##VIDEO ID:GbCknNKtOjc## this we're open all right meeting is open and we are be being recorded a couple times all right so first up we have meeting minutes we we don't have those do we 24 no I didn't have time no worries motion to table meetings of June 24th till next week second any discussion all in favor right do we have any audience participation come on down George one week post Community Day I want to bring you up to date on a few things um last Saturday we had three people show up to help uh finish or almost finish painting the black railings in front of the post office we have about an hour's worth of work to do on that to complete that we're in the process right now of getting the blue trim painted around the various Windows um one of the big issues going on at the moment is keeping the plants wet um we've been fortunate enough to have access to the selman's supply of water and we've been using it regularly to keep the uh plants as wet as we can during this dry spell and I have to wait way the weather forecast is it looks like we're going to have to continue doing it for the next week or two um we I'm in touch with Chuck Benson I have a call in to him to find out if there's room in the one Barn where the carriages are to store about 50 bags of mulch that we have left over for next spring when we when mulch we now have settles and we need to apply more um one wind sill still needs to be repaired um and hoping to get that done this week get more of the painting done this week and uh let's see what one oh the flag Pole's completely been painted with three coats of paint and and the flags are back up um the parking lot needs to be swept in the near future and if the S board can ask the highway department could to do that when they have an opening in their schedule that'd be a big help um the railings on the the uh split rails need to be repl and I know you guys are on top of that and that should be done probably in the near future um I'm in the process of saying thank you notes out to everybody that participated and hopefully that'll be done in the next week or so um I need some help of getting some addresses of people in town that I don't have but that's coming along U basically that's it are there any questions thank you for all your work yeah abely it looks fantastic it's getting done thank you thank you I appreciate the appreciation uh it's it was interesting because I spent some time after the event looking at it and had we had five more people we would have been 100% complete because I looked at the number of hours that were put into it and what was accomplished and it was amazing well you had some good workers there tell me about got done so how it went so that's where it stands at this point awesome thank you for all that appreciate it um we can let um uh rainy know when when he gets the sweeper we don't have a sweeper yes we do we do room to close on the tractor we usually got oh hey rainy how are you at some point but Ry if you when you guys have time in your schedule if you can sweep the parking lot of the just so you understand that the sweeper is a road sweeper it does not collect okay okay it pushes it off the side we can do a fair job but it's not going to be a good job okay because it doesn't collect the sweepings it just pushes them away perfect that's fine use it on the side of the road where it's pushing it off the edge of the road okay that's fine thank you we appreciate it Ry thank you George um all right I would make a motion to skip down to douge uh new business Watson Park can I ask something sure yeah Kevin green 21 Hayden Road M now that it's it's been determined that the town is in fact responsible for Cobble Mountain Road do we have a timeline as to when it will be repaid like Brooks Road and South Street and Wyman and all the other roads that have been done uh Ry do you have any information on C Mountain Road uh Cara last I was here that was in discussion with Springfield Water I don't know anything new of that this the city I call do and the town gets paid chapter 90 money to maintain that road so I think it was the two and a half huge potholes on that road that we've been driving down and the neighbors are done now I I went down that road a couple of times when Dave was here and uh that chapter 90 money is not exclusively for Cabo Mountain Road no that's for all roads correct so there's not really a full boat to repair the road now when I talk to uh Dave who's no longer with us he was supposed to schedule a pothole filling on that road and then use the hot box to pave those areas where the road is broke up to to pave that whole road we don't have the money unless we can find a grant or something they they had the money to P South Street and Crooks Road was done twice done under grants Rainey what do you have what were you gonna say I would like to add something here one uh last week we put about 32 tons of ball on Cobble Mountain we went from Crooks and down towards the front there is like I would say two dozen reasonably good size potholes there we are planning to do them uh we actually had a problem with the hot box it's all set now but but the whole thing there is that Road has to be completely redone which is a full depth Reclamation a base drainage and then you're going to have two and a half to four inches of base and another one and a half to two and a half inches of top that at the last when we did those other roads asphalt was at $52 a ton it's at at $130 a ton it's the costs have gone exorbitant much faster than your chapter funding is coming in I am working on three different projects right now and honestly one of them was going to be presented to the board to do the section of cabble Mountain from Birch to the gate of Springfield Water but it's not going to be able to do a full depth Reclamation we're going to have to basically do uh what they call a mill and fill the Milling is going to be a problem there because the road's so bro broke up yeah but it's it's going to take it's going to take you know four or five years to get the funding but if we do it in this manner we'll get another 10 to 12 years on that road in good condition and hopefully we can just slly you know maintain it afterwards but um it is in the plans along with some work on Russell Stage Road on the bottom and the other one was Chester oldchester road we done a repair on it so it's passible and it protected the water line but it has to be done there because more so because the water line is in Jeopardy and that's the problem where that one became a priority over the patching on Cobble Mountain Cobble mountain is being patched it's not completed yet it will be within a week or week and a half but again our attention went to protecting the water line because if that transite broke the whole town would be in Jeopardy underwater yeah absolutely okay understood thank you rainy um douge you want to come on down yeah so um you hear about grubs no I don't know um couple summers ago Doug I called it grubs for of I'm not sure uh couple summers ago we had a dry summer and there was a couple patches of of grass that got died and the grass comes up in like almost like looks like big spiders and it just go and it's dirt and so I tried to reced those areas and it didn't take and then now this year we haven't had much rain since August so I've got a lot of spots around the park that are like that it just the grass turns brown and comes up and clumps and it just falls off and it's dirt underneath so I took a couple shovel fulls and didn't see any grubs then I looked around for holes I didn't see any moles I haven't seen any moles up there so I'm thinking it's just drought but what I want from you guys is this is not I was in Communications in the government I Landscaping is not my forte but if if you have someone that you know that that's their business if they could just come look at it okay and tell me what it needs I've got about s bags of grass seed up in the in the barn okay so I got plenty of grass seed but if it needs spraying or something okay that's what I'd like and I can show them the spots where it is you just walk in the middle of the park you see them all over the place so it's not hard to find we'll have to reach out and look for a company the the problem is like I we lost three picnic tables this last year they broke up and rotted and I've talked to Joanne about it they're ridiculous in the prices I know even if you buy them from the menites down below expensive and so everything's expensive in Watson Park works on its own special yeah I think we can take a look at what we have in the trust and Trust yeah we don't want to go too too too crazy yeah a guy on newed Street in Westfield that makes them yeah yeah I've seen him yeah seen him Joan um the reason I brought it up with Doug is because he put I I think it was like 350 last year it cost for wood to repair just they just keep yes and no uh the original ones were built by some boy scout for his uh Eagle Scout thing and he didn't use pressure treated wood now when I repaired them I got pressure treated wood which should last longer and they just Rob and yeah some of them are kind of dangerous out there too I got rid of the all they're all they were falling apart so the ones we got we've got seven I think um good ones which should be enough you know Memorial Day we bring them all down here uh I guess getting to my point everything is so expensive like we got a trash can a trash can was like oh I know we anything for parts is outrageous it's ridiculous yeah you know and then you you got to get permission to get the right kind of ones you know so do you think seven is good or do we need any to look order Seven's all right I with the ones that broke apart I've got all the boards up at the barn I can make a couple good ones out of the bad ones but does this mean we'll be good for the summer then and maybe think I could use two more but I just have to make sense to replace them with plastic well that's the thing we get a catalog and to buy those plastic ones they're what was that $3,000 for one it was ridiculous it was ridiculous and what we have at the library we Janet Lombardo and I found those on sale they were half price so up two for the price of one it was $1,300 and that was a number of years ago but there're solid metal they're electric uh painted paint is applied electrically and they never rot yeah what about um the park got a bunch of new picnic tables and from the menit yeah but they paid for them yeah but uh those are all still good the menite ones are still good there's probably yeah no these these aren't what these are uh metal with uh that uh PCV no I never got any of those no I mean this the blord fair got about a half dozen or so I'm wondering what they what they cost where they got them we can look into that and see if we've got some trust money that we can now if you get if you do go with something like that like a a plastic thing put those down here by the playground sure yeah and then the wooden on you go up in the park and that way it keeps a historical wood ones are awful heavy I've been moving around moving them around for since 1998 so 26 years I've been doing it yeah I did that up the fair BRS for 20 years get um a company in couple year we'll um find a company that is specialized in landscaping Lawns I guess Lawn Care need someone to look at it and then we can um get some pricing on I think we have some catalog stuff get some pricing or check out a Menan night thing um back to the dirt and the grass it might be worth a trip taking a soil sample over to the UMass extension service having the soil tested to see what it needs dry it's off dry I would imagine might need phosphates or probably no one's ever has ever treated the park ever it used to be a lush green I'd rather not be treated with anything but let's um whatever let's see what the company would do maybe they'll test the soil if they it used to be like painting the Golden Gate Bridge by the time you finished it you had to go back and start mowing it all over again now it's not like that anym um it is over in by Main Street it's still like that but over here so something's got to be done okay thank you doggy okay great thanks have a good one yeah all right 're moving back up to the top Town Department reports we're starting with Christina okay so last week want to start dainy do you want us sorry Christina do you want us to start with you are you you want us scam no I'm fine you're fine okay go ahead CHR uh last week Mr stopped by my office to talk about an ongoing issue I guess he's been having for a while that you guys are aware of uh that had to do with a water main break and some repairs that were done uh Mr Ken are you here oh there you am you want to come on up I will do um so you had expressed to me that you did speak with Maya the insurance company and had spoken with the adjuster and they came out and took pictures correct so I spoke I called Maya and they confirmed that they did and we got the report and so I'm going to give it to the select board yeah um to take a look at it I know that as far as the mold goes they said that there was like a formula that they use for your basement that that it's easy right it's 19 Ft worth and yeah there's a right so that isn't the issue I think that what the issue you were explaining to me was that they had requested that you get three quotes for what you believe to be damaged to your your property and you have not been able to do that correct correct I well I can get the quotes but they can't work on it until I get the okay to have have them work on it because it's Town property right so I think that because it's Town property we have to go through the insurance and the attorneys so I'm not sure what did you get any votes were you like I don't know what look what specific work you're looking to have done you could provide us with that we could give it to our insurance and our attorneys to see what work that needs to be done but we can't just give authorization without the attorneys okay here's what happened they put a new waterline I know I know the back Y and uh Gordon Avery told them to use this road millings for deep filling only sure and the F did not okay he wasn't there he was gone whatever the deal was and he put Road millings all the way to the top so I can't grow a thing on it I can't mow it it's at a very sharp angle but it's property though pardon me it's Town prop correct it is it is to I 100% aware of that I'm 100% aware of that yeah I think that's where Insurance the insurance company and the attorneys are kind of saying well if it's Town property we can't there's not much we can do as far as well you're out 17 feet which is more than Town property okay so if you if you when you have those quotes we can submit them to our insurance company and our attorney and we can go from there they've already been out they're looking for my quotes they're they're waiting for them okay if you they won't even give me the quotes until I get an okay in a town that they can work on it work on our property or to town property on Town property correct David is the one that so you need some permission from us to say okay he can work there written permission that's what they that's what he yeah but we so we run through our attorneys and our attorneys have have um let us know that we need to get have you worked with the insurance company so we need to get the quotes if you can give us the quotes we will give them to the insurance company to you but he recommended that we not do any authorization yeah you you give them to me get them out and then we can once that's all approved whatever they say we don't know experts in that field and we'll just correct either my I have no idea how much they have to take off let's say or I could properly grow grass properly and just shave a little off the top where it's a it's a goes out like that and go straight down where I can't mow it so if they could you know kind of paper it yeah exactly yeah I don't think it's a really huge deal but it's a huge deal yeah for you it is for me it is right right right we look we hear from them we'll get in touch with you we got to do so where do I where do I go with if you let me know uh you can go to Christina with the quotes with the quotes that's easy yeah and I'm gonna send it over to insurance and the attorneys and whatever correspondence we hear back I will see they're waiting they're waiting for me to give them the quotes Okay yeah Anna is okay Solomon Anna yes that's who I spoke with she's the one who gave me the the because they I thought when the adjuster had come out a while ago they just came out last month correct okay they came out and you know they measured the driveway and everything and oh yeah I see it was very thorough yeah you know and they did the downstairs with the rug and the pad and the the wall and that was fine but up top I guess it's certain issue up there okay yeah and I'm fully believe me I am a th% aware it's Town owns that most of the property that this happened right I'm fully aware of that okay I'm just looking for some Grace here yeah given that I have a what we think is a nice piece of property where the grass rolls down uh if I can't mow it I'm in trouble it's not going to look good it's going to look like it is now you know I'd like it to be the best we can get it you know from from what happened I understand what happened and I fully realize it yeah what they did and why they did it okay yeah if you just get Christina those um those quotes then we'll get them to the insurance company and we'll and she'll let you know what she hears back we'll do okay thank you for taking the time so uh I already gave them the quotes for the driveway and well like you said for the for the wall yeah the that's a given thing yeah so much PR the fellow thought I forgot his name he told me Steve Steve thank you you're welcome for the Memories I know Jeff you know yes I well thank you so much for listening to me course of course yeah no we'll we'll figure this out I didn't see your basement here I got it all I didn't I got it I got all the info here so once we get those quotes we'll send it on over and we'll hopefully find a so you need three quotes for just that the Excavating yes okay the other stuff is we're good for the driveway kind of generic and wallboards generic St okay sounds it works thank you guys so much for your time you're welcome than for coming in have a good night night you all right you got fuel tank there we got a bill sorry Mr Ka if you guys want to chat I'll have you do it in the hall just so we can keep moving along um from Beerman services so there's a fuel tank located at the highway department and I um rainy had given me the invoice he said you know I don't think that this comes out of my budget because the fuel tank is used by the whole town the like Municipal vehicle whole town now I had Janice look up what the history of with this vendor was and like the invoices that had been now rainy they had historically been paid by Highway however they were very inexpensive like $228 yeah um this invoice is for $ 6,940 and it's not done yet oh well we can't pay it if it's not done well uh this just came up yes um Friday evening okay the alarms went off I came in town and went and both of the dies the diesel and the gasoline High alarm tank uh lights are on I called them today they're supposed to be coming to chat there's so Christina Davis supposedly already repaired that that's why I just said it's not done there was a large bill here for 2000 well I call it l $2,000 compared to the other bills um but this one for I mean call it s Grand at this point so this work hasn't been done that I have they say it's been done but the alarms came back back on so I don't think it was done properly all right well not so that's a I think that's another issue we can we could talk about that but if we have this outstanding bill for 6,940 where where so who uses the gas is it water Highway and fire and police and police sometimes and cemeter so I don't know do we divide it we just started well I brought this up many many times for whatman and everything okay that we could have a system where each department that uses it has key and it's a key coded so that that department is directly built the highway depart Department should not be responsible for that unfortunately though we don't so we need to figure out how to divvy it up so that 80% to the water it what do you think Jo why does it have to be divied why can't you just have an account like you do with CU how much who you what it's only a fair way to do it well this is for it's not their money anyway it's Town money correct not but we don't have an account to pay for going forward that would be great yeah that's what why would you why would you go through the bother of splitting it when just have one account and it gets did you guys get in for the um the cemetery or anything no well what they have is they have a clipboard with a pad and then you break down you know what department who who did it how much fuel you did it like Cemetery doesn't have a very big budget so we could try you know we can pull lot but so I think that's all should be done like you should track that but what I'm saying is this is for repairs this isn't for filling correct so it's not like this is more a building maintenance type of here I'm just using that as an example because the gas is one thing that you use but because the pump broke it's not your fault it's not the highway fault it's not it just wore out right basically or whatever it needs so that's a pound problem not just the Departments so for the repairs how do we debute up do we look at the size of the budget for each department do we look at if it if if I'm hearing this correct if we think it's a town problem I guess we would have to pay it out of our un unforeseen um I'm thinking we what is the account the um that we take hold on our Reserve Reserve when we isn't that what we do for an emergency we could use the reserve but not until free cash is certified okay which will happen in Mar December yeah add some please what happened um in the past when I was there the smaller bills such as when the filters we bought filters to change for the pumps and everything that did come out of the highway Department's Building Maintenance but that was typically you know uh $50 to like $75 for the maintenance on it but this here um from what I've seen is because of this newer system that's in there since I've been there and these repair are for the electronics for it and I just wasn't aware if there was an account for it that's why I went to Christina saying uh I've not seen these type of bills come across the highway department before yeah I will say that in February of 2024 we paid a $22,000 bill for repairs and obviously breaking why don't we get bring it to finance and get their opinion on it no well on on the side of my statement here you know there's things here that says they they can't be repaired or replaced uh uh what what is all this you there's no prices there and we don't know what exactly the the system is are they the adequated system or are they the newly installed system what says these components could not be repaired in place on the day of testing and then the only ones that have the Aster no it's not that it's that at the bottom testing and failed parts were placed on day of testing on a different some so that was the other inv this one $6,000 yeah but that this is everything that they done with the this testing it failed with the $2,000 that's the other invoice so then what's this invoice see that's the 2006 2062 and 12 so this I don't think we a breakdown for this one we just have yeah that's just like an estimate yeah so this is just the estimate so this hasn't been done yet yes it it has I called and asked because it says estimate I said I'm confused why it says es and she explained to me that it's not an estimate that this work has been done but we don't she didn't listen any of the work she they came there found the problems on this which were not they couldn't fix the day they were there they got the parts they came back on 726 and put it all up the snuff is that correct you know that rainy or not not I know they did some of it and they were there uh week before last also when I was there okay so in total it cost us $9,000 wow and I I personally think that should fall on the whole town not I agree yeah so let's yeah let's bring it to finan I think motion I don't think we have [Music] to oh okay The Encore so I kept getting all of these bills from Encore and I was like what what's going on why do we keep getting you know a $5,000 bill a $6,000 Bill and it was all for like inspections and things of that nature I got another one well prior to getting that I emailed them and I said can we just put a stop to this for a second because then you know we're $11,000 in in like a month and a half for inspections I'm not really sure what this is all about you know I just give us a minute to figure this out she said the woman responded and said okay and then a few days later I have this email and it says here's your uh quote can we schedule the work to be done on Thursday and the quote was for $5,151 is I don't know what this is about um I'm going to have to talk to some people to find out if this is you know what's going on with this uh and he said well I'm confused because this work was approved to be done back in April I said okay said well you're in good company I'm confused too so let me just find out what's going on so I spoke with John hoppy I showed him the quote I showed him the email and my questions to him were number one if we do go forward with having this done is this going to fix fix the issues with the fire suppression system in town hall he said yes this is going to be the fix that we need I said with that being said I know that we have another whole project we're trying to do with the generator and the generator is linked to the fire suppression and we're going to be changing that so that it's linked to fire suppression and the whole building I said I don't want to do this work if when we finally get around to doing the electrical oh well you you know you did this work with fire suppression so now this it doesn't work he said no he said it's okay to go forward you can fix it it's fine with that being said I believe that our remaining arpa funds you guys had voted to use it for repairs to town hall yeah so I just wanted to ask officially if it's okay to approve this work to go forward with Encore and have the fire suppression system in town hall fixed with the arpa funding okay part of it that's priority yeah so I would say yeah um I would make a motion to approve the expenditure of arpa funds for the following proposal from fire service group on Cor fire protection to repair fire suppression system at Town Hall in the amount of $5,151 I know we gota yeah I do have a couple of other things that okay um that's my thought so Wendy from Maya our insurance provider reached out last week regarding an increase in the medx program but it only will affect well it'll affect the town and what we have to pay towards it but it's only going to affect the retirees okay not anybody else on the insurance program so I have to sit down with Sarah and we can either accept it or not accept it I don't know what happens if we don't accept it I haven't gotten that far into it okay but I am going to meet with Sarah on Friday Wendy has sent us the paperwork it's the new rates it's a 20% increase basically yeah so I don't know what they were before yeah but the new medx rate is $17.51 a month and the blue medx rate is one15 for a month I don't know how many retirees we PID two oh they just two okay yeah me I believe the split CU I had when I was speaking to Sarah about this wasn't that kind of double dipping if we're paying a 20% increase and they're paying I guess it's like the town will be paying 10% of it and individuals paying 10% of it um but so I will be meeting with Sarah to I guess accept it otherwise we don't accept it our retirees don't have a prescription Medics program two okay got do got do was there something else there's other things um Linda's not here um but I told her I would briefly go over some we have Miss Milford here GNA be late Skip by oh no problem we'll wait Ona stuff okay all right question have we found plumber oh sorry yeah that's on my list oh good Aaron did go over to uh the post office and he did take a look and he said it's the pitch of the pipe is sagging he said it's a twers job and that he's going to reach out to Connor of I believe because he believ that Connor can handle it um so that's where we're at right now and he's going to get us some price price not interrupt but we we were talking about adding a water line outside yeah so yeah if we could have them will they're there we're not paying a trip charge back and the guys can put it in yeah and it ain't going to take long or I should say it's not going to take long to put it in long as they put it in through the solar part not the crawl space but the craw space isn't insulated well they'll just put a frost silk o in and put the shut off in where to furnace is yeah and that's all you got to do be fine they can put it in the CR okay so we can get a price from him I guess Conor yes so Aaron is going to reach out to him and we'll get okay put that little addition in okay thank you yeah I don't want je paying for what I'm not right now but I get a bill on the over I water there will be George would be taking me out to dinner for a while question Mary just add a curiosity what are the items that aren't meant to be flushed being flushed you know I don't know I think that's just plumber talk okay okay thank you well so that's the other thing that Aaron had said he said said um you know we can fix the pitch of the pipe and it will help address some of these issues but if things are if things are being flushed that shouldn't be it's going to continue to cause a clock but other than that now Jeff where is the sub tank itself in 18 field right out right out by the chimney yeah you know where there's a post seat you could see that near the chimney yeah that's why we dug it up and left it dug up because if he changes that pipe he's going to have to get in there yeah so he can change it so we don't know the scope of his work yet but yeah that's that's where it is and the leech field is over this way towards the park I believe but I'm not 100% sure either I'm that oh I what's what's where all that shoe ma was growing by Def fence near your house y that's part of leing field I think so but I'm not sure which way it goes you know get that shoe out of there yeah I right did a good job has the information been passed on to the employees at the post office that things the part of the reason that the planing is the way it is is because things are being flushed this year I don't know that things are necessarily being flushed that shouldn't be I think Aaron was just making that statement just making let's pass that on anyways and just make sure that we reiterate that we need to make sure that how many people work there one like I don't Department oh and the fire department yes we'll have to pass it on to the all the time or you got the you got the carriers the general one and Lady CLE okay there one day a week right all right we got Highway super what do you got for us rainy I'll try to be real quick okay most of it's really good news Old Chester road's been repaired so the water Line's protected nice uh we we brought in uh about $116,000 worth of material we graded it rolled it um it's it's in good shape um the best I've seen it in a long time um NY Brook Road the cover's all done including the guard rail that was all buttoned up Friday I've got all the bilding and that's going to be used for with the fair share um that came out to a little less than I thought I thought it was going to come out to about 20,000 total it come out about 15 so great good there um the equipment um we've been working you know well the guys I got to say this I'm pretty happy with them because if they got done with something early it's it's really nice to come back to the shop and see them working on things um so the equipment is really starting to be maintained a lot better um the one situation that we're going to run into is uh the winter um accounts not so much the salt and sand but the ones that we use for plow blades and nuts and bolts problem was is uh there was a sander that was to be replaced because last winter it broke um you cannot repair it it's a polymer body and metal framing um but some reason um we asked I'm I'm going to say it the the the vendor was asked to hold on to the sander until the 1 of July so it would would go on the new budget why I have no idea um so therefore that one went on to the new budget and we were already projected to buy a 1.8 Stander for the smaller truck um it's going to be very very tight just to turn around and pay the existing bills with the budget now we do not and I just went over it we do not have any what they call cutting edges any blades for the plows and we replace the blades on the plows an average of two times a season if it's a heavy season you're going three times um so we're we're really right now probably looking at a seven to 8,000 shortfall on that account already wow okay um I know it's a deficit account but I'm supposed to keep you aware of this ahead of time and I I believe that you know Finance should be um they have to be notified and funds have to be transferred okay now one thing I'm going to I I haven't had a chance to talk to Christine today but uh made some big Headway with Gil engineering okay I had good conversation with engineers and the project project manager they have sent me the narratives that I need they've sent me all the open bills and I can turn around and do the report by the 15 so we'll be good with Eed thank you rainy that's perfect and is it okay for me to go ahead and pay those bills you have proofed that the work that they're billing me for is done it yes but I was gonna come to see you because the narrative I want to break it up with the bills okay all right so that we have it in the stage that will uh be really EO yeah EO liking okay perfect Russell Stage Road the lower part the very last corner for the Town Line with the wall that's a having a problem breaking apart and one thing is it's never gotten a good paav sale against that wall um I'm working on right now two different situations uh one came in up way over 50,000 so it can't be done that way because we would have to go out to bed uh but I do believe that uh Palmer back SLP by um they're they're going to probably be able to do it for us um but it's going to probably be the first week of November I don't like doing Asphalt in November but it it would be sufficient enough to last for probably 10 years okay and we really got to get that Swale put in and frankly we don't have the good compaction equipment for a Swale we we have a compactor and roller but it's it's not designed to do that job and it it it really needs to be done right so that's going to be able to be done under Fair Share also okay um the line painting uh I I believe everybody knows it's on the website um the 14th uh made a deal with them between the 14th and the end of the month because that we applied very late um they're going to guarantee us to get it all done but they they don't know that if they're going to come in the 15th or the 16th and then have to come back two days later but that's going to be all set and it's going to be basically every paved Road will have some sort of line marking whether it be one single yellow for the smaller roads and the bigger roads like uh Chester Road uh Russell stage those will have like four lines double yellow and white fog lines um but that goes based on what the roads as to what they're going to be having and length okay um well I was going to tell you but George already told you um we put the flag pole back up on the post off um let's see the granite pieces that were on the edge of 23 car that you were of concern of yeah um I didn't touch him at first because it's not our property okay I went and blanford maintenance came by and said they do not want them they are removed uh I told the gentleman that we were removing him if he had an issue with it he had to go to State and he went no that's okay that's fine okay um could you tell me when the fence went up at Highway do you know when that happened well it went up a couple different days uh was uh last Friday I think they finished it do you know pardon do you know happen to know what company put it up uh to be honest no there was one truck there that wasn't having any signs on it and mikee had came by and I said you got approval for that and he goes yeah it's all set no I think that was a company on Union Street in Westfield a is it A+ Signature Sign well there was a pickup there one day that but the other trucks weren't marked like that sign oh maybe yeah okay um yeah we're going to have to have a separate College about that oh Ry just don't forget please we still somehow need lines for our parking lot parking lot yes but that's totally separate I can't okay no I know it's separate I just wanted to remind you I do I've got it okay okay thank you for removing those I appreciate it very well all right um okay we uh we had skipped and we'll come back to Linda did you want to come on down hi Linda I apologize no you're fine a little medical thing no you're fine we're here what can we do for you so I I haven't brought it up yet we were waiting for you to get here okay so I had a meeting with Linda okay last week and she there were a couple of different things that we went over um one is the uh historical inventory of the town that pbpc uh was assisting with at one point in time I oh God that was a long time ago I did no just last year we had oh really okay and when I met with um the other ta he said they would roll over what we had last year left over okay plus put another 5,000 in our budget they didn't they did not do that no they didn't um so it looks like last year fiscal year 24 they spent $2500 m so if they had rolled anything over they would technically have 7500 in their budget this year they only have 5,000 but what that tells me is that if you had the inventory done last year that the inventory really only cost 2500 or less that's just for the number of houses that she was able to do it wasn't the whole inventory so I did reach out to Shannon and I'm setting up a meeting with her just to see what's left to do if we could get some price quotes on getting that done so so that first step has been and I copied you on that email um the oh the town common committee uh I didn't even know there was a town common committee which I do know now and I did get to see the project cost projected costs back in the day which was a lot but you know they were they were talking about doing a lot it was a big project yeah so Linda was wondering if maybe at some point there was any interest in reconvening the town common committee and maybe we could just do some of this or you know decide again maybe what's most important to get done or just have the committee again right right and I realize that we've got a lot on our plates with the fire department so I'm I'm not saying that we have to do this tomorrow but I'm just saying it was a committee we were interested in it yeah um Mary was on it um and gagnan was on it and we were just trying to figure out um is it still viable is it something we can look at next year um we can we can definitely bring it back up next year um we haven't really talked about I know I was really excited about the project that they came up with and then we did North blanford and it was kind of like we talked about well do we build this into it because we were going to change where the road came out based on the um results and then it got said it just seemed disappeared yeah it kind of just disappeared we were told no at that time because that was really costly or I I don't remember got involved the state got involved and then my if my memory serves me correctly the state said that the way the road is now is not safe and they preferred that it would be what we had projected but at this point North Lanford Road has been we spent a lot of money on it so I can't imagine that getting changed anytime soon not only that the highway departments there they couldn't even build a truck out if you were going to put the road through there right yes but you know in the city Jeff we have roads that go in front of Highway departments and they get their trucks I think they had taken that into account I'm not sure exactly I have to look at the plans um it wasn't um top on our radar but we can certainly um yeah maybe after the first of the year we could reconvene and look at it maybe when we look at next year's budget we can look at like budgeting a small amount just sort of as a placeholder for account like even if we just put $500 in an account and then it exist and we can sort of talk about it so it doesn't I see Kati behind you and then I just was curious have we paid this design company that I believe that was through a grant that was done so we've paid them just for the design it wasn't for work correct so we haven't paid them for work because no work has been done corre hopefully okay thank you Mary yeah I I I think we did hope to pursue the walkway that went from the Historical Society building on up to the cemetery the tree there in the yeah across the way yeah that would be a great place to start I think yeah yeah cool Gordon well make the commons make the commons more a common area yeah so that when we're sitting there for the Memorial Day celebration you're not worried about a car running you over because you're sitting on the edge of yeah okay good um I talked Josh talked to me about that because I remember that project that's how long ago it's been a couple years now was and we talked with Tom a too um and one of the issues that was they didn't take an account for it the reason we talked with Tom is because he didn't work on it and um R you might know I know Brad knows there's a water line that runs shallow right where they want to put that they wanted to put that rope and I know it was something that where they wanted to turn the end of Northford okay yeah can I add in Gordon yeah uh well one of the things there was um Joshua was instrumental on this but the whole thing was we paid a design thing but the problem there was with the new regulations on intersections it would be compliant if it was done by that design by state specs however you would also have to have engineering done okay and that was from what I remember the tune of 100 to $150,000 to have the engineering done because the state would not be doing it they said they could advise but they would not pay for it because that would have been a town project two the other thing was with it was if you did that it was also uh relocating utility lines and the polls and at the time ever Source wanted nothing to do with it so we pretty much got stuck by not having the money to pay engineering yeah and not having the money to pay eversource to do it because eversource said it wasn't a requirement for them well and it was it was Christopher that we were working with on the committee it wasn't Josh well I worked with Josh on the initial part of it I think we started it way back okay um I think that with the situation with um Highway being sort of up in the air needing a ton of work and is it even going to stay there and we going to move it I think we might want to just let's like focus on working at the small pieces like you were saying like the path and not so much that huge part of the project um or even just wait till next year and look at it yeah and so we can put a line folder in and um and that way there'll be a little bit something if we need to at least like I don't know reach out and get some prices or something when we do reconvene or we did you want to be I can't remember from our discussion yes yes still question well the town common extends up on top of the Historical Society to cemetery right yes that's why it was and wouldn't it make sense to improve that area up there it's flat it's away from traffic that's that was do something down on the highway where people are driving by it you could you could look at the plans that's what was in the plans that's what she was saying yeah but they were talking about moving North blanford Road they were talking about connecting right but why spend millions of dollars to do that spend money up top and make it a place where people will actually go and use it no what's going to go down is sit on the edge of 23 yeah that's why yeah if you want to take a look at the plans you'll see what we're talking about where the yeah we were talking about that okay um not done not no there was also Watson Park and earlier um is is his first oh Doug okay Mr emo was here earlier that's silly um he was here earlier and he was talking about concerns with Watson Park as well uh so the concerns that Linda had that she had brought to my attention uh were the Gazebo I guess is in a bit of a state of disrepair as well as the steps yeah I reach out for prices on that and I had a friend that would do it but he doesn't have insurance so was supposed to look at it and he said okay I'll take a look and then he never got back to me so I can reach out to him again but how years has it been since we redid that Peter it you know how long ago that was no well it's since we've been in town and we've been here for 12 years so you I said 12 I I just wonder if we need to put something up there to protect the town because it's it's not safe yeah and if someone Falls it's going to be on the town so let's get um some prices for that and instead of me just reaching out to someone I guess it was sort of in between and we were like all trying to take on yeah so steps and repair of Theo correct yeah so there were a couple Carpenters we have already reached out to blueroses um and they weren't interested um Ripley like I said I was going to look at it and didn't get back to me does he have insurance I believe he does um certificate John Piper he's un insured he's uninsured not insured yeah I'm sure we can I'm sure Mark Slayton um okay Mark Slayton Don I Brook can you spell the last name s l a t o n s a y t o n yeah yes K I'm assuming that the Maya insurance is the same so in the past there's been the town pays for the materials and an experienced Builder volunteers and so volunteers who were working for the town at the park used to be covered by Town Insurance um so that's a possibility it's also important that we get people who know historical correct concept because this is a very significant build structure okay I didn't know yeah at the time that was done 12 years ago we looking at putting electrical in there oh would you get it from that was problem to update a historical thing trouble here I know he's C in trouble at 7 o' at night well it's my child you do it well thank you you're welcome there's no place to pull any I don't there's no power well there's no power in any of the garages power in the park would be fantastic water would be fantastic used that water in the Park yeah well I mean know yeah yeah because we were have putting electrical into the barn where we gave them all that would be fantastic but I think that's project Brad yeah ktie who was the guy that that went to refurbish that like TJ said about 10 or 12 years ago who was the guy that came in and did that at that time you remember him the Gazo yeah remember when he came in cuz it was ready to fall over yes and he came in and they they redid it do you remember who the guy was I it was Peter mil oh it was it was Peter who did trying to remember who did it I could remember who did it yeah I thought you were like photos yeah but but there been slight repairs since then I here and there um and and then we had a a gardener come in and we were talking about having a kind of a pathway from the church with just little you know pebles so Brides could come down and have their picture taken not now because as Linda said it's really not not great uh and then we were doing also Ada we were trying to after that the people came and gave us uh feedback um you know I I don't know that ADA would require that people can get into the Gazebo but as long as they could come from the driveway over where the Gazebo is so they could look at the view which now is full of trees but anyway um well that's in the Ada we were thinking about putting a ramp but there's nothing to stop it on the other side so that would be a great that would take away from the historical part of it wouldn't it ski jump you know oh ski jump Lind yeah would love it yeah they'd love it and then uh an additional concern with Watson Park was was the Landscaping I think that you had brought up so the tree triing we I think have discussed this in yeah recent meetings um and so I think if I'm remembering correctly when we did did you say there was a landscaping company we were using it was women some women company or something or am I making after the women's company we were using someone local who moved so we need to get quotes when we get quotes for year maintenance of Bicentennial will do the same thing for Watson so yearly maintenance of like um putting the flower beds uh to bed in the fall and then um waking them up I don't know what the term is um in the spring opening them so um she did that obviously we need to find someone else to do so would you want me to find somebody just the same thing that Doug wants like he wants somebody to look at the grass and then like would I think that's different companies I think grass is like that's just their specialty is the lawn this is more like someone who um would be like working with the perennials and the plants that are there and making sure that the historical Integrity remains but need some clean the leaves up at least twice a year minimum it's really more a gardener than a landscaper we don't need shrubs we need somebody who knows heirloom plants to go with the historic nature of the park and and that kind of thing and there was that Park P RC Grant where we walked around that was Christopher right and and Christina said she couldn't find any notes I don't we didn't um get the park Grant it was uh we were starting to look into I believe it has something to do with a status like getting it I feel like Christopher had said um getting some sort of a status for that and then a grant that went with it well he said he was too late to apply for it that he was talking about it and he was going to apply for it the following year and then he left and then yeah so yeah that didn't get completed um so maybe we could look into that see if this year might or the next year might and I think that Arbor is the trees are actually another situation because we also have trees on this side of the road like the apple trees and then I was looking there's that weird little thing near The Rock when I went to elementary school here there was the rock did you have the you would like we actually had a house there it was like really cool you hung out at the Rock but anyway there's this like little tree thing at the Rock and I don't know what's happening with it but it's like it's like on the ground so we need some sort of a arborous while they're at it they could clean the front bushes in front of this building well there there's a little plot of Lies I call them out house lies that are right by the corner of the tennis court and there's there's no value for them there I mean it just needs to be out taken out and and put back to LA yeah you know uh douy had mentioned something to me a couple of weeks ago about where the tennis court used to be M and there's there's a flat piece there and he was wondering if there was something we could do with that I I don't know you have to talk to douy has thousands of ideas and he talks to I think that we've got enough to do with the flower by the Gazebo without developing FL well no no he has some other idea I don't know okay pickle B for this is all handled through a trust this is on that side is handled by okay and there's funding still yeah and we can check in with um you can check in with Sarah to see what is available at this point but yeah we again we only want to be spending the interest so would would it be helpful to have a a I know you guys are the trustees but would it be helpful to have a board similar to what the library has that can look into grants for the park and when things need to be adjusted at the park and um I don't know if legally we could add anybody else to the park um well isn't there're already a board for the park for Katie can you answer that not no no what about getting a part-time maintenance guide to do some of these cleanups and well the person that we hire for the um landscap not Landscaping gardening um would be doing that we've talked before about needing like a m a ground person for the entirety of the but that hasn't been that's like a whole another like we create a position we have a established pay I mean that's like a whole another because there's always some maintenance to do here and there this I'm just I mean something down the road yeah we definitely have to think about and you know John hoppy does so much and he doesn't get paid enough and um but uh no I don't think at this point establishing a board um is necessary I think that um we Christina is a a professional grant writer and search Searcher for um so yeah that George one of the questions that came up uh last winter I was looking into the situation affecting Vice Centennial Park was the fing that Woodford arms had set aside and I got as far as tracking the first $144,000 but I wasn't able to track down what happened to the $7,000 that she later gave uh the town for maintenance of the park and I think it would be really helpful if we somehow track all the investments in the both parks and to have uh whoever is managing that give a report uh to the select board on what their intentions are in terms of maximizing the income from that in a reasonable and responsible way I think we go and let that money just float out there and not have any accountability for that money being ad administered and I think it's time we with money being so tight that we make sure that we're using that money and managing it well yeah and not just say that company's doing it and so be it and I and I would agree with George that's kind of what I'm trying to say I I don't want to be that person but I you know you don't want to be George I don't want to be I don't want to be I want to be a director either maximize what we have our best ability that's right would you like thee par we know what's available at BenTen it's not much so and I mean yes we'll take a report but um the bigger problem with with Bicentennial is um how are we going to increase it so that we actually have money to spend and Sarah working on no ideas right now it's already 710 um very late last thing that Linda and I discussed was Linda you have a portion of a Blackboard that came from a historical school yeah um she would like to donate it to have it somehow displayed here at Town Hall I thought that that was getting taken to the historical at the fair there's no placees me at Fairgrounds I thought about that oh did I make that up I thought the historical and you thought I was a troublemaker I thought the historical society was going to take it and and display it at the fairgrounds in their building up there I had not heard that oh it's an idea that's interesting yeah I'm just thinking would I I would prefer it would be here and and it's in three sections of of 12 it's 12T so we could break it down to what is it honey 4 feet I just don't know if there's anywhere nice here to display it I feel like in like the Historical Society or in the historical building at at the what about one of the hallways or I mean you think it right here in this wall yeah I mean I mean it's got your great-grandfather's name on the back very cool had mine eyes at one point I don't know on the back oh on the back of it on the back of it we took it down it's room to put it in in this room you think I just don't want to like change anything and get yeah um yeah I guess the question would just be about how to get it here I know you said it was really heavy and then how to mount mount it on cement can help it's 12 foot long with it's three four four fo section okay so we can just do a section of it okay okay it one there one up the historical one at the fairgrounds there you go no wait wait a minute here a suggestion was made to us at the last event we had in the uh Auditorium SL gym and on the stage we got all kinds of stuff that's up against the wall back there and uh I was with this person down in Huntington and they had made a false wall on the stage out so with a door so they could go and back and we could do something like that and put this slate on that wall in that room yeah that would work too you know because the curtains I just think in here where there's heat I think you put heat okay the be you're lose it you know that makes sense it's it's too nice to lose so um absolutely do you know how would you be able to get it here or do you need get okay yeah then I think that would be wonderful apprciate it some type of frame okay because it wasn't glued on the wall it was just in a frame so so we need to look at framing it okay that yeah happy what would we do with that one I know I don't know well I think there's a man over there in the corner thank you how' you like get that job Rick thanks for coming you'll learn not to show up with her thank you for your patience I I apologize for being here that's fine how you feeling we were rocking and rolling with stuff all right um we have uh payroll we've got motion to approve payroll warrants there is no payroll oh there is both of those on the agenda for payroll are not here Warren seven and warren8 I still don't have them so we don't have them because accounting hasn't gotten them to us or there's been a big mess with wal and she's working through it okay do you need anything L of messes okay okay um but I do have two warrants that we signed what are these is this that's um we should have warrant eight yep select board accounts payable and water accounts payable that's all I have okay so motion to approve those warrants second uh any discussion all in favor oh sorry I thought you got that one sorry um okay and then we have uh motion to approve the warrant for state election that's when you need to work with you don't have to approve we signed it is that what we signed already what supposed to okay um all right uh motion to appoint aarona she told me how to say it now whole person for elections uh second any discussion all in favor hi I have something here to be notorized y That's when you talk to dor all right so this is uh has to do with the Pioneer Valley planning the um no that's yeah that's me this is you oh the 56,000 for 10 Russell Stage Road for is this for the rehab program yeah yeah I got to be signed for pvpc they released one more house okay oh the guy who gave the report and huh I'm I'm confused because I I think I jumped in when I shouldn't have what are you talking about here are you talking about I'm talking about I came in and signed one of these um this week so there's another one that's what I was talking about and then Doris has something for you okay so this is forget seventh day of 20 of wait of October 2024 okay okay and then you need me to fill out this that Bo yeah that one um do we need a motion for that one oops this is the printed name I don't think so we didn't do one last time I we didn't do one last I have a question for Christina that's what Happ with me I don't know because I can't remember you not where find me when you think it State not 10 724 and it is 7 17 713 713 I am I can't really that CL No 7 be testing me it's 73 714 wrong uh type of document was what do I put for type of document what you put the last time it's on go back discharge lean how did you guys stay here that long just for the sheer entertainment it was interesting get a [Laughter] life want to ask like what happened with the water oh yeah you were gonna rep Adam texted me and said Christina we need to fire her she picks on me and she's wait to me just keep it up all yes can we can can can the town clerk's office ask you to appoint two more pole workers no I'm doing paper working it's on the agenda for the 21st already yeah the two more yeah none of this okay can as Deputy Warden do that on the 21st we'll do it on the 21st then Jo will have everything the paperwork Mary it just gets too messy if we just fly up okay yes ma'am all right so I think everything in here is signed um I guess that's it did we decide uh what is our next step with the um the fence situation because we can't just let it we can't just let it slide who who authorized which was nobody who who gave permission for him to hire somebody which was nobody correct and who's going to pay for it which shouldn't be the towns people without our approval and it's at the least and that's the bare mle I don't even care about who's pay clearly we're not paying for it but it's there and no one approved it it's ugly and it's ugly and we're in the process of looking at a highway like what we don't even know what we're doing with Highway we don't know what we're doing with Town Comm I was to say isn't that right where the town common conversation talking yeah and the thing is the chains that were there you could remove them so you could get around them if you had to there's now you got to yeah so it I don't think it is what it is I think I mean it's got to be rectified but it has to be and I'm not even saying to take it down but a conversation needs to be had um can we invite Mike to the next you inv still there I knew I was thinking about as I was driving up the hill I was like oh he's going down to Florida isn't he oh not yet with oh yeah another hurricane he he had talked with uh Dave about it when uh they old fence was all broken up you know and he had talked about Dave with Dave about trying to fix it and Dave wouldn't have no part of it because we told Dave yeah do not use Town labor to fix that fence and she told not to do it without going through you guys and he igned and then Mike took it upon himself to try and fix it which didn't work and then he approached me about it and I said well I said it's nice to have the fence there but I like the the chain that was there and then he said well I'll go get some mment and that's so I heard about it but I had you know he knew he had to go through came here with a with a proposal not to his left me priv private he I was here you guys weren't here yet or I was and he goes I got a proposal she wasn't he goes I got a proposal I said you got to bring it in front of the town yeah and have it put in the budget pay for that that's where I left it with them yeah and that was after we had the town meeting yeah yeah so I'm like I just think it's a slippery slope to go down where people just start put stuff got to make them um okay and then was there when she told him that this has to be done yeah through proper Channels with insurance with all the the last I heard was that he said that some group that he belongs to was going to pay for the money yeah portion of it up front and I still said you have this is a select board thing this is not like I can't it's not that I don't support you know he just decided to do what he wanted to do it's just you know the other thing is we need to get a thank you out to George of some sort um get what out to George I I can pick something up like a card what should we do we need to thank George like give him like a proclamation done maybe I'll I'll pick up a card we just have to do I think we just have to do you hearr said do a proclamation he probably would like about approximation giving him credit for doing it something a yes then a little award is fine I think we do need to make sure though that um because so now I as my understanding was that he was getting gung-ho with wanting to put more money into the post office yeah so what I what I was trying to say and I I think I confused you Joanne was that years ago we went to town hall to town meeting regarding Shephard Hill and we said Shephard Farm we said do you as towns people do you want to put more money into shepher farm and they said no and so that's when we stopped putting money in so I think that maybe we need to do something similar where do you as a town is it worth putting money into the town hall building the old town hall building or would you like to talk about the possibility of moving that Aaron brought that up too the plumber he was like I don't know cuz I don't yeah I don't personally think that we should be putting any money into that building why why do you think that that's ridiculous put any money in your house or you no Jeff here's why here's why they the lease we have with that building is really bad you're right they only pay us like $112,000 a year so for us putting money we're not we're spending money on a building that is that is we're not it's not equaling out I understand that but if you want you don't bring a smashed up car and try to get top dollar for it need work window and then you can get more money for it if you put 5,000 in you'll get1 15 you get rid of the post office people they're not going anywhere is up shortly where would you put them not up till 27 Oh really who that we were talking about that when I first came on the board plus that property is in three different Deeds yeah but um what that property is in three different you have one for the parking lot one for no the parking lot's connected to the park to to the park yeah and then you got the sus okay I stand correctly um I'm just saying I don't think my personal opinion is that it doesn't as a taxpayer I don't want to put money into that building I there's so many other things that I think are important I would rather we could get quotes for how much it would cost to do what everybody is saying they want done and then the town can decide do you want to move forward with the repairs or do you want to seek a different yep absolutely what kind of a message is that sending to a fire department well we're building a new fire department that's going to be happening we don't have it yet correct but I'm saying we're building a new fire do we if we don't need to put money into the town hall right now today I think the town hall my understanding at least and we can have it inspected is that it's going to last long enough till we have a fire department okay no I that's not you got windows that are Bann you're we're paying the heating bill and the heating's going I just want to get rid of it we just need to sell it you do maintenance on it we never do any main can we break the lease did you find it I think the one of the first step I think we need to add like the but contact whoever is in charge and have them seriously take a look at would you be interested in moving to this space we can look at negotiating I mean if they came into this space and we said okay you're going to pay us $10,000 a year to be in this space then we're making money we're already heating this building we're already right so we're going to make $110,000 and we're not going to be putting money into an extra building it's structuring some so if we say to them that's there's so many there's an open op Office right there there's the building inspector's office which is not used at all we could our office is never used that's yeah that's what I'm saying we've got rooms that can be divided if we needed to divide I know that they couldn't they have to have some type of a window built yeah what is so there's a window out they'll move out of here they'll move out of here and you will be getting your mail from Russell I guarantee you that's what happen well that's what that we need to get we need to get input from the town's people and see what is that you know what what is the importance to you what's the relevance to you that's but um yeah I'm just curious what people want us to do with that building because it's been sort of hanging over our heads for a while now well we may not have a post office in another years USPS is a dying company anyways well it's like I mean who wants to put a business in this town who would be there name one you could think of you want to go in well I don't think we're GNA yeah who are we gonna sell it to I don't know maybe we just have to knock it down the thing is is that uh maybe a garage some of the people some of the people down at PV PC or you know they have like a jungle Telegraph which is rumor that usually turns out to be fact and they said that blord may not have a PO but we would have outside boxes like they have you can put those in the park lot you can put those in the park right right okay who knows um no a garage what I'm saying is just like an open garage for the vehicles we have parked here for the police vehicle I mean well you have to build cuz that's not yeah but that but that could be something that's even if we're just talking something that's like three wall right I'm not even talking just keep them out of the weather yeah no that's not a b space for it might be the one that's logical for that place yeah like just a carport for some our vehicles I don't know them both I got them both I don't know which is which I think this is yours am I correct oh it could be our Farmer Market spot a popup is that what they call it those are beautiful you know milwauke tools now have