##VIDEO ID:-vuzQ4RmxLE## good evening and welcome to the September 4th 2024 meeting of the select board Board of Health sewer commissioners of the town of Deerfield time is 602 p.m this meeting will be held in hybrid fashion with the opportunity for both in-person attendance and remote participation please note that while an option for remote attendance Andor participation is being provided as a courtesy to the public the meeting hearing will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast unless otherwise required by law law members of the public with particular interest in any specific item on this agenda should make plans for inperson versus virtual attendance accordingly the meeting will be held in person in the main meeting room of Deerfield municipal offices in accordance with Mass General Law chapter 38 anyone intending to record the meeting must identify themselves to the clerk Blake Gilmore and provide their name and address for the record so I'll call the meeting to order um just before we go into the public comment period I'd just like to say that um we'll be discussing this later but um Casey Warren has decided after 24 years of service to Deerfield that she's retiring for health reasons effective at the end of the week and we will talk about that later in the uh in the meeting um and I'd also like to encourage anyone who wants to comment about Treehouse noise uh to do so during the comment period we will be discussing briefly uh what the town is doing to address the issue but um you know we it's a work in progress and we will probably have a public hearing later about this uh so I now open the public comment period I'll try to go back and forth between online and in person Mr Bea hi uh Fred Bea from Eastern Avenue um I know that I've discussed the the paving Etc mhm uh I just wanted on record to see what's transpired in the last month since I've been here I can answer that real quickly okay I don't have it all settled down but uh talking with uh Chris at DPW we're looking at grav Street Eastern up to cross not doing cross at the moment so I think that's our plan for fall just to give you an update of where we're at at the moment still need bids and stuff we we working all that out and we're already into September here you know no it's been planned yeah he's been working on it so okay good thank you and welcome in regards to the ditch um still got some time on that yeah my suggestion because people that live over there or even I don't know about you up your way but I know how it is next door that it's dry right now it is so I would think that they're going to have to get in there with a brush hog first and get rid of a lot of that Greenery that's in there now would be the time to do that mhm it's dry they can get in that ditch with no problem so I don't know if they can kick somebody free I don't know if anybody's even looked at that but that would be a suggestion that maybe they can get in there now while it's super dry out and maybe at least get some of the vegetation out of there and then continue on with the next phase of it in November or whenever good thought thank you okay all right as long as something's going on thank you you're welcome thanks for coming in any other comments about anything that uh online um online one on oh no that's a that's not a hand that's a hand we'll take that one next Mr tutle all right yeah I just uh I have a few concerns about the property next door to me the St James property that the town can you identify yourself for the audience yeah it's Jason Clark 81 North Main thanks um I've seen that the DPW is making an effort to actually mow the property now um but my main concern is is it seems basically for the better part of this year none of the shrubs are being maintained anymore the church is actually in major need of a power washing and there is still an abandoned car in the back of my lot so I'm just going to point out that you know we've had problems I know that there was was allegedly a Breakin in his church earlier this year I know there's been a few incident consen over at the library on the other side of me but if we're going to let this property get run down it's going to create problems in the neighborhood thank you okay and I do have one other question too is the 1888 building advisory committee the meetings are being scheduled around 10:00 in the morning and 3:00 p.m. which is very difficult for the public to actually get involved with this is there any reason why the reason why the meetings occur when they occur is because the Architects are available when the meetings are scheduled um they have attended meetings at night they will also be attending a public an evening meeting or two meetings I should say one on September 12th I believe but it's it's posted and another one on October 1st which is also will be posted shortly okay um the the only problem I'm having with that too is I'm actually trying to go back to refer like any reference of what's going on with it for the last several meetings and I can't find any recordings on it I can't find the minutes or anything of that sort the minutes have been made and and we will get posting I'll talk with Christopher Dunn and uh we'll make sure that uh yeah I mean my concern is this is moving forward very quickly and there's no information for the neighborhood to look up in the past okay thank you okay I appr appreciate it um Mr Tuttle Hi how are you um I'd like to express my concern again where you live I'm sorry oh I'm sorry uh bat huddle one weightly Road in South Deerfield um I would like to uh express my concern once again about the um parent disregard for bylaws and decel limits that Freehouse is being allowed uh to proceed under with their concerts and I would like to see if the select board can provide some transparency as to why that's actually happening and what steps are being taken to mitigate the noise pollution for people that really don't want a free concert or want that in our houses when we are trying to sleep okay so we'll we'll talk about that later in the meeting anybody I look forward to it yeah hi I'm Megan tan um South MO River Road and I was also coming here to complain about Treehouse that um on August 27th at 10:30 p.m I was trying to go to sleep and I could hear the whole concert in my bedroom um a couple weeks before that there was another concert where there was a huge vibration it wasn't the noise but you couldn't sleep because my whole chest was vibrating from the base um 10:30 on a Tuesday is absolutely not acceptable um there shouldn't be any concerts in the middle of the week and in my opinion I don't care how much they pay in taxes like we all live here we've been living here for 44 years or so you know and um it's just not right that we can't go to sleep when we want to go to sleep um I wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning just 10:30 is not acceptable thank you um Monique Canyon hi um I'm at 14 Captain Le Drive I apologize I have um covid so my throat is a little bit horse um but I wanted to again say what others are saying is treeh hous is I love Treehouse I just want to go on the record for saying it um but we got to have a balance and the noise is crazy and um I'm here just to kind of see what the town is doing and I'm kind of um just interested to see if there's going to be any changes it's it's far too late on a weekday it just is too loud thanks thank you m [Music] yaffy hi Henny FY 5 Beaver Drive sou Deerfield um I just want to this is a different topic um I don't know if people have talked about it before but um at the at right in my Beaver Drive which um ends up in River Road there is uh some repairs that were done but they still need to be redone um so there are barriers there those um Hazard barrels there and then if you go down River Road I'm sure anybody who goes down River Road towards Greenfield there's a whole bunch of the road that is collapsing into the Connecticut River I know everybody is aware of this but to at least put up signs that would say you know if you're if you're coming up to where this needs to be repaired it's a one lane because people who aren't living there or who are bravado or whatever I mean there's a lot of new people you know with all of the Cottages started colleges started up um and they just think that you can both go you know in different directions in one lane and you know if you're a resident you know that you've got to stop before this but not everybody does get really hurt thank you for the comment yeah thank you anyone else online um folks in the audience okay well I don't see any other hands so um we'll close public comment period and uh move on to um the second the third portion of the agenda um is Rachel here ah welcome Rachel thank you good to see you so could you just brief identify yourself absolutely my name is Rachel Stoler and I work at the Franklin Regional Council of governments and I'm here about the memorandum of understanding for the mass in motion age friendly work does everyone have a copy of theou I believe it's in our package if not I have copies I'd take a copy if you have it see oh no I do have it I do have it I'm sorry yes yes sorry about that you have one yeah I do okay um so uh I'll give a little bit of background mass in motion is a Statewide movement that is uh organized under the Department of Public Health Bureau of Community Health and prevention um it focuses on um reducing the risk factors for chronic disease there are 10 communities in Massachusetts that have mass and motion that are part of it they're all doing different work um in Franklin County when we applied for this fund stand is about her reminding people who she is we gonna mute them in a minute here bear with us anybody else go ahead sorry about that that's okay um I'm just giving a little background you know what this is all about love to know yeah be great um so when we applied for this funding 2021 we applied to support the towns in their age and dementia friendly planning to support individual towns as a complementary effort to the regional age-friendly planning work that covers all of Franklin County and this is a copies of the regional plan just in case any of you have not seen it um so this kind of this Regional plan outlines some suggestions for towns many towns are using this to guide them in their um planning work some towns are doing their own things anyway 11 towns um signed on to support our Grant application when we got it we went back to those 11 towns of those two dropped out and two more joined anyway um Deerfield was one of those 11 towns as were Sunderland and weightly when I came back to the select boards uh two years ago in 2022 after we got the grant um dear field Sunderland and weight Ley uh agreed that it would be best for the um South County Senior Center to sort of manage the Grant and implement it so that is what has been happening for the past two years with great success um I'm sure you know uh Jennifer rard and Chris goodro at the senior center they have really taken this very very small amount of funding you know with the three towns combined it's just over $122,000 and they have really um leveraged it to do a tremendous amount of work um and this work is Under the Umbrella of thinking about health and how did different things impact the health of older adults in the in our communities but also really across the age Spectrum so one thing that they focus a lot on is transportation not only working with the um the two regional transit authorities that serve the area um but also getting their own van and providing a lot of additional Transportation um there is a workg group that um gives input to the work they've also looked at Food access how are people getting access to food in the community um and how to make that easier for um particularly for older adults um and I am happy to say that uh Jennifer remar's grant writing she has been able to leverage this very small amount of money to bring in over 400 $1,000 worth of grants in the last two years yeah so um so it's it's something that um it's easy to capitalize on mass in motion and the type of thinking and planning that we do together and so I'm happy to answer any more of your questions I just wanted to give a little bit of a framework um and uh ask if you would sign the memorandum of understanding on behalf of the South County Senior Center and I have also been in touch with the other towns I did meet with the New Town Administrator for weighty and kind of filled him in um and I will offer the same thing up to Sunderland I know they're they have an interim Town Administrator Y and so this is U giving us FY 25 26 27 so that's fantastic three more years providing the fundings available exactly like it might not be the same exact amount of funding but um but the folks at dph have promised that um this is a 10year uh funding stream great for so it will go until 2032 so um my folks at the Cog said I could do that I could do a three-year mou with the understanding that it would be amended sure yep yep we're thrilled with it and and we're so happy with the work that just the partnership between furog and and our our Jennifer rard and Chris guo and um everybody's been able to take advantage of it and like you said it just kind of expand it wherever we can to um to to work on other items so it it definitely has been a huge help help to us and we're grateful for that great so I'd make a motion unless there's any other well I was just going to ask is uh you're you're the representative to the South County Senior Center Buu yes um what is the Practical effect for this for us uh it's just it's well should working free money but it's it's really great to have an influx of cash to do the work that we already need to do anyways and um I know Jennifer's really looking at dementia friendly work at the moment really trying to figure out how we can you know make sure that we're thinking about whatever we do we're thinking about that population how how do we um you know how do we serve them better and you know in every aspect that we do but but definitely around food and you know just getting around the house and talking about different ways that that you can recognize dementia early onset dementia um and so that study group and work around kind of learning how that how that how it affects different people in different ways and how to recognize it and how to help train family members to see it um it's we're just thrilled to have this partnership I have a question uh as far as uh does this actually uh do you bring in the to nurses involved in this to actually helped you train the elderly and is there any type of uh funding that goes to them for you know the the different things I know you're talking about dementia and that sort of thing but I mean helping them with you know any type of uh medical problems that they may have and be able to do is that is am I off base with that I'm just trying to figure out what so we don't we don't provide funding to any of the Town nurses however whenever we offer trainings we do offer them to all of the towns um and so Town nurses can participate in any trainings we offer um we did last actually it was in the winter we did a um agism and reframing aging training meeting um to which everyone was invited this winter we're going to do something about um dementia friendly planning and again all towns will be invited to that so we'll just want to make sure that all the town nurses get that get the word on that thank you so I'd make a motion to approve the and sign or have the chair sign the um member end of understanding between the town Deerfield South County Senior Center and the Franklin Regional Council of governments for agef friendly planning second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Filmore I Tim Hil I thank you thank you for coming thank you for your work thank you Rachel a cop does anyone want copies of the great yeah if you have them and we can leave them up on the up on the um table too thank you do you need a do you want to take a copy U of that or do you want sign it on the spot we'll get a copy yeah yeah we'll get a copy the fourth right right with you either that or you could just you want us to scan it and send it okay we'll do that then you'll have it in the email yeah okay great thank you so much yeah okay um so next up Christopher dun all right uh good evening everyone um so I I just have a couple updates for the the board tonight um real quick uh starting up at the 1888 building and Tim I I'm not sure if you're going to be providing a more detailed update later but I just wanted to flag for everyone that we're planning a public meeting for that project on September 12th so that's uh Thursday of next week um that'll be here in the or where you are I should say not here uh in the town hall the main meeting space uh doors open at 6:30 and then we'll have a presentation at 7 so I certainly encourage everyone to attend um we're going to have C riddle our Architects on hand as well as the OPM uh P3 so that'll be a a great intro to the project for folks who haven't already been involved um in anticipation of that special town meeting on October 7th um so I'm sure Tim can provide further updates on the project if he's got it on his list for later in the meeting but wanted to flag that for everyone um other projects L lot uh so um construction's progressing nicely um we actually had uh Greg snaker was with us on uh on Tuesday uh so just yesterday morning uh our new assistant Town Administrator was kind of just stopping in for a couple hours and he had an opportunity to sit in on our construction meeting that we have Tuesday mornings and then he was able to join me and actually visit the site so it was great to be able to kind of introduce him to that um as I said um you know construction is progressing nicely uh they're at the point where they're just trying to figure out the the pads for the actual charging stations which have been ordered and we're working with universal electric also on obtaining our um needed needed utility cabinets for that area as well so yeah that's that's progressing nicely and in the next month um I'm going to actually be seeking reimbursement from fhwa for some of the grant expenses so we should finally see some of that money come back um out of that $2.5 million Grant so that's going to be great um related uh so Elm Street um so I I think I'd spoken previously about a complete streets project there um so time Bond wrapped up their survey work I believe last week I'm just waiting to see an actual copy of the survey um so so it's a big First Step they're going to actually be joining us at the L lot uh construction meeting next week um so that we can coordinate the two projects um but that'll also be an opportunity for Chris Miller and and anyone else who's needs to be involved on the DPW side to get a take a look at what Ty and bond is preliminarily proposed um and then they're also going to walk Elm Street that Tuesday just to take a look at things um I am trying to down a public meeting date uh later this month um and I was I wanted to actually check with the board if the week following uh September that September 12th 1888 meeting um I'm just trying to pull up my calendar the 19th would be that Thursday yeah and that was kind of what I was thinking potentially uh just that'll give us an opportunity to to um get word out and then also you know at that 1888 building meeting we can even just let people know you know hey come come by again next week and we've got this meeting on we'll um I'll kind of discuss that further um with some of the the committee members Etc um but uh yeah that's that's what we're looking at and I'll once I have that finalized I can notify the board um and that meeting really is mostly about kind of reintroducing people to the project obviously we had a complete streets plan done for the whole town almost four years ago at this point more than four years ago at this point possibly um and so there's you know projects that are proposed for kind of each one of these streets that need that complete streets treatment including Elm Street between Railroad and Maine uh I think we just kind of need to re-engage with the public and with business owners make sure it still makes sense to people and that they they don't have any major ISS issues so um again definitely encourage people to attend that and we'll be getting word out about that meeting um as well uh other projects MVP um so bloody Brook uh I'm going to have my first kind of checkin with our MVP coordinator coming up next week and I'm pleased to say that we've also managed to get the consultant or the Consultants I should I should say who are on that project uh to agree to not only do the bloody Brook the hydr IC hydraulic study of that but also Sugarloaf Brook um also known as blacksmith Brook um and that's going to be a separately funded project it's going to be under the MVP seed money that we have um so that should that should cover that and I think we need to confirm with the our our MVP coordinator Chris Curtis and then also the the MVP Core group but it looks like that's probably going to be the best way forward so that's it's nice to be able to get those two different um watersheds um studied in the same basically in one Fell Swoop so that'll be that'll be nice to have done so we can understand better what kind of infrastructure improvements we need so that we will not have so much Inland flooding in South Deerfield um other updates uh Network geothermal project so this is you know the study that Bureau happold is doing on the feasibility of you know a kind of District geothermal system in South Deerfield um they are looking to be I I believe on site uh next week um we do have an energy committee meeting that I think they're going to be attending um and that's going to be an opportunity for them to share their kind of preliminary findings for the study um we also had UMass ammer uh their uh landscape architecture and Regional planning program reach out they're interested in having students do kind of mockups basically uh what that might look like um in Deerfield um so we'll more to be said on that I think uh Denise Mason and Ma Swedeland are kind of taking the lead and helping out coordination with those students um but that's kind of a a fun add-on to that project that's really you know for the most part just about feasibility and you know how do we make the numbers work so more to come on that front and I think um I think that's it for for me for the moment I just wanted to check and see if any board members had any questions on any of those projects or anything else that's out there just to hit on the the dees front entryway project um it looks like they're moving along on that they were held back on some waiting for some drainage Parts I think that took a while um and I know um our Engineers are looking at you know making sure everything's done right and uh Darius has had has eyes on it daily and trying to make sure that that gets done hoping to have it ready by the beginning of school but it just that you know with parts uh took some time to get and some extra work they had to do uh but it's it's moving along it's going to look really nice when it's when it's completed um I think the asphalt's going to happen shortly I haven't been bu it today but um I they have the scratch coat down and the base coat and they have to put the Finish coat in and Y reset a couple of stones that have separated but yeah and then they did um they've been working on that side the west side of the building too which was you know the walkway was really bad that that all got pa um I think uh concrete and then uh they Rec kind of did the LOM around the trees and everything because that was all showing roots and trip hazards and stuff so that whole area looks pretty good eventually we're going to have to redo the loop um because that was kind of a temporary thing we put in at one time but yeah it's looking looking pretty good over there it be nice when it gets done and we get all that equipment out of the way just have the kids line up out front so and just a quick follow up on Burl hah holded the uh um the heat Grant and is there a is there a completion date um coming up soon or is that further along in the in the fall yeah so we we have a checkin with the Heat team um later this month and then that that report has to be wrapped up prior to December first okay anything from you Blake no I'm good all right thanks Christopher thank you great thanks everyone so does anyone on the selectboard have announcements make uh well I just want to you know just maybe make a couple of things that I've seen in emails going through about um Bridges so I know we're working on the um the you know North End Bridge here the Dry Bridge at the end of North Main Street um dot I think Chief has been in contact with the engineers there they're working on um fabricating the you know supports and stuff that need to be replaced um so I I think they're working on that it's you know some I kind of thought is this indefinite but it it appears it's not it appears that you know they're working towards a solution there to get us up and open again um so I think that we may find that open a lot sooner than we thought and um longer than we want but yeah didn't they uh have some information about um actually securing the the wood Timbers yeah there some sort of Timber they to replace the the existing rotted out wood Timbers yes which kind of weird you think of a bridge wood Timbers but it is what it is um so until you until that whole thing gets redesigned but um but yeah so that that's moving along I know that we've been in contact with DOT about the bridge over 116 you know everybody comes down 116 at the fire station and that's all going to get redone so that um it's going to be a headache for us for quite a long time um but we've been you know Chief has been trying to push them to keep two lanes open um they were going to have one lane with signal um we're concerned about traffic coming off 91 southbound turning uh turning there and just backing up um so I'm not sure where that it's more expensive to leave the two lines open so but we've been really pushing it for emergency and I know that uh Chief sesy and chief PK have and um Chief Sparks have been have been working with uh dot about making sure that you know EMS Vehicles police everybody can get through through there they're actually doing structural they're not just reskinning it no I think yeah I think they're doing structural too because uh I believe they're going to widen the sidewalk and kind of it's going to get a full rehab okay yep um and I think that's going to start fairly soon uh they're still in the planning stage so um just want to give a quick update on an email on that and then I I know everybody's seen leer road is kind of just the one that goes over the transfer station Bridge has been kind of not paav for a while and I think they were dot was waiting on some sort of part uh for that it was again drainage and drainage yeah get the drainage that was soaked down through and Y he I think I just read that he was talking either the end of this week or next week yeah it be resin coming soon and then it so that should be one headache I mean at least we got rid of the the oneway traffic signals but um but yeah so that should be finished up pretty quick soon uh so that's really all I had for just I saw my the sun bridge is just about ready to open all the way up so that'll yeah they've just paid the last section of that so we just needed to do the sidewalks up up to the Sugarloaf would be great you know one thing at a time I guess yep yeah and what about you Blake that's it okay um all right so the next um oh next item up is do you have Board of Health stuff I do andless you do well I was going to say um I sit in on a group with the Megan tudin that's the Valle Health Regional Coalition and uh we just want to flag up that uh Triple E and West Nile are being um found in our area so just encouraging people during the morning and evening hours when mosquitoes are very active active to you know be aware that you should be wearing U long sleeve clothing and and treating if you're going to be out in in in in any meaningful way you know treating with mosquito repellent and so forth um and also that as one of our callers mentioned covid seems to be circulating I know of at least two personal friends who are down with it at the moment and uh and Monique Ganon I think she mentioned that she was Ill so just be aware that it is out there and uh as kids go back to school um keep that in your mind and free tests as Megan yeah we've got we've got tests and we' replenish them periodically thank you and uh yeah so uh we really appreciate the the continued um cooperation that the town's getting from the HRC so and we have a supply on the table here so if people want to come come get a test you can do that and I think our um Cindy mayeski Our Town nurse also um provides the free tests for the seniors that she deals with through the senior center so while we've got Megan uh you're managing the Nar Camp as far as the county goes aren't you as far as that goes um we were just like again I was talking to one of our health agents in regards to that and they were looking at the money in that aspect do you have any comment as far as the you you actually are doing the training right now and and setting up trainings for places all over the county or how's that working yeah come up for a second we did we did recently we did it we did uh one I think we've done three yeah in Deerfield so through go ahead um so an Master tataro she's the um public health nurse that works for the vhrc and she will hold any class is that people want you can also get free Naran in her office um she has office hours in Sunderland at the Town Hall um and it's just because there wasn't space for her here otherwise it would have split her time but so right now anybody can go to her office and get free Narin or they can come up to Greenfield and get it for me anytime somebody wants a training though it's it's always available um she is looking to get some of the noox alone boxes put up and she's working on one at a bus station in Sunderland those are great but they're only good if people know where they are and when there's an emergency it's better to have you know everybody have them in their cars and things like that first um we this program is at no cost to us we do have to have an mcsr agreement which is a controlled substance registry um we have that through Greenfield and we have to have a Doctor Who's a ordering provider um sign in and so we do all the paperwork for that but we there's no cost and we just give it to the town of Deerfield as so anytime we need something like that we can get it it's not an issue any time we can get as much out as and that's that's off of a grant correct it's part of the the training part the nurse's salary comes out of the grants but the the Narcan is paid for free through the state we don't need to even C to our grant funds for that good thank you good say something about opioid are you like this an okay time um so I don't know if Deerfield has done an opioid settlement survey yet but one of the things that they recommend is coming up with a survey sending it out to the people in town say have you had anyone in your family or friends that have been affected what kind of services would you like provided is it transportation is it housing is it to pay for Rehab um things like that I know there are a lot of families um I also used to work at the elementary school um so I know a lot of families are affected and that opioid money can be used for many different things it could be to pay for the the children of opioid um survivors or there was people with addiction to play for their sports or you know something like that for the year you know anything to kind of stop this cycle and give the money directly to the people that really um were affected by the crisis one one aspect I was looking at with a member who was affected in the community was um he was trying to develop a Li's watch I don't know if you've heard of that so um I'm not sure where that's at in the process and we you know we talked about it before we had the money and um you know it it takes a lot of money so we talked about well could we group everybody's money together to help and I'm not sure kind of how that all goes but just the the the gist behind it was that it was something that you wore it was very cheap so it wasn't like an eyewatch that someone's going to sell but you had it on you and it it monitored you and if you stopped moving for a certain amount of time or oxygen level went down or something like that it it would it would automatically 911 call and 911 call to to your loved one so you you know if you were overdosing you you could get notified really quickly and it probably had a GPS on it so you could do you know yeah those type of things are fantastic because it it gives the money to the people that really yes are affected are struggling with it and I just you know I don't know about cost and everything it had to be cheap enough that people weren't selling them right uh to buy drugs uh but was useful enough um so I know that uh he was working on that a bit and I'm not sure where that was at if you've heard anything anything other than that look it up to see if it's out on the market yet but it's yeah it's not I think it needs some some extra funding and there was some you know getting into it's a lot to goes along with it but I'm just curious what your thoughts were on that so okay I think that one of the things on that too is that the op situation affects every part of society it's not like you have young people doing it or whatever it's got to do with prescription and everything else on that end of it so it's something that even though you know we should be be reaching out we should be reaching out to everybody so that anybody that's affected if they they know they've got a helping hand there that's a good thing we do really I I know the vhrc is we kind of are really kind of pushing to get Ouran more into the schools um right now they have it in the nurse's office but it would be fantastic if the Board of Health could recommend getting it put into the with every defib that's in town um I know that my daughter plays soccer and at hurle he field there was um someone actively using in the bathroom there during one of the practices um this was not a student this was just a Community member but you know I was I think back I was like gosh nobody had it there you know what if they needed it so you know it's in my daughter's backpack it should be in everybody's backpacks right but um you know something like that where we could get it more you know just put it out into the schools put it in all the defibs um and all the jump bags you know even in all the classrooms it could be everywhere it doesn't have to be a school nurse that can administer it you can't hurt anybody with Nar can you can give it to anybody and it won't hurt them and I think like that's the real message that we need to send out thank you for that thank you let work thank you Megan yeah Megan we'll be looking forward to working with you on that too good all right so um next up is we have one set of minutes has everybody had an opportunity to look at them y the only thing I would add to the minutes was that just to put an absentee section for Trevor McDaniel because I wasn't there I mean normally there's one but for some reason it wasn't there that's the only thing I would add to the minute okay so you so friendly amend friendly amendment I move to approve the minutes of June 12th 2024 as presented thank you or as corrected or with corrections as corrected I'll second that motion all right any further discussion hearing none all those in favor CH chair McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim El I you made the correction so you can approve it yes yeah all right um so next up is uh discussion of the the town has recently received a Department of Environmental Protection administrative consent order and this is a a notice of non-compliance related to work that was done on an emergency basis um various areas of town um after the storms of 202 three so um old um swales and River streambeds areas uh were cleared out and silk that had collected from the storms was piled in various places um we the uh the people who did the work were not aware that they were in violation of D rules about uh depositing soil in when you clear out Wetlands so there's an area in Hawks Road there um are several areas uh in the the fields across from these the bitter suet area and the Richardson's U there's a lot of um the largest section is in the North Meadows area where um Farm SES were cleared out that had been um plugged up for years and years and years so um the D has been out uh to flag the areas that are in non-compliance um we we we received a letter uh giving us a specified amount of time in which to address the concerns uh Chief Bor who's the Emergency Management director is coordinating with Chris Miller and Pete law the Conservation Commission to work with d to bring the town back into compliance um we're in the process of um getting uh working with contractors to find out how much it's going to cost to remove the soil and and uh bring it to a place where it can be either reused I think most of the soil is uh is good and it's uh we we found out today that it can be used in farming settings so um anything that's not able to be reused has to be removed from where it is and uh brought to a location that's appropriate casy Warren has been working with them as well um so that work of developing a cost estimate for this is underway and we'll then look for a funding source to pay for this um we have a good relationship with um the D Chief and the uh enforcement officer uh and so we're looking forward to accomplishing this work uh and receding as we do the work um to bring ourselves back into compliance um we'll have more on that once uh the the plan's been fully developed um hopefully we'll have uh Chris Miller and CH pic here to talk about it at the future meeting and the work will probably commence as soon as we can uh get some realistic uh cost estimates and I I think that some of this has already been disposed of some of the materials that are out there but there are materials that's you can't get vehicles in to get them out and they have to go with specific types of vehicles we've been talking to contractors about to see or Casey has anyways uh to see how to get it out to the road because the farmers would take it but they can't get into it because of the the setup whether it's Wetland or whatever it is I'm not sure but um that's part of the reason why we have to figure out a cost on this thing because it's going to be a little bit more expensive than just going in there as Blake says we have to um go out and rent um wide tracked vehicles that can go over wet areas and um in particular it's recommended that we get um vehicles that have a 360 degree pivot so that they can um dump from any any angle so those are you can rent them by the week so we're in the process of locating the vehicles finding out if they're available and finding out what the weekly charge is so that we can coordinate um if there's one day work on Hawks Road and there's four days work in the North Meadows we want to be able to schedule it so that everything gets done within the period of time that we have the one week rental and if that means if we have a rain day we're going to need to have that staffed on a on a sixth day rather than a regular work week so yeah more on that as a as the chief and and Chris Miller get it all sorted out so do we need a um a motion to sign this now and send it back within the 14 days I don't think so it's directed to the EMD yeah he's need to sign it okay yeah want to make sure that I believe actually days he's a wellaware there were several action items that you guys have talked about there's a couple of other things we do you have any anything to add on that well I did um have a chance to reach out there was some discussion in the room when we met yesterday about hiring somebody to basically act as a clerk and monitor the entire project because we have to report back to D um in such a way that we have to have detailed information so keeping logs taking photographs um I reached out to our former superintendent to see if he would be interested and he is oh good um I think he's got some familiarity with the project so it would be helpful um I did ask him to talk to the Conservation Commission chair because he's got a better idea of all the tracking process that needs to happen but what's going to end up happening is Pete law the concom chair and um Amy Han will be working to develop a project management element to help facilitate that so I think it would be useful if we could have Kevin come in and do that work um but I wanted to talk to him before I was able to speak about it tonight and I was able to talk to them this afternoon so that'll get facilitated a bit more okay yeah and that would be great because the other element of this is that um Brett goter at da is also offered to do some uh da needs soil from time to time for various projects and one of the areas that was affected by this work is um land that da is renting from a local farmer so he's off he's offered to help us uh deal with that location and the time permitting and uh resources permitting to perhaps be a fallback for some of the other work that we need to do in town uh with regard to the consent degree decree um anything else from anyone on that all right so next item is um The Treehouse Treehouse Brewing noise complaints that we've been receiving um and we're coming into I think the last concert of the season is on the 12th of September I think there are two more in between so I know everyone will be sleeping better on the 13th um so what we've been doing is um going out to monitor decible levels in various parts of town at the location itself we'll continue to gather data um we have what appear to me to be um two or three different sets of guidelines that that relate to what Treehouse believes it has the right to do there um involving like what time the concerts are allowed to run until um so all of these things we want to get data we want to consult with the Town Council to make sure that we can come to a conclusion about what is the what is the time limit on a concert um I was always under the understanding that it was 10:00 um but there is a zba special permit that has 10:30 as a date as a time and I think there might even be another one that suggests that 11 o'clock is the time um so these things all need to be clarified for the select board um so that we know what our legal footing is and Casey if you can chime in on any of this feel free um we intend to develop this information this uh sound data so so forth you you you have to have accredited decel meters to track what the noise levels are at various locations so um we may need to do more of that but the intent is to come up with a an action plan and then work with Treehouse management to you know address when do they schedule concerts uh you know what volumes actually are they per allowed to um one document says you know 10 DB above the ambient noise so we need clear definitions that they can understand uh and that would give us um a basis for actually taking action if they they appear to be in violation so it's a process that we're um I think that I can't I went out several nights and uh there were certain nights that we didn't hear a thing but on the nights we could you could hear it plain as day so they were trying to take in some of the atmospheric conditions and some of the other aspects of it and maybe something to help Treehouse to um reduce the the volume of this and the other part of it is I think that we were we we're going to be looking at doing a hearing at sometime in the future and bring them in to actually discuss this whole setup and to come up with a a better plan for them if they want to continue working on this and um we' again when we started looking into it there's different bylaws and other parts of the the equation here that are conflicting so I think we need to get through those and straighten them out before we can make a um a decision on this and including their their license that sort of thing so I mean that's something we have to look at and like I said just see if we can get them to come in compliance so that we're not we're not having a problem with this during the week um and I know we've we've discussed with them about doing weekends and it's difficult with the acts that they have because it's a lot more money for them and that sort of thing so I mean we've been discussing things and trying to come up with Solutions but now we're goingon to have to go back into what the town has done in the past so yeah I mean the the whole purpose of this is as Blake mentioned we we want to gather the information have a conversation with the legal team of the town so that when we go into a a public meeting hearing situation with Treehouse we have the facts on hand so that uh we can reach an agreement compliance is always better than an adversarial uh you know uh you don't need the people to get lawyers involved if you can avoid it um and we want to do all this work before the next concert season so uh to encourage them to develop plans that don't impact school don't impact you know late hours in the evening and so this all hinges on what what legal council tells us we can do uh and and we have some you know some good options but we just need to be uh we just need to be you know methodical about the approach so I'm sorry that it's not going to immediately solve the problem for the next three concerts um but uh the plan is to do something proactive for next year so that residents don't have this problem one of the things that when Blake and I toured with um chapor and Bill suy was um talking to them about can you get a different kind of stage that stops sound from traveling backwards towards North Main Street those kinds of things I don't know how expensive those fixes would be but um you know potentially we can use uh you know license renewals and stuff like that as a leverage for compliance so but more on that and we'll certainly um you know this will be a public public meeting when we when we get this together probably won't happen until after the the national election but we will well publicize it so just a reminder that we had public at the beginning of the meeting so we're not taking public comment now um is there any further thoughts on this Casey or Trevor about Treehouse I mean just ech what you said that we're we're Gathering the information making sure that we're on Solid Ground and then addressing it we'll get it taken care of one way or the other I just need to know exactly you know what the permited disable levels are um what bylaw what set of laws regulate it you know there there's so many different permits available on that project that they all have a different interpretation so we just need to make sure it's all squared away and then we'll we'll set up a hearing and move forward after we gather all the data okay um so um special town meeting warrant Casey do you want to talk to us about that so what you see is is and Trevor's going to I think I missed something Trevor will chime in at some point yep but what you see is a series of article requests that came forward to me um one of those requests was put a placeholder item on in case we have an unpaid prior year bill um I would suggest the board leave that there until the 18th yep um in case one comes in we haven't quite finished closing the books so you know worse comes to worse we you guys have time by the 18th to remove it yep um the second article here is to act on recommendations of the community community preservation committee and this is the framework article that we use in annual town meeting what most article language shows is what the conversation would be related to with in terms of what the topic is so normally with one of these we don't put a lot of detail in unless we have it ready at the time that we're posting so that language could change slightly if the board thought it necessary but the details of the projects are often in the Motions um article three is a capital Improvement article again we don't have the details of it there's two things that have to go through Capital um okay and I've tried to Mark Brennan and I spoke last week he's trying to pull a meeting together I haven't checked my email for him today I will check it I saw him voting yesterday but I didn't get a chance to ask there two items that possibly could go through on that well there's two things that could be considered they need to make a decision as to whether they want to see anything happen so the one thing I would add and maybe we could sneak it in is as part of this AR iCal or a separate one because it's got to go through the school um so just to kind of give a background is that um over the last several years we have been funding a capital project to replace the or to install um uh air conditioning units like the mini splits in all the classrooms at the elementary school and then you know so we we would say we would put up $50,000 to do that um uh a source would then uh rebate back money to the town and depending on when which year it falls into either we could get more units and do additional rooms or if it passes over a fiscal year the money has to go back to the town and then get reallocated to the school and I think that's kind of part of it some of the rebate money went to the school and some of the rebate money came to us and it was in a split year so I think we have um the rebate that we got back with was $22,200 units to finish the elementary school and be done with that project so um I would love the article that just as we did before REM you know move that rebate money back to that project and finish out the job and um get the four done and I think I think what Darius was hoping to do was just in the meantime because the contractors were a available and ready to do it I they may have already done it um was to uh finish the project and then use school choice money to pay and then um you know we just move this money back at annual at the special town meeting to cover it so so you would want to see an article an article um what Brenda said was an article for for free cash that we have already from the rebate um uh an article for free cash uh for the elementary school um mini split project and I think it was from 22 and 23 was the rebate money that came back um but I know that uh I know that um that Shelley was working with Brenda and trying to get that kind of figured out how much they were going to request so I I'll get that nailed down it will have to be a sum of money it will be a sum of money and we have the 22125 right now but I think um and also the school also has some money which will will definitely cover the cost but I just I'll get the exact number that he needs from us so have them decide yeah oh if we want to add that article article so I would make a motion to add an article for free cash for a capital project um moving money back to the school go ahead point of order um do we need to reopen okay it's you so you asked everybody to send in everything by the 30th um um what I had I didn't have that information this is your warrant you can add more to it you don't have the same time limitations that you do for an annual okay good so you could add it if if you want fine I just wanted to clarify the procedural question yep I would make a motion to add an article or I don't know if it can be added to three or if it has to because I don't know because it's over 10,000 if if um I would like Capital to look at it as well get their blessing on it which they have in the past too but just just to go through all the motions and make sure everybody's taking a look if finance committee I know will review it as well um I'd love to have those two look at it um two um committees look at it and give their approval too but to add that um add that article to to move that 22,100 25 at this point so that is a motion that's my longwinded motion I second we did that she did not type this up nice and not I'm sorry I second that thank you okay so yeah you understood that Casey I understood great all right thank you surprising enough so did I all right uh is there any further so essentially what you're saying is they got rebate money it got put into an account now we want to transfer it over so that they can use it for the work that may either be done or is about to be done yes exactly perfect yep thank you um all right so if there's no further discussion all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I thank you all right Casey back to you so there was a request at the finance committee meeting last week to add a sum of money to General stabilization I put because I wasn't sure what the amount was um I put the words a sum of money that's generally what we use I did find out they're looking for consideration by town meeting of 300,000 based on the estimated amount of free cash that they the town could potentially have approved um so I left it as a sum of money for this discussion but it doesn't have to be settled right the second right I think you really a sum of money basically tells people that you're going to ask for an amount to be transferred from free cash into General stabilization to help replenish General stabilization from what was used at annual to me um but I wanted you to know that they're looking at that number of 300,000 so moving forward that could change the language or you could leave it as a sum and put it into the motion at town meeting which is normally what I would do um and I don't know what the amount of money since we just talked about the request that Trevor added I don't know what the sum of money for that would be so my recommendation leave it a sum right now and I think you will see that the finance committee is probably going to identify that amount right and the um the actual motion that we make at town meeting the am could have a sum of money that's defined the sum of money would be decides makes sense to to put into the accounts they're requesting yeah right okay so it does give you a little bit of time and so the reason I'm saying this is you also have we talked about the D consent order earlier I so to everybody's point we don't know what that amount is going to be but if we have to ask the town to appropriate for that purpose it could impact what happens with what gets replenished depending on what that amount is so that's the other reason I hesitate to put a number Block in there right this second um because article the next article which right now is Article Five but will change um requests transfer from available funds a sum of money to allow us to do the work for the to comply with the cons order the language of that could be tweaked a bit by Council but essentially the idea is give people an understanding of what can be discussed in the article yeah so article six right now is the next article is to authorize the town or authorize the select board to convey sell or otherwise dispose of parcel of land for the purpose of senior housing and that parcel is 8385 or well I won't give you the number 8385 North Main Street um Council hasn't reviewed the language of any of the articles but this is as close as I can get based on the previous article for acquisition um I would assume that Council may make some tweaks to it but the purpose is to request that the town be able to sell that property for the purposes or dispose of that property for the purpose of senior house and this is the property we just purchased yes it's the former St James former St James Church and the plan was to take the property and then to turn it into senior housing and this is the Avenue that needs to happen to make it that's how it's been explained to me by senior housing all right chair um do they have a I mean they don't have a buyer yet correct I mean do they have a so they have to go through an R yeah basically yeah they they have um they were working with uh furog to develop a request for proposals I see you know which would be we have this land um we want senior subsidized housing to be developed in some form or fashion here uh come up with a plan that says we can build 25 units or 22 units or whatever um typically contractors they go out and find the resources through state and federal Grant programs and other funing sources um they want to have the land under their control at that point so Qui yeah and and just it it will become taxable at that point once it reverts to a contractor and then whatever is developed on that land will also become taxable and um but you need to trans you need to transfer the the land to the contractor in order to effectuate the rest of the process okay so you you'll notice that there's I'm I made some notes here and they're really for me but it helps everybody else understand what has to happen um so there's a requirement in the bylaw that any time there's a consideration of the use of town on land that the planning board make a recommendation about it so I sent a request last week to have the planning board opine make a recommendation on the article for the senior housing question so article six yeah and article 7 article 7 is the request from open space to establish permanent protection of four Parcels in town yeah the language could end up being tweaked but what I was trying to get to in the first section of this is sort of the identification of the site names the amount of space and this is something that was provided to me by the open space committee thank you they did a lot of good background so it was easier to write but this is one of those articles that we need Finance or we need planning board to make a recommendation so when I sent a request about the other parcel I included this one so they're aware it's going to go on an agenda and planning board should be able to get back to you I'm hoping hoping they can get back to you before the warrant has to get posted but if nothing else in the town meeting guide that carries the Motions the planning board recommendation should be avail available for people to read you'll have had time at least to get that put together I had a quick question on that property so the the Old Pine Nook Road you know the ptic rock yep and then the forest on Pine Nook Memorial Forest we would still be able to manage that Forest as a forest I don't know ignorance on this I don't I want some of that answer before we so that's a question because we want to be able to maintain it um the forest land and you know walking trails and that that was our our talk for a while was could we get a small parking lot up top there working with you know Eaglebrook and um just to try and get the cars off the road and that you know maintain outdoor space and walking I would think open space would still give that um give that use to us before we lock this in I mean I know we're not building condos up there that's the whole idea is to protect the land but still I don't think that this is I don't think this is intended to restrict correct being able to develop facilities to facilitate using the land for nature for rail walking and there's also some uh DCR is looking at two other Parcels of land that are quite large that also May AB but some of these properties that that's what I was trying to get clarity about earlier today and uh you know they would be become part of the State Forest system um but the idea is that having those lands the ones that we're referencing now I think it's several hundred acres um would allow the state to to provide funds for trail upkeep Etc yeah that was the idea right yeah okay just want to make sure that was still available to us yeah I think that was part of the question but I think Julie could answer that question jwell and she um and and also you know to to clarify you know apparently you know random people are using the land for various things that Eaglebrook doesn't necessarily agree with or and they're they're up there so to try and get some overarching uh understanding of what are the recreational facilities and and how are they properly used by the community great that's great that's that was my question so there is to to Tim's point there is a question that came across my email from uh Karen and Natalie Blaze's office about this and then I got a follow-up call from um Elena Cohen okay in Senator kord's office yeah they want to know the the intersect that he just mentioned between the DCR land and land okay and the town how the town feels about that that was just this afternoon right the yep okay so I don't know all the details I reached out to Julie for some information about Julie Caswell for some information about that um and so the last article here is a transcript of the citizens petition that was received last week uh I think the requisite amount of signatures based on the receipt from the town clerk's review has been achieved um after some review Council ACM an audience member is saying she can't hear so oh sorry yeah um so the requisite number of signatures has been achieved I believe so what I did was I transcribed the language and identified it in a similar manner as I had identified things in the past that are not sponsored directly by the select board by identifying it as a Citizens petition and then the article number so those are the things that I have for requests did the order of Articles can change the board you guys can make that decision later um typically I put funding articles first but again you guys can decide how you want to do that okay yeah and so like the if we've asked for another one so article eight currently could become article nine right right and and and others might change their number depending on where we put I would expect that to happen once once I have better language TR yeah I'll get you good language on this I would put it around there I mean worse comes to worse because this is a transfer I mean it could be part of a motion too but worse comes to worse if there's an extra if there's an article for specifically that right to identify it fine that's fine yeah no worries yep was there anything else that any of you wanted on the warrant well I mean no because that you can think about that I haven't provided I've gone through my email several times are we actually going to vote on this tonight or are we no okay we're just looking at it you're looking at that was my concern because I still we're looking at recommendations from the finance committee are here now there's a bunch of other things I want to look at and there's some things I want to see um maybe a couple of the Articles myself to get changed up a little bit here so and see what you think about it so final language doesn't necessarily happen until the 18th yeah okay so it won't be long but um couple weeks what what I normally do is when I've nailed down a little bit more of the language I will start to send this to council for a preview because we need to make sure that certain articles like land disposition the article 97 land for uh permanent restrict conservation restriction those four Parcels right we need to make sure that that language is clear so typically it goes to council Council reviews it gets back to us and there's a series of you know back and forth with town with Town Council the moderator and the clerk so the other the last items I'm thinking about are Stillwater Road we not ready to put anything for that we not there's more information that we needed from do so we have title work that's happening right now but there's more information from do as well as identifying Artic current article 97 land that we could swap there's one parcel or a piece of a parcel around Stillwater bridge that when you have article 97 land that you have to take out you have to replace it with something so Christopher Nolan and Chris Nolan Christopher and I were trying to figure out how to identify that um and so I'm just wondering by the time we get to April is it too late it part of this is not having a lot as much information from do as we need I need phone I do I will tell you there uh there was a meeting both Christopher and I had conflicts last week about this but Lisa do had a meeting about this and I got the outline of what they had all right they had discussed and some of it's on them all right so there's going to be some followup to that okay um you know we we still need to deal with the effluent pipe but I don't have any answer answer from srf grant program yet so that was a question yet um did you want to have some sort of a funding article I I don't know if we can at the moment because um we just don't have any answer on what cost in that I mean we have a estimate of two and a half million or two million or something but that really doesn't help us at the moment so um yeah sounds like we're not ready for for considering that yeah we just can't at the moment we're supposed to hear this late summer here and it's fall so yeah I don't know I'll try to get an answer from from I mean obviously if if some something changes we don't really have an engineering plan either right no well sort of but not very back a napkin thing right so um What About You Blake do you have anything that you're thinking about that well um yeah there's just a couple articles I want you want to work on yeah yeah I want to work on it and get changed up with this um I'm concerned about the St James property because it's it's actually slated now just to go to senior housing and I'm not comfortable with that so I think we need to either change it so that the select board can either just sell it out right or for senior housing at least change that um or like I say have a discussion about it okay and any other article that you're interested in trying to no I was yeah the well and the thing is there's really nothing we can go with here because a lot of this has to do with figures and we don't have the figures uh for for which like the transferring of money and you know all the stuff that has to be done so I mean that's something that when we do sit down we'll have all of that not necessarily no not always so here here's this is sort of an educational thing W welcome to the select board yeah kid so the reason you write a sum of money is because you may not have that nailed down by the time you have to post the warrant the warrant has to be posted 14 days prior to town meeting you'll have it in the motions and You by time get town meeting that number will be in the Motions yeah okay and here's what we do in terms of process so the warrant gets posted the Motions get started and usually the Motions are barely generic cooled up when you're doing when you're going through the the actual review process for the warrant once you get to the because there's a whole guide that gets published I'm sure you've seen it when you've been at town meeting y those things get refined so between the warrant getting posted and US developing the guide those motions are almost probably 90% complete they're often a little bit a little tweak here and there there are times we've had to make little tweaks here and there on the at Town meeting but usually by the time the motion is developed you have a number got it it's just it's part of that process that's that why that's why we warn people with the words a sum of money so you know you're gonna be voting money we just don't know how much it is by the time we have to post um and sometimes being too specific can cause problems because if there's legal work to be done and there's a extra cost in legal work and you've appropriated $400 and it turns out to be $600 then you have to go back to special you have to go back to another meeting and get an appropriation Etc so um that usually doesn't come into play in these things but not always I mean most of the time the process includes making sure that certain things go through other committees so that's the reason I sent an email to the planning board that's the reason Capital has to review certain things because each one of those bylaws carries a stipulation and so the town it's one of the things the Town Administrator has to pay attention to is who's got to look at what before we get to the town meeting guide and if we don't and so if the board doesn't have recommendations from finance committee in time to publish that's not the end of the world right the recommendations can then go in the town meeting guide so people know okay and often times finance committee will meet on the day of the meeting and they'll have a pre-meeting and they'll say I'm now we're satisfied we can recommend this or now we're not satisfied we're not going to recommend this and they they given an opportunity to speak out uh when when uh when the the article is brought up by the moderator yep and there's also so they have a meeting tomorrow and I gave them the draft good of this but now I have to add another article to this so I'll update their draft for their meeting for tomorrow okay all right what time are they meeting usually start at five but six okay same oh I can't make it tomorrow that's right yeah six okay so that I think they're meeting at 6 tomorrow and I think they're meeting on the 25th as well are you going to be here for the meeting or um I was gonna let me see I'm not going to be but I just wanted to be able to explain that oh the the mini split thing the mini split thing tomorrow night yeah yeah I mean I I have it in my calendar oh okay great thank you I gotta once I have better language it'll be easier for them to understand too I just gota remember maybe get touch with shell we've been doing it every year so I think they'll remember it yeah I knew that there was this money how the money comes in thing but yep okay I'll reach out to sh yep okay okay so we'll we'll be taking this up again on the September 18th meeting yes so um I think we've covered it pretty well for now yep yep okay okay um so under the uh employment and other policies job descriptions Etc um can you talk us talk us through what you've what what we've received so finance committee in August approved a draft Financial policy what you have what you have is a copy of the policy and a copy of the slide deck that Julie shaant the chair developed sort of to explain it um and it shows some of the factors that go into developing a financial policy and really the financial policy is a guideline to how you manage the town's money um sometimes have very in-depth Financial policies and some don't these are fairly um straightforward they could there's a lot of things that could be a part of them but I want want you to see this as a first read because at the end of their meeting last week when they approved these um the chair asked me to schedule a time to meet with the board to go over them so I thought it would be a good opportunity since she sent them to me for you to be able to take them back and start reading through them so I certainly wouldn't want you to make any kind of a decision now Julie wants to come in and talk to you about it so but this gives you the backdrop of what they discussed and what the goal is yep yeah and so we're taking this under advisement and um we have to I mean I'm I'm sure going to need to get some advice from other people about this because um you don't want to do anything that unintended consequences ensue where you set a rigid policy you don't meet the policy and then your credit rating suffers because you didn't meet the policy policy whereas if you had a range that said from 7 to 14% And you were at 9 you're still meeting the policy um but in an ideal circumstance you know you might want to have 14 so I want us to be really careful about this because the select board has to approve these policies they just can't be set so I I'm I may even look into you know trying to get some Financial experts to come in and talk to us I mean I think they've done a great job to start the process and it's good to start thinking about you know managing finances in a in an orderly fashion I think we've done a good job in the past but but um so this is great yeah it's it's definitely there's some things like for instance the opep policy is noted in here something that I had asked you guys to review a little bit earlier this year and added a line a bullet point to it so it's been Incorporated with that additional bullet point so one of the reasons you do this is you pull P it into one document makes it easier to look at is there anything else under that rubric that you had um all right so you talked about Still Water just briefly and whether we where we were Trevor so do you have any other thoughts I mean these are placeholders that are in here but uh no I'm great so one thing I did want to mention and uh I uh neglected to earlier is that the town uh speaking of Dees and um the HVAC work that they've been doing there the the town and Casey were notified um it was Monday wasn't it or maybe last week that the town has been granted $1,187 Grant from the Department of energy resources green communities division for the following purposes about $2,500 for additional weatherization at the elementary school uh about $5,600 for additional insulation work at the school and uh 82,791 [Music] [Music] Brenda's response was that oh another project to manage I know but but but it's a great thing for the school so it is they've been working on it and have to buy it anyway yeah and some of this may cover costs that they would would have otherwise had to take out of school choice or or in some other funding sources absolutely would so um it's uh it's due to the actually the energy Department by energy committee David Keith Gilbert and Emy Swedeland yeah and they worked really hard on this uh with with Casey and um so kudos to them for you know they worked really hard to coordinate this with the school um so I don't do much but hitson Alice engag does a lot of the help she gives them a lot of the help and she works at the but it's just like Rachel does yeah it's good it's it's like how a local uh committee can make a difference so anybody out there looking to volunteer for committees that we have openings just another reason why it's a good idea um so I don't I don't have anything else does anybody we have some mail there's a little there's a little bit of mail there was a couple of notifications of releases chemical releases um you don't have to do anything but you have to be notified so one's a final I forget what they call it it's a final process notification and the other is a notification that there was a release and that something's going to have to be done environmentally and so really D wants to make sure that everybody's handling any type of release could be oil could be a chemical that they handle it under the guidelines that DP provides so the Board of Health and usually the select board get notification of that so I include it for reference just in case anybody asks you so I do want to mention that um there is um a letter from residents uh over near the South there's a petition yeah that over near this uh South de South Deerfield wastewater treatment plant um concerning um light pollution so um I can speak to that a little bit so I I was talking with um Eric Neils today about that and uh he's going to Institute uh a little bit of evaluation on timers if the lights are on during the day to shut them off for one save energy um surprised that they were on during the day but um if they are so we get them on a timer to do that there's a concern about the light in the evening and we do need the lights on for safety so um I know we're going to look at maybe planting some Arbor to kind of diffuse the light a bit um but we're Gathering a bit of that data cost when we can fit it in the bu budgets and you can't you can't adjust the lights or the lights are where they're supposed to be they are where they're supposed to be I mean they face down but it's so I was going to evaluate a little bit more with him and then start to kind of try and plan a way to block it a bit um it it's very important to have it on for not even if people aren't there it's to deter people from coming there and breaking in or any of that stuff but just for safety period so I mean there's more lights because there's more buildings than there were before so um but we'll you know work on it and keep trying to find a way to to make it better so U we'll have more to report on it but we are looking at it and figuring out a way to to help with that and um any the last thing is as I as I mentioned earlier um Casey is U retiring effective the Friday and so I'd like to um again thank her for all the years of service for the community um she's as her letter points out been involved in the municipal government for 28 years 24 of which were working in Deerfield in one capacity or another um with regard to this I would like to um suggest that we we have a a relatively recent job description for Town administrators so it was formulated with the Personnel board's approval in 2022 I'd like us to uh um take the necessary steps to put this job out we need to discuss a pay range um because different people would come in potentially with different levels of experience so I propose that we have a meeting um next week um on uh let's see we we said September 11th um schedu it at 400 PM one topic meeting um to try and make all of the decisions that are NE necessary to post the job um and get a search committee together get a search committee together we've been successful recently with the search committees we've been using and um so make all the plans necessary for that um transition to to get that out there as quickly as possible um any thoughts on how what else we might need to do in short term Trevor Blake say that again any other thoughts on our response to the well like I say there's quite a bit of paperwork with this here and uh being that that we just haven't been informed within the last couple of days right definitely having that meeting next week would be good so that we can actually sit down and come up with a plan and go over what what the what it uh States now yep um make sure the wording is correct on that and um like you said we're looking at people that are going to apply with different levels of experience we have to make it so that again it's palatable and that uh people looking at this that are coming on board are comfortable with the the description itself um one other question I had um we had a potential motion that we didn't do I thought that um that's why I raised a question about closing the warrant um in our first action we had set the date that we were opening it and the DAT it was closing so it's already if you want to close it now you can you can always open it again I would prefer to close it now so I would like to make a motion to close the special town meeting warrant and have the administrative staff confer with the town clerk moderator and Town Council on Final article language and motions I'll second that motion as long as we we've got the as as corrected right with the additional article we added tonight yeah well it's to yeah to work on the language yeah perfect y so my question is on this is that we were set up that we're going to really review this on the 18th and actually make sure that it's what we're looking for so we can actually work with this document and actually change things and do whatever we need to do absolutely and this then I'm I'm for it yeah this talks about you know the the it's the the things that are going to be on the warrant or we're closing it to say there's going to be nine items and the actual language the lawyers will tweak and work with the administration and usable changing wording on that that's it means no other entities are bringing us articles it's CL so in other words yeah that's it this is the end of it okay you can't add anything to it unless unless we un open like something could happen and we could bring up you know okay we have to respond to this right um yeah I get that we have that there's a a point where we can't do that anymore right it has like statuto the point that you can't add anything or do anything is the point where you really have to post it and so what I did when I outlined sort of a timeline here I let people know that we need to post on the 20th yes so 18th is kind of our last on the 18th you'll be asked to approve the warrant as it's presented and sign the back sheets and then you know by that time Council will have had at least two shots at looking at that yep um I've already sent it to council the moderator and the clerk but with this change this additional article it's going to have to be updated as well so normally when I do that I I blind carbon copy you all I will blind carbon copy the finance committee as well because that will indicate that there's been a change okay okay so any further discussion all those uh hearing num all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hy I okay um anything else anyone needs to bring up all right so that meeting is the 11th at 4M one topic right yes all right so I need to make sure that I I have it on my list of things to do good thank you and um there I would like one thing I would like to do one thing for the board so there's a couple of clerical things that I'd like to make fit with the other job descriptions that have been approved um I'd like to make those adjust adjustments from a clerical perspective so that the next document you when you look at the document next week you'll have those Corrections sure and one thing that also needs to happen so Personnel Board has a meeting on the six or has a anticipated meeting on the 16th Personnel Board should also approve it yes right so um what I'd like to ask is that when you do this can you put that in edit Trace whatever you're going to add yeah yeah so that we can see um because the the the 2022 version has already been vetted by the Personnel committee and then we made some s right right so I'm just saying that if the select board decides that rather than waiting for the Personnel Board to meet that we move forward with the as written I think that we have to have that option so what I normally do is even if Personnel Board doesn't get a chance to look at something before a vacancy is posted I would I normally put the word draft up there and I because there have been times where we've had to put a vacancy up very quickly so you put a draft on there when you upload your job description and your vacancy notice and then forward it to personnel and they will review it and if there's a small change here or there that can be uploaded as as it's been changed but okay yeah unless there's a truly fundamental piece of that job description that gets changed there's often not much discussion or not any questions yeah I just don't want it to hold us up nope no and and I've told them that in the past where we've had those situations okay so there's one final motion that I want to make and that's to move to accept Town administrator's notification of retirement effective September 6 second any discussion hearing none all those in favor Trevor McDaniel i l Gilmore I Tim HGI all right so if there's nothing else um we have a regular scheduled meeting on September 18 we have a special meeting meeting on September 11 and I'll take a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all those in favor CH McDaniel I Blake Kilmore I Tim Hil I thanks everyone for coming