of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you everyone for joing us tonight thank you fincom for being here um the first uh item on the agenda is to receive all oral Communications for members of the public members of the public May address the select board for up to 3 minutes the select board shall not engage in discussion on topics raised during public comment but may choose to add the topic to a future agenda this agenda segment will be limited to 15 minutes we have any public comments okay grants gifts and donations I have a private donation for Martin from Martin and Donna s for $100 for the police department motion to accept second any discussion all in favor thank you Martin and Donna uh new business we have ATM warrant review um I'm going to ask the fincom if they would open their meeting and ask them if they would like to come up and sit here with us are all everybody that you're expecting here tonight everybody we're expecting is here okay so if you guys are welcome to come up here if you're comfortable whatever you PR to do excellent we'll do quick roll call just say your name that will okay uh Richard Keys Vanessa Rossy Erica Jacobson frankal our meeting is open the beach comma licenses quick I'm going stay here you some fun you want let me uh me that um you guys mind if I take care of the licenses transfer the licenses really quick for that's that's fine yeah people can okay I'm going to uh go out of out of the agenda here and um transfer of the liquor license for the beach coma I want rain a motion motion second okay discussion so who's here from the beach coma does somebody want to come up and speak right up there you can state your name my name is you guys look familiar you again yes we're from Bob Lobster previously yeah remember okay so um you're going to be transferring the liquor license you guys recently purchased next week next week okay yeah we close on the 19th okay um Tracy is everything all set with theate okay all right so I have a motion in a second a second I'll make a motion anyway which I did I'll second it anyway okay so I have a a motion in a second to transfer the liquor license um of the Plum Island beach coma uh any further discussion all in favor I I good luck thank you so much thank you so much you're welcome um and then we also have another transfer of lior license um Bob's Lo Lobster you guys here come on up check oh how you doing good to see you again hi Ryan Cox Brad hi nice to see you guys we're here requesting a transfer liquor license from Bob lster to us uh to hopefully open soon and uh provide beer line welcome back thank you yeah good to see you again uh everything in order to tracing yeah motion a motion to transfer the liquor license motion to transfer liquor license any discussion all in favor hi okay thank you thank Youk you great night good night thank you okay I'm going to hold the um the request of the Sunset Club because that could be a discussion and we're going to go back to the ATM walart review fincom did you guys want to come up here too or there was no seat so we're fine okay we're good um I know no but you can um sit on this side if you want it's up to you wherever you want to be yeah I'm fine fine good so um we have an updated warrant uh we need to set the warrant for annual Town town meeting um actually at this point I'm going to turn it over to um the Town Administrator and she can walk us through the warrant together sure thank you madam chair um so most of the warrant that you're going to be looking at this evening is should be pretty familiar there's a lot of articles that um we take action on at our annual town meeting every year there are some changes into the for of the format um but basically the fincom we had an opportunity to go over it a little bit last week the the first article of business under General government matters is just um who's running for election so you'll see those there that's no action is taken at the town meeting but um just to notify the inhabitants of the business it's going to be before them to receive um article two is receiving any board any reports from Boards of committees anyone that um happens to meet with the moderator ahead of time wants to um make a report of the committee that'll be scheduled so um he would know in advance who is going to be making reports article three are the elected officials salaries and stiens article four we had a citizen since petition brought to the board um it was the to clerk certified the signatures and that was relative to the redenti sdes that you had a present it was the same group of people that brought that information to previously so that appears exactly as they presented it to us appropri one question on article three are there any changes to the um compensation and salaries any changes from fy2 24 yes um the Town Clerk and the tree warden so townwide any non-represented um or individuals who are not under contract are getting a 2% increase this year okay townwide okay so that's 2% for town clerk 2% sh Warden okay Town employee wi I should say Town employees right yep um Appropriations are still in draft we're awaiting the vote of the school committee tomorrow night and some additional information from Whittier once we have that hopefully we'll be able to finalize our our Police contract we have reached agreement they'll be before you this evening in executive session fire and Library remain unresolved at this point in time article six is we're asking for $100,000 to be transferred from preash into our stabilization fund right now we only have a balance of 27,7 n866 in that fund so you'll see a lot of our um Capital requests will be funded this year through utilization of free cash our other available funding source Tracy can you repeat that balance 27,7 N8 66 is the current balance um should it be approved obviously there'd be another 100,000 article 7 is again these these first four or five articles we see over and over again is requesting uh 200,000 be transferred from free cash to our other post employment benefits trust uh the reason we put that on annually right at the beginning is kind of to to make sure that everyone's aware that we still have that liability out there that unfunded liability make sure we're addressing it on an annual basis with a goal towards fully funding um which would happen sometime in the future hopefully right now we have a little over a million in that trust fund so it's 1,1 186,000 $11 and the liability is a little over $6 million but we will be um having an Actuarial valuation this year we're due to update those numbers probably not going to get down it has yeah it has it has gone down in certain circumstances so article 8 is the appropriation of funds from the peg special Revenue fund they're requesting $85,000 this year uh that's about about $10,000 less than they normally use the the new IT director has made some changes to our contract so we've um we've receive some savings right now the balance in the peg special Revenue fund is $993 $993,000 36 article 9 is requesting uh the revolving fund Appropriations for both the recreation revolving fund and the um the Harbor Master evolving fund which we call Municipal waterways Improvement 50, 59,0 552 article 10 represents our Enterprise fund our ambulance enter Enterprise fund you've seen this presentation before since we've um we adopted the Enterprise method of accounting here it is Still Remains self-supporting to this to this date and time um costs obviously are rising a little bit but um the fees from the users the user fees from the ambulance are supporting the program article 11 is requesting so in order for us to lease or enter into any kind of debt service we have to get a vote of um town meeting to allow us to do that so this vote in particular will allow us to um enter into two lease agreements one is going to be for the purchase of a new engine fire engine and one is going to be for the purchase of a new ambulance they're going to be paid for from different funding sources es so the ambulance will be paid for out of the ambulance Enterprise free cash and the um the engine will be funded under our operating budget as we normally do Jason how much how much is in the free cash of the ambulance fund um right now we have let's see $ 398,375 mhm okay and I think it's worth U mentioning that at least from the way I look at things that the ambulance fund has been a success you know to be able to purchase your own ambulance that's pretty good that's yes this has come a long way from sure has it's and it's said it's nice to see that number the annual part being able to fund and purchase out of there so that's definitely and that was a smart move worth noting too is the ambulance Enterprise fund is also paying for all of the indirect costs that the town incurs on behalf of those individuals so the cost for the finance department to do the accounting the cost for the treasurer's office to do the payroll all all of their benefits are all being um captured there so article 12 um there you see see the actual appropriation of the funds to purchase the ambulance and that represents um the lease payment and then the second one is for the purchase of a power load stretcher also for the ambulance I think we purchased one might have been a couple years ago okay last year I can't remember so this is the second one so the first so article 11 is the is the authorization to allow you to lease authorizes you to lease the second is spending spending the money and do we expect this lease payment will continue for how many years years 10 years and it will be coming from the ambulance free cash or it will come from the ambulance let me just double check one [Music] thing make sure sure if I may ask a question question sorry seven years seven years and the power is one time is that one time correct okay yep Dana when I was reviewing this I didn't realize 11 and 12 were connected together yes is is there some way we could make that clear yeah absolutely especially like like during the annual you know the meeting the ATM it would I think it would benefit all of the citizens if we could somehow connect 11 and 12 this is just the warrant so these are just the Articles what the finance committee does is the Appropriations booklet and we have r r we'll have the rationale under each one of them and those will those our appropriation booklets will be available ahead of town meeting on the website and and then when we actually move you make the motion I I think it can be clear we can explain this will and again yeah and people can we can have discussion as well at town meeting and that's why I mentioned it because it's an accomplishment it should be known so good right so Article 13 is where you see kind of a formatting change so I was recently at a a manager's meeting when the this was all brought up they they've been referred to as consent articles they've been referred to as combining articles um um a lot of the managers use this kind of format in their initial presentation it can be done either way um It's seems to streamline things a little bit it still allows for a hold to be placed on any individual item can be discussed um questioned you know there's there's nothing that prohibits that it just brings it all together because all of these are going to be funded through the use of free cash um some of them you'll see are um items that would be on our Capital asset schedule so the um Capital planning committee has already been through all of these others like the opep Actuarial valuation and the unpaid Bill don't rise to the level of um capital in any shape or form so but they're all going to be funded through free C through free cash so that's what that article is and our current free cash balance is right now we are at let's see $3,547 12 so should everything be approved like if if town meeting voted to approve all of these expenses we'd be down to just a little over a million 1,872 which is lower than we've been um for quite a while after our town we usually save a a pretty good portion um and this vote is also simple majority at Town meetings and are we going to discuss after you review all of them are we going to discuss them or talk about them um do you want to stop here and yeah I I well on Article 13 in particular I I I just have some ideas of my own and uh I guess my one of my pet peeves is the HVAC at the elementary school and um I'm just wondering is that covid compliant now I'm assuming no answer and I don't know what Co compliance well I mean up to up to code the the HVAC well I know when Co hit and the OPA monies and Esser funds were given by the federal government the district ton Regional School District got Monies to make those HVAC systems put in fans and make them kids could kids could go to school there so there could I don't know if we want to call it compliant I don't I think the covid rules are gone now I don't think the uh the well I I guess just up to code I I didn't mean to use everything is up to code so but we need to replace the HVAC it's the Aging system and I believe Tracy correct me if I'm if I'm wrong and I misspeak but I believe that we've had people go out and look at it we did an envelope study on the school we did and we've had them go out and look at it and and the way that we have attacked the roof in sections they can they can do it this way we'll get $1 million this year and they'll replace the equipment and the roof right now and it won't affect the it's not like they're not going to have hbac system and then next year if we split it into two years they'll replace there'll be another million dollars and they'll replace it again the equipment and the roof and then I believe the roof's complete correct one more year three and then it'll be all done okay and just so you know there the James our facilities director our DPW director is working with John I can't pull his last name out the new facility um director at Triton well in general you might think this is a crazy idea but uh and you can correct me if I'm wrong on this but last ATM um article 17 was we voted to put another million dollars in the uh the town hall account and uh I believe that that was passed cor it did okay so the balance well according to according to this the balance there now is like5 milon $889,000 give or take a few dollars yep all right I I I I know that coming up in the next few years two or three or four years we're going to be you know I followed you guys' meetings and stuff and and and we're going to have issues just paying for our operating budget over the next couple of years taking money out of that doesn't help the operating budget I understand that I understand we can't use money from that operating I I I totally understand that my recommendation would be to I would like to see all of these capital for example the the the elementary school in particular do the entire project now spend the entire $2 million to finish the project and on the warrant transfer or eliminate the town hall fund and put it into a municipal building fund because we also are going to have to we know that the fire station is is coming on down the road and I I I feel as though I know the floor is going to be replaced before obviously before we build an entire new fire station so so I I understand that the $660,000 would do the floor that's a necessity as far as I'm concerned that inste instead of taking all of the money out of free cash I would like to see some of the money coming out of the Town Hall fund maybe even changing the name of the town hall fund and maybe leaving a little more money into the free cash than than what you're proposing to do that's my overall concept of of of Article 13 and and you know obviously we can we can talk about there's things in there that are in the operating budget and this things in there none of those are in the operating buget okay none of those are in the operating budget it's all out of free cash these are all onetime expenses these are all so these are all Capital Improvements so so all onetime expenses they all one time expenses the unpaid Bill isn't a capital Improvement yeah it's not a capital Improvement but they're all one times so I'm hesitant to do that because um town meeting put that money aside and we even haven't had a discussion at the board level we haven't had that we haven't this is like well that's because this is the first opportunity that we're going to have to change it it's either that or it's not going to get changed until next it's you're going to push it another year down the road and we're still going to have 500 5, 89,000 in that account it I I have a really hard time trying to and I'm talking in the future not for fiscal year 25 but if we're going to be talking about an override to help fund the school system and everything else I have a really difficult time supporting anything like that and I've read all the emails and I just want to tell everybody I appreciate the emails that we've gotten in concerns of you know Public Safety our school systems our Ser our service that we provide that you know I get it I understand that message so at this point in time I mean you're talking about the future I'm talking about this this this year go ahead Erica my question is I I'd love to hear more of and have you explained the rationale of how moving money from Nao it doesn't I don't get how moving money from that account is going to just changing the funding source from free cash to that account helps our operating budget it it doesn't okay so don't so those two things are that's exactly what I was just asking I want you to clarify that that that is that in no way impacts but then it means we have money in free cash which we can use for onetime expenses voted at town meeting again no one else can no one can spend that money except for town meeting Free Cash correct no one can spend any of this money right KN theend no the exception of the reserve fund and that has to be voted on and those are very small things um in emergencies that the fincom votes on so why do you want to see the fund that was set aside for a municipal a municipal building draw that down and Le it's I'm I'm kind of trying to figure out the the rationale for why draw down something that's saved versus free cash this year just curious right now do only thing we can spend that money on is a new town hall cuz that's what we that's what's been voted on that's what it was okay that that's that's the only thing we can spend that $5 million on is a new town hall okay I can see more Municipal Building upgrades fixes fixing new buildings that are going to come down the road before a new town hall the fire department being one of them so okay so so my recommendation would be that we it it simply just change the name of the account the town can vote on that we can do that this year and at the same time we can we can you know of course Tracy this is entirely up to you one we where you where you want to pull the money from to to to fund you know these sources but what my my point is is that it doesn't have to all come out of free cash if we free up this other $5 million we can do we can use some of that to do this and then that money would be available to kick to jump start a new fire station if we need one I if that's your rationale if you want to use it I would much as this is my thinking much like we're doing on article 11 is that at the point in time when we're looking at a new fire station we would do something if possible much like article 11 where we say we're going to transfer the N the funds from what is was established as a as a town hall account to the fire station account and then also do it with the appropriation for spending the money so we're actually tying it at the time to the expenditure thereby reducing the debt burden that would be taken out for that cuz any fire station is going to be way more than that $5 million you know what though I I don't understand why we're afraid to change the name of that account is it is there something going on here where anybody's afraid to change no we can but it's there's just no R the I just don't understand like why to pull the out of I'd rather do it in one lump sum of using that 5 million just add one little point sorry I actually understand where Dan is going I don't know if I want to pull something out so that it becomes maintenance Dana if we have the ability to maybe build a fire station if we decide we're not going to do a town hall we do have a peg account I think is what is it 19 21 coming up yeah we have almost a million dollars we could throw at the uh Ground School repair cuz that's a one time we haven't got there yet but I'm just saying but the whole thing is if this town decides they are not going to have a town hall fire station replacement certainly would be a good place for some of that money to in the town hall there's still a municipal need we still it still hasn't been detered besides they don't want Alicia will continue paying rent it comes right out of free cash that and rent no rent comes out of operating budget y rent comes out of operating budget and I I totally I want to I would like to see that 5 million that was set aside to offset the cost of a building be used as a lump sum to pay off the cost of a building it will make a greater impact than drawing it down here and there it will allow us to make a significant investment in a building I'd like to see go into something that's going to last 40 years instead of repairing something that lasts for three so Frank I think once multipart question sorry Tracy um the HVAC plan that we're doing for NES and then presumably if all goes according to this schedule the roof next year those are all aligned with the original CPC plan correct uh timeline wise for what was originally set up for the school HVAC was accelerated a little bit cuz here essentially okay Dana were you suggesting that there is a benefit in Rolling that into one year because there was the assumption that there is savings to be had by accelerating that by doing it all in one year possibly I I think I I think that the idea that the price might go down is unlikely and the cost of everything is going up I think the earlier that we can take care of I want to call it the low hanging fruit the better up we're going to be and then and then I just want to say you know the the the fire station the new town hall all of these things are going to require a debt exclusion so to produce to build any of this stuff I guess my my question were there any conversations with prospective uh HVAC contractors well of roof contractors that said hey you guys can save 30% by doing this all inone shot or it'll be cheaper operationally or there was none of that that didn't that didn't happen no we just we've had the engineers out to give us the estimates we haven't gone out to bid the second part related but unrelated I'm I'm under the impression that town hall account because it was voted on is sacran until it's voted on otherwise correct correct yes so that that so any reappropriation or renaming would have to happen a town meeting a town meeting yep and that would still put us out another presumably to Dana's point was allocated different right right to Dana's point so if you if you decide you don't want to build a town hall we're going to stay here this is going to be our permanent location but we we have a need to build a fire station so all we would do as we get further along once you did your studies and your analysis and you were prepared to present a project um you would simply go to town meeting have an article that asks to transfer whatever the balance is there um into a fire station building or a town hall what did you call it Town Hall cap cap project account or whatever whatever you want to want to name it um so because town meeting put it there Town meeting's the the appropriate body to to move it somewhere else and I think the only difference is if you start to use it for certain maintenance and debt exclusion type uses then it will disappear pretty quickly Dana if anyone doesn't think that $5 million wouldn't build a metal building fire station you could build a beauty like a Morton Building just a marttin building well done with a brick face exactly y I kind of like I kind of like that idea because um not not the metal building but no no offense but but what I meant to say the engineer in no no what I meant to say was that I like the idea of the 5 million going to a building because it reduces the burden of debt on the people that follow up we don't leave a legacy of debt to the people that follow us and we get a building whether it's a fire station or a town hall remains to be seen so there's still some significant Municipal need that the town has as far as capital buildings so to just take that money a little bit at a time and spend it on things that we can free cash I personally have a high time swallowing that P I I don't I don't understand um I don't understand why anyone would vote I don't understand how the how the vote would go at at town meeting if you couldn't say well we have a plan for a fire house this this is what it is like it seems like you would be putting the cart well before the horse and people would say wait what what is this for um I like that wait what yeah I mean I think that no like at at its premise it's a it's a it's a valid idea but you have to you have to be able to clearly Define what it is that you're doing with that Capital if you're going to try and change something that the town voted on and allocated as such with me it's all as I'm trying to do is to show the town that we're a little more flexible than what we're what we're what we're what we're with where this money might go I think if we can show the voters in good faith that we're acting for them because they voted down a town hall two to one in the general election okay I I I I I think that's a message and and and and what I want to show the public is that we we hear that that also that's a that's another thing that we hear I appreciate you know the arguments about about not you you know I would love to finish the HVAC on NES I don't know I'm not an engineer uh it was an idea that I had but I appreciate the argument about like Jeff and everyone else has said that that these These are onetime expenditures um and it probably should come out of free cash but at the same time I still feel as though that just the the name of the account from a voter standpoint doesn't put us in good faith so you would would you entertain an article unrelated to 13 it changes so you're ask so you're actually in the discussion of Article 13 you're raising an a a different article you youd like an article if if I'm hearing you correctly it sounds like you want an article to change the name of the town hall account this year yes to Municipal Building account I'll tell you I would hate to lose the ability to leverage out something like the fire station however because we really do have to remember that not only wiia but Triton have some Capital side right down the p pipeline at us as we found with the school budget this year the Opera budget so another thing that concerns me if we lost that money and we really did have a failure if that fire station is as bad and small and needs to be updated and we I'm not going to say if we Friddle away that money on repairs all across town we will never build a fire station well we won't have the bandwidth between school costs well Jeff hold on a minute all these expenditures here except for the unpaid bill I think in the in the OPB um they've all gone through Capital planning so we have a capital we have a process to replenish our Capital needs and I don't believe as of to dat today the fire a new fire station is on the capital it's we're still so I end to hear what you're saying but I don't think we're there yet I think there still needs to be a lot more um vetting of of the need and I but I do know on our Capital plan that there is a need for a town hall for permanent facilities for the municipal opposites I believe that's still I may have just a a moment yeah I think now is the time for everybody to sit down and have an open discussion on the need or not the need to have a town hall because there are a lot of people in town that don't feel that there is a need and there's a lot of people feel that there's a need but as the governing body here in town we have yet to actually sit as a group and have a discussion about this and our feelings with the pros and cons and I think this is about the time we should really think about getting all our ducks in a row that way all right I can add that to a future agenda I think I think that would probably be very good idea because I don't think people realize the impact that renting has on our operating budget staying here and renting I just don't people voted to allocate the capital it's allocated right yeah uh and I don't you know but they didn't like the the the idea of the Town Hall they voted against it that's that's a really good point you know that's it's not the two are not yep related in some way are mutually exclusive right I mean they they I think people recognize the needs I was surprised I mean people recognize the need for a town hall people in general pretty fiscally prudent they don't they understand the issue behind renting they don't think it's a necessarily good use of capital but they also didn't think that the town hall as proposed was a good use of that um it's an excellent point Frank so I don't you know I just don't think we can negate vote um you know but you we could certainly bring another vote if if people saw fit to say but I think I think it still needs to be better defined than um stuff that pops up you know if your kid came and said I need a 100 bucks the first thing out of your mouth is for what concert tickets second question is how much is the concert ticket like you have to be prepared with those answers or your kid in that case has to be prepared with those answers and you know we got we do we have a lot of Boogeyman uh waiting to jump out of the woods at us right and we all know they're there but they need some definition to be able to change the taxpayers made at town meeting so I think that it's it would be prudent to have um fire chief come to us and take a look at at um what his needs are go to Capital planning I believe he already went sat with them once on Capital I don't know if it talked about not about a fire station just about so I think the town has a process M and I think we have to follow that process um if I may I've got two things Leslie I think your idea of having a place where we can have a discussion about what is what people are looking for in Direction I think that's an excellent idea I would be happy to sit I've sat on many of these projects over the years um and in a similar vein I also think it's because we have mixed messages last year a town meeting in one vote people voted to put a million dollars into that town hall account as a town hall account but did not pass by a two-thirds majority the project that was there it did it didn't pass but a majority of those people also voted for it it was the in the bar the bar was was if we had gone if it was a simple majority which it isn't it's a 2/3 majority it was that's where there's I think there's a disconnect and I think there could be a lot to having some discussions around what that future looks like um because quite honestly I walk by the EMP the town hall building and the fire station pretty much every morning with my dogs those are two properties we own in the same place we have may have not only one but two needs there's time for Creative Solutions and that $5 million that is there I believe can is was put there by voters it was put there and for that need and there's still a need so now we figure out what to what the next solution could be in town meeting is a legislative body they put it there they spend our money I was just really going to tease Eric are you saying two medal buildings okay so do you have any other questions Dana but are there any questions I guess yeah anybody else want to comment on the from the pcom Vanessa or or Richard anybody else the board good questions good discussion yeah back Article 13 um I'm I'm delighted that the town has free cash of $3.5 million if they're financially sound enough to have that much free cash to be able to use the 2,27 ,000 these projects a long time coming Tracy sorry one last thing just because I'm not sure I generally understand how the article works but sure you know let's say there's a large group that has an issue with pick pick a pick a one of those items the library roof lower school yeah lower Green School school 100K that's insane you know uh and they come they show up with pitchforks and torches so 13 is dead then no 13 or you can or it's automatically segmented out individually can be HED at meeting okay we hold it can be so it can be winnowed down to the things that everybody is in agreement okay correct it won't kill the entirety of the do kill and when we ran this um consent agenda past Town Town Council doing it way we always did it there would have been an article for each one of these items that's like nobody does that anymore okay it's like we're one of the her one of two of her accounts that still do it so go we're modernizing Madam chair yes quick question will we be able to Circle back after we review this one time and circle back if we have any questions on anything oh yeah after we will before we vote we we'll ask for any last question thank you okay so can we move on to article 14 sure well Martha's here so I'm sure she can give you all the details but that's the MBTA community the zoning that we've been talking about for yeah you guys had a presentation had a presentation right we had a presentation you saw does anybody have any questions on article 14 not excuse me I believe the public hearing is still open on this the public hearing is still open um the final draft is is what you see in the warrant but it was Ren noticed because there were some substantive changes so next Wednesday the 20th but you don't expect any changes that's right no okay okay so that's the MBTA that's article 14 14 14 Article 15 is the Wireless Communications facility zoning is that's still open too right that heing is still open the board has not made taken any action on that yet board hasn't taken any action on that yet okay that's Article 15 articles 16 17 and 18 are all relative to the um solar array that will be going on on a landfill which we've also been working on for many many years um finally is coming to fruition so that those three um are related to the change of the use um allowing the select board to enter into and the assesses to enter into an agreement and um allowing alternative on Bill credit um allowing us to sell it back any excess energy and in the rationale that will be here who will speak to this on we expect Town Council to speak to This Town Council Martha myself can talk about article 16 17 18 we make it clear and the rationals provide the detail okay article 60 I imagine they get so specific because they're going to breach the membrane to do the no no they're not it's a ballasted system so it sits on top of the membrane okay yeah won so the membrane is that deep wow below about two feet of soil on top okay all right you have a question I I did um the the property itself in another words on the assessor map uh um are we talking about where the transfer station located and the entire town forest all the way out to the street or is can what is what is the uh do do we have a where the landfill was this is the Capp land right but I didn't I didn't even know that that piece of property was was surveyed and segregated I guess from one piece to the other so how big how big is that piece of property is it just that first mound is it the two Mounds together it's it's if I may it's yeah please it's both Mounds so there will be a lease area that's delineated in the lease agreement that will show the area specifically that will be used for the solar uh the solar panels and that's that's the two Mounds it's totally separate from the transfer station and the Town Forest beond right in the uh the the DP the small little DPW lot right there and where the uh the fire department used to used to train is is that going to be are we going to are we going to maintain the use of that you mean Police Department I'm sorry Police Department sorry sorry I I made a gun thing I got it I got it what you were talking about yeah yeah are we going to is is that going to be part of the that we're going to give to them or are we going to hang on to that or so the the um actually the target range is is going to be relocated because the access road that goes through um through the parcel right now needs to be upgraded so that fire trucks can actually use it in case they there's that's right I heard something about that like around the back side around the back side there's not enough turning radius for a truck to be able to which which would utilize that the DPW space and that's going to be all part of the access road right there yeah so that'll be the access road that'll actually come out the gate that goes into the transfer station gotcha U and following question if the the the sell back of the power I is that something that have we started have we do we have an idea how that's going to work is it going to is it going to reduce the town's electric bill is it going to reduce everybody's electric bill or not everybody's know the town well I'm just I'm just asking so like who's going to benefit the town will benefit so so so it'll reduce the overall the town's electric bill which will in turn reduce our operating expenses yeah that's the goal that would be the goal okay no they they do not pay any taxes because it's a lease well there'll be a tax agreement that's my next we'll negotiate a tax on the equipment then it'll be like a personal property right right person not really but it's yes it's they call them a tax agreement and that will be you'll negotiate with the assessors and that'll come before us but that happens Alli so that will also help subsidize the our property taxes so on and so forth is there more than one vendor vying to this contract no it's um what's the name Alliance clean energy right right I mean that's the LLC this yeah any other questions one other last question and I should have Martha gone to planing board um do they have a clause to dismantle if they leave take it with them there there would be a bond decomission decommissioning Bond okay at the end which would cover that yeah they won't they won't be allowed they shouldn't be allowed to just meet it there and walk away right right right I mean if they do then the bond is in place to cover that contingency if that happens actually that's a really good question is the uh so it is National Grid is is the credits going to go into National Grid you know credit's going to go into like kilowatt credits for are they going to sell them somewhere no so so so where how are we going to store the energy how are we going to get credit for the energy that it produces or or to reduce our electric bill I don't know how I don't know how it will be reflected on our bills I can find out but we we get the credit right the town the municipality gets the credit what we're paying yeah I guess it will be a reduction because that's what we're paying for now is through National Grid so yeah I have solar panels on my house yeah and I I trade kilowatts with national with them I don't do battery storage or anything so I'm assuming it's going to it's going to simar be similar yeah however I also am assuming that we're never going to produce enough solar power to eliminate our electric belt I I can't but maybe highly unlikely but un likely um and the the uh the tax agreement it's it's interesting that the lease it looks like it's a 30-year a 30-year lease of the property MH and the tax agreement is for 20 years why what why is there a difference I don't know the answer to that question we'll we'll discuss those things when we negotiate that's fair yeah I don't know the answer to that I don't know if there's a limit and one other one question it it is for profit right Tracy I mean the solar panel installation is for their profit right so no it's for our benefit just so it's totally Town benefit they and that's how how do they make money yeah I don't have that we don't have we haven't negotiated works is it goes back in into the grid but you you get a portion of the same way all these lease agreements work for for people's homes who don't want to Pork out the money I for panels up front it's a lease agreement and it's it's a it's a split of trust me they're making money yeah yeah you'll you'll see that when we get the the documents in front of us this is clearing the way y this is just allowing you to sit down and have those negotiations none of these are actually binding us to anything than allowing you all to make decisions on behalf of the town which will be coming before us y y Article 19 so Article 19 is um to remedy the issue that we had with members of the finance committee not being allowed to serve on any other boards of committees um the change to the ACT will allow them to continue on in the capacity of serving on the capital planning committee was there another committee the only one yeah Capital planning say it again you were on a a different commit Municipal vulnerability and other things which you still wouldn't be able to be on that and at some point just because why we appoint the people to the municipal vulnerability I mean the only thing is this is the way I look out and see the water that's around our town right now in the last couple of three weeks and those type of committees are going to get more and more important to what Nuri out there you so the way it was explain to me is that finance committee so the select board is the overarching policy making Board of the whole uh we have appointing authority so we appoint the finance committee and we appoint other boards and committees that should really report up to the select board um finance committee was fine when it didn't we didn't have a capital planning committee but we've evolved and we have a capital planning committee and it is quite beneficial to have the finance committee or members of the finance committee sit on a capital planning committee as well it it serves the town well um but it wouldn't be appropriate for a select board member I don't believe to sit at a fincon meeting as well um so those other boards and committees report up to the select board so that's why the select board is remaining out of there Municipal vulnerability um that has to do with Grant monies and I kind of agree with Jeff I think that it would be beneficial for the town of new to have somebody with Jeff's expertise well in all what what Maring the board doing other things and people that are on that board right now that forecasting envisioning and and you know sometimes I'm a guy that says oh heck do we really need we need that I know so so I it's I'll I'll just sit sometime I can go to those meetings anyway so yeah you just won't can't big deal right so um so that's the purpose behind did it not um did it make it too hazy so to speak to bundle in the other things that we had issues with in other words like I think Tom the case with Tom was Tom's a constable and because he's a constable he couldn't be on fincom is that what it was no because was a fincom member he couldn't be a conso well he could choose he could choose he was both he could choose between why because it's elected Elan ands was was Parking Clerk Parking Clerk and couldn't this is not this is not going to fix that this says but but did we was there a reason that that they weren't added into this article like those scenarios or did it just get too messy I could see why fix that oh it says the first sentence here of shall not on the capital planning but shall be ineligible either by election or appointment to hold any other town office shall be in ineligible the first sentence of here shall not apply to members of the finance committee who may be appointed to serve under Capital ping but shall be ineligible either by election or appointment to hold any other office so that's what this this says this came from Council I I don't know why I I I right on that one I never understood how it bother the finance person to be a constable can I just if I may Madam chair yes um I I'm not on board with Article 19 I I think I think that I think that chapter 460 should remain as is and I just want to I can tell you why I feel that way that would be great um uh I I I I think that that you could be looking at a conflict of interest happening now now may maybe in a non-voting uh situation possibly but I I think you could have a conflict of interest of someone who's working on the cap capital Improvement and then in turn you know has a has a say with the finance committee on on possibly how or when some of those things are going to be are going to be financed I I I just and and and my my other my other piece of that is that I feel as though in general I I don't I think we have too many people in town that wear too many hats and I I just I believe that we should try and embrace new blood and new folks to want to come and join these committees and feel free to say what they want to say and and I and and this was written this was written this way for a reason and I'm I'm not time at the time this was written there was no Capital planning Comm that's when at the time was and that's this is to update so I still don't believe someone should be a sit on both boards can you explain to me where you would see a conflict of interest for finom to sit on Capital planning not Capital Improvement Capital planning I don't Capital planning I don't see how that could be a conflict but I I I want to see where I'm not seeing it because C capital capital planning is what we're talking about right correct okay Capital planning sits back and looks at like the big picture of what our Capital Improvement should be and and they're an independent body that submits that report to the finance committee to find out whether if am I wrong about that okay so so so how how how does it work they they it actually you are the way that the capital planning actually goes to the warrant and to your team it doesn't go through finance committee at all the benefit of having finance committee members sit on Capital planning is that when the finance committee meets the capital planning members can update the finance committee as to what's coming down the pike for capital expenditure can happen without them being on the finance committee how someone has to what do you mean how but I think the the question is like that when you say CPC sits back and looks at that that's not what they do so DPW comes into to a CPC meeting it says we need a 10-wheeler our 10 Wheeler's debt okay what's a 10-wheeler cost but it costs you know $130,000 all right well uh can you get any more miles out of the last 10 wheeler no it's it's cooked that's where all of the CPC items originate from I've never SE I was on CPC for a while I never saw anyone originate uh their own needs and you you know I went past the building it looks like junk uh you know it has to come from somebody who's responsible for that building or so that's where a conflict of interest absolutely would exist if you let the head of DBW sit on Capital plan sit on cap planning that would be the fox and the hen house so to speak if you want to look at it that way but I if I run all the scenarios in my head I can't think of any conflict of interest that could possibly exist between CPC and fincom and and you know I don't want to act like I'm champing this I don't care whatever I really don't but I don't that's not a that's not that's just not something that cook up a conflict of interest that is if DP dub sat on these committees or whoever is asking for something fire your Chief or whatever that would absolutely create a complient where at the very least they would have to recuse themselves from any discussion of that need and I would say that as someone who is because you've sat on Capital planning I've sat on fincom for years I absolutely rely on Capital planning to do their job and a five member body to do their job right now we're sitting with a three- member body because we're in this spot where we can't you can't one rule says you have to appoint them but another rule says we can't be appointed so right now our Capital planning committee is limited to three people because you cannot appoint anyone else because the capital planning the capital planning bylaw says that has to have two people from pcom so that's where there's it's we're stuck in this thing so right now we only have three people there and the amount of work that they put into doing the due diligence we rely on them to do their job to take in all of the things that come in from all the department heads fire police you know all of these different Capital the schools they use their scoring system which is an objective measure of how they do it in order to put things onto the capital plan and what do we have for money available in free cash or other funding sources to prioritize that for us because serving on it's a big load to serve on that committee and being able to have someone who's been in those discussions to be able to come to one of our committees and talk to us about what's coming down is really helpful again as long as we have a able to operate full Capital planning committee to look at the things with five members I'd love to see us get there yeah I I I think we need to make this this change have to change the bylaw of CPC to get that why did we write the bylaw in that fashion when we knew that chapter 4 60 didn't allow it 460 happened afterwards okay okay all right there you go so why didn't we change the bylaw it's all before my time we have a lot of conflicting bylaws we have a lot of bylaws that that conflict well I I I I propose that we change the bylaw if that's what we want to do and we don't mess with 460 that's that's just my feeling all right that's his feeling anybody else have any other comment on that okay so that's Article 19 so article 21 20 article 20 sorry I'm looking at section 21 okay article 20 same y um so this is asking we we have a a trust fund a resident brought it to our attention that there was a trust fund called the Newbury Improvement trust that has a balance of $488 69 it was established at a town meeting in October 2005 I believe um and um donations were made um on behalf of a resident that had passed away into this fund and at the time I think you were in discussions about building a senior center maybe there was a donation of land discussed there were all sorts of things going on at that point in time and um money was put into this fund that purpose well it's sat there for all these years um and nothing's really happened it's not enough to build a senior center and um so in conversations we had conversations with the um trustees the three trustees and it was everyone felt that it was time to dissolve the trust and that those funds would be held in account the select board would have the authority to expend them for the intended P purpose for the senior center some for some expenditure for the senior center um and that was at the request of a a family member of um the person who donations were made in their name okay so at the time that this trust was formed the select board couldn't my understanding they couldn't accept donations at that time I think Massachusetts general laws have changed and we can do that now and that's standard procedure for us so we would need to think about closing this out and having it earm Mo marked for Council and aging if it's approved at town meeting then the trustees would meet again and vote take that vote to dissolve dissolve it trust any questions I I I spoke to the family member that you're talking about about this issue and that's exactly what they wanted the intent of the money that's what they that's what they wanted to happen to the money so your analysis is pretty much spot on I just want to make sure that that the money goes to where the intent was intended does you as a board will yes does COA maintain their own fund just something they have the friends of the council and aging it's something different they're just a line item in our budget they may have their own like expense so does it make more sense and Trigger less bureaucracy for anyone making donations to Council of Aging to go directly to fcoa does that eliminate any need for board they come directly to the town now you it's frequent that you'll see on the agenda that people will make donations to the Council on and the the select board votes to accept them and they're put in a special account that can only be used by the COA but that's this account this is not intention isn't is to come to the select board not go to the COA account is it it it remains where it is in the trust account until the board allows approves an an expense of those funds but for that intended purpose the senior center yeah so I guess question was if they had just given the money to friends of council and aging this would not be good discussion I don't even know I I don't know when the friends came who came what came you know yeah I that's I find to find it interesting that we get a significant amount of money donated to the town for the Council on Aging when they do in fact have friends like the library for instance we don't get any it all goes okay any other questions for this okay article 21 so article 21 we now have a peg access um special Revenue fund so back oh gosh 2015 maybe um yeah I think it was 2015 at the recommendation of um the fincom select board myself we all thought it would make sense to um segregate these funds that come in as from contract franchise fees into a specific special revenue account with the intention that they could only be used according to the law the informational guideline release sets forth what it can be expended for so for all Peg access related expenses um at the time I think when the media committee was initially formed they were hoping there was a gentleman named Richard Hendrickson who's kind of spearheaded it and subsequent to him Caleb noble noble thank you um the the Hope was that they would initiate a 501c3 and those funds would be utilized by that not for-profit um it it didn't happen so what the town decided to do again in C consultation with the media committee was at at that time back in 2015 around then we felt it was important that we get our meetings televised they weren't at the time um and you know the the municipal Peg access was formed so we we have people inh house that work part-time that do all this uh purchase all the equipment keep the equipment updated um seek content um you know load out cameras for various things um work with the school right right uh we have school interns internships available um but here we are you know almost 10 years later and we've amassed quite a bit of money right now there's um see 9 93,000 a little over $993,000 in that account um but we don't have the 501c3 so it's not nearly as robust for lack of a better word as you know we had initially hoped it would be if if someone took it over so the law allows you two ways to operate you can do what we did voting it into a special Revenue fund for that particular purpose or you can revoke this or if we hadn't adopted it in the first place it becomes a general fund Revenue the way the article and the draft read it it sounded like we would be disbanding the entire program that's not the case what we're doing is we're changing the fund so what would happen if this were to pass what would happen is the money that's in the account now would end up becoming a component of free cash in the the following not until the following year and all of the pro all of the franchise fees would become General Revenue so general fund Revenue they would come right into the general fund and they can be used to fund any legal Municipal purpose um you could certainly use it for some operating expenses but I would caution that only because the revenue is declining as you probably many of you have streaming services and things like that so we're not getting quite as much as we used to but um those those funding sources would become What's called the miscellaneous revenue and it would just like our motor vehicle excise our departmental fees our um interest earnings all of those things come in and support the whole operating budget those fees would just come into the general fund they would not be segregated in a special account so that's what this would in effect do what does the annual number look roughly like these days um I want to say probably little under 200 a little under 200,000 little under 200,000 a year mhm and this fund was started in 15 maybe I misinterpreted it sound like it never really got off the ground in terms of the and I and I understand there's technological reasons behind that and nobody's going to run a cable access anymore I mean that stuff is dead well it's not really de they have Salsbury has a great a great model um new report has PT PT media there are other there are other so cheap to run that stuff now where does the money go like it's incredible like you you have if you have a an iPhone and a and a backdrop you're good to go studio right are you saying sorry you're saying there's there's School Outreach programs involved in this as well so we have we an internship funding for two so there's money going to that yeah we so the money that going back to one of the earlier articles y That's the 85,000 is the identified things we can identify that weend annually right now and we have there's no way I know we've talked about this in the past there's no way for us to like it can't go to the education line item as it is it doesn't work that way that's not an approved expense so okay okay so when this when this media committee was formed I I was part of it I was in the founding father or mother whatever you want to call it I was in on the ground floor and I worked with Richard Hendrickson very closely and that was the model I mean we didn't even have back in 2012 there were these are meetings no meetings have even recorded they weren't televised nothing was done so we worked we hired Caleb um he worked with Tracy we got that we got him in here we started with select board first fincom second and slow we've been we got the recording now if you don't have you know hours of somebody to come in like we're being live down we have Ethan now that that does us um but the Hope was always to keep this money separate and and and sprout a 501c3 from the ground up but it has to organically come and nobody ever came forward to want to sit on a f a 501 C3 so I mean I I have meeting minutes here from back in 20 uh 2019 I believe it was July 23rd of 2019 when we had um we had under new new business um Lance Lance w w weski pronouncing it wrong he's the executive director over at Salsbury TV came here and he explained to the board what the municipal model looks like and then we also had this other gentleman by the name of Michael ridinger director of engineering um at unique media systems come in and explain what the municipal model looks like and most communities now because of like you what you said with the iPhone and you can just need a little green box it's waning and the funds and cable streaming you everybody's going to streaming cable is is every quarter we get less and less that and when we negotiated the cable contract they knew that they cable Comcast understood that this was probably going to go by the wayside so if we depend on these monies just to take care of our our Public Access so that people could see just the government what your government is doing eventually we may lose lose that too but at least if it becomes a component of the of the general fund you'll have a line item we'll always have a line item be able to have have some type of our government programming laed so that's the backstory on that one any questions um so in other words you're saying that well first of all it wasn't contractual through Comcast that the that had to go into a specific account it's not it's just the contract dictates what the fees are identifies what the fees are and we can set up the so it's the Department of Revenue Mass the department the State Department of Revenue issues this igr and tells you these are the two ways you can account for it okay yeah the second thing is when you form this Peg access um was that something that was on on the warrant as well and had to be voted correct y that's why if anything that that you establish under a town meeting has to be revoked under a town meeting or transferred under a town meeting or you know you the board doesn't have the authority to so this was on October October 20th 2015 we had article 12 that was to see if the town will vote to accept the provisions of chapter 44 um of the Massachusetts general laws establishing the peg access and cable related fund so we did that back in October of 2015 or 2016 it was effective we voted it in 2015 it became effective in 2016 so now we need a vote of town meeting to go the other way and go to this Municipal mod that's what I mention Dan a little earlier where we're going to have one time money being back to town and we still will have some sort of Revenue fund to be a to pay for our cable access coming in until it disappears but it sounds like it'll be here for five or six eight 10 years but it would be nice to take in use but it would be nice to take him maybe take that 900 or so thousand and augment the roof at the at the school or do something that's it'll become a component of free cash in 20 not in not this fall certification it would be 2026 it would be that certification so it that money is not going to be spent any time before probably unless there's a special town meeting before town meeting in the spring of 2026 2026 Tracy probably probably a dumb question or probably EXs to the definition of means by which taxation is levied and I'm assuming that because it comes from the ends of Comcast M that it could never be treated as such but because the legal definition of what these monies are change if it is allocated towards General Revenue in other words does it affect prop two and a half does it affect like it is it is essentially tax levied by by a third party but it still comes from correct I mean it comes from the US users it's us a fee can never be ConEd as a tax it's not a tax and that was that's a really good point because I was going to bring up that same point it's not paid by everyone in town it's only paid by those who have subscrib subscribers too so it's not compulsory therefore it is not okay and and I I just question the legality of being able to just eventually over a couple of years rolling into the general fund I it's legal yeah Town council's reviewed it yeah say Town Council has reviewed all of T reviewed and Y as long as the as long as the voter knows that that's what our intent is I mean I would personally would still like to see that money used to build some kind of a studio or or or even you know like your fiber optic system or it could once it becomes free cash not for fiber optic we we had a used it for the studio you're absolutely right that was one of the allowable expenses we had to you know get the percentage of the square footage but that wasn't viewed favorably by anyone so did we put an additional contract in place now that Verizon has lit up no we have not um W even aware until recently that Verizon was in town so yeah oh they yeah they they made no not notification to the town so we're on that they were given up a good deal so when and if um it's a good point when we have a contract with Verizon because rowy does this too Raleigh has has Verizon in their municipality and they have concast they get subscriber monies from both yeah and we should be getting that too now that we know that's exactly why they didn't notify us so that that increase a little bit but so if this were to be voted on the the taxpayers have to vote to change the title of it and it goes into it it it's no longer acts a peg AIS it just gets dissolved and goes into the general fund so it's it's still um it's still franchise fees it still comes into the town as a miscellaneous revenue and what you would see much like QC select board DPW Police Department you'd have Peg access you'd have the line items for the wages and the expenses and if they needed to replace the cameras in this room you'd see a special article for cameras you know using free cash to purchase them just like you would for any other Municipal expense so the difference is the difference in what we were hoping for was a 501c3 that would um but that's nothing it hasn't happened yet um or you have the municipal model which is what we currently do now um the municipal model that we currently do now is about $85 to $100,000 a year so you have all that money tied up um but if you think that you know that's something that might happen in the future then leave it there man I mean it hasn't happened yet it's been BRS back 20 years or 10 12 15 15 years that we've been trying to get a 501c3 and we couldn't even get people to sit on the media committee I just in light of all the things that been talked about in terms of expenses coming I like the idea of a potential ear Mark and and and school roof is a wonderful because it you know ultimately this is money that was supposed to go towards in some way shape or form school the only reason I say that Frank is the 900,000 are so it's it's going to become ducks for the duck pond or something yeah yeah no I I I you I think it's an easier it's easy to explain and say this was originally intended for the school system but we never formed a 501c3 we do no it was not intended for the school system well intended for that was the ultimate intention the that some the peg would somehow be related with the school right no yeah it's it's chapter 44 section 53 C drive but it's we have we have an internship with the school that was so the internship only the only associated with the school y yes I still like the ear Mark idea yeah and once that BEC our real expenses that are facing us today M by the time that's all said and done and that and the capital's moved and you can identify how much is moved and the subsequent town meeting if it's important that that that dollar amount be identified you can say okay we want to commit x to the roof we want so much for the playground we want so much for this and you would just see the same kind of presentation as you saw in the other article identifying all those and and then any funds coming in after that or our fund and we'll pay easy to understand Vanessa had a question well I I I hate to bring up the the town hall again but like in in you know if that is Revisited in the future um and you know in theory designs are pro I mean I know designs were proposed that you know took into account studio and and you know media rooms and that kind of thing um I mean how will this change be incorporated in that I know that's in the future and it's not even necessarily going to happen but um this would presumably and this is dissolved I mean that this would presumably be looked at again and what's this well like I'm I'm just saying the it how will that be addressed in terms of the um the funds will just be like looked at in the as the general it'll come in like a regular line in our general fund so are you asking if if if we decide we want a studio and build a studio yes well we would just have to appropriate it out of free cash okay the money will stay with the town right it's just a matter of how we and we as a board decide to spend it yes isn't what we're talking about is dissolving Peg and having it be no no just changing the fund changing the fund so from a special Revenue fund just to the it's an accounting P but everything would be run the same as we you the peg operation wouldn't change isn't this kind of a similar similar argument that like Dana brought up earlier just to change the name from town hall account to the municipality account well yes and no there's no legalities around changing the name of the town hall account but there's legalities around special Revenue funds they can only be used for certain things okay only because I was hearing more uh nobody wants to as far as the people that are sitting in here this evening that were not in favor of or liking what Dana was saying about changing the name but it's going to go on the warrant now what's going to go on the warrant change the name from the um Town Hall account to the municipal account no we're talking about but the similarities are quite no there's no there's no law Mass General law around the town hall account there is Mass General law around special Revenue accounts so town again town meeting voted this way back in 2015 in order to change it we have to give town meeting the opportunity to change it to become a Municipal line item the changing the intended purpose of what town meeting wanted to put money aside for a new town hall or municipal offices that still needs to be discussed by us and I'm going to add it to another agenda and we'll have that conversation but that's not going to go on this one we still have to have that discussion by the board because I just find it that uh most people that are going to be sitting at town meeting are going to look at it just the way I I well then we have to be clear and the rationale very what it is Jeff do you have another question I no I was just going to kind of say at least I think what Dana was talking about and I kind of could understand was going to stay on the capital side the when you were talking about the town hall was going to say this going right in cash so yeah that's a little different there too Frank did you have another question no Vanessa did you get your question answered yeah okay Richard do you have any question I'm good you're good Dana um the current agreement expires in 2028 is did I hear that so and and and this will not affect that agreement we're going to continue until we negotiate a new agreement you don't know what the user the uh the the the revenues coming from Comcast are going to continue till 2028 correct 2029 what whatever whenever the agreement expires and and whether we renegotiate or not you you know which is which is helpful because as we said in one of these articles we we we need $85,000 to run our stuff that that we have here so um the money if if if the money if we change the fund so it talks about further Appropriations in in oversight and so on and so forth are we going to track that particular amount of money and where it goes in the future or or will it just get mixed up and we don't so you can always see the revenue side all the checks that come into the town everything's goes into certain buckets and it's all accounted for and the expenditures are all appropriated at town meeting um and at any point in time you can see the expenses it's all on clear Gove um available for viewing yeah and to to answer the question about the studio in the town hall we we didn't have the physical space for it I was on the municipal building committee and had a lot to do with it and you know I wanted it you know I think it would great to to have that for the entire Community to be able to access and utilize and they can still come in and utilize Channel 9 right we still have that capability of doing that but we didn't have the physical space to put the studio in the new town hall and I'm just thinking in the future that probably won't happen either I don't know if that's a good answer or not but it's an answer any other questions no say B you good I do have to say I am going to say what I don't think and and I'm going to get roasted there's so many towns that don't own their own town hall all right article yeah I think that this just makes sense to looking at everything we have coming being more creative with what Revenue sources we do have this is a Revenue source that and can rather than having money sitting aside for the idea of a TV St of station of a studio that is probably not it's an Antiquated way of looking at how TV is produced there's no public outcry for right there's no there's just no public outcry I wish there was just isn't so we should so anyways article 22 so the last article was brought to us by the Animal control officer we are now part of a regional um initiative and this was a way of making the the bylaw consistent among all her communities it does not include a leash law just so everyone's clear um there's no leash law in this um but that's so that was what that was that's it's actually saving money isn't it hope so well nobody I mean some of these fees and who's going to write the rationale for that we will okay yeah the find we do all of them okay y c can I ask one question sure um why do I have to be at okay let's say my dog is arrested and it's it's in jail over in ipswitch do I personally have to go pick it up yeah yeah get it they're not going to deliver it to you not going no no no no no no but why can't I have a a represent like someone besides me go get it oh you can't yeah Chief yeah you can you just have to present well section c is what I'm reading and thank you Chief sure will you just read section c for me or can I have a cop I can I can read it to you perfect it says the owner or keeper May obtain the release of an impounded dog as follows providing proof of town res valid dog registration providing proof of valid rabies vaccination providing a photo ID providing full payment of all shelter fees and fines if any before the dog is released it sounds like me the dog owner has to be the one to pick it up so similar to when your car gets towed the owner of the car has to go to the tow yard to pick up to prove that they are the owner that the car is in fact lawfully registered and insured you know you you have to be the one to go this bylaw it would require that you the dog owner that makes sense so someone can't go and steal my dog correct but but one thing that I do want to make clear is if you have a disability if for some reason you aren't able to physically go to IP switch to get the dog of course we're going to work with people to make sure you get your dogs back the other thing is prior to the regional program if there's any concern and not that you raised this but I just want to put this out here while I have the mic is we were using various holding facilities we did not have our own facility so it's prior to regionalization you may have had to have gone to IP switch anyway to pick your dog up so I just I want the people at home to know that but yes we will work with you but we need this so that if you refuse to come pick your dog up or make arrangements under the bylaw we we have teeth intended got it got it thank you yep you still have the German Shepherd no we never had oh that one yes yes you do yeah it's still in seven days I thought you me I'm like I don't have a ger yes really y Yeti Yeti is what we yeah any questions on the dog he's not released yet right was that any questions on the dog is there any Financial impact on this and in a substantive way I don't like okay so fcom probably doesn't need to weigh in on this article way or another before I we go to vote I just want to make um make everybody I had asked you all to look at this thing here with the school because the school budget's getting big and bigger and bigger um if you look look at at this article the the red line This people the red line in front of you that's chapter 78 that's what we get from the state it's been flat Triton has gotten flat since fiscal year 2002 and if you look at uh the blue line that's the operating budget that's how much it costs to operate the school that's up over $52 million this year the green line is local assessments so if you look in 2002 you can see the operating budget was I don't know about maybe $27 million where local assessments were 15 15 million 16 fast forward to fiscal year 25 which is this this year you're looking at the local assessments now over $40 million Shifting the cost has been shifted away from from the Commonwealth onto the M municipalities and I think people need to understand that this is unsustainable it is something that needs to be addressed at the state level um I think that you're going to see the cost of the school budget escalate we had what was it a million dollars this year we had a million dollar just under a million dollar increase 700 something, 799 yeah almost $800,000 increase we can't our operating budget cuz we're limited to prop 2 and a half we can't absorb that year-over-year so I just want everybody to be aware of this I know the school district's aware of it I know the school committees aware of it but I want everybody to know because three small communities at $20 million roughly $20 million a year budgets cannot pay for a $52 million School District eventually we won't have schools and we won't have towns but I also think on the other end and you know this cuz we all support the schools but that classic Model of four different campuses like four factories and like the snake oil guy that came and sold us how well Regional School was going to work and how much the state was going to give us it's just it you know so no one's at f it's just a fact of life no and and the student Opportunity Act was supposed to address this but they know they being the Commonwealth the legislature knows that rural schools like ours this isn't unique to Triton it's not unique to Newbury happens on the cape happens out in the western part of the state I sit uh on the fiscal policy committee I bring it up every month that we meet because the legislature has to do something about this um when they pass the student Opportunity Act Senator Lewis of Winchester put a slide in his pres presentation um that he called it specifically the Triton effect because he used our school district as the model so they know there's a problem and we just have to get louder and screaming louder so that the legislature will shift this Chapter 70 local Aid that needs to grow up especially with the passage of this um millionaires tax where the money was supposed to go to public education most of that money was supposed to go to public education I don't believe we've seen any of that so that's I'm off my show box now if I may yes um as someone who sat in I have sat with as a member of the fincom and District Communications committee for better part of two years I sat with representatives from Newberry rowy and Salsbury and Brian and Brian forgett and Kyle who's now moved on but we sat and tried to come up with an alternative funding formula for the regional agreement I sat with that with you it is no matter what we could do we couldn't come up because in order to change that Regional agreement it has to be voted on by all three towns it has to pass all three towns to change the regional agreement and when we try to figure out how to reallocate from the state formula to our own different funding formula we couldn't find one that would come up and be palatable to all three communities we were knew that we were never going to get it because it's always shifting because it's a two-step it's the state tells us what our minimum loal contribution is everything above that is split based on the proportion of students and it was ours and I have so many spreadsheets and so many charts and ways and running like 5year rolling average 10 year rolling average threeyear rolling average how can we make it so that we don't see this type of uh increase like we saw this year our our education portion of our budget is up 7% this year that is that is a lot and I know that it took a lot of cuts on the education at the Triton budget to get to that to to so that we are only seeing a 7% increase it could have been much higher and it's a really hard thing when you're talking about that so it's believe me for not for lack of the three towns working together to try to solve it the the lack of increasing State funds is really one of the big drivers is that we just don't get any more money from the biggest driver it's you also the cost of Education cost of Education going up everything because everything yeah everything limited to prop two and a half and right so it's we can't what I mean for for school to run there for you know for the teachers to be for the school schools to operate their budget's going up it's going up that's the way yeah for level Services it's significantly more expensive so it's so I I just need to make I wanted everybody to be aware of that because that's that's looming and and in the words of Senator Tar this is a train for coming right at us it's down a track and it's not only us so okay um on that note I guess I'm going to entertain a motion to vote the warrant as we went over it tonight is there a motion um so better not motion to vote the warrant is read there second second great any further discussion all in favor anyos are we doing the individual articles or just the entire warrant as we went through all the Articles it's the whole warrant okay all in favor thoughts that I don't like either but you know it's passing it on for the town to yeah the town the town will speak any opposed unanimous okay fincom we will yes we at a late one of our later meetings we will undertake when we have our full body um or at least more than four of us we will go through again each of these and as we typically do we will wrote We Will We Will vote to recommend or not recommend each of the ones with a financial implication we will also be working um to create the financial Appropriations booklet which will detail the rationals Behind These and if we have a recommend not recommend on any one of the articles that will also be in that booklet that will be one of our regular meetings coming up okay town meeting this year is April 30th it's going to be at Triton is sh it's not at NES you get enough clickers we got a th clickers Alicia I'd like to thank the finance committee for always their their cooperation and all the work you do thank you for joining us tonight and if there's no further yeah as I say do you any other questions for the finance committee anything that you want us I would entertain a motion to adjourn our meeting to adj second all those in favor hi thank you thank you can we take bathroom bre yes all right let's all right so Greg why are you still here transfer of the business license for uh oh the business license okay so that's Stu we did didn't get you out of here but thanks for trying did the lior license I just did the liquor licenses I didn't do the other ones I'm sorry thank you thanks Frank thanks Vanessa bye guys thank you bye Richard thank you thank you okay when he comes back um we'll take we'll take the business licenses take those first yeah we have to do the sunset CL we still have to do that too don't let me forget to go back to that [Applause] [Music] just until some [Music] manager a manager yeah my God I forget his last name so I'm going have there's two of our okay so I will entertain a motion we're going to just I'm going to jump around the agenda here try to get people um so the RP Tide Cafe and bar at 23 Plum Island Boulevard common biger I'll entertain a Lo a motion to approve that motion to approve is there a second second any discussion you guys are here you want to talk about your business yeah said yes so we're taking over The Plum Island beach coma we are changing the name yeah so say what you what the name of it is and everything the address because you're on TV oh it's going to be um Rip Tide Cafe and Bar 23 Plum Island Boulevard formerly known as formerly known as Plum Island beach coma okay and um operations will basically be the same you know we keep up a lot of the same activities and yeah congratulations thank you we're very excited to get in there good luck thank you so much thank you you're welcome all right any discussion all in favor hi hi hi [Music] okay so much who else is here Wai Cafe yes uh sunset okay let's do that next Greg thanks for the past on his to for Keep app thank you very much yes abely did these two did this one we're gonna do this one I'll just sit back you guys do you and then I'll answer any questions they havea yeah hand okay so this is Emily contrada the Sunset Club request of extension of entertainment license for one day June 29th 2024 can I entertain I'll entertain a motion oh motion yep so move second sorry Motion in a second so tell us why you here oh hey everyone I'm Christian Pang my fiance Emily that's Jennifer from the Sunset Club and that's my mom Jane um uh grew up on FL Island my mom is still there U Emily and I got engaged at the end of 2022 and um after seven years add congratulations I don't think this is a family I think you got to get used to that yeah I know uh anyway but uh um uh 2022 we uh wanted to stay local and so we're getting married at the Sunset Club on Plum Island um we um selected the Sunset Club in April 23 uh we understand that subsequent to us signing up to the Sunset Club there was a change in terms of um uh some of the regulations around live music at the Sunset Club that reduced the time frame for which live music is permitted uh we in front of you guys uh the committee to see if we could make a onetime exception and get grandfathered in given that we had selected the sons of club before this change um we will be having a live band um we've gone through and talked to the band and make sure that they're doing everything to minimize some of the noise uh they're not having a m you know a ton of speakers they've minimized the speakers and the types of speakers uh and recognize certainly the the the noise challenges for neighbors but again hoping for a one-time exception this being also around the 4th of July uh sort of hoping that you know with all the other activity that be going on at the island this hopefully won't be such a big ordeal but again coming in front of you to ask for some lenience and see if we could extend uh the the approved uh time for which we'd have our band outside at the Sunset Club till uh 900 p.m. 9 p.m. I thought it was 10 on on the request oh well 10 10 p.m. then strike the night exception so you have you are having a wedding on the 29th that's right June June 29th and currently the way that our uh bylaw read They're allowed to have live music until 700 p.m. and you're asking for um dispensation to play live live music until 10 p.m. 10 p.m. okay am I correct about that it does say 10 p.m. doesn't it yeah I probably misspoke uh so do you have the club here so come up come up um do you know what contract what you contracted them for so is their wedding reception mm um I believe they're getting married on the beach actually on Plum Island and then reception will be at Sunset Club um last year we did this same meeting for another couple uh I believe you guys gave them an extension until 9:00 um you know I believe we could do live music inside with the doors closed and you know but that's not really why people book their receptions at Sunset Club um they have the entire space it's a private event we'll be closed to the public um last year we kind of learned you know with the live music it works better if we have them placed up against the wall everything facing out towards the marsh um it definitely helps create sound I believe there was a big upset last year with our Memorial Day party um there was a ree band it was in the afternoon they were very very loud I will admit I was there it was very loud um so that kind of created a little discourse with some neighbors um but I I think that Sunset Club has taken steps to alleviate that um we certainly didn't really have any problems after that I didn't hear of any problems uh after we did the wedding last August um Outdoors at one point I believe because it was 9:00 their band ended and a DJ came inside they went across the street to the P hall what's that their Afterparty was at the P Hall at 10:00 yes they all went to P hall and they had a DJ there as well um and that was louder than I would say almost or as loud as the band was at you know we have a heavyduty tent on top of them we Face them out I mean at p a it's kind of like the wild west of Plum Island um I think in general too with the Plum Island Grill being closed this year um there's just going to be less music in General on Plum Island which I don't really think anybody wants um I receive all emails for Sunset Club people ask about live music on a daily basis um in order to you know please everybody we really don't do a lot of live music we do live music to raise money for different 501 c3s we do live music but really it's just once a year we're asking for a couple to be able to have their vision of their wedding with the live music outside dancing Under The Lights Under the Stars you know if in the course of rain and we have to move it inside we we can accommodate that but we don't have a ton of indoor space um we'd rather use that space for aunts and uncles that want to be inside for guests who want to sit down so that's why we're you know it's once it's once a year we do have more weddings lined up um a lot of wedding guests just want to do a Spotify playlist or they just have you know one guy at a DJ and that's their vision and that's great you know yeah I guess if I just might add to I think it's important just a set of circumstances that again we booked this in April 2023 so I think the Crux of what we're asking for is sort of to be grandfathered in if you will uh to kind of their their prior um it was never changed there was never you know but this is by your design you guys designed 7 o' so that in the rare occasion there was an extension that wanted to be asked for we had to come here to ask so by Design their plan is working and we're here asking it's it's one Saturday night in June um how many guests are you expecting um it says 100 on here yeah we've invited 100 but uh knowing how weddings are probably end up being 75 or so Alicia yeah CH if we've done 9:00 before then it's not going to be an issue to do 9:00 right so the change that you're asking us is till 10 look um and Mom but my next question to you is does that hour make a difference and if it does then we'll head down that road I mean I guess as a maybe I'm not the most astute negotiator but I'd certainly love to hear cure the committee find on the 10:00 uh what time do your event start what time are you getting married uh we're getting married at Town Hall we actually still need to book it um uh but it's six o'clock is the reception the reception begins at six o'clock that's right yeah the event it says he five five on the on the request five to 10 I'm sure by the time I'll yeah arve you know there's a cocktail hour open that day and typically you open at noon time correct and the license the entertainment license you have right now is good till 7 p.m. correct so basically cocktail hour would end and then that's when live music would end and really it's just not effective for you know or you know a band we'd love to be like oh you know we've even discussed um you know they can start outside and then come inside but logist it's not easy for a wedding band to set up and then break down move themselves 40 feet are you going to are you going uh the previous one I think you were talking about a a altern a tent a rain tent in the parking lot are you doing are you doing that for this one no there's none of so that you don't have any alternate that wedding was like 60 people were I'm just curious no no there's nothing there's no alterations to the property whatsoever see what's hard for us is I don't think anyone has a problem we'd love to go right along you know at 9:00 has been done before and the only thing that's hard for us is those people going to say why don't you give us till 10:00 you know that's the hard issue for us well they're already happily married married and are we in they're in wed Bliss they we in discussion yeah um but Jeff that was the the first one and it was also based on um how is it going to go and lesie lesie lesie went to the wedding I I'm not I don't mind going to gous all yeah but I mean lesie went to the wedding and it was very positive there feedback correct supposed to have a tent but had to call it at the last minute so you um you know Plum Island tent rules they won't put up the size tent that you want out there it's it be if you were at that wedding then I'm sure you saw you know at this point Sunset Club we've just accumulated our own tent Village that we own um because you can't put them up over the pylons you can't put them out of the S you have to have THB barrels to hold down there's so the professional tent company isn't really a thing anymore at Sunset Club it's we kind of designed our own way to do it you made it a point about the description of amplification used and you say the band does not use amps stage monitors and can control the sound using a mixing board yeah how is that different from the wedding that happened before last year I'm not sure yeah I think it is the same they also had a professional wedding band with their own there discuss about whether they use your amplifiers or there we don't have amplifiers we have a we have a tablet with Spotify on it and four speakers outside as does not own any of there's really no difference in amplification nothing no no no it's fine and they have a sound man who can you know control that and also as for last summer you know um I mean I have a drawer full of I readers in my office at Sunset Club how many how many what how many pieces you have in your yeah there are five a five piece band I believe the last one was bigger than that and it's not big jazz band with like sax FS or anything it's just a standard all right well Leslie when you were there last time you said that you drove to 14th and 16 streets and sat and listened for about 15 minutes then you drove over to 220 point when you received a letter from Mr James it was quiet there too yes um and he spoke to him on Sunday and he told you there's only a faint Sound of Music it not offensive correct and the music shut down at 900 p.m. based on Leslie's Leslie's report here I I don't have an issue allowing the band to go into they couldn't hear a sound anyway where she was um so I'll entertain a motion to allow this B to go until 10 o' I make a motion to allow the B to go 10 o' second any further discussion Dan no I'll make a motion to approve the application for the extension of the entertainment yeah that's what he just me we can do that second till 10 as written okay any further discussion any comments Jeff lesl okay if I stop in you're more than welcome to stop in you're welcome yes I'm so glad you were there it was such a beautiful event it was beautiful I'm fine Dana I'm good all right all in fav hi great thank you so much really appreciate it thank you thank you we hope to see you all sunet Club when we open thanks for no thank you congratulations thanks again thank [Music] you thank you okay so next on our agenda we have anybody else here did we accept the police department yeah we did okay um we need to approve uh one-day liquor licenses for ifp switch Ale Brewery for Essex County baseball I'm just going to read the dates off and anybody has a com comment put a hold on it uh June 2nd this is all in 2024 June 2nd June 9th June 16th June 22nd June 30th July 14th July 21st July 28th uh August 4th August 10th August 18th September 8th September 15th September 22nd September 29th and and September I mean October 6th do I have a motion motion to approve second okay any discussion all in favor I unanimous uh I'll entertain um a motion to approve Michael Morris's business license 2024 business license doing business as schnella BMW performance at 26 Middle Road Unit 1 General business Automotive this is subject to the restrictions and conditions of the special permit issued on 226 1986 and the variance issued on November 17th 1994 by the newb zoning board for the property at 24 Middle Road I'll make a motion to approve the license as written uh second okay any discussion all in favor I entertain a motion to approve David Williamson DBA Plumb Island Enterprises at 3 Northern Boulevard uh as a parking lot motion to approve second all in favor I I Molly janicki DBA Co Molly jik 191 High Road General business Horticultural service motion to approve second all in favor appointment of Drew Davidson at 5 7 Southern Boulevard as an election worker his term is to go from March 2nd 2020 I mean March 12th 2024 till December 31st 2024 motion to app Point all in [Music] favor I also like to entain a motion to approve Emanuel Terrero a full-time police officer for the police department motion to approve second any discussion I just want to say I really I appreciate the letter and the and you know what you have done um I I just I just uh I don't know I read a couple of things in your letter that just sold me on it and it was well written well put together I appreciate that I just want to make sure you know that they're lawful to be a police officer and that we did our due diligence so I already feel safer okay all in favor thank you I appreciate that thank you Patty okay nothing under old business Town administrator's report very briefly um I just we were notified by mass doot that the Plum Island drawbridge is currently unavailable to open for marine vessels wow uh and will remain so through August 5th wow um allowing for them to make structural repairs um also they they felt that um since there has been no request to open the bridge from January 2023 to the present they don't expect that it will be a significant impact um they also said the plum Plum Island river is unnavigable right now due to shing it is it is a low tide this year yeah um and just I I mentioned it earlier but firing and Library collective bargaining agreement discussions are still ongoing that's it okay thank you uh correspondence bless you um we have the Triton budget came through um I believe they're voting their final budget tomorrow tomorrow night uh we have some new library hours Alicia if I may I I brought a is that the one I is this I I brought this with me um is it is this it's dated February 28 2024 so is this correct in being the final number there's updated num I can get there's a there's a there's a there's another updated one this is not current correct that that was my only question can can I get a copy of that afterwards or whatever it's all on their website too oh okay you know I can get it there and then tomorrow night they're going to vote their budget correct it still hasn't been voting right so it may change again until tomorrow night who knows right um the library hours are changing hi um sending uh okay the new Library operating hours are Monday closed Tuesday 9 to 6 Wednesday 9 to 7 Thursday 9- 6 Friday 9 to 5 Saturday 10 to 2 still closed on Saturdays Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day weekend for the summer and Sundays they're closed they current hours if anybody wants to know what the difference is currently they were closed on Monday on Tuesdays they were open from 9: to 5: they're now opening from 9 to 6 on Wednesdays they were open from 10: to 7:00 they're going to open at 11: 11 to 7:00 so Wednesday mornings are opening an hour later on Thursdays they're going to be open from uh 9:00 to 5: on Thursday they used to be open 9:00 to 600 they'll be closing at 5: Fridays they're going to be open from 9:00 to 5 and Saturdays 10 to 2 that's still that's still the same um so the library this will now be open a total of 39 hours a week except in the summer when it'll be 35 um any meeting updates I have a meeting update go I went to the first uh meeting with u new report on the W Regional um plan to relook at the uh the agreement the video agreement um based on what Erica just said about trying to get consensus of how to work these numbers out for three communities seems like it's very formidable task to do the same thing for 11 communities for weia so um we did get a copy of what new report put together what they would like to see changed in that agreement um we asked Lisa to take a look at it after she's done we'll pass it out to everyone on the select board we have it electronically and then I think we have an expectation to get in put at the at our next meeting so I'll add it to our next meeting agenda to review that hopefully we'll have it back by Town Council any other meeting updat yes now that I think about it I did go to um an XX veterans meeting just before I went on vacation uh we did finalize the budget I've passed those numbers along to Tracy already and uh it's just it's under $8,000 less than it was last year went down it did why so because we have a new a new vsso yeah but Prim I I just I Prim I would say it's primarily salary related but I think that's good news something's going down all right can I ask is that staff the same are they staff the same we've increased the staff it's it's staffed it's he has a full-time assistant now and the secretary they they both uh the it's the the town hall is open 35 hours a week and that is what Steve's contract says along with his assistant as a as a minimum and I think we're all going to understand that he puts in hundreds of hours was above and beyond what is required of him and he's going to continue to do that so just an observation they they have very little participation of veterans that come here once a month on Thursdays I don't know what kind of drum we can beat I can beat that drum to make people come I mean he has he's been really busy no no he's he's here he's here veterans looking for help W show up here that's that's my concern okay no he's he's he's here or or one of his or his assistant is here right yeah that's it okay Jeff did you have an update um this was kind of a little different just to get it out on the airwaves in case um anyone has any ideas but we have a semi anual it's probably every two months green crab meeting and we hold it nest and Bruce High goes biolabs goes black Earth compost goes the OA Farms go you know Peter and I and various environmental folks go and any people that might be able to find a use for Green Craft and what I'm saying tonight so that people could hear it if anyone has any ingenious ideas how we can use green crab in a commercial Endeavor so that we can find a way to help them be fished and used to lower the number in our restares CU they affect everything they're very great disturbances for shellfish sandworms and on and on and on so if anyone has any great ideas let me know there's you know chitan there's you know they've got dog food there's a million ideas none of them because of high solidity you know this that lack of how much Meats in the green crab cuz they're relatively small but if anyone comes up if someone took a trip to Italy or something and they're using Green Cabs over there let us know okay you can you can distill them I well but not enough to B someone's making booze out of New Hampshire the green crab green crab whiskey have you tasted it Dana no I haven't tast it tastes like crafts Jeff Jeff I'll I'll tell you Jeff that there's a um A high-priced Fish seafood distributor in Boston called wolf Wolf's fish and they actually have that on you you can on their shopping list you can buy green crabs they have recipes to use you know how much volume they do is I'm I'm not sure I've never bought them but if you want to give me a ticket I'll go to Italy and research it where the where the problem comes very quickly and I do want to say Bruce Ty tends which you know he's been he's the one that set aside some of the monies that we have coming through the town to fish them and take them to the compost piles um if we could find when these guys moled they mol in places and they're so infrequent and no one understands the molting cycle like they do in blue crabs and other things you could eat them sofal CL crab oh wow but we can't pin down when why and how green because they're a smaller crab and they probably don't mold as much in the whole F us but that's that's one of the main problems can you get me a half dozen I'll see if my chickens lead them well we're going go claming this year anyway so we'll get we'll get some green crab all right all right uh I have my first meeting at Triton is scheduled for Friday morning at 11 o' it's a zoom meeting the facilities after we meet I'll bring it back to the board yeah ready updates I do okay Alicia yes I don't know if it's yeah we talked about you know certain things earlier so it would have been on the agenda but after listening to what we listened to and talking what we talked about this year trying to solve some of our budget needs should not be tailored to the end of next year like around budget season like it we should start in the spring yeah I agree I think I already had a conversation with Paul mayette on school school committee regarding this I think that in I mean people have said to us think they want to have an override but the way things are going there are some people that don't but the whole thing is it looks like there certainly could be especially with the uh Capital things that could be on the table and and this town need the plan this is the first time I've been on the board N9 years this is the first time we've ever had anybody write letters email us and ask us to support an override the problem is I don't think they think that the overrides could be as significant as they could be well they're thinking of a you know $300,000 override yeah no we can't absorb an $800,000 increase to the school budget every year it's just not sustainable which is you know factors out to be a $3 million increase yeah well I think I think the they had 100 people that signed the petition in the correspondence we got but 81 of them live in Newbery that's a lot of people and I mean if you could tap into that audience of 81 people get them to have an understanding of what the situation is and the budget cycle and how it all works you might well we certainly need those people if there is an override to to help us pass it you know well now that we're talking about this I I just wanted to the um the budget was on we discussed it's on our agenda we can talk yeah I I looking at the February 28th version um we that was only about $80,000 less than scenario one I I I kind of feel like like that nub and Rowley have kind of gotten kind of a bad rap about not wanting to support education and and that that kind of that hit home you know what I mean and you know when we had the select board meeting and we discussed our town budget and how much we thought we could afford and what we voiced our opinions about um that kind of took a whole new life of it own thinking that we don't support our students in our school district and it's it's it to in my own personal opinion it it's just the opposite and what I would want to say I totally appreciate all of those emails and what I want to say to those people is you've brought it to the Forefront and like what you guys were just discussing you know we we we need to get on this earlier in the season be cuz now we we really weren't prepared for this as a as a town and I'm not saying that we didn't do our homework well no and honestly it's the process okay it's not like we we were blindsided by this it's not I mean I think seven increase 7% increase was huge but it's it's an evolutionary process the budget starts with the governor's budget and we can't do anything until these things are found are come out right um the school the school committee needs to put to their role is to put an adequate budget together to educate the students of Triton and vote it so in my opinion they feel as if they put in it together an adequate budget they got to vote it vote it tomorrow um if it's not adequate and if next year if there is going to be some Cuts I understand that there might be some is Brian's calling it a re a resizing but it might not provide opportunities for everybody then they bring it back NE next year Well gy up we got to be ready for that I think Dana where the problem really exposed itself vividly is and I'm not putting words you know they they were solid words that the school budget will be increasing every year from now on in it could be very substantial increases if well if history you je you asked the question I heard you and and and it was answered yeah it's going to be a million or $2 million a year every single year and and like what Alicia said earlier that is unsustainable really hard to suain and and I highly recommend that people contact the legislators and and try and push this bandwagon forward too well I think we need to that's one of the first things we should do honestly is is pull together a group of parents um in school committee members and our legislators I think we need to sit in a room with Kristen CER and Bruce and and explain to them look because they have seen this before they know and start talking to your colleagues in the legislature and start pushing to get more state aid because that's the only maybe look and see if we do have any industrial land that could be really zoned you know I mean we don't have much water and sewer so getting back to the school committee with their budget you keep saying 7% but it's like over eight and a half isn't it but at the like our share at the most recent meeting the numbers that they were talking about is about a 7.1% increase for this year and Raleigh and Newbery wrote these letters because they are on the we're on the highest percentage as far as what our share is and then Raleigh and Salsbury what like First Time in a really long time that uh they're at the bottom and they don't want to give that up they're afraid that but we've always paid our fair share and we even had an educational override what was it we we've made a commitment so our our policy that we typically the process we typically follow we want to make make sure that we the select board has always said that they want to make sure that they commit at least 50% of the operating budget would go to fund education um so any new revenues that we bring in we try to use that 50/50 model so 50% of those new revenues will go to fund education the other 50% will go to fund the municipal operation many years for many years we've provided more than 50% but not not required we weren't required to go to an override at the the I don't know they called it scenario one um based on you know first pass it budget and what we were looking at we would have likely needed to override um we were able through a combination of things so there were many requests that weren't granted um there were some small Cuts made to some of the expense budgets and things like that there were no Personnel that were lost we did not eliminate any Personnel um or any programs um and we pushed out revenues I'm generally more conservative um this year I'm a little less comfortable with how far the revenues are pushed out it's still within you know best practices and good management and everything else but they're a little you know I don't want to see any Revenue deficits or anything like that so so we were able to reach that that last number that they were working with but it is still a 7.1% increase so that's but listening to the schools at the DCC meetings and being part of the job of being a representative I can also see exactly where they're coming from and it's almost firing a a Giant Cannon across our bow as those people was saying about an override um and especially depending on what whia does and what your group does with the capital side which would be a debt exclusion I don't think anyone's going to be not complaining about needing an override next year no I think there's some significant issues facing the town of newy next year I I have a thought um you know it's one thing to say you're not happy with this graph and the people at this table are not happy with it the people out there haven't even seen it I mean what if you had had 5,500 registered voters in newy sign a petition to say this is not Equitable it's not and the people from rowy to sign it and Salsbury to sign it and and overwhelm them with data from citizens that that that their tax money is being used like this I mean it's a louder voice I think it's a much louder voice than the people sitting here not that you don't have no power but well certainly other towns that are less able to pay get more money that argument only go it's voting blocks too but look where the money goes but that argument only goes so far for me because we're limited to prop two and a half so you can tell me I'm the wealthiest community in the world okay we can have you know Jeff Bezos live live here we're still limited to prop two and a half but you're that's where your overrides they expect you they expect they don't you know you don't need it as a matter of fact we're ranked 10th out of 68 in the state of Massachusetts as far as being wealthy goes just so you know well that's why we we we're more it's right here and I just you know see I'm going to vent a little bit here and I pulled the the newspaper article that the Daily News wrote about uh and and uh Mr uh curn from Sals uh you know this this is fake news not and and uh it really kind of upset me a little bit but I just want to read what I quote out of out of the paper that wrote on his behalf now all of a sudden Raleigh and Nu actually have to start paying their fair share they haven't paid for many years Co burn said continuing Colbert said Salsbury has attempted to work with other towns but with no avail and I just want to share you heard what Erica said tonight about the amount of hours that were spent trying to come up with an alternative assessment formula correct so this is this was a bunch of crap he he misspoke or whatever you want to say you know what happens you don't you hate to get down the paths cuz I've seen it cuz I guess I have been here a while um because then towns don't cooperate and we are a regional school and we do have Regional needs we have barrier beaches you know I mean we so there's a lot of things we have in common we have to get along we don't want to not of course we don't so why is he starting trouble that's my point that's a question for him cuz he's not running again to sel one all right that's good all right motion is motion review and approve uh meeting minutes okay so we have draft executive session meeting minutes um from oh it's for Leslie January 10th and January 11th ficia no keep the whole packet that'sa thank you is it the same thing but it's a packet inde do those get done at during ex session no these minutes we can approve in Open Session because we're going to release them too so so um we have um executive session meeting minutes from January 10th they're in front of you let's give them a quick read oide Gallivan thing somewhere I don't miss much were you on you were sick you were homesick sick oh you were sick you were sick yeah I get I get sick everybody done with the first January 10th minutes yep so I'll entertain a motion to approve these minutes motion to approve the minutes on January 10th 20124 second okay any discussion all in favor I I I'll entertain a motion to release these minutes motion to release second any discussion actually I need a roll call vote no you don't we're not in an exec session okay all in favor hi all okay those are the January 10th minutes now we have January 11th minutes looks a good better [Music] okay do we I'll entertain a motion to approve the draft minutes of the January 11th executive session motion to approve the draft minutes of the executive session dated January 11 2024 second okay any discussion all in favor I okay I'll entertain a motion to release the executive session minutes of January 11th motion to release second any discussion all in favor I okay now we also have meeting minutes from draft meeting minutes from September 27th um and Tracy you don't need these back because they've been released correct we can just hang to release them yeah um these are minutes from said these were included in your packet um I want to a motion to approve I'd make a motion to approve the minutes dated February 27 2024 with the correction of something on page two all right so let you entertain a motion um is there a second second have a motion second second it um okay discussion where do you see it in edit um in the first line that says discussion on page two yeah it's taught lot not top yeah top lot yeah okay any other edit [Music] all right I'll detain a motion to approve these minutes these amended meeting minutes motion to approve these amended minute meeting meeting minutes is there a second second okay all in favor I I approved as amended okay I'll entertain a motion to sign Warren motion to sign Warren second all in favor okay um we need to move into executive session so sign those and pass it do you have a field that I can read for executive session I do not is this it sure is this it no I don't think that's it so hang on second you know what isn't it on the um that you just approved the executive session submit um save police instead of fire on you just [Music] approve the language on have the language right here okay so I'll entertain a motion to go into executive session um pursuant to open meeting Law chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the public body and the shair chair so declares and this is the police police Union is there a second second roll call vote Jeff Walker Jeff Walker yes Leslie Matthews yes Will William Deo yes danana Packer yes Lu Greco yes we will not be reconvening um at the conclusion of executive session