this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers we will call the meeting to order hang up folks July 23rd the South ampton select board calling it to order at 6:00 will stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance please I pled allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all very good thank you okay all right just a couple of quick announcements and then we'll open it up here a little bit more um so two or three things I think most people have noticed uh I saw a few comments back and forth that the um cemetery fence has been repaired so a big shout out to the historical commission uh sorry not the historical commission I take that back we they can have a shout out too but it's really the cemetery commission uh the cemetery commission who uh managed to get um all the uh players in in uh in order to get that done so that's looking a whole lot better it's been kind of in a sad shape for more than a couple years now or about two years since the uh big tree fell down on it so thanks to Robert and the cemetery commission Judith and David uh for getting that taking care of it really makes a difference as you pass through by the cemetery and then two big shoutouts uh if I get this right I hope um so our girls 10 and under Allstar softball team are the state champions and they are going to the Northeast regionals in New York very soon uh in about a week or so so congratulations to them and not to be outdone the boys ten and under baseball uh play second at the mini Fenway Series so we got a lot of a lot of sportifs here in town that are 10 years and under so um congratulations to everybody and thanks to all the hard work of the coaches and everybody parents that have been involved in doing that so that's really nice to see so with that uh we have time for Citizens speak or open time for the public as it was previously known is anybody here for that that is not on the agenda if so uh feel free to stand up at the mic and uh introduce yourself and where you just your what street you live on and then uh tell us what you're what you're here for good good evening everybody my name is Aaron Bower I live at 266 County Road Southampton on the Hampton Pond side of town I just wanted to bring your attention up to something that I started last year and I would like to move forward with trying to figure out uh some issues and I'm looking for help now um so last year I wrote a letter and I had some neighbors sign it um if you recall at 264 County Road which is a house next to me to my right is if you're actually facing the property um closer to frier Road and I know I understand that there's no bylaw for lawn mowing and Property Maintenance in town I I looked it up there is nothing at this time other towns do have it around the area um and I'm I'm looking for direction and what I mean by that is is I have last year's photos here with me that I brought I did talk to the health department last year and I talked to um I forget the gentleman who was sitting over here I believe he retired Ed Gibson y yes former Town Administrator yes former Town Administrator and he said to write a letter to the health department time has gotten away from me that's on me but here we are again and I have more pictures and it's when you I've been at my property for 14 years put in a driveway put in a brick patio made it nice all the neighbors are really you know they've seen what I've done over the years I've been growing up there my kids have been growing up there I I I want the neighborhood to look good and this one house is the only one the gentleman on the corner of frier Road since he bought it three or four years ago I've went over talked to him got his signature if you recall I talked to the C fers um Elaine who used to uh work here for the town um I'm not only a concerned citizen but at what point do we say hey look you're on a main road your neighbors are not happy mhm would you like to see the updated pictures from today I've never seen the first one so I'll glad to show you on the board but so we'll give you a couple more minutes so this is you're basically concerned about the tall because it's also bringing in animals is that the issue if I it's not just the animals it's the ticks the mosquitoes it's it's bad and you've had a chance and it's growing it's actually coming into my property and you've had a chance to talk to this neighbor or the the father and the so the wife and the husband left their son in the property they moved down to Ho yoke into a mother-in-law's house on the corner of I believe it's 202 and that would be um Main Street in holy o right across in the brand new People's United Bank um here's the pictures from last year around it's the same so you have or have not spoken to the parents I talked to the parents and they pretty much told me the father directed me and said his name is Eric seon he does not actually own the property his wife owns 264 County Road and he said I will not do anything until I'm directed to so that to me basically means until yeah he has a letter from either the health department or there's a bylaw in place yeah or something in place okay so have you actually approached the health department you have you said I did approach her last year yes they should be having a Board of Health meeting coming up fairly soon I would think that if you if you approached them last year did you get a response of any kind from them at the time that the health department yeah you said did not get a written response I actually came to the office and I I spoke to her and um she pretty much just didn't really give me a straightforward answer kind of like they didn't want to deal with the issue I think the my suggestion would be to not you know belor it would be it really does start there I think with the Board of Health and my my understanding unless anybody else has any thoughts um we can check and see when the next Board of Health meeting is and um have you actually go and meet the committee the whole board of Health that's fine so that would be I I need to do something because at this point you know we have a lot of things going on in town we're buying property we're building on our police department and fire department which is going to be great we're spending money so what does it mean means taxes are going to go up I have no problem with that I voted yes on it but here if you look this person's property next door this is the house in question I might have to get a little bit closer I took it on my IP my iPad but but the lawn is this tall M and it's it's right on County Road MH so people walk their dogs the sidewalks right there mhm and you see my house right there that is the brush from his property growing on to mine M MH and it's that's the backyard now you tell me is that a backyard with the chef you see see s there I don't know so it's this is what my kids look at out their Windows y yeah so I think at this point in time I mean without you know going into great discussion um there is no bylaw in town and I know from the bylaw advisory committee this would not only take time to develop a bylaw and then a pass town meeting so this is a protracted no I understand that so your your your easier um path forward would be to attend um a meeting of the the Board of Health and I just looked it up there is a meeting coming up but it is not yet posted and I'm sorry I don't have a memory of when it is so there should be one but we can we can there is definitely one scheduled I'm sorry I don't recall ex why don't you leave um leave your email or contact information and abs we'll let you know when the Board of Health meeting is and then you could I'm not asking we don't need any more laws or bills but my point is is that there's no pride in anything the father drives up grabs the mail leaves I get it you guys don't want to live your with your son I've ask the son to M Lawn no response mute barely see the person somebody actually lives in that property okay you can see the trash which this would be more of the health department which I brought up last year yeah next to the driveway it's piled up in their mud room yeah okay and you could see it from the street well this definitely would be more of a a Board of Health issue to start with and then we can see where that goes I'm going to keep keep working on this because to the point where it's the neighbor still stay you know they still ask me when you know are you just going to mow the lawn for them that's what they basically say okay I just I just need help M and I I need help from the right people okay well let us commit to at least giving you information as to when the Board of Health meeting is you want to write your email address here and I can I can is it schedu on the uh on the website it'll be on the My Town it will be it's not at this moment schedule it will be on the town I can give you my email not publicly why don't you just write it down here write it down and um okay I will email you um the answer I'll look it up in the minutes which I don't have in front of me if you just want to write it right there awesome all right good okay right we have a thank you a um we have a public hearing this evening which is scheduled to begin right now so I'd like to call the public hearing to order just want to make sure I have this at 610 a j b b c n oh AJ b c n I'd like to have you kind of lead us off in terms of that thank you very much for coming um to lead us into that uh this is the um act on a requested change of category from a wine and malt off- premises license to an all alcohol off- premises license um um do you need do you need a vote to open the public meeting uh I think we do probably need a vote to open the public meeting okay motion to open yes second all right we mail that all those in favor I I all right we are open thank you very much um yeah and we do have um yeah go ahead I'll let you um have a little bit of technical difficulties go and lead us through what whatever we need to do here scottt please so this this process actually started back in 2022 this was for an additional all alcohol license um mic is a little bit out way oh sorry sorry um additional all alcohol license um for the town of Southampton because we've reached our limit of of two so this would add the third um Pure Foods had previously been approved for a a beer and wine um license uh so then now they they went forward with town meeting approval with um the all alcohol uh select board approval and then it went to the legislature back in in 2022 uh for approval um recently uh Vicki had contacted me about what the status is so I researched it um we didn't see any final approval so we started going through the approval process uh letting all the abuts know posting it in the newspaper um doing the quy search and and all the make sure all the taxes are paid and and the process and then Judy had found um in the last sentence of the enabling legislation that there was a one-year um limit on approval uh so after we found that I reached out to representative uh pieces office um he's been working really hard with Senator vus just to get everything squared away um we've been talking pretty much every day for a couple weeks uh so right now we we had a a teams meeting today with the governor's Council um the quickest and easiest way to get the legislative approval would be for the governor submit emergency legislation for them to amend the previous legislation um adding the years um cuz what what had been approved had has expired I we we were not notified at least at this level we weren't notified that it had even been approved and it made through the abbc yet but okay right um so the governor is um well the governor's council is asking uh for really two things um the first motion will this be a support of the select board uh to the governor's office um that you support um moving forward with this and the third would the second would be an explanation um how this could probably be detrimental to the business if it wasn't approved on an emergency basis um the second motion would be approving the actual license itself pending legislative and Governor's approval hopefully the abcc will take that and we don't have to restart the process all over again right um right CU this had already been through town meeting it had it had done through everything way back when and something fell through the cracks very very seriously yeah was that was that one line at the end was that just something that we overlooked that we won't have in our future write ups about this or um how do we avoid this in the future is my question I don't know that we'll have another I mean we're we're limited to the number of licenses in town but yeah I me who knows but yeah but yeah I mean yeah something was seriously I mean overlooked I mean in in you know wherever it landed I don't know um at this point in time but you know whatever time frame had been has expired as my understanding so we need to do what whatever we can to I'll make a motion to in complying with the wishes of the Town residents as stated at the annual town meeting when they unanimously voted to support this that the select board issue a communication to the governor's Council and the governor urging their immediate action and support of this second okay all those in favor I okay and then there's two uh other me do you want the specific motion language that you gave yeah I would I was just um adopting the language um pending legislative and gubernatorial approval okay but the motion to require to ask that the governor file for an extension is that yes also so first motion and then we'll go to Vicki okay so first another motion then to follow that so moved hang on motion requesting I want to read it into the record motion requesting Governor Healey fil for an extension on the legislation from The Acts of 202 2022 chapter 199 granting an additional license for the sale of all alcoholic beverages so motion second PA in favor I okay and then I think we've basically done the the one that John just put forward to um approve the license pending approval of the Massachusetts legislature and Governor but if we would like to hear from the Pure Food I can't see any is she on there okay there we go perfect okay there she is yeah so hello Vicky yeah Vicky and yeah and my brother Josh Vicki and John okay very good yeah so go ahead Scott maybe you've already had discussions with them so um um Vicki if you could U maybe just talk about how this would detrimentally affect the uh the business if it wasn't approved um well first of all like we we wouldn't necessarily know the impact because we haven't had the opportunity to actually sell these items um I know that customers do come in and when they do ask for them we have to tell them we don't sell them they do leave the store without purchasing anything else so we do see Revenue leaving the store um we do sell um for instance Bloody Mary mix but we have no alcohol to go with it so we lose those sales uh right now we know that you're ready to drink cocktails are very popular those are your surf sides your high noons we are unable to sell any of those um who knows in another year if they'll be popular or not but people are coming in for that so you're losing we're actually seeing the beer sales go down because people are coming in for those other drinks that we don't sell so then they leave so basically you know at the end of the day we're a small family run business we've been in town for 60 years we really need to be competitive to be able to remain successful um so are we losing Revenue yes I definitely 100% we're losing Rue okay and I I would think Vick too that you you probably are also losing Revenue based on certain holiday sales I mean I would imagine I'm I'm I'm guessing but I'm imagining that you know holidays like 4th of July or Labor Day or whatever would be possibly big sale days and you've obviously missed most of last year or all of last year I guess and and half of this year right so can I make that assumption or is that a wrong assumption no when this all started I actually went back to my email to make sure that I was contacting Ed way back in April to make sure we didn't miss Memorial Day of 2023 oh there we go yeah and he said he was on top of things and then Memorial Day came and went and I said hey July 4th is coming up it's a big holiday for us you know we do huge sales to be able to supply you know uh um a convenience for our customers to sell everything and he's like oh yep we're on top of it we're on top of it um same thing and then next thing you know we're on to the next holiday and it just kept continu it was continuing to be pushed off and pushed off and pushed off the whole time us being completely unaware of the paperwork never saw it until about two weeks ago that had the onee expiration or I would have probably personally been on it right you know on it a lot more yeah but yeah definitely sales we miss Christmas again New Year's again Memorial Day again I mean we so we've lost a lot of Revenue mhm Vicky would you consider the alcohol license a vital part of your uh business plan to keep the business afloat absolutely nowadays absolutely okay anybody have any comments or questions on this end from select glad we supported this with two separate motions yeah is this what we need to to do to make this move forward and see how our our rep and Senator can keep on pushing it through the governor's office or whatever channels they need to go go through down in Boston to try and expedite this right I mean what we want to try and avoid is to have to start the process all over again correct so um I think with our two votes tonight hopefully that will at least give them some argument and some weight to move forward and then just the other vote just approving the license or disapproving it oh okay legislative approval okay so another motion uh okay a little bit different um so to approve or disapprove the license so we want to approve the license uh pending approval of the massachusett state legislature and the governor so moved okay second second all right all those in favor hi I all right unanimous just let me add one more thing this is a good business to have in town it's a local family and um it's a great alternative to the only other um food store in town uh not to say that isn't a good food store but um I often go to this shop because there's local vegetables and good meat and I know the family so therefore I'm supportive of this right thank you good well I think we will try to keep it moving here and uh now it's definitely got our attention so it will not fall off our radar screen again um I don't know that it ever made it onto our radar we I never heard that it had even been approved so um I'm glad that at least we can try to rectify this and uh see if with rep peas and Senator velis we can try to make this happen without too much more delay okay motion y y second all right all those in favor of I all right thank you very much thanks everybody for joining in appreciate it know it's a little hard to hear but hopefully we got through yes good you're welcome thank you okay next up let's see we have some appointments and resignations um I'll take the first one so we have I'll just take the first one then Dan's got the couple then we'll keep on going so um first one Christina Johnson designation Council on Aging director that's motion second all right all those in favor I okay Dan if you I like to make a motion uh for a new appointment of Nicole marot to the Conservation Commission term to expire June 30th 2027 second all right all those in favor I I would like to make a motion for Sierra s Simmons reappointment to the CPC that's a correction for the expiration date should be uh June 30th uh 20 26 okay second all right all those in favor hi hi all right we'll take a pause for a minute because Nicole is here so Nicole why don't you just come on up and introduce yourself for a second and say hi and tell us a little bit about your background and why you want to join the concom yeah great well I'm Nicole Mara I actually live in Montgomery so a neighbor to Southampton I reached out to um the Montgomery concom to see if there was an opportunity to join and I never heard back so um through a colleague of mine at Mass aabon he heard about this opportunity and I currently work as a conservation restriction stewardship specialist at Mass aabon so monitoring properties in Central and Western Massachusetts and I thought this would be a great opportunity to kind of lend some of my expertise to the Conservation Commission but also have the opportunity to learn a bit more um about the inner workings of the commission so very excited about the opportunity wonderful great I'm going to add one more thing um Nicole I know you know some people who are actively doing some conservation and Trail blazing kind of work here in town uh and um anytime you want to hear or you want to get on our email distribution list for when we're going out and doing Trail work and whatever I obviously you're knowledgeable about that and I'll take your email address at some point and make sure you get that thanks Nicole for coming forward on this of course like happy to help and whatever that may look like but very excited for this so thank you that's very good question for me um I know from your background that you've also had a lot of experience running environmental programs um have you ever served in a regulatory capacity no not in a regulatory capacity apologies to mgl 131 it is an all volunteer Wetlands permitting body right with little time to get beyond that to other important conservation matters and it involves um really wearing different hats when you're regulatory versus when you're facilitating right Community work right yeah and that caught me up short when I first uh served on the commission um I wish you well learning the ropes Mac is an excellent resource yeah uh Dan is a member of the commission as you have no doubt learned and graduate of the MCC yeah what's great about it is there's lots of training programs that you can go through and you know that's that's really really the Crux of I think what most of the members need to do is just really get themselves really um fully fully um educated I guess about some of the rules and regulations there are opportunities to do that and I think that's what I was excited about was have a different lens of the work so great thank you for stepping up much much appreciated always glad to welcome a neighbor yeah thanks thank you Nicole very much okay uh continuing down so uh just one thing I'll uh note here uh the next one for Jake lehan from a reappointment to concom that is actually uh not necessary um Jake May Jake is going off at least for now but he may come back on as an associate member on concom and concom is one of the few um commissions that does have uh State um legislation that supports an associate member uh and that can be done my understanding it can be appointed by the chair of the concom does not need to come to select board so we'll we'll um take Jake off the um agenda so anybody else who would like to move on with the next next move Christina Madson for reappointment to the master plan implementation committee at large member ter to expire June 30th 2026 okay move second second all right all those in favor I I all right want to take a couple together or you can take these next two together perhaps since you're on the greenway committee if you'd like to want me to do it I'm sorry you're looking at me okay well step's on the okay oh sorry yeah go ahead Ellen suus M uh reappointment to The Greenway committee term to expire June 30th 2027 and for the same term uh Mark casses a re reappointment to The Greenway committee June 30 2027 okay have a second please second all right all those in favor I I all right now Cindy if you'd like to all right John lumbra reappointment to the capital committee term to expire June 30 2027 okay all right all those in favor Amy paus reappointment cultural Council term to expire June 30 2027 second second okay all those in favor I I all right let me do them all here Chris FS is going to do everything reappointment Senior Center building committee term to expire June 30th 2025 Chris follows reappointment public safety building committee term to expire June 30 2025 and reappointment master plan implementation ation committee term to expire June 30 2025 thank you Chris second all right second discussion yes please can you can you confirm that the uh Senior Center and Public Safety those are the select board seats right above and there's not going to be two select board members in there no yeah select yeah yeah all right we shouldn't worry that these all are co-term in this we don't have any plans well these These are done this way because it coincides with my end on the select board I can't as a select board rep I can't be longer than my term on the select board makes sense that's why they are all June of 25 the world will not end next I'm sure they won't we'll we'll figure that out okay we have a motion in a second all those in favor I I all right perfect okay that's it for now uh moving on I think uh Scott Town Administrator report please uh so we recently had a a resignation in the council and aging director um just talking about next steps I would recommend to the select board uh establishing a screening committee uh to at least review average resum um at the initial phase with the hopes of you know bringing at least three to five maybe seven candidates towards the psych board um in in my past experience usually it's been a member of the Council on Aging board um a select board member or two um HR or Town Administrator uh a couple seniors that are active in the senior center as well um you know I think between seven and nine members would be a fair number uh I'm thinking you know uh Ted obviously is is a new chair um Janet is would cover both the building commission and as the former uh chair so she brings a really uh strong knowledge of this um myself uh the emergency COA director uh and then if any seniors would want to volunteer to be on the screening committee as well as the select board I think that would bring us to about 7 to n which is a manageable number nine might be a a number seven might be good I mean I think nine seems like a large number for a screening committee I don't know off hand I mean just just even coordinate getting all those people together for a meeting I mean I think seven would be a decent member decent number but um idea yeah so um do we need to do we need to vote to create this committee or what do we need to do um search committee good in the past practice when we've done the fire chiefs or we've empowered other committees to do it we've had somebody spearhead and write a charge that we bless and they go off with those plans okay in terms of the duties of what they would do um how much Authority they have all the way yeah so we could just have a maybe just a couple of you know half a dozen steps in terms of how they would do screening and you know first iteration of interviews perhaps and then a second second level or whatever can I ask a question of John he reference the fire chief search committee did they also have some members of the fire department on that to participate in the review or not that committee was made up of five people one of them was a sitting was a retired Command Staff Fire Chief from another Community I see and you had so not actually somebody to whom uh that person would report to the to the chief the fire department not in the fire I didn't know if that would be reasonable to M two residents what plus the fire chief and plus the police chief so I'm just asking the question in terms of this formation of this would it be reasonable to have anybody who's on the I personally think for a screening committee it's fine because I what I think the last step on that charge is going to be to put forward to to recommend yeah no less than two no more than three right final candidates where the final interviews would happen here with the decision right if if we were having them select the person and make a recommendation of a soulle person I'd have a issue with that yeah I would agree yeah okay okay yeah okay I think we're clear so we'll we'll just get a little Clarity in terms of uh developing a short charge on that okay go ahead Scott yeah um so I had asked reach out to De Deborah radway who's a um former Town Administrator former HR Director um Municipal experience to um come in uh part-time and just do a lot of the administrative tasks um you know this happened on Wednesday Thursday the resignation so it's not you know like a retirement that we were planning or a transition so uh right now I'm just want to make sure that the lights are on that the bills are being paid the staff is being the payroll is done uh just the basic functions of of the position um so she's she's agreed to come on and you know as an emergency and then pending selectt approval would be a temporary I don't Envision this to be a very long appointment hopefully we can get a permanent person in there as soon as possible I also know that uh Deborah being retired um she has no um no want to the don't want for the position full-time or permanent so she's uh that would also allow us to um interview a a larger screen of of candidates too if anyone was interested in the interim and the permanent um so that's uh we can talk about that more later uh the town accountant and I we finished uh first round of interviews uh with the for the assistant Town accountant um there are two candidates that Bradley and I were going to talk about on Thursday then decide how to move forward so that's slowly moving along um we did have a good recruitment though so it was a it was a pretty good pull pool of candidates um we did finish the uh first initial phase of the V training and we should be setting up the next week or two a training for all the employees um for the manhand bridge uh I got word last week that the extension for the grant uh was denied by mass trails unfortunately um I included some of the background information as well just uh we had some a second opinion for the architect architectural plans uh that were drawn up originally there were some questions um engineering plans for the sorry and you know I think it's you know we we'll have to reach out to the bridge company as well and maybe you know figure out what are some options um we do have the the $50,000 available until December uh but it's it's looking like the project is probably going to be you know closer to a quarter million dollars um and that's just to explain that so as we understand it it's it's basically the bridge itself was supposed to be a a fairly um portable I guess I'd say portable collap not collapsible but portable bridge that can be installed relatively easily it's a company that has done this but where we're falling short apparently is where they have to do the installation on the on the River Bank itself and that's where the the actual um anchors for the bridge itself uh were not fully taken into consideration perhaps and so there's still more work to be done but we've had an independent um uh look at that and trying to figure out what what next steps might be so this follow question on that detail uh was it that the required span of the bridge was underestimated because of flood plane issues don't know for sure uh it apparently now yeah it was going to be a 40 foot length and I think they're talking 75 foot length now but I think that's partly more just in terms of how far back on the bank it has to be anchored which I don't know I'm not sure if it been looked at that this experience um that is not surprising um that was the cost uh to the land trust in Boseman Montana even when the design and Fabrication of the bridge itself was donated um because it had to be just so with respect to the flood plane which is getting ever larger year by year with the changing climate so um there may be other ways to skin this cat not withstanding the fact that uh we're going to see a Hiatus in the funding yeah well I mean you know if if we can possibly I mean I think the the approval for Mass Trails on the bridge itself was fine that was not the they specifically had told concom to not overdesign this that they were fine with the bridge the whole the whole proposition of what the the bridge is going to look there um so we do have that money that if we can possibly use it before December and not lose it we will try to do that but or to purchase the bridge but we still then would have to raise money to figure out the installation of it so there I mean was seven trouble tracking yeah no I think my my thought would be if if at all possible that we use the grant money to purchase that portable Bridge as plan which some of them exist in some of the conservation lands over in Hadley I understand or ammer um and so they're not an unusual one but it's really the the uh the engineering anchor part of it in terms of the pylons or whatever it needs to have well it's it's not as glamorous and it doesn't win architectural Awards but I would question yeah whether uh donation of services has been sought for that aspect I don't know if we've gotten that far yet with whoever is working on this with with Scott so we'll we'll definitely explore a lot of things but we need to talk to the bridge bridge company too but I know I know art Lawrence has been working on it through the concom angle helping out there I I understand but now we've got plans and we've got some money so if we can move swiftly we can put it to good use perhaps but we're we're still going to be way short of the amount and I don't know how much is anybody's going to donate that amount of money to install it but but I mean I think if they're talking like $200,000 more I I don't know that anybody's going to volunteer to give that amount of services to the town I'd be surprised but would certainly can explore that option but anyway yeah go ahead Scott continue on please um so the wetlands delineation I included um for zero College Highway came back uh no red flags but there was some expected Wetlands on the lower area that we that we had anticipated so uh but the buildable areas that we're looking for development is are okay um on that point could I ask Dan whether it would be reasonable and appropriate to get an anrad from from the concom so we lock in these delineations yeah yeah you can do that I think all the documentation is in order it just needs the formal submission and payment of fees mhm okay all right you follow with George yeah thank you do we do that prior to taking ownership or after taking ownership do you think the expert would be right there you you can do it as agent for the owner or the beneficial owner the contractor either way okay all right the owner should sign the permanent application current owner okay last and then um this week we started getting in the survey results from uh our comparable communities um so so far we've received uh good data from belr toown grany East Hampton Hadley wil Bram South Hadley we've also received responses from uh Brimfield mson hfield and also Southwick um mson and brim I think it's mson and half are currently doing uh they just got done with their own compensation study so they're waiting for the select board to approve everything before they release the results that should only be another week or two uh brimfield's just having a transitional period right now so they won't be able to get to it for another week or two uh in Southwick as well and then I I do have to just follow getting responses from Deerfield Hall and uh Hampton and Huntington so um the data is coming in um I would like to get between 10 and 12 good data points uh the more the better um so we're close I think we're at about 10 right now um I'd like to you know keep going till at least 12 and that'll give us some good information and then once you've got that you're going to take that on yourself to try and do that comparison as you outlined for us at a meeting a few weeks ago y it's um it's mostly just data entry right now making sure everything is is matching and what the positions are just a lot of research um you know why you know is the building inspector the same in different towns is it you know is it a full-time position is a union position uh is the same basic responsibility so it's just kind of looking and sorting through those yeah and have you had a chance to catch up with the folks at colins Center at all or write them a letter or email or something or I did Mary is out of the country until August 1st okay well she's probably the main person that we do want to talk to though right so okay so 2bd okay anything else any other questions for Scott on that okay um select board reports anybody have anything to report from your various committee attendance uh Cindy I'll start with you okay uh I can report on board of assessors um first of all we are a board of three that only has two people on it at this point we do have an individual who is um finally decided that she's interested it seems so she's probably going to be submitting a letter of um uh filling out the um required volunteer form and also submitting a letter um she probably not available until early fall but that's okay with us so um so far this is looking pretty positive secondly we've had some conversations about good service good um um face for the public ways that we can improve good service um our our department is working really well I think right now and um so that was a discussion our meeting today and I I'm feeling very confident that and positive about this because people really want to do a good job and also have our public feel that they're getting good answers in a a rapid way and are informed when people need to go out and view the property for whatever reason so we're talking about that um Board of Health I did attend an additional meeting uh and um there's still looking at certain properties that need to um be investigated closely for various reasons this one that was brought during open time today um I I really will be eager to see um them on that individual on the agenda to talk about his concern because that seems to be the direction we're going in right now uh nothing else I can say specifically right now on that open space committee couldn't meet for a couple different months because we couldn't get a quorum but we are scheduled to meet this coming Thursday um and so I don't have anything to report because it hasn't happened yet so those are my three okay right um so I think one of there's two important things to discuss from committees one was around the the planning board um and I'm sure Stephen will join in in his in this conversation um in in the planning board meeting we discussed um offering our support in planning around the um land in col at College Highway um we thought that the the planning board has something to offer in in that and we were we moved to the point where we wanted to suggest a joint meeting with the select board so we can um offer the services of our our agent uh Richard Harris to to help in that effort okay and you guys usually meet in the evenings on a particular day of the week is that right what is that Wednesdays yeah Wednesdays for Wednesdays so we'd have to figure that out we we haven't heard directly from from Paul I know Stephen you'd asked if we'd seen a letter from Paul I haven't yet but Paul foral our vice chair chaired the meeting on the 17th so okay it's only about few days so we'll see about if we can get a joint meeting at least just focus on that and hear what what he has to say I think too and I don't know if they've had contact UM or Scott if you have we were talking at one point about just reaching out to pvpc as well just see their their land planner type people and see who who might attend so we might even try to incorporate them in the meeting as well just to see and I don't know if that's Ken comeo or somebody else but um um this this is not a new issue the town has explored um not only this property but separately I explored the notion of incentives for uh A diversity of Housing and mixed uses yeah and um the specific vehicle would be chapter 40R it's mhm this planner will tell you it's very complex and unusual compared to the rest of our zoning Co code we would be providing substantial incentives for affordable housing okay how ever the hus is upon the town to Define what our design standards would be because the town gives up many other kinds of regulatory oversight so uh I think it's you know two months Beyond time for the key boards and committees to um get briefed up on this Richard Harris has previously made an extemporaneous 10-minute presentation to the plan board and I know that he'd be ready to go having shephered that very same process in South so my question with that would be would we not want to include the Housing Authority uh I'm sorry madam chair it is explicitly planning board Housing Authority select board because of our leadership role and the one that I forgot is the bylaw committee because the Housing Authority was jeeped up to move forward with this as a over bylaw uh some two or 3 years ago but that's that would all be under the zoning bylaws it's not under the bylaw the the general bylaw committee I don't believe okay so they only they only pay attention General bylaw thank you we only focus on the the bylaw committee advisory committee only focuses on General bylaws down the ne absolutely uh it starts with the Housing Authority really because I cuz I know they've reached out to me saying that they really want to be involved so we'll be sure that whenever we can find some mutual dat they unable to schedule time with Richard Harris so I would ask that Our Town Administrator reach out and find some time our volunteer planning board chair is not yeah getting no we'll we'll figure out some timing and and get that going and see how we can do that um in terms of Richard's availability as well teamwork okay you also you you touched on the housing authority and I think the message for this board is you want to join in on that that joint meeting when we get to there um the other thing I think that's important to bring up is the technology committee at talk technology committee met and discussed um the fiber optic uh Network in that we're working to implement in town um last we reported that we had met with someone who had gone through a similar experience from the city of Chickapee um and he had provided uh Scott with a number of contacts for organizations that may help us help guide us as a town through this process someone that can be an out outside voice to help in reviewing what what our partner towns that we're looking at are proposing and and and really help us choose the best path forward for Southampton so the the follow-up action is to um to we're trying to set up meetings with those organizations to hear what they have to say what's their perspective how they can help Southampton um and eventually this would arrive at a request for an agreement with them to help work us work through this process so that I believe is the two the most important things I have to report on all right very good yeah Stephen anything else um just PS on planning board because I want to distinguish two separate needs for outside planning assistance we address the educational programming about chapter 40R is potential zoning change and I think that that is a very um small and near-term need with person who's already under contract to the town I would distinguish that from the longer term need which has a shortterm or middle term component and uh as we grow the town component that is for uh staff resources to handle land permitting land and natural resource issues broadly and the first U issue and it may be separate from settling such a per person as a town employee is assistance in the land planning for 117 to 125 regardless of zoning but it does it's very much influenced by the zoning we envision for that parcel we need someone to help our boards and committees through a process of collecting their good information drawing from their good feasibility studies housing production plans all these important master plan um we need some help in the short and middle term to be able to take that out given certainty about zoning and say to a housing developer here's what the town would like to see on this property M yeah no I think I think the the whole idea of our one of our early next steps has got to be to identify that land use planner type entity right so a month ago I gave you three names and I've circulated those broadly so if there's an update on that um I'd be very happy to hear that I don't know that there is at this point you've reached out to anybody at this point in time we've got a few other things that intervened in the meantime the personel is the plate is always over full and I had offered my services so we'll we'll get back around on that I could help you draw up a scope at we need some I'm mat your Serv some level of something there so we'll we'll talk about that a little bit more and figure out how we can get that going we need to get that under put some words under y yep okay anything else with that no in the last two met pardon me Greenway committee meeting you know I did miss one it hadn't yet gotten synced up on my calendar okay sorry all right they should be hopefully meetings pretty regularly but maybe taking a little bit break in the summertime I think that's a fair break now yeah there maybe okay yep John anything going on schoolwise uh no we had a we had a special emergency PPP meeting it's coming up later on the agenda so I'll defer then and then the only other comment is we still need to fill two seats on the Hampshire Regional school committee in per in a perfect world that should be done before September 1st MH okay very good okay all right yeah and uh just on mind in terms of um nothing going on right yet with um master plan um we'll probably meet sometime in August um there is a bylaw advisory committee meeting uh at the end of July but there are only two of us on the committee right now so we don't have enough to really totally do much in terms of voting and having action so we're really looking for anybody who would like to serve on the bylaw advisory committee um and then we had nominated uh renominated several people for the cost efficiencies committee at our last meeting and so people need to reach out to um or need to catch up with Lucy and get sworn in again um those were yearly appointments and um uh Lucy I think is around mostly in the morning still at this point in time so please try to reach her when you need to get sworn in and then we can schedule a meeting for that um nothing new on grants we haven't heard um anything yet we're actually expecting both on the historical one and on the firefighter Grant one um by the end of the month so hopefully by the time we meet next time we will have had an answer one way or another on both of those grants but nothing right now okay all right let's move into some new business um FY 23 status on the audit Scot what's happening there um I I still have to do the engagement letter um with Markham so that'll probably be next uh next meeting okay yeah but um you know we're getting all the preliminary information to them the oped stuff the um that's for FY the engagement for FY 24 FY 23 they're working already yeah we need to do the engagement like for 24 right yeah okay but 23 they're working on already yeah did we ever get the form did the select board ever get the fy22 formal responses from the town uh not yet those are almost ready I there was a little bit confusion I sent um I sent a draft to Markham just for review and um there was actually a different section regarding the federal audit I need to reply to so okay so let's get that done before the next meeting and get that done so we can close that one off that's been hanging out far too long on that one okay so next meeting we will put forth the engagement letter for FY 24 okay let's make sure we have that on the agenda all right uh ARA financials ARA quarterly reports um just to say here we are at the end of the month and this has been the time that we usually do take a look at um Financial reports uh Bradley's been keeping U an ongoing summary you've got um in your packages and it's up I've got to post the newest one up on the U website um but it's a five or six uh sheet Excel document that um looks at all the um invoices that have been put forward uh what the expenses have been uh and it's categorized into the the wage ones are broken out separately uh for those that are under the wage scale which includes the school which includes concom and uh had included the Board of Health director and uh let's see who else is on there um Richard Harris uh yes the planning board consultant I believe and the concom agent uh those are the ones that are still under the salary part and then there's the final sheet that does talk about the um balances for each of these and again I will uh just got this report myself so I'll go back through it with Bradley and a couple of these things are moving forward it's it's good to see a lot of these projects um you have in the package as well the um tracking sheet from Judy uh so several of these projects are actually completed now uh they've turned in their final report and um you know what their status is of their their money according to them and I just want to go through and match those figures with what um Bradley has and be sure that we're in sync there uh but it is good to see that a couple things if you remember the storm water um Culvert grant that was under the Clean Water Act that randle's been working on with tyan bond that is actually moving forward and we should be starting to get some reimbursements I think back into the ARP of pool for that because we had to put out the full 140,000 and we should be getting around 80 84,000 of that reimbursed to us as the grant part of it so that is going to be happening I think soon they're actually making um progress on that um we've got a couple things that we still do need to get started uh one is the um um the Enterprise study right Scott the stormwater Enterprise study which I think you've had initial discussions at least with Ty and bondon uh as well as the sewer feasibility study so they'll be starting up in this coming quarter I would assume both of them um but we're we're moving along fairly well on that so um Judy's doing a pretty good job keeping up with the uh tracking chart and um getting reports in reminding people for their report reports so a lot of these like I say are done according to what they had asked us for and um there's probably I don't know eight or 10 12 at the most that are kind of ongoing and you've got those quarterly reports in your packets if you've got a chance to read through them if you've got any questions um I'll be glad to be that point person to go back and write an email to the to the project and and ask them uh about things if um if there are things that are not clear some people are doing a better job than others in terms of writing in detail um but we'll take take what we get yes I have a question um the board of assessors um actually completed their need for the arpa funds and turned over 2,000 some money right and the question came up today um when money is returned back um is there an opportunity if the need arose to reapply for any for I shouldn't say reapply to apply for additional for a project how does that work so right now this money is available to be spent uh until the end of December 2026 it all has to be obligated however by December 2024 so that's why I want to keep track of any monies that are left over in projects right so we know how much money we have so that if something else comes forward as a legitimate project I would hesitate to say personally from my point of view I'm not in favor of supporting salaries going forward I'd rather I'd rather support projects rather than salaries going forward if possible but we'll see uh what we've got so that's what I want to get a good handle on things and where we are still a little bit tricky we're not having a good Clarity still on the um the school salaries for the um behavioral education um Team uh We've we had a good beginning on it but it kind of fell off a few months ago and so we've got to be sure that we're getting the right accounting so just just along those lines cuz this is like the third meeting which means it's 6 weeks now that this came up um you know again resetting everything and everything that happened at central office but noris is a department of this town which means it falls under the control of the Town accountant mhm you know so I I think maybe it's time we kind of shifted focus and instead of emailing central office asking for their help that that we just take the bull by The Rains and clean up our own Department can try I mean all the if I just all the payroll records are sitting in the treasurer's office MH it should be a easy reconciled task even for a volunteer to do never mind highly compet competent and compensated individuals M okay no good point I mean we've reached out to uh the principal I know and and then that that led us to to the central office so yeah but yeah if and I think part of the issue is just you know how detailed are people I guess that's a good point we can check that out in terms of the level of detail that they're putting in on the payroll itself and if they're charging it to the right account and so forth so there may be things that are just cross charged and um you know just not in the right place so that's what really needs to be ironed out so send to your answer your question there are there will be some funds um I would guess maybe 100,000 at the most or something I don't know offand that we might need to reprogram depending on the money coming back in from a couple of the studies that um or the work that randle's team is doing on the Culver study uh some of that will come back in and we'll get reimbursed for it so we should you know I would say certainly by October we ought to be looking at if there's any other projects we should put a call out and once we know really where we are on on this I think and then see what else we can get because we do have to obligate anything before the end of December okay D um can we maybe I probably missed it somewhere along the line but maybe if we haven't talked about can we add to the other necessary business discussion of the assistant Town accountant when we get to that okay yeah we haven't stat got there yet but yeah cool mhm yep okay all right so any any questions just in general in terms of I mean Stephen was that where you were looking for or I mean things that you need to that that's helpful yeah that's the right level for me and uh Clarity that you're seeking these updates so that we can identify the residual funds and provide an open opportunity to compete for those should we have some at time TBD in the fall correct yeah because I think and and also for our audit for our audit Trail as well so we've got you know the application tracker we've got the report tracker uh and the quarterly reports just so that we've got a good paper trail for whenever we do get audited on this so that's really the main good was the main impetus to start this whole thing way back when okay uh next up Scott uh the draft gift policy I think you made a we had a discussion on it we had some suggested changes so I think at this point we're just looking at the changes but this would then still have to be posted for 10 days I believe so um it's a it's a misnomer to put on the agenda here that it's going to be a vote tonight I don't think we can vote tonight for our policy but go ahead and walk us through where where you are with that Scott yes uh so the policy a lot of the um the blanks were put specifically Southampton um I know that the John had mentioned doing a uh recognition to anyone that does donate so I put in some language for that um cleaned up the Rick Parks Commission and fix the typo um also got rid of J the benches and the other parts of it so there's a lot detail I think going back I think I got most of the changes mhm um okay yeah that's what I recall is most of the changes that we talked about I think mostly was shortening it to make it a little bit more uh manageable um uh yeah all right so I believe um what we do if I'm not mistaken um we would take this as our final final read through if anybody has any comments and questions by all means let's let's ask them but the next step would be to put this out on the website as well as to post it on Lucy's bulletin board for 10 days so we would actually take a vote on this at our next select board meeting uh to put this into into effect at that point in time uh that's how we've done our previous policies for the select board and for anybody who's listening on the select board page of the website there is a separate category of Select board policies um so you would see those there and um this will be posted on that page of the select board any comments or questions so moved yeah okay letter J was about naming rights right uh letter J we took out that was the that's what it was right yes so I I just so right now with that being removed which is fine it leaves it silent I wonder if the if the other course of action should be putting in the letter J and just referencing the separate naming policy that we have just you know naming rights or whatever it was called see policy because there's a whole separate policy written on that there's a bylaw or the bylaw see the bylaw yes there is a bylaw on naming so just so an outsider reading this yeah it it's clear you know right now it's silent which is it could 61 half does the other sure but to an outsider who's reading this oh it doesn't say anything about that so I can ask well no it reference it sends you to the bylaw okay right which then is another four page but that one's very clear on mhm and I could go either way put it in or take it out but that's my only but I think yeah without going into the detail but we could reference it at least that's a yeah that's a possibility and not to try and paraphrase it here just see bylaw we can put up the number of may change um yeah we can even put up the number of the bylaw or something as it's posted on our website but we can because with our new bylaw system right we're not changing numbers they've well they've already we codified we it's been codified now so those are Chang those are those are there um um see if it comes up I um yeah while you look that up so I i' move to approve this and release it for public input public viewing with that one I believe you'd already circulated it to the department heads or had it at your your meeting and so forth right so okay yeah okay I'm going to find that somewhere here wish I could find that um can't pull it up right now but it's right there somewhere uh so I think that would be our next step to get that done and then we can uh do that so I think that's a okay idea John to just reference the um that bylaw that's reviewing that that would be fine we don't have to do that at this moment no we can put it in there yeah we can approval the post for hearing and continue the process yeah yep so we the hearing is or the reading of it is there and so it's just open for public comment now and um like I say we'll be posted in those two places okay and hopefully we will get through our 10 days and then take it up at our next meeting okay all right um do we have to will we vote huh do we vote it or um vote to go ahead and um allow it to be posted for public consumption yes as amended yeah all right Some Mo okay all those in favor I I I okay thank you all right um green energy next steps this is our um famous famous energy projects here how are we doing with these things uh good um so we finalized the pre-approval letters and the uh letter of approvals with um resource Innovations for the police department Town Hall and library to do the lighting installation we don't have any dates yet for actual installation or anything like that um you know the um Massachusetts come with Massachusetts approved it uh it had to go back to eversource their engineering department had to look at it over a few more times and now we finally have the engagement letter so that's all done uh and then I do just need to get an update on the nor school because that's outside that's a different scope outside of the light installation so that's going to be a systems um I don't know what they call it uh control uh company that does that part so it'll be a separate company but one would hope that we could get this done within the next two or three months and get these things installed um it has to be done by November I believe is the deadline that would be good I hope yeah this has been around for quite a while um so that would be good this okay good any questions for anybody on that no all right next up uh Wi-Fi installation status uh so I hope to have a time for this Friday for the wiring company to come in I guess they have to do they have to finish it up by doing drops I think which is uh they expose it through the ceiling and then novice would come in probably a week after this Friday if we can get the wiring compy in just to connect you to the network and uh finalize everything mhm good so that's moving along without too many hitches at this point in time um the fire department is going to be a challenge that we might have to figure out some funding for that and how we're going to do that because um it wasn't part of the original plan was it no no so we're going to have to do the initial install and then figure out um along with the manage support that we want to add with the fire department as well under the contract that we have for all of our Our IT services um part of that will more than likely they'll have to be connected to our Network so they can properly service them um how they do it they'll probably be I don't know the terminology but you know it'll be like a router or something that'll connect it and uh we won't have to make two Charter bills at least they can just run off of our internet so save us a little bit of money yeah yeah okay all right and I did just find that so it's chapter 66 of our general bylaws oh okay um okay all right um Hazard mitigation plan startup uh we have our kickoff meeting on August uh 15th with Mimi uh Kaplan from pioner Valley Planning Commission um a little bit later than than we'd hope to get to it but um we we're finally kicking it off and I know that I haven't talked to her in depth I know that she's been doing some background work on getting stuff ready for us so mhm good and so that the people that are going to be involved are police and fire Board of Health uh Highway High yep Town Administrator yeah and yourself y so half a dozen people are involved in that committee very good and that's to update our Hazard mitigation plan itself which is also posted on our website good all right um so next up um College Highway land acquisition update you mentioned the wetlands delineation has been done uh where are we with other steps on that uh I have to touch face with Katie to see where we are with the title search um and then we have to discuss the the borrowing as well so that'll probably be for next meeting we'll go in depth on I'll ask JY to stop by and and maybe we can have a discussion on that okay all right and then following up with Stephen in terms of that land use planning part of that as well yeah let's see if we can kind of talk about all that at our next meeting okay great um manhand Bridge we've talked about it a little bit um I'm not sure if there's much more to say um selectboard members you've got some communication back and forth between art Lawrence and John Ferman who did an independent review of The Bridge uh design uh just to get an idea of what he's thinking might need to be done so it's definitely a challenge before us if we have to go out on the street and put out a call for proposals and certainly find out money to pay for it but yeah I have a question you earlier said perhaps the 50,000 that will will go away at the end of the year but unless we if we were to do if we were to utilize it and I assume it's part of what would be approved by the state if we were utilize it to purchase the top part of the bridge then where were we going to put it are we going to hold it someplace we'd have to store it somewhere yeah yeah Highway garage or somewhere I mean I don't okay it's it's it's in pieces it's not yes yes I understand that so that's one question I had um yeah we'd have to store you know I read the correspondence not being an engineer and it just um I it just seems like a very large engineering project to put those pilings in or whatever they're called you know um concerning anyway concerning that is is It ultimately going to be a different project that's all I'm wondering well I don't know I mean I think that's what we have to put our heads together and sort of figure out that and so I know from between the kcom and and art are sort of working on that and then um Scott you were involved and we were talking about also calling the um the bridge company themselves and talking to them because the bridge itself is a fine enough design but you know did we misund understand something we being concom when they applied for the grant um in terms of the level of technicality for installation or has something really changed or whatever so I think we'll have a at least a brief conversation with them as well so Scott was going to reach out and give them a call um probably on Friday and see what they have to say about how complicated this bridge usually is has been with all that they've done how complicated has this been to install around their various places and is this something unusual that we're running into are we overreacting to something I I don't know I those are my questions I want to be sure if that we're doing the right thing we certainly want a safe bridge I mean no doubt about it but it doesn't need to look like the the new Gara bridge on East Street it's it's it was a suspension bridge that people were you know hanging on ropes and falling through and walking across the river and you know that went on for a long time so this is a major Improvement but you know I don't think we had thought that it needed you know such major um um support shall we say but obviously it's got to be engineered correctly if if it isn't right now so that might have been you know an Omission in the design understanding or the Grant application but there is $50,000 that if we can use it I think we would try to use it okay good just so we don't you know so we keeping good graces somewhat with mass Trails as well who's been very helpful for us so so yeah we'll we'll keep on continuing them that and talk you've answered my questions thanks talk with other folks about that but okay would it be possible for me to get a electronic copy of the engineering design and the review that was done by the person mention John it's in your packet that was that was the independent review of Ferman there there was the original design that had gone out yeah from the umman the the person that had been contacted by come I'm forgetting who it was the firm um VHB no the other one oh it's the man name we did John firm and give his review of that because that's what shocked everybody that it came back at a couple hundred thousand it's so that uh document that spells out the expensive Bridge abutments we've got it so Scott could forward that yeah thank you yeah that would be fine we have that on on hand that's what started this whole thing going really upside down and backwards here but okay um any other business that can't wait um Dan you had something you wanted to suggest yeah I just was we talked about the T the um accountant in town and I was part of assigning more work to the accountant I I want to make sure we he has we're working on getting him an assistant so I just wanted to get an update I'm maybe something has happened I just had missed it so I think Scott mentioned it in his in his report oh he did sor interiew with Bradley how many people several um we had seven interviews and we're looking at moving forward with two thank you thank you thank you so there'll be another round of interviews I think so yeah yeah I'm going to talk to Bradley on Thursday about that and see how he wants to move forward okay cool good so that should be something that will come to conclusion uh the only other thing I have is you have in your packets um something that had come up at the um oh sorry I forgot to mention in my reports um there hasn't been a meeting lately of Public Safety or Senior Center building but there will be coming up in the next week or two uh both of those committees will be meeting um the Senior Center building committee has asked us to take a look just at their charge they are asking to just increase the number of members from s to nine um they want to have enough members as we move forward into a more uh technical I guess and more you know the next phases of of architectural design building whatever um they want to have you know the right technical expertise and and uh so forth on hand uh we have a brand new board chair who has been only on the COA very very short time as well so we want to be sure that we've got some institutional knowledge and so forth so at this point in time no names coming forward but just simply uh if there were any uh opposition to just changing it to nine voting members rather than seven um that's really basically it um at this point in time so I told them I would bring it forward any thoughts or comments um do they have sobody people in mind because if they don't and it's a board of nine and they well they have trouble forming a quorum well and we've got to approve it but then they they will be recruiting I think is but they can you know they can still meet they can still have they still have um they need what they need five people five cor and they don't have any trouble usually haven't had trouble for no that hasn't been a problem cool um so that's not been an issue with this committee at least um so yeah it's basically just to try and expand it and then you know allow for other other folks from town that might come in because right now out of the seven there's the COA board chair the COA director and a member of the select board which is me plus Scott so um there's only four right now from the town resident so they're hoping to expand that okay a little bit do you need a motion on that I would just to change that so I move that we um increase the number of members of the Senior Center building committee from 7: till 9: okay second discussion yeah please so the extra two seats are we going to restrict those to Residents or not because your argument right there was yeah there's four now and we don't we want a bigger resident and that's what I heard I did say that I don't know that we I mean in some ways you can make the argument that you know if we didn't restrict it to Residence then we get you know some outside expertise I mean as like with concom we've been able to pull in Nicole from neighboring Montgomery for example so so I don't know that we need to restrict it um we haven't said in here in G oh we did say the four additional we do say I'm sorry the four in the original charge it does say shall be Town residents um so yeah we'd have to modify that too if we wanted to so any thought on that I mean I didn't have any particular discussion on that with them um so if just say hypothetically the two that come forward are non-residents what would the ratio be of the nine right two new people come in and they're not residents M how many non-residents would be on that Community would it be more than a majority um it would be probably say those two it would be the COA director who I would assume might not be a town member but we don't know that yet as we'll be recruiting um four five six so uh but you're count the Town Administrator there right uh no I'm not counting him he's a he's a non- voting member all right he's a non- voting member so he's he's actually uh there's seven voting members so out of that possibly the COA director and possibly two others so um whatever that is now so so I guess I'd be I'd be comfortable with leaving it open with the caveat provided that at no time should non-residents make up a majority of that committee okay got it and then second part to to I I'm just offering this for discussion and then the second thing that I would suggest based on what Cindy said or thought the first question about the Quorum issue is is that um this changed not to take effect for 60 days enough time to go out do the recruitment so between now and then they can meet under the current rules and then you add those two bodies okay something along those lines yeah okay no that sounds interesting and I had a question too when you look at the um the second part in here and I think I don't recall how how our discussion went on this but nothing in the charge shall prevent or require the select board to enforce the membership may act in the best interest of the town as applicants come forward I'm not totally sure so that kind of goes that gave us our way out if we wanted a nonresident if we did find some non-residents right so which could still be the case it's just I mean I was admittedly curious what was imagined by that sentence it could cover this certainly right so we really had a stellar person and it meant that there were going to be more non-residents in my mind more non-residents than that as long as the credentials were there to justify when I got challenged on the street mhm um yeah I think the priority should probably be Town residents but should we have um you know an examplar or a person with real good qualifications this shouldn't um shouldn't hinder us so uh if I'm hearing this right this would be to to amend Cindy's motion perhaps to go from 7 to 9 not to take effect for 60 days and leave it open to also having um non-residents as long as they do not form a majority on the committee the perfect world yep in a perfect world yes because by leaving that other sentence in there we could still right do that so we don't need do we need to we don't need to modify that piece really do we no I mean no can I just verbally say I agree to the amendment as you just stated it something like that I can't requote it yeah something along that line so I think instead of the second line so so it be nine voting members um and then the additional six voting members um um or preference shall be given to town residents or something for the addition six members six voting members oh careful I second the revised motion okay great and take effect 60 days yeah take it effect 60 days from now okay I think we've generally got it we we'll we'll Tinker with it in No More Words yeah we we'll just modify it slightly here but yes so I think our second paragraph allows us to have the flexib flexibility to have somebody from out of town should we find somebody um with the qualifications okay all those in favor all right and the um we're still under other business right um we're on any other business yeah so I not for discussion tonight but I would like to um if the chair could figure out a way uh through uh Master law to allow us to have an executive session about um regarding the land at Zer College Highway I have some questions that that would that would go upon on negotiations not necessarily on purchasing the property that's that's done it's what are the next legal steps and I'd rather do that in an executive session versus a public session okay I think it' take maybe 15 or 20 minutes for me to get my questions out and then okay we're all on the same page great all right maybe we could addend that to our next meeting yeah okay sounds good all right all right um anything on the old business um um on East Street Capital asset planning Sur equipment or cannabis no cannabis negotiations update maybe the last one if anything yeah I did um I did just have a brief conversation an introductory meeting over the phone with uh Ezra who is the dreamers consultant um probably next meeting we can do an executive session now I have an idea of what they're kind of looking forward um I know that the candid the CCC is in a bit of the disarray right now on the state level um with with the way that host Community Agreements are supposed to be uh so far they've haven't approved one yet and the time is coming up for us to to get a renewal with with dreamer so uh we're still kind of in a murky gray area right now so they haven't come out with new legislation definitively yet on they they did two years ago canceling all the current host agreements um nothing new to replace it they do have a model agreement that they haven't actually officially adopted yet or approved um a few communities have submitted it uh with a few minor changes and they've sent that sent it back so okay so let's add that to our potential executive session then too okay and we're talking about August 6 um yes August 6th will be our next meeting plan extra few minutes everybody's still around hopefully yeah it'll be two weeks from today yep all right um if there's nothing else under old business we know we've got the Surplus equipment disposal which I said I would help work with Judy on to help get that up on the website or whatever we need to do the auction site to get rid of all these crazy old computers and Relics that are down in the basement of all of our buildings here um and some of the C Capital asset planning will take up again when we meet at the um cost efficiencies committee okay uh next up uh personel change form uh we have a PCF for Deborah radway emergency hire interim Council on Aging director Scott do you have do you have the original huh uh I I don't do we have the paperwork I don't I don't have the um paper from pqb or I can tell um I can give you some background okay and then I think it will be next steps will be self-evident but so the uh the committee met on Monday night took this up it was the pretty much the sole item on the agenda I think we spent about a half hour on it at the end of the discussion um the final motion that was voted on um on our third attempt was to approve it but with a modification adjusting the compensation from 3753 an hour to 3143 an hour and then defer it and then send it down to the select board so just background as you know PPP can do one of three things they can take no action and just sits up there in a dead file they can refer it out with and defer to the select board or they can take they can take a vote and then whatever vote they take comes to the select board either up or down okay so have they approved both the emergency 2 we and the temporary 12 week yes we were we were in a um trying to um conserve paper so it was all wrapped into a single yeah I see that various boxes checked here right okay but the intent was that subject that the effective date was to be today okay the 24 right and it's the emergency SL uh right uh up to 12 weeks non-benefit 19 hours right okay okay and so this would be so yeah so turn over to Scott so this would be less than the current director or the previous director had been working at 32 yeah if I'm correct um so this would be a 19h hour a week and then so if I'm hearing John correctly what we have on the PCF is a request for 3753 an hour and John is saying that at pqb you approved 31 something 3143 which is what the existing hourly rate was um in matching the budget now there was a lot of discussion about um the the the definition of whether or not the budget could support it um and one piece of information that was missing again if we go back to when we were having these issues in the assessor's office and we're moving money back and forth when we did get a a PCF from the town accountant on the back of it was a very detailed mathematical equation that either proved there was enough money there or not um that wasn't submitted on this one and then the treasurer who is a member of the committee noted that there's a payout still to be done that has to hit that budget and then the PCF itself was only using general fund had um not um allowed or called into uh play the um formula grant money and we know there's $3,000 of that coming out in the budget 201912 but don't forget we had we had re we had done some voting on that we did I got the budget right up we still we modified and put the the council and aging director fulltime full under the budget so fair enough they could use it for then I withraw that one comment but that was not pointed out to us Monday night so I believe they they chose to use a formula grant for ongoing supplies and so forth and we approved a 32-hour directorship under the current budget without using that part the other formula budget is used for the other Personnel not the director okay so the number that I have here for the budget that we approved was $ 49,5 you divide that by 3143 and you come up to a 30-hour work week mhm so I don't know where the 32 is but it regardless the numbers weren't there and then the committee who's charged to make sure that it's the same practice as applied to everybody across the board and not to look underneath the sheet um could not uh go forward with a $6 an hour increase for a new person coming in when our existing other 20 some OD employees are going on year three now without an adjustment based on this compensation study that we're now in our second version of okay I hear that argument but okay Scott you want to from your point of view I mean why why are we going with this requ I mean this looks like it's nowhere near the 31 or 32 hours of the previous director so I'm I'm understanding that with the increase that you're putting forward here this5 or $6 $6 say more an hour mhm does that Bal how does that balance out with the 19 hours that you're versus this I guess it's the question so there so with the 19 hours even with the the payout of two weeks we're going to it's going to take at least a month and a half two months to be able to find a person have them start 30 days to advertise couple weeks to interview and then once we select the candidate if they're currently employed it's going to take a couple weeks for them to give their resignation um so the start date's a little bit away uh with the 19 hours per week even at the higher rate um it'll be about $300 um in the positive uh from that account as well as not paying any health insurance for that position as well um so there'll be uh there'll be enough money in the budget to cover it um we also might look at extending some of the hours of the current employees as well uh with some of the additional monies there um just to make sure that there's full coverage uh as far as Deborah you know she a former assistant Town Administrator former Town Administrator uh one of her Specialties especially in western Mass now that she's retired um you know she can only work a certain amount as a consultant and then if she's actually an employee a Municipal Employee there's restrictions on amount of hours that she can work and then earn as well um for this position has to be classified as an employee we can't do it as a consultant um mostly because that would be a legal because then you're trying to get away around workers comp laws and unemployment laws and so if we have an existing position and the person performs similar duties they they'd have to be classified as an employee um you know her specialty is really kind of stepping into these types of situations and um you know she did it with South Hadley and Hadley uh multiple other communities throughout Massachusetts to come in uh as a temporary person and and provide some support you know she's not interested in being a permanent anywhere um and you know she has the knowledge base uh to kind of do the administrative duties she doesn't want anything to do with programming uh or health or anything like that you know we have a very capable staff that would already do that and they've already over the last couple days shown that they're they have a lot of ideas uh ways that they can move forward so um really her charge is just to do the administrative stuff the payroll make sure the lights are on um you know maybe look at you know do a quick audit just see what can be um for the next person that comes in permanently uh what might be some good starting points um and you know even today she was able to start with the billing and with the grants and going through all the old emails as we say there's a couple of grants that are just finished and there's a new Grant that's just been awarded so somebody needs to be on top of that for sure so this is really just an emergency emergency hire it's not the optimal situation to do a transition like this um suddenly um but it's you know my concern is making sure that the the services continue the lights are on that the seniors can still um get all the services and more more importantly that the staff gets the support that they need uh to do their job because they're really the experts in their field so it is a little bit it is more expensive than the previous director was earning but I think with given the experience and most times when you do hire a consultant or an interim you end up paying more per hour because that's just the nature of the work right umh so because we're limited to this she can't be a vendor or a consultant so you know it's probably had a little bit of a discount between the $50 to $100 most Consultants would normally earn so what I'm understanding that this would be I mean in your thought given your time frame of what you lay out we're we're a couple months away easily two two and a half to three months away from having a permanent person on board most likely so August September Maybe by October if we're lucky so are we being asked as a board to determine the pay rate here or well pqb did not approve this particular pay rate so that's the challenge are we are we in agreement with this 3753 and the 19 hours which if if Scott I just want to be clear so with that laying that out say for a 3-month period that math whatever that is um there would still be enough left in that budget line to cover a new person coming in who assumedly would be back more at what the previous director's salary range was a new director would not be starting most likely at this range is that what I'm understanding right they'd be back closer to the 30 32 or something most likely and hopefully we'll have the compensation survey done right by that time as well so we'll have a little bit more of a an idea of what it should be yes I mean that needs to get out of the way too but so but there would be enough money in the budget to get us through the rest of the year with a new person coming on in October November yes uh we'll make sure that we're always on budget and that no hours would be worked without um having the budget in place so it's kind of a higher rate at a lower amount of work um right now um you know I think de you know it'll probably be a month or two hopefully by that time we'll be very far into the recruitment process and you know we may not even need Neer for the full three months if we can get things running the way they need to be she's okay with that yes yeah cool so questions yeah s so I I need to understand this so one one part of this is the dollars and cents part and you just explained that thank you very much the second part is the role of pqb and the role of Select board and that's what um I'd I'd like to be understanding this in other words we're talking about this at length can the select board does it have to go back to pqb if we don't agree with the way theyve presented it or select board's opinion um the final opinion my understanding is John gave us three options of what pqb can do do and has done one of which is to refer it to select board which means that we we do have the final right select board can can accept the recommendation they can modify it or they can send it back with comments or they can take no action and just sit on it yeah but the selectt has the authority to you could make this a 40-hour week position right now at $50 an hour and pass it okay you'd have a budget issue You' have a budget issue so and before I lose my opportunity to speak I I have one more question I I don't know that we can speak for certain but what if this individual M radway gets here and we'll just use her for an example and finds this is not a satisfactory thing for her and she leaves I mean I I suspect you're pretty confident she won't because you know this person and she's done this kind of inome work before but um where does that leave us you know I guess we just have to punt with that if that was to happen uh I mean knowing Deb she wouldn't just leave on the same day so at the very least it would give us a little little bit of time to prepare for another person to take over okay um internal external are we expecting this person to also um assist an orientation of a new hire who might not have this level of expertise would that be part would you see an overlap that's my question um probably not an overlap but I would ask uh Deb to put together a report on what she just as a new set of eyes just looking at a department from a fresh perspective okay um working with the employees and kind of helping whoever does take over permanently um to have that transition plan okay so part of what I'm seeing is this person has and I just read her whole resume and the fact that she can jump in on this kind of U new situation jump on running immediately into what and and identifying issues because that's what she's good at um is a little different than just being a regular employee because uh that's what you're expecting that's what we're expecting as a as a a town to have this level of expertise to assist when um the position is open and the need is there and that's all I have to say and ask okay yeah Stephen yeah so I'm going to come back to the question of can we afford it and I'm going to boil it right down different rate of compensation different number of hours no benefits other unrelated liabilities and pay out so the payout is one time I didn't mean that the go forward run rate compared to what we have now or had when we had a employee at whatever are you saying Scott that the weekly outlay for this role is less acknowledging we'd be getting fewer hours yeah so the 3143 at 32 hours is a $1,576 and the 3753 at 19 hours is $737 so roughly about $300 okay great um and to in terms of the question of the PCB um I'm satisfied that we've distinguished an emergency interim hire from the ongoing director role and I would be supportive of the higher rate with um all due with respect to the PCB okay John so just a couple points to clarify and um I'm again preferen this as I often do I'm happy to be The Minority Report here but the reduced hours is only going to generate assuming that this person stays for the full 12 weeks an extra 132 hours of that 132 we're going to have to use 36 hours of that compensation to make up that difference and pay by awarding the extra $610 there's already a 60 hour payout that needs to happen so that's only going to leave a potential 36-hour balance but I heard the Town Administrator say that there was going to be some extra money there that they're going to look to reappropriate to other staff to get it so I want to be very careful that if we do that it's a very small bucket that all of a sudden the money is not going to be there and we're going to be asked to shift money around when this new person comes in who probably isn't going to be at 3143 because those that remember this last one who was a certified Council on age director that came from another Community who actually did the job um this was a point of contential with her coming on at that rate and thinking it was too low so I don't think we're going to get somebody else at that higher level all that being said it sounds like and I guess I didn't pick this up Monday night that we didn't even advertise for this job we went out and cherry-picked somebody almost like a no bid job and we're trying to make this work for this person emergency situation okay I I don't know that 48 business hours really constitutes that big of an emergency to just hand this job to somebody but then the third thing is is it fair and Equitable to all concerned and I say no I say the other employees who have been patiently waiting for us to do what we said we're were going to do what we committed to do and it has nothing to do with the current ta this is on the previous ta and why it didn't get done on time is this wage study so that everybody's brought up unilaterally we have sat here over and over and said we don't want a cherry pick we don't want to do just this one and this particular spot comes open and it could have been the assessor's office it could have been the accountant's office has nothing to do with that COA and it's throw everything to the side we got to put this through we got to tell all the other employees yeah you know we value you but if you leave we're hiring the next person coming in making more money and we're just going to keep chugging along but we expect these staff to just sit here and keep doing their job it's on us we have we have to we are doing the best we can I get that but we have to step it up and solve this weight study issue this needs to be I feel priority number one before the public safety before the new Senior Center anything else if we don't take care of our the investment and our staff we are going to continue to sprout downhill and making these onetime exceptions is just in my view a slap in the face to the employees that are showing up every day doing their work yeah I think perhaps a perspective on this is it makes it more complicated to address this emergency hire issue by associating it with the wage study I don't I don't understand or appreciate the tie between the two I see that while there is a need to get our wage study done in an efficient manner we have a a situation here where we need a person to fill a position and open I think that was Scott's point but if I could well keep the doors open and keep the center functioning for the seniors that come in and use the center on a daily basis less than a month ago we had to keep the payroll going and we made the treasur bend over backwards MH to stay within budget and the lines that were passed so much so that the next person coming in is just barely coming up above minimum wage but that wasn't an option here it's like let's just find the extra money and put it in so again the person that was doing the payroll that we need to do do the payroll to pay our people we fought her tooth and nail to hold the line and hold the budget line I just all the positions deserve an increase they do I just my position I don't think I can vote to support this nothing against the council in aging but if I vote for this I'm going against everything I've been preaching for 3 years about fair and Equitable for all the employees and I think you're making it more complicated on yourself making that decision but you're also reflecting poorly on the select board by saying that by tying those those issues together so I I I I at this point disagree with your statement I respect your opinion okay right all right so at this point in time I think we have a choice to either accept or reject the or mod modify the modify the yeah not reject but modify the PCF um we have the person um which um has been identified and I guess we need to have Clarity in terms of a motion of accepting the PCF as written with the salary and the hours stated um is anybody willing to make that motion there's one part I don't understand how did we get to the initial $37 number that's the that's the top scale of the pay wage of the current scale that's in place for the for the yeah for the for the um Step the pay scale of that thatr position so as yeah it says grade five I think on the PCF so with the new compensation study and I totally agree with John that that has got to be a priority to get done and I think you know Scott has made the efforts to get other towns to respond which I don't understand why Collins couldn't have done the same thing given that we've paid them to do this um and that's still a bone of contention but I think the point is that will be in place before we hire a new senior sener director a permanent person that has got to be in place so that we know where a new person coming in stands I think we have a very different unique situation here and an emergency situation that we we can't afford to not have the volunteer the volunteers the staff that we have the two or three volunteers that we have not volunteers sorry the two or three staff that we have now three staff right now do not work full-time they are very part-time and so even getting somebody to come in at 8:30 and turn on the lights and unlock the door so that activities can happen I think is you know is a challenge for them and their own home lives and and their own family lives Etc um what I think comforts me a little bit about this is that I don't see this person doing anything more than just the overall administrative organizational thing which I think they probably need down at that end of the hall um and does not want to do anything with programming leaving that to the staff that are there which I think is what should happen they're the ones that know what's going on so I don't see any you know real um I I see this as a finger in the Dyke I guess right now which I I feel is a little bit different than guess the guance what we ran into but I'm sorry to interrupt I think the guidance I would look to in terms of our policy is in these what I'll call short-term emergency hires do we typically is it our is it our policy that we would go to the far end of the the pay scale such that we can is that why we're going to that number so that we can immediately fill this need is that what gets us to that that number that we agree to I guess I want to make sure we're applying the the policy to to the reasoning behind getting to that Scott can speak better that but I think the 37 gets us to the end of that yeah grade at for that position that we currently have um and as he was alluding to that if you were to bring somebody in on a contract and that kind of thing you would be far and above the $37 an hour you would not or if we were to hire like we did last three years ago whatever that temporary accounting firm to bring in that temporary accountant I mean we paid through the nose in terms of fees to the actual company so firing hiring somebody like that would not be cost effective the driving Factor behind it is the emergency nature of the hire the short okay thank you and the other driving factor that I see is the history the strength the qualifications the background of the individual um that isn't we expect this person to just perform essentially without any sort of supervision initially because this person has that P in their background but I have to acknowledge John over there for what he just said this has been amazingly frustrating no question about it I from a from his from a standpoint of where I was for the last 3 years which wasn't sitting here it's been awful and um I've I've come to meetings where I've heard how frustrating it's been and we've been waiting for the Colin study and for whatever reason it didn't happen and yet we have to keep a lousy study well it happened later than expected and it's a lousy study so you know I think those are two different things and I don't think we should weigh too heavily on the mess to not keep going on what we need for this very important part of our town government um that's kind of where I'm at and um you know that's I'm kind of leaning very strongly towards um you know modifying the particular PPP um presentation here and what they did in and allowing the the higher um salary to Prevail that's been requested and that's where I'm leaning right now unless I hear differently any further discussion this can we have a motion on whichever way you would like to go somebody willing to make a motion we have the PCF before us um so let me see if I can read that if you want to keep it as is if you want to modify just make your motion please so I'm moving that we um modify well no we accept the PC f as presented and signed by Scott for um this interim hire of um deborra radway at 3753 per hour and it's for n up to 19 hours weekly second okay effective July 23rd effective effective July 23rd so she can get paid for what she did this morning effective July 23rd okay effective July 23rd thank you okay okay any further discussion on this okay okay all those in favor signify by saying I please I I I all those in uh not in favor say Nay Nay Nay okay Stephen you were an I I didn't hear you I was an i okay all right so uh motion passes 4 to one uh to accept the PCF and that salary range for the 19 hours okay thank you and all good points people I think um all very valid points and definitely we will be work to make this Compensation Plan a reality um we've got to got to get it done if if I could on the happier things motion to approve a one day wine and malt drinking package for the Southampton Democratic committee Conan Park Saturday August 24th 2024 from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. all right second motion is second John and and Dan all those in favor I all right very good motion passes thank you Ste next we are up to Steven with all his hopefully not part than go ahead glass of water uh the following warrants have been processed since we last met or reported uh warrant 24 at w446 a treasury warrant in the amount of negative $358 42 an amended warrant W 24- 46a in the same amount $358 42 cense in the positive um to take care of a errant check or something w 24-50 v in the amount of $60 treasury warrant payroll warrant P 24- 51 in the amount of $327,999 31 payroll deduction warrant PD 24- 51 the amount is 52,000 86.96% 32 and 54 payroll treasury warrant P 24- 53 the amount is $429,990 65 another payroll deduction warrant a payroll deduction warrant PD 24- 53 in the amount of 64291 12 a treasury warrant W 24-54 the amount is $365,500 sents finally uh pending approval warrant W 25-1 the amount of 1, 72,3 18667 okay could we just have a mini explanation on the warrant pending yeah um we don't usually have a that's it's our first the payroll or that's the answer no it's fiscal year 25 fiscal 25 but it's um pending so it's that warrant that probably went out July 15th oh okay okay and so we're assuming or not assuming but you can confirm Scott that the finance committee did did approve all of our transfers and all that that we had agreed to yes okay y oh so pending is not relevant anymore hasn't been released hasn't been released yeah but thank you okay but that's part of that maybe tied into that is that correct okay all right thank you Stephen that's a lot of paperwork to read through and sign thank you very much all right um so just basically our next select board meetings are August 6th and August 20th and in between time we have celebrate Southampton please don't forget that uh that will be let me not lie August 10th think can't forget yes August 9th the concert uh August 9th and then August 10th is the main day of activities um so please uh make yourself available come on down to conet park uh come to the um Congregational Church for memory hour in the morning of the 10th concert Friday night at the park and ongoing activities um always looking for more volunteers for dunk tank and a few other things but uh a lot of groups are stepping up to sponsor activities um which is great to see so thanks very much uh we will hope to see people then and otherwise I think we will take a motion to adjourn so moved second hi all right all in favor all right we are adjourned at about 7:55 does this go off thank you very much this for