telling me your your apples are slow oh is that what it is yeah that's what it is I'm going by the official Town Hall clock on the wall here it's officially off that means a bad official nonetheless no you got to keep it open the no it's too noisy out there public meeting you got keep the door open it's got to stay open it's a public meeting at least one at least one door okay okay so I will try that again now that Ron's all right we're gonna open this this meeting so um today's agenda we have a public comment approval of the Town approval of meeting minutes for July 25th June 25th oh my God my brains fried um election worker appointments in master plan implementation committee alternate an appointment of the advisory representative to the affordable housing committee appointment of a senior services and recreational program director permalink administrative fee increase discussion on that um designer selection standards Town Financial policies and appointment of a field driver then the town administrator's report and topics not reasonably anticipated by the chair um so we will open up the room to any public comments for anything that is not on the agenda is there anybody here for that your speak all right good there being none we will move on minutes for June 25th 2024 is there a motion to accept or any concerns revisions changes I had nothing good okay I move to approve the meeting minutes from the June 25th 2024 meeting second all those in favor ya and ya and I okay great next thing up is the election worker appointments and master plan implementation committee alternate so I'm going to move to app Point election worker appointments Mary da Linda Cutler Brian Cutler Lind Denise and fenti Holly Woods in Marie Wright and Delaney auger and they are election worker appointments and then additionally I move to appoint John O'Brien as alternate member of the master plan implementation committee okay I will second those motions all right any discussion on any of these positions there being none all those in favor I good next up the appointment of the advisory representative to the affordable housing committee so I move to approve Matt noton as The Advisory Board representative on the affordable housing committee all right I will second that okay any discussion does Matt know he's being appointed for this position he does all right all those in favor I I good thank you next up is the appointment of the senior services recreational program director so I move to appoint the hiring of Charles Anthony rafon to serve as the town's senior services and Recreation program director I will second that um before we vote in favor do you want to just maybe give a little quick intro sure my name is Charles Mone but I do good by Chu um looking forward to the opportunity to serve the community um I have had a professional background U probably up until about 10 or 11 years ago uh working in the office bever service I transition to being a yoga teacher full-time and so with that I create events and uh hold space for people to uh come together community and I think this is to what I already do um excuse me great well thank you welcome aboard so yeah looking forward to continuing that position and sort of recreating creating a new position well not recreating creating a new position with the activities with the recreation parks department so with that all those in favor I I I thank you you don't have to stick around if you don't want yeah it's a hot night back inac thank you very much um permalink administrative fee increase I think we talked about this last week or last meeting yeah this is a this is a passord really they they increase the fee per transaction to the town from1 to1 so unless we want to absorb that increase we want to just increase our um transaction fee the by the same amount I I I I want to ask a question you may ask I know this is a pass through I get that how how many contractors electrical Plumbing gas are still coming to town hall for permit you know there's a there's still a fair amount um we process all of them through permit link there's a fair amount who still come in part of the issue is that we've never fully transitioned to permit link so if you want to pay for the permit you can't do it right now through permit link you have to you actually have to leave permit link and pay for it through unform yeah which makes makes no sense so they were actually we've been working with permit link to change that um they were actually ready to transition to the new model this week but we asked them to hold off on doing it because su's not here um so we're plan we're hoping that we can fix that problem next week starting next week if I think if people are able to pay just using permit link without the confusion and having to leave and then go back yeah I think it will increase the participation greatly and it will save staff time because right now what we're doing is we get a print out I did this today that's I'm I'm learning this because Sue is not around um we get a print out of the UniBank charges we have to take those the print out we have to sign into permit link and we then manually have to input those payments into permit link rather than if someone could just pay using the software and the capability is there that layer of bureaucracy or administrative work goes away and frees up um our time especially Su so we are moving to that it's taken a while Sue's been working on this for months um but we're at the Finish alarm um so I think sorry that's a long answer um no it's a good answer and you know my concern is just that and and you know I don't know about Massachusetts but I did have an opportunity to take out an electric apartment in New Hampshire and I went to town hall and I was told that if I do this at town hall there's a $50 administrative fee or you can do it online because with you the according to them they're tying and I agree they're tying up town resources to process the thing some of the guys that work in in dunable are saying that it's too difficult to use it and I what you just said fits into that and I mean I haven't taken electrical permit and dunable in a while but I I think the thing is like not clean it's muddy pretty I think it's user friendly it's something that a lot of communities use so if a contractor does business with municipalities on a regular basis they're likely to have bumped into the software because a lot of communi it's the known brand yeah it is it's the McDonald's of of these typ of things it's clunky it's clunky because or it's worse because of the town dunable in particular a lot of communities allow the payments right through perment for some reason when when we initially transitioned to permit link the decision was made not to do that and to stick with the uni bank um for payments and it does it it really makes it Con more funky than it needs to be yeah we use UniBank for like trash payments correct and tax no not taxes all taxes almost almost all payments on online yeah so that's why it's through unitank still it is but a lot of the guys in order to use UniBank you got to have a shopping cart you to put the stuff in the shopping cart and then you got to pay for it they need to go back to the permit software no it makes more sense for it to keep it Consolidated into one it's it's I think Cluny is a uh a decent word but what what we are doing though because is is discouraging guys are just going to come here because they don't want to deal with it that's they I hear it in the office at the counter about I tried to pay but I couldn't pay online it's like well you can but it's not intuitive so this will clean that up I think it's going to be a huge Improvement so this update that they're going to do will include it's not going to INE they're not they're not directly related but they just happen to be happening at the around the same time why don't we revisit it and give it I think till the early fall and see if it's improved I think we just need to I mean if we have a lot of guys coming in here taking our permit is because either a they don't want to learn the thing or it's they're just this is what they're used to doing some of the older guys don't want they want to come and fill out a piece of paper and give it to you and write a check and get their permit and that's not most municipalities are not doing that anymore they're not you don't even get a permit anymore we used to get a permit here's your permit if you want that permit you got to go online and look it up and there's your permit and you can print it out the towns are not issuing paper permits and they're not and I don't know how that works with us but you know the Scuttle but and the trade that I hear is dun is very difficult with their permitting process administratively I don't if we can make that better then that's a good thing if we could try to do what you say and consolidate that I mean I'm unip the unip UN Bank thing now it goes okay and I paid my trash on it and for the most part it works okay and as long as you got a plan to resolve that but contractors that are coming in here like in Pittsfield New Hampshire which is where I got a permit you get to pay it's 50 bucks come to town hall you need permit it's going to be 50er charge yeah so I got in my truck and left that's a good incentive yeah not a small but that's that's the right number to discourage to encourage somebody go learn something on L $50 is a lot of money it is a lot of money but I understand that pound perspective yeah because the girl that's doing permits is doing roads and she's doing all this stuff and now they're going to take her away and tie her up on permits with some guy who really doesn't want to be bothered dealing with online but the truth is it there's there's no convenience so I'm okay Jason it it is true if if a contract is used to working with fully staffed communities in a permanent process and then comes here it's going to be a lot more difficult there's no question about it um because just simply schedules and not having some of our inspectors even have office hours here um you know that's all that creates challenges and that other communities that are staffed um they don't have to deal with so and how how are we handling um permits for things like oil which have been going to the fire department are they I think that's still I I I think that's still will defy the and those those dollars get turned in and there's some sort of some you know the the chief comes over with with the is it better to consolidate so that we have one permanent database I talked to the chief about Chief came up here a few weeks ago and talked to me about that maybe this before us is not related to that no no it's a little different right so I moveed to approve an increase of the processing fee for permit applications using permit link from $10 to $122 to cover the increase in the transaction of the assess to the town by permit the link second all right any further discussion like this I hope those in favor one last thing it might be something to revisit when we or I know we have to talk about our increase in fees at some point again so when we get the chance to do that you know we'll see if there's been any positive experiences since maybe with the software increase if it's gotten better sure you know see if things have been enhanced yeah all right so carry on is hear yay oh I was sorry yeah yes okay okay good um designer selection standards I'm not call what this was for okay do you want me to take it please so um the union building project oh okay requires um that's what it is the town yeah the town to hire an architect to create bid documents that we can bid for the exterior improvements or the building in order for us to do that um while architects and Engineers are ATT and 30b if the project meets certain thresholds there's a separate designer selection law that communities need to follow the designer selection laws for any project that is $300,000 or more and the um the designer fee is $30,000 or more in this case we meet both of those thresholds and because of that we need to go through the design selection uh process um the first thing we need to do is as a town the what do they call it authorizing body um or appren bodying authority a approving body approving body needs to adopt these designer selection procedures um the design of selection law process is different than um traditional procurement um in as much that they they require a they require you to issue a request for qualifications and then determine the price after you've um ranked and selected a vendor um so it's a little different than what we traditionally go through but um that's how we need to do so these procedures are almost directly from the model procedures that are provided by the state yeah to comply with the law um I did have a discussion with um Town Council as well and they pointed me to these so that is why they are before you tonight so we can get so we can get started on the union building project yeah okay I don't I'm not I read this early I it is boiler plate from I I no point reinv it's just copied essentially from the State website yeah car on yeah all right so I move I move that we adopt excuse me move to I move to adopt the diner designer okay designer selection procedure as presented and dated July 16th 24 a second that there any discussion none all those in favor I I okay so next up are the town Financial policies so yes thank you for working on these Jason with Advisory Board think it makes a lot of sense do this yeah it kind of solidifies a lot of things that we used to do on the back of a napk yeah Advisory Board had two meetings to discuss and review these they approved them at their last Mee which I think was last Wednesday and yeah it it I think formalizes some processes that we already do and creates other um I think Frameworks that will be helpful to us moving forward um if you want me to provide highlights I can well these how this get The Advisory Board addited this or how this get did they start this so did you start it so it was kind of a joint effort I I did provide them a draft they provided input there was some um amendments made as part of the review and discussion um and this is the final result in the the final approved policies um of the advisory Bo the major things this does um it basically says that we need to better align our um our Revenue growth with expenditure growth growth so that um so the first expenses don't grow more than revenues um which is obviously a standard good practice to have um It also says um it just if formalizes the fact that we're going to put together an annual Financial forecast to help guide the budget process every year um and that we'll have a joint meeting with all stakeholders in the first quarter of the fiscal fiscal year to review the financial condition of the schools the bwn gon and um Dunstable um a free cash policy um it basically says that we're going to try to draw down our Reliance on free cash for the next two fiscal years and then it also stipulates how a portion of it will be distributed um moving forward so it says that 5% of our free cash certification will go to General stabilization fund and then no less than 30% will go to short-term capital expenses um hopefully by getting off of free cash for our operating budget it will free up additional free cash for these purposes um it also it also gets a target of 3 to 5% of certified free cash on an annual basis 3 to 5% of the annual budget should it be things like it may be distributed annually in the following manner at least 5% it's the last because will be means that it's happening no matter what it I think that's the point is I know but like just to be realistic like well I'm thinking this is probably a somewhat fluid document because you're putting specific dates in here so if we have to amend it we can amend it and we talked about as The Advisory Board talked about the need to uh review and evaluate on an annual basis if not if not more frequently but the the the one of the main goal or the main idea around these policies is to have polic in place so that it's the way we conduct business is not relying on who sits in these seats that we have a standard of practice budgetarily that we know what we're going to do we know what the expectations are and um like I think there is in The Advisory Board talked about this a lot too um around making sure there's sufficient um flexibility so that it doesn't Tire hands too much but also um implements best practices basically um so I have no problem with the word will it's different than shall and but stronger than may you know we want to have these to have a firmer Direction and something solid to fall back on to say well are we adopted a polic that we will do this yeah um it doesn't say sh which sort of totally ties you down but yeah I think the will is is is an important statement here I'm not trying to get stuck on like the Nuance the word but like if all the Nuance is exactly the point that makes it either strong document or not a strong document yeah and I I understand what you're saying I sometimes you lock to it then like we make a valid point but but one of the pieces of this too which it states here somewhere um that if we're using one-time revenues and free cash consistently all we're doing is delaying difficult decisions yeah that's all it does it doesn't get rid of them it delays them yeah and so what's the actual point just make the difficult decisions that we need to make if we do need to make them based on best practices that we should be following yeah exactly um that's the idea um but it does it it will put it there are times that it will put us in a position when it's like um but I think that's kind of the point in some ways well I think that's the value of having the sliding scale yeah yep y exactly when you're in that really tough Point yeah you do the five yeah and I think I think at first it said we were going to reduce fre L by 100 each 100, 126 10,27 and now it says incrementally over 26 and 27 so it doesn't necessarily mean we have to take off 100 in those years it's kind of so there is some built-in flexibility I think but it does also require us to do certain things and it's not like a town Charter or a right or you know I'm just trying to think of like you know if I were at a town meeting and I'd heard oh we're following our policy like did the town meeting actually get to discuss the policy It's You Know The Advisory Board the Town Administrator office and the select board start making a decision in a not a vacuum but just worry like I know the town Charter feedback we got was well that's an but this is a policy that we're setting for the town here too so well obviously it's not as strong as a charter the charter has to get a proov through the state legislature this you know he I mean yeah I mean play devil's advocate for the I think it's a great start but again the meetings were public people to go and discuss it with the Advisory Board this meeting is open here for us to discuss now it's online there any questions popping up I mean off yeah the um the selectwood doesn't have to adopt them or them no know it was advisory has and they they intend you know they intend to follow them I think again to the extent well I think we should be I think we should go forward and do it because we do approve the budget as well yep at the end of the day you you're you're setting Financial policy every year you set the budget yeah no I mean I just rather ask the question now than that's fine get burned at the Stak so keep asking no I mean and I appreciate the hard work of the different offices that different departments and groups that work I just I just have one one it's it's more of a critique okay yeah if we what we what I want to do with this document is after we approve it can you give it a date so because right now it doesn't have it's not a living document it's it's undated yes right so let's put a tit let's put a signature block approved by the finance committee on whatever date we approved and approved by the select board with today's date on it so that it's memorialized as being a all right CU on on there is one posted on the website Under The Advisory Board um web page which has it has the date that they approved it I will if if the select board approves it I will add it to your page and your appr yeah I would just because if you if you had to hand this out to someone absolutely let put it you know and let's you know have it be a title block and appr and that's it that's all I would ask because there is no data anyways on this there's no page tags either like one of six yeah I put that there you go no I'll do that all right um move to ad fin I'm getting beating up all the time move to adopt Financial policies as presented and adopted by The Advisory Board uh second any further discussion there being none all those in favor good okay next up is the appointment of a field driver what prompted this Jason yeah what is this all about the story does it have a name it's either silky or Freedom silky Freedom well one of the many things we learned um over the freedom run was that we don't have a we did not have a field driver appointed and we always used to have one yeah I think it was 2017 I think the last time I think it was 17 mik weren't you the field driver you want to be bacon was was your father a compensation field yeah that's right that's right what does he do drive around the fields you have an ATV or something well around and picked up animals loose animal in the go back groceries at Market Basket and so I always they had it was a thing they had we used to do constables and field always on the thing yeah field driver and fence viewers fence viewers field drivers do we have I don't I don't believe so we used to well obviously we needed a fence viewer about two weeks ago otherwise the cow wouldn't have gotten out Freedom the problem exactly what what having a field driver appointed does is it allows us to assess cost associated with wrangling the cost associated with wrangling wrangling wrangling the loose animal do we have cost associated with that yeah well turns out no but we could have and so moving forward I think it's probably a good idea to have us so just in case we do have to um absorb some cost associated with capturing a loose animal of some kind that we are able to charge the owner fees associated with well we had attack mhm I mean there've been several there's been several sheep that were out there was a pig that was out there've been cows out oh we we've had a bunch of cows out on 113 there's more than one one morning there was like four of them out there roaming around everybody was driving around garys yeah they like food and I think it's good to stay in touch with our Colonial Roots here and keep these old archaic positions in place we're a right to farm community have field driver in the pound he's responsible for cutting the grass in the pound right get him a weed whacker who are we appointing John Green Hall anal okay move to appoint Jo Green Hall as field driver for a term to expire June 30th 2025 second all those in favor I I I I have to say before we move on the chief's here so I have to the chief I'm quite convinced if it weren't for him we would not be out of this situation negotiator he performed well above and beyond his duty to to help maybe we should have appointed him to be in this want some honorary boots maybe a big cowo the process I'm sure it was quite a process there are Cowboys you can call and they hes and dogs and that would be the fee that we were talking about there was a point where we didn't know if anybody was going to be able to catch it but these people and they're not cheap yeah sorry you have to import them from Idaho no New York New York New York York what also makes you realize that chasing them on foot is not a good idea because of the the size of the animal or a golf cart or a moped whatever it may be May 124 PB yeah small let alone I yes I appreciate that too there's also the animal to consider and chasing it just is going to force it into an area could have been dis people nobody wanted to touch it yeah I thought all you needed to do was put some grain in a bucket and that's worked but the problem was everybody was out there getting the Rope around its neck was that holding it yeah well when something becomes a social media star that what a world how was quote unquote quite elusive elive it's what I was told many times so well good so here we are the things you don't know what you [Laughter] signning the field driver or is he also the fence no he's a field driver only we don't have a fence fence is separate it's a different deal but I think in peppol the field drive and the fence view was the same they Shad was being to Shad but he's not going to go look at Fen he's strictly going to be an animal oh surve now it's kind of yeah it was it was the S disput right yeah settle disputes between Property Owners oh yeah we don't want to put that on anybody down I think my land is we used to appoint one in my yeah cool does he know that he is going to be our field driver yes is he the field driver in lunenberg where he is now uh I don't I don't know no I'm not sure okay all right good well anything else short and quick your report pretty much covered what was on um anybody else here for anything I know you missed the public comment session so I got a question I thought the uh the new water line if you guys heard anything about the new water line to the high school I thought that was supposed to start in June they didn't say what year but June of this year is coming on and July is fast approaching the end and oh they're still going through the permitting process I know they just had gotten approvals through the Conservation Commission for both Gren and dumpable well we' approved it last month but they did too so they I know they're starting they're going through the permitting aspects of it and there was a meeting last week last week I want to it was at the um the Middle School um they're moving they're moving forward yeah they said it was 0 this whole thing started they put in the ground in June but well they said it was say what year I suspect it would be 25 yeah it is I think it's the water the bottle of water I thought was still in the budget for this yeah it is right to Harold's point it was that that water line was to be ready for service by the fall of this well I I don't see environmental Partners doesn't even have the design completed yet well it's it's 90% complete the documents yes it's 90% complete but they don't have the it's not permanent so they're still yeah awaiting the um we supp to get in Bas and transfer from DCR d one of one of those D um did that happen into Bas and transfer they I don't believe they have I think so that was that a little bit of a process that's the that's what and they've been going through but they had a meeting they have a meeting coming up um they said so um they said I believe they said they were hoping to start think he said September but let's say the fall just to be safe yeah it's a busy road that'll be fun yeah is there anything on here we you wanted to go through it's yeah uh maybe one just the um I don't know I sent out 24 achievements 25 gos to everybody um want to take a look and provide feedback on that um and the RFP in the Shell Tower in the water tank yep yep we've um we've had one vendor ask some questions that we had to issue in Bend mon so it seems like there's potential interest I did notice that the high school is also putting out an RFP for a Sal tower right yeah okay so those are kind of competing with each other I think they have somebody I think they actually have somebody okay and that'll be a revenue generator for the school ideally slightly that's the idea okay yeah okay I don't I just saw is it going on our 10 acre uh 10 lot that was supposed to be preserved I I don't know the location I was more just curious is how it offsets technology costs or something there other than it just provide Self Service to kids who can stare at their phones mean they should be getting Revenue they they rent the space right yeah and there is no service on that part of town between Gren and dville so the help yeah sort of like the dead spot on bu a dumping Donuts here all right anything else yeah good anything else no all right anybody want to make the call move to a John second all in favor hi hi all right nice quick meeting um so I will be away next week you'll get