's it thanks I thought I have just have something personal to alert you to um my 52-year-old niece in Nova Scotia has been been given four to 5 weeks to live but she's she's just loaded with cancer but she's chosen assisted suicide which is legal in Canada so she's going to pick her date of date date of death so it won't be a so when we find out what that is we find out when the services are we'll head out for as little a time as we can get away from it it is a 15-hour drive but um it's going to be at least a week of your way I hope not but if it is it is you know and I'll have my computer with me there's things I can do working from there but it's bad timing I know but we don't plan those things no no 52 years old but you know what there's something to be said about choosing your G to death okay something about it you know make everything right i' rather be surprised the only nice thing want us all to be surprised I know what my spend right could be but I'll go broke that would be kind of nice any else don't thank you vacation rollover requests yeah Mark did mention I think I shared with the board uh he was supposed to be off today he wasn't sure if he was actually going to take that day off so there may be if he can't find a way to use it this week he did say could we add one day to was roll over because of the emergency he couldn't take the use up one day he planed on using up so I would if he he's not sure if he can do it this week I would say if we could write it to use roll over up to six days I think that' be appropriate uh letter to we I asked Brian to uh draft a letter to the ham region School District requesting reimbursement for the $99,900 that we spent in uh for repairs because according to least they're supposed to pay for the repairs so if we approval to send that we'll send it and see what happen I'm against that I think uh we set a budget last year years as we've done for the past 25 years Don which you were chair for three of them uh we told them they had this money to spend and here we are at the 11th Hour saying by the way I know we told you that we had this you had this money you sent us the bills we signed off on them but we were wrong I think in my mind the appropriate thing to do would say look we think maybe we've gone the wrong way with this next year at the fall to meeting we're going to zero that line in please don't on using it in the future I'm not comfortable with sending the letter only because I think it's our fault personally I think we should have done better you know all of us not not just an individual thing um obviously we know better going forward and we should admit that now but you know Aaron did make the comment last week that you know I'm not in the business of turning down money when it comes AB so I have a feeling that they would fight it anyway I I I see your point and I think it's great you found this time because it's going to help us out in the future I just I'm not comfortable with sending it out and looking having it be maybe maybe being within this departments over happen I like the facts present in the letter and I think it's good to put them on record but I think we could close with look we're not happy where this happened in the future we maybe send a letter know that you know this is a the end right right no longer continuing well my position simply is it's least says we shouldn't pay it we shouldn't pay it we should say we want our money back understand we have we we paid it for years we know it was a mistake but we're correcting our mistake and we want the money back so I doubt that they'll give it to us but I I I just think we give into them too much you know and and I think they at times as much as I've supported them they can take a stance that hand in this we don't have to pay attention to them so I just think it's a way of getting saying to them look we're part of this partnership and you know the lease says this and uh I mean there's there's been a number of things that that are in the in the in the in the agreement that we don't agreement and the least that we don't pay attention to or haven't paid attention to and it's no one's fault you know everyone's busy they look at it things are running you you know I mean it's you know but I I'll defer to whatever you gentleman want again I think the B the bulk of it is good I think the research the documentation is good I'd like to end it with even if you want to say we could call for this money back but in the interest of interest of cooperation we're just letting you know that the door to the ball just closed what yeah you want to say fine right I I if if we go to town meeting in in the fall and take the money out right yeah we zero that line i' would agree with that can you change the letter he agrees with me all right that's it next item sorry while you're on that subject though do you want to give quick report on uh our meeting oh yeah so we met with the hamon wam Regional School District to discuss the future of Thorton burges and what their intention is to do with it we learned that as of January 1st 2025 the building will be vacant and so we we have and we agreed that the superintendent would speak to the town the Town Administrator uh relative to what process would be needed to if if the lease was terminated how we would get the building back in the meantime we're going to uh engage tiin bond to do a assessment of the building in terms of what use what the physical structure is fine but we're looking at the mechanical and some of the other things so that we get an idea what it would cost or how you could change it if the building was there two of the Reon School District members were a little conc concerned they wanted to hang on to the building because they said we don't know what our plan is going to be and my point was well you need to have a plan to make a plan and right now you don't have a plan to make a plan right so we're going to go forward with our assessment and we'll see what happens from there that's and we're going to meet again with them so that's some point I was distressed and I think I made the point during the meeting Don you in your committee work so hard with strategic planning and as soon as there was a some opposition to push back and having been around you're never going to get 100% you know percent of the people to agree with it so to say oh my gosh some people were against it you had to figure that was going to happen and you're looking for the the the betterment of the people the better will the whatever just I want to say what's the term that you courage Your conviction yeahh I mean the situation was that the main thing was moving the eighth grade to the high school to relieve the overcrowding m at the middle school and in the term overcrowding you have to understand if you went to the Middle School you would see that there is no library because they have three classrooms in there that's by look CME certain specialed certain special ed students are having their classes held in in closets or janers and to my point of what I stated that specials or the exploratory programs could offer a full range of them because they don't have the space to offer these other that they would need to to meet Str so that's where we are I we definitely put our point across and I think Craig brought up some great points about it slid from the lease into the educational structure and whichever which may not been the purpose way there but it was good to let them know that we were aware of what was going on well my whole purpose of bringing up some of the educational structure was the point of a lot of the stuff that was in the Strategic plan is kind of slipping based on the current structure and they have utilizations issues that they need to make decisions on so my point of bringing up the curriculum is to say you have options to fix these curriculum challenges but you're not making the tough decisions you know when they were asked well there's a value to the building to handle yes there's a value to the building to handon if we were to utilize it there's also a value to the handon buing Regional School District if they were to utilize it MH but we're not making the decision they are the ones that need to make the decision to either make the programming happen or fishing c as you were said eloquent qu little expression exactly all right that was it was a good opportunity to meet with them and I we appreciate that should be more often zoom zoom operator um so we we've um received four resumés we've interviewed um three individuals and the individuals that we would recommend to be appointed to the zoom operator pool are in your packet and those are Elijah Webster Michelle miodowski and Rees kig so in how would this work that's the next conversation that I wanted to have um in terms of supervision i' I'd recommend that the person's under the General supervision of the Town Administrator but the direct supervision of the board of committee chair who's running the meeting M um my proposal would be that it would their pay would come out of the the budget of the Border committee that's using them unless we have a another account um what do you think about that i' prefer temp help because I mean they haven't budgeted for extra hours for that Ty thing I think maybe a minimal impact of temp help yeah I think temp help would be appropriate now but maybe going forward for next fiscal cycle is that we budget some extra hours if they want I mean because I already have a clerk that's budgeted to cover those meeting times and now we're saying oh you need a second person at you know so obviously that's not in their hours yeah yeah and our PL is to have all three on a rotation as needed yep so my thought would be that they would make a uh the board of committee chair or whoever would make the request of the Town Administrator uh at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting um and we would do it on a rotating basis Police contract who get called first right but with but only the part- timers can do it and uh only up to 18 Kidd um oh we're going to buy them uniforms yeah each one's going to get we don't get it still it's going to be a draw count is that a problem yeah right start uh as soon as we Point them they could start there's a pointed Board hearing on Wednesday uh we have the job description we had job description been adopted Board hearing Wednesday uh yeah it's this one yeah yeah it's not I don't think it's a lengthy one no it's I think they're pushing it it's posted oh are they okay Bri you it all for your candidates you said yep there's there's a Conservation Commission tomorrow and they don't know if they have a zoom operator okay yeah Ted might they're going to be requesting continu because they didn't get the drainage at any they're going to continue it already advertised and these procedures that we're talking about I'll have I I'll get those in writing well you can't complain about having somebody from Mountain Road shoot Craig can make it they can make it pick them up on the way a good K is that the I'm not forget wasn't was it you prating yourself um level one step one which is six16 an hour I was thinking 1 hour minimum unless we want to pay him like eight bucks for showing up for half an hour got a contract about the minimum calling call back pay is I think the hour minimum okay we have a moot for approval move to appoint Elijah Webster m madowski is that Reese Reese yeah reol to uh operator under direction of the Town Administrator second all in favor we have some other appointments this evening as well one quick point just looking at Reese's um resume there is there any uh anything Reese could do for you and updating the website possibly still have to you know you still have to pay that bill I'm just saying I was asking where we kind of where we were with the uh website upgrade and I think wait till New fiscal year right well we have to pay that bill whether it comes out of that's this year yeah this year last or sure and actually the the Michelle has a lot of uh Public Access TV experience so we have other appointment one of the fire department Megan Rogers which was their last list and we have on the a committee uh Donna hatch Robin Warner and AA gild day uh my understanding is that Jim Smith and lri Beth can't serve any they don't want to serve any L Beth just say he didn't have the time and Jim said he's not going to serve and then we have Shelly Sears for the Animal control officer and um Paul morisy as the alternate if she's here and then the cultural Council we have Pam Courtney uh Diane m and Virginia Blake not staggering huh it's not make a motion to appoint everyone for a date set forth and their appointment slips for the Chairman's list second all in favor okay and the selectman's reports uh we had a uh building committee meeting this morning of the senior center bit of a recap uh and going forward analysis um the committee did discuss you know what needs to be presented if they're coming back in the fall what was the sense they'd like to work with EDM on perhaps a smaller model going forward they do need some money to engage with EDM for that so they asked me to bring forward a request for $9,800 that would be enough to engage EDM for a re refigure if you will I also would like to come and meet with the board next week on the 1 that would be Gary way was dond did step Down's chair Don Collins and Gary wayer is now chair and Don and I think John Matthews would like to appointment over the board on the first meeting on the first and provide an update to the board where they're going where the committee sees them Direction so um basically bringing forth the fact that if they're looking for a new plan a revised plan Consolidated plan they're going to need some money to go to EDM with that and they' like to get some direction from the board where they want them to go well what about the um the friends account that they were collecting all the heart Springs stuff is that a pop option to use some of those funds well the friend's account I mean right now they're right now they're looking to accumulate that money for a sizable donation ports construction you we going to get the where would we get the money from well again select you know select an expense you know for obviously that's refigured at the beginning of the year like last year we planned on the 5,000 for the I think the uh Wetland survey which never was actually donated and didn't need to be used is that they got be this just the heads up that thing for next week okay they got 1378 left in there 60,000 never been like City hasn't done all the bills yet I think but these I think when these people quote a number they bu wow that is some kind of yeah so we're going to so next week we'll decide on the yeah I'm going like I say let them bring it up to speed on have anything else looking forward to the planing board meeting on Wednesday and it was uh quite fun seeing you at the planning board meeting last week when we did the I was zoom and you were battery yeah Assa and Battery fuel sir I have nothing to report um just everything I mentioned earlier yeah anybody have a report back from the master plan actually not really well I do or you were here contacts until I will say did make the point to Brian I would like to see if there's a way to get that video on the town YouTube channel it is every way is it it no it's SharePoint it's a SharePoint Sho I would also like to attend the next one so maybe we get them not schedule it on Monday okay well we're meeting Wednesday we're meeting Wednesday so we can figure that schedule no this is a meeting not a for meeting Wednesday okay and they had part 20 you there give us a report 20 to well we had you know public our first public meeting with BHB the consultant and uh we had I'm to say 20 in the room and three or four online and uh they made their presentation and then asked for uh there was a discussion wasn't wasn't planned to have a discussion but we had a discussion about some thoughts people had uh about what they wanted to see and then at the end of the toward the end of the meeting after that discussion um they they had breakout sections for four or five I guess probably six or seven of the main uh subject matter that we're trying to get to you know history and uh roads Transportation all that stuff and they had the whiteboards and people broke out and up and filled in you know their thoughts on paper and um it was a little bit disappointing there wasn't more people but for the people that were there I think it was productive and that they got for the first public meeting the the consultant got kind of a feel for what people are you know what people's thoughts are and I think the thought the big the big thought is that people want to keep the town you know they want to keep the town the way it is you know there's obviously there's a whole mess of a big tree that to keep the town the way it is you know you need to do some things and to draw people in you need to do some things but they like the country atmosphere here and that's kind of the big that was the big thing there was also of the 20 people of the 23 people I didn't see the people obvious on line but of the people in the room I'm going to say 17 of them were like my age or well over over 50 whatever it is and in fact I think they had a quick discussion about that there was a a married couple that was up in the back that were younger but mostly it was an older group in terms of the people though how many were not engaged with the town before that's to me a better number if you're saying you had 20 people there and You' never seen 15 of them before that would have been terrific there there were more than a few newbies because I I you know I was down in front and a couple people came up to me after because there was a little bit of a brief discussion in the beginning of about the process the the VHB wanted to do their breakouts mhm there was at least one individual act that wanted to do it a different way and so we had a kind of an interaction there and the late the people came up after and said you know they were interested in seeing what was going on and they were glad they came and it was probably you say three that I knew of and maybe a few more than that were engaged oh good so percentage wise it's not great but it's it's our first meeting first public meeting no I think it's terrific we talk about the advisory hearing we have and we might have one person at the hearing that's not on a Town committee have served and to have that much new engagement I think is terrific yeah I think so and there's a survey out a survey out right uh online and they're we're working on getting that into a few different places and I think physically they want to put one out right I was going to bring up on Wednesday that I don't know if they wanted to do it you know we we put some stuff in the paper before in obam times you can put a put an insert for not a lot of money 150 bucks or 160 bucks you can put an insert and that survey would go to everybody in town who gets the paper but it's it's a physical copy so that would have to be the return Bo who's going to correlate see how many respons you get right but but is it on the town website yep you know if you got if you have th000 res I don't know how many people get the paper but let's say it's a couple thousand if you had two or 300 that's you know pretty nice response 10 15% you'd have to have somebody transfer that information you just want to give every opportunity for them to respond in any way correct yeah I think the thing I'm hearing here though and then I saw the same thing the fiber optic meeting was not a lot of the younger generation is able to get out or goes out and how do we reach that populace of town who's going to be the next Generation in Hampton you know I'd love to get some engagement from those those individuals as well one one of the people in the back did say you know when you have a meeting at 6 o'clock was that meeting at 6 or was at 7 6 you know the younger people are maybe still working they're just getting home and eating dinner and maybe the meeting's too early so that that's I'm not going to say that solves everything but it could be that if you move that back you might get a few more I've heard but I've heard of both ways too you know 7 o'clock I'm with you I understand should should we focus on weekend meetings now you're interrup at least the advantage is that now with school being out they can't say well my gosh I got school issues but like Craig said we're talking about this weekend thing we're talking about afternoons on we were to you know I mean we think could be totally bust too but you know it's it's an idea to explore I mean it's parent you know the last three years I've been on the board looking at the engagement the involvement from you know younger Generations it's hard you want to hand out a flyer come here on Monday morning when the parents are bringing the kids for play group you probably have learn 30 40 parents coming we don't have enough no I'm saying hand out a fly to each one of them you you get them in line up here that's what I thought put it on the windshield yeah they don't hand out flyers anymore school no they don't yeah we could talk Wednesday about whether or not it makes sense to put the insert and maybe you know iers out administrator report um so Mark asked me to bring up um the idea of him hiring out tree crew right um um he there's a lot of the damage up there that it would take him a while to get to um who do he say um Rocky Mountain Rocky Mountain had approached him with I guess they have some equipment that would make it easier to get through it but that's going to come at a cost obviously and he was trying to F out whether the town had an appetite for that or not what's the tree War up though I don't know got to be out of money here we are the last week of the year the tree War does not have what kind of money money in the account I don't think he I don't think he said how much no he didn't say how much I did advise Mar said anything that's a safety concern or a hazard get it done however he has to get it done right um if anything above and beyond that I mean if he thinks that it's required you know I might be who of the board to kind of say yeah let's figure it out and get it done but um I didn't want to make those decisions singly well one good thing is and I think Don you were looking that way when you talk about the tree Warden is that the bill would the bill would come in in July so the account is fresh at that point and I think it'd be important if Mark and Dana got together and both agreed on it then it's basically just tree Warden money yeah you know because it's Public Safety right so but he he says these these people are waiting now and they're available now right but they still not got to get build until July so but he's looking for an answer I think relatively now well I think right now if he's talking in here to go back we could do the same thing say you need $10 ,000 to clean up the tree damage great and in the fall we add 10,000 back into the tree so I think you just tell them go ahead I did tell him and the police chief and everybody to track ours just in case if there's anything down the road that we need to me I mean what the heck we put $100,000 in once right but I think the key point you right now would be get it done make sure they bill us after the first right so it doesn't all of a sudden we're scrambling on the 30th right oh here's 10,000 we going take care of that Brian yeah you want to that or you want me to talk um I can't let him know um I I was surprised when I when when I drove up to benett Road and I drove back down mson Road North mon whatever road that is Glendale did you go all the way through Bennett or yeah all the way through Bennett North Monson to Glendale yeah um I was surprised by the by the overhang of all the trees on that National Grid doesn't take care of mhm um I was just really surprised by that it's the same thing on North R when you go through the S curves you could be pretty surprised there I mean yeah it doesn't take a lot for one of those huge oims to take out the right take out the wires or pull I wonder if there's a minimum height requirement that they're supposed to be do and four over the the power lines you know yeah I I mean where it where I live in the town that I was in eversource had just done a huge cor it was controversial because they cut back pretty far um but the good thing is it's there's less less if you're looking for that type of information I think we should schedule Dan am and he can give I think it will be off that day really yeah yeah haven't got that kind of time um also with the the highway we have a retirement this week and I can't remember is it Thursday I think they're planning from Friday FR Friday Friday it's Friday no yeah um what else you got I have a I have a call with a possible new cable Council That was supposed to be this morning I that got moved to tomorrow at 9:30 that's August August and Epstein um we have a call to talk about um the installation of the EV chargers at the senior center there was some concern about placement of the uh the EV cabinet uh and uh we should have conversations about that in screening I think John you're G to if you can jump on that I think push the Wednesday if you saw the if went by and saw the orange pole Forest on the front lawn the agreement was it would be over by the trees not in the middle of the lawn and how we got the charging stations are against the trees but the Transformers in the middle of the lawn more ballards than I think they have it Big Y protect you know a store so propane takes propane T more than a propane tank seriously so yeah you look at the uh generator they have behind the scenes there's two Ballers there so it's a conversation the reality is I use a colloquial expression it's done it's easier to beg for forgiveness and ask permission PR the pads poured these are in we're so sorry and they're getting their money from the state yeah so you're going to wonder but there are some good questions we're looking for answers on that Gary brought up about servicing who's responsible something goes wrong that type of thing so we're expecting answers from Jerry on that right in his compatriot yeah he ignored my second email I saw that but we'll talk to him on Wednesday M um I've been working with Town Council for on the SBA Tower leases so that we can net out the public uh Public Safety payments that are um Tak that we pay for the Village Drive Tower Commercial Drive Tower no matter how much it goes up the other part car it basically y yep um so that should be some savings next fiscal year as well and I'm also I'm also working with Town Council on the backlog of uh reimbursable unemployment charges that are against the town's account back going back to like 2018 we really need to sort through that um so and just continue to wrap up uh any grants that need to be wrapped up and request reimbursements as soon as we can get it so free cash can be as high as it can be about the grants John mentioned to me I think yesterday that there's a concern about one of the grants that might push back the work at the the district yeah so um you want to take right from what John was explaining to me was the grant that tyan Bond applied for us that we authorize them to apply for um won't have a notification period until September but they applied for a high dollar amount so it would cover the whole project phase A and B yeah yes they cover for anything any horizontal costs right yes so we would cover the vertical costs and they would that Grant would cover all the horizontal costs we be all the connections yeah the existing system so but so if we did any work prior to that it would take us out of the running for the grant have to wait until it's your water not before you start the project yeah so there's a chance that you know if we get the grant we don't have to go for funding in the fall MH but you know if the the deadline is September I mean we close to closing the warant and you know run Grant notification deadline for their announcing the grant window is this a state or federal Grant State Grant was it this is a onetop grant oneop oneop okay and related to that um time Bond submitted the uh permit to modify the water system to massp that's also requirement before we could start the work phase two for phase one and phase two uh but I don't if there's any reason why time Bond we can't work with time bond to get all the bidding documents ready whether it's one or two we should be able to have everything ready to go handing that announcement that far out I mean somebody fly by no but I think somebody should reach out to Dan Hall and let them know this is what's happening you know we had we told Dan and this he certainly would understand obviously he wanted us to apply for anything but let him know hey by the way this is a date we're now working with now and I'm sure D but keeping them in the loop we're all good how's that folded in with Doug P same thing right I think if we CC Doug they'll be fine yeah like I say if they know ahead of time they're not upset if they tell them afterwards now they're why you you tell me and then there's the off chance that so there's also the state revolving fund for for clean water for for projects like this and low interest it it would be a P5 is uh P projects are zero interest um with with principal forgiveness of 6% the timing will be an issue um the way that the way that that program operates is applications are submitted by the end of July to be placed on What's called the intended use plan which is finalized in January and then awards are made sometime next summer so that puts us 12 months out before we even know um the one option that that we can explore is whether is whether we can or whether Mass DP is willing to declare it as an emergency project and if it's an emergency project then we don't have to go through that process where we get listed on the intended use plan and then wait so that I know that was a convers uh that was a something that Jen Gilbert had mentioned from time bond that she was going to reach out to mass DP to see if they had any appetite for that speaking of time Bond you told him to go ahead with that uh the assessment thing give you any kind of date not yet no all right I'll reach I can reach back out yeah anything else to come for the board I would therefore entertain a motion to go into executive session to discuss the litigation uh deter that an open meeting will be DET in this case involves TR versus [Music] return so mov John thank you thanks by have a good night thank you genten