[Music] good afternoon everyone today is Tuesday June 4th 2024 at 400 p.m. uh this is a meeting of the board of selectman is there a motion to call the meeting to order so move second all those in favor hi this meeting will be audio and video recorded please rise from the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge Allegiance to FL United na gentlemen uh first order of business we have some appointments today um as everyone knows we have two fine young gentlemen uh Brady Bal and C Roso who have been working for us through a co-op program and earlier the Yes program that have done excellent work around town um all their efforts are very much appreciated uh and they are graduating high school uh so we thought it would be nice um selectman wner brought it up and I totally agreed that it'd be nice to give him some citations and uh I'd like to ask them to stand up introduce themselves and maybe uh say a little short Blair about yourself and yeah um I'm Brady Baldwin I've been at um uh been a Kush resident on my life love a kushit and u this year I'm graduating from high school from Old Colony um it's great and I've been working with the town for a co-op opportunity and it's it's been great everyone's been so welcoming so nice and a lot of great people over here and I want to thank every all of you for what you do thank you I'm C Roso also a cushion resident lived here my entire life graduating this year too my first uh Co-op job had a great time great opportunity good Mentor Dave I was very welcoming I like to thank all you guys too thank you I also like to say happy early birthday to cam uh not only does he turn 18 this weekend he also graduates high school so he's got a big weekend ahead of him um gentlemen we put together some citations for you um like to read them for you t of aush board of selectman this is an official citation be it known that the accuset board of Selectmen hereby extends his congratulations to Brady Baldwin Old Colony Electronics class of 2024 the board of selectman would like to recognize the hard work and dedication to the workplace that you displayed throughout this Cooperative employment period your strong skill set and work e work ethic will prove for you to be an asset in any field of work you pursue congratulations on your accompl accomplishments and best of luck in your future endeavors awarded this day June 4th 2024 and also to Camden Roso be it known that the kushit board of Selectmen hereby extends it congratulations to Camden raposo Old Colony carpentry class of 2024 Board of selectman would like to recognize the hard work and dedication to the workplace that you displayed throughout this Cooperative employment period your strong skill set and work ethic will prove for you to be an asset in any field of work you pursue congratulations on your accomplishments and best of luck in your future endeavors awarded this day June 4th 2024 thank you gentlemen very much we appreciate everything that you've done for us around this time thank you just P yeah congratulations well done congratulations well done congratulations thank you congratulations keep up the good work my friend thank thank you congratulations keep up quick photo like we usually do you have a camera phone or Dave hey Dave why don't you come up here and grab Dave come on I thought you going to put put on your nice other classes get in here Dave we can get a photo from this F I appreciate everything you've done for these young gentlemen they make it easy thank you very much EXC congratulations good job thank Youk you why don't we have everybody back up Sydney's coming down we'll put a picture all right I'm right here let's all face the other way this time feels like Christmas Day at my house right everybody smile all right one more photo ball back up a little bit all right cheese wonderful all right good job Bo congratulations guys me down all right uh next on the agenda we have W curring slokum Street review of matters presented votes may be taken um before we pull up wward curring uh I just want to mention last meeting we had asked to reach out to uh reps and and Senators for a letter to send to the dot in regard to um transportation Bond money and I just want to let everybody know that Senator Mony did send his letter to the do uh so that's one step closer and just wanted to let everybody know Mr chairman yes sir I talked to Jessica Kon and uh Paul Schmidt's office a couple times she told us by the close of business their business which will probably be 5:00 the letter will be arrive from that office excellent and she's working with strauss's office to get that letter Too Perfect all right a little bit we can get um I'll turn it over to uh W and car thank you copy of discussion points you want to introduce yourself sure I mean I know who you are but people out in public don't same thing okay right so I'd like to thank the board for um allowing us some time to talk about the sliping street infrastructure Improvement project my name is Arthur lentus I'm a project manager with wood Kern I was the uh project manager that led the design for this infrastructure Improvement project and I have Carol Harris here as well good evening gentlemen thank you for having us here I'm Carol Harris also with Woodard and Karin I'm the client manager for the for the town of aush I've been working with a push for many years um Kevin has been through many projects with Kevin and it's nice to see the new members on the board thank you very much thank you I'm going to let art make the presentation so I give you a handout um of just some of the uh just to kind of highlight the overview of the project and the design and what it includes um on the second sheet um the project area is um mainly or the majority of the work is being done on slum Street um on the west end of the project is uh it's boarded by the kushit River on the East end it's uh boarded by uh South Main Street includes a little bit of the intersection in South Main and um then there's a little bit of work that goes into each of the side streets coming off of um slen Street just to be able to reconnect to some of the existing utilities um um the work is uh being done to upgrade some of the uh aging infrastructure in slen street there's an existing uh water main that's over 100 years old it's cast line it's undersized we're going to upgrade that from a 6 to a 12 in um the existing drainage system is also undersized um and there's really not a lot of uh inlets for uh storm water get into the system at all um so we're going to provide additional inlets and increased capacity and then um the roadway itself is um you know got some issues as well uh the sidewalks are kind of in a failing condition there's really no curb reveal um there's uh the pavement starting to fail um so the improvements are going to include uh constructing new sidewalks adding curb um and new pavement and then delineating parking the water main improvements themselves there's about 2400 linear feet um there's a there's a l a feed that comes in from New Bedford um across the kushit river we're going to connect to that feed and extend a 12 in up slum Street um replace the intersection the water man in the intersection of South Main Street with 12 in and reconnect to the 10 in that's there so that you guys will have a brand new 12-in main running up and uh it can serve as a a secondary feed or a better secondary feed from uh from New Bedford um as part of as part of that work uh we'll connect all the side streets with new 8in ductal iron Main and add new control valves at those intersections where we're connecting and also along the main line so there's not a lot of uh isolation control right now so DBW has a hard time kind of isolating the area so this will provide an improvement there all the hydrants that are in the area will be replaced as part of the work like along slum Street and then the water services themselves will be replaced from the main to the curb stop which is just a valve out kind of right near the property line just before uh just kind of at the back of the sidewalk essentially for the storm drain improvements themselves um the existing system is a a combination of like 10 and 10 through 24 in pipe we tried to video it um we had limited success a lot of the reason is because there's not a lot of access to it it can't be maintained there's a lot of debris in it we were having a hard time cleaning it out but what we could see we saw broken pipe uh we saw a lot of issues and then when we got a hold of some drawings that showed what the uh you know what the pipe sizes are and did an evaluation it's undersiz so um we did a uh we did an evaluation of the existing system with four different storms um uh storm conditions and uh decided um that the 10e storm is uh the one to design to and that does meet the uh sdot standards so that's what this is designed to it's designed to a 10-year storm event uh which is essentially about just a little under but about uh 5 in of water over a 24-hour period um the existing system itself there's only two inlets or I'm sorry three inlets up near I uh naav and then a couple of catch basins down by uh River Street um so we're going to add a bunch to try and capture some of that water that's coming down the hill we're planning on installing 27 additional uh catch Basin along the way and uh 18 new manhole structures so that there's plenty of um access to this so that it can be properly maintain going for and inspected as far as the roadway improvements go um they're the the post or the design has us um Excavating the sidewalks on the north and south side of Slum Street um replacing them with new concrete sidewalks adding Granite curve to the whole run um installing uh you don't currently have at most intersections that we released any handicap accessible ramps so all those will be incorporated into this uh new project um the road it's going to be reclaimed so the pavement is going to be ground up it's going to be regraded um so that we can get some curve reveal because there's really not a lot there um and then once the um once that road has been graded it'll be repaved and then striped and on the south side of the uh the road where a lot of people just kind of like Park up on the sidewalk we're actually going to um stripe out designated or parking stalls um I know it's probably not really visible from your handout um I did bring some uh this is I don't I don't know that'll show that these are the uh these are the plans just to show kind of the one that's work so it's just bringing you know redoing the pavement in here all of this work in here is new sidewalks um these green areas are really just how we're going to blend back into uh The Yards cuz there's going to be a little bit of damage as you excavate that so we'll restore that and it just goes up slum Street all the way way up to um up to South Main Street and the side blocks will end right in right at the intersection there and then this is just to cover up or to pave over some of the water Ming work that we're doing in that area as far as uh anticipated schedule that's um obviously dependent on whether the project that's awarded um and it also is dependent on some of the things from the contractor as far as um you know when they can get materials in how they're looking to phase it um certain things like that but we are anticipating if uh the project gets awarded by September or in time for construction to begin in September the water man improvements will be constructed this year um and then the uh storm Jan improvements will probably happen in the spring of next year towards towards the summer be completed around that time frame then they'll start the roadway restoration work and that'll probably carry from the summer through the fall and it'll be done next fall excellent so like me gas I know um you had a massive hand in putting this together which I very much appreciate um and I know you spent a lot of time going through specs and making sure this fit the standards that we needed it to feel pretty comfortable with it yeah I think it's uh you know it's probably the biggest most important in my opinion project infrastructure project that this town has seen over the last couple of decades um it's very much needed to upgrade that main line from the city new beff there as some of our other ones would need to be done eventually in the future as well but SL Street those residents have been looking at a project and talking about this as most of them that I've spoken to for anywhere between 2 and three decades so it it's it's time the town take the initiative to do this roadway um this sidewalks in the roadway are complete and utter disaster you gentlemen know you drive up and down the street it's just it's it's it's dangerous there's a lot of seniors that live in that area in this Village area that use the sidewalks Unfortunately they can't use the sidewalks cuz the condition they in and the water main as at had mentioned is actually 115 years old um and God knows what that looks like right and I've talked about this several years back that the town has roughly 43,000 ft of 100y old plus water pipe in the ground so is it sexy is it you know what everybody wants to see no infrastructure projects never are i' I know that a lot of people in the community have read seen articles in other states and other cities and towns of water main breaks in a complete another disaster it creates within a municipality so good for us if we can get this through town meeting um and get this project rolling um it's a significant upgrade as I I mentioned too upsizing the water main for additional development possibly in that area um and further Upland into different neighborhoods so it's something that's very much needed to have that additional water capacity and the stone drain issue is again a complete another disaster it's long overdue um I'm delighted I would hope that town meeting supports this project at town meeting on June 17th um we have a substantial amount of funding from Opa um we have a letter that you just noted um that Mr W worked on with Mr mig's office I've spoke with rep um Schmid's office those letters will all be in conjunction and hopefully we'll get that additional $1.5 million free lease from transportation B in the article that we have for town meeting for the borrowing we won't we won't need to utilize so um that's my hope um I think it's the board's hope that we don't need to do any kind of borrowing the D the project and I would say 90% of that project will be done without taxpayer dollars so even better internal taxpayer dollars right I think that's the key um so with that said I mean I'm long over do like like I said I can't wait hopefully everything's approved and I can't wait to give those folks what they've been looking for for such a long time which is actual curbing sidewalks for everybody to be able to walk down to the river park um and visit and just do their little tour and Laps we do have a lot of sidewalk infrastructure in this center of town so it would be great to complement it down to the riverfront and uh like I said hopefully this project is is accepted at town meeting because that's where it needs to be accepted there that borrowing article but I I I'm going to advise everybody at town meeting that it's we we would hope not to have to utilize a borrowing article right and if we get that $1.5 million Transportation Bond built I don't think we'll need to borrow anything thanc so that would be a huge plus yeah Mr chairman so Kevin thank you for your work on this um I mean personally for the presentation I would like to have seen like what an after would look like you know I know you guys have probably capability to do that um you know we worked on the Wood Street on the bridge you know the slop Street bridge I would like to personally I don't know if you got to explored it but the Aesthetics of that carried up with ornamental lights or something along those lines I mean I would be disappointed if it was just a very vanilla you know outcome um I think there's always opportunities to put a little bit of shine on something especially a project of this magnitude if we can make make it look you know above and beyond just a cookie cutter I don't know if you've explored that or not um but you know I guess it would have been nice to see in the present the final presentation what it could look like or would look like and and we would be able to do that if you would like we could prepare something for you to either put on your website prior to town meeting or go for town I think so at least for me I'm a visual learner you know like I'm a in fact we're going to say if you would like to put this presentation on the website we can forward it to uh Jamie tomorrow and and you could put that on the website for informational purposes for preparation for town meeting I look at you know what what was done in new bed fromom all cogs all Street by Antonio it's kind of the same Vibe right this telephone polls we know that but they I think they did a really nice job of making that look aesthetically pleasing um so that would be you know if I had any input on that is when it's all set and done we we so we did have um conversations about um underground utilities get rid of the the lines but urce when we were talking to them it's crazy crazy crazy money so we could explore that you know different kind of poll setups they're more ornamental in nature versus you know actually carrying out the electrical but something to give it just a nice whether it's at the entrances or you know something to give it a little bit of pizzazz and I'm sure you've worked on projects like that um be great we could surely have that dialogue would we have a good relationship with with a gentleman from urce so we could surely have that dialogue with them um once we figure out what it is that we're we're looking to do maybe we can get other source to help us out with the project right as far as the street lighting and power lines go and things of the like right to keep this within a budget that was the difficult part we did get some favorable bids thank goodness the overall number that was originally put out by woodwood and current um as they will tell you I kind of jumped out of my seat and I don't see that kind of a price tag right it's just ludicrous right now what everything costs and they don't and they don't control that I was delighted to see some of the bids come in and again like I said I don't want to have to do a borrowing I never want to do borrowing we got a great track record of doing things in this town without borrowing right big project stuff um without doing borrowings I'd like to try to continue that trend on behalf of the taxpayers of a cushion it so but everything's everything's and what the nice part about slum Street in the water M like I said there's nothing sexy about a pipe that lays on the ground and nobody can see until you have a contamination problem right or water main breake problem the nice thing about this project is we've communicated with woodw covering that every side street will have a upsize spigot going out we'll dig what what what you say like 10 12 feet into each side street what yeah we're carrying it at least it's it's on average about 25 30 ft into each each side so that's that upssize pipe will be there they'll be put in so that in the future we don't need to go back to slen Street and stop playing around with a brand new road brand new sidewalks that was all pre-planned not mention the hydrants that are on the south side now where we do allow pocking which we know when winter time comes pocking bands and everything else I've had a conversation with them there's actually two hydrants that were easily able to relocate just around the corner on the side streets eliminates that no pocking band for the folks on slm Street I kind of forewarn them is do you realize how bad we would look as a board if we told everybody you can't park on that side of the road anymore cuz there was discussion about changing the side of the road we we've been doing I told them we've been doing this for decades you can't do that to the folks on slm street and we decided it's simple enough relocate the hydrants around the corner right 50 ft and have a nice day they still easily accessible for Fire Department emergency services um that's all Incorporated in the project so I I think it's a great project um I agree with SEL Anda that maybe we can do some different things to make it look a little bit aesthetically a little bit nicer um we'll try to figure that out on our end right now moving forward right before they get too deep into the construction with sidewalks you said that's summertime next year right yeah I mean they'll they'll definitely be working on the Underground infrastructure before they hit that so excellent excellent I like how each Street's going to have its own shut off too so in like you said in the future if we do have to update any of the side streets it's easily accessible and we don't have to have the DPW running up and down the street looking for a shut off we had a major water water main break on SAU Street probably 18 months ago um winter months I believe it was in the winter months anyway no snow underground but winter months and it was a major water main break and I remember showing up on site and we had DPW staff running around the neighborhood every side street trying to hit gate vals the ra Frozen and you can't shut down water supply and then what happens when you find something your way out in timb 2 and now you've just shut down two or 300 homes versus 50 or 60 homes that were the problem occurs right that's why all of our stubs go into side streets they'll have brand new shut off valves if something happens in a side neighborhood you can easily just shut that one off and shut down that portion of the neighborhood we'll figure that looping out with Dan and we'll work with the DPW director on future gate valve Replacements and water infrastructure Replacements but this is stop of a much bigger thing I believe for the town of aush I agree good work any else gent nothing that's I I have a question like my my what I'm listening to is the storm drains I just need you to uh say your name and your address for record I'm sorry Cindy sella halfway Road perfect I work for an environmental company and we've done work for wood and C it just happened to be here tonight but um the storm drains all the pollution that had gone into cleaning up the Kush River you know what I mean like you saying I agree cleaning it up that makes sense so the flow doesn't go back into the river at some point and contaminate it again absolutely that was a lot of work a lot of work well the Basin the outflow is underneath of the bridge right and that's why you heard art say about the additional basins in the additional manholes because we don't have sufficient basins and manholes to get in and start cleaning those drains out so all of that debris is getting into the river exactly right it's being forced and it's a lot of it been clogged up but that pipe's been in the ground for God knows how long 30 40 50 years right at least now we have a way to get into the storm system and maintain the cleanliness of it one it'll it'll prevent flooding future flooding right and two it'll keep that River cleaner absolutely it's part of our ms4 permit that we do storm based cleaning and that's exactly what we'll be able to do is we'll be able to get in there and clean those basins out before that debris and garbage really gets down into the river so it's it serves multiple purposes getting that slokum street car done was impressed to see that many with storm drains it is needed excellent right well thank you both very much I appreciate it with Jamie about getting a copy of this yeah go forward that and um would you like some type of a rendering that you can post on the website also we would yeah I think that would help for us to post it on our website and then also maybe we'll do some kind of a little pod thing at the in the hallway at town meeting that'll show a little bit of that some pictures of what it looks like now what it's going to look like then give people an idea right thank you very much you're welome thank you thank you next on the agenda golf two greens Triplex mowers review of matters presented votes may be t uh taken we have Mr tibles here hi Steve good evening thank you for uh having me this evening um I don't know I think it was back in December of 20121 at a golf Comm meting we discussed operating of equipment um in particular our greens triplexes um we came across that uh opportunity in June actually June 8th of 2022 um the items on the agenda this evening are the two actual triplexes that are ready for delivery uh the golf committee um met and decided that they would like to pursue a fiveyear dollar buyout lease for these two items and they asked me to come for you today and request that they that um be the way in which these were um financed slash paid for um it is in uh was included in the 2025 budget um actually was included in the 2024 budget because we had been given indication that they would have been delivered in August of 2023 but unfortunately that got delayed till this June the tenative delivery date is June 17th okay Monday after Father's Day all right so uh if you don't mind Mr J just one quick so these are indeed the ones that we've been talking about for a couple years yes they're um we have we have two different types of triplexes um for two different cutting purposes um we have two triplexes that we use to cut collars and approaches um and T's uh those triplexes are set at a specific height and then we use two triplexes to cut greens which are set at a different height these particular units are um hybrid units the real Motors are um electric which eliminates uh a significant amount of hydraulic hosing in the opportunity for hydraulic leaks um and they're charged through the uh the electric motors are run through the alternating system on the triplexus Mr chairman yes sir we talked about this a little while back I think to stepen I don't remember if it was because we've done quite a bit of purchases of equipment over the last few years was this one the one that we talked about I think it was Mr Flynn was here from the golf committee chair of the golf Comm we talked about not Leasing and purchasing or and you're saying now that the leases were built into the fiscal 20124 budget and that's been built into the 2025 budget for leasing so my question would be is what are the what's the cost of the two Triplex mowers that we're looking to purchase now and what's the cost of the lease over the 5e if it's a 5year lease plan what is the interest cost and what's the additional cost to a Triplex mower so if a Triplex mow is 30 grand if we lease for 5 years is an additional five or 10 grand in lease and interest cost which would equate to 10 or 20 grand in interest payments CU that's a bad deal the uh the cost for the two units um as quoted is 12,403 so each unit is approximately $60,000 a piece um the breakdown for payment um they give you a you could choose a monthly payment system which would have been $2,466 a month um after discussing that we looked at a single annual payment which because of the financing cost of money would save us a little bit the single annual payment is 28,600 over the 5year period 28,000 what 28,600 so if you take 28600 and multiply it by five you look at 143,000 total so about $22,000 in interest 20,000 21,000 right in interest mhm I believe when um the that's like 20% interest um um I don't have 121 at 10% is 12 Grand right days so we're doing that I think it's in [Music] here I have the percentage per se in these documents um but that was the um that was the term for the dollar the dollar buy are both machines needed having two brand new triplexes or would what the deal with the two that we're using now the age of the we have actually well we have three triplexes that we use to cut greens with now one is um I believe 28 years old it's a diesel John Deere Triplex the other is 19 and I believe the other is 15 um and we're going to be trading in those three units um and replacing those three with these two what what what do you know what the trade in value is on those three machines for all three of them is it 5 really there's not a real significant tradein value on them because of their age what we're going to possibly be able to do with them is um Toro will take them to auction and anything they get over $100 gets returned to us but a 28-year-old John Deere diesel Triplex is going to get you much of anything neither is the 22y old um they don't make parts for a lot that's one of the reasons why we decided to uh replace them as we having a difficult time getting parts and major things we're wearing out such as hydraulic motors such as hydraulic pumps and so on right I was just trying to figure out if the traded value would knock off some of the interest costs right um but it doesn't there's not a significant residual value in the ones that we're trading into uh to have that type of impact on uh on the financing costs the golf committee have consider selling things outright ourselves um as Surplus equipment we do the topic didn't come up specifically um you could try to sell them yourself um again I you know this is just my opinion but I don't see too many people out there having an interest in those machines at their age the other problem with those machines is those machines are cutting with a 9 or 11 bladed reel now you're cutting because of the the lowering of heights you're now cutting with 14 and 15 in re or 15 14 to 15 bladed reels so you can get with you know a closer clip rate you can cut lower you can get a finer cut to know I don't believe they even make 14 or 15 bladed reels for those new uh older machines so not only would they you know if they were trying to upgrade it you'd be buying something this not going to be able to give you the performance you want out of um and be able to make you compete with so the deal is a 5year lease yes at the end of the 5year lease we buy each one of those those two triplexes for a buck and we own them forever yeah okay thank you Mr chair I press you know I'm I'm I'm like you I'm not a big financing person but this was the uh direction that the golf committee wanted to go so I told them I'd be more happy to come and present it second cover it is there a motion to approve to Green stylex for the golf committee for a 5year lease with a $11 buy up so moved second all those in favor all right Mr TI can you do the board of favor and put together a list of over the like the last 5 years seven years 10 years whatever you can do I know you're pretty good at keeping track of everything that we've done can you put a list together of everything that we've boughten everything I can give you a list for the past well how long have I been here 20 well 23 I so so like the last five or 10 years right put a put together years yeah a capital list of things that we' purchased I I have some some information but I can go down and talk to you about I just I'd like to see that I mean spending a lot of money on equipment I understand some of his agent but I also understand that we desperately need a clubhouse so we can't be blowing um all of our money that's in reserve because I think we need to start talking about that and saying how much of that Reserve do we fund towards a clubhouse well I I I agree um it's you know I'm you know I'll be the first one to admit that I'm the expense Center um I spend money so we can make money um and what I've been trying to do um is to keep us competitive and keep us to where we're not you know spending significant amounts of money on equipment repair um things and technology and the industry are changing so quickly that in order for us to keep up to keep our Competitive Edge we have to make that decision whether it be a you know three-year um equipment rotation either or a 5-year equipment rotation but you have to keep that I don't want to call it momentum but you have to keep that progress moving forward if you want to if you want to continue to compete and and and uh beat other people in your Market but I will have that uh put together that list for you and um and have that available I probably can do it off the top of my head but it's good we're done people here I think I think you can put that list together for the board and we can look at it and we have a lot more discussions just driving me insane that we've talked about a clubhouse I know I've mentioned a clubhouse before probably 10 years ago right and it's fallen on deaf ear um and I don't like what I see and I think we need to take a change of course for the golf course no pun intended um and move in a different direction right and that's up to this board right here to make that decision okay so thank you thank you thank you Mr tibles next up we have a press release from senator montney uh select wner um you like to speak I just to bring this to your attention um that this legislation uh it's being considered that was passed by the Senate it's going to go over to the house which would essentially prevent municipalities from stealing the equity of people whose homes are in tax title you know owed taxes to the that's what happens in a number of municipalities is they'll go up to auction and they'll keep all the money right so they'll pay off the debt debt but then the municipality keeps the auction you know keeps the money that's generated at the auction uh there's been law there's been court cases that have said that's essentially illegal so Senator Mony is working on that uh in the legislature but I think as a municipality I'm proud of the fact that we haven't been that heavy-handed I think the most recent last couple years we had close to I think it was a half a million dollars in unpaid taxes um we put out notice after notice after notice and I think we Mr Kelly from close to being correct you almost collected 100% of that correct it's about 49,000 that's outst right so I think you know as a town good for us for not taking that heavy-handed approach and I think you know whether it's water shut offs or uh abatements for you know medical um we've been I think really good about giving people the benefit of the the doubt and trying to make it work you know we see what's going on with with the governor and you know Emergency Shelters in people you know try to address homelessness which I think is amazing but keeping people in the homes that they own is probably the best defense against homelessness and people requiring Emergency Shelters so I just wanted to bring that to the board's attention and say thank you to Senator Mony for for taking this important uh step for this legislation agree I think a big part of that too is like you had mentioned to go from a half million doll to 49 is is a pretty significant collection and these people did indeed get to stay in their house and that's huge because a lot of the issues we're dealing with and the residents of this town are dealing with have to do with not being able to afford a lot of things right and there's no reason to take what's left if you don't have to you know it's un necessary we've done we've done some incredible work with our residents um as Mr La has alluded to over the years steming all the way back to I believe it was 2015 where we've created a program soan Warner and I were on the board back then we created a program where it's it's you can't afford to pay off the full amount and we're going to work with you over a longer term plan you can pay us off small dollar amounts to get to that goal right um and it was a very successful program back then and I'm 100% support of this this letter because it's it' be a shame that that's what people are actually trying to do right I I don't even know if it's legal for them to do it but hopefully with this letter and reading through it not anymore if it was correct stop excellent some good news uh gentlemen next we have a couple more vacation carryover requests uh looks like we have three total three yeah one was added at the last minute um five minutes before the meeting did you get yeah I think I'm looking at that one but nice just see it [Music] early Mr Kelly am I reading each individual employe employee or just going through the Departments I just read read the name okay and uh what they're they're requesting either buy out or roll over okay or both or either or yep okay uh so the first one is a dispatcher named Jesse Gomes uh is requesting to carry over 40 hours of vacation time to fiscal year 25 and motion to approve Jesse GES 40 hour carry over y all those in favor I and next one is Chief Richmond motion to buy out 40 hours of vacation time second all those in favor right [Music] and last one is Andy babola is requesting 10 days of vacation time carryover uh but he does want to note that five of those days will be used on the 2 so 72 through 79 uh it has been difficult to take time off as he has been involved in the operation of the department for 5 months without a clerk and 5 months training a new clerk so he has requested carrying over 10 days of vacation time [Music] do you have money to carry over one week and buy the other week motion to carry over one week cuz he's going to use it effective immediately and motion to buy out one week for Mr B second all those in favor [Music] all uh next item execute legal settlement agreement review of matters presented votes may be taken town of aush and aush solar LLC and town of aush and cushion solar LLC Woodbridge Renewables LLC Mr Kelly uh the litigation involves uh two projects that are uh one uses access through another there was litigation between some of the abuts and the solar companies as far as access to the sites through a road there was a determination was asked through the landport uh we saw no reason to stay in the litigation because it really didn't involve the town it involved involved the abuts and the solar companies and our attorneys have reached this agreement where uh individuals that were involved in it are still involved in it but the town itself is removed excellent just need a motion to accept I need a motion to execute both the gr so move second all those in favor thing to get out of legal all right You' been nice enough to get into it yeah Mr Gish you you just what I was thinking is right so what's the lesson learned of these two things right to make sure that whoever you know was it we getting too heavy-handed what was the what was the reason for it and so we can make sure that we're not repeating this again we were involved in it because we're a regulatory body and a lawyer uh representing the solar company's litigated against everybody that's the problem it really didn't involve us it's a land owner versus landowner uh issue uh so we ended up having separate discussions with the attorneys involved and we were able to come to an agreement to remove us from the uh litigation there was also allegations that uh people were being uh encouraged to sue so we made sure that the encouragers and the town were separate okay think planning board conservation now um from dialogue I've had from each of them chairman um they're both very respectful individuals they get it um I've had numerous conversations over different kinds of litigation that the town's been being subject to in kind of given the pep talk um so say it is you know let's try to be work a little bit more friendly with certain people instead of just taking it to the I mean if we're in the right we're in the right right we we stand heavy ground on that and that's planning board meaning planning board and conservation I think some this a lot of this stuff stems back years right some of this stuff and you know the new the chairman M frw from planning Ryan rend's from concom they got a pretty good handle I'm very confident in both of them being champ of those two committees and boards that they have a good handle on how we move forward right I said you know we we need to get rid of that clean the slate and and let's have a new vision moving forward where you know we just we we do what's right but we don't take our executive powers too far right that's that's kind of what I try to demonstrate with them and I think they got a really good handle on it right if they if they feel strongly about something then we'll go to bat with you right but if not Let It Go I also think a big benefit is the fact that both Jamon Francois and Jamon rendes have vocally said that they're working hand inand on pretty much any project that could affect an outcome that could turn bad and I working hand inand with two regulatory bodies you know is very important especially when there's Wetlands involved when there's putting that platform together right we talked about it a while back I said it's one we don't need to create the wheel and spend tens of thousands of dollars it's a piece of paper with a checklist that everybody needs to look at and everybody needs to say okay this is what it is I think we put something together um it's a little bit more than a one sheet of paper but it gives somebody an idea when they come in what they need to do right in planning board shouldn't be given final approval on any project until it's gone through that checklist corre and everybody signs off and they understand what is required from everybody then planning board would say okay we're done everybody's good have a nice day final approval right but when you got one organization given final approval before they've gone through the Ringo DBW whether there be water sewer connections conservation building department whatever it may be you know the cops getting in front of the horse all the time and that's what creates this kind of litigation and problems for us the town and quite honestly you know i' I've told them and I've told numerous people in the town the border of selectman control Town Council right so if it doesn't stop the border of Select will make it stop M that's that's absolutely with buck stops is with us right so it's our budget we'll we'll determine where we're going to be spending on Town Council what we're going to defend and what we're not going to defend so just do your best not to create conflict in in in litigation I think both been tremendous in in understanding that and working with proponents of all different developments so commun kudos to we're in the process of discussing uh four other litigation where we're looking to do the similar type of thing and get rid of both chairman and Town Council been working with my office also uh Mr Sullivan at the planning board developed not only that list but we've got a consensus that uh we're not going to have intermittent constant enforcement where you tell somebody something's wrong and they fix it and then they come back and then you say oh no but this is wrong too so we're getting to the point where someone will come in and they'll have an evaluation of the whole project not these dance of a th000 cup yeah we don't need to drag it out six or seven meetings and you know having spent a good amount of time at other board meetings it's this is a violation this is a violation in past practice and you could just see that frustration leads to situations like this so absolutely and and Paul Sullivan he I was over in planning today he he cleaned that office up incredibly super organized and I think that's a big part of it too being able to just pull files and and go for it reference them I think should be pretty smooth sailing if we stick well as Mr Gasper said it's a whole new roster Personnel yep stop fresh excellent uh next one uh gentlemen we have fiber optics and cameras review of matters presented votes may be taken um it has asked asked us to put some new policy in place for the town um essentially this streamlines now that you know that we have five are pretty much everywhere in town um it's a lot easier having everything under one umbrella um but we'd like to insert some new policy for the town it reads any and all networking devices are considered sole ownership of the town of Acushnet therefore any damaged manipulation obstruction or alteration of said devices will be subject to disciplinary action including but not limited determination of employment or legal action the IT department under jurisdiction of the Town reserves the right to block or disconnect any device that is determined not to belong to the town's intermal network of which may cause interference with other devices or pose as a security threat the IT department is allowed to access any location that houses a network device in town notice will be given to employees prior when access to networking equipment is needed and the devices may include routers firewalls switches Bridges access points Access Control Systems phones printers computers and servers cameras and any device connected via Ethernet or Wi-Fi is there a motion to adopt this policy so move second all those in favor I Mr chairman yes sir if I if I could do an announcement on behalf of it um I've gotten a a brief summary from RIT um Nick Tony um and I know Lucas helps us out it says I am happy to announce that the town of a cushion has been awarded $229,800 50,000 for the fiscal year 2024 Community compact Municipal fiber grant program this is a very competitive Grant as all cities and towns across the entire Commonwealth are able to apply for it the second round of award funding was marked as a cushion it phase two for closing the town's wide Municipal fiber Loop for redundancy we will be continuing from the current endpoint on Main Street at the golf course picking up the long Plane Museum fire station number two running down Lake Street to provide security surveillance and public Wi-Fi then looping back to the schools on Middle Road to complete the town's Loop we are also running a lateral to the tower on pekam road which shall provide a physical connection to all public safety buildings for radio communications the community compact Grant requires a 5% local contribution however thanks to previously funded article for it capital and infrastructure we already earm mared the $1,492 40 causing no extra strain on the town's current budgetary state so I just wanted to reach out to the IT department kudos to everybody involved that's involved with the gr writing Nick Tony Lucas helps with the installation I don't want to if I believe in anybody out those are the three names that I know off the top of my head um it's a great project I know that we're looking forward to doing some security surveillance also at Lake Street keeping an eye out over there adding WiFi over there um it's they've secured just under a half a million dollars in two years and it budget so congratulations to that staff I'm extremely proud of you young gentlemen working on behalf of the town of aush and this how does you have to secure these grants couldn't have done it without these grants so kudos to that team that's pretty excellent job uh next item of business um I don't think Dan and Kathy are going to make it for this one um I can touch base on sure so P Paving and grass um Mr Gasper if you'd like to discuss some Paving so we just put in I know that we put a spending freeze in however Keen Road is something that's been under the construction in my opinion far too long I've spoken with Dan he's got enough money left which is not a lot left that's been pre-approved by the board to raise the surface of the road finish off the storm drain system on Keen Road it's probably like 15gs I think we approved that in the past right to get that project done and over with I had a conversation with of my metal at Keen Road we are now going to put in a 6-in overflow pipe from the Basin that was installed we're going to run it up Kean road to woodduck where there's a storm Basin we can connect to that then it goes out flows into the river Dan needs a little bit of money which he's only got a little bit of money left I think he said there's like 7,000 left in his Road materials line item that was anticipated for the project so I would just ask um that we're allowed to to continue and finish that up before years's end and expend the road paving line item in the road materials line item in the dpw's budget to finish off Keen Road and what we're going to do is we got enough money just to put the pipe bu the saw cut where we've um ground up the road and and regraded the road and then when the new fiscal year comes up we'll extend it the Le rest of the way up um Keen to hit that pipe but I want to get him outside of the paved area so we can finish Paving that off and make that right cuz it's been sitting here for far too long and I've heard a lot of residents complain and I'm trying to address the residents concerns absolutely yeah so is there a motion to allow the DPW to expend road paving and Road materials in their budg second I'm sorry all those in favor I it's good it should have said I'll make a motion but thank you Mr it was a long year I know thank you Mr chairman you're welcome um and I don't know what's up with grass grass actually I was going to touch base um we we're we're trying to avoid having um the younger kids out on Lake Street cutting the grass and I was driving by Saturday and they must have read my mind because they were doing it Saturday uh we were going to talk about lak Street and just making sure we didn't have the younger kids in the street trimming up stuff like that but they did do it uh technically uh they for landscaping around the buildings and as far as uh any grass cutting along the roadways like uh further along the entrance way to the library Etc uh I've talked to our insurance company and it's supposed to be the DPW that Tes it yeah so moving forward I would I would if possible I would like a motion to have the DPW take care of the grass along Lake street or in the parking lot area there just for insurance reasons and safety purposes and along any other guard rails thr corre I mean they already handle that for you know they go down and they do their their trimming of the roadways I think that it warrants a conversation with the DPW director on what are we doing with all our rout roadways like the main car is right we so we don't have the employe that was was operating the John de side boom MOA that would cut all the brush in the high grass on the we'll call it sidewalk area which I know people at home laugh when I call it sidewalks cuz it's not sidewalks but they're grass sidewalks and we have high grass all down Middle Road by the the new library Mr Kelly just mentioned it that needs to be done I don't know if we have anybody else within the DPW that's trained to use the side boom MOA so that's a conversation we need to have with the before we do anything we'll just sit down with Dan things weed whackers instead us case you can't cut the GU rail with a side Bove moment right so that's that's legit I'm more concerned about what the roadways look like right and having that we haven't I haven't seen the side Bo go out so I just I can have the conversation Mr Kelly whatever we need to find out if we don't have somebody who's trained to use the side boom mower anymore then we need to figure out who we're training and put them back in that side boom stop cutting grass around the town cuz it really is disturbing Mr Kelly can you reach out to Dan and uh have a discussion about that point sure thank you I can sit in what if you like J uh SEL let me know uh I'll let Mr War go first us if he's got anything I don't have anything all right well as always um this time of the year I will say congratulations to the graduating class of 2024 you've made it um contribute to society as best as you can and to all the dads out there I want to say Happy Father's Day absolutely be safe all right and I have nothing our next meeting Mr chairman oh yes sir on the next meeting we're going to do the appointments list correct and we're going to do the transfers end of year transfers that we need to do that's a long me we're not going to put anything else on it when is the next meeting sir June 24th oh we got a little little oh little spring break here in between town meeting yeah I didn't want to do a meeting the day after town meeting uh Mr chair Mr chairman I will post a meeting before town meeting just in case any emergency item comes up so we can take care of that before town meeting yeah we usually do that 6 6:00 6:30 whatever you want to do just in casee there's anything Flags out need a motion to adjourn Mr chairman have executive session um I think you took care of it with the policy okay yep so we can skip over the Executive session motion to adjourn second all those in favor I we are journ [Music] [Music]