##VIDEO ID:YKLSPlcFQ4c## [Music] everyone today is Tuesday November 19th 2024 it is 4 P.M this is a meeting of the board of selectman along with a joint meeting with the golf committee as our motion to call the board of Selectmen meeting to order so moved second all those in favor all right and golf committee if you'd like to call your meeting to order is a motion to call the golf committee meeting to order I make a motion second all in favor all right this meeting will be audio and video recorded please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to Republic it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all all right we have the ngf golf presentation at this point I'd like to turn it over to Mr Clint over there you can do the introductions sure good evening as we're aware you know last year we had the National Golf Foundation come in and do an operational Business review of the golf course a little bit of History way back in the '90s when the town was thinking of even developing and building the course was the National Golf Foundation along with Mr singer here from the National Golf foundation and even made the recommendations the initial report to build the course so now that we thought approximately 25 years later as we get ready for the next 25 years why not bring them in get their independent third party review of how they think we're doing where we are and where we can set ourselves up to go for the next 25 years so they've done their report he was on site for a few days did a lot of interviews with Dana and Steve in the operations looking back at the past years of financial performance and rounds played Etc review of the conditions of the overall course and amenities if you want to call it that around it and he's got a presentation for us here tonight so here's Mr Richard sing thank you thank you Richard singer from National Golf foundation and yes I have been with the National Golf foundation for more than 30 almost 35 years so I was around and was part of the team that did the uh the work for town of aush it back in 1997 so uh we it's it's nice to see it all come together like this um I know that a lot of you are meeting me for the first time and it's great to be here and to be able to meet all of you and even though you're meeting me for the first time I can certainly tell you that you all have been a big part of my life for the last year and a half or so through hurricanes and heat waves and elections and everything here I am and I'm just I'm just glad to be here and to be able to to have time with you um as chair chman hinley said uh you know I'm I'm the golf guy right so I'm I'm I'm here and um part of it also is you know welcome to my world I mean this is what we do at National Golf Foundation now um the department that I that I manage um I know that you all you know you know the Acushnet River Valley Golf Club I mean that's your that's your facility but my life is going all around the country working with municipalities who have golf courses to help them understand get their arms around the asset understand what you have and understand what it's capable of what it's not capable of um and some of the best practices and things that work things that don't work and and help you really plan for the next 25 years of the future of this facility and I think that's really what this has to be all about um the main thing that we wanted to point out to you as as in bold there is that you know we're independent I'm not trying to sell you any other service I don't design golf courses we don't design club houses build club houses we don't manage golf courses we are Al an independent consultant um and the best uh what's best for the uh the town of Acushnet and what's best for the aush River Valley Golf Club is really what we're ultimately all about in in our work what you hired us to do was a strategic review um of the of this facility and recognizing that it's turning 25 years old and that uh you know some planning for the future needs to take place and to think about some of the the key infrastructure pieces of the facility um that may need to be addressed we helped you analyze the physical and economic condition of the facility you know a little bit about the market environment within which you operate um and basically help you with a pathway to economic success I mean ultimately when we look at municipal golf courses as we do and it's a big part of what we do ultimately we don't want to burden the taxpayer of a cush it I mean I think you want to put your best foot forward with a municipal golf facility to be able to show the community that we're operating it as best we can and um we're setting it up for long-term success I think that's that's the key um modernizing the facility keeping up with the times I think is a is an important piece of that um what we found is is certainly a lot of very positive things I mean this is a popular golf course it's a great layout um it's flexible you know you can you I don't care if you're you know you think you're woods and you're ready to be on the PGA tour or if you're a beginner and you've never picked up a club before in your life I think that this facility sets up for you um with the way that it's organized and the te positions and all of that I think it's very flexible it's the ideal for a public golf course to be that way something for everyone is the phrase I believe I used in the in the report um it's a good location you know easy access from a wide geographic area you get a lot of play from all over New England from what from everything that everybody's been telling me um you know C a well-managed facility um but it's got a small staff and a small footprint of staff and um you know it it provides limited appeal when it comes to some of the ancillary amenities the food and beverage facility is lagging behind and you don't really have the support services that other public golf courses have um the carts are stored Outdoors open to the elements um and there's a small driving range limited practice amenities so a great golf course but with limited support amenities that don't really match and I think that that's something we you know we certainly wanted to see the facility is in good condition uh but the clubhouse you know it's a it's a 25-year-old temporary trailer it was not really designed to be in place for this long um I don't know I mean i' I've heard the word condemnation thrown around I'm not an inspector I can't say that but I certainly see some things that if you look at it um you know there there are some issues there that probably going to have to be addressed sooner or later um we identified some capital projects that um needed to be addressed both on the course and with your um Support Services on the golf course um you know some some issues such as te's cart paths bunkers the the lake Banks I mean I looked at it again today um it looks better in some of these areas but I think a few of these issues still remain I mean it's not very comfortable driving around that golf course on those cart paths it's teeth chattering um and it's and a lot of and as a result of that a lot of golfers don't want to ride on the cart paths they're going to ride on the golf course where it's a little smoother and that causes some other damage to the facility um I think that's certainly something you want to address a couple of bunkers looked really you know kind of ragged uh in a couple of places and although the lake Banks look better today than they did when we were here last year um I think it may be because the water level is lower um so that that might be uh contributing to that the other items the big ones the 7 or $8 million $85 million um line items that relates to redoing or adding a new Clubhouse or or as I would probably better phrase it a golf service support building um does it necessarily have to be a true Clubhouse in the sense of a club but a golf service support building with an appropriate Pro Shop appropriate seating area for people after golf to sit enjoy um consume beverages snacks whatever um and also to properly store your carts um provide adequate and appropriate restrooms which doesn't really exist there now uh I think all of those things are certainly needed um we had estimated that uh you have about 1.8 million in accumulated retained earnings I think it the number was lower in the report this has been updated um to reflect where you are as of today in November of 2024 you know a couple of pictures these are a year old um a couple of these issues um have been addressed I mean the greens are really good they were good today and they were good last year I mean that's really your key selling point with a golf course surveys of golfers have shown that the number one item for a golf course that they appreciate the most is the condition of the greens and you're really very strong in that area and you have been for a long time a couple of other you know side areas and thin turf grass conditions in certain locations some of these look better today I have some pictures from that on my phone from today looked a little bit better in some areas um some of these areas with te's you know that have been kind of beaten up a little bit by excessive play some of these remain some of these have been improved this is kind of a maintenance item that you you have the appropriate staff you can kind of keep up with and make sure the divots are filled and that the t- markers are rotated on an appropriate basis so that you don't get beat up too bad but some of the t- boxes are small and narrow and there isn't a lot of room to rotate it so you certainly have to be mindful of that we had recommended some expansion of t- boxes in certain locations on the par 3s something to consider as you at capital investment these cart path issues are still present um there this is just a select of them they're all over the golf course the tree roots underneath it are are pushing it up and uh it's uncomfortable for golfers to ride around on that you can see in the pictures that they've roped it off to try to prevent the golfers from riding uh in other areas uh but that doesn't always work um it's not ideal for for a public golf course I think you certainly want to have good smooth modern cart paths um it will help you in a lot of in a lot of ways and um the bridges while they're in good condition now I think you have to you know wood has a tendency to kind of Decay over time and you have to be prepared to make some improvements to your your wooden bridges which I think could be coming in the in the next few years the maintenance facility is basically in good condition it's well kept but it's small um it kind of gets crowded in there with all the equipment and uh and so forth so something to keep in mind probably not on an urgent list for a replacement or full complete review but it's certainly something that you want to keep your eye on and you would benefit from improvements and expansion to this um I think the parking lot area is certainly one of the weaknesses here um it's not a paved parking lot it's not striped there's no lights um I think it's certainly something that you might want to consider investment in um it's kind of the I think the phrase that I used is the um uh you know it's a um the initial impression that people get when they come to your property uh it's an entrance presentation that's that's not ideal and U especially if you're going to add a new Clubhouse you certainly want to make sure that your entire entrance presentation everything matches good quality Golf Course good quality Clubhouse you should have a good quality parking lot along with it um in our original study our architect had some ideas uh about a campus of buildings that you could consider um this I understand is in flux and I don't think it was meant to be a recommendation but I think it was an effort to show you that you have a lot of space to work with in and around the current modular temporary Clubhouse the back patio and the 18th green that you could do something really nice there and if you wanted to you could do it as modular space or excuse me a campus of space you could have a pro shop building with good quality restrooms and some basic uh relaxing areas along with like an outdoor Pavilion um covered outdoor space a patio of some type that people could gather after Golf and then you could build a separate cart storage building um it might be a way that you could you know help control the cost on something like this because each of those components might have different costs per square foot as opposed to just building it all in one building in one Clubhouse I think that's yet to be determined as to what you could figure out I think what we were trying to do is show you that there is room within this footprint that gives you some flexibility on how you can add these elements to this property which are definitely needed um the clubhouse you know the existing building has systems issues Quality Service issues the restrooms are not good um I don't know how much longer you can really function with that temporary Clubhouse um you're getting by dayto day but it's not ideal and it leaves a bad impression for your customers um you know I I again the word condemned I'm not an building inspector so I can't tell you that but from what I'm hearing I think it's something that you have to keep in the back of your mind that it could happen any day um it you know there's there's a lot of issues with the services with the structure with the foundation um with the um you know uh the the HVAC doesn't really work anymore uh the restrooms are small and and you know kind of not in good condition um you know a new Clubhouse gives you the opportunity to address all of this you have to accept the fact that you're going to have to address it at some point no matter what I I you cannot continue as is indefinitely with a temporary Clubhouse that's 25 years old it was only designed to be there for three or four years and you've gotten a lot out of it at 20 20 years later but at some point you're going to have to address it so you'll have to figure out what is the best way to address it um we think a new clubhous gives you some real opportunity to raise the profile and change the profile of this whole property because the clubhouse building itself provides new direct revenue from all sorts of sales of things in terms of merchandise in terms of food and beverage and all of that and especially you know drinks that have a high margin um but there's also indirect Revenue golf facilities that have good quality club houses play more rounds and they can charge more rate for the The Experience so there's both direct revenue and indirect revenue and we tried to reflect that in some of the projections that we made but I think it's important to bring up that I think a new Clubhouse changes the whole profile the whole business profile of a kushit river valley and I think that that's really important and when you throw in the fact that what you have now is really unacceptable I think it becomes uh you know the obvious way to move forward this was our estimate last year of some of the uh improvements that we had recommended and you know our best estimate of costs ultimately you'll have to have these things costed out um through bids as you ultimately make the move to address some of these issues the cart paths I mentioned you know some bunker work uh the tea improvements the pond repairs and all of that um some Fairways recontouring the tree trimming uh some Maintenance building uh improvements things like that you know two 2 and2 2 and 3/4 million this was was done a year and a half ago we all know the dreaded inflation word is out there um this was our best guess for that um it's expensive to fix golf courses and um but I think that these are some of the things that really could enhance the property the whole lower priority the clubhouse idea um and a new irrigation system long term um you know it's certainly a $3 million item to to redo the clubhouse we had recommended it this is why we recommended it or let me take that back this is why we had projected it for you as a campus of buildings because the different buildings have different costs um if you do a separate cart Barn you may find it's less expensive to do it that way than put it in your Clubhouse underneath um because if it's in the clubhouse underneath and it becomes part of the clubhouse and you have to look at the total square footage of a full new building as opposed to a separate cart storage building um I'm seeing that growing in popularity around the country with public golf courses to have a separate cart storage building because it's a lot cheaper to put it together um and and you also may be able to do it with a with charging facilities so you can have electric carts out there um I think would be great that golfers tend to prefer that from the noisier uh you know gas carts um and then do like a tournament Pavilion or a patio separately uh also help save on on some of the costs I think if you put all three of these elements together in one big Clubhouse building I would expected it would be more expensive than what we have shown here um and again this was a year and a half old there may be some adjustments that need to be made with this but um you know this was our best guess the irrigation system at Acushnet River Valley I mean typically we say irrigation system is a 30 to 35 year lifespan your golf course is 25 years old you know and meeting with with the superintendent out there you know I'm not hearing stories of urgent repairs that are needed on the irrigation system we wanted to present that to you as something to put in the back of your mind to think about that whatever Investments you make today and in the coming years at a kushit river valley you need to keep in mind that the irrigation system is looming and that's the lifeblood of the whole facility so you know maybe in the 2030s you might have to deal with that so in the 2020s a clubhouse fix up some of the golf course items cart paths things like that but keep in mind next decade you're probably going to looking at a new irrigation system too operationally I mean you know it's a Town Golf Course and I think everything that I see and everything that I have reviewed as part of this project would strongly suggest to me that it is run as a Town Golf Course strong public purpose in its operation you're you know the Juniors the high schools the charity tournaments you know it enhances the overall offering of a kushit as a town the fact that you have it here it's even in your pictures I think of your town history there's a picture of the of the golf course so I mean it's an important part of your of your of your community um it's self operated by the town that is still the most popular form of operation for public golf courses like this around the country um there is a growing move toward privatization but I think a lot of towns and cities and Counties have have resisted that because they like to keep it close and the fact that you know that you as Selectmen you know and and you have your staff and your golf committee and it's all you know tight and you can control it um if you privatize it you have a tendency to lose some of that control and I think it's really important for a lot of towns to try to retain that public purpose of this facility and keep it close to your town um in our report we compared your staff size to us standards that that I'm keeping as part of a regular function of what I do your staff is small it's smaller than what we typically see at public golf courses I think you only have six full-time uh employees I mean the standard is like you know 10 12 15 so I mean it's it's definitely a small operation but you know you've got a lot of really good quality people there that are making it work and they know the property really well they've been there they're veterans they've been there a long time so they know where all the bodies are buried and they know how to make it work um so I think that that works um you know you got good technology and I mean the fees I think at the time we did this we looked at the fees being appropriate I think that I haven't really updated you know the competitive situation in the last year and a half it's sounds like that some of the other competitors have really pushed up their fees a lot higher uh in the last year because of all the demand the pent up demand that we're seeing in golf uh it may be appropriate for a kushit to take another look at that as well um we'd have to look at that separately and and see kind of where you are but it's it's a moving Target and you have to be ready to adjust and keeping it all close together with a town operation like you do I think it's something that you can keep in mind and look at um you know your food and B beverage services is below expectations but your you know your staff is making du they're doing the best that they can with what they have um but it's certainly not at the level um that would match the quality of the golf course so this was what we were shown and provided by the um by the town for your summary of performance somewhat outdated already because I understand that in FY 24 you had a much better year than you did in 23 and you're halfway through FY 25 and it's already ahead of pace of 24 so these numbers and the revenue in particular you know tipping over that big $2 million Mark in total facility Revenue you're definitely blew past it in 2024 and you'll exceed it again in 2025 um I think that that's it's very powerful I mean the standard public golf course in this country does about 1.4 million in revenue and that includes a full Clubhouse so I mean you have a temporary Clubhouse in you're doing 2 million I mean I think that there's really potential here for this to be a very strong performing facility in terms of Revenue um you know the only red on this entire screen is when you were closed for you know 10 weeks because of Co in in in 20120 golf has definitely strengthened in the last four years um we did a our big report in 2024 this was done since and I'll I'll leave this as a leap behind for you um since I did the Acushnet report uh the ngf undertook a big review of golf in 2024 and golf is in a boom period right now and I all the data that we've shown um is supporting it I mean the rounds are up the rounds are up in Massachusetts you know you're your the basic profile of a kushit matches the demographics the entire coastal South coastal region of Massachusetts matches demographics for high participation in golf um you've got an influx of of golfers coming into the area um you know there's competition with other facilities and the fact that you don't have the ancillary amenities that some golfers like might be a disadvantage but the golf course is high quality um but the facilities that are charging the higher rate in the market are the ones Crosswinds old Scotland Allendale the ones that have better ancillary amenities better club houses food and beverage operations um better than what you have and it enables them to kind of push their fees up a little bit higher but golf is certainly in a boom period and you've experienced it at a kushit river valley all these courses have experienced it and as a result they've been pushing their fees up and um you've increased your fees a little bit but there may be room to go a little higher and I think it's worth you know reviewing a little more closely um so to wrap up we had produced some recommendations in our report for you um I think that we stand We Stand by them and um even a year and a half later um I think it still it still makes sense uh the self- operation structure is the best for you I mean I don't know what else you could go to that's going to put you in a better place um in terms of privatization I think that you're you know you're in the right place with that you maybe would benefit from some staff enhancement we talked about modest increase in fees getting up to $79 um I think you could probably push that higher but we you know I don't want to say that without a more thorough study you know up to date but when we looked at this a year and a half ago we definitely thought you could get to like $80 um you know for your highest fee for non-residents um you certainly want to address these repairs and improvements the cart paths the bunkers the embankments things like that and begin planning for your Clubhouse which apparently it seems like you have I understand there is an RFP out for some Design Services um and also the irrigation replacement that I that I mentioned earlier you know begin planning for that um we did a economic projection as part of our report um we thought that um the new Clubhouse could add as much as $600,000 in new Revenue to this property so you know more like 2.6 million um for this property um both direct and indirect uh you'd have additional sales in the clubhouse itself and the new Clubhouse will also help you sell more Golf and at a higher rate which I think leads to to better to better Revenue however we also wanted to make sure you understood that a new Clubhouse is also going to add to your expense total I mean if you're going to offer these services in a new Clubhouse you have to be prepared that the expenses on a on a day-to-day basis are going to go up too you'll need more staff um and there'll be maintenance facil costs for these facilities Etc but um I I mean it should cover it all I mean you're making $300,000 in 2023 you do better in 24 and 25 with the new Clubhouse I don't think it's unreasonable uh for this to to look at this and say this is $500,000 a year net revenue after all expenses is a reasonable Target for everything um obviously you know things you can't control that's the one thing about golf there's always risk we've seen the inflation we've seen the recession limited time for recre there's so many different things but um you know and the fact that you're the $340,000 that you pay every year now for the original Construction Debt Service is getting ready to be finished in the next couple of years that certainly frees up a large expense item uh that would make this look even better in terms of the financials so it's an opportunity to push the reset button on the whole property to modernize a kushit river valley to to finish it um because I think when it was first constructed and a temporary Clubhouse was put in there the idea was that at some point you earn a new Clubhouse and I think as you look at 2024 and 2025 I think we could say you probably done that you probably have earned that point where you can uh make that investment and complete this property properly and and finish it with with the new Clubhouse and address some of the other things you know push up the staff a little bit um you know modest changes in fees continue with a lot of the programming that you've done but this is a really good quality public golf course I see a lot of these I mean that's my life and that's my world and um a lot of communities really struggle with their municipal golf course but they struggle because the quality of the golf course product isn't good and I've seen a lot of communities you know invest a lot of money in clubhouses and ignore the golf course I think you're in a really unique position in that you could have both you've got a really good golf course that's in place already and now it's time to maybe augment it with the proper you know Clubhouse facility and I think that that really gives you the opportunity to really set this up to complete the the the property and set yourself up for the 25 years and that's that's basically a quick summary I guess I went a little bit longer than I thought I would but that's kind of what we see with your with your property and um I'm happy to take your questions thank you thank you Mr singer gentlemen any questions no I you know I you just spoke pretty much everything that I've had in my mind for quite some time right I've talked about a golf a Golf Clubhouse um in the town for over a dozen years now um I and I get it we we were trying to wait until the debt comes off right but there's a certain point when you have to look at what you have and say we need to make a decision right we're finally in that mode we a couple years out as you you've talked about with the with the debt right and there's that finding balance of adding more staff and figuring out where your net profit is going to be right and and I agree with everything that you said is if we we improve that Clubhouse and increases revenues in so many different ways right and you just figure out those calculations and you can figure out what Staffing is and you can still be walking away with a substantial net profit from the clubhous right I said it 12 13 years ago about food and beverage get each round of golf to 10 bucks you generate an additional $200,000 and that's what we doing 293,000 rounds of golf right so the clubhouse essentially can pay for itself in a short period of time just from the net profit they going to generate by doing it right and then any after the debts paid off of the clubhouse you could take all additional revenue and sinking into other parts of the facility like you had discussed I mean we could do pocket Lots no problem we can do cop hats no problem but we talked about a maintenance building right so that would be the the add-on to it and you can do a maintenance building down the road pretty much for free just from the net profits from the Improvement set you make in your first 3 to five years if you could pay that off in three to five years you can be putting up a new Maintenance building and not have any debt on it right and you could be debt free on everything at that point so it's it it's it's simple mathematics to me I think that this spard is engaged with the golf committee um I I give while I have the golf committee here the golf management committee here and some of my staff here I I give the golf committee the utmost respect um in kudos to all of them folks that have been on the golf committee some of our folks have been here since day one right and I give them the biggest Kudos um the folks are in the room right now so congratulations um gentlemen for the hard work that you've done for that Golf Club um and that's where the credit belongs is with that golf management and our staff right so we're working together to try to figure this thing out and try to figure out what fits in the town of a kushit without spending too much money on a new Clubhouse um so that we can continue to be what we are today right um just new and improved yeah modernized step into the into the 21st century yeah I mean it's you're in a really good position I mean as I said I spend my life looking at municipal golf courses that's that's my whole world now and this is really one of the better ones I mean in terms of in in a lot of ways in terms of the financials in terms of the quality of the product but um you know the anary amenities are lagging behind and even the maintenance facilities I mean I've seen so much worse I mean with with everything but I think you've got your priorities straight because I think the number one miss that I see in Municipal Golf is they don't take care of the golf course itself there is no Pathway to success by cutting expenses in a public golf operation it's a guaranteed failure and the fact that you have kept the the golf course in such good condition is such a huge plus and there's it really there's no reason why I would think this could ever really just drop off a cliff as long as you maintain it like that there'll always be people that'll want to come and play it kudos to Mr tibbles Right in his staff so Mr tibbles standing right behind you um and I've said it I've said it a number of times to Mr tibbles kudos to him and his staff um for keeping the golf course the way it is I'm not a golfer but going back to the clubhouse I've I've had this conversation with a number of people you build a new Clubhouse you add some amenities food and beverage and things of the like you're going to get people like me to go down there and maybe hang out have a drink have a burger do whatever wait for my buddies to come off the course have a drink with them that's more Revenue that's not just coming from golfers right so it's an expanded facility that's how you're going to bring in additional Revenue it's not just coming from golfers right I I know a number of people that I've spoken to in this community and elsewhere that said if if you had that amenity we we would love to go down and hang out and have a drink down there right on a beautiful Sunday afternoon whatever it may be absolutely overlooking the 18th green or whatever I mean there's so many but then I would also throw a word of caution into that too and be careful not to overbuild on that because the number one thing that I see also with municipal golf courses is when they get too aggressive with with the clubhouse and they make it too big no we've talked about it you try to keep it you know bigger than what we have but not a monster right because it's all about the money right right it's just like the whole the church philosophy right you built for everyday use and you try to make do on your your busiest day it wouldn't fit into the community if we built a monster with it you know it wouldn't fit the property either we want it to fit into the community and I think the golf management committee they they they've got their hands around this and their heads wrapped around this thing with the staff and this board of Selectmen I don't see that as a problem moving forward I really don't chair yeah did you look at some like the overall physical footprint is there underutilized space like you know as we come in through the entrance where I'm going is like in the offseason you have places have simulators and they they capture that winter golfer who wants to stay active I know vord Country Club has an indoor simulator some of the nicer courses do or they have heated B for driving at the driving range is that did you look at that at all we did I mean I think that basically there's some room but not a lot and I'm assuming that you mean from the maintenance building in toward the clubhouse just the overall physical if you get the maintenance building as you're getting out toward the roadway I'm not as familiar with that part of the property but from the maintenance facility inward I think there is with some reconfiguration I think you do have a little bit of room to make some expansion you can expand your practice facility if you wanted to really go big you could add some covering to to the range area and make it a a you know an an allseason a year round type of uh driving range facility that maybe you can add some technology to that which is big and popular around the country now um you know track tracking devices and things like that that let people come out and hit balls in the winter time and improve their game things like that but there's some expense to that but um in direct answer to your question yes I think there is room to do all of that um have youen similar facilities I'm not saying that we we would want to be on the hook for constructing something but where there's some you know overnight opportunity right like whether it be uh a boutique hotel I say hotel like not in a grand state but like an opportunity for somebody who's out of town some you know whether it's a 10 room facility something along those lines yeah stay in play um again I'm not saying that that's we want to get in that business but if it's an RFP some some private entity I'm just trying to think of what would make it a real experience there yeah I haven't seen too much of that in the public sector and if that's the answer then that's the answer there's a reason why you haven't se too much well but there were some I mean you know one of my clients is local to me is local to me is the city of Hollywood Florida um they have two municipal golf courses one a 36 hoer that is under renovation and the second one is what they call the Hollywood Beach golf course which had a 16 room hotel that was built in the 1950s and it had a Heyday but it fell out of favor because it got stale and they just within the last three or four years knocked it down so that's my answer yeah so you have it's something you have to keep up with create space create space yeah gentlemen all set the questions have anything golf committee any questions for Mr Sing I'm sure you uh have all spoken to him fairly regularly no I guess you guys are going to take this plan prioriti I think the club the clubhouse is a separate entity right we're looking at that but these Capital Improvements you're going to come up with a road map as to what you want to invest in over the next year 2 years 5 years 10 years right and start building that plan out is that is that where you want to go with this yes I would think exactly as well on that you know aside from Clubhouse whatever we want to call it you know with the sizable retained earnings we've been able to amass especially over the past few recent years let's address the lower hanging food to use that term in the course that we need the some bunk C pass you know those lesser things that still cost money above and beyond the everyday operating expense but now we have the opportunity to fund some of those things and you have a prioritized list from Dana and Steve and say okay what can we start to knock off right away and keep making these Investments well concurrently looking at what can we build even if it's in phases or multiple things along with you know we had the um you know architect presentations a couple weeks ago for firms that potentially interested in helping us along that line you know concurrently with that how can we have a longer term plan and a short-term plan and lay out a financial plan to address all of these things and making sure everything stays sustainable as we continue to grow into this move towards the bond being paid off and how we going to then reinvest in the cost so I I've always felt like analyst is counterintuitive for for people to hear this but while we are paying while we still have the mortgage breaking even was still a good year right right like you know right never going never being in debt was always the goal and it hard for people to get their head around like what we're in this business to to not make a profit but you know you but it's reinvesting and the value of open space and having a a source of Pride for the community and people to understand to Kush it is value in itself and you know so long as we're not losing money that's a good year exactly we can reinvest and still make some money and just keep the course so it's as Richard said the number one thing that brings people back is the quality of the course so the last thing we ever want want to see is the quality of the cost suffer at the expense of something else so that has to remain the priority investment in what we need again with C paths bunkers retaining walls whatever going to keep that going keep the quality up there and then just build around it I want all of the above plus A3 to $500,000 profit every year so we can give back to the community well we can get that we can I know we can but but you maybe you you don't want to plan for that you know part of having a um a reserve like you do is kind of like that r day thing cuz you know looking at the numbers here you saw that was R there you know in that Co year right some of the communities that I work with they had to shut their golf courses down and they never reopened them because of that I mean you were in a position because you had retained earnings to save the property and something like that could happen again and you have to be prepared for it and um you know and not cut everything you know not cut well say well hey you know we had a bad year we have to lay off three of our maintenance workers I think that's a huge mistake because then the quality of the produ goes down and then you get in that spiral and you're in real trouble so you always have to make sure you protect the property and having extra retained earnings like you do is a big plus for you to kind of it's safe for a rainy day concept which I think is a really important thing absolutely we've always made the golf management committee on their behalf again yes I'm going to speak on their behalf again and also this board of Selectmen have always made it a commitment to our taxpayers for that Golf Course to never cost them a dime and we've done that along with that golf management committee and staff right that's the goal and then now the new goal moving forward modernizing is to work on a profit that's sustainable so we can continue to make improvements without always carrying debt and it may there may be a year or two here or there especially in the early years when you've added a new Clubhouse where it may have to dip below and be in the red for a year or two but that you're building for something better for the long term so as long as we have a piggy bank right yeah exactly and you have the piggy bank to cover that so that's that's that's the big plus it's a great it's a great place to be no question about it thank you thanc thank you Mr singer appreciate it thank you glad to have finally made it up yeah your priorities were important last time though I well I had to tell Dave you know when he was like we're getting ready for this there's another storm brewing in the gulf and it's like you got to be kidding me but fortunately it fizzled out right you're not stuck here for another week I wouldn't mind if the weather stays like this you on East Coast or West Coast East Coast all right uh golf staff replacement LS deelo uh looks like Mr Shuster is relocating is that correct Dana yes sir all right and I went through the resume looks pretty good uh this is an avid player that just decides he wants to play so much he wants to work there too yes sir motion to appoint Lewis theill as a starter second all those favor all right I would now ask the golf committee to adjourn their meeting please motion to Mo second all in favor thank you gentlemen thank you Jen here hiding over there all right Jen you're up un pay review of matters presented votes may be taken Mr chairman Mr as you know uh this unipay SL know invoice Cloud but this notion of getting online the ability to pay online our resident to get as many residents as possible to do that it's been sort of like a passion project of mine um and in talking with with Jen you know it's clear that we're leaving a lot of functionality on the table um you know there's departments that handle money that are still handling cash and check that if we can migrate towards uh you know online payments I think that'll make folks life easier but I also realize you know sort of working in that Tech space when you go to a when you're going through change management and going to some type of you know trying to get people to do things differently it does take time so we don't want to overburden the staff um Jen you know we've talked about a phased in approach you know obviously the town clerk's office we've talked a great deal there there's opportunity with dog licenses and other things but that's seems like a really big beast to take on right now and don't not sure that we'd want to put that on Pam but there are other departments we've talked about it the DPW with people who want to pay the mattresses and do all that stuff stuff you know I guess if you're at town hall for our liquor licenses we now have that ability to do I just you have 10 transactions we just got we just got to let people know about it right so you I think we want to Hype that up so I don't I don't want to steal your thunder but I just wanted to frame the discussion um and then offer you know there's going to be some Outreach to the staff and I'd be more than happy to help Jen with that if the board was okay with it so I'll turn it over to Jen now but I just want to spr the issue so like I said I work with invoice cloud and now that I'm familiar with unipe I enjoy unipe and invoice cloud is great also but where this is already in place in the town and it's pretty much a free service so since last year from 2023 to 2024 there is a huge increase in payments online just in the uh treasure collector's office that um it's roughly about and I give you the paperwork to compare both years so it's 1.2 million in 2023 and 2 million in 2024 so we do have a lot of residents paying on bills online I believe the town clerk's office is on board going into unipe she thinks it's a great idea they are changing vendors so once this whole election everything is done we will be talking she's already met with our sales rep to on board that department DW is on board with online transactions as of now and I'm still researching with golf there any communication issues and like just to jump back to the DPW I think I mentioned it to you last time when we were talking about It ultimately the DPW just wants to make sure that the records end up in the dpw's hands so they can make sure what's going on I know there's like a communication thing is there a way to send notification to would have access to their the online service okay and they would download reports weekly and submit it to our office so they would know day-to-day transactions what is this unipay I I know I'm just confused of what the topic of the matter is right I mean what are we what getting departments online all extra plug like using credit cards yes so Mr chairman yes and to Mr G as you know sometimes with change that takes place wanted to make sure something like this where it's impacting department heads and has you know will be uh public facing eventually I wanted to make sure that the board had some sight into this before Jen just started going off on her own right so I want to make sure there was support and buy in with the board to start moving forward with other departments it's just just having a credit card processing machine within those departments so they have a credit card machine that they could use some departments do not want that but if you wanted to pay for a mattress online no I got that we we had that that's like a no-brainer right somebody can go in and pay for as long as they have 50 transactions a month there is no service fee so it's a and then I can combine departments so build building is on it right now so you can pay building permit online yeah yeah yeah so as long as I can both departments can be in the same account and it would be a free service as long as it hits 50 transactions a month right which we do we just I think what the chairman was speaking of when it came to DPW is just because that revenue is going to be kept out separate AB yeah it it would hit their account for like Recycling and all that stuff because I'm pretty sure that we have a revolving account for DPW recycling don't we I think we created it would hit their charge account but so when we do like the things like the mattresses and all that stuff that money should be funneling off to that account right to make sure that that money's not just going back into the general fund right I think that's what Mr chairman you might be alluding to well that and and obviously Bill pays for like water and sewer bills can't just go because that's an Enterprise right correct yes so they would submit the turn a turnover to our department weekly and we would hit but that's all paid in the collector's office already isn't it right it is but now if people can on a Saturday want to pay for a mattress again online oh yeah yeah yeah that's just the to yeah I get yeah so we're not really doing anything out of the box that we're already doing it's just more of a communication thing Kevin it's just making sure that the Departments know what the plan is this is something that the board wants to see happen because you know how it goes right you introduce a new topic or a new job description if we haven't properly communicated we don't want to create any friction whatsoever we want to make this seamless as possible we don't want our employees to wake up one day and say what I have to now do something online so we I want to make sure that the boards the board supportive and then the plan would be for Jen we I'll be present to assemble a meeting with the department heads and whohe of Staff the sales rep would love to sales rep to make sure people know what the plan is and we'll go about this slowly to make sure everybody feels comfortable with it and it works well that's the purpose of this is to make sure sure we don't want you finding out about it from the third Source Vice Versa oh I know how that goes yeah sounds good okay cool good thanks then all right thank you and Dave that's fine if you want to jump in on that um appreciate it not to micromanage but just to Prov no absolutely and I know going back years now you brought up the invoice cloud and I think realizing that unip pay which we had it was just a matter of turn switches on right works out pretty well all right uh number four Assessment Center RFP uh Mr Kelly you just I need to have uh four and five considered jointly okay so let's jump to because second in command is going to be $50,000 above first in command because they're eligible to work over time that's what basically what this comes down to that's number one and number two you'd have a union member where you're lying on that Union member to be involved in discipline and to be involved in the post reporting yeah so while I appreciate Town council's recommendation or opinion I mean things it's negotiable though right I mean if we were to you're tell so if we went to a second in command and we developed anou with the Union to take the second in command out of the Union because they we understand what the board is int intended that's not up for a discussion or negotiation the mou could at some point in the future I at a different time the union could petition the DLR in spite of the uh mou because right now you have a recognition clause in the contract that says says that uh the members of the unit are only below Lieutenant s below Y and so it's specific in the wordss in the contract but according to Council of the Union can still uh petition the DLR and the position into the Union well I I think for me I mean I I feel very strongly about creating a second in command and you know with all due respect to the to the full board I I wasn't in support of Lieutenant I I feel the deputy chief is something that is fulfills the intent of a second in command that said I'd like a a memo from Town Council on exactly what the state of play is are there options to have the second in command whatever we decide to to name it out of the Union if the police department also agrees to it and how can we make sure that this fulfills the intent of the board because I would hate to see um something that's sorely needed not go forward based on a technicality of the Union I think both parties believe there should be a second in command y um so I would hate to see something like that getting the way so I think I I'm going to need a little bit more from Town Council do you want a memo or do you want him in at some point a memo and I'm a I think both cases to then to explain the memo and just to jump back onto that point whether it's Lieutenant captain or deputy chief it's already been suggested that the union would pull it no matter where it is in in the totem that they would no matter what there's a they're going to go for the position most likely whether it's deputy chief cap what the name is whatever yeah correct so whatever in command position we choose regardless of what the rank is the union is going to most likely try to adopt it into the Union so I was told Captain Lieutenant 9010 chance we lose 5050 6040 deputy chief this precedent set in the common wolf Deputy Chiefs are union um lieutenants and captains are in unions right and there is a separate union for those folks but they're not going to do it just with one person from the Department so they would be put in this current Union so if you want to get a letter look we're behind the curve with the assessment center I don't want to be waiting around any any longer um I found out through civil service and the current chief that the way Civil Service works is and I was under the impression when what you were talking about and I was advocating for second in command is you would be all set in the future that you wouldn't need to go back out for an assessment center that is not true after having dialogue with many police officers including that current chief that title holds only for two years just like the regular assessment so even if we had a second in command and that person happened to be number three on the list and we made that person second in command the number two person for the chief's Assessment Center would automatically become the next chief and you only have it's a two-year moratorium just like s's exams are when you go off of that so that per that position is only good for two years after that you have to redo a uh an assessment center regardless of who second to command they don't automatically slide in that was kind of the the hook that got me and I was like well that's kind of screwing up the intent but we could continue having dialogue and then he told me about this you know Town council's opinion on the the union thing and they're going to have overtime and I was like no that that that can't happen you just and and you can't just do I don't know how I don't know what the answer to that question would be that I think Mr W is asking but a memorandum of understanding is only good for so many is right so to put that on the hook for future selectman and or taxpayers to put them in that spot saying oh it's good we'll agree to it for a threee MOA that's garbage so I just I would like to obviously getting a permanent Chief in is is job number one mhm this other piece of it if it's requires additional work but I need something from Council while while Council prepares his memo can I go forward with the RFP for the assessment for justice Chief just a minut Mr gasman so if if you did that then we don't know if we could get that in the assessment center if we if we were going to go for a second and command that's the reason why it was the co cost effect right so we're in a a bad spot in my opinion with the chief's Assessment Center because of the holidays now right so I don't believe that anybody by the time we get that delegation approved from hrd and we agree to that delegation agreement right I don't believe we're doing an assessment center between Thanksgiving and Christmas okay so we got a dead period of 6 weeks that's what I'm going to call that so we have a little bit of time to get to Town Council have some discussion with Town Council things of the like what what I would like to see is get that delegation in get that thing going for the Chiefs the actual Chief's Assessment Center riding along the coils of the second and command thing to get some more answers from Council and things of the like maybe a meaning with us in that time frame and be ready to hit the ground run and with an assessment center come January immediately no more waiting no more when we were talking we're waiting for hid to get us on for September 1st they dragged their feet they didn't get it to us until mid September third week of September whatever and I'm we're sitting here at the end of November going a still talking about an assessment center so the RFP should uh I've got a as you know I've got a large draft I've got to pair down but I can have that to the next meeting and then we can put it out we got to get it out right but we I think we need to shake down the answers for the second in command with Council so whether that takes a zoom meeting next week whatever we can do if whatever the availability is it's up to the chairman right to talk to council about this thing to get a direct answer instead of waiting two weeks three weeks for us to do this let's get the ball rolling I'm tired of the ball just sitting down on the court stagnant right we got to get this thing rolling and I can tell you right now I don't think it would be fair to anyone right as as far as our police office as sergeants go to put them in that situation between the holidays it's a very hectic period of time for a lot of people with famili so we got to get every the RFP out to let the people start getting bids in or whatever it's going to be to get that ball rolling come January we we got to hit the the ground running sound good Jamie I'll sit down with you tomorrow um afternoon and we'll see if we can put together a couple of dates for next week to do just maybe a 30 minute Zoom meeting with Council and the board that's way we're not waiting until December to do it look if you can get us a memo ahead of time and then do live Zoom just to we can ask questions y I mean I'm assuming Darren should be able to pull that up pretty quickly because he looked it up to talk to you about it right so he must have something he can he can say all right good there he is you see hi hiding behind the come on up Tom so gentlemen I had spoken with um Chief Fon and um he didn't want to make a decision when we talked to him because he was working on a couple plans with a couple different Mutual Aid communities that he's uh been working with um but officially I'm going to ask Tom to fill us in on what's happening with uh rescue 2 Okay so rescue to is the 2017 FL F550 ambulance uh that was purchased in 2016 2017 um when I first took over as Chief in July of 22 um it was still out finishing up its first engine replacement um it came back to us in August and it's been in service ever since um the it turns out the motor that was put in it um lasted 2 years and 5 months and failed again um the motor that was used as a replacement was a Jasper motor um it's now throwing cam bearings again um I have pictures um of them that they pulled out of the oil pan um so it needs another engine replacement um and I didn't want to solely make a decision on whether or not to move forward with it the repair shop where it's at now is the original company that did the engine replacement 2 and 1/2 years ago um the warranty that we were given on that from him and from jaspar Jasper um was two years and we're two years and 5 months and we're getting zero help um at all with any of the cost on a short-lived uh motor um his estimate to replace it um and all of the labor cost and everything runs us about 28 to $30,000 um I spoke with um one of our other maintenance shops the one that just repaired rescue one um and he can do the same job for about $119,000 so a better option um the reason why I'm hesitant on pulling the trigger with any of that before speaking to you get gentlemen um is we now have two ambulances on order both are expected to be in sometime in the time frame of December of 25 January of 26 and my um big question was we spend the 20 to3 grand to replace the motor are we going to get enough of a return on investment in that one year to 14mon time frame to make it worth us spending 20 to $30,000 to replace the engine again the new engine would not be a Jasper be a Ford from Factory out of the crate um so there's no issues there which is what we did with rescue one last year when we replaced it so we're not going to run into that cuz I did not go with the Jasper um so basically it's it's we're currently borrowing Rochester's spare ambulance they have three one is is just used as a spare which is how we are approaching the future um with the two ambulances we have on on order we're only trading in one of our old ambulances so we'll have three one is a spare so that if this happens ever again we don't have to borrow um we're currently using Rochester spare ambulance Fair Haven has an ambulance that we've used in the past new Beford always has spare ambulances I can try to piece it together so we don't have less than two ambulances at any given point but I don't know what the board um pleasure is on whether or not we should just repair what we have hope that we can get enough um turn out of it to recoup what we're spending in the next 14 months um to get our return on our investment at least even sure Mr G thank you Mr chairman how fast can this engine be put in from Ford well from your vending that we use in in with a for uh the last engine he put in for us was four to 5 weeks and then it took me two weeks to put the necessary 500 miles on it to do the break-in procedure so probably two months you already talked to the place that we're I've talked to both yes the the expensive one and the other the engines available correct from Ford correct Motor Company correct what year is that ambulance rescue too that that one is a 2017 so the Ford mode is pretty pretty much junk too right cuz that didn't last for crap either uh that's the one that had the issue first um but it's only been 2017 motor was replaced before the 2016 motor and the 2017 now what's belong on the turbos uh that fuel attitude so it's mostly from the turbo area um the cam bearings basically shredded and ended up in the upper oil and got it I don't which is similar to what happened 2 and a half years ago causing the original issue we're not buying Ford ones again ali uh no the two ambulances I have on order are both Ram 5500s okay for that reason hopefully we'll have better luck right so you know unfortunately looking at 20,000 bucks it's out bread and butter though right correct and taking that risk using another town ambulance for a solid year kind of worries me mhm let's Mickey Mouse right and if something happens to that ambulance while it's in use by us then we're probably on the hook for thaty as well right might be more than 20 I'd spend the $220,000 a repair robber ambulance that's my opinion okay Tom is there any like public private partnership at all like is it like Stat or anything that you know um I haven't reached out to them um I've used our typical Mutual Aid Partners I can I can make some phone calls in the next couple days just wondering if like just for additional coverage right we obviously have our own public M you know I never want to privatize that but for additional coverage it's with you know a private uh so as far as like adding extra backup for us if we get multiple calls at once um it's extremely difficult for us to rely on any of the private ambulance companies just because there's none based within a close enough area to make it worth them coming for us that's how that's our bread and butter right so I mean the chief we're we're covering roughly 60% of the budget right from EMS 55 fish somewhere around that ballp right Money Maker for us it is it sure is right so so to spend 20 for the amount that we make and the general fund is basically riant now upon that revenue of in the amount of 550 Grand a year we need that ambulance to be running right so I'll make a motion to spend 20,000 you need 20 or 22 um he said 19 rough figures he didn't have a whole lot of time to like get into the details of everything he would need but he said 19 he did it for us last year for the other ambulance and it was 17 and change up to 25 not to exceed 25 this way goes hey once I get a firm quote from him I can come back in front of you guys with a a some kind of either transfer request or something can can you do that I can but you know what to do right the directive is there I think from I'll make a motion for the chief to spend 20 21,000 whatever for a new engine for rescue 2 and then you go off and do what you need to do bring it back to us and we can make a motion to approve that amount whether it's going to be a reserve fund transfer or whatever we need to do all those in favor all and then whatever whatever we spend on that I can turn into a reserve fund transfer and then because we have that cushion in the EMS Reserve account at the Springtown meeting we can always go back and replace what I've used in The Reserve fund with if need be right need depending on how hopefully nobody else can have to reserve fund no put's the warranty on the new Ford motor don't have the exact details yet can you get that too please can you find out if it's a redesign they've had a lot of problems not just that motor is not just sitting in in is right so I know a few people that have had that problem with their trucks correct when I went through this last year with the the 2016 that we replaced um there was a lot of discussion between several different shops repair shops and myself with um and I believe even Mr Hinkley with why if they knew this was such a problem and they just kept hiding it why they didn't just put out a recall because then they would be on the hook to repair it all so correct exactly thank you sir thank you gentlemen thank you chief all right General Court petition to amend Town chter section 3-1-2 riew of matters presented votes may be taken all right Mr chairman Mr Kelly this is uh me being Belton suspenders okay uh the vast majority of uh hom Ral petitions that were waiting to be approved at the end of this legislative session didn't get through and they're refiling all of them for the next session uh rather than have them come back and say we've had a town meeting vote uh we want to see a selectman vote also after the town meeting I'm asking that you put a motion together to send it up to the general court uh and for their uh review it's a uh as I said built and suspenders but the fact that they didn't even bother to take up most of the home World petitions at the end of the session and now they're starting new session brand new two-year session with uh uh new Representatives uh I've talked to rep uh president Representatives all these petitions as far as legislation goes have to be new petitions have to be filed by the first week in December I want to get this in and get it going motion to file with the general court a petition for special legislation to amend the town CH and delete section 3-1-2 second all those in favor all right thank you it needs built and suspended we're going to do it because do we have to F refile all the other ones no they're automatically doing that all right some some of them don't even have to be in formal session now that's what gets me I mean priorities right election year they were all left in to election year but some of them aren even run for real election you think they just screwed him through right they were all left in committee they might who knows crazy who knows better get their act together yep all right next on the agenda right of first refusal 474 Middle Road review of matters presented votes may be taken uh gentlemen I put this up here we've already seen this one before uh it did fall through the last time uh when we voted uh to foro um I wanted to get this in before the end of November in front of you gentlemen because the pns does expire at the end of November um so I would ask if anybody has any input motion to foro this is Mr chairman Mr Gasper this is the 474 Middle Road that was 600 now it's 500 I think it is correct so the problem with the town with CPC is we haven't acquired any Lodge Tru to land in a long time right and and there's only so many funds available in CPC currently I don't know exactly what that available balance would be and we went to town meeting to dispose of small tracks of land I think it was under 20,000 sare ft we haven't acted on that and we also went to town meeting for approval to dispose of the Oldtown Library so if we would have done something with either one of those you'd have plenty of funding to make a purchase of this nature right it's a great piece of land for the town of ausnet to acquire because it abuts two other conservation restriction properties owned by the town of a kushan right problem is I don't know if if the town has available funds of $500,000 unrestricted CPC funds are more than that but You' have to have to transfer it from unrestricted funds I understand it's just it's a nice track of land I know there got substantial wet lands on it but so doesn't the other conservation lands that but this property and it also goes to the river going to get some glasses on these people here from the the audience are possible owners where they we have the land in purchas and sale right now my next question to Mr Kelly would be time that's my question so I don't know how it works we have are you the owners or purchasers where the purch purchasers got it potential purchases the the time frame for us to exercise we're within that time frame right but is there anything in the statute that says we have to come up with the funds within a certain time frame because the only way we could really do this is town meeting right corre and town meeting is at best 5 months away 6 months away right at best unless you call a special town meeting I would never do that I would never cost a taxpayers money to hold a special town meeting to purchase a piece of land right it's just is is that even can that even happen is my point right is if you had money's available in a different account as I just said you dispose the old library you'd have the money easily to do it right you still have to go to time meeting on that would we let see what he's saying is if we had the money in another account we could just expend that money and then replenish it later and go to town meeting that way but since we don't have the library on what I'm what I'm saying is we we ask the people of the town to do certain things for us cuz it's our request it's our warrant right and we've asked to dispose of several properties that we know that we own posted St size Lots some are very tiny right and a buting other people's property why are they why are they on the town's books right we did that and we accomplished that goal we also talk about disposing the library right I mean that library is not going to go for anything less than half a million bucks and that's what we're talking about right now so there's other ways that you could set up I believe you could set up an account that's for future purchases of open space and Recreation you can figure that out with Council if there's a way to do that I'm sure that there is to authorize the border of Selectmen to purchase future you know land or whatever but for right now we're not at that point so my question is is if we were to go forward with the purchase of this property do we even have that ability to do that because town meeting so far away the qu it's a the question is are you able to sign a purchase and sale agreement without having appropriated uh funding out of the CPC it would be the the question's I think is pretty simple is it's the same way it would normally be right if even if we were within that what is it 180 days to exercise 120 days exercise the write a first refusal I think it's 120 so even if we were in that period and in town meeting was 2 months from now right right we could say we want to take the property but we need to go to town meeting right but because that 120 days is way outside the scope now of town meeting for funding purposes can we still do that without funding we would normally do it without a funding right Source because we have to wait until town meeting to have a funding source we're still doing the same thing I just don't know if the statute runs out because of how long it is outside of the 120 days so can we the question is can if if we were to exercise our wrer first refusal to purchase can we wait 6 months to provide funding for the purchase that's my question I don't know how many days do we have left until the0 days are up 120 days I believe is January 16th maybe so if you want a hold to answer some questions we could do that certainly Mr CH and it's a also a question uh when you close on the property versus CH leading all right so we we can buy a little bit of time here and get some clarification before if you want to do this we can just pass over this until we can get some clarification um whatever the board wants to do I'll talk to John Jonathan tomorrow yeah talk to Jonathan tomorrow even can verify cuz at least I would to at least see what the dates are and what our actual capability is if it can't be done it can't be done if that's if even if that is if the board comes back and says we we don't have any interest in doing it that's fine I just asking question and setting an account up yeah oh you could do that too right butan if we get get the ball rolling to try I think I think we owe it to the taxpayers to dispose of that old library before there's no value to the old library right it has uh we have to get an appraisal which I was planning to do with free cash now in the next town meeting all right yeah we can cross that can I just ask the question with this lot here I I don't yeah it's 25 acres it looks like a nice piece of property but you know you've got a homeowner you got somebody who owns the property the the property is I apologize yeah I want to learn more about it like so the house is getting carved off that does not go with the sale so Mrs Morris's current house they're just slotting that out 60,000 Square ft which is the minimum I believe the minimum square footage for a buildable lot in the Cher will be carved out for the homeowner Y and the remainder is what the sale is got the total the total acre 27 Acres approximately six acres of Uplands is included in that's the sale that's what you buying so it's basically 68 6 out right is the intention to put a home and that's it or is it um well I had spoke with subdivide or uh the intention is not to subdivide um I spoke with John blank um the building inspector M um and he said to come up with a plan so I've been working with an engineer a little bit to come up with a plan for what I want to do but this meeting really determines a lot because it's thousands of dollars to an engineer and I don't want to do that we're not going to own the property right well I guess if we're going to make a purchase to this right it's all about mitigating some type of threat or something to the town right like we don't want to just acquire a piece of land well we we had shown interest in this last time we were just in the the financial situation where we couldn't right because ultimately the backside of this property connects Welden Mills Property and the golf course and it also abuts the Kush River there's deep Rook there's a bunch of goes all the way to Kush land you could basically connect Middle Road to Main and initially when I had brought this up last time and I really tried that actually find the funding for it was ultimately I thought it would be a good addition to the open space where you could actually open up nature trails in the back so I mean ultimately it was okay just for preservation in my aspect but with that being said I'm also in the same boat where I'm like we don't have the funds now what can we do he said he said CPC does now last year was a different every year you get a new 1 152 200,000 bucks right now we kept putting a lot into unrestricted Reserve at the CPC okay it's just you you we we we voted CPA in 2004 as a community for and back then it was open space and recreational period right now there's like five different categories people are spending money for and you know whatever I always make comments well you using it for snow pound pretty soon right and the town hasn't done a large purchase in a very long time so what are we putting money into CPC for then if we're not doing what the original intent of CPA was was sold to the taxpayers in 2004 that's all it's it's a decent piece of property because there's value there I think to the town it's an asset to the town because it abuts all of our conservation land right as Mr hinley said we didn't have the funding last year when it came up uh I forgot who it was that was the original 670,000 or something Mr ol Vera is who it was under was 600 in change so at a 20% discount maybe it's worth a look at that's all it was also the full parcel so it was a different purchase and sale he was buying the house as well yeah it was all kinds of stipulations in his I remember sien they were leaving the house for so many years well she got a lifetime ten but he still he still would own the whole so oh all right so what I'm going to suggest is Mr Kelly if you can get answers for Mr Gasper at least tomorrow from Jonathan um Mr siano go ahead I apologize um oh no worries I don't want to cut you off I guess my first question is you guys correct me if I'm wrong you guys determine whether or not you want to purchase the land correct okay so we at least need to make a vote to decide whether or not you want to purchase it need to make a vote we need to make a vote eventually so tonight we don't actually have to vote I can continue this I can bring it to next week I can talk about it tomorrow not tomorrow 48 hours is essentially all I need so out of respect for my colleague I would like him to get the answers to his questions answered first it doesn't mean that we're going to push this off until after November I can call for a meeting next week for 20 minutes and we can discuss it too cuz I do know that time is of the essence for you all right we're trying we're try and do a zoom meeting next week correct Mr chairman correct so if we just add this to the agenda I'm sure we can get answer from Mr ikeman relatively quickly and then we can accommodate if we decide to fall goal go through with a fall goal of right of first refusal then Mr Mr Mr will be all set to move forward so so we have an operating window right and there's nobody that can that can say anything I think it's that 120 days for the right of first refusal right so if we didn't take it up to now we could wait all the way till the 120th day and act on it at that point no completely understood I was just my thought was I know we have to determine whether or not I believe the way you're putting it is even if you said yes I want to buy it if it has to wait till that town council meeting can you in fact say you want to buy it that's why I want Mr Kelly to get the answers from Mr Gasper um by tomorrow the next day the latest and I know the pns does expire in November 30th all right and if we're going to have a meeting next week it'll be before that and if we get the answer before then I'll put it on the agenda regardless that would be great did concom or planning Weighing on this at all or they uh planning voted against it there not this time but last time the assessors voted against it concom didn't take an official vote because they didn't have a meeting between when we discussed when we discussed it last time well in other words they they didn't have time to have it on their agenda before we put it on here but I did speak with the concom and some members of for some members are against um so it's a little up in the air I kind of based everything off the last time when it pretty much reflects exactly what the letter said only one letter actually wanted wanted to go forward with it last time but I say we'll have an answer to you within a week that would be great y cuz you said your pns expires November 30th and you would have to try to renegotiate it obviously right but we're going to try we'll try to do our best to give it in yourself next week to get a hold of uh the owner she's in Florida now and it it's it's been a three-year process to get to this point sure I have a lot of time invested in Mr Al um took a lot of my time as well uh so sure just trying to get to that point that's all I I had an interest in this because I grew up with the family I went to school with the family right and I had an interest a long time ago on this property for a long time as well but because of the way the wetlands set up on that property it was kind of like ah you know for to the right person tough piece it's a tough piece yeah to the right for the right person for the right use it makes sense to me back then it didn't make enough sense for me to do it like but I did have a lot of interest in it because of it's It's proximity to all the other land right conservation land right so we'll see what it's on all about very good I'll keep you posted we'll talk I'll talk to him tomorrow once we get some info and we know for sure what capabilities are I'll reach out and tell you when the meeting is excellent thank good thank you have a good night all right last but not least we have a Conservation Commission letter of resignation from the chair Ryan rendes uh Ryan didn't write us a night nice letter um I'm not going to read it here um but I want to extend a lot of gratitude to Mr Ryan renes for serving on this commission for quite some time as a member and the chairperson and really understanding what it means to protect our community but also give everybody a fair shot and uh it's very commendable and uh the reasons why he has to leave he got a new job and he's going up and he wants to spend some time with his kids as well and I I do not fault him for that so um if there's a motion to accept his letter of resignation with the deepest regrets Mr chairman Mr Gasper so normally you know we we read resignation letters from boards and committees and you know everybody means a lot to me for serving the public um this one's kind of a hot breaker right Ryan rendes you're an incredible man you serve that conservation um commission with commitment intellect Common Sense most importantly um he's just an incredible individual the way represent conservation um this is this is a heartbreaking loss I believe to the town of aush and our Conservation Commission agree agree i' just also like to make note that Mr rendes is staying on until January 16th he does have some unfinished business so to speak to take care of um that he wants to see through I'd like to say wish him the best of luck and I hope to see him again soon in any other position in town you're going to I'm not doing a second I don't want him to go so it's on YouTube guys all right he's just he's incredible all those in favor right bye Mr chairman Mr Kelly the staff uh wants to in on the board because we have two upcoming vacancies on the commission y that we're going to be advertising ASAP y because having two and we not sure what's going to happen and I I know that at least one if not two of the members takes uh a bit of time off in the winter time to go south and I'm concerned about it AUM so we want to advertise ASA yep absolutely yeah I I I think for anybody who's interested um Ryan shoes aren't going to be easy to fill right I I think I just made that comment but if there's anybody within this community can find it in their heart to volunteer for the Conservation Commission that is solid on protecting our lands Waterfront you know the rivers streams and things of the like and you have a an overwhelming desire to do such things and and enforce the Welling protection act please come forward um it'll be truly commendable if we can get somebody who has the same passion as Mr rendes thank you all right gentlemen anything selectman announcements uh Mr chairman I I'd asked if we could have the town planner in um the next selectman's meeting to discuss that bylaw I think they put out a bylaw and a memo on the adus I think it's called with that more Hy thing some some about I don't know we already allow it through zba or whatever but she can come in and discuss what's going on in that bylaw um to the board I think they she owes it to the the board of Selectmen seeing know we're responsible for the warrant to discuss that and she actually requested it um a couple weeks ago it is currently scheduled for the December 3rd meeting okay very good I think what's just to get ahead of it what what I like about it is there's language in there that would do away with short-term rentals Y and I think that's probably the biggest threat for a lot of the stuff yeah we'll see what I haven't I haven't gone through it but we'll see what it's all about what this versus what the state's doing right trying to dictate now how we're going to do our zoning which I think is pretty awful that the state's infringing on municipalities but neither you there and the only other thing I get on the select's announcement is Happy Thanksgiving to everybody out there be safe while we're on the issue of housing um I did see an article today in the New Bedford light mhm um about uh you know the the gentleman from the city of New Bedford you know essentially saying the suburbs need to do more um I'd like to extend an invitation to um to that gentleman who I think is a good guy I don't know much about him other than what I've read but I think it would be you know a cush it um when dealing with the city of New Bedford is typically on the short end of the stick right our residents are paying a higher SE and water rate um there's other things that I'm sure if we really scoured um so you know I think unless we can solve those inequities yeah then you know uh then maybe we can have a conversation about housing but until then I think it's you know it's a gross assumption to do that I agree I didn't want to dive into the uh legs of that article but I did catch it and it did fire me up a little bit um maybe I'll read it tonight makes me laugh right we as taxpayers have spent our tax dollars and our parents have spent their tax dollars building this community now you have Outsiders that want to come in and try to tell us what to do with our land in our town have a nice day good luck with that our town meeting that ain't happening but anyways one good thing about this town and having a town meeting is there's a lot of people that feel really good about living in a cush and of course they have the ultimate say so it's what we built this community to be right and I said it numerous times don't try to make our town a city yep all right all right so just to reiterate from mine I will say anybody in interest at all for conservation please send us at the board of selectman a letter of interest um and also check out the town website for any other openings in any other boards or committees uh we are going to Executive session executive session under Mass General Law chapter 30A subsection 21 A4 to discuss the deployment of or strategy regarding security Personnel or devices cyber security and the board will not return to public session at the conclusion of the executive session is there a motion to enter executive session so move second all those in favor roll call vote Mr wer yes Mr Gasper yes I yes [Music]