##VIDEO ID:Bn_rOPeoNYg## [Music] [Music] hi it's Brandon from cran Appliance since 1983 our goal as a family-owned company has been simple to give our neighbors on the cap and Islands a great shopping experience rest easy knowing our professional team will listen to your needs and help you pick the perfect appliances for your home at crane Appliance we know how difficult Appliance shopping can be our team is here for you crane Appliance we call the cap and Island's home Carlson printing 508 548 7303 our email address is Carlson printing aol.com Carlson printing for all your printing needs needs John's Liquor Store 729 Main Street fouth 5085476 2024 it is exactly 6:00 and I would entertain a motion to go into executive session to discuss strategy with respect to potential litigation where discussion in an open session would have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the town so moved second Mr Brown's motion Madam chair okay I have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I roll call oh roll call thank you uh Goldstone yes Miss SC yes Brown yes zinski I Taylor I and the board will resume and come back to public session at 6:30 good evening the board is returning from executive session to this Open session it is Monday December 16th 2024 it is exactly 6:31 and I would ask you to please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands Nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you and as we get this meeting underway I'm going to ask you to please silence your cell phones and double check that they are indeed silenc and if you are making a video or audio recording of This open meeting please notify me as the chair and the placement and operation of your recording equipment will not interfere with the conduct conduct of this meeting okay any recognitions from the board uh I would share one that uh recognize that Stones barber shop is closing on Saturday after 50 years of service and political Service as well Dicky Stone was a longtime town meeting member and Trish will be there cutting Troy Clarkson's hair for the last haircut at sometime around 1:00 but maybe later with all the interest but uh congratulations on Trisha and her retirement thank you Mr Brown Mr Mcall uh yes Madam chair along with you I attended the c um the senior center wall of recognition Ceremony this past week which honored John manani and James Vieira for their efforts to the senior center uh I'm going to uh ask the board to consider that at our next meeting we issue a proclamation in recognition of Mr manani and Mr vieira's uh efforts uh with respect to the senior sener thank you thank you Mr Mcall Miss Goldstone uh quick recognition of the Chamber of Commerce for a fabulous holidays by the Sea weekend and I think the longest uh parade we've we've had yet and uh on a different note to uh fouth Carling club's under 18 team which is off to Nationals in January yeah wow wow yeah good news now that uh Holiday Stroll on Saturday was so bu it was lovely every restaurant was packed crazy really really nice moving on to announcements any announcements from the board ahead quick reminder it was in the paper but uh there's a public meeting uh regarding the surf Drive Beach nourishment uh feasibility study uh this Wednesday 6 PM that's the library correct the Herman room right yes 6 o' is it available by Zoom as well it is thank you any other announcements from the board other than to wish everyone a happy holiday season uh that we're coming upon thank you Mr Mcall okay we'll move into public comment public comment may be made on routine matters is not on the agenda this evening comments are limited to 2 minutes please introduce yourself and since the matter has not been included on the agenda the select board will not participate in any discussion or debate of your topic anyone here for public comment okay we will move right into committee interviews and we will start with the police station advisory committee we have one applicant who has yet to be interviewed and that is Michael duffany are you here see him I didn't see him either I didn't see him either okay we'll hold on that and see if he arrives we'll go into the solid waste advisory committee is Thomas McDonald here please come to the podium Mr McDonald so um just uh I'll kick you off here is there anything that you would like the board to know about you that was not included in your application um no no other one thing I did want to say is I've been participating with the solid waste advisory committee over the past year um you know fairly actively um I'm anxious to to participate more directly as a as a formal member of the committee um you know I've been I'm a I'm a AV Avid um recycler I'm an avid composter I use all of the town's facilities Waste Management Facility um and I I basically uh part of my my goal and participation would be to to help inform people about what's available and have Town residents take more advantage of all these services that are available and use them use them correctly basically um I you know I that that led me to um that desire led me to to do the tips in the in the fouth Enterprise for uh for you know for recycling uh the idea being to have people recycle effectively and and kind of optimize our recycling efforts in the town um I'm I'm a uh you know homeowner since for for the past 12 years and a full-time resident uh for the past five years thank you questions from the board to Mr McDonald no I think his resume was very complete yes agre okay thank you you Mr Jones Kenneth Jones are you here welcome I'll ask you the same question is there anything you would like the board to know about you that has not been uh included in your packet there's really nothing that's not in my package that that really I think needs to be us that you really need to know about um I think uh you know as I'd like to guess reiterate what Tom had mentioned um I'm a big advocate of reducing our our waste stream um reusing and recycling refusing when needed um and I think maybe all uh already know about some of the activities I've been involved in and and getting um and having the swack um except the challenge of recycling polystyrene foam um has been a great um a great introduction I think for all of us um and I'm really looking forward to doing more of that and maybe tackling some other of our non-mandated recycling um materials um in the coming years I look forward to that thank you any questions from the board go ahead a quick question I know you um were very active in your your previous uh Community with some of these issues have you been interacting or or working with the solid waste advisory committee or observed any of those meetings yes I've been attending pretty much all the meetings since I think this late spring uh um I had I had pitched the idea of the styrofoam recycling in July I believe or June um and um it took off very quickly I was pleasantly surprised yes thank you any other questions oh I would say also seems quite qualified two great candidates I can thank you so as the board knows we have two vacancies with terms ending 6:30 27 would anyone like to make a nomination I'll make a motion to appoint Thomas McDonald to serve on the solid waste advisory committee to the position with a term ending June 30 2027 second Mr MC's motion Madam chair okay I have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I and I guess I would make a motion to appoint Kenneth Jones to a term ending in June 30th 2027 as well second okay I have a motion and a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor thank you both and congratulations and thank you for your willingness to serve okay we will go back to the police advisory committee we have one interview tonight Michael duffany thank you madam chair uh my name is Michael Duffy and I'm interest Ed in being appointed to the to the one of the positions on the citing committee for the police station does anyone have any questions of Michael duffany do you have any experience in construction couple years okay on the job training all right one question do you think there's a um a role for considering uh environmental or conservation issues in uh the the sighting and planning of the the police station I think we always take that into consideration regardless of what it is we're looking to site that you know we don't want to we don't want to put it in in a wetland that's for sure thank you thank you any other questions I guess maybe we should just for the benefit of the public want to recap some of the uh building committees that you've been serving on oh thank you the uh well the most recent was the fire station sighting committee on sandwich Road I sat on that committee um I also sat on the building committee for the senior center and goes back in a little bit of History here but I've sat on on all of the school building committees for all of the different projects that we've had at the different schools over the years so thank you great thank you so we interviewed several people last week yes we did and we have one now any conversation I have a slate of candidates if you want to do it that way how do we want to proceed I guess I think we're going to I think we should go one at a time but I also Mike sit down I just want to yeah Mike you Mike you can sit down thank you Mike yeah I'll just um uh quickly note for the the board um that I did since I was absent from the last meeting uh watch the recording of the last meeting um and uh we have an impressive slate of candidates certainly for for this committee so great to great to see that interest thank you how should we proceeded I think we're going to make nominations and see where the nominations go we have five positions so I certainly would kick off a nomination certainly for um Michael duffany I'll second it okay I have a motion and a second to appoint Michael duffany any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I unanimous Madam chair I make a motion U for boy deelo second okay I have a motion and a second to appoint boy Dello any further discussion amongst the board I would say that uh from all reports Mr Dello has been very active with the fire station committee as well okay we have a motion in a second any further discussion all those in favor I I if I could I would nominate uh Robert gzo I think we're very fortunate to have two former Chiefs applying for this position I'll second Mr Brown's motion Madam chair okay I have a motion and a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I Madam chair I would uh make a nomination for Jim moris okay I have a motion do I have a second I I would comment I I'm not going to second that right now but I feel Mr Morris is definitely qualified and has the experience and background but given the fact that we have other candidates that I feel are equally as or perhaps maybe more qualified on one department and another one maybe equal and Mr Morse being on the zba I know that's a big heavy lift and I hate to penalize him for it but I feel like he's given so much service to the town already that maybe that might be a little too much you know I Jim was one of the people that I thought would be a a good member given his experience as a police officer and his law enforcement background and his and his being an attorney but um you know I understand that there are a couple of other candidates as well that I think are uh just as if not if not more qualified so uh I'm going to pass on that for the time so we have a motion on the floor do we have a second to the motion should we discuss further why we're not having a second um should we discuss no I think that we we have a motion and we don't have a second so the motion does doesn't go forward all right I'll I'll I'll I'll make a motion that that we appoint Carissa April to the uh the fou uh the police station advisory committee I would second that that's one one I had circled okay I have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board hearing none okay did you want to go right I'm just going to say that I really appreciated her answer when she said that if there's anything she doesn't know she'll ask questions and and get it straightened out and I like having a little diversity and I know she has a good solid background in administration as well so she brings a lot of good qualities I think to the committee absolutely agree okay so I have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I opposed no I would like to nominate George Cheryl I would second that yep okay I have a motion and a second any further discussion amongst the board no just comment that again we're lucky to have two former Chiefs that are available to help us with this and was very involved with citing the police station where he was previously uh employed going all the way all the way through that whole process okay so we have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I I unanimous so the board would be Robert Zolo Boyd Dello George Cheryl Carissa April and Michael duffany I have that correct yes okay thank thank you to all of our applicants certainly difficult choice because they're also qualified okay we'll move into waterways committee Ben Carson H good evening uh my name is Ben Carson here for waterways position okay I'll ask you the same question is there anything you would like the board to know about you that was not included in our packet uh no just in general I'm from fouth pretty much spent my whole life here I've worked on the waterfront uh various places the whole time I uh have a marine construction business in Falmouth now and um guess I'm lucky I just this most of that stuff still is interesting to me so just figured uh some of my knowledge might be useful to the committee okay thank you very much questions from the board comments Mr Carson have you U attended any meetings yep yep I've been to some over the years as at one a couple or a month ago not the last one the one business owner as well yep in fouth so you have the time to devote to that yeah thank you thank you madam chair you're welcome yes go ahead um I can see how your uh business uh specifically in in Marine construction would be very useful to the committee I wonder if you see any um possible conflict of interest arising because of that I don't know I spoke to Greg Frasier about this um he just said you know I mean recusing recusing yourself is something I might have to do occasionally um I'm not really aware of it being an issue other than that any other questions or comments thank you thank you thank you and we have one other applic uh Gail keki welcome thank you anything you would like to share with us uh yes very briefly just that um so I had my husband now husband at the time I had just met him but when I was a postto at Woodle oceanographic but for the last 30 years we've been sailing and exploring the waters around fouth Woods Hole the Elizabeth islands and um I uh we became East um excuse me residents in East Falmouth in 2002 and uh I always felt I was well I was a um professor at Boston College until uh 2021 after 25 years and so during the Academic Year I spent four days a week in Boston and I always felt that while I was here Summers and um always associated with Woods hog graphic in the summer that I there was a disconnect uh with the fouth community because I never had the time or ever got very involved and so I felt like when this U position on the committee opened up this was uh an opportunity to give back to the community and it's within my area of expertise Coastal processes and settlement transport was my research area and I think that uh I would just say that uh if given the opportunity I will hit the ground listening and I will um try to get myself up to speed on all the issues before the committee now and be ready for 2025 and I did attend the last two meetings of the committee so I have a sense of some of the issues that are uh in front of the the committee now great thank you questions for the candidate go ahead I wonder what you think the the biggest issue is facing um our waterways um that's my phone I'm sorry my mother's at hospital my mother's at Cape cot hospital and I thought I had silenced it but of course of course the timing is just right um boy that's a good one because I think that the the issues are both very personal to members of the community which of course Moorings and access to the water and they're also um larger scale in terms of you know dredging issues for you know whatever Harbors we were discussing the ill River navigation and I think that that those issues are going to continue um those are never going to go away in fact my last um funded research while I was still um a professor was funded by the Army Corps of Engineers about beneficial use of dredge foils on MAR you know putting it on marshes to try to this was in New Jersey as you mentioned but um to to um an in it attempt to uh help the marshes keep up with the rise of sea level and not be drowned and so the most important issue um I think is uh I I guess from my personal standpoint is still um access to the water both um for people to have for members of the community to be able to access the water but then also from coming from the boting side that there we continue to have places where boter can come and um have a safe haven Safe Harbor so I guess that's one any other questions from the board uh thank you oh did you have a Mr he um I see you got the um the note about the Avid sailing do you sail the channels or are you more of get out in the ocean and go we have a um moing in great Harbor and so most of our sailing is both day trip in Vineyard sound and Buzzard's Bay but we also nant Tucket you know Martha's been Vineyard Black Island and so not much Channel work there right thank you any other questions from the board comments okay thank you okay would anyone like to make an a motion to appoint I would I'm going to lean towards um going to go back here and see get the name right the Marine contractor Ben Carson Ben Carson because I think that he's going to probably have a little more knowledge of the inlets and the waterways which is really more the the waterways perview so I would make a motion to appoint Ben Carson to the waterways okay do we have a second to Mr Browns motion I'll second Mr Brown's motion with the caveat that I would suggest that uh Miss keki continue to um to go to those meetings and learn and and and participate as well okay I have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board and just to clarify that's um for a term ending June 30th 2025 yes I'll second okay have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I I unanimous thank you thank you sorry okay we have a few minutes so I am going to take something one or two things out of order three I'm sorry number three I think I can get through about five or 10 minutes okay all right I was going to do the consent agenda but okay go ahead go ahead let's we can take number three uh under business consider voting to approve the 464 Main Street local Initiative Program lip application for local action units for 464 Main Street Mr Rena thank you madam chair back on September 27th of 2022 the applicant received approval from the planning board under the uh Mr Cod mixed residential commercial overlay District bylaw to construct 15 rental units with 900 ft of commercial space at 464 Main Street four of these units are required to be deed restricted at 80% of the area immediate income or Ami the applicant has agreed to make the remaining 11 market rate units deed restricted at 120% of Ami on April 22nd of this year the select board as acting as Trustees of the fouth affordable housing fund voted to approve one, 875,000 in funding from the Falmouth affordable housing fund since the project was approved through a local bylaw it qualifies as a local action unit which is part of the local Initiative Program or lip through the executive office of Housing and livable communities through this process the applicant is required to file an application to the eohc which you have included in your packets tonight and once approved the units can be added to the subsidized housing inventory Madam chair before I get into my recommendation um we're really excited because um this project is a perfect example of the town and developer working together collaboratively to create a project that fits into the community while providing as we all know much needed affordable housing this is actually the first project as you probably already know approved using the Mr Cod overlay District um created by the planning board and approved at town meeting we're really excited um and again perfect example of that collaboration uh not only as I just mentioned but also between um governing bodies well elected bodies should say the select board the planning board and town meeting working with the developer again to bring this project to fruition the first example of Mr Cod uh so Madam chair based upon all of that um it's my recommendation that the select board vote to endorse the local Initiative Program application for local action units of excel 464 Main Street LLC to construct 15 rental units at the property located at 464 Main Street by sending a letter out ining their approval which is included in your packet to the executive office of Housing and livable communities and by signing the local Initiative Program application for local action units and I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have questions from the board uh I have one um who would be the monitoring agent I didn't see that does that need to be identified now monitoring agent yes if you could yeah Kim if you could help me with that sure did you hear the question I did they um hired a third party so the F town of fouth will not be it's um I don't have the name off hand because I didn't I didn't anticipate the question but they have retained the services um the contractor the woman I'm dealing with is Moren Hagen okay I know so it's an independent outside it is okay thank you that just um give your name and your position real quickly for people that's fine housing coordinator we all know you might be somebody who doesn't know just in case any other questions or comments on this project just just one uh this this is going to be a local preference project is that correct yes uh a local preference letter is already part of the the package that will be going to it um Town manager has already signed it for 70% yeah so it's 70% of the affordable units is that correct so that's 70% of four right of the four yes because 120 is not acknowledged by so that's three mhm I think somewhere in the materials that I was reading it seemed to indicate that it was local preference for four and I just wanted local preference so there's four units that are a so it's 70% of the four units right so I mean so three of the units will be available for local preference again the way I read something it it seemed to indicate that that number was four it wasn't and just to clarify for anyone at home um the all 15 units will be deed restricted at um um for the units are required to be deed restricted because 25% um are required 80% or below for Mr Cod but the developer and uh agreed to the 11 market rate be converted to deed restricted at 120% um due to the select board as Trustees of the found with affordable housing granting award to them okay any other questions I'll go to miss Goldstone and then back to you Mr Brown um I just a big pi on the ramifications of endorsing a local Initiative Program um we have obviously already committed uh affordable housing funds um for this project does this endorsement um come with any additional uh obligations on the part of the Town moving forward no it would if they Wen getting a third- party person to do the monitoring agent but that's one of the things that we require if the town signs on as a lip but just just to be clear um there's there's two different kind of um applications for the lip the local action unit is implied that the town it's because the town's initiative has created this affordable housing so it's more of a formality that the select board sign on it's required by the state but because of the funding and because um it was approved through a local bylaw it's it's almost a given that the select so it's a little different different than the other lip that you will see later any other questions Mr I have another one and I should have asked you this earlier but and I don't expect a real clear answer but I'd like to thank you just throw out there that um I'd like us to consider in the future a lower uh Ami like 60% because there's definitely people that are going to be left behind when I look at the actual rents I wonder how folks that are working in service jobs are really going to even afford these affordable rates and another thing I think that I hope we can look at sometime in the future is there must be some way that we can have a adjusted Ami because our Ami is so high that the people that are in the service industry are just getting left behind so I hope we so we have tiered approaches through the fouth affordable housing fund when we redid the um the guidelines we were looking at that missing middle because we do have a lot that are below 80 and Below fouth Housing Court fouth Housing Authority addresses those issues but right now we have a lot of people that are in that quote unquote missing middle that do have average paying jobs but can't afford the market rate rents but they don't qualify for the lower income so right now that's where we're targeting and it worked for this particular project for the for the developer to be able to move forward with doing it at 100% 120% % I worked with them to try to figure out what would work for their budget because they have to figure out how they can move forward and 120 worked and that is the missing middle that we need to hit because there's a lot of people that are displaced um but we are not ignoring the lower income as well so we're trying to do tiered approaches with projects and as you will see in the next L there are tiered approaches um to funding or just any negotiations with a developer but right now that missing middle needs to be targeted for for our community right now but even in the next one it's 80 and well 0 requ because he has to go through I shouldn't speak yet on that but to to make it clear uh when you go through the 40b it has to be 80% the because the state will not acknowledge anything over lower lower that's something that um the developer would decide because it what's works for their budget and again um fouth Housing Corp and fouth Housing Authority right now are the two B major entities in our community that have hit those because they can make it work it works really well for larger projects because they can get a tax initiative with the lower income it's very difficult for four profit to do the lower income because it it throws their whole budget out of whack and they can't make up that difference yeah I'm just hoping that at some point we can fold a few of those into these Court may be coming up with another project soon and you will be seeing that in in the future so but but with the four Pro F them into these projects to get more of diverse sure Community as well no did just throwing that out there for the future I don't plan to ask you to change this one no did thank you any other questions or comments on this project no it's a great project otherwise it is yeah I think I would uh move approval of uh the endorsement of the 464 Main Street local in itive program application for local action units uh for 464 Main Street then Charles second Miss goldstone's motion okay we have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I unanimous thank you thank you um just please know um does does the vote also include um to sign the endorsement letter is that all inclusive with that one I just want to make sure that we don't have to come back yeah I it might be helpful to if we could just read the motion verbatim as it's presented in the Oh I thought agenda summary okay let's double check that so it's motion to endorse um the local Initiative Program application for local action units of excel 464 Main Street LLC to construct 15 rental units to be deed restricted as affordable at 464 Main Street by sending a letter outlining select board approval to the executive office of Housing and livable communities and by signing the local Initiative Program applicable for local action units okay so we have um I'm I think I'd like to revote that so we have the motion um and we have a second a second okay we have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I it's unanimous thank you thanks thanks okay we can now go to our public hearings and our first public hearing is the tax classification hearing Mr zinsky for the notice thank you madam chair fiscal year 2025 tax classification hear in notice found select board will hold a public hearing on Monday December 16 2024 at 6:45 p.m. in the select board meeting room Town Hall 59 Town Hall Square Falmouth Mass under chapter 40 section 56 as amended by chapter 369 of the acts of 1982 and chapter 79 of the acts of 1983 the found select board will conduct a public hearing on whether the town of fam should implement the classification act at said hearing the select board will hear a presentation regarding the allocation of the fiscal 2024 tax levy which will determine the share of taxes which each property classif classification shall pay the board of assessors shall provide all information and data relevant to making a decision of allocating the tax burden including the fiscal effects of the available options per order of the select board thank you yes welcome evening trly director of assessing once again we're here that year went by quickly um I'm going to give you a presentation on the tax rate classification hearing and give you your options um under Mass General law um when setting a tax rate there are five options to be considered the first one is a residential factor of one where all classes of the property are tax at the same rate adopting a residential factor of one a which this option all prop ities would be taxed at One Rate if the town wishes to maintain a single tax rate for all classes thereby keep each class at 100% of the full value tax share the vote should be adopted to a residential factor of one a single tax rate would be voted at $628 C the board of assessors recommends a residential factor of one your second option your second option is a small commercial exemption which would Grant a tax reduction of up to 10% to commercial properties assessed at less than $1 million with fewer than 10 employees in fouth many of our small commercial businesses are not Property Owners this would shift the higher tax rate to the commercial industrial properties thus the tenants would end up making up for the loss of the tax dollars that the owner would be paying the board of assessors recommends not adopting a small commercial exemption adoption of an open space exemption which involves open space properties we currently discount account open space as unbuildable along with the same value as an unbuildable parcel uh most of the open space Parcels that we have are in subdivisions throughout the town Board of assessors recommends not adopting an oace exemption excuse me adoption of a residential exemption which can shift up to but not more than 35% of the residential domicile properties in order to qualify for a residential exemption it must be the Principal resident of the taxpayer on Jan January 1st and reported as their primary on the Massachusetts state income tax return adoption of a residential exemption which would redistribute up to 35% of the average assessed residential value from domicile properties to non-domiciled properties the board of assessors recommends not adopting a residential exemption I just wanted to just go over this one a lot because Doug you and I had talked a couple of times about this and there were questions last year also in order for us to adopt the residential exemption this year um we would have to have software in place um right now we're in the process of converting to munus which was funded at town meeting um the software that the assessors and the collectors use for that process for crediting tax bills will not be available until the end um of 25 um also there's a program that the assesses will have to use through our C system um we've just um gone to the cloud on that program and they will be writing a program if in the event we get to the residential exemption again that'll be sometime next year because we have to fund that um we will also need to add an additional staff person in the assessor's office the process of starting off for a residential exemption is to mail out 20,000 applications to Residential Properties whether they're not primary or secondary homes it doesn't matter you've got to send it out to all the single family class residents for homes and Condominiums so that would be about 20,000 applications those would be returned to us with an application and a tax return which would all have to be reviewed because they've got to qualify as being a resident domiciled here um so that would be that would be a very large burden that wouldn't be able to be completed with the staff that is in the office at this time um we would also um have other situations where it would be a straight tax return they live here they vote here very easy we would have people that have properties in trusts we'd have to vet the trust a lot of our seniors have put their houses in trust with their children as trustees that would disqualify them from the program um over the last year we also took on um changing our exemptions for our seniors we've um raised the rate from $500 off their taxes to $1,000 we've lowered the age to 65 from 70 and we've also increased our blind exemptions to $500 so we've been moving along encouraging people to do that we've done a senior center presentation um and I've spoke with our veteran agent to try and see if we can get some additional folks coming in through that office and also the Governor has um issued a change to the veterans exemptions and I have an article written for April's town meeting for doubling the veterans exemptions so they would go from 500 to 800 and 500 to a th000 I think the numbers are and I've also um done some exploratory work on looking at a daycare voucher that is a grant program that is not through the assessor's office but it's a grant program that um there's a couple Consultants out there that we can work with uh Provincetown has it wle has it East Ham has it Truro howich Brewster they all offer that program and it's anywhere from $2,000 to $77,000 for a daycare voucher I think that's something that we really seriously want to look at because that's going to hit the missing Market those are a lot of our first-time home buyers that don't qualify for anything else um so that's something that we can look at I've got lots of information on that I'm willing to do a little leg work on it wouldn't come from the assessor Department that's something I think we'd have to look at to see where we would site that and where we' get our funds from but it's out there it's something else that we can explore Mr Brown CH is it possible that we could also have uh you know similar to the uh exemption for blind or veterans or other categories that we've already put in place could we have a like a child tax exemption where they would use their same tax return and say I have three dependents living with me and they under the age of whatever if we settle an age is that something we could do a state exemption all our exemptions that we have are are back from the state so we get if we give a $500 exemption for blind I think we get like $287 back from the state there is not an exemption for any child care so we would be paying that ourselves if we chose to do it well yeah and I believe I think that Mora could confirm that would be something that we'd have to possibly write as a local option I don't know where to start on that one so that's outside the bounds of municipalities home roll Authority there are certain things that municipalities just can't regulate and taxes are one of them the only way that the town has any ability to tax is if the state legislature grants that authority to us so we would have to like file a home R petition they'll say no they they hold the strings pretty tightly with the taxes interesting I think we'd be better off exploring the one that's on the table with other towns right now yeah Mr Mcall so Mr fi um so where would we be you know 6 8 n months from now if we were wanted to consider a residential tax exemption would you be equipped at that time uh I know you said you need another staff person but as far as the software that you're talking about no it won't the software for munice I don't anticipate being ready for my office until the end of 25 along with the c program Okay so so at the earliest we'd be looking at 2027 at the earliest at the earliest and um this one's a little bit out there but what about senior workof programs uh where people are able to put time in volunteers seniors and work off some portion of their real estate tax bill has that ever been considered here at the was considered about 15 years ago it was a town meeting article that the assessor office worked done with the senior center and human resources in the day before town meeting it was the support was withdrawn from the senior center again it's not a program that is run out of the assessor's office it's a program that typically is run out of senior centers and HR departments but it does result in a reduction does it does result yes you have to you've got to look at your taxes and what you have available for funds because obviously those folks get paid um it's a possibility it's something that could be looked at thank you it's great that you have this experience to answer these questions off the cuff 15 years ago any other questions I for Miss fi I'm just glad that this spurred the conversation that we can talk about this uh program that other towns are using and I'd love to look into it further the child care yeah re Grant I guess it is it's a grant so it wouldn't be part of the the we're able to explore it because we would have to come up with the money to pay for it it wouldn't be through a tax exemption of any form right and I you know I had other ideas but and Trish alerted me to that possibility which sounds like a pretty good thing we just need to find some ways to make it affordable for families with kids to live here there are funds out there that are through the state for it um dhcd has some funds and the new department and I'm sorry but I don't remember that the housing and livable communities thank you um according to baile and Boyd who who does a lot of grant writing for this program that's where the funds are sitting right now so it's something that we might be able to start looking at fairly soon great thank you um so that was the last one for the options under this um residential exemption the last one is the adoption of a split a split tax rate using a residential factor of less than one um and that would be a split rate with with the commercial and residential um and the board of assessors also recommends that we do not do a split tax rate and that we stick with a residential factor of one questions go ahead um I'm we've touched on the software availability for um implementing uh a residential exemption would the Staffing be needed in advance of that or is the Staffing really just needed for implementation in terms of of processing applications no the Staffing is needed before we can even start sending out applications okay I only have two clerks in my office and they handle what they handle right now and to put that there's no way physically that you could get that done not 37 half hours a week I guess I'm just wondering what the the path forward is if this is something that is of interest to the board in the future recognizing that we're not ready to vote it and implement it now how we initiate the or or kind of keep that that process so we would have to put it in a in not next year's budget the following budget we'd have to budget that we'd have to budget postage we'd have to um budget to increase our overlay because we would send the applications out and as we all know many people put an envelope on their dining room table and it sits there for several months so we would be processing them as they come and granting them and and our tax bills would be created in December so everybody that was in and submitted in December would get get their credit after that it would not be a known amount of money until April 1st and that money wouldn't be put aside so we wouldn't know what we were dealing with so we would have to build our overlay to cover that debt I did a little research and I couldn't quite there were varying numbers as to whether 12 or 16 municipalities you know here in Massachusetts had have adopted the residential tax exemption but I think uh provinc toown and well F Truro and East Ham may have mashby mashby maybe mashby has it Barnesville has it provin down has it Truro has it East Ham does not have it um howt does not Brewster does not chadam does not Yarmouth so I mean I guess the question is amongst the assessors I mean what has been the you know what has been the uh response or how do people look at it as being a successful program your experience if if any if you ask any assessor they're going to say don't do it it's a moving Target that is you're constantly working on it because if you qualify right now Bob and you sell your house in January to the new person the new person is now getting the remainder of the Year credit you don't you can't once you issue a credit to a piece of property in December for a quarter two and three or four to three and four sorry that credit is in stone you can't take it away so there's many people that are gaining residential exemptions as the house sells there's also people that are changing domiciles and are moving away well once you receive that for the year it's your money you're not giving it back to the town because you moved to Florida in January there's it's it's a very very intensive work program I have staff they don't mind working I have great staff that work very hard but it's a very very demanding program for an office to take over so Mr Brown I would guess that you're suspecting that towns that have it it wasn't the Assessor's idea correct okay I probably have six presentations from assessors on not not to do it okay but I mean it it's a process it's a learning process too okay um on how to run it and how what what's going to work and it's not going to work M Madam chair that being said would you entertain a motion if you want to move a motion go ahead I'll move that the town of Falmouth continues to tax all classes at the same rate by adopting a factor of one and to reject the residential com uh commercial and open space exemption second okay okay we have a motion and a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I I unanimous thank you thank you okay we'll move to our second public hearing it's a fee hearing Mr zinsky for the notice thank you madam chair Town found select board public hearing notice as provided under chapter 119 of the code of Falmouth a public hearing will be held in the select board meeting room Falmouth town hall on Monday December 16th 2024 at 6:45 p.m. to establish and promate fees which are effective as of January 1st 2025 to be charged by the town departments and agencies except as provided by mgl school department planning board Library town clerk Town Treasurer and collector of taxes the proposed changes as of uh have been posted uh Nancy Robbins Taylor chair okay Mr rener I'm going to kick this over to you thanks Madam chair uh is as you all know toward the end of each calendar year the Departments are asked to review their schedule of fees and make recommendations for any changes that are necessary due to cost increases making sure that the fees are set adequate enough to offset any true actual costs the results of the departmental review are the posted in the paper uh Vice chair zalinsky just read off the posting for these uh calendar year 2025 proposed fee changes we have tonight um a few departments they're going to be presenting their requested changes we have Beach Department Department of Public Works uh waste management and water specifically health department and inspectional services building department as well as selectboard selectboard has as you note at the very bottom of that schedule of fee increase notice um shade tree advertising fees we're recommending an increase there and I'll take that but Madam chair if you would allow I'd like to invite uh the beach superintendent Maggie Clayton to come and talk about uh the be the increases good evening U Maggie Clayton Beach superintendent for the town of Falmouth um the changes involved this evening are a reflection of um calculations from the Department for where our needs are we're trying to I'm going to start quickly with the swimming lesson one first because they're shorter um reducing the family cap on swim lessons from $15 to $10 right now um swim lessons for six weeks for children ages 4 to 15 are um uh $5 per child for the summer with a family cap of 15 uh we don't see this as a profit margin we think it's really important as a town with as large of a coastline as we do to educate as many people as possible on water safety and we don't want even something as small as $5 to um change someone's mind about enrolling their child in swim lessons the lifeguard training increase from $100 to 175 is to reflect the increase in cost to run the program due to American Red Cross changes um and the investment that we'll have to make over time um in equipment that's now required for the uh training we have to purchase new AED trainers because instead of using two for the whole class you have to have one trainer for every two participants and we want to be able to accommodate a full class load of up to 20 students and um it's not a profit to the town it's just the cost of what the new manual and the new items that must be issued to each student um such as their pocket mask whistle we now need to um issue a first aid fanny pack to all students um Etc so that's the increase there in the beach parking permit sticker fees no change to online orders um before April 15th and adding a $5 increase for online orders after April 15 15 that's to reflect when we have um sorry I'm just reading my notes um when we invite uh community members to purchase their Beach parking permit sticker online that goes out with the tax returns um and you can begin purchasing as early as January 2nd even though you don't need your Beach parking permit sticker until the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend um and that is to divide up the workload um as we have so many eligible thousands of households um in town and so and then the final or I guess second to final um increase to $50 for mail in in in-person transactions that is a compromise on a recommendation from the beach committee and from the Department again to try and decrease weight times in person and to promote the online option last year we came before the board with a resident voter sticker category um that was actually not recommended by the beach committee and so we did not put rules in place to make that a category it was not an effective category in calender year 2024 so we were deleting it and the employee non-resident sticker and Military and time share Interval Ownership sticker increased to 45 is to make it the same cost as the other increases for um the above categories I think that's it and I'll take any questions any questions go ahead one question about the um lifeguard training fees I mean I know we had um we got fully staffed but we had some significant challenges with that and and other towns experience uh challenges Staffing their lifeguards you anticipate the increased uh training fee for lifeguards being an impediment to Recruitment and Retention uh I do not um this is this increase is actually still lower than our cost was prior to covid in 2020 um we don't see it as prohibitive um we also don't uh we keep the check until a student has passed the course the student doesn't pass the course we hand them their money back um so we deposit the check when they get their certification um if you compare this offer of $175 to what the Barnesville YMCA offers for the same course it's almost half um so they charge more for the pool time but we're meeting all the requirements over a longer period um either a two or a 4H hour day based on the curriculum I guess I'm um it still feels like it could be an impediment to some of our lower income students in town actually being eligible for these really terrific summer jobs um so I'm curious if there's any other mechanism for for low-income students to to get some relief from that cost um the signups for swim lessons have to happen in the back office either with a fiscal Clerk or myself or my assistant superintendent Brooke McMillan so um and we will put a notice out when we are ready to take these offers that if anyone has concerns and we can partner with the schools if there's a list of students um in need that we could um try and mitigate the cost uh we also don't anticipate having um not enough students with the course as is to fill expected vacancies for the upcoming next two summers thank you ta open any other Mr Brown and we still have the um bonus incentive for this year coming yes um so uh students who can take the lifeguard training course at the age of 15 is what the Red Cross allows the town of Falmouth will actually hire someone who is certified as a lifeguard starting at age 16 um and so we have students who sometimes take the course and can get hired during that summer or they can get hired in the following year and and um in the budget presentation I think later um there will be the hourly rate for our beach Department employees and then lifeguards parking attendants and clerks who are CPR certified are eligible for a retention bonus if they work which would be um more than twice the cost of the training course great thanks any other questions or comments thank you thank you madam chair the next Department I'd like to invite is uh Department of Public Works to talk about the uh Waste Management Compost Facility permits evening Peter mccon director of public works for the Waste Management Facility we only looking for three changes one is for uh mattresses to go from $35 up to $50 to cover uh processing and Hauling um uh electronic waste to go from $20 to $25 for the same cross processing and and Hauling and for the Compost Facility we're looking to do a combined permit sticker for the Waste Management Facility and the Compost Facility and for two reasons number one to ensure that it's um Falmouth residents and also that we're doing a lot of um upgrades to that facility up there Paving and a lot of processing processing of the materials and um all the all the material that goes into that facility gets processed and it it goes back to the public they can have as much as they want the there's just so much material that we create up there we have to get rid of it for a contractor to come in and for that material a contractor would have to finish processing the material so they actually would we' have to pay a contractor to uh to take that material so that's something that's going to be coming up in the next several years that are going to be coming up um but that's the biggest change for the uh Compost Facility is to make sure that there a Falmouth resident and combin with the Waste Management Facility sticker Mr Brown Mr MCC should it be um where it says one ton truck 140 should that be one ton dump truck I see the pickup trucks are cut off at 3/4 ton but a one ton pickup truck really fits about the same as a 3/4 ton or one ton truck for the waste management or for the uh yeah for the permit stickers for the um at the top of the list yep should that be one ton dump trucks I mean cuz the the pickup trucks really the beds are pretty much all the same unless they're a short bed they're registered differently though one tons you have to don't you have to register as a commercial vehicle you do maybe that's why it's a commercial vehicle it's also the amount of material that we're looking it when they judge that up there they judge Pro it's it's mostly for the uh de uh construction and demo Y and it's judged by looking in the truck we have it as a per barrel charge most of the time the uh debris that goes up into that um Waste Management Facility is not in barrels it's on the back of a truck our staff up there judges it through the back of a truck so they just judge it off of three qu and not the the one0 but the sticker still is the 140 so it just yeah I just thought maybe it was a typo but nope and that and that hasn't changed that been static okay questions for Mr mcconnery thank you great thank you thank you okay thank you madam chair uh I believe the next Department up is uh water and the water superintendent Mr Matt Lannon is here to discuss his changes good evening uh Matthew Lon water superintendent um my requests were to increase the costs for one-inch tapping fees and for 2-in tapping fees by $75 um due to the price of brass increase over the last couple of years um a couple of items uh indicated in yellow I don't know if they're the same on the paper but um to delete um 6inch tapping and 8 inch tapping fees um we have primarily um requested for the contractors to install those larger diameter Taps um because we're inundated with other uh service calls and um blood service line inventory surveys Etc um I've also request requ requested to upgrade or um increase the costs for closing transfer fees by $5 um increasing the um price for a new 5/8 meter fee and a 1 inch meter fee from 550 and 720 to 600 and 750 due to the price of brass um because the tail pieces are included when the uh plumber comes in to request those meters um for also requested to increase um the fees for um where is it closing transfer fee uh transfer fees yep um and oh there it is sorry it zoomed out on me um temporary hydrant fees going up because um the price of brass um for the meter setups on those are um also cost um they tend to break this time of year when people don't properly um take all the water out of them we have to make repair parts for those um and that's all I have questions questions Miss gostone just to clarify where you're suggesting delete you're not proposing to make those Services free but to eliminate those as available Services yes so when they when they apply for a new water service connection um all of that work will be performed by the contractor we will simply inspect sample and um pressure test um to make sure that everything's done by our utility standards oh I see so you're taking away the tapping service yeah so one one 6in tap um is about $6,000 so we would have to have the contractor come in purchase all the stuff have it delivered to our warehouse um at 650 gford Street then coordinate from when they want to do it and then all of a sudden we'd have a tap on Main Street and they'd say we need done tomorrow and we couldn't you know Supply that um labor to them so so they provide the Saddles at all yep so all at their cost um we also removed meter pits because um our uh the meter pits are not owned by the town they're owned by the homeowner or the business so it was kind of giving false um promise to the resident that we took care of the water service from the water man up to the meter pit when actually we only are responsible um take care of the the water service from the water main to the Water Service shut off which is the curb stop for the meter pit yeah I ran into that uh last year and I was surprised because I saw that the service was still available but the contractor said it wasn't and yeah so we were basically paying no sales tax and then giving it to the um or having the contractor install it but realistically it should be the contractor purchasing the meter pit for that home at his cost not the town's cost is there any way to make the contractors aware they're probably all aware by now the local but what about is it on the website um we I haven't uh changed the meter pit removal um until this was approved okay so but once this would be approved it would potentially be up by the end of this week um we have kind of let the the local contractors already know by word um but okay thank you any other questions with Mr Lannon thank you thanks mam Madam chair the next Department to present is a health Department Health agent Scott McAn Scott McAn Health agent um so some of the fees that I did request an increase for under septic systems would be a partial replacement of a septic system from 50 to 75 um the Board of Health had new regulations in February requiring The Operators of the denitrification septic systems to be licensed with the town so that gives us a hook if we're not getting the data or they're not submitting them to the County this allows us to hold a license on them in order to make sure that we have operators that are complying and so I set that fee at 50 on Food Service the restaurants went up $25 um the last change was 2019 um part of that's because we do have pending plastic reduction which is going to require much more time spent in doing an inspection because we're going to be reviewing um the policies that get created from that that regulation it's going to create more time per inspection and um you know and and incrementally we do increase over time and it's been since 2019 some of these uh residential kitchen continental breakfast and mobile I believe I came to town as the assistant agent in 2002 that was the fee in 2002 so it's been quite some time that those fees um they're low they're 25 looking to go to 35 um in terms of other permits um I did go up quite a bit on body out practitioner and a body out establishment we currently have one which does the permanent makeup um a lot of times we have zero um the most I think we've had in town is one at one time it is the closest permit that we issue to a medical procedure so we do take that one very seriously if somebody comes to me tomorrow morning asking for a permit um it will set up an appointment it's going to start out with an hourong conversation just to review the permit there's a lot of things that we do require anatomy and physiology classes bloodborne pathogen training um the training might come from some technical place in Ontario which I'd have to research get on on line to make sure that that place is suitable for what the board wants um for bloodborne pathogens then there's sterilization what the equipment specs are for the autoclave and so it does take an enor it's the one that takes the most by and large the most amount of time before we would issue a permit um and um you know the fees B of the towns range from about $100 to $500 I think we needed to go up on that it's something we may not get for 5 years we might not have somebody come in somebody when they do come in um it's quite a bit of a a move you know a movement on that so I I I did raise those fees quite a bit from what I normally would raise on on a fee increase um Campground is the second most um um laborious permit there's a lot of forms that need to be filled out medical forms who's the physician that's looking at these camps these might be soccer camps whoie camps camps of that nature um and so I did ask for an increase of $25 on that um the rental permit one that is the trickiest one also is because uh right now we don't have a bylaw that splits short-term and long-term um and the companies that um Mr renar and I have been looking at quite frankly I don't think are providing enough service for the amount of money that they're thinking to charge us and so for this year we don't have anybody yet what I am proposing is to grind through the TA sales tax list of 1100 or 1200 and start notifying them which is going to take somewhere between 500 and a th000 uh hours which we're not going to add staff to do we're just going to do it um I think the the fee talents can go up to5 $600 some towns charge nothing for rentals it's all over the board um it is quite a bit of an increase I think it's more of a temporary placeholder I think once we figure out the best system there's companies out there that could probably do it for less or if we find the right one and we get the right program in we'll know better what to charge so I look at that sort of as a placeholder um and we we do propose to get a heck of a lot more than 388 because that's what we had last year it's always been sort of a passive registration we're going to actively pursue them as best to our abilities with the current people that we have great questions of Mr McAn I had a comment Madam shair if I could go I appreciate Scott's mention of the research staff has been doing on the uh the companies that scrape so to speak the airbnbs and vrbos um we do have a I think kind of a unique and exciting opportunity there's a startup company that uh uh uses artificial intelligence that we're we're in discussions with to look at that as a a method to identify those problem properties that are operating rental properties that have not come to Scott's office to register so that's that's one of the things we're looking at now M great thank you thank you madam chair and select board uh the next department is uh Building Department inspectional Services and our Building Commissioner Gary Street good evening Gary Street Building Commissioner uh we have the inspectional services is proposing two new fee categories and increase two fee categories and add one new fee um this is due to the expanded revision and inspection service processes uh the two new fee uh categories are audio and video Work $75 for residential and $100 for commercial um the increase two increases um is the minimum fee for a permit which now is $50 I'd like to increase it to a $100 minimum that includes uh permits up to $10,000 in cost related um and then alterations for residential and commercial construction also up to a $100 fee up from $50 the new fee that I'd like to add is the miscellaneous commercial uh Carnival concession and fair inspections of $300 a day this is for the Barnsville County Fair which we have no uh fe4 right now it includes a plumbing and gas inspector electrical inspector a building inspector and fire Services all to be out on site each day of the uh Fair what I have any questions Mr Brown so uh Gary does the did I hear you right then so the minimum permit of 100 brings you to $10,000 value of work yes with a flat flat fee that's flat does that include the express permits as well yes okay thank you any Mr Mcall and just to clarify the miscellaneous commercial only applies to the fairgrounds property there's no other uh establishment in town that that would reply to that basically is it it's a category of uh Carnival concessions and fair inspections that's really all we have is the barsel county fair okay Miss Goldstone yeah can you just say a little bit more about um the new fees the audio and video work what that that actually well that just breaks out what we have already in place it just is a new category that's all that is okay it's already included in the um in the fees for the either new work or remodeling work any other questions of the building inspector thank you thank you very much and for the select board we have the shade tree yes Madam chair I'll I'll I'll touch on that one answer any questions so um as indicated in the packet this evening um the actual fee for advertising in the uh local paper with regards to the shade tree hearing is averaging about $74 and for years we've been charging $35 so the staff is recommending that we um increase that to the actual cost and then we would invoice the uh the applicants of the shade tree hearing uh the actual cost of that newspaper ad I think it's based on the size and number of number of characters any questions regarding selectboard Mr Brown just a thought uh I know that the abutters list now is the responsibility of the applicant and I think that's probably a good move because it takes the work off the staff is something maybe we should consider also to just have them advertise it or would that not be legal um I think it would cause Mischief because it would just I'd rather rather be have it known that it's going to be published and have our staff do it as part of their daily duties than rely on someone to post an um something in the paper and then miss the date right okay and then have to continually start over for a hearing that we have for he cond got it thanks any questions from the public regarding this fee hearing and the proposed fee changes okay seeing none I'll entertain a motion to close the hearing so Mo a second okay I have a motion in a second to close the hearing any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I discussion amongst the board the one thing that that that hits me is why are we even bother charging for swimming lessons I mean is this something that we could actually offer as a service to the town I would think jordany you know the $10 cap or four kids probably more of a headache to collect the money and see it app you know applied then uh then it's worth yeah I I can't argue with you on the uh on the financials of that I I think there um oftentimes we see in general with free programs is that folks don't take it seriously so they sign up and don't show up so it's it's just sort of it it gives them it it causes them to make sure that they really want to do it and then they sign up and they're much more likely to actually attend and that helps us with planning the programs good point is there any fee waiver for families um I I believe there is I'm looking for yes okay yes NOP that's fine that was really all where I was going right I I got you Mr mcy I got it any other questions or comments I would entertain a motion I would moove approval of the fees as presented unless there's a written motion Madam chair I could recommend just adding uh and I appreciate uh select board member Brown reading it as printed but uh as as published in in tonight's agenda packet and as presented tonight okay that's a motion I would move as published and presented this evening second Mr motion okay I have a motion and a second any further discussion amongst the board I would make one more comment that these fees are minor increases and I think they seem fair I would agree so we have a motion in the second any further discussion amongst the boards seeing none all those in favor I and I thank all of the department heads for their work on that okay we're going to move into business presentation update Association to preserve Cape Cod Mr gotle I have you slated for 15 minutes all right you're actually going to hear from me for a lot less um Andrew gotle the executive director of the association preserve Cape Cod joined by Jordan Moore our fouth resident and um lead ecologist and science advisor who's actually going to walk through the details of these projects we want to let you know as we have three other towns um apcc was successful in acquiring uh significant Federal support for six uh restoration projects for uh fresh and Coastal Wetland resources that benefit water quality and habitat in the towns of fouth mashby Dennis and harch primarily and so we've been going around to the for board j i 4th um just to uh give a brief overview of the projects um to let you know the work that we're going to be doing the money that's been able to be brought into the community um and most of it in partnership with the town and other partnering organizations with whom we we tend to work these Noah grants came through um uh the inflation reduction act um apcc uh as the lead applicant we were able to uh through two different pots of money two discret applications both of which we've been successful in acquiring we're able to um receive about the fifth largest award in each of the two categories nationally so these are significant um initiatives that are at a scale that we've not done before uh on Cape Cod I think it's a recognition of the power that comes um from collaborating with municipalities and other nonprofit organizations and the fact that with staff of Jordan and others caliber uh were able to bring you know National recognition to the need to restore degraded water resources and we really think that these projects will support and complement a lot of the work that you're doing on the nitrogen load reduction work on your part of your Wastewater management plan so we want to give you a chance to understand what the projects are anticipate what's coming and I'll just turn it over to Jordan thank you thanks Andrew I have some slides and I've noticed the computer's gone to sleep and I don't know how to get it to wake up let's see if I can get it to right while he's logging in um I just wanted to check did everybody get the um handouts for the the two projects that are associated with fouth as part of the packet but we got the whole presentation in the packet perfect I have extra copies if you want some all right thank you very much and you can use the keyboard perfect thank you okay so um uh the project is being led by the apcc ecosystem restoration program um we have recently renamed ourselves from the uh restoration coordination Center or the RCC um not to confuse oursel with our new uh coule Center um on our apcc uh campus up in Dennis um we've been assisting towns and communities with restoration since 2015 so the Noah transformational um habitat look screen that's helpful um Grant is it's a four yearlong project um we will be working on tidal and freshwater restaur ation projects we have lots and lots of Partners associated with the projects um including like Andrew mentioned the towns of Dennis mashpi and uh fouth um also the Harwich conservation trust mashpi tribe the woy bay National estan research reserve the USDA natural resources conservation service and the Cap Cod Conservation District this is just to give you a sense of how the budget breaks down um across the these different partners and restoration types um you know we're working again like I said in title salt marsh restoration but we're also um working on several fresh freshwater river and bog projects which I'll note a little bit further on the pro the um presentation um apc's time and expense comes to about $890 uh, over those four years um working on all five of these projects and um the partners um the mash bampo tribe and webner um receive just uh over $400 ,000 to assist with Outreach and engagement um the total requests comes to $15 million um a lot of that goes to construction costs for the restoration um and we have been able to leverage um over $5 million uh as part of the um uh you know overall funding for these different projects so a little more detail about um which specific projects I'm talking about the two salt marsh restoration sites are uh Weir Creek in Dennis and oyster Pond in Falmouth and this is confusing cuz there are multiple oyster ponds in Falmouth and we are talking about the one in West Falmouth Harbor um the freshwater bog restoration sites are hinkley's pond in harwitch redbrook which actually um sort of borders mashby and Falmouth so um another project that I will mention tonight and the upper quashnet um which is located in mashby this is a map um showing the location of these sites um this first slide zoom in on oyster Pond again in um West fouth Harbor um you can see the little uh grass uh symbol there uh noting the title restoration on the shining sea Bikeway Culvert is currently undersized and needs to be um increased in size uh replaced with uh some sort of box box covered that design is is still um you know undergoing uh development uh but the hope is to increase the tidal flow into oyster Pond improve the water quality and also the resilience of that salt marsh Upstream the Red Brook site is in the W Bay uh wated and um this is a complicated site it's um a bridge that is also a dam so the roadway there redbrook road is also a dam that has failed um mashby has been working um with horley Wht group to uh assess that and come up with a design for uh restoring that area um and this project will not only assess and replace do the construction on the Culvert um but also um look to do some feasibility and design studies for Upstream to restore more more of that um what was cranberry bog to a more natural riverin um system so the impacts overall of the Restoration in total across all of the projects we're looking at over two uh 220 Acres of wetland habitat 181 Acres of pond habitat um 2.2 miles of river and Shoreline habitat and you can see how the different sites um fall out across um you know those uh various habitats in terms of what we're actually restoring in each site I just wanted to note the partners that we're working with especially for those in um that are associated with Falmouth um we're work working closely with Betsy gladfelter Mark kersi and Jim mclaughin on the um oyster Pond and red Brook sites um we also are working with Katherine uh Laurent from mashpi along with webner the tribe um horley Wht homeowners and the Fish and Wildlife re refuge for the Red Brook project um the two Consultants that we'll be working with for oyster Pond are fussen O'Neal and Woods Hole group um so I will not waste time going through the rest of those Partners um so apc's role uh we are um worked hard through the Grant application process and revision bringing all of these Partners together um very happy to have a successful award that was granted in October um those funds have been secured um and so now we are in the process of doing our kickoff meetings um getting contract in place to work with these various Consultants we'll be helping with meetings and scope and schedule keeping everybody on track with the budget um we uh for redbrook and the wear Creek projects we'll be hiring and managing those Consultants directly through apcc but for the other projects um we be uh sub awarding that through either the Harwich conservation trust um or the um the town of mashpi um we have already been involved in monitoring we will continue to provide that um capacity for the projects moving forward and um working hard with uh webner and mashby on the training and engagement pieces as well and then I just wanted to go quickly through some of the budget information um just to give everybody a sense of what's coming to the town and kind of to to what project so the oyster Pond budget um that is going to be a direct uh like I said contract from apcc with fuss and O'Neal and Wiz group we had considered um providing that those funds through the town um but after our kickoff meeting um it was you know the Betsy and Mark and and Jim all felt that it actually simplified things on the town staff side just for abcc to hold that contract um obviously the town and uh Betsy will still be very much involved with the meetings and decision-making going for we're we're just simplifying by holding the contract ourselves um the money um over 500,000 will be for adaptive management plan which um hopefully will be done uh this spring Outreach um permitting and final design I'll talk a little bit more about the schedule uh coming up this is a little bit more detail on how the different components break out for the funding um I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here just to save time but did want to note the leverag funds um from the um 604 4B Grant uh program through the state and the Cape Cod Conservation District that provided funding for initial design um some of the feasibility study and also the monitoring that apcc did this past summer so this is what the schedule looks like I mentioned the Adaptive management plan will be done this uh spring hopefully then we'll move into permitting um getting that underway uh throughout uh 2025 hopefully finishing up in 2026 and getting through final design by the end of 2026 our community engagement um is currently actually scheduled for June so this is a slightly out of um sync uh Gant chart but we decided that June was really a better time for seasonal uh residents to be able to participate in those meetings so that's that's why we tried to shift it back a little bit just to catch more of the the residents and stakeholders uh redbrook budget and sub Awards um this project is much bigger and will uh you know go through construction as well so um there's kind of more complexity to this one but the piece that I wanted to at least highlight uh for the select board tonight is that there is um 500,000 that will go to the town of mashpi and Falmouth that um contract is I think already in draft form and has been submitted um to Jim and Mark uh for review I believe um my colleague April VST has been um uh handling all of the uh contract side of things and um that money will go to land acquisition I believe it's Upstream of the Culvert so of of redbrook Road maybe don't quote me on that but there is some land acquisition involved in that project um to do that restoration effort again this is a little bit more detail on the budget and how it breaks out um you can see the sort of River and bog piece of it is separate from the budgeting for the Culvert replacement so the river and bog um restoration is something that is uh just getting underway in terms of the feasibility and the design whereas the Culvert has already started um in those those particular elements and hopefully we'll get through construction by the end of the project again just want to acknowledge the leveraged funds um that has already gone into the project um to get it to this point this is what the uh timeline looks like for the Red Brook project um we are again working through permitting getting through final design for the Culvert um in 2025 and 2026 hoping to get through the uh construction late 2026 and um monitoring uh the replacement in 2027 we will be working hard on community engagement and land acquisition in 2025 into 2026 um and hopefully have the design um and permitting done for the river and bog restoration um by the end of the project uh again which is in 2028 and um we'll be seeking uh funding opportunities to get that constructed in another um opportunity down the road so just to sum up where we are and where we're headed um we have gone through all of the compliance and Regulatory review for the Consultants that are working on each of these projects um right now we're working on sub award agreements and contracts uh for all the different partners we've um presented to all the select boards now um Falmouth was our our remaining one to do tonight um so very excited to share the the project with you all and we also held our kickoff meetings for the redbrook and oyster pra uh projects at the end of October um we talk through roles scope how um coordinating communication again when we want to hold that engagement meeting um in June um and then hopefully uh once sub Awards and everything are in place after the New Year we will get underway with that adaptive management plan so that is all I have for you do you have any questions for me W excellent Mr Brown let's start with you well it's quite a gift so thank you for coming what I got to wonder what was the impetus what made you identify these locations that's a really good question um we worked really um tirelessly with the partners so Cape Cod um Conservation District um had been working on the oyster Pond project for a while but had stalled out because um nrcs who the district normally partners with can't fund permitting so um you know we took basically projects from a lot of these different partners the district the harch conservation trust um you know different uh you know municipalities we've worked with over the years to come up with sort of gaps that were holding up projects and pulled all of that together into one Grant application um initially we thought we split it into two for the river and bog and the salt marsh um but then we realized there was a lot more power behind the message of connecting those on a watershed scale and really looking at water quality um you know from the headwaters all the way down to the to the coastline um and and that ended up being a successful um Pitch so that's how that came came around well that's the the other aspect that Doug is you know because we work across the region with a lot of different partner organizations April and Jordan have a list of dozens of projects that are at different places and one of the things that we are able to do that is helpful I think to the community we work with is look across opportunities and be opportunistic and say all right you know there's a funding source that really favors this kind of outcome or this part of a project what do we have and then we sort of pull those components together for the list so this is a very Dynamic process took advantage of what we now recogniz as probably once in a generation opportunity of an infusion of federal money to support these types of projects it's spent a lot of time working with the granting agency and our partners say given this opportunity you know what's the best fit so we got a lot of feedback from Noah and so this was an very well informed guess yeah about what The funders Wanted are these the six projects that are the absolute far and best now there's a whole bunch of other projects Elsewhere on the cape that would be just as valuable as these these are the ones that fit the opportunity so we grabbed those brought them forward and we'll be looking in the next several years to build out this pipeline of projects to match it with other future funding opportunities to do the next thing so maybe a bunch of them will be found with we hope so um but they'll probably be elsewhere spread out across the cape so this is a good example and a home run hit given the size of the funding opportunity but we see on dozens more of these smaller opportunities being available to C Communities going forward and Miss Goldstone had a question actually that was my question okay okay and just just to clarify the locations I think the one for child's river is at under barrows road by right near Route 28 no the one on red so you might be thinking the child's River restoration project which is was completed in 2021 um we're talking about redbrook which is um Upstream of Hamlin Pond okay yeah so we have two projects the one that one and the upper quash one which is entirely mashby which actually do benefit water quality and fouth because they all both drain down to the shared resource we have of a bay right and the other ones at the bike path you said yes right yeah the oyster Pond one yeah great thank you so much thank you so much well done thank you thanks for having us I I do have one question if possible for for Mr gly um Andrew you brought to my attention uh because you of course serve um the Cape Community in a lot of different ways um that Falmouth is not currently represented on the citizen advisory committee and I'm going to mess up the rest of that so could you please tell us about that that Gap so that we can think about how we address it envir State Environmental Management commission which oversees the um activity training activities of the military at Joint Base Cape C and the upper Cape water supply reserve the northern 15,000 Acres the Environmental Management commission is the entity that makes determinations about the acceptability and compatibility military training activities with water supply and habitat protection which are the primary and first values protected by state legislation on that on that land the Environmental Management commission is commissioners of D fisheries and wildli or fishing game now and conservation Recreation that entity is supported by two advisory councils there's a science advisory Council set up by State Statute that lays out people with specific scientific backgrounds which are supposed to review activities make recommendations to the full body and then a Citizens advisory Council and there are number of vacancies on that citizens advisory Council town of mashby did not have representative they appointed me last month I believe Fus representative spot has been vacant for some time and brought that to M goldstone's attention suggesting that it would be good in the event that future training activities are proposed to ensure that valuable meaningful input from the broader Falmouth Community has brought to the attention of that Environmental Management commission um your appointment as a select board is subject to the ratification and approval of the governor so it takes a while but you got to you have to repes have somebody named to represent you and the governor hopefully will um defer to your judgment on who best represents your community good reminder right thank you thank you thank you okay i' love to come back talk to you about residential exemption sometime okay we're going to move on to a report the Edward marks building advisory committee Miss W and I'm I've slated you for 15 minutes and we're going to try and stick to that because we are so far behind oop sorry think so much is there a power did we receive a copy of the PowerPoint you did it wasn't ready in advance okay it's up there it's on your server okay it was not part of our packet is my point no I'm happy to make the slides available and send there are two pieces coming to you afterwards let's start okay thank you so I just have to find a place to wiggle some of this into there we go okay um my name is Barbara W I'm the chair of a Sixers committee that has been operating since 2019 trying to move from uh the the Poor House the reason I use that terminology which is the Edward marks building to those of you who are familiar with it in that nomenclature we refer to it internally and for Grant purposes as the poor house because it is the poor house which has the rich history um that um attracts uh interest of our CPC because this building is municipally owned we do not have other funding sources that we can reach out to ordinarily I'd be looking at foundations or Mega donors Etc that's not available to us so the CPC and of course any budgeting that the town does are the primary uh funding sources here um we have a rather I I think I can call it prestigious uh committee because we have three General Contractors um in town who are very well regarded Mike duffany from Duffy Builders Christian Valley from the valley group and Tom Renshaw who knows that building cold he is an individual contractor and he has already done quite a bit of work on the building itself which you would not be um aware of per se um Doug has hung with us for five years as our leaa and we have just we've kept going I mean and it's very slow because the funding Cycles are very slow I I think you know enough about the CPC for me not to have to restate that but you can bring it up as a question later and of course we work very closely with the planning department Jed corck who's in the the the audience has been uh a saint um in helping us and moving us along so a little bit because we have two new members of the select board I just want to drive home a little bit of History here it was the main building that you see in this 1888 photo was originally a Tavern Tavern having been the colonial term for in and it was way up somewhere near sandwich Road in 151 I have never heard an exact location and of course because no electricity no Plumbing any of the 20th or 21st century problems they were able to move the main block as it's now referred to down with oxen I would assume but it could have been horses to its current location because uh there became a mandate for all the colonies to have a way of protecting or supporting the poor Now by poor that can mean disabled person a mentally unstable person a person with any resources such as uh widows for example of seaf fairing men who disappeared and you know no money at all in the household so that term is very broad when we talk about the poor house um it 150 years of service that building has gone through and as such it went through a variety of name changes Poor House became let's tone it down a little and became um a poor farm and then a um I'm I'm skipping some of them and then finally the town infirmary and what it put it out of business was the emergence of hospitals so you have something much more powerful useful and Broad to do instead of uh putting people into 8T by 8T cells they were literally called cells that was the rooming uh scenario they had um so we got involved five years ago and discovered that the state had what's called a preservation restriction on the building generally you find pres uh preservation restrictions on the exterior only but because there were so many leftover features of its history internally um not glamorous for those of you who haven't seen it uh they put a restriction on how to manage interior renovation so the whole building uh gets the scrutiny of the mass historical commission um let's see what I um initially the town thought that it was what I call a coat of paint and move the furniture in and then that it was discovered that these restrictions were in place so there was inadequate funding for a a speedy move in um of the human services department that all of this is time I hope you can uh figure out here um let me see um yes I was going to just mention that with respect to infrastructure just for the interior that took two years to Hash through what needed to be saved what didn't what you know what was Expendable and also there was a problem because the HVAC system was using leftover Esco FR funds and the Esco fund remainder was too small for uh what the um the heating and air conditioning needs of that building um they're happily in there now um and I everything I hear they're happy with the building um just checking my notes Here excuse me I think you can tell I have a cold and I'll put this up so not to endanger you if I need to put it up so I there I have um Oops why did it go to two that's weird you did provide a mouse here right oh it's very hard to see from here okay nope that's it okay all right sorry um so we last year specifically there were three things that went first wonky and then well one is that the town made the decision to um give a broader scope of work to an architectural firm it originally was contracted to handle the interior management of the Interior renovation period and then it became obvious that as the committee's work had moved past the interior that they become the contract manager for the whole and that CA they weren't staffed for that and so things slowed down appreciably but we acquired um two new employees at dhk and uh things have resolved themselves to the point and I'm happy to tell you that we have the final plan for the exterior okay so this I think you'll appreciate the complex of what's involved when you see the plan uh Jed brought along copies and he'll give them out at the end of the meeting okay so that's you know believe me from our point of view five years later is a good thing um let's see oh and I just want to stress something else um when this move happened to DH K it became clear that what we should do we had the scope of work was for the exterior three distinct phases first one was very tactical kind of safety related then bit much bigger chunk and then the the last finishing touches so it became very clear that we should put phases one and two in place um and and that constitutes it's a an estimate of 75% of the Total Restoration work to be done so when we sorry right so when we get to this completion of one and two um that is the you'll be able to see major differences in the exterior of the building the second thing that was a chunk of time effort and uh moving forward is that each the three uh contractors that we've I mentioned earlier have stepped up and offered in kind uh effort in the in for this building so uh Steve Katie whom we have not met is a very good friend of Tom Renshaw's and he's a mason so there Tom Christian and Mike have offered to to provide different pieces of the exterior materials which would be paid back to them via the CPC but they're giving all the labor that goes with that and the town had not faced before a a a project of this kind of Mag magnitude because the historical element of it all was new and we and I doubt they previously had three volunteer contractors stepping up so uh collaborative effort um led by the planning building and Facilities Department put together a document uh which is an in-kind policy for the town so if you ever bump into this kind of thing again there's a policy in place and you can get a copy of that from a J in the uh the planning department who who wrote the policy the three of them the three departments collaborated it's a very short document by by the way it's just clarifying cop that I won't get you a copy I don't have it with me but I will get you a copy thank you um okay all right third part on terms of achievements of this past year having mentioned that the two phases were put together U and when I talk about phases I'm talking about the money in hand from the CPC that had been chunked into one two and three um so that helped enormously and where we're at right now is having come to this conclusion which by the way let me be clear you can't do anything with a contractors are putting something out to bid until you've got the final final final Final version so with that in hand now we can with some confidence talk about what the time frame will be in 2025 we also are obliged by virtue of the fact that we get CPC funding to put a sign on the lawn acknowledging the contribution of the CPC that's what I mean uh by that last one so rather than take four more slides I munged together in one paragraph the what we expecting to happen with completion completion of phases one and two um and and three here uh where we start with Excuse me apologize all right so what we'll call the Final Phase it used to be three I have to just call it the final phase now these are the last things that will be touched and specked out since we have the final plan in great great detail that is no longer gee what about this what about that it's ready ready to go to be speced uh so we hope uh we will be able to put a presentation into CPC um by their deadline this summer uh for funds of course which don't become available until the following year um I mention I want to mention something it's thorny um because the town has resisted this in the past um you have almost I think it's 4,000 square fet on the second floor windows it's a very bright area that could be more Town Office Space The Dilemma being the the bad word that nobody wanted to say is elevator um but we have I and I'm forgetting the term I apologize one of the committee members had explored there's a type of elevator which has its own name as a category um and if any of you are familiar with Fisherman's View Restaurant they have one of these which takes people from the basement where the store is up to the restaurant uh level it's smaller and it can be put inside or outside so it's just I just want to plant that um as something that deserves attention because the payoff of getting 4,000 square fet and remember all the windows will have been done you know there's a lot of work that went into preceding phases um and it's just something I we're not talking about it beyond that right now your time is up um the board do you want to extend another few minutes sure much more do you have oh uh two more bullets yeah that I thought that was the the last go ahead yep um so excuse me one more bullet what occurred to me after I had uh put this together is um that in the on the main floor of the POR house there is a a room that is uh the 8 ft by 8 ft cell and we put it into a do not touch category it was being used to uh put mops and brooms in for quite a long time we can revisit that as a restoration project that the town does not have to put a dime into it would involve um uh donor development but it's modest and as a result you could have something that people can the public could look into that says Ah that's what it was like to be in the Poor House in the 1800s okay so that again is just beyond uh 2025 any questions questions or comments no glad to see you moving forward and get the plans done sorry Doug knows it thank you very much very informative thank you okay we're going to move on to consider voting to approve the 809 sandwich Road lip application and I'm going to kick that over to Mr Rena please thank you madam chair real quickly because we are behind I'm going to kick this off the applicant is here to uh present or go answer any questions you might have Madame chair select Board of local Initiative Program lip application was submitted by Northland residential Corporation to construct 36 residential units at 809 sandwich Road of those 36 units a total of 13 are being proposed to be deed restricted as affordable in per perpetuity the property is plus or minus 4.65 Acres it's currently as you probably know the site of a former house board horse boarding and training facility which is cleared but not being maintained it has a ring a barn and outdoor padic and support facilities in varying conditions Madam chair and board the project will consist of 17 duplexes and two single unit structures I think the applicant has some illustrations some drawings there will be 18 1200 square 12200 square foot two-bedroom units and 18 1,350 squ foot 3bedroom units 36 rental units in total they will be the style is outlined in the attachment E3 of the lip application which is included in your packets tonight the project includes a combination of mail and school bus stop Pavilion a large Village Green open space area with walking paths Community Gathering common area with a fire pit and children's play area and a dog park and Madam chair select board the affordable housing committee uh chair Mr G Dave Garrison submitted a letter of support of the project which is also included in your packet and with that I'm going to turn it over to the president and CEO of Northland Mr Jack Dolly Jack let let me just start by saying you've you've had this in the in your package you have questions about this project specific questions that you would like to to ask well are we going to well yes we will I'm just saying you you have had it in your packet and is there anything in particular that stands out about this project that you want clarification on uh the project is clear I my only question would be has there been any uh interaction with the neighbors not yet okay thank you did you have a question go ahead what's the zoning there what's the zoning uh the Z the existing zoning is uh is it a a a 40,000 square ft thank you okay go ahead please you want me to go through this or yeah if you okay I'll try to good evening my name is Jack Dolly I I uh own and run a company called Northland residential uh I know you're late so I'm going to go quick um I have under contract uh to purchase uh uh Smithfield Farm on at 809 sandwich Road in town uh the horse boarding and training facility uh as was described D earlier the the the property is about 4.65 acres and with 330 odd feet of Frontage uh along sandwich Road it has a number of buildings on the site a riding ring an existing house various Barns and paddocks all in various states of disrepair it's basically a cleared site um from from Bean Pole to Bean pole front to back uh and I've been working with um the Housing Development working group led by Kim fish and J Coro uh and um probably met three or four different times with them and then separately with the housing uh the affordable um housing committee um and I am proposing a FR essentially a friendly 40b project for the property uh if you can see this this is um this is the property with the various buildings on it uh as um Scott asked I have not met with any any of Butters I didn't ask you that that was me excuse me um Doug Doug um I have not yet uh met with any of Butters um trying to get to a starting point um and that would be the filing of a lip application with the state followed by the filing of a comprehensive permit with the zba um somewhere in that in the first quarter if this is successful I will begin the community neighborhood out Outreach um as you can see the property is essentially a rectangle with a number of buildings on it it does this map does show a pond or a blue area um it is not there there is no there are no Wetlands on the property um it has been uh tested I didn't include the report but it's been vetted I've also conducted a number of soil tests uh to understand how Wastewater and storm water can be managed on site um what I'm proposing is a 36 unit rental project 23 of the units would be market rate 13 would be affordable uh they would consist of uh 18 two-bedroom units and 18 three-bedroom units uh I am proposing to essentially use or copy um uh Mike gasso manit Crossing uh building typologies um that's over in the North Falmouth area of Falmouth uh the land plan would consist of 17 duplex and two single unit structures you'll see in the plan that I separated one of the duplexes in half total bedrooms would be 90 it's tenure would be rental I.E it would be a rental Community not a for sale Community uh and through our negotiations and discussions that began uh I would say probably late February earlier March of this year we have come up with the following of uh tiers of affordability or inclusivity uh 9 at 80% Ami two at 100 one at 110 and 120 uh and then we would have a number of community amenities on site um each unit will have its own single car garage included in the building form you'll see the floor plan in a minute uh they will be all electric it will be a carbon carbon free development uh except for a fire pit and some grills uh that we were proposing um and we will build it to the current stretch energy code requirements um uh here is the oh I should say before we get to that uh I started the conversation with the Housing Development working group uh saying that I would uh if I did anything I would propose a u an advanced uh on-site septic system um voluntarily because I think it is the right thing to do I know that codes and so on and so forth are going there probably uh as quickly as I might bring this to Market um uh so I'm aligned with that uh that objective uh here is the land plan uh you can see sandwich road on the I don't know what how you describe that over here um uh uh and I'm going to utilize the existing curb cut which is across the street from the Hatch hatchfield Road intersection this is the existing curb cut that the that the farm uh horse farm uses presently um and and you can see uh immediately that I have flanked that entrance with two singles on either side of uh the entry uh and then everything else is a duplex uh it travels to the rear of the community uh to the east um essentially the property is oriented you know East to uh west to east uh North being on the upper upper side here um we have this Village Green area which would be a soil absorption essentially that's where the leech field would be located as well as its replacement Lee field area uh and and then we would talk what we call what I call storm water and or drainage and various other locations on site soils are phenomenal uh in the back right uh left corner as you were to drive in uh we're proposing some Community amenities in the form of a dog park a Tot Lot um some form of um uh Community gathering around a fire pit and some grilling stations uh and in the front entry we have a pavilion proposed that would um house the mailboxes and also provide an opportunity for school kids to to to gather as they waited awaited a bus which we do not believe will come into the site is probably going to have to stop uh out at Sandwich Road and and have the kids walk from that Pavilion area out to the street to get on the bus we may be able to get them to come into the site but it it is a private road it is not proposed to be um a town Street um going quickly so you know stop me uh here is uh essentially the manic Crossing floor building typology one half of this is a two-bedroom unit at 12200 Square ft where both of the bedrooms are on the second floor the other half of it is a three-bedroom unit where one of the bedroom is located on the first floor and the other two are on the second floor a two-bedroom unit would be have would have a 1 and 1/2 bath uh would have one and a half bath baths uh and a and a three-bedroom would' have two and a half baths and you will note that there is a single carar garage provided for in in both instances um uh here's some pictures of Manza Crossing as it exists today uh I'm sure many of you were familiar with it um and I'll stop talking questions from the board comments Mr Brown if there were potential additional incentives do you see any opportunity to lower the Ami for some of the units um we had a pretty long and robust conversation with the Housing Development working group about that um and and I declined um so I would say I would I would repeat that again I wouldn't want to go any deeper uh the economics I got to make the economics work even even if it were incentivized because it is kind of a dense um even yes um the incentive is good but it's a one-time incentive so on the capital cost of building it it helps the proforma once but then I have to carry that uh that deeper affordability and perpetuity right uh and the fixed cost of real estate taxes insurance and maintenance uh and then Capital repairs on the buildings and septic field I mean this septic field with an i IIA is is going to be expensive to operate so it's a nice enticement in the beginning but I get to you I only get to use it once and and that's the concern I have of taking the money uh giving something up that I then need to carry you know forever okay it's understandable thank you m gorm um I I agree I would have liked to have seen the percentages of affordable units um a little higher I do appreciate that um this is essentially a Redevelopment project as opposed to clearing new land um I appreciate the the electrical the um focus on on electrifying um I I may have missed it but is there a plan for solar because electric doesn't help much in terms of carbon footprint if all of that electricity is coming from fossil fuel powerered plants there is not at present I um and the reason being is a technical one um I have a similar site that I'm developing in Norwell 10 buildings tried to put solar on them um can't link all 10 buildings together into one account you have to they they can when you go through the process everything ends up being a separate application a separate application until I you can link multiple buildings together into a single um for lack of a better word package with uh the utility companies it it doesn't work will the buildings be solar ready yes they have to be Mr Brown won't the residents pay the electric bill individually yes they will okay so why would you need to link them all together um because ultimately you want to generate a a fee stream and sell there's a tax credit opportunity in the Solar field that covers the capital cost so but it could still be applied individually it's just more work right yeah okay I'm not planning on putting solar on it at present I got you got it Mr I have to make a declaration that I have a second cousin that uh is a director butter and the first cousin that's an indirect butter and will be um uh not voting on this okay abstaining okay any other questions from the board I have a question about uh any plans for the screening I know generally the project is welld designed to not have significant impact on the the neighbors that are close by but there are a couple in the back on the far end and there's one right next to sandwich road that will be pretty significantly impacted I know you have another whole process to go through with the zba but just curious up up front what you have in mind and and this is on screening yes just you know uh whether it's some trees or yeah I haven't developed a landscape plan one of the outputs of the the Housing Development working group was to look at that um that's really a design devel I'm at a schematic development stage if if I if I get greenlighted here to file what is called a project eligibility application with the state and I receive a project eligibility letter back from the state that says it's eligible for the a comprehensive permit during the the preparation to file a comprehensive permit a landscape plan inclusive of of um I understand I'm just trying to help early on that you know the engagement if thereal to the neighbors with just th thoughts that you might there's critical areas that ought to be screened for neighborhood uh you know benefit or or um you know director Butters we will I'm I'm yes this true answer is yes I will consider it just I'm just saying early Outreach with early ideas could sometimes be helpful it's a fair I mean I've done a lot of these and that is an ingredient um to get to yes okay very good thank you i' just like to say that throughout the process Mr D has been very uh Cooperative uh and flexible with the uh Housing Development Group made a number of uh of changes increasing the affordable units from what he originally proposed so uh I for one him in support of this application and would make a motion that the select board vote to endorse the lip application of Northland residential Corporation to construct 36 rental units 13 of which are to be deed restricted as affordable at the property located at 809 sandwich Road by sending a letter outlining their approval to the executive office of Housing and livable communities and by signing the lip application I will second that motion so we have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board I would just say that I would be in favor of the letter as well but we still should make mention of the items that were discussed today you know screening solar hope those would be included in the letter does that sound appropriate or does that go in the I think that may be getting a little bit too much in the weeds of the particular application and not necessarily our we're just supporting the I would agree with you Mr um Mcall on that I don't I think that's not our purview ours is to support the application as I think the message is clear to the applicant as to what uh what he's going to need to do going forward okay and I agree I absolutely agree with both suggestions I'm just not sure it's appropriate for the letter just something that could be helpful especially to the affordable units so I I hear you okay so we do have a motion in a second on the table any other discussion okay seeing none all those in favor I four with one exstension thank you thank you thank you good luck thank you okay we're going to move to consider approval of annual license renewals Mr Rena thank you madam chair we're going to try to get us back uh save us shave have8 minutes so uh the uh businesses the lenses which are listed in your packet this evening have submitted all the renewal requirements on the checklist which is also included as a part of your packet and the licenses are ready to be approved for renewal for calendar year 2025 um as you all know um the applications and checklists of all the and containing all the required documents each year mailed out to the uh the businesses Madame chair and select board it's my recommendation that the select board approved the annual license renewals for 2025 as presented and as published in tonight's agenda packet I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have thanks well we do have several letters from A Butters of one license holder in East fet that are requesting some relief wonder if we might hold that and ask the uh leny to come back and address how they might improve their situation I think I'd like to kick that over to I I raised the same question Mr Brown so I'd like to kick that over to Town Council for some Direction um procedurally what's before you is simply a renewal these are done by rot um at the uh in December of every year because the licenses are simply annual and they go from January 1 to December 31st if the select board wants to uh hold a hearing for a disciplinary matter because of complaints have been received that is a separate kind of process that needs to be followed there are due process requirements notice has to be sent at least 14 days in a Advance before um before a hearing to allow the applicant to come in and answer to the complaints and be able to present their own evidence in support of their own position this is not that they are two very separate things that have to remain separate the only thing that is before the board today is whether to renew these applications that is it h interesting so if we feel like there might be a problem that's not being addressed we have the option not to renew right uh I would not do that um no for several reasons one it's not on the agenda what is before you is a renewal um you do have an option to take action but it is not during the renewal it is a separate action that you would have to notice you'd have to send out a request for them to come in the only action that you can do right now is renew and um part of the renewal process if the application is complete then it is automatic so what you're doing here is really just a ministerial act interesting okay so it's not to say that you can't take some action just not tonight and I think it's really important what you say about due process can't deny there's no there's been no due process right okay Ahad I'll stand by Madam chair select board member I a related question which is whether there has been any formal um enforcement uh action taken regarding these complaints so Madam chair and select board member Goldstone yes uh Town manager's office is aware of the uh of the complaints uh we recently uh requested P to pull records uh with regards to one or more of these businesses and uh we will be prepared to bring as Town Council mentioned uh after proper notice um bring that back to select board for for further action in a in a noticed public hearing correct correct can we alsoe process I think we've also discussed previously that we can also include our own records our own emails to the board rather than just Police Department Records correct so those all of the documents and evidence uh will be submitted as part of the packet and and will be available for sele board to to weigh and consider okay very good thank you that class everyone's question go ahead so that would be classified as a rication hearing discipl it would be a disciplinary hearing um usually that when the notices go out you would make the um leny aware of any and all possible ramifications of the hearing it would include revocation modification suspension um cancellation that's just for the record Mar thank you that's good I think you yeah okay thank you for clarifying that I guess so okay it's I i' entertain a motion I guess I would move approval you our discussion we just had so motion to approve the 2025 annual license renewals as presented and as published in the agenda packet is that your motion it is okay do we have a second second we have a motion and a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I okay consider the authorization to pursue State legislation to amend the septic tax credit in schedule SE from non-refundable to refundable and I think we have Mr Leighton here to speak to that am I correct yes briefly okay yes please yes we should probably respond to those residents and explain that to them right with the email you can use the arrows or the mouse thank you she sitting right there I know one person thank you for giving us time to tell you about this home go ahead um I'm Steve Leighton on the water quality committee the committee has decided we would like your endorsement so that we can Lobby our state legislators work with other towns as well to um make a change to state law that May save Falmouth residents money uh since we are a town committee all of our efforts would be at no cost to the town I thought down there I can the page down again um John cman who is also on our committee is going to give you all the details but Peter asked for some background so I just wanted to show you this map uh the whole town consists of about 23,000 Parcels you can nitpick this number but exact numbers don't matter for the point that I'm about to make um about 5180 have been or plan to be sewered and about 7600 are mandated are likely to be mandated for IAS that's half of the town a lot of people that don't live in these areas think that maybe it's a few houses over by a few estuaries it's not it's half the town and what John is going to be talking about is uh something that affects the IAS and the sewers which are going to cost uh fouth people a lot of money so turn it over to John so our proposal simply stated is the water quality management committee recommends a change in state legislation for the tax credit specific to Massachusetts Department of Revenue schedule SC septic credit for repairing or replacing a failed cess pool or septic system the recommended change involves pursuing State legislation to alter the tax credit in schedule SC from non-refundable to refundable whereas a non-refundable tax credit is used to offset or reduce a taxpayer's total tax due a refundable tax credit is issued to the taxpayer regardless of tax Ed so why are we proposing this well one of the main benefits we believe is that a refundable septic tax credit ensures that all eligible Massachusetts residents regardless of income and tax owed will be able to claim this credit and the way the credit works now if you have eligible expenses when you're upgrading to um an IA septic system or hooking up to a sewer you can take the lesser of um the actual expenses capped at 30,000 times 60% so the max you can take would be $188,000 and that can be done over six years with a Max of 4,000 a year but the way the actual credit applies being non-refundable you have to owe the state that money in order to claim the credit if you don't have a tax burden you don't owe you're not going to be able to get the money so our proposal is to convert this tax credit to a refundable such that even if you can only claim a small amount that you owe the state you would still get the difference as money's back to you so this really benefits the lower middle income segment of the population because when you look at the Dynamics I think the medium income household income is about 90,000 for Falmouth you put in sort of the re uh the various deductions you're at 80,000 which is basically $44,000 of the 5% tax so for the people who are below that they're never going to be able to claim the full1 18,000 or $4,000 a year credit with our proposal they would so it really benefits that segment that most needed the money in addition the funds for a refundable tax credit are the responsibility of the state not the town and if the proposed change to the septic tax law is successful the need for subsidy from the town could be correspondingly reduced so it helps Falmouth it benefits the lower middle income uh segment and I think um Doug Brown stated earlier that any program that helps um our families with kids on the lower end of the income scale is a good program so what are the next steps well assuming approval by the select board tonight um we would like to move forward with the following proposals to help enact this state tax law change the first would be to reach out to other towns that are impacted um by the mass te requirements for cleaning the nitrogen sensitive areas and discuss these um proposed tax law changes with them so towns like mash P Barn bow sandwich on the outer ape many towns are going to be impacted in a similar way that Falmouth is but we are the leader in terms of having 14 of the nsas of the 30 nsas on the cape so really I think we're in a position to lead in this front in addition we need to talk to local state legislators uh David Vieira Thomas moley Dylan Fernandez and seek their support and input to the proposed legislation and this would include recommendations on how best to advance this legislation forward through through the the legislative process and then finally um the water quality management committee would invite the select board for what their thoughts on this how to best proceed and move forward with this legislation assuming that you support this U measure and at that point I'll take any questions you might have think seems like a no-brainer I think it's a great idea and I would move that we approve the idea and send a letter to our legislators asking for support um read the a motion I have it right Mr you like it I believe it's that one right there I make a motion to endorse a change to the septic tax credit to make it refundable authorize the town manager to draft a letter for select board consideration to be submitted to state legislators and Governor Healey and authorized representatives of water quality management committee to seek support for this legislation from surrounding communities and state legislators second okay I have a motion and a second any further discussion amongst the board I may just has has your research indicated any refundable tax credits that are out there currently that are available that would apply to this not necessarily apply to this but that yeah I mean there's um on I think schedule MSC of the Massachusetts tax code there's a listing of the refundable and non-refundable tax credits that are out there and there's I don't know maybe 5 to 10 that are considered refundable but more are non-refundable um okay thank you yeah good okay we have a motion in a second any further discussion okay seeing none all those in favor I unanimous thanks for the great idea thank you for your work okay Mr Renshaw authorize allocation in American Rescue arpa funds for the main library window replacements thank you madam chair uh four years ago the board authorized uh approximately $200,000 in arpa or American Rescue plan act funds for chemical feed upgrades at the Crooked Pond uh water treatment facility that project has now been completed and we were recently told that there's a remaining balance of unused arpa funds in the amount of $101,200 cend year 2024 December 31st meaning the funds must be committed to a project that is currently under contract the funds must be expended by December 31st of 2026 a bid of the for the main library window replacement project was very recently completed opened and the bid cost exceeded available funding by $ 43,372 without any allowances for contingencies which you all know is important the balance of funds presently available to complete the project is 44 $4 6,738 uh the bid price uh is $490,500 contingency of $ 49,1 bringing the shortfall to $2,389 if approved the town would spend the $101,200 ized arpa funds are properly expended if arpa funds are not allocated for the replacement project the scope of the project will need to be reduced and fewer windows will be replaced and Madam chair select board you all know this project is probably four years um underway and it's important um in talking to Brian Stokes the library director and Peter um the windows I believe on the um on the uh the north side of the building are are in bad disrepair and need to be replaced so it's my recommendation that the board votes authoriz the allocation of $1,128 in arpa funds for the main library window replacement project I'd be happy to answer any questions you have any questions okay I would motion to authorize the allocation of $1,128 in arpa funds for the main library window replacement project second there you go okay I have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor okay consider voting to approve a one-year extension on the lease of the Falmouth Country Club golf course and I'm going to kick this over to Mr Johnson St thank you madam chair as the board is aware this lease expires at the end of this month and Town Council has advised that the existing lease can be extended by a year with some um limited amendments to the financial provisions of the expiring lease uh we have had discussions and exchange of proposals with the current operator they are interested in extending the lease by one year and we have a an agreement in principle um as outlined in the draft lease agreement that is included in your packet um we did make some progress since the last meeting the uh the current operator trun Sports has agreed that they will um they will be liable for the full real estate taxes as opposed to a payment in L of taxes at a reduced dollar amount and they have agreed to eliminate the $50,000 equipment contribution that had been part of the expiring lease um in light of the fact that there is 195,000 already allocated for other Capital items for the course um and uh the recommendation of the Town manager and staff is to authorize the town manager to execute this lease as outlined um and to sign the lease agreement um and to make insubstantial changes to any provisions which may include amendments to financial Provisions that are not greater than 5% of estimated gross revenues happy to take any questions questions from the board Mr Mcall you know F first off and I you know I I say this with all due appreciation for the work of the Town manager's office the assistant Town manager uh I am disappointed that we are here at the last meeting of 2024 dealing with this matter uh for lease of a very important Town property that expires in 15 days I have the same comment with respect to item number 10 that's coming before us I think it's very disappointing that these matters uh had not been addressed earlier so that some of the concerns that have been raised throughout uh might have been able to be addressed in a in a different uh in a different manner that being said I'm prepared to approve or agree to the extension but um your comments seem to leave open that there is no agreement on what the uh rental payment uh is going to be uh when you ask for you know 5% wiggle room I'm I'm just curious what what what you think the response of trun is going to be if we authorize you know a 5% deduction what their position is going to be in negotiation I just you know because of the timing being what it is and we don't have another opportunity to reconvene I just don't want the the board in the town to be in a position that there's some final detail that wasn't anticipated I don't have a signature on the page so that's why I'm seeking I certainly realize that we do not want to have this course you know unused and and closed it it provides a lot of liability to the to the town uh so I'm in report of it I would prefer that we not have any 5% reduction and you know just stick to that gun as it is and I appreciate you're putting together the uh um you know the financial uh difference from last year and this year with respect to the threshold computation I mean as it is we're taking a you know significant hit from what we received last year I understand from your comments we will still expect to cover the the debt Debt Service on the property uh under you know normal circumstances so that's certainly good we're not going to go out of pocket but uh uh i' I'd personally be more comfortable with just saying okay this is it uh we've given a lot and uh leave it at that that's just my position Mr Brown I would feel a little differently that I would just do whatever it takes to keep this ball rolling and i' keep in mind that we only have 10 years left on The Debt Service and I don't think it's time to be trying to worry about extremely maximizing the revenues there we're already hearing for golfers that are saying you know the uh the hours for the residents are getting cut back the fees are going up they're a little chipping away at the the level of service that the residents are receiving so obviously there's some Financial pressure on the operator I I'd like to see them continue to be successful and I think in the future uh when you do take up negotiations again maybe we might not want to go with that 25 year may maybe the 10-year exposes them to less liability maybe they'd be more amable to that so just future thought for for the next round of negotiations but I would be as generous as possible to keep this thing open and operating and not put pressure on the operator to to try to M maximize profits in another way I guess I would um I agree with both of you to some extent right I we kind of don't have much option with 15 days left in the lease um I feel like we need to extend the lease um and we we need uh to find something uh that works that doesn't mean I want to say hey whatever works for you is is great right we need to to still uh obviously keep the the best interest of the Town um front and center but I would also just urge that we should be having the discussion about um the RFP that that did not yield um a successful uh applicant um and figuring out what that course forward is um as soon as possible in in the new year um so that we are able to actually successfully you know establish a new long-term lease whether that's 10 or 25 years um but not be in this position again next fall that's it for me I'll entertain a motion Mo motion to authorize the town manager to execute a one-year lease extension agreement with trun Sports LLC as submitted provided that the town manager is authorized to make insubstantial changes to any provisions which may include amendments to financial Provisions that are not greater than 5% of estimated gross golf course revenues but shall not uh include a term to exceed one year second okay we have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I I reluctantly I so noted half I okay Mr Renshaw FY 26 operating budget presentation I move [Laughter] [Music] approval so good evening um really proud to uh present after 18 months my second uh operating budget recommendation proposed budget this one obviously is for FY 26 as you all know our Charter requires that a comprehensive budget including Town functions and related budget message copy of which is included in the packet this evening be submitted to the select board prior to the first day of January of each year and that the board transmit this budget document to the finance committee prior to January 16th my uh presentation this evening is divided up into uh kind of four categories um and I'm going to use the next 10 slides to go over these uh guiding principles um that were used to develop the budget the FY 26 budget we're going to talk a little bit about uh focus on select board strategic plan priorities and how those were interwoven into the FY 26 budget uh discuss and review uh at a 30,000 foot view uh proposed budget expenditures and revenues and lastly conclude with uh next steps importantly I wanted select board and uh and the public to know that this process um began back on October 2nd the development of the FY 26 budget with my FY 26 budget instructions to the department heads I want to thank all the department heads just a tremendous amount of work uh involved in preparing the budget um importantly I want everyone to know that any requests above level funding required a detailed memo uh to my office kind of EXP explaining breaking out the uh the rationale and justification um we held a series of budget meetings with the department heads myself the assistant Town manager and finance director um those began honor about October 24th and concluded honor about November 3rd so um with regards to guiding principles by relying on conservative Revenue estimates and avoiding basically unsustainable expenditures we look to ensure we look to ensure the long-term fiscal stability um within the constraints of sound fiscal management practices uh my office is looking to advance select board strategic plan priorities we'll talk a little bit about those in in the next couple of slides before considering any new services or enhancing existing Services we look to maintain basic uh level services and infrastructure uh avoidance of prop two and a half operating override and lastly and very importantly um one of the goals major guiding principles is to provide increased transparency and Community engagement by highlighting the most significant changes from our prior fiscal years you have a copy uh select board at your desk of the uh FY 26 budget summary which shows at the department level um some of those changes it's also included in the budget book and I hope everybody has had a chance to pick up your budget binders in the select Board office want to shift Focus to talk about as I mentioned earlier um the emphasis on strategic plan priorities and the interest of time I'm not going to read through these we've talked a lot about the seven elements or components of the selectboard Strategic plan as you all know strategic plans should be a living document that should be regularly reviewed and updated uh most recently uh the select board strategic plan was reviewed in August of this year during a workshop and uh updated and approved on in October the following five examples are illustrative of how we are attempting to allocate resources to uh those one or more of those seven strategic priority areas um as you all know um each year there's an appropriation made to the felth affordable housing fund this year the recommended FY 26 budget I should say we're recommending $950,000 uh lowcost Target funding of $889,000 roughly to building Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals the intent here is to strengthen our our planning and permit review for housing increased hopefully streamlining that process targeted funding to Public Safety uh health and Public Safety being one of the major uh key Focus areas of the select board strategic plan and this is primarily as you can see in the budget in the form of wage adjustments to enhance our Recruitment and Retention efforts again in the area of Public Safety uh necessary increases in operating expenses in our utilities water Wastewater and waste management to maintain services at our our current levels is important and one of the guiding principles and lastly and again focusing on one of those seven elements of the Strategic plan financial and economic stability looking to promote and enhance this slide is uh is is kind of again a 30,000 foot overview of revenues um by far the uh the largest um category comprising uh portion of the total Appropriations is the operating budget um of the 182 2,725 337 $173,800 roughly is an operating budget this represents Madam chair and select board an increase of about 5.8% or 9,561 th000 roughly from the previous fiscal year fy2 um we're going to discuss um the major drivers of that increase in just a moment again over the next couple of slides we're going to talk a little bit I want to uh really emphasize um what the major uh significant drivers of those increases were in this FY 26 proposed budget with a couple of caveats um number one The Debt Service has been excluded from this analysis tonight since the reduction in the FY 26 Debt Service is being offset by transfer of the capital and debt stabilization fund and the second caveat that I want the board to be aware of is that uh the prior year fy2 there's a transfer the capital stabilization fund of about $5.5 million and a corresponding use of free cash um we excluded that from this analysis again to not slant or skew the analysis in any way okay um on the expense side there are three primary categories that are driving the increases that we're seeing in the FY 26 the proposed budget um I'm going to focus on those top three wages employee benefits and insurance and education as you can see um a little over 2.8 million dollar in wages or about 7.2 7.26% increase from fy20 to fway 26 um and again that was a lot of that is is as you go through the detailed budget Department level is in public safety significant investment in wages salaries in the police department and emergency communications uh section employee benefits and insurance we're seeing about a 99.8% increase within that category um we're about $2.9 million increase from fy2 levels um and to break that out a little bit more and give you a little bit more context the health insurance increases alone uh we're we're looking at about a 10.5% increase um or about 1.76 million just in the health insurance costs alone rising and again that speaks to some of the inflationary pressures um another kind of breakout um granular breakout of that employee benefit in insurance is retirement contributions as you all know those are kind of established and set by the state um we're seeing about an 8% increase in that area or about 945 ,000 so just shy of a million dollars in retirement benefit contributions um lastly again within the major categories those three major drivers of the increase in the FY 26 budget we're looking at a little shy of 5 and a half% increase in education um 5 and a half% with regards to Fel fouth public schools and um another um 3.7% roughly increase in the uh upper Cape Regional Technical School looking at increases in those and the uh the combination of those uh are about $3.3 million importantly um while this increase is similar to last year at about 5.8% and can be supported by actual Revenue collections trends that we're seeing um I want select board to be aware of the fact that similar increases are not likely to be supported or cons considered to be sustainable in future years unless we identify some additional revenue streams to support those expenditures this next slide um uses or again lists the four major components of Revenue available to fund the town's operating budget um those being property tax state revenue local estimated receipts and other available funds um I want to talk a little bit about the property tax we're looking again we're proposing a 2.7 74% increase or about $3.5 million uh in property tax uh and again used conservatively um we're estim estimating about $900,000 in New Growth um the number is actually higher but we're being using a conservative estimate in the new growth number um of $900,000 within this FY 26 proposed budget local estimated receipts I want to touch on that a bit um 19.1% seems like a sizable increase of about $5.2 million more than half of this um increase is from revenue from room excise tax and increases in uh water uh collections due to the uh fee increases that were put in place a couple of years ago we're see uh significant increases in in in collections with regards to Water Motor Vehicle excise continues to be strong I think I mentioned that earlier um in FY 24 our actual receipts were about $6.2 million um we're conservatively projecting $4.3 Million last year and project the use of about $4.8 million in FY 26 um on uh on another note um although we're seeing again a lot of our revenue streams are remaining constants um building permits is not one of those we're actually seeing a bit of a of a downward tick in building permits um we're forecasting a downward uh Trend to $2 million compared to about $2.6 million in FY 24 with regards to property tax revenues the slide is really simply U meant to provide an overview of the calculations used to derive the total taxable amounts again using the B base listing the base Levy the prior Year's estimated Levy limit of 9,987 th000 that 25% increase in the base Levy um I mentioned the conservative use of $900,000 and New Growth estimate uh yields at total taxable amount of 132,50 4,714 so I'm recommending tonight that the select board after discussion uh vote to transmit this fy20 six budget to the finance committee um as as you know um the select board votes to send the recommended budget with or without amendments to the finance committee honor before January 16th uh the finance committee then turns around and does a very extensive review interviews with department heads and whatnot um of the recommended budget importantly the finance committee is scheduled to begin these series of 10 meetings on January 8th so they'll go from January 8th and I believe their weekly meetings all the way up through and including March 12th Madame chair and selectboard in closing I want to thank the assistant Town manager our finance director and all the department heads for their dedication and thoughtful collaboration during the entire process again which began in early October and the development of this proposed FY 26 budget and with that I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have questions comments Mr Brown uh Mr Rena how do you see us uh funding the uh portable housing fund F if we have the 950 are we going to be uh targeting some other sources like CPC again uh to because we uh I think we agreed that we should probably expect to spend about $4 million a year so I'm just curious of what you see on the horizon for that so so I know that typically the $1.5 million request I think is was made um most recently to the CPC for affordable housing right um again um looking um because and talking to the chair of the CPC I know there's a lot of this year obviously there's a lot of applications for a very kind of um reduced amount available um so it's very competitive hyper competitive I think we're going to have to kind of look strategically and uh and try to kind of Leverage the best way we can those funds I'm sorry for know curveball question but I just noticed it tonight for the difference between the two roughly a million or so um $2.3 million and the 4 million is significant so how to make up that difference we're going to have to put our heads together strategize how best to accomplish that okay thank you other questions Mr Mcall yeah and you mentioned it in in in your summary the U the extra $112,000 or so that you were allocating to uh help with the housing uh office uh and and I'm just wondering uh you know I for one was hoping that we might have found some money to assist the housing coordinator you know how housing is the biggest problem we Face here in town uh we have heard of you know workflow issues in that office and I'm sorry that we can't find you know in $175 million budget you know some more money to help with the housing coordinator and what she's doing that's a great question so Madam Sharon slor member Mcall we're actually looking at that now trying to find some support uh going into FY 26 uh for for the housing coordinator uh some admin support to take some of that that weight and that load it is a lot of work so we're looking to do that in this budget thank you good to hear great miss gostone um yeah so you were talking about Trends and growth and what's driving the the growth in the operating budget this year um and and noted that continued growth at this rate would not be sustainable but I'm I'm curious whether given how big a driver salaries and benefits are in that growth and the fact that we've done a lot of hiring and also a lot of updating of contracts to to um make our compensation more competitive whether you would anticipate similar growth in in salaries and benefits going forward that's a great question it really is so you know in conversations what what what what Falmouth does is shortly it becomes the the I hate the term but the nuclear arms race so to speak of of salary uh and uh and what we do is followed closely by other communities that we're you know competing with quite honestly um I think the position that we're and I can speak specifically to Public Safety uh at least the police side of things right in in emergency communications I think the moves that we made um placed us in a very strong position which I think is going to probably carry us through um for for a time um I I I I wish I had that crystal ball and I don't I I'm trying to answer the question um but it's going to be a challenge because um trying to attract well-qualified officers and emergency uh telecommunicators dispatchers keep them um is is a challenge for not only Falmouth but the other Cape communities as well but to answer your question as directly as I can I think the position due to the work that um my office put in and uh in the police department and and working with uh James Thomas the emergency communications director I think we're in a much stronger position and I think that's going to serve us well for the for the next couple of years perhaps I don't want to put a Time on it but I think I I guess I just did I think we're in a strong stronger position now uh making that investment strategic in investment in salaries and wages attracting and as everybody knows the police department is fully staffed for the first time in eight or n years so that's direct result of that work that went into those negotiations any other questions or comments um I guess just just one other um you know just going through the the summary um and noting your your comment that uh any increase above level funding uh required justification and there are definitely a few cases here where um what was requested and what's ending up being recommended there's a significant difference and I'm curious if if for some of those large differences you could highlight what it was that that our departments maybe wanted to do that were we're not able to do with this budget this year so so so obviously uh with regards to salaries I mean that's a big that's a big piece of it is you look at a couple of those departments where you see the sizable uh increases um Peter can you think of any specific examples with regards to some of the operating expenses increases that we saw not salary related right so we I mean we had some additional Staffing requests for the for the fire department for example that we were not able to fund um I'm trying to remember I think we had additional request from the zba office that we did not um we were not entirely able to support although there is an increase in zba um it wasn't the full amount that was requested and and there are other examples of that talking to Chief yeah Chief laori yeah thank you for jogging my memory uh the police department did request some additional officers um I think we tried to address some of Chief Lor's um and deputy chief Len's kind of priorities uh in other ways by increasing overtime they've got some very we've talked a lot and rightfully so about traffic enforcement and that's one of the priorities of Chief Laur uh so so trying to identify and appropriate some funds additional overtime monies um rather than hire new officers um as you all know um the police department did an internal kind of Staffing study I want to kind of back that up with a with a third party study as well um but rather then uh fund the three or four new positions that the chief was requesting we we uh decided to try to attack that in another way by some additional overtime funds to kind of supplement their budget um I know community relations is a big emphasis of Chief Lor's as well so that's another area where we're tried to uh emergency communications um there was a request for three new dispatchers um we didn't feel the timing was right for that um we're just about fully staffed we've got about six and two in the in the training pipeline so that'll bring us to eight of the nine authorized positions in emergency communications um there was a request to add three new positions to bring it up to a total of 12 authorized FTE uh we didn't feel the timing was right for that so we addressed it in another way by uh adding some pum additional pum uh Monies to get folks that are already trained from out other agencies to come in and kind of augment their supplements our emergency communications we found that over the past 12 months or so unfortunately it's something that we've had to rely on more heavily than I think everybody would like but we found it to be effective way to fill in those gaps thank you there must be things other than um positions that departments have recommended or asked for and I'm sure that if they were sent back or something they'd have to be reprioritized so I can speak uh I can speak to some of the increases the operational increases um I I don't have the exact number $275 to $300,000 increases in it Information Technology um just driven by cost increases um there's a big emphasis as you know uh Don Lewis or IT director is putting a lot of emphasis on uh cyber security and those platforms to protect our our infrastructure our cyber infrastructure are getting more costly so a lot of those costes just in time though because boy the hackers are really active fa speaking from somebody that came from an agency that was attacked and I know that that the pain and the and the hours of trying to get out from underneath that having those security protocols and the Platforms in place to protect you on the front end is important so crazy any other questions or comments I'm just appreciate the thorough explanation of the budget in the packet too thank you okay thanks okay we are going to move on to number 10 discuss and consider the approval of of a three-year lease agreement between the town and Woods Hole Martha's Vineyard n Tucket Steamship Authority Madam chair I'm I'm sorry but um there is an action item there I don't know if the if the board was prepared tonight to vote to transmit the budget with or without Amendment oh um it oh it wasn't listed as such on the but actually it's in it's in the recommendation to to you know it was I was and I was a little bit conf refused by the dates the January 16th January 8th so you're asking for a vote to transmit this to the fincom is that correct so Madam chair my recommendation uh if the board uh doesn't have any additional questions or amendments uh my recommendation would be to trans to vote to transmit the uh proposed f26 budget to the finance committee um chairman schwagel is anxious to get started and I think the sooner he's able to distribute the packets and get his committee members uh engaged the better however is is last year I think it was last year um we we we do there is an opportunity as I said earlier um the uh I had to present this budget to you by the first of the year uh select board has until January 16th technically and we have one meeting in between January 6th so if the board majority of the board would prefer to wait until January 6th I'd prefer not but that is an option okay I just didn't see it on the agenda so I I didn't know that we could vote to move it forward go ahead Mr Brown I wouldn't be uh I'm not inclined to make suggest changes that we vote but I'd like to just give them the heads up that if they can find a way to increase that funding for affordable housing or the uh position of the housing uh coordinator as an advice but the sooner they get it the better I would agree with that I would agree that they need to get it sooner rather than later I don't have any creative suggestions of where the money would come from from if we were to increase it I I guess I would um you said the first meeting is on the eth I know that doesn't give them a lot of heads up if we vote on the 6th but um they're not acting on it before the sixth then given that it's a inch and a half thick binder um I I would prefer to have the time to to go over the budget in in more detail before we transmit I would transmit it as presented that mean we can always go to their meeting and we can always go not something I think it get it cuts them way too short but is that a motion uh my motion would be to transmit the FY 26 budget to the finance committee to allow the committee to begin its important work review work in a timely manner I'll second it okay I have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I I no okay thank you motion carries 4 to one sure okay uh thank you Mr Johnson star for catching that discuss and consider the approval of a threeyear lease agreement between the town and the Woods Hole Marthur Vineyard and nant N at Steamship Authority for the Church Street parking lot Mr Renshaw thank you madam chair uh as you all know uh our current lease of the Church Street parking lot which is actually the fourth amendment to an an agreement that was executed back in 2015 expires the end of this month December 31st at the recommendation of Town Council and in preparation for the development of the attached draft agreement which you have uh to be considered tonight we uh authorized and had a real property appraisal conducted of the 4.84 plus or minus acre parcel um uh Clancy appraisal company completed that appraisal in June of this year the appraisal report listed the market value as of June une 5th of this year at $2.2 million the appraisal the appraisal also established the annual fair market rent based upon a sales comparison approach and elements of an income Approach at $198,000 annually Madame chair selectboard of the past several years and I think this is important um rather than receiving an annual rent payment from The Authority the town had agreed to a 25% Revenue share of the of the permits uh parking permits um they were paid in quarterly installments um since I've been here I know there were some questions expressed and some consternation and frustration about whether or not you know the information was accurate in terms of the the reporting um I had several meetings last year with Mr Davis Bob Davis with the Steamship Authority and he's got the documentation it's Excel spreadsheets and I didn't include those in your packet um but it was my belief that going back to the previous model back in 2000 where the town received a annual rent payment based again on the fair market uh appraised value was the way to go um and to give you some context um I I mentioned the uh the Clancy appraisal the fair market rent was was established at $198,000 annually based upon this 25% Revenue receipt share with the Steamship Authority the town getting 25 and the authority getting 75 um I had the office staff check um last year well should say in 2023 total receipts based upon this Revenue share were about $79,000 we took in uh throughout all four quarters that's the entire year um I'm told that we're up slightly um for the 2024 numbers through three quarters we're at about $82 $83,000 um but still as you can see substantially lower than that fair market rents at of 198,000 so Madam shair and select board with this new agreement I'm recommending that the Town return again to this previous model which was established I think back in 2000 the change was due to a 2002 to 2003 shift where there was a piece of property on blacksmith shop road that the town was interested in acquiring that the steamship owned um we we departed from this I think at the time it was $150,000 roughly annual rent payment um we decided to um rather than pay the land we we gave the authority a credit of about $150,000 over a 10 year year period I believe to to offset the cost of that land um so there's a legitimate purpose for it I think that purpose is sense left there is really no um uh justification in my mind to continue that Revenue share model uh on December 10th um representatives of the authority and the town met to discuss the terms and provisions of the proposed lease agreement which had previously been drafted with the assistance of Town Council uh importantly and select board recalls this the first week of October I set up meetings individual meetings or myself and two of you um to kind of go over the draft agreements um so that was the first week in October um because quite honestly it was a departure from how we had been doing things for the past 20 years so I wanted to make sure that the select board um was in essence uh comfortable with Shifting the model to this annual rent payment to summarize the major provisions of the draft agreement that you have before you tonight uh the term of the agreement would be for a period of 3 years beginning January 1 of 2025 and terminating midnight December 31st of 27 uh there is a clause or provision in the draft that the term could be extended for an additional two years upon mutually agreed upon amendments by both parties obviously the Steamship Authority as I mentioned would pay the town the amount of $195,000 annually which represents the fair market value of the property for use as a parking lot um importantly Madame chairman board the town's original draft agreement presented to the authority um stipulated an annual fair market rent of $200,000 what we discovered during the negotiations with the authority um is that the uh appraisal that Mr Clancy performed um assumed 45 of the original 280 spots uh were set aside for Village permit parking um that number is actually um 50 parking spaces are set aside for Village parking for the employees and importantly I want the select board to know that I several months ago had a meeting with the V uh Woods Hall village Association presidents and a couple of the officers um where it was reiterated to me the importance of maintaining those 50 Village permit parking spots that's a huge value to the businesses in Woods Hole um so this agreement again retains that 50 Village uh permit parking spots um so again I wanted to explain the difference between how we went from 198 down to 195 my initial ask in the draft was 200,000 just backed off $5,000 to to allow for those uh the Delta the difference of of uh five parking spaces uh the other um uh Pro major provision The Authority agrees to continue its practice of limiting the use of the lot almost entirely to Woods Hole yearr Round And seasonal parking permit holders this is important because shortly after that meeting a couple of months ago with the Woods Hole Village Association president had a meeting with a couple other residents in Woods Hole um and ask them kind of for you know what is important in your minds and I was told that making sure that it's for um primarily the uses for yearround and seasonal permit parking versus the um the come and go uh again quality of life impact on on the Woodle neighborhood they wanted to make sure it was seasonal or year- round parking primarily um as I mentioned the 50 spaces and we kind of illustrate those in exhibit a uh which DPW was kind enough to prepare um are going to continue to be designated again for use by Village permit holders as you all probably know this is managed through a separate agreement with with the Woodall Business Association um and as I stated they indicated that at a minimum um they want to see those 50 retained so that was important going into the negotiations with the authority um lastly The Authority shall not be responsible for the paving and repairing conditions of the lot not caused by the Authority's use of the lot um or they would not be required to make any structural repairs to the lot that would be on the town The Authority will be required to allow public bicycle and pedestrian foot traffic across the lot the property owned by the authority and not owned by the town on passageways it designates and be required to apply annually all the necessary pavement markings to delineate the bike path on their property and Madam chair and selectboard quite honestly in the year and a half I've been here and I I walk the path quite a bit on the weekends um I know there's been a lot of comments about trash and whatnot in discussions recently with Mr Davis they've agreed to install additional trash containers um I'm not saying there's no trash but those times on the weekends that I've gone through I haven't seen a lot of trash accumulation um I do think it's important that the town uh be responsible for making those improvements to the marking the payment markings on the town-owned property quite honestly that's the way that I can ensure the job gets done and uh I've I've had discussions with Peter mcconnery the DPW director and I think going forward we make sure that those markings the safety markings on the town-owned property are maintained by the town including the P Mark the painting of the parking stalls uh within the town-owned property and require the authority to make all of the safety paintings markings and whatnot on on the authorities property so this agreement kind of memorializes that understanding as well and with that I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have questions from the board if I may uh one of the questions that has pervaded the emails that we have all received was if there is any special demarcation of what the the funds that we receive from the lease are they just part of the general treasury or are they somehow utilized for the woods hall or the parking lot or anything like that yeah so currently there is no demarcation or kind of designation I should say for the use of those funds although I have had some discussions about and I know there's been some interest in the past about use of embarcation funds I think it's it's on the table and can be discussed right now um as it's currently proposed I think that those funds would just be deposited into the general fund but I think there's an opportunity for us to examine how those funds could be used in other ways Mr Brown and then miss Goldstone uh also we've had uh comments that indicate that there's a possibility that there's might be a flaw in the appraisal where we might want want to investigate the curb cut that might be in place at noska road which goes to the back corner of the lot apparently the lot runs all the way to nooba Road and I haven't seen it myself but I've been told that there's actually already a curb cut there and it's just been the uh property's been allowed to grow over and of course it would have to be cut in again to actually create that real access but if that's accurate and I'd like to have that confirmed we might be undervaluing the entire appraisal because it's B Bas on you know landlocked other than access from Steamship Authority and I would like to see us just go for a year and get back to Mr Clancy maybe GIS can be more helpful and you know get an overview of if there's really more value there I'd like to see us get it and also we having a lot of people that are sending us email saying please don't even give them a lease I don't agree with that but I think the threeyear might be too generous because we might be undervaluing it I not Heather you no you're up I was actually going to ask a number of people had asked about um only doing a one-year extension and um would be curious to hear what you feel the benefit of the three-year lease is from the town perspective versus a shorter term lease and if I may I mean I'll just say that I feel the same way as Mr Brown and this Goldstone I I'm very much um impressed by the uh by by the emails that we have received uh I think a one-year lease is is maybe a better way to approach it to deal with the issue of the land locked and the appraisal um you know personally I think we're we're we're doing pretty well getting the $100,000 uh $200,000 based on what we were receiving in the past uh you know thinking that you know if if if things change the residents are going to end up paying a lot more money possibly and I'm not sure that's the the best solution either um but more importantly are the concerns that have been raised uh and I think we'll hear before the the night is through from the bicycle and pedestrian committee about some of the safety issues that uh that that continue there uh at the junction of the end of the bike path and the parking lot and we things are painted properly and if the signage is uh is done so um I would have to agree that I would prefer to see this be a one-year lease go ahead I vly disagree with all three of you given the fact that we've gone without this revenue for so long we're characterizing it on the wish of one year which is 200,000 in essence what they're proposing is a guaranteed 600,000 over 3 years what if we go back to the table next year and get less or takes the whole year to re to to to re um to come up with another deal that takes us beyond that and then we fall back into what was described as a letdown of this department not getting something in on time I think this is a sure thing I think it's a threeyear $600,000 win that we haven't been enjoying um it allows us to maintain our property with in and other things I think a year comes and goes so in a fleeting moment I I'm not prepared to throw $600,000 away with a guaranteed three-year deal I just want to clarify that I was actually asking a question not expressing an opinion here on one versus three years and would would still like to to hear from the town manager his his thoughts on that so I'm a little troubled by us questioning um the the um appraisal I I I have a little bit of an an issue with that and in questioning whether the appraisal was done well or or is appropriate um that to me does not doesn't settle well 10 years is too long of a term and and that was I was upfront and very clear with uh Mr Davis um I think initially there was some interest in extending I'll be honest with you um at one point the draft had a fiveyear um in negotiations with the authority we reduce that down to three um that was tied to perhaps not only the new uh uh director coming on board next year but also completion of the terminal construction building I think they wanted the authority on their side wanted to kind of see where we're at in three years um 10 years is tooo long of a term I think you know importantly in in the lesson learned that I won't forget is that we need to do routine appraisals um to to establish the the fair market value of that land um it's an oddly shaped parcel uh again 4.8 Acres but the actual usable space being designated or I should say being used by The Authority is less than that 4.06 I believe Acres um you know that they're using for parking um and again I think Clancy appraisals did a good job of capturing that so I I understand the the the public sentiment about trying to somehow tie this to the incoming new director perhaps and and Future negotiations I'd be happy to look into the the the the you know whether the property is technically legally landlocked I I I I believe it is um I think I know that road um it's more of a path off anska um I've actually been on it um it's it's balled off it's it's it's basically vehicle traffic can't access it there's a Ballard on it I think Wastewater uses that to access one of their I think lift stations or some equipment in that area um but I don't think it's technically considered an access so I think Mr Clancy got that part of the appraisal right I think it is technically a landlocked piece of property um but but the other concern I would have is that ironically coincidentally the Steamship Authority is meeting tonight to consider the draft um which again just last week we had a chance to sit down with Mr Davis and and his and their attorney uh Town Council was was with me as well as uh the DPW director um so I don't know taking back to any kind of 11th Hour changes what impact that might have if they and and the concern let me cut to the chase is if we don't have an agreement in place um we would have to get with our uh uh liability insurance car Maya to find out what kind of an impact that would have because what right now the current agreement that we have that expires at the end of this month has some Provisions that protect both parties from lawsuit personal injury if that expires then we have no such agreement and I'm a little bit considered about that that liability that that exposure that the town might have so again I I understand that that that I guess to a certain extent the why push this into three years why not just do a one-year deal I think importantly we need to time future renewals on appraisals to get a better sense of the actual fair market value because it's only going to go up um so that's kind of where I'm where I'm at right now a big concern if we don't take any action what happens in a couple of weeks if if we stall and we don't have an agreement in place um there's 250 plus vehicles I know that because the parking lot was pretty full on Sunday when I walked through it um what what do we do with those Vehicles do we have them removed uh because we have no they have no legitimate right to be on the property so some of my concerns who can I I'm just I'm stuck I'm stuck who who reviewed the appraisal did anybody in town hall did like do we look at that appraisal so yes I I have a copy of the of the appraisal Town Council has a copy of the appraisal I'm assuming that Town Council looking at the appraisal has an opinion that the appraisal is was done appropriately and legally and accurately I have no reason to question the legitimacy of the appraisal at all and that's kind of where I'm stuck that we're you know we're questioning someone we hired to do an appraisal to give us a fair market value and we're sitting here saying well we don't know if it's a good appra asking I have an issue with just to clarify I didn't say that I had an issue with the the appraisal per se in fact I said that I thought we were getting a good rental based upon that appraisal and much better than we had done in the past all I said was you know if someone wants to look at it there would be some time to look at it I certainly I'm not speaking to your comment either Mr I'm speaking more to Mr Browns that there was a piece that perhaps wasn't looked at or I'm asking that to me is I don't know why would we hire somebody that I mean I'm just questioning why would we hire somebody that could be something and it might have been overlooked I know Clancy did the appraisal for what this is worth mam chair board Clancy did the the last appraisal nine years ago I believe um I don't know how deeply that appraisal that report was vetted um but it was the same company that did the appraisal I'm just stuck REM that one piece can I just ask another question for clarification um I think Mr Renshaw what you're saying is that um with regards to some of the uh emails that we've gotten with concerns about bike and pedestrian safety that that you feel with this lease and our ability to um do pavement markings perhaps signage that those may be concerns that with this lease we can as a town address on the the town property without that that would not be a provision of the lease to address those concerns yes uh select board member Goldstone I think a lot of it I can't can't speak for the uh the members of the bike and pestal committee but having met with them I think a lot of the concerns that they expressed to me last year when we did this kind of onee holdover that we about to expire was on the authority property and and their failure or reluctance to follow through on what they were required to do those markings the uh reflective paints and in the cross cross cross markings so it was on the authority side of the property and quite honestly my my intent going forward is to continue to work with Mr Davis for the time that he's he's in the position in that office and whoever the replacement happens to be establish that relationship uh going forward so that we we we have a and again um it was I brought it to Mr Davis's attention with regards to some of the pavement markings we debated whether or not there were adequate no idling signs I'll be honest with you uh we went down there independently and counted them um he was late May 15th is the date um in in this current agreement as it is in the proposed draft for them to do their their maintenance work on their property they were late this year they were but when I brought it to his attention um it it got some movement I think it's it it it's it it's the the onus is going to be on my office to make sure that we're holding the authority uh to task and making sure that they're following through on on on their commitments what what and hold them hold their feet to the fire so to speak with regards to and that has been a big frustration with them potentially not not living up to their part of the agreement in terms of safety and signage and it's not just this I mean this is the only thing that's on the agenda but there's a myriad of right but this is what we're this is what's on the agenda and this is what we're looking at but I I don't disagree with you Mr Brown but I think we need to stick with what's on the agenda yeah and I'll say I understand the sentiment that this is the leverage we have to try to address some of those other issues but um I will say and Mr Mcall as you mentioned earlier right this is another example of a lease that's up in two weeks and as you've just said Mr Renshaw we're we're kind of in a bind if we were to go back to the drawing board we end up without a lease and so um would certainly not want to do a one-year lease and end up in that same position and to not end up in that position we would be back negotiating this lease in 6 months and I don't really see what would change in a six-month period um there won't be new leadership at the Steamship Authority in 6 months um you know I I think to to Mr zelinsky's Point um this is a significant increase in Revenue it is um guaranteed Revenue um I think there's actually an argument to be made that having a standing stable agreement um as new leadership comes in is actually a benefit um rather than renegotiating a lease um with brand new leadership um and and so I think this this gives us that and and appreciate the the points that you've made Mr Renshaw both about being able to address some of the safety concerns on our property um and um just the the um paying attention to the fact that this hadn't been updated in a while that we need to be doing those um Regular assessments and and um ensuring that we are getting fair market value for that that land and and having an opportunity to um assess our options um on a regular basis I also think that there was a lot of work that went into preparing this um I don't think it was quite frankly I don't think it was last minute I think this has gone on for months I think the board was met with by the town manager's office individually so we all knew the bones of this I I I don't think it was last minute and I I think that is that's a real negative comment to the town manager's office when there was a lot of work that went on prior to him meeting with us individually and October with all due respect Madam chair and I and I said that I appreciated all the hard work that was done uh my concern more is that the public uh did not have the the uh knowledge or the notice that we had as to what was going on and here we are you know on December 16th and we have received you know a boatload no pun intended uh of uh of of emails from concerned residents that I think it would have been better uh if this had been out there sooner so that we could have you know heard those and maybe you know listened a little bit better maybe had a little bit more opportunity to uh you know to to go back to the Steamship Authority I I'm certainly concerned about what would happen as Mr rure points out if uh if if everything fell apart and we have 250 cars there uh and and what what that's going to mean going forward again the same issue we have with the with the golf course so uh you know I would like to you know there are people here who I do think would like to speak to the issue and certainly like to hear from them yes and as long as it's new information that has not come from our emails that's uh that's your determination as if there is someone that would like to speak on this matter that has not sent us an email that is new information that would be great yes sir yes my name is Paul Sylvia and I'm on the board of the directors of the friends of the fouth Bikeway um this this lease got to me last Thursday and uh some background information was supplied and um one of the major things that our board is concerned with is the fact that there was a request by by the DPW of the Steamship Authority to divert their cars up chry Road and off to town and that is um very important because the way the the buses come out of the parking lot now it's it's just a total bottleneck and it's a an accident waiting to happen with those buses coming right out on Railroad Avenue and up the hill um it would be much safer if those buses exited on chalry road and then took right off um up to town and uh so I don't know why um that was not um put in the lease with with uh the Steamship Authority um I don't know who did the negotiation with the Department of Public Works but I think they're on the right track of uh um making the the whole area down there a lot safer and I you know we we'd like to stop this in its tracks but you know that's that's not realistic one year is and I think little things like that that that add up actually it's not a little thing it's a big thing um there's there's children right there that are running around there's ice cream stand there and people just going out into the street and these these buses coming out it's um I I think that we need to have something in that lease that says they're not going to have the buses coming out the way they do now and they have to exit on Child R thank you sir thank you yes yeah I did email do new information great hi Katherine Jansen I'm chair of the bicycle and pedestrian committee I'm also on the board of friends of Falmouth bikeways and I'm an Advisory Board member for vision zero which is a Cape Cod wide initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injury for car drivers bicyclists pedestrians and workers in 2024 calendar 2024 350,000 trips have been taken so far on the shining sea Bikeway that's an increase over 302,000 in 2023 Our concern is simply that not our town does not have much leverage with the Steamship Authority that lot itself some paint some signs the lot itself is not really a big safety issue um there aren't that many parking spaces cars can't really speed the safety issue is this SSA lot and rail Road Avenue and Water Street and lcom and the SSA lot what Paul was referring to is a shuttle bus's exit railroad that's where the bike path shoots you out right there on Railroad and um I mean I've personally seen families with little kids like oh jump up on the curb so my question would be what number is a life worth 600,000 I it's an excellent point it's financially responsible but what can we do to get some leverage with the Steamship Authority get them to hire a traffic management engineer and solve the chaos that exists in the lot on Railroad Avenue and on luscom thank you thank you I think this highlights the the inability of us to really effectively work with them as a whole you know State Authority yeah mam chair you looking for a motion are we done talking is there any other discussion well I still like the one-ear idea and try to come up with a better solution so that's my feeling and the risk is that that they they took it to their meeting tonight correct correct they that's my understanding is their meeting and it's listed as three years correct can I also just speak to that um I was just looking at my email and we started working on this lease in November of 23 if we do one-year leases we're just going to be working on it all the time it is absolutely inefficient to do one-year leases from just a workflow standpoint and even three years when you're talking about a lease is pretty short um this has a threeyear plus with the option of an extra two years but that was written that way because the terminal should be completed in 3 years I just the thought of continually working on this lease for the next three years with one-year leases is um disturbing thank you m chair make a motion to approve the lease agreement by the by and between the town of fouth and Woods Hole Mar's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority as presented second okay okay we have a motion and a second any further discussion amongst the board I'm just not happy with it more discussion okay seeing none all those in favor I I I'm going to vote no because I just I'm so frustrated with the Steamship Authority vote no I motion carries all right discuss and consider voting the 2025 select board meeting calendar we've gone we've looked at this a couple of times does anyone find any other issues with the calendar for the 2025 year and can we just highlight the changes has there been major changes so I can I can I can talk about a few of the major changes and I want to thank select board member Goldstone for for pointing this out um and I'll focus on September the month of September in the original draft uh had us uh had us meeting on September 22nd which is rashash Shana um that was that was an error that never should have happened um I also want to thank assistant Town manager for going through and uh finding a calendar that lists all of the major holy days incorporating that as a base on this calendar so that we avoid that error from happening again so major challenges yeah we we we move the September meetings to avoid rash Shana um Peter there was a October meeting too right was an issue yeah September October one of those in October we're meeting two in a row that's fine y yeah I I don't think the two in a row was as much of an issue as making sure that we W there's a couple of back Tob backs that this is going to you know it's just a function of um you know holidays um state recognized holidays and federal holidays and uh and and major holy days and uh and that's resulted in trying to avoid all of those in some back-to-back meetings but Peter I think that you know it's it's it's doable um has an impact on select board too I realize that but in terms of the workload um there's a couple of instances of back-to-back meetings that we think are are doable we also had a a Community member or to reach out to us thankfully yes um and give us some input so that was really helpful right yeah I think October 6th was the date in October um that we had originally on the original draft and that's another um Jewish holiday that we wanted to avoid holy day I'm sorry not holiday holy day yeah uh I I want to thank the town manager's office for the responsiveness and and uh finding that that calendar um and uh I would uh make a motion to approve and adopt uh the calendar year 2025 select board meeting calendar as uh discussed in presented in the packet I'll second M goldstone's motion Madame chair okay we have a motion in a second to approve the 2025 select board meeting calendar any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I okay discuss and consider vote to approve the beach committee's recommendation to create a mobile food vendor bid process Mr Renshaw okay first off Madam chair thank you I want to thank Beach committee for its presentation on October 21st I think we re uh we we have a copy of that presentation in your board packets this evening as a reference point so so many thanks to the beach committee and the work and the hours that they put in um as you all know uh the beach committee on October 21st uh made the recommendation that Mobile Food Services at the following beaches old silver old silver public old silver residential or permit surf drive and Falmouth Heights for 7 days a week 12 weeks of the season with a minimum of 3 we period or r quation for vendors four vendors per season 8 hours of operation per day so Shifting the model uh from the stationary concession uh buildings to an all mobile food vendor uh uh model um maintaining the present operation of a mobile ice cream vendor at all Falmouth beaches I understand that that mobile ice cream vendor uh there were um a previous uh RFP for mobile food vendor and uh is it parry's ice uh was awarded that bid um so the one of the beach recom beach committee recommendations is to maintain uh the present operation of that mobile ice cream vendor at all of the beaches um adding a mobile morning coffee service at locations and times that serve the Public's needs um which I thought was uh was was interesting for a service not otherwise offered by another vendor at any one of the locations provide Mobile Food Service for the beaches not included above during regular Beach hour schedule to be determined uh madam share and select board in past years as I just mentioned the town has awarded contracts through competitive bid process to stationary food concession vendors uh for the following fixed locations surf Drive old silver resident Beach and old silver public um in addition uh there's a solit solicitation done for Mobile Beach concessions um wasn't very specific because it's again it's Perry's ice cream that has that current or had that current uh contract found with Heights manant Chapa quites Manet woodneck and grus pond importantly and I wanted to emphasize this the beach committee stated um that they spent considerable time and they did researching vendor interest of mobile food vendor operators and compiled information regarding the space available at each location a lot of that space location specific information was included in your packet I think there were questions asked about kind of the data the uh Quant quantifiable kind of data as far as the need or you know res has been surveyed um that was um not produced during the October 21st presentation but there was some comments anecdotal made that there was support select board has received a couple of emails recently I think over the weekend uh from a couple of uh residents indicating that they would support the model of all food vendor all mobile food vendors um in support of its recommendation the beach committee points to the vulnerability of the surf Drive bath house to flooding and subpar conditions of the existing stationary session structures at all three of the locations and a need for quote sustainable and consistent end quote food service at our beaches um Madam chair select board um I'm acknowledging the fact that we do need to plan uh for food services without fixed structures in the future that's that's a given um clearly we all know this the the current structures could not be replaced in the current locations without elevating the buildings putting them on stilt so to speak however in discussions with facilities maintenance Personnel um we feel like there's some additional uh functionality left in the current three fixed concession buildings um I don't feel that there has been any compelling evidence or Reason uh to vacate the existing fixed food concession structures in the upcoming Beach season I'll say this um so I've been here for 18 months in a couple of beach Seasons we have some issues that we're working through Beach Department's done a great job making some improvements looking at Staffing looking at how we issue becoming more efficient more streamlined and how we issue beach permit stickers I'm here to tell you last Beach season my office it was like a Turn Style there were a lot of unhappy folks that couldn't get their Beach stickers issued fast enough I'm really wanting to focus our efforts and attention on fixing those things inhouse that we could do better um rather than looking in 2025 at this across the board model shift to a to an all mobile food vendor uh scenario again I I think there's some elements of our current operation that we need to fix in-house before we look at at broader um enhancements or improvements to service we need to do those things better that we do year in and year out in my mind and I talked about a couple of those issuing Beach stickers more efficiently so people aren't waiting some of the stuff that you heard and some of the uh the schedule the fee schedule changes are meant to incentivize people to not wait until the last minute get their beach sticker before April 15th that's perfect that's what I'm talking about um and and again we've had some discussions as I think I've indicated earlier with uh facilities maintenance Personnel that the buildings although you know they're nearing their end of life they're still functional and usable so Madam chair select board absent some compelling reason to replace the fixed food concessions immediately as in the upcoming 2025 Beach season uh I'm recommending select board authorize the following as a means of transitioning literally transitioning to a future all mobile food Vendor model recognizing and and acknowledging the fact that you end of life of the current fixed concession stands are are approaching us um but allowing for a transition period um and I'll just kind of outline what those are a bid for fixed food concessions for the same three locations for 2025 the same being the existing um old silver public old silver private it and um and but there'll be a competitive bid for those three sites yes same As It Ever Was same the same process that was used in previous years with regards to those fixed concessions we would we would work with uh DPW and and Facilities maintenance to to to in Town Council to draft that that that bid solicitation um a bid for one or more F mobile food services at all the other beaches to allow vendors including the previous vendor at fouth Heights um which is all know operates a uh kind of a customized I guess vendor apparatus truck at that beach um to prepare a bid for 2025 um a request for quotes for one mobile coffee vendor with access to the beaches at times and locations the beaches do not have a food vendor offering beverages managing that I I think could be problematic but I think it's something that could work out um in terms of you know what existing vendors are not serving beverages at that time but we can work through that um so Madam shair select board the options um is would be a motion to authorize the solicit solicitation of bids as proposed by by me a bid for continued fixed food concessions for the same three locations at old silver public old silver permit and surf drive for 2025 with two one-year options to renew at the discretion of the town and a bid for one or more Mobile Food Service at all other beaches to allow vendors including the previous vendor of fth Dees to prepare a bid for 2025 and a request for quotes for one mobile coffee vendor with access to the beaches at times and locations the beaches don't have a food vendor offering beverage Services the uh other option uh that's on the table this evening is a motion to authorize solicitation of bids as recommended by the beach committee back on October 21st and I'll outline those outline those briefly Mobile Food Service at the following beaches old silver public old silver permit surf drive and filmou Heights 7 days a week 12 weeks for the season with a minimum of a 3-e period per vendor four vendors per season and eight hours of operation per day maintain the present operation of a mobile ice cream vendor at all fouth beaches again that was a solic solicitation that was an independent solicitation and lastly add a mobile coffee service at locations and times that serve the Public's needs for for service not otherwise offered by another vendor at any one location um so those are the two broad options my recommendation to kind of allow a one-year transition period um at those three fixed concession stance recognizing the needs to transition away from that at some point in the near future or uh a motion by the select board to authorize and implement the beach committee's recommendation Town Council did you want to weigh in well I had um offered to make some comments about how we got here and and sort of the the bridge between the what we heard from the beach Committee in October in October to town manager's recommen recommendation tonight but honestly the recommendation was so self-explanatory and comprehensive that I I don't think I have anything else to add to that discussion amongst the board M gostone um if I understand what you're proposing It's actually an expansion of food service at our beach um and I'm curious uh we we did get um when we got the beach committee recommendations essentially a financial analysis of what the expected Revenue would be with the the Mobile Food Service versus um the current fixed Food Service do you do you have any understanding it's probably back of the envelope but idea of what the the financial um ramifications of The Proposal that you're making would Delta between what the beach committee proposed um and versus what the current model I think the comment made by the beach committee representative what they they estimated they'd be about the same Revenue I can't I mean I guess I'm saying in terms of if we have the fixed service and bids for mobile service as well at additional beaches that would be a net expansion of beaches with food service right so and and yeah yeah so this is confusing because what we the status quo has multiple pieces right we do have the three fixed has been the status quo but in addition there is mobile we we bid mobile service at all of the other if not all almost all of the other beaches and um and we have the the award that resulted from that solicitation happened to be for one operator but it could have been separate operators yeah so what is being proposed I would I would summ the difference you know we've been seeking mobile vendors for the other beaches before we're going to continue that so that's that's not really a change the only real change is coffee service so the town manager's recommendation incorporates the beach committee recommendation to say hey let's try something new and add a coffee service to the mobile bid solicitation that we've had for the those beaches that don't have a fixed vendor location do they handle their own trash Peter yes they would they they're responsible that's part of the contract have a question M oh go ahead I'm sorry I appreciate the uh the effort that uh the town manager's office has put in and coming back with some kind of a transition plan um I'm I'm just wondering if the um if if the future is more definite if we just do one year and don't mention the the possibility of two years uh at the same situation if we just made it a fixed oneyear term and let it be known to everyone that we're really transitioning to the mobile phone uh mobile uh food and the other question is if there's any way to get the ice cream vendor to stop playing that tune I mean you know that would be something I'd write into the RFP if you that's heresy do you know how kids respond to that sound exactly ridiculous so Madam chair need that Madam chair select board member m scall so I I my my my strong preference is always to allow us the town some some flexibility um and and I think that was the intent of incorporating that you know option at the towns to reserve that that option and and Reserve that and have that flexibility um I understand the point this elim it's any gray area and and and and and drives Us in the direction you know flexibility right next year it would just be a new you know another process yeah so as a manager I always like to have a little bit of flexibility and and room to maneuver um and and not be hemmed in um again you know and I acknowledge this up front and I'm not a a a a a coastal resiliency scientist and I don't have that expertise but it doesn't take an expert to know that we're going to have to make plans right we're doing that with regards to beach office facilities so why would wouldn't we do that with the concession so I I just you know I don't know if that immediate need is going to be in 2025 I just wanted to allow that transition and a little bit of flexibility to if we had to delay the transition how was the uh success of implementing food trucks in the other beaches that you've been looking at looking at um other municipalities you mean no I I thought you just said that you've already been searching for vendors for other beaches that's been the status quo for the last 20 years we've issued a bid um soliciting bids at the fixed locations at the three beaches and soliciting mobile food vendors at the other beaches and Perry's ice cream has been winning that bid but the bid in the past the bid didn't specify ice cream that just happened to be the winning bid so the last time this was bid and the time before and the time before that if someone was if a vendor or multip vendors were interested in providing food truck service at one or more of the other beaches that don't have a bath house they they could have done that and and the the reality you know the the experience has been we've just been getting the one ice cream truck response to that bit so ju thanks Doug um just given that model I I distinctly remember part of the presentation being that these food trucks were going to to be on a rotation yes so forgive me if I'm wrong I mean that that that cushion of the possibility of it going two years would kind of help these if I was starting a business on unknown beaches and and trying to figure that out one season doesn't sound like long enough to be able to do that and perfect that and make money so I would be inclined to you know give a little bit of a cook on that while this gets developed the twoe option is only with respect to the fixed locations I understand well if the fixed locations Go away You're going to have uh all of the food trucks if I understand this correctly once they go away they're all going to be on a rotation sharing the gravy of you know who wants the heights I had woodneck last week that's the only way this is going to work if everybody gets a fair cut at it and I think one year isn't long enough if you're going to develop that model it's personally to have them perfect that and be able to go over their own financials and see if there's money to be made to even bid it the next year you want to answer that so you saying you want more than a one year I I I just I would like at least that flexibility okay with this because they're year toe um they're year year bits no they three Madam chair yes um so in terms of the beach committee proposal their proposal was two two different well three different bids or yeah three four no four different bits um so one was that instead of the fixed locations for um old silver resident old silver public and surf drive those those three plus fouth Heights that would be the rotation not all of the beaches they there would be bids they would be four bid Awards envisioned for those four beaches and they would rotate every two weeks so what happens to the rest of the beaches though every three weeks what happens to the rest of the beaches that so the rest of the beaches there would be a separate bid again to say you know who wants to go into those other beaches and I I guess no that's right so and I think specifically the idea was was ice cream trucks right are this the specific part of the bid process though well there's a you structure the RFP to you know to invite bids in certain ways right so um so we can structure some of that in advance and but yeah there are a million ways that you could that you could bid this out could we create a vetting process where we authorize trucks to operate and then not make them bid and just say if you're an authorized vendor you can go to our beaches whenever you feel like it if you want to swing by at lunch give somebody a burger you could alternatively you could issue a license or a permit and in that respect then you're not even implicating chapter 30b you're not procuring it what you're doing is you're um charging a a set fee for the space and then the vetting process would be you know you you uh establish where certain licenses are going to be issued in the various parking lots at whatever beaches we decide want we want to have food trucks and then people will apply for the license and you vet based on whatever criteria you're looking for the kind of hours of operation you're seeking um days of the week uh types of service that you want to provide and there would be an evaluation of anyone who applied for the licenses and then you just set up a fee based upon for example um lost revenue for that particular space or you do some sort of evaluation of whatever that space costs whether it's you know $7,500 for the season I don't know what it is but um so that's like that's the alternative to the bid process I'm thinking something if I may that that um process is absolutely legally viable it's going to be difficult for us to make a case to generate a lot of money that way so to match the same money that we've been getting or to or to match what we might get through a mobile bid if we do it purely based on license we can't take potential income generation as as one of the basis as a basis to set the license so I'm not thinking about income I'm just thinking about service to the public I'm just thinking in terms of if we could license them to come and go as they please if they don't have a a gig that day they can go drive by the beaches they can swing by like Mr Softy used to do in the neighborhood and sell some burgers make the rounds you know they could take turns they might come and go we might get quite a bit of service we wouldn't get any Revenue except for the license feet I think it's inconsistent too with rever inconsistent but what we got is consistently nothing now so and the the fee wouldn't have to be just a representation of the Lost Revenue it could be whatever you wanted it to be it it would have to be reasonable so if you're talking about changing a model from income from revenue share to a license fee then it could be the offset for what You' Miss for the revenue share you could charge $50,000 for a license for a spot well I'm not thinking of spots I'm just thinking there could be one designated spot if a driver comes and there's already a truck they keep going maybe they'd have to start to network with each other to to get a little and that's where I think you know the dialogue with the vendors was that's not going to be very fruitful for the vendors so they're probably not going to bid a lot on that you might get territory it may get territorial too if if everybody you first come first a serve who sits there I mean who's gostone you've been waiting oh I'm sorry that's all right um yeah no I agree that I think the license the licensing pathway if we wanted to do that I think think would need to be on top of something more consistent because it's it's not going to be that consistent Revenue that would make it worthwhile for the food trucks um because my understanding well it sounds like a nice idea I don't have anything else I'll go drive by right there's an enormous amount of food prep that goes into being prepared to provide that service and not being sure that you can sell that food um would probably not be a a winning uh proposition for those food trucks I guess where where my thinking is going is um I'm not hearing a lot of appetite to move old silver and surf drive away from their current models in the coming year Falmouth Heights is already food truck service and I'm trying to think whether there is a way to build on that and incorporate some other beaches that gets us to this kind of consistency and rotation model that is appealing to food trucks that expands our food service at our beaches and provides um I mean I I think we absolutely have to consider the the pace of transition and at the same time I I think we should keep inight the fact that this this could be a really exciting opportunity and Improvement for our beaches to have more beaches served by more variety of food more businesses in town involved in providing food service at our beaches and so is there way to significantly move in that direction in the coming year um with more food trucks involved um to to get people excited about this transition um to All Mobile Food Service um because what I'm hearing the the recommendation is is essentially status quo and we haven't been getting Mobile Food Truck bids for the other beaches so I don't see why we would expect to get mobile food service truck bids with the same process this year so if we really want this to be a transition year and moving in that direction thinking about how we craft something that that really is appealing to Food Truck providers um if not at those beaches with currently fixed than at Falmouth Heights and other beaches can we hear from the beach committee now uh we can in just a minute let's just is there anything else that so so it it based on the recommendation um the current situation with fouth Heights is that that that was a was that a separate bid for under the Mobile Food vendor category right that that just so happens was it Hogs and dogs that vendor received that so I mean hypothetically um we open that solicitation up for mobile food vendors at fouth Heights uh to other and and perhaps another business model right would come forward um to to to to outbid um the current that would be a competitive process I'm not I'm not proposing that we lock in to the current vendor uh it was a it was a separate kind of an independent mobile food vendor solicitation so let's continue that in in 2025 whether it's dogs and Hogs or a competitor that comes up with a better a better proposal I'm wondering if we haven't been having success um with our proposals that we've been issuing for the last 20 years because of the terms of The Proposal it might be a good idea to tap into the information and the data that the beach committee got through their focus groups and um use that as a basis for whatever RFP or request for quotes um they it did sound from the presentation in October that they were getting information about the desire to share spaces or to have shorter hours than just having I mean I haven't seen that with the proposals that we've been issuing look like for the past 20 years but if we're not getting success and there's got to be something that isn't Jing with the information we got back from the actual vendors about what they'd like to see I think it's a matter of what success is we've we have vendors and we have a we have a you know an income stream it's a question of you know there's a philosop there's the you know there's the question about moving away from fixed that's not about you know getting more or better bids per se it's just it's a it's question moving to a different model right um so I you know there are a lot more food trucks around now than there were 10 years ago or five years ago so we even with this issuing the same bid that we've issued in the past we may get more and different bids that might Pro you know provide more interesting food options um but I do think it's going to be difficult to move the needle um in terms of transition in to a full mobile model without taking the the prime locations that have fixed facilities right we you know we are it's it's a transition I think mostly in the sense of we're saying we're going to do one more year of the old model and then we're going to we're going to be looking at going to more of a fully mobile um situation along the lines of what the beach committees which we heard from one of the vendors I think on the 21st of October was that they understand this you know likely is coming they just wanted a transition period you mean one of the fixed vendors correct one of the fixed vendors Mr Brown and I think maybe we should TR think in terms more of more uh vendor friendly and less about the revenue because you're providing a service to the beachgoers if this starts to click then people might say hey the uh the taco guys at woodneck today let's go down there you know maybe there could be something on the website saying what the schedule might be we might get more Revenue overall from beachgoers and the the it might work out I just I don't want to be too restrictive if we if we do redo it I think Barbara's waiting to yes well M CH if I may W just one of the concerns that we haven't touched on is the time in administration right so we've been getting some money that's nice Town manager talked earlier about the budget challenges we face in the years ahead so finding new Revenue not losing existing revenue is sort of the direction that we want to be going um but also in terms of how do we control our costs it's not creating more administrative burden by having a really complicated vendor situation let's you know let's keep it fairly manageable and simple make a decision bid it out and move on to the next thing give them a license say good luck maybe so Barb Schneider chair Beach committee and I know Maggie sitting here listening to this and the one thing we get complaints about Doug is people not being there for food when people came to the beach expecting to get food you can't have it be iffy especially at those four main locations it has to be that people can depend on not bringing a picnic lunch and getting their lunch that is absolute not those four places you cannot do anything about whoever wants to show up if we made a space in other places like manot like woodneck like chappie that's one thing but the four main places people go they go there a lot of moms go there and dads go there cuz they don't have to pack a lunch and it's easy yeah I was talking about the new okay that's a that's a whole different thing cuz really what I'm I'm going to read to you is the statement from the beach committee and that is this that since we started all this and it was front page news in October of 2023 if the select board intends to vote not to accept our 18 months of research and the input from the Falmouth food truck and restaurant industry including past vendors we have one request we ask that you the select board include language tonight to agree to move out of the buildings at this time for 2026 so that that will give ample time to warn people this is a change it will allow a smooth transition time for the development of contracts for local businesses wishing to bid the time to investigate trucks and food offerings appropriate for and appealing to our locations the beach committee does not believe we have time to think small and thank you for hearing me did someone have question a comment I'm Jo Trula I'm also on the beach committee as Vice chair one of your concerns that you were discussing is in regards to the vendors input as to how they would operate on the beaches and that's why in our recommendation that the four locations mentioned have a vendor there for a period of 3 weeks straight at least they can be there longer they can bid in longer but at least three weeks so this continuity in that location and that that 3-we period be followed by somebody else for another 3 weeks so that you get a system of continuity at these locations the one thing that is different between a food vendor that comes in and goes to a fixed location is they must bring all their products and all of their refrigeration and all of their fixed um assets are at that location a mobile vendor can bring the the vehicle to that site have it there for three or 4 days Pull It Away reload it and bring it back the difference in our proposal is that we have allocated space let's say at old silver where they can park their vehicle in front of where it was before that they had the fix station and actually service people out of their vehicle which has been set up efficiently and operationally these kit have been set up 30 years ago for operation out of a window that nobody even knows it's there on some of those I've had people walk up to me and say where is their food service at old silver because they can't see it it's on the side it's not there it's not advertised there's no signage except on one side a food vendor truck is obviously a food vendor truck and many of them like to take it back to the shop reload it for the next day and bring it back in the morning some of them operate by being fixed for a period of time period and plugin so when I'm not trying to take up all of your time but I'm saying their operation is totally their operation and everyone operates differently but they definitely take advantage of their local home kitchen someplace in town where they operate out of prepare the food and bring it to the beach these other vendors that are in fixed locations they got a freezer their burgers are frozen sitting there waiting to be thought out for the next day same with their french fries but the point is that we have more flexibility with people with that and the beach committee is perfectly willing to work with the town manager and developing over the next six eight weeks whatever period of time something that will work for the for the proposal go ahead thank you I have a question about the uh alternating uh trucks I wonder if there's going to be any kind of U mandatory items like if you had one truck that was only salads and another truck that's only Burgers I mean are we given any thought to that or is that just going to be up to the vendor and whatever happens happens the it's up to the vendor as to what they wish to bring to the beach but the one motivator that all the vendors have is they don't like to lose money they're not going to put a product out there that nobody wants and they're going to use the success of where they've been in other places to come back back to do it and the the communities that have done this find that it's self-correcting as uh as Scott has said they don't want to lose money they want to make money this is what they're in the business for it's not a case of just simply doing this as a hobby um whether it's Taco Blanco whether it's Hogs and dogs these guys want to make money and we're trying to give them a vehicle and you know Mike's proposal is very reasonable as far as a transition if you feel a transition is fine but the inevitability is still there right thank you I'm Nancy hang on one second she's ahead of you Lynn you're you're up first that uh Lyn Shad member of the beach committee um town meeting member and on the uh Plastics reduction advisory committee um I guess I would like to say uh I respectfully um submit that we can excuse me we can improve are um issuing up Beach stickers and also bring food trucks to to town uh to our beaches um they're independent of one another and if we're going to be issuing contracts for stationary services for the coming summer we can issue contracts to potential food vendors um the other thing that I would like to suggest is if we could consider before any decision is made that we see what the public wants what our people in Falmouth want and have either some sort of survey done or some sort of public meeting to say you know what do you think about the idea of having food trucks here in in fouth and see what kind of response we get um it's been anecdotal but the people that we've talked to when we've done this over the past 18 months have all said it's a fabulous idea it's going to provide variety it's going to provide more you know energy and I believe in some of the the research that we did we it actually looked like we were actually going to make more money with the food trucks than with the current setup so it seems to be a win-win situation thank you thank you I I have a question for go ahead ma'am I I I distinctly remember asking one of the presenters in was October right if you had any case study for this and the you know and they said no yeah and you know what that's an uh I thought that was a good question at the time of that meeting in October and that's why I'm suggesting that we well when you mean case study do you mean how has it been done in other towns what the interest would be what the P what the Public's what they'd be looking for yeah and I asked and they said no I asked so that that's kind of what we're that's what I'm proposing now like do we need to make a decision on this right now or could we have till February to make a decision no I I I was under the impression that it had to be made before the end of the year which is why I put on the agend nod in her head people how about I'm willing to make an amendment to my motion to go with the one year as take the two-year out Bob and go with the one year with the fix I think that accomplishes what what Dr Schneider was i' be willing to make that motion to move this forward and get this let's just let Nancy speak good evening Nancy quig beach chair member uh beach beach committee it's been it's late Beach Committee Member um and I just wanted to say that we reached out the City of Newport uh went to Food Trucks last summer and um one of the vendors was here that night and stated that it was a disaster and I'm here to tell you that there were a couple of bumps I had happily uh happened to be talking with them um actually about um restroom units but it morphed into um the food truck program uh first beach in Newport uh went to a food truck they happen to have uh a new vendor and um there were a couple of bumps in the road like the vendor here stated uh the night of October 21st but um in following up after October they considered it a wild success they made 70 $2,000 uh in their first summer um they had a postmortem with the vendor they did a uh a mutual option uh lease where both parties if it wasn't successful uh didn't have to renew uh they are renewing because it was so successful and they made some changes that they felt would improve um profits and performance for next year for beach goers in the City of Newport well you know there are going to be bumps in the road anytime there's anything that's introduced that's new and I think that needs to be anticipated and and work through but um I want to go back to what M Mr zalinsky said so are you saying that you would amend the motion for the location for 2025 with two one-year options to renew and you would say that it was for one year one one year leave it the way it is now and develop develop um the program and take the one year to do that and and commit to uh this new this new uh prototype uh in the following year they're looking for a little ABS they're looking for a little definity to they don't want to kick this can down the road we know we don't feel like there's enough time to roll it out and and the fixed uh the fixed rest restaurants ask for time to be able to to have a fair Shake I think I would agree but I and I also believe that that's what the town manager is putting forward we may all I'm taking out is a two we let me finish we may disagree on the number of year piece um but I think that is the way that you meet in the middle you go perhaps do the one year and put the other things in place and that gives people a year to figure it out knowing that it's coming and I mean and it doesn't you know I mean that's all right go I mean if something happens and it doesn't foreclose you know if if it looks like Mobile's not going to work it doesn't foreclose us from from going back to the fixed exctly you could do that I would take out as you know as as we had said just take out the two oneyear options and leave it as you know just uh a bid for continued food fixed food concessions for the same three locations for 2025 and and I think Mr stula where is he did he leave no he's no you can sit down but I thought you said it very well so go ahead um I I I think the beach committee's request um that that there be a commitment um to the move to food trucks is um reasonable and for me very easy um to make and I guess I'm still curious whether based on the research that you've done over the past 18 months whether they're is a way with the fixed concessions at uh surf drive and old silver to craft something for other beaches this year that would be appealing that would be a successful RFP to Mobile Food vendors that would build momentum toward that complete shift the following year right that would get that would get us away from what we've had which is that's a possibility but nobody's actually bidding on it to actually getting somebody speak up I'm just I'm gonna say that I like what what the town manager is proposing he's having if I'm reading if I'm hearing it correctly there is still an RFP proposed for mobile vendors MH this year in this coming season yes both one that would specify or encourage the ice cream truck vendor that we previous ly had or have always asked and another vendor of other products besides ice cream that would be able to take some of the locations that are not at the fixed locations that's what we've always had Jo and so what I'm saying is but the difference is that I don't believe that the vendors of Mobile Food Services have taken that as an invitation to them to come and locate at different pces as long as they're not in competition with each other let's say an ice cream vendor and a food vendor can go to the same location under the RFP that you're going to issue then they could provide that service I can I clarify where we are because I think there's if I'm hearing what town manager proposing was stay with what we have and give two one-year options to continue that what we have asked for all of us is one year if that's where you are and you don't feel comfortable with 2025 being food trucks even though we started it 18 months ago then fine can we have 2026 be the year we go to those four locations that's what I just propos I want to just clarify so when he says well I like what the town manager said I I think you like the additional part for this year with the coffee I will tell you we've had other ice cream company trucks approach us so it's not just one that's out there now suddenly as you said there are more food trucks and we have heard from them this will be competitive this time I stole the coffee idea from you I mean it was your idea you did so we we're going around in circles I think I think Mr Mcall you said in the very beginning to go to oneyear transition am I correct which would send the message that that this is the last year and we're going to actively Look To Go full mobile at all locations exactly and from my understanding that's what we heard from the the semi-permanent vendors we need we just you we get it but we need and that's what Scott so I think so I think that um we need to look at that we need to look at our recommendations and I think we can stop spinning around in circles I think we're there let so make the proposal Mr Mcall uh well uh I would um where is the motion motion to authorize solicitation of bids is proposed by the town manager a a bid for continued fixed food concessions for the same three locations at old silver public silver permit and surf drive for 2025 b a bid for one or more Mobile Food Service at all other beaches in parent to allow vendors including the previous vendor at fou Heights to prepare a bid for 2025 and C a request for quotes for one mobile coffee vendor with access to the beaches at times and locations at the beaches where the beaches do not have a food vendor offering beverages I'll second it okay we have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board just one last question is are you afraid of this am IID it's too difficult to do in a year I want it to be successful and I want to I thought you know this this is a compromise we heard from the existing vendors that give us a year to transition as I said earlier everybody knows it again I'm not it's not rocket science we're going to have to move away from the fixed concession model y this gives us a year to do it I wanted flexibility clearly that wasn't going anywhere so I think this is a good pin sounds good hit so thank you okay we have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board hearing none all those in favor good decision thank thank you all all right we're going to move to the consent agenda going to start with licenses consider a vote to approve the EV charger license agreement for level two EV charging stations at Depot AV Town lot 0 plus 60 Depot AV anyone wants to hold anything on the um consent agenda please notify me administrative orders consider approval and authorization of a prescribed burn on the kuna messet Fields consider the approval of the conservation commission's request to file for a Mass wildlife habitat management grant for continued sand plain grassland management by using invasive plant control chair I'll move the consent agenda second okay I have a motion and a second to move the consent agena any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor all right review and vote to approve the minutes of the meetings public session December 2nd 2024 everybody get an opportunity to review them I will admit that I did not actually finish reading the minutes we can hold them I would not hold them otherwise I uh was planning to abstain given that I was not in attendance and I did watch the interviews of the police committee but not the entire meeting yes okay Mr Mcall it's on you uh I'm prepared to haul them until our next meeting we're going to we're going to table them for now at them but I wouldn't say I looked at them we'll put them back sorry about that okay select board reports I'm going to just do one I'm going to just remind you and thank you all for your willingness to meet on December 19th at 5:00 right here the agenda has been posted um any other select board reports uh I uh have been uh approached by multiple people uh about the parcel currently for sale on surf Drive uh surrounded by um town-owned land um and I I guess would just like to to see if that's uh something that the board uh would have an appetite to discuss at a future meeting um that you know the the purchase of uh partials along surf Drive is something that was recommended 20 years ago by the first uh Coastal resilience uh committee um as a way to uh keep it let's keep it to whether the board has an appetite to put it on the agenda I don't want to debate it or get into the specifics I would like to talk about it the uh 250 committee I just want to report that okay so let me let me just I'm sorry okay so we can think about putting that on a future agenda thank you Miss Goldstone Mr Mcall uh so the 250 committee has continued its work uh we contacted Mr Rena's office to see if there were any funds available for an interim period of time before we select before we submit a request for some budget items uh for the next fiscal year and Mr Reno's office got back to uh Got Back to us with with a positive indication that there might be some funds there available and uh we've been talking with DPW or will talk with DPW about putting up some banners celebrating the 250th anniversary in the coming year awesome Mr Brown I attended the cape and is Municipal leaders Association on Friday of last week and we had a presentation on Coastal resiliency in chadam and uh we had members of the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension off offering sharing us with their expertise and what they've been working on and offering that they're available to all towns if we need any help with Coastal resiliency especially us while we're in the interim if we can't find a uh Coastal resiliency person they're willing to help us with anything we need and uh they're Grant funded but also County funded so it's just another resource a good reminder that they're out there and really uh available to help us so uh keep that in mind I have all the contact information if you have a cal resiliency question I can shoot you their emails thank you anything else from the board I guess uh Mr zalinsky reminded me I've been on a a law enforcement uh short course I spent some time uh with the sheriff and got a a tour of our uh County jail facility did a ride along uh with an officer of the fouth police department and and uh thanks to officer Lawler for sharing his Cruiser and um uh being a wealth of of information and got a tour of the hopefully soon to open um Police Academy um facility going in at fouth Tech Park and I think just a lot of really great work happening um in law enforcement uh around Falmouth and the cape and really appreciate all of the time that folks have have given to um to educate me and we approved their electrical connection [Music] today we no we didn't no we didn't Wednesday Thursday Thursday Thursday what was on the uh it's the new agenda yeah we don't talk about I had my old agenda in here for my notes sorry after 11:00 mics are shut off you need to bring you he's voting stuff on his own now okay I will entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second okay I have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board hearing none all those in favor bye [Music]