##VIDEO ID:04F5Z0vnjxs## to your behind you oh Nicole present Maro president and Peter C president uh can we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and just a moment after we need everybody stay standing to flag of the United States of America and to the rep for stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all we lost one of our neighbors this week and we just want to have a moment of silence for her uh mallerie Humphrey passed away thank you very much we're going to start off with a joint meeting with the finance committee we're running about 5 minutes late which isn't too bad um so we're going to hear reports from the department heads regarding the warrant articles the finance committee all here you guys have to open your meeting M call a October 9th 6 2024 meeting of the finance committee to order um we do have members on on Zoom so we'll need a a voice voice roll call Peter roach here right Susan Loren here Ron McKay here Doug white here Jake Jacob's here I'm not sure if Tanya is the other is an iPhone we'll assume no thank you Peter before we start we just need to take something out of order if you don't mind sure uh Charlotte Doo Hi how are you good how are you good can you come up please motion to take Charlotte Yogo out of order I'll second that motion made and seconded any discussion all those in favor I hi hi good evening good evening I'm Charlotte dieago with Constellation Energy we are your current electricity supplier for your municipal buildings here in the town of dayon and have been since 2020 your current contract expires in December so I've met with Jim and Leanne and Nancy within the town um earlier this actually last week to discuss Ren renewal options for the town so in meeting with them we discussed also aggregating with the dayon water district and the dayon electric light district as well it seemed to help the pricing and I know that they got approval last night to move forward on a 5-year deal which is what the town is looking to to do as well so the current rate today and prices change daily until you lock in um they're valid until 5:00 p.m. each day so they're already expired today but today's rate is 1191 yesterday it was 11 97 so it came down a touch but I think that's the point of me being here today is to is to discuss the the renewal extension of the current agreement so we are the endorsed supplier for the Massachusetts Municipal Association and have been for over 20 years so there's a specific contract only for cities and towns school systems water districts that are eligible um as an MMA member which you are so there's a number of benefits to that contract um add delete language within 15% of your usage if you're building a new building we can add that on at the current contract rate in 3 years from now or something like that um 55-day payment terms build directly on your utility bill like you have been I think the huge benefit of competitive Supply like constellation is you're able to set your budget and know what your price is going to be for the period of time back in 22 we saw a tremendous Spike up in electricity rates you were locked in at 10 cents and if you were with the utility you would have been paying 40 cents so we're trying to alleviate you know spikes like that from happening another thing to note is that the town of dayon participates in the government aggregation program as well for its residents which ironically is also with constellation I live in Swansea I'm also part of that government aggregation program this is a bit different this is for specifically for your Municipal accounts it's always better to price those custom price through a program like the mun energy program versus a government aggregation program I work for constellation I can't get a better rate than I can get with the government aggregation program at my home but for municipal load we custom price we look at your load Factor we look at how you're using your electricities for your 30 accounts and provide you a rate that way so it's always better to keep that separate than the than you know adding those accounts into the government aggregation program so I believe that like I said the town is looking to enter into a five-year commitment starting in December and going through December of 20129 okay thank you you're welcome Jim you want to add anything yes Mr chairman the U uh I I looked at the a Dion residence uh uh aggregation Bill uh it's at 15.7 something sense I I think if you consider the global energy Market uh uh uh right now and consider the offering which you know is presently at 11.7 uh uh cents uh for the first year of the renewal uh in all the price changing charts that we've seen uh year two through year five things have been incremental small increments uh but I think uh although we'd be going from 10 cents you know per kilowatt hour which you signed up to four years ago um I you know and there is an obvious price increase here of about uh uh of something less than two cents uh to hold uh uh in that position for a period of five years I think would be uh I think would be a real success um uh procedurally speaking Mr chairman under the state's procurement statute chapter 30b um this is exempt from um you know our having to put you know a a bid proposals and and everything else together at Forest but um so um it is an executive level uh uh uh action uh it bypasses the normal procurement routs you know again by definition in the statute and um I would just encourage you to grab it while you can we're going to if if you do in in the you know the water district and I understand that um the Power District as well um we'll get uh about 3/10 of a uh 31 it was 2 days ago um uh a little bit less by having our own form of aggregation with those two districts and that body met that body voted last night to join uh uh to join us so we've kind of teed this thing up uh for a 5-year renewal deal and um again personally Mr chairman I would declare Victory if you could hold prices at around 12 cents for the next five years for that would be great you know for our municipal buildings Nicole do you have any questions no I don't question seems like a great opportunity it does uh I don't want to pass it up so this is a review discussion act so we need a motion on the floor to accept uh this proposal I will uh make a motion to accept the proposal from uh Constellation Energy as presented I'll second that motion made seconded any discussion all those in favor I I I great thank you very much thank you very much does the contract have to be signed tomorrow tomorrow correct so for for signatures we have a motion for Mr pcel to sign for us sure if they want to put that motion on the floor all right I'll make a motion for Mr pcel to be able to it's eign right correct sign the contract uh tomorrow I'll second that motion being seconded any discussion all those in favor I thank you thank you thank you thank you Mr chairman and thank you for taking progress uh you're welcome so uh Tom looks like you're first up oh we're going I'm sorry Tom not yet we're going to do the uh warrant first all right Jim do you want to uh say anything about it first um only Mr oh the mic is here now um only Mr chairman I you know the format that is I I is is time tested and I think the first half dozen are are more articles that you uh that you see um I think excluding the msba one um our our routine we've got uh uh leases you know multi-year lease uh uh leas purchase uh uh uh equipment purchases that uh uh that uh uh necessitate payments um the uh the idea of our gathering here tonight remember we're in transition I understand this process is a bit different uh you know beginning tonight than it has been but um the new Town Administrator comes on on uh uh on Monday the 21st so what we're presenting tonight is the current draft version uh it's in pretty good form but it's not in perfect shape uh uh of the um of the special town meeting warrant um we had a capital uh uh planning committee uh a a meeting an hour before uh uh this meeting and you're meeting jointly with the fincom tonight uh to uh uh to take a a a look at the uh uh the warrant and its present State um to hear the requests of the department heads and presumably for you all to take these matters under advisement uh it's my understanding that the um uh the fincom is going to deliberate on Tuesday uh uh the 15 um and uh I may well make some recommendations I I I I suspect ECT on uh some of the Articles and meet jointly with uh the board of Selectmen one week from tonight uh in a special meeting where uh uh perhaps through some collaboration you can get uh you know most of your uh most of your recommendations uh uh uh uh done um that would that would bring the special town meeting package in a presentable form for the incoming Town Administrator who would start on Monday right uh uh Monday the 21st you if you don't um uh reconcile everything uh on the night of the 16th you still have your regularly scheduled select board meeting on Wednesday the 23rd right so you could clean that up and the warrant has to be posted uh no later than uh uh October 31st so you'd have at least seven days uh you know between the uh uh uh between your your select board meeting of the 23rd in the posting uh of the warrant okay and then you'll have two weeks to to Perfect all your motions and and things like that so sure the whole idea is to kind of set this thing tee this thing up for you all to do what you normally do in the incoming Town Administrator to be um uh uh okay I'll say it I'm I you you know me by now I'm a bit of a wise guy he can be he can afford to be a spectator sure for uh you know for a good part of uh of the subject matter for this uh special town meeting warrant that is not to disparage anyone but someone coming in brand new uh so so the whole process I know it's a little bit different uh than what you're accustomed to but you're in transition okay and we made a transition plan and let's see if we can't carry it out how's that I think this is more efficient having everybody here are you guys for the first time you know two meetings in one are you guys seeing this warrant for the first time um as of yesterday as of yesterday okay uh so you have not met prior to tonight no no wow okay um let's just start with article one which is ready um which is just to hear the reports of the Town officials article two is just prior year bills do you guys have any questions or concerns about that one who's convergent what is convergent chief so conversion was the um camera company that came out when we had the failure of the cameras uh last uh two years ago now when uh Chief Coronel was um in the chair um they called them out because I believe they were the people that um installed the cameras when they came out because uh someone hit the uh the red button in the room I'll call it and it shut the camera system down well shut the whole station down um they called out immediately they couldn't figure out the problem but they reduced the bill down to what it is now um to just basically um for the labor of the guys it was a lot higher than that when it originally started and then it was brought to the board last year and it was told to find if there was a contract of some sort with them which there wasn't so it got put off until this year and I did speak to Serena about it she said that um we needed I need to put it for a prior year bill because it had to be paid we're not currently using that company now we're using somebody entirely different what was the bill originally what's what's it at now 17 17 it was it was it was around $4,000 lot higher than that Nicole do you have any questions or concerns you no thanks okay finance committee so they had come out to look at the system they couldn't figure out what was wrong mhm they sent a a pretty steep bill yeah remember that y uh Chief the former Chief so did that system ever come back online after we had another company come out another company came out and fixed it yes yep to where we're at now so so this is for man man hours man hours of the the the text that came out how many technicians came out and how long were they there were two and I I can't tell you how many hours cuz I wasn't there I wasn't present that day okay I have the invoice here there's three people oh I there two we have tried everything else to get out of this okay did we sign up or anything when they came out prob I couldn't answer that ACO like I said this was all before me I and uh and it trickled down to like I said last year if we didn't get a purchase we do not typically do purchase orders here so that's not a thing how how do we so a tech comes on site how do we approve the work that's going to be done that's up to the department head for that department like I said he called them because they were the original yeah people that installed the cameras under the the GC that that built the station um they couldn't figure out the issue I guess but then we went with another company who fixed it who fix the issue we had this discussion last year yes we did yeah we did almost word for word yeah Y and we're still not happy no it's a lower bill but it was they they took a lot off I mean they pretty much cut it in half to what it was at and then I've I've had discussion with Serena about it and um the past months and she said it has to be presented as a prior Phill I just don't run you know if it goes to collections and then court fees and then we're paying more then cuz you know the labor they did come out and do at least they tried they tried yeah this is the lowest we're going to get I think so it's that invoice is a couple years old and I spoke to the uh company back in May uh no in July and I told her that we had to wait till now for the uh special town meeting this month coming up okay thank you thanks Chief you guys have any other questions for that for the chief or anything right it's got to get paid yep okay moving on to articles three and four the both um the chief had asked if he had to come this evening and I think he asked the other two Selectmen as well in my opinion was he did not have to because of just lease payments uh I don't think there's anything special about them right um sh only two questions I've got on those two uh we were at one point we were ahead on the firet truck lease are we now back to normal schedule oh I don't know if I have a schedule with me um so I asked for the lease payments to come out of um you know free cash right away just because that's something that we know that we have to purchase so in the past we did hold it off until June but I last year I think was the first year that I asked for these payments to come um right in the beginning to you know make sure we have the money to pay these obligations so we might have one on the books um the timing of those are different year different I know one is like December and the other one is July so I believe we have one and then this would be like for the next fiscal year the last three Ed of trees due July July 1st July 1 oh yeah this is the one6 okay and I do have one other question why uh do we wait for special time meeting to put these in how come they don't go in with the regular budget in June for the annual budget we know these payments have to be made how come they are not put in that budget so things on the operating budget are things that for the C foreseeable future like forever that will be there so because these are just 3 to 5 years lease payments okay yeah and we we try to use um you know their Capital expenses which is outside of the operating budget okay thank you the truck I couldn't remember if that was five or seven seven okay and then the ambulance are we second of three free cash or the ambulance comes out of the ambulance ambulance re receipts reserve for appropri that's it that's all I have anybody else NOP I got mine Nicole okay moving on to Article Five I got a question on that sure so this is we we did the first year at annual and we approved 45,000 is the 31094 is that the actual leas payment now okay yep so the difference closed out to free cash okay okay so going forward it'll be this 31194 and there only three years on that lease yes three years left three this is the second of a four year three total payments and we've already made one payment and this would be the second no it's for total payments one payment was up front so because it does I think you use different words to say the same thing mhm there are four total payments we've made one already two more more to go after this correct anybody else have any questions on M no Nicole or Mark I don't have any questions this is a good move yes okay moving on to article six that's the msba right um the Dr request for um uh for um uh the building committee study money for the um this um well anyway okay superintendent is he is here yeah superintendent is here I yeah I don't want to put words in any in any's mou is is this the um do you want to go on to the podium Please Mr roone thank you good evening good evening I do a if I could start um so this is for feasibility study um as we discussed at the end of last year and we've had discussions about how tight our budgets are going to be in the town with the BP assessment and the Aggie assessments coming up um and we have a lot of room at the high school so has it been discussed how we can best and most economically use all the educational space we've got in in town before we build a new school we have not done any sort of discuss space study I mean I'm not even discussions has the discussion been even broached for where to put the 500 Elementary School students we have extra room at the high school has it been discussion about possibly moving the eighth grade up or in some way being a little Innovative with the space we've got in town because financially we are going to be very very very tight okay I I wasn't prepared for that line of questioning but um yes it's come up a couple of times um we haven't had thoughtful discussions about it um because of the fact that some folks in the community immediately Express concern over um doing so I personally would like to be able to um at least explore that through some sort of a you know I know we're I'm here to talk about the feasibility study for msba but some sort of a study uh to see um what families would think about it the do of space needs um at the high school so on okay and we were on the waight list for a long time for the feasibility study and this is finally our opportunity to to explore our options at the elementary school so I just want to add that information and this does not build a new Elementary School um this is the study is going to be leave as is expand renovate or build new yeah so the feasibility study will result in um four recommendations one will be a uh a recommendation a cost associated with um just a a complete renovation so no change to the building envelope um but you know um upgrade inside Maybe change some of the physical structures inside obviously um bring anything outside up to code and obviously we would consult with police and fire in terms of egress and um security measures second one would be what's referred to as an ad Rena so an addition and a renovation to the existing structure largely maintaining the current building envelope um but as most folks know you know we have modular units that are already considered an addition um on that 1950 construction uh so that would be something that the feasibility study would uh present as an option to the community um new construction is um a third option and then the fourth option is what we refer to as the do nothing option which is um if the the the voters decide not to do anything with the building then um there will come a time where some of those systems um that date back to in some cases 1950s and in others 1990s um when those things fail um catastrophically then um all the code upgrades and things like that to um that have to be associated with a major repair like that there will be a cost associated with that as well so you the feasibility study will give us uh four Pathways one of the things Mr sherff if it's okay yes absolutely um you know one of the things obviously that the warrant wouldn't say um but that if I'm if a motion is made and I'm given the opportunity to speak at town meeting um that I I have a presentation similar to what I presented to the selectman a couple of weeks ago um is that we've been given a preliminary reimbursement rate from the msba of 55.6% um and so the 1.35 five million feasibility study um that we are proposing um will ultimately only cost the town $61,200 um and that's even if the Project funding vote in late 2026 or early 2027 fails uh the town will still receive that 55.6% reimbursement for feasibility study is that a guarantee yes dou so if we spend the 1, 355,000 we get back 61,000 does that you'll get back 700 or so thousand it'll only cost you the 601 so the 601 does that go toward whatever they come up with for when the feas feasibility study is done that is that just they got paid that to do the study or does this money go toward the project that they recommend it sounds to me like you're assuming a positive vote in terms of moving forward with a project I'm not assuming anything I'm just asking a question about this this would be just just for the study itself just for the study yeah wouldn't be a down payment on the part that we don't get reimbursed is not going towards no and and it was a do nothing option too yes guys have any questions and more questions uh I mean my my only question then you know we we looked at the four schools that have had recent uh new schools one of them we had talked about uh hangam where the costs were significantly higher um in comparison to the other three and the hangam they actually used they were looking at 10 different sites as opposed to we would only be I'm assuming looking at one because that's all we have um and they also had significant Wetland issues on one of their sites which was the site that they chose so so I kind of disregarded the costs involved in that one because hangam being hangam they went over above and beyond what um and I the fact that we would be getting 56 55.6% back I like that but at the end of the day we are still paying that as well because we're paying into the state for taxes so I'm I'm wondering I I took a look at kind of the averages of the other three projects and came up with a number of about 1. 2 and I'm wondering how that if we come in at 1.2 for this article what how that affects us looking at a feasibility study I I um how would you apportion that I do have yeah I've got the uh OPM at 310 design at 700 the environmental I used the 130 that you had used and then miscellaneous legal at 60 to 1.2 um we did Bat that around at the um School building committee meeting on um October 2nd uh there were some folks that were advocating for consideration of less than 1355 million there were uh there was another Committee Member that was concerned about the amount of ledge um that could be over there um and was advocating for a little bit more for site work um I think that if if you reduce those numbers you're still going to get quality applicants um for OPM and for um designer architect uh I appreciate your consideration of of leaving the um the environmental there because the um the geothermal piece is something that uh is you know is pretty pricey but it's also will I will demonstrate if given the opportunity at town meeting to show how it pays off in the long run um you know Architects and and opms that I've spoken to over the years um they lose money on this anyway so I think that it's going to be a case of um who needs work who's interested in you know this type of work and um you know what the maybe the long-term projection is if the Project funding does pass in late 2026 or 2027 um so you know I mean School building committee did authorize the 1355 um but you know I I certainly understand uh where you're coming from as far as a potential reduction and the main reason from from my standpoint like I said because even though not all that money would be coming from the town it would still come from regular taxes but um I've also I we do work with a lot of contractors who um when they decide that they are going to bid they bidding based on what what the minutes and and what the votes go by so if I'm I I know estimators that would be looking at this saying 1355 huh little shocking that's the number that I came up with for my vid anyone else any questions on the finance committee um just for as far as this vote for article six I know there was a legal question um for Our Town Council will you ever able to make contact with him not yet all right I just am concerned about that because the town meeting will be here before we know it so I just want to make sure that you're able to make contact is that something we can arrange and um just so our our town counsil can just have a conversation with Mr Rooney I just want them to exchange numbers and have a be able to have a conversation I'm surprised and disappointed to hear that I thought that was done you did say it was going to call today okay to Town Council said he called today yeah okay so my apologies okay but I I share your concern just for everyone for everyone's benefit we're not just so we're not you know um talking Cloak and Dagger um the msba um has two different uh recommendations for Warrant language and um one of those requires a school committee vote because the district is the borrower of the funds from the state um and the um the other pathway is that the the town or the city is the borrower um and talking to um you know in having conversations with Mr Karen Mr roach Mr purcel discussions with the school building committee um some of the school committee members with s m Pico we're we're all pretty much in agreement that um that the the the school committee does not need to vote on this because they're not going to be the borrowers it's a it's a it's a Regional School District not it's a Regional School District but it's not a Regional School District really for the k through eight portion so um and the msba will not take a stand on it so they said that we needed to get authorization from Town Council so um I'm I'm confident that Town Council is going to see it the way that we've seen it but it would be it would be comforting to have that box checked absolutely that's a small technicality but very important for this project and this is our one chance so right want to make sure we get that Mr chairman sure in a meeting that we had last last week we did make clear also that um uh Our Hope and expectation was that the school council and Town Council would collaborate at on the matter school council having you know a more focused approach and experience in these matters that our job and you know the commitment that I've made to you know personally to you know to Dr to the extent possible will tee this up for an honest and um you know very fair debated town meeting you know on the outcome that's still our that's still our commitment but um uh I'd like very much for the two councils to right get this thing squared away so there's you know there's more certainty I assumed it was done uh me too Mr chairman can I offer a point of information sure uh Paul R 725 Main Street member of the school building committee I also just wanted to point out that um I believe it may have been the annual town meeting of FY 23 that the town did vote for $150,000 for a feasibility study which um I believe we may still have those funds available as well I just wanted to um just wanted to put that out there I think that was the fire station there was a fire station I believe we also had one for the elementary school I believe unless unless I'm mistaken I could be wrong when I believe it was FY 23 so if I'm mistaken I apologize but to the to the best of my recollection yeah so that would have been a meeting of to meting oh the annual town meeting or the special town meeting I don't remember off hand okay I've got the I've got the November 122 thought it was special town meeting want let let's see Karen can I ask question is there any way that you can put these warrants up there for the folks that are in the audience if not that's fine if just when folks come up if they can kind of summarize what they're speaking on so that I really can't no that's okay this is thought I would ask yes sir so I just want to make a comment so as a as a citizen and a taxpayer it's kind of disappointing to hear we want to waste more monies on lawyers when you look back at what we've done to the point that was raised when the modellers were purchased instead of leasing the town voted that and you know it's pretty clear that we've all discussed this that the town is responsible for this K campus so I you look at all the previous town meeting warrants and you look at what we done it shouldn't we shouldn't need to waste money on District lawyers Town Council really what it comes down to is do the taxpayers want to fund and and vote the article and you know I think it's discouraging to hear the past practice that we've done with previous articles most of us in town when the new Middle School was rebuilt it's it's a go look at the building plaque on it it's nothing to do with the district because in this District K to 8 is the residence town and the other comment on that what is unfortunate is like most of us I our taxes we're getting clobbered BP is going to kill us but unfortunately kids are going to show up in these new developments that are being built it's not the regional District's problem where to house them it's the town of D Dian so the residents of this town really needs to understand we are in a a terrible situation with the the development on Treemont Street coming in and the kids show up the the town of dayon has to educate them and provide the building so that's it's unfortunate but I just want to share like we talking about saving costs and lawyers are the only ones that make money on all of this so okay thank you thank you Bill just to be clear the the request to talk to the lawyers is to make sure the language of the article itself is correct it's to make sure that the school committee doesn't have to vote prior to I thought we already decided that though just we we did but the the msba recommendation is that Council weighs in okay now you know if this is your town so if if all of you are are comfortable with that I am comfortable with that but um you know I um you check right um so I I just talked with superintendent Rooney and I just want to support him in his professional role and I I think you're looking out for our students in our elementary school I think just the fear was that um you you know we we have a great opportunity and there is a there is a possibility that we could in a perfect world you know this could pass a town meeting and then we go back to the msba and and lose out on the opportunity because of a technicality so the thought was just to have everyone get together and just have a conversation and um have our attorney talk to your school attorney and make sure we're all on the same page I don't think it would be a credible cost uh especially I'm sure your attorney's already the subject matter expert it's really just having them tee up with ours and um it's really just doing our due diligence as a town and and you know we want it would be sad to go to the tax pay if they did approve this and say sorry we didn't we really didn't do a due diligence that's that's all and I I really don't think that's going to happen just because of the fact that the language the warrant the proposed warrant language is provided by the msba says you know the schol school committee is approving to you know or is consents to be the borrower and our school committee and our district we are not the borrower um and so you know Mr Karen I'm I'm I'm comfortable going forward but I to selectman Pico's point I think um you know me having a preliminary conversation with your attorney and if he wants to touch base M Mr cost you here to wait in on this or for something else I'm here for something else okay but do you want to weigh in on this subject no I what I'll dis represent is that I'd be happy to um get in touch with Mr roone and's attorneys okay do you guys have any questions Mr Rooney it's what Mr Rooney wants I'm not pushing that if he wants it Nicole do you have any more concerns no I don't okay I guess all set with Mr Wy yes oh uh Mr I'm sorry I didn't see you over there thank you Bob Perry stany on Drive I've been listening to this discussion and to San Pico's point this is Pennies on the dollar and this is our opportunity now and to argue over a few pennies if you will uh about attorneys and lose out on a technicality I I I think this is almost a move Point here we should have the attorneys bless it and take this opportunity maybe a few hundred to lose this opportunity I think that's foolish thank you thank you okay I think we're all set Mr Ry thank you do you have anything else on the agenda with us I don't believe so okay thank you okay moving on to article s chairman the um I you're in a you're in a cycle why don't I can just stand and and shout and instead of passing for the recording oh for the recording okay um this article in the um uh uh in the next uh uh two articles 78 and N uh have to do with um a collective bargaining agreements um the town has successfully reached agreement with the uh police Union uh the estimated costs uh of that um uh for fiscal 25 I I added cost to the budget of $36,000 uh uh dollar um and um you Mr chairman with the selectman leaon to uh to those negotiations um in article 8 uh the uh the uh dispatchers a contracts off and Pico was the uh was was the board's representative to uh to that as well um Chief Nichols has yet had to speak to article 7 if um if you're interested in uh uh in any of the uh any more details there in article 9 we are still in negotiations we you know we've say we've made a placeholder uh for the fire uh uh for the firefighters contract um and uh and are hopeful of um you know seeking you know putting some kind of a motion on the floor at uh at town meeting for acceptance of that uh but that's a process that is that is still ongoing Mr joh um so thank you for your Indulgence on S8 and nine I know just asked for seven nine you don't think um will be resolved by then I'm not at Liberty to say Mr chairman other than um um that uh uh we have not come to an agreement yet so we'll just leave it as a placehold withing I I I think um yeah please okay I I D not say anymore good evening Chief how are you good how are you sir good thank you uh you guys want to start you have any questions article 7 eight and N so I already asked Serena while you guys were talking okay uh my question was whether we can because this is a salary in the current year whether we can throw in as a raise an appropriate and we can I don't have any questions no no okay anybody else any questions on no thanks we'll give you another minute okay mve on to article 10 then please Tom I know what this is oh hi um we've discussed this many times at the selectman meetings I don't know if you want to do this for the sake of um finance committee about the signs and what was determined so yes so our last annual meeting we um entertained a bylaw change in our no parking zones we uh eliminated some re re changed the verbage on some relocated it so we didn't have to restructure the whole bylaw uh we mainly was targeting William Street and the intersections of especially the three through streets off of William Street as uh for some reason these people are parking in various intersections and as you all know everyone's driving habits have changed you know running stop sign stuff like that we get a lot of close calls so it makes sense no parking 200 ft within the intersection all directions in doing so it comes out to 100 signs that's what we need that's what we're asking for for 100 Park no parking signs wood poles and Hardware I know my concerns have seemed a little excessive when you first brought it up and superintendent Ferry was nice enough to drive me around and show me the spots and when you actually look at it it's it's really not it makes it makes sense and it's a safety issue so um I have no concerns so we approved the signs we just have to pay for them now you guys have any concerns okay thanks Tom Oh Nicole do you have I know you've been with us many times on this yeah no I'm just disappointed I didn't know driving around with Tom was an option I was a good time really was we SP at 6 yeah okay you can stay there for article 11 then Tom Tom are you saving saving the trip for Nicole for when it's snowing out I we can provide a truck for her to drive all by himself yes so article um 11 11 that's the AI school yes no um yeah the centus street uh crosswalk so we there's a problem with that electrical box that runs The Pedestrian crosswalk at the agie school um it's a 2008 the crosswalk was moved up to where its current location during the school construction some internal Poss damage in that move and it's just sits on the concrete pack on the ground level it's not elevated like you see the other ones the intersection they stay away from the moisture um so that I wanted right away a price to replace that correctly and since I put this article in I had them give investigate a good solid quote for repair and that's where we are now and meeting with the capital outlay tonight that's the direction I think we're going to be going so so we we reducing that number to 10,000 I believe we agreed correct 10,000 10,000 and that's going to be for repair so it can be saved yes and it's going to elevate it as well includes elevating and replace the components that need to be replaced on the inside okay um I have a question Tom so the school is County the street is dayon do does the town get paid uh rent or anything for these repairs we're doing upgrades to the or it's our street we've got to do them it's it's our equipment yes it's like a bridge we own the bridges okay yes oh I know the question does the AI pay taxes that I do not know I don't believe so oh there is no Paul's shaking his head thank youle Mark I I so this lights up the crosswalk is that what it does or am I completely it changes from the flashing yellow or green to Red okay um that intersection also you'll know more about it uh on some other articles we're going to discuss tonight but there is a solar glare problem there also mhm okay thank you okay do you want to discuss article 12 or is that for you Jim Tom Tom the uh 7,000 706 yes so that one is moving right along as you know U Mr mull started that right uh he was able to secure funds through Congressman Austin cl's office in excess of $2 million build the bridge yep we need to get it to the point to build the bridge starting point correct so we already did the feasibility study exploration type studies we're already at to the 25% now this this proposal here is to bring us to the 100% And The bridg is scheduled to be advertised to be built not this fall The Following fall of 25 if I think one of our conversations was that if we didn't have any skin in the game they wouldn't give it to us so this was just proving that correct this is our share yes you guys have any questions is this money that comes back anyway or this is this is it this is this is it it leverages the 2.7 or2 2.75 million Federal amount guaranteed okay thank you I I did ask our engineer to see if it was a way to reduce the fee what he would need to get us to at least to the annual in case we would really pinching pennies which we are and he's going to be spending an excess of 600,000 so it's pretty much all of it that he's asking for now because we got to be ready for the bid next fall and that's where we are okay so the bid is next fall and construction to start hopefully and whenever that's scheduled after the bid opening yes thanks did you bid this to get a a price like the 703 cuz I unless I'm reading this WR I think it's on the capital outlay plan for half a million dollars for Pleasant Street un I read that's a dated document yeah so did you like get a like a soft quote for some someone that made no this is the actual engineer we have now oh oh okay so this was an estimate this is the actual thing correct oh that's awesome it's a high number all right Nicole do you have any questions no okay can I I'll ask one one question if you guys have you guys given any thought to where where you would recommend this money coming from no okay no when it went through Capital outlay would it wouldn't that have been the discussion the time to discuss it or no uh yes um but it's out we discussed this with Mike and he was putting money towards it every chance he had um that was part of of the operating budget not the operating every at the annual town meeting we would allocate so much more money towards this um but where we all come from I don't know 700 is what's left is is the hard number that's left might be the only way uh I mean the bonding it makes a lot of sense to me I I would I mean I'll stick my neck out here it's not sticking my neck out much I would recommend borrowing yeah okay any other questions uh [Applause] 13 hi you guys have questions I'm sure I'd like an explanation sure should start sure sure so the 250th anniversary committee for America was established by the board of Selectmen in November of 2023 since July 4th of 2026 is the 250th anniversary for the United States this committee has the charge of planning for Dion's participation in a semiquincentennial for the United States and its founding um documents so the committee eagerly put together plans to bring um to our community um the celebration for the 250th for 2026 um anniversary our plans included a tentative reenactment of a battle and encampment with the rehobath Minutemen and the 13th Continental regiment programs relating to the Revolutionary War a sequel to the 1976 um lives and Fortune book this book lists all of the Dion men who served in the Revolutionary War community events such as the chicken barbecue fireworks um we've had contact with various Community groups who are planning their own programs and we have contacted the schools regarding their involvement for example the Community Church is planning two readings of the Declaration of Independence and a program about Ezra Styles the min of the church in 1776 The Historical Society has a tenative plan for a house and garden tour the article we submitted for the warrant is for the expenses of 3 thou um $330,000 that we anticipated for these activities over the next three years we are also actively seeking grants and will be seeking sponsors and donations to help set offset the costs the committee members are keenly aware of the fiscal constraints that the town is facing and in that light at our last meeting we had a lengthy and in-depth discussion about our request we prioritized our planned events and at this time the priority is to have funding in place for the reenactment and encampment we figure that offers the most to the community for this celebration so tonight we are requesting that that amount be $88,000 for the warrant article this amount would be used to fund the reenactment the 13th Continental regiment also the rehobath Minutemen will hold a colonial encampment and a Revolutionary War battlefield reenactment the 13th Continental regiment will set up a full Camp to include tents cooking displays and items used during colonial times and a revolutionary war where enactors will stage a battle and we are currently working on a location this is an event that has huge Community interest not only for history bu Buffs but for community members of all ages this event is planned for October of 2026 however the Continental line the governing body meets in February of 2025 and will consider our requests knowing that we have funding so do know that we are also seeking donations sponsorships and grants to to help fund this event so the committee thanks you for your support and your consideration of our request for $8,000 thank you you're welcome any else any questions no Nicole no Mark no okay thank you thank you move on to article 14 Chief you're up again hello hi um so the article that for this is for uh $75,000 for a uh new uh new Cruiser which would be an admin car currently replacing the top line on the chart there which would be the unit number 570 which is a 2019 Taurus with 70,000 miles that car would be done move down to a another vehicle either replacing the Nissan the detective car or maybe the um comfort dog um car as well there's there's options to move it but I'm I'm looking to obviously move it down and then eliminate another older vehicle that's at the end of its life that way and then it would have a domino a domino effect to probably eliminate 572 which is currently just used for details it's got 158,000 Mi on it the main concern is here is if I don't stay up with the fleet then falling behind um a year could set us back a couple years because 583 just showed up last Friday um finally which was ordered back on the annual town meeting but I do understand the issue of where the town is at financially so doesn't hurt to uh ask all we can say is no that's right I have a question so this is in addition to the police car from Article 28 at the special town meeting June 27th this is an addition to that oh no I excuse me the town meeting on June 10th so 583 was the new vehicle that was just that we just got to replace a patrol a a uh secta which is used for patrol Article 28 of the June 10th this this one 5,000 so this car you're asking for is an addition it would be an administrative car it wouldn't be a fully a full you know Decked Out Patrol vehicle so it would cost less I'm asking for 75 but I might be able to get it for less than that so all I'm asking is it two cars we want this year that's what it sounds like one that we were we just okay and then it would be this one here to replace thank you and how many were we replacing a year prior to our fiscal constraints been trying to do one been trying to do one car a year one car a year right and we had a setback last year because the new car got uh total on right Columbus Day weekend was there ever a year that we didn't replace one there was back when Chief McDonald um so several years ago yeah a couple years back and then it was catchup after that and I think they ended up resulting to want to do like a lease program because it it set back time so okay there might have been a couple of years in a row where we weren't able to to get a car and then and then it it catches up to you right and then you get get uh coupled with accidents and right right so the 583 really was well I guess that that was free cash from last year right so and you would ask me if FY 24 this would be a 25 and you would just asked me like and then two days later I got that call that 583 was done to finally did we get any insurance money I was just going to ask that we we we did we did okay and how much did we get uh short 4,000 just 4,000 M we were short 4,000 cost on the cost like when we got the check we had to make up 4,000 different to replace the 582 for another car yes so was that one replaced yes we just got um the Taho 582 was the replacement vehicle which is the vehicle that's the 2023 with 9800 second from from the bottom that was the one that replaced the one that got total thank you okay okay uh Nicole anything no I have questions as the vehicles get retired they go to they go to the town auction um up to transfer station so that's what pretty much what we do all that after they decomissioned guys have any more questions any questions thank you okay thank you um article 14 I'm sorry Article 15 that's that's you to [Laughter] M EXC this is the one in regards to the opioid I was looking to I believe it was $2,000 to to transfer money money out of that that's to uh to buy kits and um for uh I I don't have much involvement it's more with the safety officer he wants to buy uh uh safety kits with the op OD money the program yeah a training that they were doing for the school and every grade has its own kit right only question I've got is I know that there's limitations on what we can spend that money on and actually a question for both of you guys between the Board of Health and with the police department is there are there any other things that are on the horizon that we could be using that money for that's there hasn't really been much talk about that this is the first thing that's come up yes um so I'd love to see the health department work with the police department as well as fire to come up with some other things cuz when I got the number I was actually surprised how much was in that fund I thought it was it was less than that I hadn't checked done it in a while so once we get to a certain number we do have to start reporting on it um it's not a long report but a report is a report yeah um so if we want to start spending that down do we know what the limitations are for it or off the top of my head I could not there it's p it's pages long of what the limitations are um but I'm sure I'm pretty sure everyone has that document is aware all right Mr chairman um just for a few consideration here um not so much on the worthiness of the appropriation request uh uh but the opioid fund settlements uh hit a bit of a snag in the municipal Finance world how to categorize them remember there was maybe you had a special purpose stabilization fund set up before uh or maybe you segregated those funds before the state actually authorized uh uh that from you know the mechanics of you know receiving and being authorized to expend the money was jammed up in the state legislature for almost a full almost a full year causing cities and towns to you know whatever receipts they had you know just to park them and await further instructions from the legislation Course once the legislature uh you know authorizes stuff then there's rulemaking you know by the department of uh uh uh and uh by the Department of Revenue and and other parties we've only just you know every city in town is only just reached that point within the last few at within the last few months so I mean I saw a newspaper out ofla too where you know people were criticizing cities and townsmen on spending it but hell we didn't have the authorization to do it so so you're just starting you know you just have traction now you know you've got some guidelines uh strictly has to be spent you know for you know for you know for treatment or or um or Prevention Services and and other health services but you know that stuff is finally squared away so it should be fairly smooth sailing after that okay um meanwhile more settlements get made and more money comes into the um uh uh into the coffers but they're really small amounts of MH uh you know remember the first ones were over 15 or 16 years schedule um you know your eyes would pop when you saw oh from this drug company we're getting 30 somewhat thousand yeah that's spread out over 16 years what are you going to do with with a th000 bucks a year or well now we know what we're going to do 2,000 a year finally so anyway thanks for those allowing me that com thank you thank you anything else Nicole no thanks okay thank you thank you I think you're effectively done right um moving on to article 16 so article 16 is a community preservation committee article so there'd be no recom recommendation from either board but just to give the public a general overview um we did vote unanimously to recommend that the town approve $8,500 um for historic resources project uh the historical committee presented a project to us to have the Mount Hope finishing area of town um be um surveyed and registered for the uh National register of historic places we I wish Pat would have stay she could have told you more about the actual project than this than I can um but just so that the voters are aware right we did recommend that it comes from the account Reserve for historic preservation which is currently just a little bit over $26,000 um the last project that the historical commission presented to us that we did that the voters did approve um for 3500 came in $1,000 under budget so they returned a little bit of money from us from our last project so we as a committee we were happy to support their efforts I think this will be one of the only places indien that is that could potentially be recognized on the National Historic register so they were excited when they got the letter back yes that's it okay so 8,500 out of the 26 yes it would be 8,500 out of a little north of 26 I don't have the exact figure in my head and like I said there's also ,000 coming back from their previous project as well thank you uh 17 assume this is going to be a placeholder 17 18 and probably 19 19 as well you know your Customs like I don't you usually back into these numbers don't you at the end yeah yeah I I don't see any further discussion on those do you no not okay then article 20 uh that was submitted by the board of assessors Mr chairman n are you going to speak on that behalf I have no idea what this means somebody read it I don't have need [Laughter] readers okay yeah I know what this is about um the bo of assessors was looking at having asking the town to accept the section of the general laws to uh try to do something for small business businesses in town taxwise uh we met with the uh Industrial Development commission um they had also approached us on this and initially they were looking at a lesser amount the law says you up up to 10,000 and the discussion was that the exemption should be maybe less but during the discussion I said what's less if you go to 5,000 that isn't really going to help small businesses relative to giving them tax break on personal property and I can see us going back to the town in the future saying we got to ask you to now allow us to raise it to the maximum allowable of 10 so anyhow uh following the discussion and it went back to the Industrial Development commission uh they were very pleased that the assesses would consider uh having the wording that is exactly what the law says up to 10,000 because that way there would be individual decisions made every everyone's not getting 10,000 but that's the maximum that can be done it's the maximum that we can give as a town uh to help small businesses with personal property taxes so that article is actually a I'll call it a joint presentation uh from the Industrial Development commission and the board of assessors and that's why we put it on that's what we're supporting and why are we doing it okay and there may be business business that don't qualify at all but the option is there and the law says you can do it so we need permission from the voters to do it to do it to make it available sure do you guys have anything Mr chairman thank you through you Mr chairman to to Nancy thank you that was that was a great explanation but I heard you say um up to $110,000 is the wording of the article uh correct to set the minimum a fair cash value at $10,000 or up to $10,000 do you know I would I would have I would have to what I said was make sure the wording is correct and Town Council will review this it's got to match what the law says so whether it's up to or at I would say uh check with Stephanie tomorrow because it is the law okay and I and again I don't have paperwork with me but uh and because this was I'll say a joint venture between the two boards uh that's what we arrived on but absolutely it should reflect what the law says okay what what whatever the correct uh word is okay we've got a couple weeks to square that over so that and besides that we just dumped this on Matt's lap so it's the the gist of it is that a small business with less than $10,000 of personal property isn't going to be paying personal property tax correct right but again it's really going to depend because it's not automatic it's like any other exemption you have to apply for it y okay and you have to have reasons and evidence and why you're applying for it than okay thank you thank you thank you Nancy okay I think I'm next uh 21 uh the pilot agreement okay uh this is the pilot agreement for brace yourself Brook Street wow the pilot is agreement is ready to go with the exception of the total taxes and our tax uh consultant is working on that and what it is the it's a 20e agreement and the tax consultant actually gives us the 20 years out with a total and as I told you in the past once we see the 20 years and and we see the total that's when I sit with Stephanie and we frontend load it so the first 60% of taxes about 60% will be payable to the town in the first 10 years in the 11th year the tax payment decreases rapidly and roughly the last 40% uh is what is collected uh and again the reasoning for us doing that for pilot agreements is that um it has been the board's position the town's position quite frankly because I was a selectman at the time that when the uh panels go live they're brand new they should be generating at maximum capacity as they age and deteriorate so we think about the last 10 years it makes sense they will be producing less electricity so that's why we structured the tax payments this way the bottom line is they're going to pay the total taxes that are shown for 20 years in talking to our rep from the Department of Revenue I explained to her how we did these and how we front and loaded them and she said to me the Department of Revenue does not get involved in how you structure the payments some communities do a straight 1 12th will technically that doesn't make sense because over the life of it you know those brand new panels at Year One are worth a lot more and are generating a lot more than the 20th year so uh that's why we have done this uh since the first pilot agreement that I can remember uh I will have a number the number does not go on the warrant if you'll remember the last time I presented was um for the the biggest solar farm we have that's the one behind at rjos and at the town meeting I announce what the total uh dollars were and explain it that way but uh everything is ready to go but there is there there is one little one little thing we want this pilot agreement to be approved at this meeting because we can get it on the tax roles for January 1st if this has not been approved and is ready to go for the pilot agreement January 1st the next possible town meeting is the annual and it will not hit the tax rols until the following January 1st this is part of the rules of Taxation so it's very important that uh towns people approve this this Basin gets reconstructed and the tests work and everything else Works down there um if the town's people approve it but something happens that for some reason it doesn't go live what's going to happen is the board of Select women will not sign that and record it if we have to hold it we will I don't anticipate a major problem or I wouldn't be bringing this to you now that the as far as the status of the that whole project which you you heard grown when I said Brook Street uh the last possible solution is what we're dealing with after initial reconstruction digging up reconstructing both of which failed um Weston and Samson was contracted to review new plans that were presented by the engineer for grasshopper the company building this uh there's been some fine-tuning and discussion it went back to the planning board the planning board has reviewed it the planning board has given approval the storm water committee has approved it concom is all set this is the solution but we are insisting on on water testing so if it doesn't rain they're going to be finding ways to bring water in to test that Basin so that they can timely the drain it's going from a full infiltration Basin which was the original design to a detention Basin that will have infiltration capabilities but this new system is also going to allow drainage through a pipe system if you get substantial rain this is not going to fill up and overflow so this is the combination that the engineers all feel this is it so that's why we're bringing it forward now okay okay keep your fingers crossed and hope it rains our last correspondence was we were a huge discrepancy between what they thought they should pay and what you thought no no different different different F okay not the same I have not given any numbers to anyone simply because I don't have them for my consultant so once I get the numbers I'll let the board of assessors know I'll let you know okay and then I'll send it to uh Mr HZ who is the man I deal with but um they've got to review it also no that was a separate farm and we never did do a pilot with them okay no no thank you uh I don't think you guys have a uh concern with this one right U you guys have any questions for no okay thank you Nancy uh 22 I don't think you guys have a concern about that just a question sure do you guys I don't know if you see can can you just explain what the benefit that will be given yeah good evening hi hi everybody hi uh the legislature and the governor signed a um Bill known as the Heroes act here in Massachusetts and uh what the bill did was enhance benefits for veterans and added some new um benefits for veterans in the Commonwealth and of course the veterans community is very appreciative of it and this particular um local adoption it needs local adoption to increase the um abatement for real estate tax over the different um typ types of disabilities this is speaks to uh disabled veterans uh you all aware of the different 10% 100% different loss of arm and things such as that that's what this speaks to so it would be an increase in the deduction on a yearly basis going forward and is that something that they have to apply for each year or once you apply for it you you do have to apply for it each year all it does is enhance and increase the legislation and what we already have but to get the increase you need local adoption yeah we if it's once it's adopted is that does does the veteran have to reapply every year yes yes every July they send out um an application and then we have to fill them out send them back and up until I had a meeting the other day I thought it had to be voted on but I guess it's not a a vote that the board takes it's just as long as it qualifies yeah and I think we have about 85 veterans that qualify out of our 450 veterans or so that live in town so um that's what it's for what it does yes um this is another I'll call it joint project board of assessors working with uh the veterans agent uh we were looking this and and he brought this to us we were kind of on the same page so the board of assistants did vote to support this uh you know having looked at all the information uh so this is obviously that's why it's on the warrant and we we did approve it okay great okay thank you welc ni any other questions thanks you have more questions thank you okay thank you thank you thank you sir and thank you for your support for r did you just for recording purposes could you tell the town's people that you're Ray he our be agent oh yes I'm Ray ha I'm a resident and I'm a veterans agent and also your plement inspector nice to see you all thanks uh that was 22 23 I think is uh the tax title payment agreement mhm it's a general Bible change thank you Mr chairman uh good evening everybody uh Paul Reynolds uh tax collector so I am here tonight to discuss the um proposal for the tax title payment agreement by law and there are two big reasons for this is that um one the treasurer's office for many years going back through time has kind of informally had payment arrangements with delinquent taxpayers um where we've accepted partial payments Tred to get people on schedules to kind of bury themselves out of this situation and um it's something that that I've continued um you know my predecessors also also did that you know we don't want to be in the property management business and um but the reason I'm here tonight is because the town never officially adopted uh Mass General Law chapter 60 section 62 and so while it's good that we we do these deals and that we've honored them and we've tried to help people to um know come up with an arrangement that'll make the town whole but also you know be compassionate and fair um these folks don't have any legal protection so this is a handshake deal the treasurer could you know God forbid I could get struck by lightning tonight and there could be a new person tomorrow says you know what you've been chipping away at this for four years but tomorrow I'm putting you in foreclosure and um I don't think that that's right I don't think that that's fair I want to um give people the legal protection of knowing that it's um my job should not have very much discretion right it's not an executive function it's not a policymaking um function function and um you know we've got a very you know it's an incumbent responsibility to make sure that we have a level even playing field for everybody with this the one set of rules for everyone um so I'll run through some of the high points of this um and one thing I wanted to point out is that one of the um the lines in the agreement is that the treasurer shall not refuse to enter into agreements with eligible taxpayers because my job is not in the business of picking winners and losers um the other reason that I'm promoting this tonight is that effective November 1st there are a lot of changes coming to um to the way that the law regulates tax title the governor's budget that was just signed and um contains a lot of changes that impact everything from the way that we dispose of tax title properties to um the interest that we can charge on tax title so previously up until still Tech technically even today up until November 1st the law of the land was always that um when a tax possession property becomes owned by the town well once you go all the way through foreclosure you foreclose on it um the former owner was not entitled to any Equity resulting from the sale of that property all the proceeds of the sale became the property of the town they were all general fund revenues um the you've probably heard the term Equity theft before so e Equity theft was um completely legal as far as tax possession foreclosure sales go and um that changed that was deemed to be unconstitutional and so um while the Supreme Court Struck it down immediately the legislature memorialized it in changes that go into effect uh 111 and they do everything from cut the interest on tax title properties in half to now once a judgment of foreclosure is finally issued by the land Court municipalities only have 14 days to decide and notify the um the the former owners in writing whether the town is going to auction the sell the property or if it's going to uh retain it for municipal use now if we retain it for municipal use even and we don't even sell it um we're required to get an appraisal and to pay out that former owner essentially buy it from them for any amount that that it appraises for above and beyond the tax title balance at the time that we foreclosed so um not only you know in a in a spirit of neighborliness and compassion but now we've got real fiscal reasons that we do not want to be in the real estate business um so I am proposing that we adopt a bylaw that is the local option available to us under chapter 60 section 62a and I'll touch on some of the high points it's it's not too long I'd be happy to read it in its entirety if the board would like or I can just kind of touch on the points whatever your preference be everybody has it in front of them right so just okay sure um so the General talking points of this would be that we would be able to enter into a tax title repayment agreement I would not be um able to have any discretion over who who wins and who loses right everybody who's eligible by eligible they uh they deem that to be what's called an interested party which can't just mean you know I'm interested in owning that property it has to be somebody who has an actual the owner an heir AE somebody who has a genuine Bonafide demonstrable interest in the parcel um I did apply it to commercial so such agreements on waiver shall apply uniformally for classes of tax titles defined as commercial residential industrial and open space um after conferring with Town Council we um we concluded that open space would refer to things that were in in chapter land um you know for for agricultural or um you know Horticultural what lands um Etc and now the high points of the payment Agreements are um the max maximum of 10 years so the law did previously allow for written payment arrangements up to 5 years now it goes up to 10 is the maximum um there's nothing that precludes the taxpayer from paying it off faster they're not locked into 10 years so they're able to to pay it off faster if they choose to but it would go up to up to a 10-year maximum um this one is important so this one I need to explain what the difference is between treasurer's interest and collector's interest on a tax title so what happens is all of our properties are have leans on them every single one because your tax bill that you get con constitutes a lean and um what happens is that lean is only good for three and a half fiscal years from the date that it is um from the date that the tax bill goes out so if somebody doesn't pay their bill in order to make sure that that um that tax lean doesn't expire eventually it goes into tax title which vests the um the title to the property temporarily we hope in in the name of the town and so what happen happens is the interest that acrs on an outstanding balance up until it moves into tax title is What's called the collector's interest so what happens is I transfer it from my collector's balance I take off my collector hat and I put on my Treasurer hat so I'm transferring that balance from The Collector over to the treasurer once it becomes tax title so once it goes into tax title all of those outstanding tax years you can have multiple tax years you could have somebody that owed for fiscal 24 and and then they all get moved over together so all of those um outstanding taxes get dropped into one bucket so to speak the tax title bucket and then that bucket acrs interest at a different rate it used to be higher the legislature is changing it to go to lower so it used to be outstanding taxes acrew at 14% tax titles acre at 16% now tax titles are only going to acrew at 8% why I I couldn't tell you but that's that's just what they picked and now um this payment arrangement bylaw would allow for me to wave up to 100% of the interest of the treasurer's interest we cannot touch the collector's interest the law doesn't allow for that it allows us to wave up to 100% of the treasurer's interest and um the reason for that that I'm proposing that is um you know it could be set lower if the town wanted to set it at a different number they could but I believe that we do not we want to prevent us owning these Parcels they're going to be it's it's a Pandora's Box and it's going to be you know in a best case scenario you break even and in a worst case scenario you are incurring costs and liability um it has now kind of become what I consider to be frankly a no- win situation the only win that we can get is a win for the town that we recoup the money that was outstanding at the time that it went into tax title it's a win for the resident because they're not losing their parcel and um you know it's a win for the taxpayer because they're not incurring a liability and have this unknown hanging over their head on um are we going to have to pay out claims are we going to have to um you know incur all these cost to retain the parcel Market it appraise it sell it potentially get sued for not selling it for enough it's just it's it's a murky it's a murky unfortunate World um so the next provision would be that the payment arrangement must state that the amount of the payment due from the taxpayer at the time of the execution shall be 10 % of the outstanding amount of the principal balance that used to be 25% the legislature lowered it down to 10 so essentially to put all of this in a nutshell if somebody has a tax title balance they can enter into a payment arrangement will be able to prevent the acrel of any treasurer's interest on that balance they will have to pay the collector's interest but they will not have to pay the treasurer's interest anymore they have to put 10% down and over not more than 10 years they'll have the opportunity to repay that balance and the stipulations will be that they have to um they have to maintain they have to remain current on their taxes as they come out you know it's so the goal is to is to dig out not to you know keep keep uh keep adding dirt in um and I I know I have a tendency to talk too much and too fast when I get a little bit nervous so uh with with that I guess I'll just pause and ask if anybody had any questions well you did a great job explaining thank you um I never could have done it um could you just go over it one more time yeah assing the attorneys looked at this yes yep I did I I sent it over to um to attorney Costa and um he the feedback was that I um he just recommended that I put a colon in one of those lines um for fortunately um I was I was very blessed I'm an active member of the mass collector Treasures Association I lean on them very heavily to help me you know stay a breast of what's going on and fortunately the town of Sheffield Mass just passed this bylaw I basically copy and pasted the exact same thing and um so it's it's it's now been reviewed by our Council it was reviewed by theirs as well and um and um it looks to be looks to get the blessing so I have two questions yes sorry uh minimum following minimum requirements the payment agreement shall be for a term of 10 years but you said it was a maximum of 10 years yes I can uh where it says the payment agreement shall be for a term of 10 years provided however that nothing herein shall preclude the taxpayer from completing payments the amount owed within a shorter period of time so all the agreements will be 10 years yes exactly they would do 10 and then um you know it would it would be fairly simple to work up a payment schedule um like something I could do in Excel if they wanted to pay it off in five or seven or um so when we work out what the what the monthly payments will be um we just wanted to keep it at at 10 just in the spirit of fairness treating everybody exactly the same but on a case-by casee basis like I know if it was me I would want to be out as fast as possible so you know I I would be um looking to make a higher payment so I'd be happy to work out payment schedules with anybody who wants to pay it off faster and um that' be fairly simple on Excel to just whip them up a payment arrangement they can ask you for the payment for for a shorter period but exactly the agreement itself will be a 10year yeah exactly okay and then just the where you mentioned that the payment agreement is also going to state that they have to stay current on the year taxes is I don't know if it should that be in it should be that I can confer with attorney Costa I believe that the catchall for that would be under item D during the term of the agreement the treasurer may not bring an action to foreclose the tax title unless payments are not made in accordance with the schedule set out and the payment agreement or timely payments are not made on other amounts due to the town that are a lean on the same parcel okay and uh the regular tax bills are considered a lean it's just not uh considered a perfected lean the tax title ones are the perfected leans but the regul tax bill does constitute a Leen in of itself okay I guess we should have gone over it again thank you thank you and um I believe I might actually be next as well yes you are okay perfect um so this one oh uh Paul Reynolds member of the Dion Conservation Commission so this is just some cleanup of our bylaw um for folks who are looking at it online I'm not sure how well you can see the change in text on the printed out black and white ones um but the digital copy uh on the pdf version has has bright red language so this is to essentially replace the pre-existing uh conservation bylaw with a slightly upgraded new one um just to touch on a few of the points I'm just scrolling through because I can pick out the red ones pretty quick on my PDF um this would replace the conservation bylaw replace it in its entirety with what's seen Below in the warrant um the commission it will allow us to wave filing Fe we already have the ability to wave the filing fees but uh for government entities but it will also allow us to wave them for a person having no Financial connection with the property which is the subject of the request um oh here's here's one this is this is one of the more substantive changes is that the pre-existing bylaw is that the commission shall require the payment of consultant fees prior to the initiation of Consulting Services these is the 53g accounts um failure by the applicant to pay the consultant fee specified by the commission or its duly authorized agent so I'll re I'll take a step back I'm sorry um I I thought that our chairman was going to be here tonight I didn't intend to talk about this one um so with 53g accounts something that happens often often is that we get um we get a developer an applicant who is playing by the rules they want to do the right thing they want to work with the 53g peer rreview engineer they want to fund the account but what can happen is we will um we will have their first initial hearing we could vote that we want to um send them out to peer review and then we could get a quote back from the from um Wesson and Samson within a few days right depending on the turnaround time we could get it within a few days however the commission will not meet again to accept that proposal for another month so when you're talking about people that are trying to do projects somebody who wants to to build their home to live in you know raise their kids in we want to try to take out needless delays for people that want to write that check get the account funded get the re get the engineer engaged and um you know start the process so what the commission voted to do at one of its recent meetings was to authorize our agent um similar to how you know you may authorize the Town Administrator to sign a contract on behalf of the board um we have authorized the conservation agent to accept proposals from Wesson and Samson on behalf of the Commission in order to provide that information to the applicant ahead of time so that they don't have to wait a whole another month for us to vote before they can write the check and get started on the project um we're just trying to make things more efficient make things you know make things less convoluted of a process make it less of a silo and make it so that people that want to play by the rules have the rules more clearly delineated for them um so that's why we added that ORS duly authorized agent um verbiage in there on who can who can uh retain the piew engineers and it looks like it is missing from the highlights in here I don't see it as being highlighted bright red but um the other major change was that we are enhancing protections for vernal pools um vernal pools are very important they um they're homes to lots of different species they support a really diverse um they a really diverse ecosystem and one of the things that can happen and you know dayon has a lot of wetlands right we're a very resource heavy town and something that happens is say you have a Vernal pool here and you've got a wetland way over here the creatures that live around that Vernal pool often migr back and forth to that Wetland so we do have a buffer zone to protect vernal pools but if you've got a Vernal pool here the buffer zone here if you completely build houses outside of the buffer zone you are complying with the with the bylaw you're complying with the rule you've preserved the buffer zone however that Vernal pool can now no longer fulfill its Wildlife functions because it's cut off from the Wetland that connects it and um so that's one of the things that we wanted to protect in the bylaw changes were to um put a migratory access quarter for Vernal pool species to be able to um to access Wetlands if there's an adjacent Wetland um and then the last real substantive change from the way that the bylaw exists currently is we just lay out a fee schedule for for a long time we we didn't have a fee schedule um we did fees for our anrs which is um it's an abbreviated notice of resource area delineation it's basically um you have an engineer make up a m where they show on the map where all the wetlands and resources are um so we we added in fees for that um notice of intent fees additional site inspections uh the reason that we finally did that is because um sometimes if you have somebody who maybe is heading towards enforcement action they maybe not necessarily doing all the things that they are supposed to do and um the conservation agent might have to go out to a property two three four five six times and you know they're a Public Employee they're on your payroll you're paying for them to do that to to me it's I don't think that the uh the people that aren't the people who are utilizing that service should be subsidizing the cost of that that's just my opinion the people that are not um you know not violating the wetlands shouldn't be the one paying for the time for the agent who has to go out and deal with it so we put in some site inspection fees um in the fee schedule as we did it your application comes with a site inspection you do get a site inspection but if there's complex issues or there's violation or something going on where she got to go out multiple times it bakes in a fee that we're basically allowed to kind of defay some of the town's cost that the town is incurring by doing that um and those were for the most part the the bulk of the the meteor changes do those fees come up arbitrarily or did you no we we tried to model them based on um specifically we looked at Easton Easton has a very well functioning commission that had a really robust bylaw um so we sampled a lot of other different towns okay and uh we wanted to be um we wanted to be in the middle we we're trying to find that kind of gold Delux and then the only other one that um you know I'm I'm a I'm a fan of the saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure so the beef EST fee that we put in is the after theact filing fee because un unfortunately some people feel that it's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is for permission right and uh so you know some sometimes you get the like oh I didn't know that was a swamp when I filled it in and put a shed on it and uh so we did put a a higher fee of that of 250 for the after the fact filing fees and um that is really just to to hopefully you know inject a deterrent element into it and try to drive compliance in the long run great thank you again thank you all right I just have one question nothing about this BW in particular but I know the board has had feedback in the past about when this changes to to a strike through because we print this in black is there a way that the commission could do that is just stri absolutely okay absolutely that's all I had thank you appreciate it be back in a minute okay nice I don't believe you guys have anything else with with this if you want to end your meeting and or stay around I did have a question or I wanted to better understand 26 26 that one's going to be me yep Tom are you 25 yes okay uh why don't we do 25 first it's uh no monetary value right okay um we we're going to entertain that later in your agenda also yes sir officially but uh 25 just so you know is we we have a a a safety concern down in Center Street by the agre school area as I mentioned earlier uh we need to address that area with engineering and whatnot and part of it there have have been some changes on the Federal level where we are allowed to create a school zone there and that's we and part of that would be to create a byaw so it's we have more teeth for the enforcement and also allows a direction for the engineers to engineer that properly to be a become a school zone okay you said there's a problem that has been a problem yes such as when the kids are actively passing cross the crosswalk with the light red and the crosswalks out crosswalk monitors are out there and a bumper comes right up to their leg that's a problem that's a problem agreed so at this time is just a bylaw change not a monetary value I I thought you had told us the other night because it was or or maybe the superintendent did because it was a high school not an elementary or middle school we couldn't go to 20 historically your schools don't be established for eth grade and above right that has been changed as I've looked into this with the engineers that we have okay thank you and it we we'll discuss that furtherly sure tonight and Mr chairman it's fair to say I I think by the footnote this may or may not make the final version of the warrant if we find out that the uh the select board has the executive authority to enact this change then it would come off the warrant we're not sure yet I do have the B we do yes so what's the what's the story it stays on yeah I recommend stays on yes I have a sample by that we use I wish i' had known that before I open my big MTH okay uh article 26 how was your break fabulous thank you uh Paul Reynolds D and Conservation Commission so so article 26 is um I think it's an important conversation that we have as a town to decide how we want to move forward with this um I can't even promise you that I'm going to vote for it but I do I do think it's something that's important for us to talk about so the town of dayon has already accepted Mass General Law chapter 40 section 58 um what that does is it allows the town to um convert an unpaid Municipal charge to What's called the municipal charges lean so what that then oh furthermore the law requires that any charge that is going to be converted into a municipal charges lean needs to be authorized by a separate specific town meeting vote for that type of charge so currently we have three on the books that we use currently which are the uh unpaid sewer bills Title Five betterments and demolition leans those three currently are um are part of the municipal charges leans uh program so what what that ultimately means is that if that bill was outstanding that charge was outstanding as of June 30th of the previous fiscal year that that balance will be added to your third and fourth quarter tax bills when the actual billing goes out in December so um if you had a Title Five betterment I'll just make something up of you know it's $33,000 a year your two preliminary tax bills that you pay in the uh first two quarters of the year you won't see that on there but you'd have that $1,500 added to the third and the fourth quarter payment and um we do that also with um with sewer bills and we do it with demolition leans as well and um we are proposing that conservation fines be accepted as one of those charges that's able to be leaned and the reason for that is that um we have had situations in the past where significant violations have occurred right we've had substantial disturbance of wetlands um we've had pollution of wetlands things dumped in there fill um you know all kinds of things that go far beyond a good faith error right things that are that are um substantial and this under the bylaw and under the Wetland protection act the commission has the ability to Levy fines and the question then becomes if you have somebody who has created an issue has refused to clean it up because these fins don't get issued willy-nilly right these don't we it's not the first or the second or the third time that we have to talk to somebody about it that we're proposing fines we're talking about you know 18 months of this before we we're finally there and uh if we get to the point where we issue fines and the individual just decides I'm not paying what are you going to do about it the question becomes that's the reason that this is on here and I want to have a discussion about it is what do we do about it right what do we do um we do have the ability to deny them certain licenses and permits under I believe it's uh chapter 40 section 57 I believe is the um is that one we we have that on the books already but if they don't run a business if they don't need one of those permits and um then what so this if the town were to accept it this would allow us to get as close as we can to guaranteeing that we recoup that we recoup it and um so essentially that would make it so that any taxes that are fines that are outstanding as the end of the last year will get added to the third and fourth quarter bills um it's not a perfect system right I have I have my own concerns about it I'm sure I'm sure some of you do too and uh but the question is as a town that we need to address is what are we going to do about it if somebody does despoil a wetland they create a substantial issue and they just decide you know what you can't do anything to me about it anyway we have limited options we could deny them licenses and permits we could try to you sue them and um other than that we're in a uh we're in kind of a tight spot so that's that's why um we proposed this that's why we voted on it as a commission and um the other reason too is if if these are being delivered by by Constable right when somebody's being fined by the town they getting delivered by constable and uh that can cost you 5075 and so now if you're serving somebody every two weeks or every month that's depleting your operating Revenue it's depleting your departmental budget and the person is shooting them in the trash can as soon as they get them then uh you know as a town we need we need to have a Frank discussion and you know if the town accepts it they accept it and if they're not comfortable with it that's that's all right it's it's I'm not pushing this as an article myself um but I can tell you personally and as a member of the commission it's an important conversation that we need to have and we need to decide as a town how seriously do we take this and if somebody is not going to abide by the bylaw then uh what do we do about it Paul is it it's on levied fines yes it would be on fines that were issued by the commission and then were outstanding as the end of the previous fiscal year okay not collected fines right yep so that would be there the uncollected fines unct the uncollected fines as of the previous fiscal year okay that was my I I wasn't sure how collected would become a lean charge yeah sorry about that I must have M sorry thank you yeah thank you thank you thanks all right uh then 27 uh are you speaking on this Jim um I I'm not sufficiently informed okay usually doesn't stop me from talking but no I'm surprised you okay uh then obviously 28 is standard that's it D has any questions for us uh we do have one more item on our agenda sure and thought actually before uh before we get to it does anyone have any questions for the board on this article 27 which town employees serving the arm services or Reserve component pay uh receive pay without loss of anything is this full pay or I'm assuming the veterans agent is can speak on this but he he left okay generally I'll throw this out I um this may have been a late sub midle but um I know in other places that I've worked this acceptance of this statute is something that um perhaps you haven't done yet uh but I've been in places where our active employees who are deployed we pay them the difference between their their guard pay or their you know their military pay and the pay that they would have gotten should they be should they be here working and then there are additional Health uh Insurance considerations um they would be responsible for they would continue to be responsible for their share of the family premium um or either individual or or family premium but it but it works like that so you generally any of their benefits that is correct yes the problem with this is entitled to receive PID they do not make the stipulation that it is um to make them whole the difference between what their military and their other right that's the way I understand it uh so they don't lose anything so they and that's the way it should be written it does not stipulate that okay but if there's a statutory reference there tank you know the statute an that okay any other questions for board select the only other thing that we have is the uh Capital outlay committee has been reformed again um and the finance committee needs a representative uh on the on the committee I did speak to Doug and Doug said he would be willing to do it which is the main uh the main uh factor that uh qualifies him to do it do we need a motion we do I make a motion that we vote for Doug I Sor your last name white white to be our representative on the capital Outlet committee second all the favor I opposed guys have it we no longer have anybody on Zoom so I don't do I need a roll call I okay that's all we have thank you motion motion to adour for the finance committee uh I make a motion to rejourn Second all in favor I oppos guys have it we're done thankk you guys you thank you so you guys meet Tuesday T yes is that a problem maybe oh okay do you uh do you guys have a me we meet on Wednesday you have a regular meeting now yes okay I you want to recess for five minutes or you yeah that' be great okay yes uh make a motion to recess I make a motion to recess I'll down and second that in favor I first on the list is we're going to have uh is public input so I'm going to ask somebody to make a motion to take our agenda out of make a motion to move number seven public input to now second motion made and seconded any discussion all those in favor I Mr Perry I know you were interested in coming up yes uh thank you member M of the board um I have a concern regarding the language a proposed language on the ballot question for funding BP uh first of all recognize that that bill has to be paid yes there's no ifans or buts about that um several weeks ago there was a meeting at the high school regarding discussion on uh debt exclusion is it correct correct okay uh I had an opportunity to read the draft language for the ballot question and it talked about a 2 and 1/2 override well a 2 and A2 override yeah okay did did but that's correct that was that was the draft right two and a half override and uh a Deb exclusion are two different animals correct so we either need to clean up the language and say this is a debt exclusion uh or we need to make people aware that um I looked up uh on the state's website said an override of 2 and a half results in a permanent increase in the levy limit of the community which is part of the levy limit increases the rate at 2.5% each year right so essentially uh for the sake of argument um let's say we need to override it by another percent and a half well that percent and a half becomes built in so in other words instead of 2 and a half track this way we hit we hit this bump up and it goes so we need to clean up the language because uh number one uh we've been told it's going to be a debt exclusion and number two uh I think um it could be very confusing for the populace at large when we go in and you know vote on this thing uh simply because again I'm a supporter of the debt exclusion simply because again the bill has to be paid no if hands or butts uh but I don't want to lose Town services and if we don't have a debt exclusion we would have to look at as was discussed in that meeting a loss of town Services right okay so that that was my point here that uh I think we need to clean up the language and make it Crystal Clear uh what we'll be voting on in that ballot question absolutely uh it I'm not going to speak with the other two members because uh but as far as I am concerned in in the way I understand it to be is a strictly debt exclusion uh there was no talk of a two and a half override from the three board members as an option no I absolutely agree with that when during that that meeting a couple weeks ago at Dr but the draft the draft language says two and a half override okay so we need to take a hard look at that before uh the ballot is finalized you know and um I don't find anywhere in any of the research that I did where um a 2 and A2 override and uh can mean debt exclusion right okay maybe I missed something but I I think that needs to be clarified the language need to be very specific and it needs to be clarified so that was my input the um ballot has been printed already um we we need to notify the secretary of state so many days in advance and I know that the the language for debt exclusion is it's we work with the secretary of Commonwealth and DLS I believe and I I financial advisor looked at it as well but it's very rigid and I think it does say something along the lines of it exempts us from the provisions of propos two and a half but it's it's for a specific project instead of just allowing us to increase taxes over a certain amount it's only for the life of a project but I think it's just it's the law um that it it falls under that law is my understanding and we did vote at our last meeting to further educate voters um to do a mailing and um I thought it' be as simple as getting a yes or no from Office of campaign and political Finance um we did send them that question and they bumped it over to the Secretary of State who then bumped it over to our Town Council basically said we can't use public resources for that so as far as public Outreach I'm not sure we can do too much more because of we can't do a mailing we've done we've done a public forum the ballots already printed and uh the language is so strict like we really don't have much wiggle room with with that language when we did vote on it well I again I I agree I'm I'm sure it went through any number of people that have expertise in this area I do not have expertise in this area and I don't know how many voters do right and so again when I see something something that says a 2 and a half override results in a permanent increase in the levy limit even though uh this article may be very excuse me this uh article may be very specific okay you're overwriting it for this reason it still can mean that you know it's a broad Horizon that the two and a half is being overridden for okay and I'm not trying to muddy the water here at all but again I'm a a voter I'm reading this and I'm not quite sure what I'm reading now okay okay thank you very much for your time Jim has something he's over there working I think just went on because I think you know I was thinking what you know um uh I I I I don't recall any uh any override questions except for this the slides that we passed out uh at the public information meeting uh at the third page makes a distinction between the two between the two correct that's the conversation that we had but I remember quite clearly as the presenter that night you know um you know making that distinction in is you selectman Pico just said um you know talked about the you know in the difference an override is a permanent increase to the taxy and that is ongoing unless there is a subsequent underride vote you know sometime in the future and I remember making the distinction between the uh you know that the debt exclusion uh the authorization was only for as good as the loan was out there correct um so um this is a good opportunity to make that clarification again uh at least on camera uh but all the drafts of the ballot questions themselves okay um I can assure you none of them had override uh uh language in it in fact Mr chairman um I'm doing this as much for the camera oh absolutely clarify the point um from the um uh in putting together the uh uh uh the language uh from uh the div State Department of Revenue division of local services from this public prop two and a half uh ballot questions uh published in August of 2017 it's still a controlling document um and uh in appendix a there is a sampling of the various types um of um of questions that one would put uh uh onto a ballot in the reference General La chapter 59 section 21 uh C subsection K has now in in the composition of the ballot questions that are uh that are out there now um uh I took verbatim uh uh from the uh uh from the uh uh Do's a samplin and then I there's a spot that says State the purpose for which the purpose or purposes for which the monies from the local issue will be used um so I went to the um uh to the March 5th 2022 um uh Bristol Plymouth um a a warrant and I took the exact wording I lifted that wording and inserted it where you know where they say to drop it in I then circulated that um to a treasur collector's office um our town clerk's office Town Council uh uh weighed in a couple of times uh on it in the town financial advisor uh uh uh UniBank and um uh UniBank added in some four or five words that did lend more clarity remember the allcable share um of expenses there so that's how that's how the question got composed and um a a council you know after the unac instructions you agreed that you know that the clarity was you know it was more clear with that addition and so we subsequently sent it along to the Secretary of State's office um you know with the request that it that be included on the ballot so I think um I think the confusion was probably from the slides you know when we were trying to make the distinction uh between a an override and a debt exclusion and I'm happy to use this air time um to to do what you're asking for to get clarification if I may sure what you that paragraph appendix or whatever that you cited as part of Mass general laws y based upon the way that that U article is written uh for that specific purpose does that mean then that the 2 and a half override can be used for that in that alone or does it go back into increasing the levy liit it's a um it's it's it's the debt exclusions uh we we need to we need to drop the word override well from this but okay how how is that article written how is the article that's going on the ballot how is it written yeah sure sure I've got it okay yeah shall the town of dayon be allowed to exempt from the provisions of proposition 2 and A2 socalled the amounts required to pay for the town's allocable share of the bond issued by the Bristol Plymouth Regional Vocational Technical School District for the purpose of paying costs of design engineering constructing and equipping a new District High School to be located at 207 har Street in Taunton massachus Metts including the payment of all costs incidental and related there too so again my question does that mean that we are voting on an exemption uh excuse me uh an override of two and a half for that specific purpose a debt exclusion for that specific purpose but it doesn't say debt exclusion it says override a proposition two and A2 you know I don't know what to tell you I don't think it says override it says it uses the word exemption exemp okay that's what that is so the the word exemption essentially means it's it's an exclusion is that correct right okay that's correct okay I think it might confuse a few people well again no I'm glad we have the air time because I spoke with several of my neighbors and we had the same and I didn't lead them down that road sure uh we we had the same issue you know as a voter what does this mean right okay but I think it's clarified for me okay and and I'm glad we had the the air time because I would certainly not want people to walk in and look at that question and suddenly not understand again for the camera we owe this debt it's just a question of how we're going to pay for it um board discussion sir this discussion has far you know tonight on camera has far more value to the public than a conversation between you and I that so I'm very grateful that you brought it up I really am okay so board members thank you very much for the time I do appreciate it you thank you okay we're going to return back to the regular uh schedule um Mr Ferry you're up you don't mind us the oh sure for the uh order of taking for the Main Street yes that's right and this is is something that I've been working with Mr fion y uh for some time and so what's on the agenda is in order of taking uh for uh certain easements that I needed for the uh improvements on Main Street and so um the engineers uh Drew up plans that showed the areas that were needed for this project uh appraisals were done uh to determine the value of those areas that were needed and what we have before you tonight is an order of taking which um we'll ask the board to uh to vote on which basically describes the uh areas that will be taken by emminent domain and so there are uh two permanent takings uh one's a sidewalk easement um let's see it's about 431 square fet and the other one's a permanent drainage easement to improve drainage and that one is about 12 00 Square ft and then there are two other uh takings which are uh temporary construction easements which basically just authorize um the utilization of areas in connection with construction activities but then once the project is over those easements disappear okay um and so this is the uh the document that would effectuate the the um uh The Taking of those Parcels by eminent domain uh if that's adopted by the Ward the next step is it's recorded with the registry of deeds once it's recorded with the registry of deeds uh notices go out to the um land owners and then the town is required to process payments of the um uh uh awards for the um for the takings if you have any questions I'd be happy to uh I don't because I've been involved with it not invol well been brought up to date right along um Nicole do you have any questions yet just um where does the award funds come from uh there was an appropriation made at town meeting um okay that was my only question it Mark do neighbors have an idea this is coming yes there was a prior notice that was um that was sent out thank you which I believe is not required under Mass General law but we decided that it was it was a good practice to notify the owners ahead of time so that that if there were any issues um you know they could they could come talk to the uh Town officials and address those ahead of time I appreciate that that's awesome the process thus far has been textbook really no doubts this was a review discussed act so um is there a motion on the floor to approve I'd like to make a motion to approve the order of takings for the Main Street improvements at has presented I'll second that motion made and seconded any discussion all those in favor I I thank you okay now if the board would sign that tonight sure I don't know if Karen has the ability to notorized because I I could take it with me and it would save me a trip oh yeah to come back to the town or to have someone drop it off absolutely if you'd like I could I could hand you the this copy sure he waited long enough to talk to us we that's we can do oh okay Tom are you doing the uh recommendation for the uh this one for yourself concrete structure thank you you're welcome yeah not okay cool just the one page right that's right awesome thank you very much for your time thank you thanks for coming thanks M thank you believe this is yours man this is a review discussion act recommendation for Main Street concrete structure components bid evening everyone evening again um as you know we're working on the Main Street reconstruction uh the second time we went out for bid on materials for that project for the drainage upgrades we only had one person bid on the concrete structures uh we have to rebid on the other materials um so this letter after review from Granite City is from Granite City attaches a review of our business of the bids reviewed from Jr pre-cast we suggest the town award a contract for a not to exceed price of 34817 for the Main Street project pleas clearcut um Nicole do you have any concerns no Mark just in general for the Main Street timeline and and working with Granite City partners and all the other stakeholders is it moving along so far as you um anticipated and any big hiccups oh yeah just just yeah I was expected to be digging already oh really yeah so we we have to rebid mhm pipe no one bid on the pipes yet okay that's the biggest thing um we're opening those bids uh I believe the 24th of this month so we'll have to re-evaluate where we are and how much disturbance we're going to do in the ground over the winter so we need a long range forecast for that so any feedback from folks on why they don't bid on on the project or uh one local vendor was in oversight while they were dealing with a hurricane he was down below left his assignment to someone else and it fell through plus the company was being bought so I'm not sure if that played a bigger role than an oversight sense so but they expect to have a bid in this time awesome thank you okay well hearing no other questions this is a discuss and act as well I'd like to make a motion uh to accept the bid um for the concrete structure from J andr pre-cast for amount not to exceed $348 I'll second that motion made and second any discussion all those in favor I I in Tom uh recommended for the salt pit again pretty standard yes every year we consider um utilizing some consortiums already available instead of going off a bid ourselves uh we entertained Medfield in the past and also Plymouth County uh uh Plymouth itself uh we haven't used Plymouth for a few years but uh it came in pretty good with that that consultum so I'm recommending that price we even they hosted the bid and we even beat their own price oh yeah so they came out pretty good good so uh after reviewing this road salt bids we recommend re rewarding Eastern minerals who had the lowest bid at $55.65 and that's through the Plymouth Town of plymouth's bid okay any questions guys no a motion to accept the salt bid from Eastern minerals at $55.65 a ton second that motion made and seconded any discussion all those in favor I I thanks Tom thank you Tom sorry about giving you another night here um baraa cabier is not here no so uh neither is Teresa Melo uh so we'll move on to announcements please the Fire Department open house um at 300 Main Street on Sunday October 13th from 10:00 a.m. to 2: p.m. there'll be crafts and obstacle course and more um the butt Hut will be there um I'm disappointed I'm going to miss it because everyone's been talking about that but hot um we'll have to catch it somewhere else um the adult flu covid vaccine clinic um this will be October 18th this is from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. it is at the Council on Aging building at 10:59 Somerset Avenue please register online though this is at the Council on Aging this is for any adult 18 and older um C on Aging offering daily coffee from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on their new patio um WEA permitting or inside their dining area and that's another good reason to go to the vaccine clinic see their new patio um the town of dayon food bank will be held next October 19th located at Town Hall 979 Somerset Avenue this is in the lower level on Saturday October 26th from 10:00 a.m. to 2: p.m. The Drug Enforcement Administration DEA a will be coordinating with the dayon police department for a one-day coordinated prescription dug takeback event to remove potentially dangerous controlled substances from the homes lastly on Monday October 28th 2024 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. there will be a pumpkin patio park that's a lot fundraiser um for the dayon his Historical Society at ruio farms 1522 Williams Street um this is $50 per person and includes all materials please bring your gloves pre-register is required you can call at 508 669 6988 I know those always sell out fast so get your pumpkin patio pot yeah what is that it I think it's just I don't know pumpkin in a patio pot okay uh we've already done public input so we're going to move on to the town administrator's report not tonight okay thank you uh selectman's reports um I don't have any reports um but I just want to mention two things uh one we can put on the next agenda and the other one is just for something to think about uh the first thing to think think about is the holiday December SEL schedule uh because we meet on the I'm going to say the 9th or the um 11th 11th and then the following meeting would be on the 25th which we won't be meeting on so I don't know if we should just keep the first one and not have one until after that until January or do we want to move one up and have two weeks in a row but just something to think about uh before it gets too late and we have to spring it on everyone and the other thing that I'm going to put on uh next week's agenda is um dis bearing this uh uh Banning not Banning uh getting rid of the Agricultural committee you were on that for some time yeah they never they were never I would be the only one there right so I think we should disband the group and start new um I understand there's some people who are interested and we should open it up to um new people who want to join but we should get rid of not get rid of I don't mean to sound like that but we should um just start fresh with with whoever want wants to be onor did you have a discussion with the chair at all no I don't know who the chair is um it's Ken ruio okay I will okay uh that's it for for me I don't know um Mark Nicole my only request is would could we add um an announcement just on the general election coming up on November 5th just for our last couple our next meeting or two um and uh thank you for that for the thinking head for December yeah that'll be good to discuss yes sure I don't know why we can't meet on the 25th uh well Mark doesn't want to has a new baby hum right Jim won't be here no maybe I'll be on an island some uh Nicole do you have anything no I don't have anything okay then moving on to uh old business which is unlisted so uh new business um review discuss and act the warrant for state election I I'd like to make a motion to approve the warrant for the state election for signature as presented I'll second that motion made is seconded any discussion all those in favor I I I review discuss an act open town meeting warrant Mr chairman we have a um uh a town accountant who is a stickler for the law thank uh thank goodness I love it uh we had a couple we discussed uh the Pleasant Street Bridge reconstruction project and the uh creation of the school zone on Senate Street I I tonight as marked up um placeholders on the uh on the warrant the requests came in after the board had voted to close the warrant okay you're free to reopen and that's the request sure now in order to include those two articles absolutely motion to uh reopen the special town meeting warrants I will second that motion made and seconded any discussion all those in favor I I I uh motion to include articles that was already discussed this evening as just discussed by our interim Town Administrator I'll second that motion made and seconded any discussion all those in favor I I thank you Mr thank you okay uh meeting uh view discuss an act to close the town meeting warrant motion to close the special town meeting warrant I'll second that motion made and seconded any discussion all those in favor I I one day liquor license application I believe there's uh something you want us uh remark yes so they there's there's just a small timing with the liquor license liability coverage I believe that they're working uh to get at ASAP and we know that this is an annual event that the day and Lions Club does so um with that said having everything else in front of us I'm just going to make a motion to approve the one-day liquor license for the Lions Club Arts Festival contingent upon the receipt of proof of lier license liability coverage and to wave Associated fee I'll second that motion made and seconded any discussion all those in favor I I uh Surplus equipment this is again a review discussion act um Jim AGI usually presents this but uh there's a list of equipment and vehicles that he wants to dispose of I don't know if you guys have had a chance to look at it yeah and I talked to Jim um if you'll entertain a motion I have to or actually maybe I could just put it into one sure I don't know um to accept um the Surplus for disposal that is listed um as well as whatever does not get sold um he is able to um I don't know what a nice word is um dispose of as necessary y okay I'll second it on discussion mhm this is stuff we've already voted on for Surplus right I just want to be clear on that like we've already these have already gone through our meetings and we've declared it okay that's that's it that's my and just real quick for discussion the reason that the items that are not going to be sold are going to be disposed of because some of these items have seen several auctions and it's their time to rest sure definitely okay a motion has been made in um second and discuss any more discussion all those in favor I I I open meeting law complaints do we have one we have two okay they came from Patrick Higgins y um one is in regards to our special meeting on September 16th in which Mr Higgins indicated that the names of the candidates for a Town Administrator are not included in the posted meeting agenda okay okay and with regard to this complaint the town acknowledges that it was a technical error sure they were not included um and then he had a complaint on for our September 25th meeting which states that any vote which states that the vote I'm sorry which which he said that the vote the because we didn't record the first part of the meeting he felt like we did not say that the meeting was recorded nor nor did we when we entered into executive session take a roll call vote right we do have a second recording okay um which is on Zoom which I intend to share with Mr Hain and hopefully that will clear this one up as well okay thank you but what we need tonight is I guess just for you to designate someone to respond to these complaints either being Jim or I uh well I'd like to make motion that Karen will respond to the open meeting lock complaints second motion made in second and any discussion all those in favor I I thank you Karen thanks Karen approval of the warrants please all right I'd like to make a motion to approve the warrants paid by October 3rd 2024 14 a-25 in the amount of $1 15,622 78 14 B-25 and the amount of 2244 $180 warrants paid by October 10th 2024 158 d25 for $118,800 15 B-25 for 97,98 44 15 c-25 for $ 6,997 196 I'll second that motion made and second any more discussion all those in favor I I uh pet I uh approval of the minutes I make a motion to approve the board of selectman regular meeting minutes of September 25th 2024 second motion made in seconded any discussion all those in favor I uh motion to go into executive session with the roll call I'd like to make a motion to go into executive session under Massachusetts general laws 30A section 2182 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union Personnel interim Town Administrator I will second that motion made and seconded roll call please mark Pico I Nicole Melo I and pet Cameron is in I thank you we will not be returning from uh executive session