[Music] [Music] everyone this is a meeting of the board of selectman today is Tuesday March 19th it is 1:30 p.m. is there a motion to call the meeting to order so move second all those in favor this meeting is being audio and video taped is please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance the pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God individual lice first all our businesses regionalization positions discussion Mr Kelly asked to have this on the agenda Mr Kelly I'll turn it over to you all right I rather than have staff spin their wheels I wanted to get out in front of this with the board because we've had a couple of inquiries uh and they're in two different categories one is uh Regional dispatch where right now there are two towns that are adjacent to a kushit that are using Regional dispatch groups that are geographically on uh uh the other side of uh plmouth County and norford County and they were talking to me and uh were inquiring whether a kushit would be interested in going forward investigating grants for a regional dispatch with the kushit being the Hub so it would be towns that are surrounding a kushit uh and the kushit would be the Hub and it would be centered here in a kushit right and it it's going to take a little bit of work so uh I'm fine and I've talked to the fire chief uh briefly talk to the police chief the fire chief says there are a number of grants available for even just the planning stage and so if the board wants us to investigate that and keep the discussions going with the neighboring towns the staff would be glad to do it but if the board doesn't want us to inv investigate it then I'm fine with standing down because it is going to take some time St I know you the Le on to asme and you've been having some discussions with dispatch correct what are your thoughts uh first thing um Mr Kelly how many towns are involved with this besides aush right now they're two others that have made inquiries and I can reach out to two others so it would be five or six there is the vision that some of the other towns were giving me they were talking to us because we would be the center of the wheel so to speak I think I I think it's worth looking into um being those dispatchers and that involves a me I like to be a part of it for sure I mean I got about halfway through discussions with dispatchers already as like to follow through and finish it if a chush it is a hub then it would be a part of the asman unit the the only concern that I would Express right out of the gate is we you opened up saying two communities but then you just said multiple more communities I I don't know how much congestion we would have in the system where it would start impacting um the workflow and workload of our town and the safety and well-being of our town and response time so I wouldn't want to get to to a point where we become the giant Regional Hub and we take on too many communities I think there going to be some kind of a I'm all forward I just think there's got to be some kind of a cut off where we're not inviting in you know 5 6 7 8 10 communities and then the lines are just cranking and we can't provide a good service quality of service to our residents so I would just ask that that stays in the mindset of anybody and everybody who's in the discussions that we're not going to get to that kind of a workflow right um W yeah I agree I mean we should look into it by I'm I'm fine with exploring it need a motion no I just need yeah to inform the board at this point if there's going to be I think if there's going to be dialogue you want to be involved correct I would like to be he's the as me Le's on for negotiating asby contracts then I think the first thing we do is uh investigate what and how much yeah all of the grants are involved because the state and the federal government both uh are encouraging this I do know that right now one of the community a the community that our back up if let's say God forbid our dispatch goes down is joining another Regional dispatch so uh Down the Road a Piece they would be interested maybe in talking to us again but uh until we even see what the grants are and what it entails I know I know that I know that in the past we've had conversations with our former police chief and our current police chief and there was no interest in US regionalizing dispatch meaning we Outsource our dispatch but it's a different story if we remain inh house and we provide a service to other communities maybe maybe that conversation it's time to that conversation and right we have the ultimate control of what's going on and we still remain inh housee and we can provide that service to our residents and not lose that contact being somewhere out in timbuk 2 with a regional office somewhere that's not even around here um God forbid something would happen so as long as we have that control in house um and everything stays the same for our residents I'm 100% behind exploring it all right the second category is uh we've had some inquiries similar to the inquiry we had about the town planner about sharing some positions or splitting some positions and uh especially since a number of towns adjacent to us as well as ourselves have been advertising for vacant positions and not getting uh folks in at our salary level so I want to know if the board wants me to expand inquiries beyond the one we've already done I think we should I mean at this point look we're going through a budget cycle right now it's going to it's going to stress the overall operation we should be looking at every business model possible if that means sharing Services it means sharing Services I mean it's not regionalization per se quasi and sharing Services I think we got to look at that in the you know especially like the permitting side of things um I think that makes a lot of sense yeah I don't I think it makes right now it's very difficult right it doesn't matter what industry you're in it doesn't matter whether you're municipal or private sector public or private sector it's it's miserable to try to find employees good employees right um so be it when I say good more to the qualification levels um I watch MMA job postings constantly I see people refreshing their advertisement constantly um there's just not a lot of people out there that are interested in doing anything I don't care if you're a garbage man or you're a town accountant for a municipality or treasure or whatever it is so you know if we get to we got to explore all options as Mr own said it is what it is we got to keep we got to maintain a level of service for our residents I think that's what that comes down to and when you have an office where there's nobody in it that's not maintaining a level of service right does that level of service maybe that equation changes a bit for levels of service meaning somebody full-time versus Shar you know in another municipality part time there part time here I know based on talking with other people in other communities that conversation is is taking place regardless of where you're at so um if that's what the model says we need to do that's what we need to do it'll be a discussion that we have to have with everyone right I'm just I'm putting this out there as I'm thinking it through right like you know if we were to get into a um you know a part-time you shared services and it resulted in a part-time I think one of the things we probably want to look at is with the partnering municipality is at the hours of transfer right so if an a chrisant resident needed something they could go to wherever that person is located whether they're in a kushit or some other municipality physically to talk to them it's not just if we I think if if we're flexible in that way then I think it really it could go from being an okay situation to a better sit like to a good situation right is that so you're so you're basically describing if we shared XYZ position with you know municipality it wouldn't so much be there would be a requirement for so many hours here so many hours there but what you're saying is if they weren't in the hours being worked here you could always make a call or do something in the other town and say can I come by and have this signed and you know things of the like I think that's what you're trying to explain right the model will will work and we not only providing a service for three and a half four hours a day if there was something as he said permitting you know whatever Department that may require conservation building border of Health whatever it may be wherever we're at in the pery Pro I'm just throwing that out there as I'm thinking it through like sense the more flexible we are the better the opportunity but if we're just like well it it has to be this way then it'll that'll work you know I think all all municipalities have to be as flexible and creative as possible for this to work for this right right now you've got a situation with and some positions that when let's say our person is on vacation the town next door is person in that position covers for our guy so that's really the start of this and now we're going to the point where uh there's such a small pool of either certified licensed or qualified people right especially neighboring communities all advertising for the same position at the same time right you know yep we're just cannibalizing ourselves right one town does this the other Town says well now I got to better them and once they better them it's definition of insanity everybody just keeps going out each other's throat and the next thing you know that's why people are complain of people's salaries are up here it's because we're just cannibalizing ourselves right so I think if we were in that shared Services Group everybody would have a common interest right instead of that everybody each other's throat for that I mean there's there's positions we can do it for other positions we can't do it for but correct um you know you got to think outside the box um in today's world um and that's for us the spin these ideas around like we're doing today and say you know what are we going to do and how are we going to fill a void in the Gap right cuz I know one thing we have certain positions that are open positions right now and it's not working out very well for us right um it's it's actually hindering our services to our residents so um and I'm not happy about that so we've got to take the like the gig economy really that's how we got to approach it right you get some people they don't have one full-time job they have three or four different jobs and making more money than somebody who's just tied to a desk all day right so I think as a as Government the more flexible we are the better off we be I breakfast with the maying Chan administrated the the day I've talked a couple times with The Fair Haven Town Administrator I've got uh an appointment with the to talk to Rochester next week so we're just trying to compare notes where everyone is recruiting and then uh we'll I'll report back to the board good all right that's it on that conversation the next one just the interim Town accountant um we did that last meeting yeah and I I'm presenting to the board a scope of services that I'm going to be presenting to miss Mooney uh I'm going to verify it with the uh former Town accountant he and I are having lunch on Friday and uh just to make sure nothing Falls through the cracks I present it to the board and I asked the board if they uh see anything that they do not feel should be there or see don't see anything they do feel should be there please uh get back to me and when I talk to the former Town accountant on Friday uh I'll either add it to the list or ask ask for a comment from him okay good enough any questions comments concerns on that subject M gentlemen no action needs to be taken and the next one the real reason this meeting has um been scheduled we have to meet before March 20th um for the right of first refusal for 474 Middle Road um you know I think I've discussed this with the board before $600,000 is the Bonafide offer that's been offered I believe the POS land is 27 acres plus or minus significant amount of that 27 acres is was described in a older ad a few years ago on one of the realtive websites as 20 me and wetlands I've looked at the property um there is a significant amount of wetlands on the property um it is a nice piece of property for the town to take ownership of because it it's backed up by the river other conservation land it goes over to Welden lanee and then all the way over to the faven Kush Land Trust on the corner of Middle Road by the Pine Hill Pavilion property and then it goes all the way through the golf course however the price tag is what hurts $600,000 um for this piece of land I I don't see how it's a great deal for the town um being significantly Wetlands um and not any of that I don't see how it's a great deal for the individual that's proposed to buy this property for $600,000 so I think there's a lot of uphill battles for for that individual to develop this parle of land um seeing how there's no sewer out there right so I just I don't think there's that kind of money in the CPC Kitty um for us to move forward I think it's you know we're in a you know a tough spot right now I know it's a different pool of money but the convers ations has been had continues to be had about the deficits that we have right now um I I don't want to demonstrate that we we say we don't have money on this side but yet we're going crazy spending on the other side there's some big ask already going to be asked of the taxpayers of ACC cushion it so um in my opinion I know that board of assessors likes it because of the riverfront um property there's not too much interest in planning um and conservation had an interest as well but they were concerned about the price tag of this property as well so I mean if we had the available funds in CPC which I don't believe we do have available funds in CPC Mr Kelly you familiar with u Mr chairman of f i mean i before he left I had Nick pull those numbers and you have to wipe out every CPC dollar and then find more to do it right so I mean that's an ultimate concern uh again I'm all for open space and Recreation property um just a huge price tag and it just economically it just doesn't make sense the whole thing it was up for sale years a few years back for 400 and change and the individual that's buying it a good person realtor developer but it doesn't make sense now we're going to buy it for 600 we could have bought it for forign change before just something I don't know it just baffles me and I know if you all the above you know it just I love to do it we have CPC for a reason I know there's many people I've talked to about um CPC and said you know if we don't start doing something for open space um there was a sense of having CPC cuz that's what it original tent was I said CPC does do some good things in the town of aush I get it um we should be purchasing large tracks of land if we can um there hasn't been that much available to us and if the deal doesn't go through and another offer comes in at a lower price which obviously that would have to be the case right y um then maybe maybe we could act on it at that point but I'm I'm just not not willing to make that fight and struggle to the town's people over you know disposal of land that's a significant portion is wetland so is there a motion to a foro WR or first refusal so move second all those in favor I okay can we contact the attorney that sent us a letter let him know selectman's announcements uh Mr chairman I just would like to wish my mother a happy 65th birthday a little belated um happy birthday Mom Happy Birthday Mom Happy Birthday feeling better Mr W anything have all right now next meeting is tomorrow tomorrow will the school department find a oh well yeah so tomorrow night is a joint meeting joint meeting with the fincom school committee kushna Public Schools Board of selectman it starts like super late past my bedtime at 700 p.m. but um it's at the kushion public schools yeah and then following that meeting our next selectman's meeting is Tuesday March 26 2024 is there a motion to adjourn so move second all those in favor [Music] [Music] [Music]