##VIDEO ID:hrjUe13fONQ## ready so uh I'll bring the meeting to order we have a quarum uh it is 10 5:15 um the first uh order of business is that we will go into executive session to uh uh in the Town administrator's office pursuant to general laws chapter 30A section 21 to discuss Town Council contract um uh and condu conducting strategy sessions in preparation for negotiation uh we will discuss local 7 mixed unit pursuant to general laws 3821 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining uh and to discuss same in an open session would be detrimental to our um bargaining position and finally to uh address and approve uh or move to approve the minutes uh of executive session from June 11th 17th and 20 do I have a second I'll second that right uh Tom yes John yes I vote Yes so we'll come back uh hopefully by by for Open Session um just to uh remind everyone that the uh meeting is being recorded by area 58 um if you would all join me in uh the Pledge of Allegiance we didn't to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you has been member of the police department since 19 1982 AR old and he's got a wonderful job for us uh we really appreciate it we wish you all the best in retirement again it's another sort of bit week for me because I rememberin you the very first time and one of my favorite we do have a recognition certific recognizing your U 37 years of service to the town pal congratulations Al I wish you all the best and retired thank you so much congratulations stay in touch next thing we like appoint the special next thing we haveing for officer for you and you got 37 years theti of the United States of America United States of America and the constition theti of mass mass and execute and enforce execute and enforce the law thereof the law there within the extent that I willth and discharge all the all the duties come as a police officer as a police officer for the AL Police Department police department and I will oby and I will OB and be bound by such rules and be bound by such rules and government and government of the Department of so I will I will hereby accept hereby accept the position of police police department for the police department of the town of the town congratul than just that Ryan text me when you're done okay not a big deal good luck with oh yeah I think Su might leave is my mother no I don't think you I just if you had questions but yeah she's not here anyway so you're good uh so uh next thing on our agenda is um the uh Cassandra Doyle cassandre Doyle know anything about that him why don't we uh why don't we hold on that John want to pull the mic all right so we're looking for Cassandra Doyle she's apparently uh uh on the uh want to uh had applied for beautification committee um I don't know where he is but we will just put a hold on that until the time comes um our uh public hearing is scheduled for 6:15 and I don't I can't start it until we get to that point so we're going to uh move ahead a little bit uh on some of the other BS that we have to deal with first thing is the um uh approval of the 2024 State primary election warrant I think everyone here has seen that is that correct correct uh and I guess it's our duty to approve it so I would make a motion that we approve the um uh election warrant for um 2024 I'll second that okay any discussion all those in favor say I I opposed okay that's unanimous um all right next thing uh let's do um a whole let's go up to the top and uh hit the warrants and so on top sure I move to affirm approval of the following commitments and warrants payroll warrant number eight for $ 27,9 4194 vendor warrant number N9 for $356,400 $30 a withholding warrant number 10 for $89,999 73 a vendor warrant number 11 for $3 37,2 1987 ambulance commitments 722 2024 through 728 2024 for $4,300 4 second any discussion nope all those in favor say I I opposed okay that's unanimous I move to approve the following commitments and warrants payroll warrant number 12 for $267,500 358 and mobile home park Fee number eight for $516 second any discussion all those in favor say I I I oppos it's unanimous uh do we have that um memorandum of agreement that we can talk with so this is the Moa with the mixed unit the mo MOA with the mixed unit and it involves a just a change of um position or not a change of position but it's a stip in for a mcppo certification which is a uh Massachusetts Public purchasing procurement officer okay um so this is um agreement with the um mixed unit and the town uh any discussion from the board nope um I'll make a motion that we approve the uh memorandum of agreement I'll second that do we have any discussion all those in favor say I I opposed okay that's unanimous um and we do uh did we get all the oh abatements we need to do abatements Tom say again abatements you have those there uh I approve to affirm the following ambulance abatements July 2024 for $651 58 second any discussion all those in favor say I I I opposed unanimous uh and the current bills and so on we're all be squared yeah okay all right uh let's see we have um select the meeting minutes two more minutes two more minutes um I'll move that we approve the uh select meeting minutes uh for regular sessions June 25th 2024 July 9th 2024 July 17th 2024 and July 23rd 2024 do I have a second second any discussion all those in favor say I I opposed that's unanimous um see we have uh I'm going to skip ahead a little bit we have use of the Town green for the Boy Scouts do you have that letteror easy stuff way all right so we have a request from Troop 39 they would like to use the town green on November 16th for another bottle Drive uh from 8:00 a.m. to 1: p.m. uh the green is open is that right Pam I yes it is open so uh I will make that motion that we approve the uh use of the green by the Boy Scouts second any discussion all those in favor say I I oppos that's unanimous that um I got one more minute one more minute one more minute do the road opening yeah bang up the RO Road open yeah that's good okay so the road opening is uh for 98 Home Street um there's some stipulations from the highway surveyor the police chief has requested one detail and we have every other approval okay any discussion on the uh opening for uh uh 98 hom NOP I'll make a motion that we approve it do we have a second second any discussion all those in favor say I I ious all right okay so we must be on schedule now you're good 65 615 all right good now let me see here get this out of the way this over here all right so um next thing on our agenda is a uh hearing um public hearing uh and this is um just to get this uh everything set here so we have a notice of a public hearing uh the Halifax Board of Selectmen will hold a public hearing on Tuesday August 13 2024 at 6:15 in the selectman's meeting room it's actually in the Great Hall uh at uh uh the town hall uh pursuant to general laws chapter 140 section 157 to hear a complaint against the dog owned by uh tab mcer 22 12th Avenue Halifax Mass determine whether the dog is a nuisance dog or a dangerous dog or any other decision we would make uh anyone wishing to appear uh should appear now all right um so the first thing uh that we will uh need to do uh since this is a hearing under uh chapter 140 section 157 it specifically requires that uh we take uh testimony under oath so I'm going to ask anyone who may testify or give any uh information in this case that please stand I think we just had another individual walk in someone just walked in you're here for the dog hearing yes all right so you have to uh we have to uh have everyone who's going to testify uh swear to tell the truth so if every one who was potentially to testify please raise your right hand do you swear or affirm that the testimony you were about to give in the matter before this board will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes sir thank you okay so we would like to start with uh having the uh animal control officer come on up to the front here and give us a uh an outline as to uh yeah right up at the table there and talk to the microphone because it's all being recorded start with uh just uh identifying yourself your name and who you work for I'm Jacob genon I work for the town of Halifax as the Animal control officer all right great so can you give us a uh out outline as to what happened so I responded to a call that I was dispatched to on uh June 19th 2024 I was called at around 1:15 I was got on scene at around 1:30 um I spoke with the victim or gentleman in the situation who got ran up spawned by a dog in his backyard um it was a Robert wheeler um he said that a white dog ran up on his own dog named Harley and initiated a fight with his dog um pretty much I tried to find the owner of this dog he told me that some somebody some woman came over white woman heavy set um came took her dog and just left the scene um we later found out that the dog was owned belonged to someone at 22 12th AV um from there we found out that on uh June 20th after I had a call with uh officer Simpson um let me see I took all tab's information down and then I briefly talked with tabber on the phone you know ex claiming the seriousness of the situation and how his dog can't be going around biting other people's dogs or people um from there I uh you know thought the I did let him know about a 10day quarantine that would be done by the animal inspector um from there I figured the situation was solved and hopefully you know that this wouldn't happen again 5 days later on June 24th at approximately uh 1230 I got another call I arrived at 12550 um I as I was pulling up to the scene I saw two officers located at 2212 speaking with a female Who was the dog walker of uh taber's dog um she was speaking with the officers I went over and talked with the uh victim Mr Wheeler and you know just asked him a couple simple questions to see you know what had happened and what was going on um I then went and talked with the dog walker and informed her that I was going to be taking the dog for at least a 10day quarantine um and possibly a dangerous dog Hearing in the future um from there the dog Walker's name was AA chase you know I talked with tabber on the phone once again and you know just tried to exclaim to him how you know two bites in less than a week is very bad situation to be in and that he would definitely be getting a dangerous dog hearing shortly okay that's pretty much all I have did you uh find out how the dog got loose yeah so the dog was hooked to a prong collar on a leash prong collar being like a metal collar that has little prongs that would stick into the dog's neck or squeeze the dog's neck if it pulled um the one of the prongs broke off of the collar allowing the dog to run free ran directly down to 321 12v where he initiated the fight with the German Shepherd there all right and can you give us a description of the animal like what breed it is or what yeah you observed about it he's like a tan and white Hound um he's a little bit of a mix I would say he's tan and white but he's a Hound um size size I would say he's probably between 50 to 60 lb maybe upwards of that he's fairly big I would say muscular also lean okay and do you have any prior complaints with this animal other than these two instances other than these two instances no okay and did you you handled the the animal yourself I did yes and what what what did you what's your opinion about this particular animal this particular animal not the breed but the animal the dog is um I could definitely you know from the interaction with the other dog the German Shepherd I could tell that he was dog aggressive um what does that mean was looking to initiate the fight with the dog by running down there and you know I don't know if he was playing and the other dog got aggressive with him or what had happened but either way the dog ran over there twice to you know initiate a fight or go over with the dog but when I was had custody of him he didn't seem aggressive towards me at all um seemed very good on the leash with me allowed me to put him in the back of my truck usually and you know overall was very good with people we didn't seem aggressive towards any of the officers on scene either okay and uh I'm not real familiar with the uh geography there so how far apart are these two properties um I would say there's probably there's a so there's a street and then two houses and then it's 32 12th app so there's cross street which is perpendicular to 12th AV so 12th AV is going this way cross street is going this way and uh 32 12th AV is like all the way down on the left side and 321 12 AV is on the corner um off cross and 12th AV okay anybody from the board have any questions uh John Tom so just to reiterate again you you in your opinion you feel like uh with people the dog was okay but just as you put it it's dog aggressive yeah that it it showed its aggression uh towards another dog not another human yeah yeah I would say you know it definitely showed signs of aggression towards the dog it didn't show any signs of aggression towards Mr Wheeler from what he told me and he didn't show any signs of aggression towards me when I was handling him so but to me it seems like he has an issue with other dogs and you know wouldn't be an issue with people okay you indicated that the dog uh kind of went in a straight line right towards 32 12 AV right from where he came from um where was the other dog the shepherd at the time in the backyard did you indicate yeah so the dog was it's kind of like a sidey yard 321 12th AV if you're looking straight at it there's the main house which is right in the middle and then to the right side there's an RV which uh Mr wheer I assume lives in um he lives to the right side of that with his dog leashed up um like to his RV okay in that sort of area and both times in both instances it was the same situation the dog took a right and went straight yep thank you thank you um we have with us uh Our Town Council uh Mr Paul deenis he he has a question for you did you prepare a report of the two incidents with the St can you ask that again sorry did you prepare a written report of the two incidences yes I do yes I have a report right here I would like if you've got a copy of it yep ask you does this report accurately reflect the faes you found on the dates referenced in this report it does yes it's the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes sir I want to be sure that add that into our package as a piece of evidence yes okay okay you want oh we have copies you got copies M does anybody need a copy no good feel okay thank you okay uh good so uh thank you uh let me uh move ahead to uh and ask Mr Wheeler uh to come forward and uh I know you're here so if you would uh come forward just uh again tell us your name uh where you live and uh give us your explanation as to what Happ my name is Rob will and I live on 322 okay and uh I'm here to say that that was a horrific incident it was scary for me the way that animal came down and attacked me and my dog it almost ripped my dog's face and ear right off of it it was a horrific attack and uh now I don't like any dogs at all I'm scared to definely even see a dog you go to Walmart you see somebody walking near dogs now I don't even want to see a do it was it was hor rendic it was horrific and I got pictures with my arm with if I could show you this it would be very appreciated you can see my arm what happened from this attack GL to see them let you do that as a matter of fact don't mind so I wonder if you could email those to the select board so that they now you probably want to show Mr Wheeler you want to show this the we're the ones that make the decision so if you show F over here that's wow that's it's unacceptable it's just you know a scary thing that happened to me can I can I grab that I went to the minut CL and the UN said she's been working for over 20 years and she said that you got to go to the hospital my arm with my hand you your hand so now I can um do you have the ability to email those pictures to one oh you have one please out have some photos also we have of that all right so we we'll we'll take those as pieces of evidence here but because this is part of the record we need to have copies of I had all up okay so for a good couple weeks my poor dog is all I'm not happy get Loos and everything something that attacks you like that the second attack that was the arm I showed you the second attack the dog jumped right in my living room he came right inside my house right in my door right in my living room and attacked my dog I kind the dog walk going to bit too so uh did did you have any problems with this dog before first instance never seen it before at all I don't know the I never seen him before I don't know him when he only lives two SE I have no CL do you walk your dog in the neighborhood by his house no no I ain't walk my dog quite a while look at my eyes he too heavy and how big is your dog good size German sheph German Shepherd well Mr Wheeler on his CH he's got a good size T he's got a good size call and thank God he Mr Wheeler can I ask you the the marks on your arm that you showed in your opinion was was it due to you trying to break up what was happening between the two dogs or do you think the dog came to you first you know I'm trying to see if it was a a case of you getting in there trying to break the scrum up and that's where a lot of that happened no no either way I still got bit sure either way you look at okay I mean I don't know what to do now what I got to doy I still have a right to do that a right it's not my fault that it took you know two weeks for you guys to get here everybody's tell what so I just don't want that dog coming down my door again and I know he's going to be coming back probably a point a half pit I don't know way that thing attacked my dog no what that thing was the most vicious animal ever seen in my life and now I'm standing on my doorstep every day I'm like this looking even my dog okay to me it's un accept it's un acceptable you know person took the photograph you you seen my so a couple of things um we need since you referenced them in this hearing we need you to email to uh and Cody or Pam can help you with that uh email those photographs to us so they're in our record the ones on your phone well you guys got those we have some but you talked about some specific ones on your phone so so those are the ones you talked about so downstairs took on pictures down in uh Heth Department it took too yeah that's we have that but in the meantime in the police off those phot yeah I hear you h on just yeah so if you can if you just email them to us we'll take take care of the rest of it okay the pictures of your arm okay right all right and then the second thing um is in terms of uh what we're doing here this is um uh a hearing on on the dog incident and all of that it it has nothing to do directly with any lawsuit you might have against the dog owner so that that they're not the same thing so if you wanted to pursue whatever damages that's something you'd have to do on your own this this hearing has to deal just with how we're going to maintain peace in the neighborhood I really don't want to do that you know I ha see any animal put down thing because of the sent but what am I supposed to do yeah you know dogs ain't stupid for whatever reason the thing turn around get right out that door and he's going to get around me where is he going to go right down to my door he's going to attack my dog again right and I'm going to get chewed up again okay that's the this these two instances are the only times that's happened right okay so but I don't want another attack have you seen have you seen the dog in your area since I think I believe I did I saw it in my yard I believe two days back on Fifth okay and uh I got my dog in right away and shut my door and I saw somebody come across the ey gra the dog and uh my dad called me last night and he's got a m there in his house he says you got the dog that was volan last night I says yeah he go over somebody chasing their dog down the street I don't know if it's the same person okay so now I'm going work I'm scared of that my dog scared that so can I ask a question yeah MH we have uh Our Town Council has a question to ask you I I want to show you a picture ask you to take a look at this and ask you is this an accurate photograph of your arm after the second incident yes up my hand the N at the minute Point she said if you don't go to the hospital right you can have a chance of losing your hand so now got because of this animal so Mr chair we'll have that marked to the hearing okay um all right anybody any question more questions okay thank you Mr okay thank you um so next I think uh I'll ask uh Mr Taber uh mcer if you're here um why you come on up front here please Mr will if you have a seat and just uh like everyone else if you would uh identify yourself please and uh tell us what you know about this incident all right so my name is tab mcer I live at 222 a on the day of the first incident I the dog was with the Walker and The Walker had brought the dog into the backyard have a fenc in backyard um um in according to the Walker she forgot to latch the gate which is how the dog initially escaped he was still wearing a collar at the time but I don't believe he had the leash on um so that dog my dog went out straight down to the street and attacked his dog from what I heard um I wasn't informed about the incident until about 8:00 at night is when the dog walker finally contacted me about it uh next day I heard from officer Simpson who gave me the address of where the dog went and gone to the fight um and I went down there a couple of times didn't seem like anyone was home um and then on the day of the second incident I had picked up his prong collar from the police station um it was on the ground I guess and one of the offic was picked up and brought there and at that point I had hired a new dog walker unannounced to me there was it seemed part of the collar was broken so as soon as he went up the door that collar came right off of him and he went back down the street and attacked the same dog again okay what kind of dog do you have uh he was a rescue dog so as far as I know he's some type of Pointer dog um about 55 lbs okay um have you got the dog licensed I have not gotten licensed yet no going to have to do that um have you taken any uh other steps now to keep this dog from behaving in this fashion any any other time yep so we have a new protocol just whenever he's going outside the house um it's a new PR collar and he also wears a harness and we use a double-ended leash so One Clip goes on the collar the other one goes on the harness just in case one breaks or you know worst case Scar the pr collar comes off again he's still attached to the leach by the harness okay and have do you have any idea why your dog and Mr Wheeler's dog were having this issue seems like twice uh I'm not asking to speculate it just if you anything you know about it that we would help us with our with our work no I think the only thing is sometimes when we walk down cross street which is the street that's in between my house and his house occasionally we'll hear that dog parking um that's we've never seen the dog just on our walks so that's the only way that I can figure that my dog may even known to go down there was just he hears a dog bark and he wants to go investigate okay all right just a couple quick questions Mr mcer how long have you had the dog um first week of February so what's is that 6 months maybe around there m okay and have you had other than these two incidents have there been any other incidents with the dog as far as aggression uh there was an incident I believe two months after I got him where an Unleashed dog ran up on him M and kind of attacked him and bit his face a little bit uh I didn't file any types of report CU I wasn't sure what the protocol was for that um but that was kind of right down the street since then my dog has been pretty apprehensive around other dogs I still walking around the neighborhood we walk by other dogs you know their owners walking them on their leash and he's been fine uh if we walk by a house and a dog is in the yard and the dog the other dog comes running maybe like goes up against the fence and Barks out then he'll bark back but besides that even aggression towards dogs I really haven't seen much of it besides just these two instance okay I we we did receive notification of your vaccine records from pen Animal Hospital is the dog fixed yes okay uh who has control of the dog besides you the dog walker which is new correct uh yeah and that's it just the two of you yes no children walking the dog nope no teenagers walking the dog no no no neighborhood friends walking the dog just a dog walker yes I did go down the neighborhood it's pretty tight quarters sometimes over there my one of my concerns is is a play ground that abuts one of the homes has any aggression towards any people ever with the exception of what happened with to Mr Wheeler never from what I've seen we you know there are a lot of kids in the neighborhood and never once had the dog no problem fine okay and the and the and the home is fenced in in the backyard to the extent that you're not walking the dog or the dog walker is not walking the dog is contained in the backyard assuming the the gate is latched yes correct thank you okay uh any other questions from the board no any other questions no okay um so thank you uh Mr mcer uh let's see um I think Miss Chase is here hi would you come on up please oh I'm sorry CH my mistake the two MERS ask questions of each other see we'll see how that goes um uh so same as with everyone else would you uh just identify yourself apologize for the no worries my name is Alia chassis I live at 154 lingan Street in Halifax and I am the dog walker of the dog that we're currently talking about okay and were you were the one involved in the second inance the second incident yes I was aware that the first incident happened but I had no involvement at that point so I don't know exactly what had happened all right can you tell us what happened the day you were involved yes so the day I was involved I walked into the house as planned um I got the dog ready he's resided in a crate when he's in the house so I got him out usually in my cuz in my experience I've worked with dogs for six years through daycares training centers all of that usually if a dog is going to be really uncomfortable you know approaching them in the crate letting them out can be a weird situation totally comfortable totally fine with me this was only my second time meeting the dog so he comes out you know I do our routine I actually had him go to his bed wait in his bed while I attach the collar um he was very polite he was good about it a little jumpy but nothing I didn't know about um and so we went to go leave the house and the second he walked out of the door there was a little bit of oppositional force and that's when the prong caller popped off he ran to the end of the driveway he paused and then he ran down the street um I chased him down the street I saw him in the yard I thought for a moment may I had him I got his attention and then he heard Mr Wheeler's dog bark that's when he went into the trailer the trailer door was open so he had the ability to go right in and after Mr Wheeler's dog I don't know what started the incident because I was not right there but a you know I caught up to him it was probably maybe 30 seconds later I just stuck my hand between the two dogs who were already having an altercation um and I grabbed the dog I'm responsible for I grabbed him by the collar and I just walked him all the way back up the street back to his house um I knew in that moment that sticking my hands in between a dog fight was not the most ideal situation however Mr Wheeler was trying to protect himself and I was trying to protect the dog that I was responsible for so I just did what I had to grabb my dog and walk away okay and are you still the dog walker yes I am still the dog walker I have been walking him four times a week all right and uh Mr um uh mcer said that uh he has changed the way that's done now absolutely so Mr mcer talked about how we use a double-ended leash we connect to the harness as well as the prong collar um I actually took it a step further and I have a waist leash that Clips to me so I clip that to the dog as well as having the double-ended so if for some reason I lose grip and I let go of that leash that dog is still attached to my body so he cannot go anywhere and can you tell us a little bit about your background with the animals I know you're dog walking out but what what's your experience absolutely so I started working at dog daycares about 6 and 1/2 years ago um if you're not familiar with how a dog daycare works it's pretty much just a room with a lot of dogs that are all off leash and you have to manage a lot of their social cues um and so I did that for about 3 years before I decided to pursue a certificate in dog training um I went to catch trainers Academy it was a 2-year online program that I completed April of 2022 at that point I had moved to a different Dog Daycare I was working for someone who is previously my manager and was able to hire me as a trainer so from 2022 to now I have been doing dog training um so I familiar with the equipment that was used on him um when we did our meet and greets for me to meet the dog I actually worked underneath the trainer who trained the same dog that we're talking about so I'm extremely familiar with her her teaching um ethics and how she trains dogs so it wasn't anything new to me um and then also I've been walking dogs since about 2021 as well I took a hiatus because I work was working at a daycare doing some training but then I decided to shift back to dog walking as well as training okay so you're a certified dog trainer yes and I'm not familiar with the levels of certification are there different levels of that or honestly the Pet Care industry is unregulated so the even though I am certified and I do have a certification and I completed a course your average joim can and just say I'm a dog trainer and be a dog trainer um like I said I got my certification through catch trainers Academy which was an online certification um it broke it down to you know how what dogs are like as a species how to read their body language how to train dogs like the basic sit down stay all of that stuff as well as some behavioral modification things such as reactivity and aggression resource guarding things like that um as well as just how to run a dog training business is this something that you could do on this particular dog what's his name cases um yes cases is the dog we're speaking of um I could train him but honestly in my experience the training that he got with the person I worked under has done a fantastic job and with the management strategies that we've put into place then I think he is you know okay um like I said I've been walking him four times a week every week since July 5th because he had a quarantine um and you know I put a little bit of pressure on the leash with that prong caller and he immediately knows what it is you know he shows interest and excitement around people I have seen that reactivity towards dogs rushing a fence or maybe some dogs on a leash cats is also um but other than that like the way I work with him I know what to look for and I know when he's about to hit threshold so I can manage that skill while he's struggling with say another dog on leash or another dog behind a fence all right um and are there you're not aware of any other instances with this dog and other dogs anything like that no um and as a member of the neighborhood I live so I'm on lingan street I'm at the very end and the dog's house is probably here so my Street's perpendicular I other than seeing his dad walk him and doing some training and thinking to myself wow this man's really working with his dog um I haven't seen or heard this dog um up until he hired me as a dog walker question sure so while you're walking the dog do you ever feel a sense that you're being overpowered do you ever feel like you don't have uh control over the dog the dog is too strong no okay and again you said you've been walking since July 5th no other issues since then with this dog with either dogs or people you started there yeah I also I want to preface the dog came home July 5th so I started the following which was the 8th July 8th I about a month yeah so about a month but um four four times a week yes exactly and so far you know I haven't noticed I'm sorry could you repeat your question no was just wondering in in that time there hasn't been a follow-up incident I think John asked but oh yeah drive on that home yeah no worries no I have not had a follow-up incident other than you know some reactivity with other dogs but there has never been to the dog has not touched another dog since then and in your 6 and 1/2 years of dog working um and I know I don't want you to speculate but but do you consider this dog to be reactive to all dogs or maybe you know sometimes when you get dogs together there are certain dogs that you know you have to keep separate dog selective is the term for that one dog selective sorry I don't know the term just so you know for the future um but I would say he is probably more dog selective I do remember Mr mcherry saying when the dog cases did training with the trainer her dog her personal dog he was able to get along with with some management and making sure that they didn't have a poor relationship um in my experience with dogs it is not uncommon to have a reactive dog let alone a reactive dog that is not a fan of other dogs um so the fact that he's reactive and doesn't like other dogs isn't super concerning to me um I have met reactive dogs that will redirect onto the Handler um which would be very concerning but I have not seen him do this to myself usually if he has a reaction I pull on the leash a little bit he kind of gets himself together and he's totally fine I've never once worried about him coming back at me thank you of course you were thorough and the questions before me were good but just a quick question so when you're out and taking the dog do you start your walk towards Mr wheeler's house or do you walk away from the house usually I walk away but I do like to vary the walks because I have found in my experience if you vary some part of the walk the dog doesn't get that pattern of okay we're at this point so now we're getting home and now I'm going to be anxious more often than not we walk away from the house but we walk the same route every time we go up 12th down um Rich view down 11th down cross and it's a rectangle every time so when you approach cross that's reapo 12 yes so well no when um yes sorry be reapo the dead end from the opposite direction any tendency for the dog to look or pull in that direction as you approach 12th towards Mr wheeler's house no there is not the only exception I can say is there is a cat that hangs out in the neighborhood that likes to hang out specifically at those two houses on the corner and he will react for the cat and I've noticed him search for the cat um but I haven't seen him with really any int inent to go down that way in 12th and if he does like want to walk that direction a quick pull on the prong call you think if he got loose he'd head back that way and it's incumbent upon the restraints to keep him from that direction or honestly I can't say for sure if he would do that I wouldn't be surprised entirely um but it's a dog you can't always guarantee what they are or aren't going know tough questions but in your opinion the dog doesn't pose an immediate threat to anybody else that you encounter on your walk per se not aggressive upon passing other people that is correct it's specifically this one dog one situation just happened multiple times in a short period exactly thank you of course okay any questions um all right thank you no problem and I also do just want to say for the record I don't you know deny that this was an extremely traumatizing and scary situation you know there was definitely danger involved and I do not want to Discount that okay thank you very much one before you go sorry and I should have remembered you were not yourself bitten in separating the dogs in that incident no I was bit while separating the two dogs okay and were there skin punctures or so I ended up getting a puncture in my hand right here with a lot of bruising but other than that not not anything crazy okay thank you of course okay so um we have uh Mr cling our animal inspector I don't know if you can uh add any more to this if you if you can uh whatever you can help us with to try to make a good decision here so if you again identify yourself like everyone else has and yeah of course Brian cing I'm the animal inspector for the towns of Halifax and Plimpton um as the animal inspector my role varies a little bit differently than the Animal control officer I'm involved similarly I manage a quarantine for a bite incident like this the purpose of the quarantine though is to determine whether the animal does or does not have rabies it's not for Behavior or anything like that so I was contacted for the second incident I was never contacted for the first uh managed the quarantine with the help of the animal control officer the dog was based down in the Lakeville animal shelter uh which is a little bit unusual normally I do the quarantines in the house but the dog already been moved down to the lake full animal shelter uh I my only uh interaction with the dog was when I went down to view the dog to determine whether he did did not have rabies I determined he did not have it and released him from quarantine okay so you have any view of this animal one way or another other than yeah and so I have to view the animal in order to determine whether it does or does not have rabies so uh the person the that manages the lakevi animal shelter walk me around back is it's if you haven't been there an animal shelter in a situation like this is similar to a jail for a human being the the dogs aren't there because they want to be there and some dogs will react very aggressively to a human being walking by I didn't experience that I viewed the animal determined didn't have rabes release it from quarantine all right questions from the seems straightforward thank you all right all right thank you thank you um so uh Chief bner Deputy Chief bner I know we have three officers here I don't know uh we can take testimony from them or not I think everything's gone over one thing if you do need some pictures uh offic Simpson take some shots okay all right so officer Simpson why don't You' come on up uh identify yourself we'll put you on the record and then we'll have those introduced as exhibits all officer Ryan Simpson Halifax Police Department I responded to the initial call on June 19th at uh 1:14 p.m. was for a dog on tog attack I arrived at 3212 have I'm familiar with the property so it's not like the side yard where he lives in is just like a direct shop you do have to go through an open fence and kind of maneuver around the house to get out to where he's at so we got back there uh Mr Wheeler showed me the ear of Harley the German Shepherd there and it had some fighting on one of its ears wet kind of indicating where he said the dog kind of latched on to um he did have bleeding on his forearm he believed that was Harley that did it initially because the dog the CES was lashed onto the year um so he was bleeding so we required a EMS we had them come out there and do a treat them we did uh contact through our Dispatch Center to contact the Animal control officer Board of Health and animal inspector um from there we were able to determine talking to neighbors and looking at surveillance footage from housing that the dog could have possibly came from 222 AV and then that's when I was able to make contact with Mr MC Sherry the next day over the phone um he seemed apologetic he did want to know where uh the attack happened because he wanted to reach out to the owner and offer to pay for medical expenses okay and you took some photographs yes uh What uh what day did you take them or what they they were at the incident when I showed up so the day of this is the first one correct this is the first one yes first okay that's the 20th of June I think 19th of June 19th of June yes please s Council has some questions for you okay indeed um these are pictures taken by you yes sir and do they accurately depict what you saw on June 19 yes sir at the time of the incident I also want to show you a report you prepare the report of this incident on about June 19th yes sir PE look at it excuse me am I able to come up and look at it yes does this report accurately reflect your observations on June 19 2024 relating to this incident yes sir it does is this the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes sir so I'd like to mark that as an exhibit too so so we have uh three photographs two of his arm and one of the collar and uh officer Simpsons report as the next exhibits in our AC three four five all right any other questions from board um I guess once once you had the dogs separated did you notice any sort of change in Behavior again I know you're not a a dog specialist but in your experience with dogs um in your opinion did you think the demeanor of the dog was because the dog was there between the two dogs and that was what was causing this issue so when I arrived the the other dog wasn't even on scene got so it was just the the German Shepherd Harley okay uh he was seemed pretty agitated which I would say is probably pretty after an attack okay thank you okay thank you officer Simpson um all right uh is there anyone else that has any more uh to add yes Mr Willer you want to come on back up before you ask him I have off wait wait wait hold on one second can I have officer rad oh okay sure give could you step back for a second officer RIT would you come on up please again just identify yourself for a record uh that yes sir my name is Officer Steven Ritz I'm a police officer of the town of Halifax right and Council has some questions for you so on June 24th 2024 did you respond to an incident involving these dogs yes sir I did and did you prepare a report of that incident yes sir I did do you have a copy of that report yes I do sir does that report accurately reflect your observations on June 24 yes sir is this document the truth the whole truth yes sir can I have that my ex sure that'll be the next exhibit anything else for officer r no any questions for officer R the board no all right thank you officer r thank you thank you all right Mr Wheeler you want to uh come back and talk to us walk she gave me a list of when she walks the do my time which is pretty much every day except for today and I feel like I got to loost my dog and doors I got to walk myself inside the home for an hour while she walked up cuz I'm afraid thing's going to get loose attack me my do I shouldn't have to live in field I have a right to have my home and live there my dog's licensed he's up to date on all his shots he's legal he's on a chain he's on a coln you know it just it's kind of unacceptable what would you have us do excuse me what would you have us do what would I have you guys do yeah I don't know I don't want that dog back down in my home I can tell you that I'm scared to up now I don't want to see another dog again I don't I mean that was a scary attack it was like a pitbull attack that thing laed on my dog's face in his ear and I couldn't get that dog apart the first dog walker came down there and it told us get I didn't with her dog I'm going get your dog off my dog trying to pull pull I got my dog by his car and she goes I'm trying she couldn't even get the dog off him either finally we got him a pot and then here we go a day and a half wa the thing turns around jump in the M now how is that been sayfe I mean I don't know I don't know what what the city I mean how do I feel safe doing that now I going to stand on my door every day doing this what's going to come at me okay I don't know I don't know what to do okay all right well thank you all U I think something should be done but I just don't know okay okay thank you um all right so there's no other evidence to come before the board um going to declare the hearing closed uh and now the board has to make a decision whether you do it tonight or or whatever uh we really have two options here under the statute um well we could decide that uh that the um uh that the uh that these uh complaints uh should be dismissed I don't I don't believe that's a good option the other two options are whether the dog is a nuisance dog or a dangerous dog um I didn't see a definition of nuisance in the statute so I looked it up in a different way um and um what we have for a legal definition of nuisance is activity which arises from unreasonable unwarranted or unlawful use by a person um injuring the right of another and producing material annoyance inconvenience and discomfort that law will presume resulting in Damages so that's I think that's our our standard is for whether or not it's a nuisance a dangerous dog is obviously a different a different issue um so if we make a decision uh whether it's a nuisance dog or a dangerous dog we can set certain conditions that right Council yes with this caveat the nuisance category you're quite flexible and the statute allows you to do almost anything the dangerous dog category you must pick items from the list and on the list for dangerous dogs goes a variety of things up to including putting the dog down that is not available for a nuisance do okay so if you are concerned for example that improvements have been made in the the harness and with the collar and you want to make sure that continues in in in the future you can order that under nuisance if you want to have the dog enclosed in a structure that's a category under dangerous there all kinds of design standards this thing has to go below ground has a roof on the top and all that stuff so the first decision that you need to make is which category this dog goes into once you make that decision I'm trying to suggest nuisance you have a wide range of discretion dangerous you have to follow the guidelines you're restricted okay anybody from the board have any questions to councel uh do we do we have a definition of I know we just went over the definition of nuisance do we have a dangerous definition what constitutes a dangerous dog is that spelled out statute not in the statute the statute does it the other way around it says some things you can't say are dangerous a barking dog for example no matter whether it's 3:00 in the morning no matter how annoying it is or the breed of the dog you can't say because this is a particular type of dog we find it to be dangerous so there are limits on what you can't do but it doesn't say what you can do but it's it's it's pretty much common sense so there is a a review process here and if it ever gets to be reviewed the Court's going to look at whether or not you apply common sense and so that's what I would ask you to do today as to apply commense my my my view are dangerous and again just my view would be uh more or less an incorrigible animal that uh we have come to a conclusion can't be uh can't live in a civilized society without extreme controls up to including Youth and aging which you can usual but is something we have the ability to recommend um so I've heard all the I'll start it's all everyone so I mean we've listened to a lot of lot of testimony um and I think uh I I think everyone who has testified uh has given us a very accurate and truthful uh view of what they saw and what's happened and what what has happened since then um I I think I think this particular dog uh it sounds to me as if it needs some additional uh socialization or training and Mr Mare's only had it for six months um I do think that uh it is um would fall into the category of nuisance certainly uh with the bite and with the uh the two times it's gone back to fight with this one particular dog so I I I would um in in my view I would vote to um declare the dog a nuisance dog and then as far as that goes I would have certain U conditions to go along with that um most of which uh sound like they're already in place the dog is being handled by a certified trainer which is a thing I would insist to continue uh and also it has have uh extra restraints um uh the dog needs to be licensed if it's not uh that's a whole different issue that Mr mcer could get cited for separately but I'm going to I would make that as a condition also um and um I don't know I don't think we can order any kind of restitution for medical expenses I don't think so no yeah so any any uh medical expenses or so on that you uh that Mr Wheeler may have uh incurred would be um something that he can he can pursue um but it would be separate from this hearing I don't think we have the authority to do that so after listening to the information I've read all the reports I've seen all the pictures uh that would be uh that would be my conclusion yeah I just make a suggestion that that you vote whether or not the dog is dangerous or a nuisance after you vote you may want to consult with the animal inspector and the Animal control officer about what recommendations they may have to help with this dog before you take a vote on the remedy okay so I'm suggesting you divide the issue into two different things and not combine both issues in one motion I think that's thank you okay John um yeah I kind of echo what you say John in that um well first off I can't imagine a dog coming into my living room and and and attacking my dog that that's you know that's that's out of like a horror movie but but I do unfortunately feel like there were two uh I don't want to call them bad luck incidents but two things where if the worst luck could have happened that's that's what happened on both of those cases so again I agree with John um and in hearing from you know the dog trainer and in hearing from others that uh I do not believe this to be a truly dangerous dog I do believe it to be a nuisance dog so what's going to happen when it com back hold on a minute yeah I uh I can appreciate the sentiments of the prior two speakers but I would probably be closer to calling it a dangerous dog uh I'm booed by the fact that um there have been remedies taken with the new dog walker the new regimen with the training the new harness and so forth I am concern concerned a bit about when Miss chassis is no longer the dog walker for whatever reason on a random Wednesday uh and whether that new dog walker understands the same rules that have been applied and asked for here or here to for um I concerned about that I'm booed by some of the things that have happened since but two attacks quickly back to back is concerning to me I would probably lean more to a dangerous dog versus a nuisance if I'm understanding it correctly by weight the attacking dog is smaller and lighter than Mr willer's dog but is the aggressor in this case not once but twice um I'm a dog person so it pains me to say it but I if was if I was to vote and have a have a say I would disagree with both John and Jonathan and call this more of a dangerous dog so just so we're we're clear as as Council pointed out uh a uh I'll just read from the statue here sure it says if the hearing Authority deems the dog dangerous uh the hearing Authority shall order one for more of the following one dog be humanely restrained uh provided that no water shall uh provide that dog deemed dangerous be chained tethered or otherwise tied to an inanimate object U including a tree or a post secondly that the dog be confined to the premises of The Keeper of the dog provided that confined shall need securely confined indoors or confined outdoors in a securely enclosed and locked pen or dog run um and then it goes on to describe how that has to be made uh three uh that when removed from the premises of the owner or the premises of the person keeping the dog the dog shall be securely and humanely muzzled and restrained with a chain uh or other device having a tensil strength of 300 lb and not exceeding three length four that the owner keeper the dog provide proof of insurance in an amount less than not less than $100,000 ensuring the keeper uh against any claim um five that the owner or Keeper of the dog provide to the licensing Authority or animal control officer uh or other entity uh identified information by which the dog may be identified through its pictures and so on um six that unless the owner keeper the dog provides evidence that a veterinarian is of the opinion the dog is unfit for alterations because of the medical condition that the owner keeper the dog to be altered I don't think that's a case it's already been done seven uh that the dog be humanely euthanized um so those are you if it's if it's a dangerous dog we have to pick one or more of certain and as uh Council uh suggested if we decide that it's a nuisance dog uh we have flexibility to uh order any of those of course but or or other or other things so um okay um so uh to to move the process forward board ready to vote right more time just to be clear if if it's a nuisance dog we can pick and choose from the nuisance category it's dangerous the other way around if if it's a dangerous dog we we have to pick one or more of the outlin right if it's a nuisance dog it just says the uh what the statute says if the authority deemes the dog a Nuance dog the hear Authority May further order that the owner Keeper of the dog take remedial action to amarate the cause of the newsance behavior so it's open-ended okay so does the board need more time on this are ready to vote then I'll make a motion just to clarify John if we do uh the dangerous uh nomenclature does that bar the dog from leaving the premises I didn't hear anything where the dog is actually allowed to leave the property uh one of the options is to keep them be on the property okay you don't have to pick that up you don't have to pick one of them was also to have a muzzle when leaving the property correct if if you donated if you denoted a dangerous dog is a property you put a muzzle as one of the conditions set forth under the dangerous dog yes is that correct yes which could be done under your nuisance also yes okay so think need more time on this I'm going to make a motion moving so I would move that uh we declare the dog a nuisance dog um and then as far as remedies I would follow council's advice and assuming the board votes this way uh ask for recommendations from our animal inspector Animal control officer I will I will second it all any discussion all those in favor say I I uh I opposed I so it passes by majority okay uh so now we we're going to have call this a nuisance dog uh I would ask the uh our Animal control officer uh to come back up if we would and if you could give us uh your recommendations for how to uh handle this from here forward um what were the options as far there was like seven options there that you read out what was what was the options I didn't hear them clearly under this category the options are open we can deide anything we think it'd be reasonable to uh make sure this doesn't happen again um um so I would definitely assume what they've been doing so far should be put into order which is uh the Double restraint to the dog if not the triple where she has the uh waistband that also attaches to the dog um okay I would recommend maybe a muzzle I'd let you guys take that one under consideration um and I haven't had too much time to think about this so I'm not too sure what else I would recommend but that sounds good to me I think uh confining this dog to the property is a little extreme especially for the breed of dog that it is it's a very active dog it needs to be walked and you know it needs to be brought outside and not confined to the property it needs to be allowed to roam we like run around at least you know and uh get that exercise so mhm yeah council do you have any recommendations about training for the dog um I would definitely recommend some training as well yeah for sure at least for dog on dog training for me the dog didn't seem like I said before it doesn't seem aggressive towards humans at all it definitely has some aggression towards other dogs and it could use some correct corrective Behavior to uh remedy that and and you were here listening to the testimony of the dog walker is do you think that that is the kind of training you're talking about or are you talking about some additional training beyond that um no I definitely think the selective is a selective dog but I think yeah I would align with what she said that um some similar training to that would be work well thank you I think the question from Council was do you think you you heard I'll mispronounce it again chassis yeah Miss chassis testify that she has certain qualifications and um is has worked with dogs in the past that that would be the level of training you would suggest um I I heard her qualifications I don't know exactly what you know like that necessarily means she knows how to do and what to handle in a dog you know like no offense to her or anything it's just I don't know what that actually entails and like what she's dealt with previously where you may need somebody with a little more experience in aggressive dog that is aggressive towards other dogs someone that you know knows how to operate around that okay um is there a uh and I believe she said that she had somebody that she trained under while learning this stuff that could be a good option as well all right hold on just a second okay anybody from yeah two quick things thank you for your uh work on this just a quick question because Miss chassis has seemed to have had since July 8th had better luck for lack of a better word since luck was brought off in the last 30 days what would your opinion be if tomorrow she's out sick and the homeowner calls a different neighbor to walk the dog with no experience or less experience or no experience with this dog are you confident in that dog new dog walker first go around at this a restraining the dog B walking the dog and C controlling it throughout the remainder of the walk if Miss chassis or the equivalent or better higher or more experienced is not available what's your experience if she goes on vacation next week what's your opinion what I'd have to say if the owner is clear about how his dog acts and what has happened in the past and explains how they should be walking his dog with the double leash and you know uh keeping a firm grip on them you know things like that it it would probably go over well i' not too too sure I think you know like a general person could definitely control the dog from what I could tell like I could control him very well on a leash he didn't seem to be pulling too much at all and you know it's fairly easy I think a normal person would be able to control the dog but I think the owner definitely needs to take some responsibility to tell that person what they have to do while walking their specific dog okay thank you okay thank you thank Mr cing do you have anything to add as far as recommendations uh for to uh help us make a situation better hope so um one question I didn't hear uh mentioned my understanding is the backyard is fenced in I believe what's the height of the fence so what we're looking for here uh just some real quick backgrounds 6 seven years as the animal inspector in climon and 78 in Halifax and over 15 years in direct Animal Care uh in multiple shelters and rescues you're looking for a 5ft minimum preferably six for this the height of the fence okay uh this seems to be pretty agile dog so I'd be pushing for six but if it's a 5 foot um to answer the other question that you had to um what if the dog walker is out sick so I believe the owner should have a secondary dog owner not dog runner excuse me a dog walker uh trained and ready to go that understands the situation okay in case the first one's out because it's not going to be if the first one's out the first one's going to be out eventually okay all right any questions from all right thank you uh Miss chassis you had something you want to add yes I just wanted to clarify that on Animal Control Office officer statement um the trainer that I worked underneath was at a previous job um but that train trainer separately has already trained this dog so he has done training and I just know what her methods and techniques are so when Mr mcsherry showed me them I also had that Insider knowledge how she trains dogs and how her her training works so I already knew how to take care of this dog all right um by the way do you um you don't have to give us any detail but do you um I know you you you you're paid to walk the dog does he pay you also to act as a trainer no he does not um in my personal experience as a dog walker it's very hard to separate my dog trainer self from my dog walking self so while I am not contracted by Mr mcer to train his dog I do utilize my training techniques while walking this dog as I would with any other dog um because realistically if a dog PS while we're on a walk I'm going to use my knowledge and experience to make the experience with myself easier even if the owner never sees that okay and you walk you're sole independent person right you don't have people working for you correct I do not currently have any employees all right and to answer one of the questions that's come up uh what happens on the day when you're either unable to do it for whatever reason or uh you you decide to take a different job what what yeah as you guys specified I think having a second dog walker somebody who knows this dog and has experience with this dog would not be a bad thing um I do have people that I can reach out to that I trust and I'm comfortable with that I can have them you know with his um what's the word permission permission yes thank you um you know they could probably work with this dog and with also my guidance so it's not like you know I'm sick today here's this random person showing up you know I would let them know how this dog is um but I do think you know this is something that if I'm no longer walking this dog that this is something that has to be clear and communicated that this is not just yes but that's not incumbent upon you to take over this the dog owner's responsibility to find a second in my opinion yeah this the dog owner's responsibility to find a second person to back you up if and when you're no longer working or out sick one day it's tab's responsib Mr Mr MC's responsibility to do that absolutely the alternative is the dog doesn't walk that day and that's the better alternative than having somebody unprepared or unap incapable absolutely and I do not disagree with you um when I very clear that's not on you yes no and when I say having somebody that I know do it it would be for from a point of my business covering the walk not because I'm doing a favor for Mr mcer and because I don't think he has to look for his own dog it would be if I have somebody available that I trust then I would do that as a business decision not just because the dog needs to get out I do agree that if somebody is not able to take out the dog then it's probably better that he goes un walked than you know in this hands of somebody who may not be able to handle him okay question all right thank you um Mr M mare you have anything oh I'm sorry y do you have anything you want to add to us or uh questions is a all around the backyard you do okay all right great so um having heard everything this is what I'll suggest to the board here I got a quick question oh certainly yeah M when I go home I got my dog locked inside got to is he going to be safe out there we're going to try and make it happen that way yes what's that I said we're going to try and make it happen that way so that everybody's safe that's our go my to be outside yeah and I've been living down here for over 30 years in the same place I'm that right now 30 years down years never had this problem before there ever and I gone through two dogs and they both about 12 years in Black GL and now I got stuck with a German sheer I never had a Gman sheer I had him since he was little bigger than okay and he's about four something years old now I don't want to have to get rid of my dog because some other C my dog right I have to do that we agree and you see my am I what am I going to do I don't want to be attack like that I don't know what to okay I just don't want be attacked again okay all right thank you we're going to try and help make this work so so let me uh make my recommendation on uh on one one of the conditions um I think I think the uh the triple restraint uh is something that should be done uh I know Mr mcer said he has a 5ft fence but I think that should be part of the order anyway M um a muzzle um I'm not opposed to uh it seems to me that at least for a period of time 6 months or a year it could be reviewed if that's the issue um but for at least for now to make sure that there is no further biting or something like that um the uh and then I would um ask I would part as part of the order that we get a uh a written uh plan from Mr mcer uh uh regarding U additional training for the dog uh you know when it'll be done we'll do it and also for U um the the issue about uh backup dog walker since this dog apparently needs certain um uh qual uh certain um attention needs to be needs that information has to be passed along appropriate people handling the dog so I would ask them to provide for us a plan for that within a week and then we would add that as part of the that would be my recommendation yeah I had three things I had the triple restraint um I had the six- foot fence I'm glad to hear that Mr mcer already has a six foot fence and I do agree that we need some sort of plan uh with a trained dog walker can't be a kid from the neighborhood can't you know can't be a friend that's trying it out um it needs to be a trained professional dog walker um and if those three are taken I personally don't see a reason for a muzzle um I think a triple harness restraint is is pretty safe you know it doesn't get much safer than that so um I think if those three are followed I would feel a lot better into into um your point we're we're trying to come up with a a safe plan that's good for everybody you know and that's we're doing our best to come up with that if that happen it might allow protect myself or am I going to have to become an amp do I have a right to protect myself I would think abely protect myself I would think so yes so again we're taking these to to try and come up with a a safe solution for you in for the neighborhood yeah okay yeah I mean I I I know I was a dissenting vote here I guess I don't know if we're allowed to ask a question to anybody in the audience but I guess I would have a question as to what the animal inspector has a thought as to the muzzle um as to the muzzle if that would be an appropriate um sure absolutely sure yeah because I agree with the 6ot fence it seems like the triple harness is already being enacted uh the dog walker thing was something I was thinking about early on so I guess the muzzle is where we're where the rubber reachs meets the road and I'm just curious if you have an opinion yeah uh I'm glad you brought that up cuz after I went and sat back down I was like that's right forgot to mention that so uh muzzling a dog doesn't sound great but most dogs will handle it pretty well so uh I agree at least on a temporary basis let's call it 3 four 5 6 months whatever try the muzzle out see how it goes work with the trainer to see how it's going uh but muzzling the dog when the dog is out in public is I think a good shortterm answer and we're not talking about to be clear we're not talking about the backyard and the in the fenon area we're talking about out public triple harness out for the walk however long that lasts as a trial basis yep you find that at least appropriate conversation to have yep absolutely all right based on that then I'm good we'll go with what the expts say y okay uh so I'm prepared to make a motion if you folks are ready sure so my motion would be that uh the remedies uh for the the finding that the dog's nuisance uh first would be that anytime the dog is off the property it has to be triple restrained as explained by uh Miss uh chassis uh as is already being being done uh secondly that uh the dog uh that the yard uh if the dog is let out of the house has to be enclosed entirely by a secure that's important uh 6ot fence at a minimum um third that um in within the next uh week two weeks by our next meeting our next what's our next meeting the 27th 27 all right so by our next meeting which is August 27th we'll ask for a written plan that will address training uh of this uh animal to prevent any further issues and also uh to address uh how uh the uh dog walking situation will be handled um obviously Miss chasy chassis is doing it now and we want to know we want to make sure that that there if she's ill she's unil to do it or somebody else takes over that that you have a plan in place for that uh and we'll make that as part of our order and then the third the last thing is uh I'll uh recommend make a motion that we also have the dog muzzled anytime it's off the property to be reviewed uh in 6 months I'll second that okay any further discussion all those in favor say I I post okay that's unanimous I want to thank everyone for uh their efforts here uh Mr Mr Wheeler we obviously agree with you that you're not supposed to be living in fear in your own home certainly not and we're doing everything we can to address that uh police department uh deputy chief bner has been through this whole thing we'll keep an eye on it and uh hopefully this uh situation come around okay and then uh Mr mcherry what we're we're trying to do here is uh balance everything we assume you want to keep this dog it's up to you whether you do you don't uh but if you do these are the conditions that we're going to uh have so that we can uh maintain peace in the neighborhood get the oh and the dog has to be licensed you got to get that done all right so the hearing no not your dog Mr M shar's Dog yeah okay so I want to thank everyone again safe coming up when I go home I'm sorry there my dog be safe when I go home I hope so that's our plan yes yes and like I before my home right yes you do you all right uh so we uh the hearing closed we've made our decision uh and now we'll go back into our agenda to uh address uh yeah take just a quick recess just to uh get everybody well done thanks Mr uh Mr maer uh folks Mr tab if if you're going to keep talking would you go out the hallway please so we can continue thank you it just interferes with the noise all right so going back into our agenda we have uh fiscal year 2025 trash and recycling fee schedule uh yes so as you know in fiscal year 24 we implemented a new trash room recycling program uh a lot of hard work went into it by our team here um I can't give Sue Johnson our recycling coordinator enough credit she really manages that whole operation you know Steve Hayward helps out but she does an excellent job down there uh and then the staff down there as well you know you've all probably use some service whether trash recycling so you know um every Saturday yeah high quality service you get very proud of the service we provide so um going into the new new program last year we had a lot of unknowns uh we did our best fiscal analysis that we could but it was really an estimate right we were estimating how many people were going to join the program uh we were estimating how much trash T trash tonnage that we were going to dispose of because it's a totally new program we really didn't have any parameters to go by the positive is is we probably couldn't have done a better job um and again that's crudos to the team here you know Sandy and our finance department and Sue and everyone um we really estimated it almost perfectly which doesn't happen often um so we were able to cover all of our costs this year and um Solid Waste is an Enterprise fund so it doesn't get funded out of the general tax levy it's like um you compare it to like a small business so it funds itself you don't want to use any of the town's money to fund it it's whenever the revenue comes in it's supposed to offset the cost and then you want to also um build up a retained earnings which is basically a savings account for things like a new a new uh recycling truck or if we ever needed to make a capital purchase um those are the things you want to have some money put aside for the last several years the operation wasn't doing uh great financially um and we really needed to make sure we were covering our costs in the last few years we had not been covering our costs which and we had been dipping into our savings account ultimately to cover those uh so in fisal 24 you see in your packet I did attach a little summary of cash flow and you'll see uh we we covered all of our costs and we're able to put a little bit into our retained earnings that hasn't been certified yet by the by do but you can see that's kind of our internal workings with that um you know as part of our trash contract the costs do go up uh for fiscal 25 we as part of the contract there is an increase in the cost of collection for a trash which is through all state waste um there's also an increase in the tonnage so we go from from paying $105 a ton to $110 a ton for the trash um and there's also fees in them hauling the um containers so they haul our containers away from the recycling center they pick up our trash um around town at the Town facilities they pick up the different dumpsters so there's an increase with that as well um and then we're also seeing an increase on the recycling side so as as we do that internally and we have our own truck and we have our uh own staff that do it the cost of disposing of recycling is actually almost the same as trash right now is what we're paying so it's it's a it's a high cost not it's yeah so in what you're seeing we I sat down with S Johnson uh last week and you know we looked at the revenues we projected revenues for fiscal 25 based on the current membership in the program we have a little less than uh 1100 people doing the trash and recycling program which is great prior to the new program we had about 800 people so um you know 30 over 30% increase in the year that's that's positive um and then with that we are anticipating we are going to have to propose a fee increase for the trash and recycling program for the upcoming fiscal year uh in order to cover our costs um so what we are proposing through this memorandum would be a few things um the annual fee for tra curbside trash and recycling would go to $440 a year right now it is $400 uh so we recognize you know this this is a 10% increase and you know it's significant um but these are the increases that we're seeing uh what we would like to do is we send out two bills one in September and one in March in order to give residents um a notice and let them know about this change similar to your uh when you get your tax bill you pay a preliminary tax right and then once you get the updated value you kind of pay the the rest of in the the next bill so we would propose a $200 bill in September to go out and then a $240 bill in March and with that will'll put a notification um at the bottom of the bill in September that if anyone wants to opt out prior to the next period they will have a date on there and when they would have to have their Barrel return so on and so forth um recycling sticker would remain at $75 so if you are not part of the curbside collection program and you wish to get a sticker just to use the recycling center that would be 7 $5 that would be unchanged um and right now we do charge the mobile home park uh $75 per residents but they do get curbside collection of recycling uh the reality is is we're not covering our cost of that because it's costing us more than through the year more than $75 per resident in there so we are uh recommending increasing that to $100 per resident and they would continue to get the curbside collection of recycles uh we want to continue to try to offer that service to them it's a service service we've offered we are not offering that service to any other resident in town so it is an exception that we've made last year the other option would be um to not offer the service to them and they could pay $75 to drop it off but we felt you know we've provided that to them in the past um it's all condensed into that one area so it's not too much of a hassle for the the town to do does $100 cover the cost yes we it from what we've been able to pull out uh it would definitely more accurately cover the the cost there so the reason that mobile home park is $100 is because they're all Run next to the other no so the mobile home park does not get trash we're making just so we make an so when we implemented this program we said um really logistically we aren't able to do just recycling pick a curbside collection so we require yeah we require residents to have uh trash and recycling curbside collection with the mobile home park we made an exception that we would continue to provide them curbside recycling only but um the $75 per residents um isn't really covering the cost and that's why we're proposing to increase that to 100 it also didn't make um a it wasn't super feasible to charge them the same as someone coming in for just a sticker right someone who just has a sticker is now paying the same as them and they're getting a crb site collection um and that you know the the sticker we felt was accurately representing the cost of just the use of the center and um the additional $25 will help us to recoup the the cost of actually providing the herbicide does the mobile home people get a sticker in addition if they would like one absolutely yep they can just like anyone who's part of the curbside program they can get a sticker that's included in their annual fee and the 440 is uh that covers both recycling curbside pickup Recycling and trash remov yes and if you want a sticker you can get a sticker as part of that Fe as well so it's still uh very competitive if you look at what the private haulers are charging uh still on the lower end and um like I said we want to give that notice to Residents so if they do wish to op out or explore other options we're giving them you know about 6 months it'll be you know probably around and this goes into effect next July no this will be effective for the current fiscal year but they're not going to see the increase until their September until their March bill I see which they see in February or something right February or March they see the bill right yeah the bill will the second yeah that second bill will come that will have a notice of an opt out to return the barrel and get out of the program no this bill we're sending out in September we'll have the notice of the opto right oh for March for March right cuz we'll they'll need to op out prior to that billing period if they wish to not be build for the second half of the of the year so so I'd just like to say I I'm very proud of the roll out we did as a town I mean we've been a bag we've been a pay as you throw town for for Generations it feels like right and other than a few you small hiccups in the implementation the results have and the reviews have been great I mean really has I mean you ask folks that have the town program they're very happy um they're reliable they've they've done a great job and I know Cody you say that this is an Enterprise fund but I I hope people understand there's a difference between this Enterprise fund we're doing and a private Hall I mean a private Hall is looking to make as much money as they can that's not the situation here in Halifax we're trying to cover the cost of the program and have a tiny B of savings left over in case something goes south right so I think that's a distinction to talk about where we're trying to provide a cost effective service to the town obviously we want to keep it as low of a fee as possible we want to offer as best as we can to the community but face it the cost of everything is going on every year so I hope the folks real don't think of this as oh we're we're getting people in and then switching the price that's never been the case um we're still trying to offer as competitive as we can and I think we're very competitive but unfortunately the the cost of trash and recycling is going up so I hope people understand the cost of uh the bag and tag system continued to rise to the point where the last bag I bought I think about $10 a piece or something you really it was a lot of money right from from very small to very big and that's just the way it goes right and I just hope folks realize that again this is not this is not get them in and and raise the price we want to keep this as low as we can and not lose money so that's that's where we're at yeah I mean we we can't you the reality is if we continued on the trajectory that we were going we wouldn't be able to provide any um Solid Waste Service to Residents within the next few years so we had we had to make a change of making this a um an operation that was sustainable or we weren't going to be able to sustain the operation so I I hope folks can see the difference you know I we are an Enterprise fund but we're we're not looking to make a million dollars we're looking to to have a sustainable program that's cost effective for the town okay any comments uh nothing so you want a motion you would uh make a motion to approve the fee schedule for fiscal 25 as presented all right I will make that motion I will gladly second that motion any discussion from the board all those in favor say I I opposed it's unanimous so just to be clear in September you're getting a letter and a bill and the letter says the prices are going up it'll be um it'll be on the bill a notification included on the bill yes that gives them the information that it is going to increase and we'll have a date that they have um the opportunity to opt out by in order to not incur that increase I mean I just want to make sure it's like clear clearly stated the price is going up in February or March whatever what put red B big letters whatever mhm okay and on the other note it's a great time to jump in yeah right September is a great time if you want to switch to the town program um you're still getting a lot of bank for your buck with the town y okay Farmland of local important analysis uh yes pretty important so uh we were contacted by Old Colony planning Council uh with some it's a pretty uh unique opportunity bill Napolitano he has done work in this region uh for years uh prior to working for Old Colony planning Council he worked for sered South Eastern Regional um planning and economic development um and he's since retired there he's been part of the Taunton uh rivership Tom Tom Watershed Alliance um and we've been working with him on uh you remember we previously spoke about the sloo Skates um to help the Herring run so Bill Napolitano has been involved with that uh so Bill I attached the email that he sent over um and basically he's making us aware of this opportunity to join into the Farmland of local importance analysis which would be no cost to the communities around here um no regulatory association with the listing of the uh farmland um important soils but basically if we were to choose to take part um they would go through conduct this analysis there's different soil levels um and they would designate certain farmlands of kind of of local importance exactly what it sounds like uh and it can just it can help local farms with various um FDA opportunities um with potential grant funding uh and then also by designating them as a Farmland of local import importance um it can create further opportunities not only for the town but for potential land owners and farm owners so I really only see a benefit um from this there you know no cost Associated no regulatory uh requirements um in the packet that provided some um information and it wasn't FDA I'm sorry it was USDA so that this doesn't affect uh the taxing right now we get lower rate on the tax and then they uh if the the farmer decides to sell we get first crack at it that does not change that yeah so that the land uh would still fall under chapter 61 you know if they F meet those requirements and as with anything if they were to um you know pull that out of chapter land then the the town gets the right of first refusal still absolutely okay any questions from the board no so Cody I'm reading it right it's it's no increase tax to the taxpayer uh we're essentially helping our local farmers uh with Grant possibilities and getting uh their land designated as Farmland of local importance yeah and then I in the packet uh there's also some information information where if they do this they can create these I guess you would say reports right and it and it based on the different soil types it can identify the best crops to grow on different soils and so on and so forth not only to help the existing Farmers but then if they were ever um land that maybe weren't actively being being farmed it could help the trapped you know Farmers to to farm that land and already have some valuable information of what could be successful crops there I guess this uh to a degree probably not a great degree but to some degree does encourage open space yeah yeah oh absolutely absolutely we keep hearing about all over town we don't want any big development and that might might help us do that okay what do you need us to do so um make a motion to uh request uh the F land of local importance analysis all right I'll make that motion we have a second I'll second any discussion all those in favor say I I opposed it's unanimous uh contracts with CMAC Landscaping uh yes just let me just make a quick note here so this is uh you may recall at the town meeting in May of 2023 the town uh appropriated $500,000 for Ada improvements Americans of disability acts accessibility improvements Scott matna our um facilities director has been hard at work in his team implementing sever several of the recommendations in the uh report that we had done one of them was um of significant value was walkways uh sidewalks over at the elementary school library in Council on Aging so we went out to bid uh for those improvements um and this is the result um this is two Contra we broke it up into two projects so two different contracts the uh first one of is priority they're looking to as long as the board approves it tonight actually start the work tomorrow uh you may see there's already some equipment over at the elementary school so as long as it's approve they'll do that um and that is for $189,500 and then the second one entails some of the remaining Library work and then the counil on Aging um accessibility walkways in part of the parking lot um and that is for uh 8,200 um and that includes the additional option we're creating additional couple parking spots over at the Cil on Aging um this will take care of the parking lot over at the library as well we're going to add a couple of parking spots over there um so overall you know one of the things or two of the things that need to be done um required at for the report that um we had a consultant prepare um the two projects came in under the cost estimate which was good our engineer prepared a cost estimate um we were actually expecting them to come in a little bit higher so these came in lower um so it's just a contract for approval Council has reviewed the contracts and gave the okay so I question on the second one sure um our our uh plan our hope our expectation is that the Council on Aging building won't be used in about 18 months from now probably be 3 or four years by the time we're completely in there right um why would we invest money in that facility now um well it's just the it's the parking law and walkway um and because we're we're required to comply um with the ad standards this is a parking lot for the by the by Between the water department and the council and aging that parking lot just the the only spot we're touching is the spot directly kind of abing the Cil on Aging we're not going to touch the rest of the parking lot U just just so you there's a walkway from that parking area up to the front of the building where the ramp would be so they someone you know in a wheelchair could easily access it um so that's a separate area than the library mm can you tell me how much we're spending on that part of uh of the Council on Aging par 11,200 okay all right so the majority of this money is going to the library side that facility over there yeah also unless we were to dispose of the building we have to be ADA Compliant so even so um even the museum we use it very little eventually if that is in our possession it has to be Ada complying so uh as far as I know we haven't gotten into much detail but the plan would be for us to keep pop satn to some extent maybe to you know some sort of historical building and if that's the case we'll have to come in ADA compliance regardless okay I I mean just I just wanted to make sure absolutely spending $100,000 on that we're not going to be using no we're trying to be cognizant of that um as far as the building upgrades in repairs because we we're aware that you know we're going to be in a new building um this is something that a I think the short-term benefit will be significant just what the uh um diversity of residents that use that building where you know it would be helpful to have this but also in the long term as well you know whatever that building is used for all right do we have any questions no I I think it it's needed just because of the clientele that are using that building as well I mean it's in our best interest to make sure that it's as accessible as possible and I agree with John where we're going to be looking down the road to moving I still we don't know what the future homes but I still foresee us owning that building you know so if we own it we'll essentially have to be compliant so the percentage here it's 11,000 what out of 500,000 close to yeah yeah no I'm I'm excited to do it uh do we need to do these two of them or one um I would vote them separately to approve it because they're separate contracts so this is Project one with CMAC in the amount of $189,500 and there's two copies there so just need the board to sign so I make a motion that we approve contract 20252 between uh town of Halifax and CMAC Landscaping uh and this is the one for $189,000 $189,500 second any discussion all those in favor say I opposed okay that's unanimous thank sir and then the second contract this is for in the amount of $128,800 all right this is the second contract uh has 128,00 uh do we have a second second any discussion all those in favor say I opposed that's unanimous this only has one right thank you sir signature Authority forms yes so the past few meetings we've had these um this is for uh Municipal School building committee and Recycling and solid waste um the it looks like this first one is incomplete so it's just going to be for recycling and solid waste need to complete the we are approving signature Authority for Johnson um and Steve hayward's absence so I move if we make that approval we have a second I'll second any discussion all those in favor say I I all right uh zon board of appeals yes so I just wanted to give the board an update on this I heard concerns from multiple residents um members of the board uh and also our Building Commissioner the um zoning board of appeals typically meets on the second month second Monday of the month that has been history in town for years um in the last couple few months the um board has had a really hard time of getting quum members just not showing up not notifying um the staff that they're not going to be there so we've actually had a few meetings where the the uh Building Commissioner the administrative assistant and applicants have actually showed up to meetings and they can't even have the meetings because the the members aren't showing up so um in conjunction with uh Ed Bailey our Building Commissioner I included in the packet a letter that we sent out to every member of the zba we mailed it and emailed it uh basically explaining the situation uh the concern and also notifying them that they needed to confirm that they were still interested in being on the zoning board of appeals um um and if they did not that we would be bringing it before the selectman for potential um removal of their appointment the positive is every member including the alternate that we have responded expressing their interest in remaining on the zba um and the great news is is they met last night and had full membership so uh every member was there um and Mr Bailey did have a conversation with them on scheduling to determine you know if there was a better night for them so I think going forward um this should not be an issue but I just that because it was such a it was an issue a concern I wanted to make residents aware that you know we we're aware we are handling it we feel it's been handled and I also make want to make you all aware because you are the appointing authority do we have uh uh how many appointments coming up in uh next year I don't have that information up the top of my head um I mean I think I think this ought to be a topic I think frequently I don't don't think to you were with the reappointment last time so a lot of times we do is do a whole big list of reappointments right but is owning board is one that's kind of been a Bugaboo lately at least for this issue so I think maybe next year assuming I'm on the board actually it might it goes past my term so I don't I don't know I'll make a recommendation to you two guys anyway that maybe we have the applicants assuming they want to get reappointed actually come in and talk to them directly about look you know this is zoning board of appeals is important for this super tion zoning board of appeals that's those are big deal and we can't be uh the town shouldn't be I should say uh uh overlooking that and saying you know it's just a bunch of volunteers they don't get together where they're supposed to that's really not a good good thing so and I and John I think that goes hand inand where we're looking to get these folks trained right so we're invest we're investing in these people to um to give them the tools to do very well with their job and and we want to thank them for helping us out but we just you know it really only functions when we have a an Engaged you know CBA so absolutely you know while we thank them for their service we just want to make sure we can keep things rolling and they I I will note um uh one of the conditions of hiring a new Building Commissioner that was imperative to me was they attend every zba meeting so Ed since he's been here there hasn't been a ton of the meetings but um he's attended every meeting and I think it makes the world a difference because um zba and chapter 4A can be challenging um to someone who is in it every day never mind you know a volunteer board member so um having Ed to rely on has made it uh a world of difference so um I think that's helped significantly and that that'll only improve uh that I think it's great good uh old business uh NBTA action plan uh yes so uh I've updated you previously that the action plan had been submitted the state gave us some feedback um currently attorney huum is um working to on some revisions that would help us to be in compliance the goal is that we should have those back um this week there was a little bit of delay um but the the zoning byaw Review Committee is meeting a week from today to review those and hopefully make a final recommendation um Mr Bruno and I have also been having weekly meetings uh you may recall with the old colony planning council with uh representative lanatra and representatives from her office also Senator Brady and representatives from his his office have joined in so it's really a good I think team approach that we're um coming here we did apply for a grant under the um local assistance technical assistance program through Mass Housing Partnership um the idea is with that is to have um Old Colony planning Council provide us some technical assistance at a little bit of a higher level and really assist us through the public uh awareness process so it's great we've been able to develop this bylaw but we want to make sure that residents understand it understand implications of it um so when we get this town meeting people are educated and understand whatever decision they make that's fine but we just want to make sure we're educating everyone so uh Old Colony planning council is going to help with that it looks like we will be awarded that Grant which is great news um and with that you know I think I think this is on the topic we do need to start talking about a special town meeting date so we don't need to make any decisions tonight but in speaking uh with Mr Bruno uh we want to get it out there we're looking at likely the second week of December um at this point it we were hoping to be a little bit sooner but um you know this is a long process and there's I don't see any way we can get this any sooner the moderator be around um I have yet to talk to the moderator uh but I think if we can kneel down a week and then I can kneel down the exact day with the moderator and then maybe um next meeting we I frankly think that's our only option I uh if we try to do it between now and Thanksgiving planning board's not going to have enough time to uh review hold their public hearing and whatever comments and I'm expecting that they'll probably have some comments expect that and I I would like us to have the opportunity to address them if you know we can tell that we don't agree but we also can say if there's a compromise or whatever so we need to do that we also need to a lot of I our subcommittee does a lot of public um uh education as Cody said uh there's a lot of um misconceptions about what this Zone especially the mvta part of it uh you know about what it requires what it doesn't require what we can do what we can't do and what our our proposal is so uh there's a lot that has to be done in that period of time um Thanksgiving is late as we talked about um I don't see us being able to pull this off in November at all certainly not October or September and we have to get the MBTA at least on an agenda uh by the end of the year and voted on so it seems to me that that's really the best date is something December so once the the PW Review Committee meets next week and you guys do your final vote do you envision those folks coming before us may in our August meeting or where do you see the timeline on that we can try um I would Envision we're going to have them and Old Colony planning Council Inn that's where we're really going to start that process okay um we're going to try to expedite it as much as we can but it it really hinges on as long as we're able to get a final addition of that approved next week assuming assuming we get it accomplished on next Tuesday I the renovations weren't that extensive so uh on the zoning the zoning bylaw changes we we'd already made up pretty much our our recommendations on that speaking from the committee and the only that was left do was was really almost typographical ster like reorganizing this en other thing the MBTA one uh we had five I think it was um critiques from the state uh at least one of which was was was an off you know one off I don't know what they were talking about the rest of them were things that we uh could uh pretty easily like for example one of them said they wanted us to measure from the middle of the street colder in terms of where the lot was we were measuring from the sidewalk that's easy enough to do sure and then there was one that said they they thought our uh site review process needed to be addressed well we're going to do that anyway so those kind of things so I'm assuming we should be able to get this package together by next Tuesday And if nothing else Cody and I can certainly do a uh an update by that point hopefully we'll we'll have final copies of this stuff and if we do we certainly give it to you folk we want to get it to the planning board also you know as so uh because there are time time limitations on that also yeah and I know folks are chomping at the bit to see it you know I know the community is anxious to see what what you folks have been working on so I just want to make sure that we don't uh we don't have folks feeling like they're being rushed through the process you know so I feel like the you know I don't want to rush our process either but I the quicker we can turn it around and no mean all all of our meetings minutes are posted now online too from that group um they've all been public there haven't been a lot of people there but um so there yeah there have been some people there um and again I'm not a planner we don't have a professional Planner on staff and we're not in that alone there are a lot of towns like that but it makes it exceptionally challenging um to do these things so hopefully Old Colony will be able to help us um you know get you know finish finish this out I just and I don't say it accusation AB say we're we're dropping the ball here I just you know I'm just trying to work on public perception that you know we're doing our and that's why we're bringing in Old Colony because we want to Pro try to provide as many public workshops and meetings and information as we can so get out you one of the things that the board could consider is doing that review as a separate meeting um and you could we could literally run through every Change Change by change you could do it as a regular meeting it probably would take a while that's why I recommend maybe a separate meeting but again that's up to you but I think if you want to start that comprehensive review proc process we could have attorney HX here in L in in um Ed Bailey who's been instrumental in the process and run through every change I I think we should um I I I I think I envisioned that we would be holding public session like that anyway course three of us are there so would be public you know be a select meeting and have the whole uh the whole by bylaw addressed so with dealing with the changes it was Zing by law in addition to the MBTA and our vision is that we would handle those at to meeting as two separate articles anyway but they all kind of related um and I I do have to say again so the zoning bylaw Review Committee first met last August uh and so we've had one year to do this work uh and it has that group has I don't think we've ever had a a meeting where we didn't have full attendance um everybody is is on board they're all paying attention doing a great job uh the only delays we've had have to do with um technical things like uh getting the revisions written up like we needed them uh and the delay we had from the state on the MBT we had that 60 games to look over a bylaw that they've suggested to us and then send it back to us say oh by the way we're changing it so so we've had we you know they uh we've done a lot um I wish we could have started earlier we just you know you and I that that zoning bylaw Review Committee had been completely it for a couple of years it was effectively asked the at the time chairman and said well when did you have a meeting said well we can't get a CL said what we talk about still got do away with that group and put on a new one that's what we did y okay uh Town Administrator report anything extra um a few things so our energy manager Kathy Stanley submitted the grand application this week to conduct a study over at the elementary school that would um if the study is complete allow us to pursue some large grants in the future for are some Energy Efficiency upgrades over there particularly um you know they've talked about needing to put in air conditioning at some of the rooms so it could open up the opportunity for that so that was a $50,000 Grant she submitted um we'll hear about that soon we're also anticipating news uh she had submitted for a $200,000 Grant through our GRE communities program for several Energy Efficiency uh initiatives throughout town uh we anticipate hearing back from on an award about that within the next couple of weeks uh so as soon as we hear I'll let you guys know uh the fire chief is in the process of submitting a grant to MIMA um for a little over I think it was $2,700 for some gear and different equipment for Halifax Emergency Management um which is great we're still recruiting a conservation agent uh Bridgewater has the job posted they're going to start finalizing candidates um and present some finalists to us um Thorndike is continuing with their permitting process with conservation tonight um and that's pretty much it you know status quo around town um getting fiscal year 24 closed out uh we look to have uh free cash certified by the end of October this year which will be good Eric kinf uh our consultant for accounting has been doing an excellent job uh his counterpart um who works under him bill was in today uh helping clean stuff up we're looking to have the tax classification hearing on your September 10th meeting uh so we'll be posting about that soon so residents are aware about that process um yeah and that's pretty much it status quo on the conservation agent um that person will be actually an employee of West brid Bridge so do we have anything to say in the selection process is that they're going to do it um the no we we will we will they said that they will Loop Us in on the process um as they select some finalists but the appointment or anything would be made by Bridgewater yeah they're an employee of Bridgewater and basically we will be uh assessed of an invoice I think we agreed on quarterly invoicing for that position okay how about a scul of services for Halifax how uh the board approved a contract previously uh with the town of Bridgewater that I included that um it basically was a a job description so and they sent over the job description I reviewed um and they they actually took our job description included some things that were in ours that weren't in theirs um highlighted the need for obviously both towns um so yeah it's pretty comprehensive they've done a nice job of of making sure that it will meet our needs um and Conservation Commission Nots uh yes so we wanted to include this new uh correspondence section on the agendas so regularly um various boards committees projects are coming before the town and they'll send it to the selectman uh's office for review just kind of let you know what's going on so we thought it would be good to put this on the agenda uh I included the notification uh in the packet of the 111 River Street you don't have to take any action it's really just to let you know that it's going on so the the project at 111 River Street um this is the uh old Handover fireworks property and they would do testing of um Munitions there ultimately um the they're looking to go through conservation to do some uh scanning of the property to make sure that there's um no old Munitions um and that's really it they're not and then if there is they're going to look to do removal so um it really doesn't involve our office at all but again just wanted to keep you informed of it nothing's been approved but this is an application submitted um they're working with the police chief Fire Chief and um Conservation Commission uh they've had some meetings with the state police bomb squad so um you know any further information if there is going to be um you know controlled detonations or anything we'll we'll make sure that information gets out to Residents so on and so forth we're not we're not even close to that at this point but just wanted to make the board aware of it good awesome thank you okay anything else from the board no oh tired out a little bit for all just whatever you do don't pan and show all our visitors here in which case I'll allow you to make the next oh I would uh make a motion to J please a second any discussion all those in favor say I I opposed ganous thank you all for wonderful night's work than earn your 50