um so first thing on the agenda is an executive session I'll move that we go into executive session to conduct strategy session in preparation for negotiation with non-union Personnel under master of the laws chapter 38 section 21 A2 second and Mr nuz is not here today uh Mr cely yes and Mr Bruno I vote Yes so we'll come back into Open Session hopefully at 6:00 good so we're we're back into uh a public session um I guess uh have to make an announcement that this is all being tap by area 58 um if you join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance the pledge of alleg to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands na under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you okay uh we have a 6:00 so she may she's not here Jess she may swing a little bit later on we just put her on at 6 that way when she comes in she can so wait till she shows up yeah yeah okay well we do have a 615 with L Eldridge L Lana hi Lana and you are looking for a um live entertainment permit for June 15th rain day to June 16th you gave up on the uh uh on the trying to do everything in the rain yeah a tough was a little challenging last year we still had a good turnout but I never saw so much rain in my life every weekend every Saturday for the market come on gotcha all right so uh we have uh uh the Board of Health has signed sign off the fire chief has signed off and there's one comment from the police chief he just um he had mentioned that you guys spoke and so two two 4-Hour detail officers the overlap I think one will start at 11: one will start at 12 so for the majority of the event you'll have two officers there and there you're not doing a eight and a four so that so yeah Chief shs is fine with it they've worked out an agreement it'll be two 4our detail officers excellent question no can I actually ask a question go for go for so actually something I've been meaning to ask for a while and while here I'll ask the question um so in the past we had asked about um having a bounce house um and originally when we asked this when we were first looking to do this event we were told that in order to do that um we would have to seek um our own private insurance that would cover any um liability for the town um so you know we've pursued that we haven't found an insurance company that would do that for us um but I wanted to ask some questions around um other events that have taken place on Town Hall green um I know if it's sponsored by the town um you know like the fireworks committee like that's under the town's umbrella Insurance of liability that makes sense um but you know the farmers market that took place throughout this summer um I pretty consistently noticed that there was a bounce house um most weekends and I wondered what insurance that was covered under if that was a town sponsored event if that's a private event if there's private insurance that covered that if it was a fly into the radar kind of thing um you know it's just it's again it's a question I've been meaning to ask for months um and just in the hecticness of planning our event haven't been able to uh I don't know that's a good question maybe so they were required to submit Insurance documentation um I don't have it in front of me so I don't know if that was explicitly uh you know determined in the policy if there would be a bounce house I wasn't aware that there was a bounce house so now that we know we will be sure that um this year if they're going to do that that they provide a policy uh for that I'm not looking to be the Grinch I'm just trying to I I do feel bad like I don't want to be kill Joy um but you know it is something that we wanted to do and if there's a way that we could do it we would like to take advantage of that so um okay well um honestly it's not nothing I was thinking about and I'm sure you weren't either so we'll uh Cody you'll take a look and see what the situation is on that and um if they did I'll will send you the insurance company but they you perfect perfect okay any other comments questions thoughts no hope you like I say every year hope you have some good weather yeah too all right so we have a motion absolutely I will make a motion to accept the live entertainment permit application for the Halifax Pride event for June 15th 202 4 from 11:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. I will second any further discussion all those in favor say I I oppos yes thank you guys all we can do is hope for the hope for it doesn't rain as hard thank you okay so we can uh go uh are you guys here for anything in particular or just for entertainment purposes um TV I'll wait till you get to it all right oh I don't want to keep you hanging around you don't have to but you're welcome to stay well wish stay all right uh so um let's see uh the warrants sure all right I uh move to affirm approval the following commitment and warrant vendor warrant number 98 for $164,800 to 42124 for $ 51,9 6488 our second any discussion no all those in favor say I I oppos it's unanimous I move to approve the following commitment and warrants Peril warrant number 99 for $442,500 for $233,350 4 School warrant number 101 for $662,500 70 withholding warrant number 102 for $151,400 okay I second any discussion all those in favor say I I all right uh minutes from regular session and executive session sure where are my list is right here uh I move to approve the following minutes regular session April 4th 2024 and executive session April 23rd 2024 I'll April 4th or April 9th it's April 9th did I say 4th yeah my bad sorry guys strike that from the record please I move to approve the following select and meeting minutes regular session April 9th 2024 and executive session April 23rd 2024 excellent I'll second that any discussion all those in favor say I I oos it's unanimous uh Road opening so we have a Road opening for a 4x6 cut for gas service at uh 179 Oak Street it has been signed off by all applicable departments all right I'll make a motion to approve the road opening second do we have any discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I opposed it's unanimous thank you sir um the uh anticipated note of $1.6 million for water department yes so uh as you may recall to meeting approved authorization to borrow up to $3 million uh and last spring good news is we have uh been able to use retained earnings and arpa funding so we are not going to have to borrow anywhere close to that 3 million we're looking at 1.6 million uh so our financial team um primarily through Sandy Nolan Our Town accountant and Linda McCarthy our treasure collector have worked diligently with our financial advisers to go through the borrowing process um it's lengthy as you can imagine there's a lot of work involved um but that has been culminated we um we found a buyer uh the rate is actually pretty good 42% is you know pretty good considering the market right now um and the board just needs to authorize it and we will actually receive our money on the ninth to move forward with the water project um this is for a ban so it's a shortterm ban so it just be for a year and then as we get closer to that deadline we will reevaluate the situation on whether we want to go to a long-term borrowing or we want to stick with another year of the ban or we maybe look to pay off pay it off or pay off some of it with retained earnings depending on how the water department is doing but considering with we're um we're requesting another 500,000 from town meeting out of retained earnings that would ultimately pay this down to 1.1 million so as retained earnings look healthier we may utilize more of it and if we get under a million we won't want to go to a long-term borrowing anyways because you have to do at least 10 years for a long-term borrowing um which project is this exactly this is for Richmond Park and the YMCA YMCA uh well both Wells got both well upgrades this is um so we are in compliance with the EPA administrative order uh the Water discharge is uh has not been under up to standards so we were required by the EPA to do this project um we've you we're well underway it's about a $3 million project um so now we just need the money to finish it off okay and any comments from the water commissioner they're satisfied with Y Bill Lindsay's been as you know involved in the process um early on and this was the best rate um okay all right I'll make a motion that we uh approve the bond uh there was a question John oh sorry is this for YMC Wells 3 and four yeah and the Richmond Park Wells correct it's two three so can you break down what three and four cost I don't have that in front of me no I just have the full contract of about 3 million typically equal CU it div by three is that un fair to say or is it three and four more expensive than I can't say that that would definitely be a good question for the water Commissioners and our water superintendent though they're overseeing the project but the selectman just have to approve the borrowing of the project toal borrowing is 1.6 point with 500,000 the allocated POS on Monday correct pay down correct yeah I would say uh you're asking those technical questions that the Water Commission is where you will get the best answers for that cuz they're run they're going to run the project but we're just we're just signing off the bond good enough thank you okay so uh any other questions no no uh so I would uh move to um approve a bond for 1.6 million as described by the Town Administrator second any discussion all those in favor say I I oh it's unanimous and then I just have a whole slew of documents that you guys have to sign so you can do it after the meeting okay um consideration of projects for the American Rescue plan act funding so I think uh that's why we have some finance committee members here tonight so um we have about $160,000 remaining in uh arpa funding uh majority of that lies within the county so we have to apply to the county for it we can use it for um Revenue loss or so basically any Municipal purpose but we do have to go through the process the board does have to approve these projects that's the only approval Authority for the arpa funding you've approved several projects in the past I have a a sheet here that breaks down all the arpa um so with 100 approximately 160,000 remaining uh we wanted to bring It Forward for consideration of different projects so um as part of the capital request there were a few items that were not able to be funded with free cash this year um that are definitely uh necessary for the town the financial management upgrade uh in the amount of $70,000 is uh a must we are in the process of upgrading our financial management system our existing financial management system is not um they're not updating it anymore we can receive support but the functionality is very limited and we need to um we have to update it so with that is implementation cost from the consultant uh to get everyone trained migrate all our data over and that's in the amount of 70,000 so my recommendation would be the board utilize arpa funding for that um so with that would leave you know approximately 90 $1,000 left there were two other requests from uh the other Town departments to Capital one of them was for the wood wood shipper uh for the highway department uh that was a request at last year's town meeting that Steve withdrew uh and then he did submitted again this year in the amount of 84,000 it was not funded through Capital uh and then the other item was turno gear for the fire department so the fire chief requested 28 sets of New Gear uh or I'm sorry structural gear for the fire Department he requested 28 sets um many of the his of the sets of gear are out of compliance or going to be out of compliance in the next year or so so um the capital planning committee and finance committee approved uh 12 sets of gear for funding out of uh the town meeting this year and then another two sets to be funded out of uh Public Safety earmark that we received from the state so effectively half the half of his request was Pro pending toown meeting approval uh this year um and but there is still a need for you know approximately 14 more sets um so but we weren't able to fund it with free cash so Capital planning committee recommended their uh items finance committee uh and I'm sure you know Jim and Frank are here they can certainly comment on it the finance committee uh felt that it would be better spent with the fire department gear rather than the wood shipper um so that you know they wanted to make that known to the selectman that they felt you know this it should go to the fire department rather than the wood chipper this year uh also in your packet was a memo from uh our mechanic regarding the wood chipper and the need for um some some work to the wood chipper 13 or $14,000 of work that's needed so again you know only limited funding here remaining but um you know we want to get going on this we want to get the funding allocated so we can apply to the county get those funds and then allow the projects to move forward let me ask you on the fire department so I know in our uh in the warrant there uh is is fire uh equipment coming up for town meeting Y what is what's the difference with this this is just additional equipment so gear so the chief requested 28 sets initially um through the town meeting this year that would fund 12 sets Okay so the if you were to approve additional funding for that with arpa that would fund additional gear towards his goal of the 28 would we get to 28 or not quite uh you could you could get pretty close to the 28 uh with if you were to allocate the remaining you know 90,000 to um so part of this is already figured into our Capital plan and part of it is is we're looking at doing is extra funding so ultimately you have three projects before you the financial management system upgrades which is 70,000 um I would strongly recommend that because we we need that that needs to be done uh and then the other one is you have 990,000 remaining in two of the larger projects or items that have come forward are the wood shipper or Andor fire department gear and so the finance committee uh recommended to fund the fire department gear um and so that's it's up for consideration so that I guess that maybe a question for you guys like are it sounds to me like is there is your recommendation to fund the entire fire department thing out of arpa arpa no not the entire the balance the balance of this year cuz next year he's still got to turn out more gear next year as well okay uh because he's coming up on the um 10year usage of the gear yeah and um he's got a lot of expired gear um that's non-compliant that they've been having to use and the other thing is the firefighters only have one set of gear when they need two sets of gear MH okay so but isn't that what we're proposing here yeah about only 12 so if town meeting approves the request that would give him 12 sets through there and then um we have a public safety earmark through the state that would give him another two okay and so that leaves in his request 14 uh remaining sets that he's requesting this year okay so the thought would be you could we could either push that off right to next year through capital or the board could utilize arpa funding to fund the remaining at the cost of the highway chipper cuz we only have $90,000 remaining with ARA oh oh oh I misunderstood that I I didn't realize that okay so if if we we can't do all three of these projects on Ara correct we have about $160,000 remaining okay I misunderstood all right so let me just read a letter we got from the uh Highway metal mechanic it says that April 4th uh 2024 researched repairs required for our chipper for several years now I've welded cracks in the choot so the structural Integrity has become poor the main drum has stress cracks in the pockets where blades go this is a precise part that cannot be doctored as such this part needs to be replaced the safety latch system also requires replacement has been repaired many times in the past 3 years as a reminder excuse me this unit this as a reminder this unit is 16 years old has 36 00 hours on it these working hours are equivalent to 126,000 Mi if it were a driven vehicle and he attached uh a invoice for parts only which totals out to $3,359 69 so that's uh what that's what they talk about um okay so we can do financial management and the fire department yeah so effectively you can do two projects uh the financial manage like I said the financial management system is really a must mhm so if you do approve the financial management system integration that leaves you with ultimately one of the two um fire department gear the remaining fire department gear or the wood chipper and then I would think you know again we don't know what's going to happen next year but I would think whatever project does not you know get funded with that would go on the capital plan or certainly would be requested next year by Capital we have question just a couple quick clarification points so are we talk are we still in compliance if we get 12 plus the two town meeting on Monday with 14 to be coming next year are we still in compliance with the upgrades that are needed and required by the state and number two are we asking about the repair of the chipper or the purchase of a new one there two different ones there 14 new it's a purchase 84 new 14 repair correct so corre we're not we're not talking about the repair no we're disregarding that we could repair it I mean it's a that come out of operating budget I supp if want that's 85,000 is brand brand new as far as the uh fire department gear cuz I was on that Capital planning committee and um the chief's um presentation was that almost all of the stuff is is either outdated or going to be and also uh he talked about upgrading not not necessarily upgrading but actually meeting standards to code standards for fire equipment that uh what Frank talked about that they were they should have two sets of these things and they don't right now they have one uh and some of those are mismatched Qui but we would still the town would still be in compliance with the recommended upgrades if we separated this into this year and next year they they would all have one they would they would have so would the plan be to push that down the line correct well if we did the wood Cher we right yeah that we would have to we could do the fire gear any thoughts no it's um I mean we obviously want our firefighters to be safe um and I guess it boils down to what do we want to I don't want to say kick down the road but what do we want to tackle this year and push off to hopefully next year um if they all have one good set of gear Cody if you could kind of educate me on how this goes they would only have to use their second gear if their first gear is dirty like they're having multiple calls or through that the chief U the chief I had extensive discussions on this basically any call they go on they have to come back and change that gear um and even if it's not a a fire per se uh they have to come back change the gear because there's just different chemicals and things they're exposed to if it's raining and they go to a car accident for instance they have to change that gear afterwards because if if they did get a call for a fire for instance then um you could have um steam burns ultimately is what what ends up happening so it's they're they're supposed to really regularly almost regularly change the gear back and forth um we we did kind of just or you know on our side we did just find out about the status of all of the gear we weren't aware that it was to this level um you know so the planning hasn't been great that's why we implemented the 5-year plan so we know about these things more in advance because it is it's a it's a big expense on a normal year never mind a year right free cash was a little bit lighter this year than anticipated so it was a big unexpected expense uh and you know my recommendation in capital was to at least get the half and that's that's why it kind of went that way was because Capital would fund 12 two through the E mark that at least gets 14 of the 28 and then you know try to buy more next year if if oura didn't go through um well is it the um the 12 outfits are $85,000 or something yeah they're about 60 6600 that 66 6600 set yep that's full set mhm I mean by the way the chief explained it when one of the meetings I was at that uh when they come back every time they come back they're supposed to put them in the washing machine and and uh whatever that does to to take off chemicals and and that kind of thing and he was also referencing the the the fire standards that would require that two you know alternate outfit uh thing it's been I mean we've always had an issue with this mostly because uh we have a substantial qualifier department and people come and go and so when when uh you know when a skinny guy comes in and a fat guy goes out the skinny guy has pants that are too big and so that's a problem and same with tall and short and with some a lot of women now for some women that are like completely different size than everything else so it is it is an issue um but his plan that he's expressed a couple of times in the capital planning and also at the a recent meeting I forget which one that was uh but that uh you know he would would like to try to get everything on a regularly rep replaced basis and this would start that so so essentially if we did this we would be good for 10 years with our gear no sets effective next year he's going to request five sets every year because that's the rotation schedule so the the long-term goal after 5 years yeah you would everyone so you're going to start off with ultimately people are going to have um some people might have two brand new sets but as you start to work through the cycle the idea is you have a primary set that's at most 5 years old MH and then at year five that transitions to your secondary set and you get a brand new set so your two you'll always have two sets one of them is your primary that's no more than 5 years old and then your secondary is no more than 10 years old cuz code says it can't be more than 10 years old so it's the it's the cost of up front to get us onto that schedule so we're not doing this you know massive cost every 5 years sure so it's a it's a cycle it's essentially it's not the exact same but similar to what we do with the police cruisers where we have to similar it's a cycle CLE the police um the vest yeah Pro vest the same thing after so many years they're uh they probably they probably still work yeah sure yeah but why take your chance but why right you're dealing with life-threatening issues EXC not the waters but for those that are run informed the financial management implementation system what is the total cost of that and is there any options to scale that back or is that all All or Nothing thin what does that Encompass quick 30 seconds sure uh so uh we're estimating $70,000 that's basically the Professional Services of the new company coming in migrating all of our data from the old system to the new system training all of our staff and then support at first as we're on boarding the new system and the implementation being phased out not available expired the old system has not offered um any upgrades or support so so just where we operating now yeah and just very limited functionality so one of the things you know the board identified goals of just creating efficiencies Financial systems and and operations and one of the first things we identifi was our financial system doesn't allow for efficiency really um everything most most things have to be paper it's not very user friendly so uh by inte to this new system the annual cost isn't U much larger it's about $10,000 more a year but there's just the onetime implementation cost and there's no middle ground there I'm just trying to think of ways to do both a chipper and the fire department thing and do something in the Middle with the pation system but like that's available this was a a a reduced rate that we got the initial cost was probably around 100 and then we were able to work with them on a reduced rate okay um so I mean I I'll take the lead on the the discussion I think um I was on the capital planning when uh we talked about all these things over the winter uh they're all valid they're all good I think the chippers is is an excellent idea but I mean in my view um I think it's better uh I think I agree with the finance committee that that it's better to uh put put the uh fire department up to standards as opposed to um buying a new wood shipper I mean I mean maybe they could get by with what they have if not I mean there'll be a cost but there could be rentals and stuff like that we can still go ahead and do it and uh I think the fire chief is being uh thoughtful about his um you know his future plans for uh for this part of things and you know it's expensive to run a fire department it just it just is so expensive about everything but the fire department just did so I think if I had to choose between the two I think that's how I would do it yeah I think they're both good service to the town but I think the deal breaker for me and the one that pushes me over is the the the public safety element of it you know we want to make sure that our people that are putting themselves In Harm's Way are in the most up toate and certified stuff um that said the town has to be okay you know our highway department has let us know that this chippers on its last legs so there's a chance that this thing this is the second year has come up exactly I don't want to downplay their request that they're you know they they're kind of giving us the heads up like guys this is this is on its way out so um that said I I would go with the gear but really look to address the chipper next year okay uh so what you need a motion so I would need you to vote to approve arpa funding in the amount of $70,000 for the financial management system upgrades and uh in the amount of $90,000 for the fire department structural gear all right and suppose they don't spend all 90 so what's yeah one of the things that we're doing now as we get closer to that deadline of of needing to submit everything is you know the board through you know multiple years has approved you know various projects um at different amounts and some of those haven't come in at that amount so what Sandy and I are working to do is uh figure out what has come in under budget and there may be a remaining value and hopefully uh at the start of the fiscal I can come back to you and say this is the amount we have remaining how do we want to allocate this okay and there's no time is there time crunch like a window as to September 30th we have to have it through the county um allocated okay um we for our arpa funding which we've used pretty much all of uh it's the end of the calendar year we have to have it allocated but the county is September 30th got so and we will I'll get these applications in you know probably later this week early next week uh and then like I said once we get through through town meeting we'll start going through and pinpointing actual cost and identify you know how much we have leftovers lefts just all right uh so uh you want one motion or two one motion fine all right so I will make a motion to approve $70,000 for uh a varpa funding for the financial management system implementation and 90,000 for the fire department uh gear I'll second that motion okay any discussion all those in favor say I I oppos she okay yeah I'd just like to say you know understand that the chip is old and everything and it needs some needs a little TLC and like you said Jonathan that maybe next year we've got to kind of find a way to maybe help them out and it may not be as big a machine as they're requesting cuz it's pretty good size machine that they've got up for request we look at that and say do we really need it that big based on some of the equipment we bought the last couple years it's helping with the clearing of the vegetation and stuff around town um maybe we can get the price down on a machine somewhere and be able to fund that up maybe depending on what our free cash looks like next year you know or put it into the capital you know but well it's in the capital plan uh just that this year we deferred it so yeah so it'll come up next year again I just remember that chipper in a couple storms we had was the MVP of the town you know it really was I mean had them storms those storms it felt like every other tree was down correct you're right they they really put a lot of miles on it so I know what you're saying Frank you don't want to go for the Cadillac but you want to make sure you can handle a Town's worth of worth of chipping and something like that happens and my thoughts were you know once I saw the total numbers for all of the turnout gear that the fire department was going to need over the next four to 5 years it was those numbers are are huge mhm and I don't know how we were going to even fund it of that you know then I saw that we had some har money left and we started talking about it and thought maybe it might be a better fit that's where I came I appreciate the finance committee's uh input frankly because uh I think this by the way I think this finance committee is excellent I'm very impressed with the way uh you guys have been operating and the people on there just seem to be perfect so uh really take your opinions to heart because I think they're they're very well thought out and then very very uh very good so just excellent job we appreciate that and I feel that we've got a you know I've only been on a 2 years now and I feel it's pretty Dam good team we got you know excellent and you got you two all right too so [Applause] that's coule yeah boys your opinion maybe sometimes little too much I just wanted you on so we could get you away from Frank Johnston to meeting yeah we trimmed our meetings by 20 minutes put that's great but our committee meetings have gone longer that's true that is true all right uh next thing up is uh vacation carryover request so the um Highway Cemetery department has one 2 three four five requests uh to carry over uh a week's vacation time um we're trying to cut back on this this is standard they're not asking for anything above what's allowed in their contract just for some reason in their contract it requires for them even to carry over the the minimum they have to have uh approval from the select the highway surveyor so this isn't anything above and beyond like we had discussed we want to limit the uh the above and beyond but this is the this is the minimum for them all right okay any discussion no so I guess I'll move to approve the uh requested carryover from the highway department I'll second that motion any discussion all those in favor say hi hi oh youis uh we have a uh uh fuel supply contract yes so uh we went out to bid in 2022 for a fuel supply contract we awarded it to Dennis K Burke uh there is three option years on the contract um we are looking to pick up the third uh option year this would be the last year of the contract we'll go up to bid again sometime in fiscal 25 uh the prices in in conferring with Steve Hayward the prices are uh still competitive and um very reliable service so just looking for the board to approve the continuation of the contract okay and the highway surveyor is in favor of this right yes correct all right um I'll make a motion to approve the uh third option of the fuel supply contract I'll second that motion any discussion all those in favor say I iOS it's unanimous uh creation of a senior center building committee this is exciting so uh Mr Bruno and I have discussed this uh previously but as you know we are working towards building a new Council on Aging um the first step in that process is you need an owner's project manager uh Mass General law requires any Public Works project over 1.5 million any public construction project I'm sorry that's over 1.5 million you have to have a a certified owner's project manager so uh the board had previously approved the procurement for that we issued that procurement proposals were due uh last Tuesday we did receive one proposal uh so in order to start evaluating that we need to put together a building committee um you and this is more of a discussion you don't need to make a decision tonight you know the town does have the standing Municipal and school building committee um and so it's a decision of you know are we going to have them handle this project do we want to have a committee you know including them that's more focused you know counsil on Aging focused uh and John and I did speak with uh Burke gayer about this as as well and he was going to bring it to his committee but I wanted to bring it up because we do have the proposals we definitely want to get going on this the idea would be we put the committee together you appoint the committee and then we would bring in the uh candidate for the project management uh in we'd interview them the building committee would um and then look to hopefully ratify a contract with them and and then we move on to the design phase of the project uh they'll oversee the design we you know they'll help us with the procurement documents for the design bring on a designer uh and then obviously after we have that once the building is designed we will move on to construction phase and they'll also help with that uh the procurement documents and then they'll also be on site they're a certified engineer they have to be uh and they will be on site making sure that the plans are being followed and really our eyes and ears approving change orders things like that so um we uh toy and I talked to ber Gainer uh who's the chairman of the building committee about about this what they what he thought the committee would or wouldn't do um and um so I've been thinking about it and that committee is I'm not sure who everybody who's on it but I know Jerry Joy is who was an very experienced contractor retired now on the zoning board of appeals also uh Bert Gainer who was on the zoning board of appeals for I don't know ever um Bob hodj who uh Not only was a school uh assistant superintendent but he was also on at least one of the two building committees for Silver Lake with me and I'm not sure who else is on there now talk but the more I thought thought about it the more I thought well they're certainly qualified to do this you know and they're not just overseeing maintenance they certainly know their way but I thought maybe what would make sense would be to ask them to come in and we can have a talk about just like okay how you are you ready to take on the job and if so what resources would you like Cody pointed out that one of the uh inputs we would probably like to do here is to have the council and aging directly involved at least a director um she wouldn't have to be a voting member necessarily but we would like to have her uh at least part of the process absolutely sort of a u ex official I guess or whatever just somebody who goes to the meetings doesn't vote on anything necessarily but certainly has the ability to put in qu because I think that's critical to it too uh and certainly Town Administrator would be involved that's what I was thinking and I think um I think that might be the best thing to do Shany I think you should include your town count in those meetings when we did the school roof in repairs over there we used to have a group and the town accountant the um school committee the school superintendent then also like um I think this it's school by vice principal was in it but having the town accountant in the loop is always a good idea okay um are you going to stay on not yeah you'll be here but keep them in the keep them in the meeting because it was productive the time come so I think that's so if we could if we could arrange a meeting probably not until after I guess maybe our first meeting after the election T meeting maybe we could talk about it then that should give us time but if we put that on the um the accountant the council and aging director absolutely and just in general if the building committee feels they have the time and the resources to do it and if they want to do it you know I assume they do I know Berke was thought he thought his committee would and I'm sure they would do a fine job again they very experienced people um you know more so than us I mean they don't they know the way around that stuff yeah I just want to spitball with you too John so I Envision obviously it's going to be a Council on Aging but I also Envision too maybe some nonca Events maybe there you know we're talking having a community so with that said would we want to look into any sort of Youth and wreck involvement on this committee whereas there might be we might be using that space for uh activities outside of the COA or do you think that's too early in the game My thought would be that uh we kind of pretty much know what's going to be built okay we have at least the general concept I mean maybe Furnishing is inside we all about that again but uh but it's not like we don't we don't know what the basic footprint is going to be um and the purpose of the building committee would be really to more oversee the operation of things from the town's perspective I mean obviously they're not they're not the clerk of works not the project manager nothing like that but they would they would oversee those folks and I think if we get if we make it too big uh then I think we might be just more harder for them to do their job okay so that's my view I don't know if you have different no yeah you took the words on off I think if you were designing you are designing but if you if you were at an empty slate it would make maybe you throw in some dedicated Recreation space where we already have an idea um this is what it's going to look like and we can certainly vary from that design but it's all just going to be additional cost so you know if we want to look to add additional things or tweet the design substantially we can it's just the town's going to be expected to have to pop that you know the additional funding okay and I think we can we can ask them for reports every month or whatever whatever we think if it gets to that point where it looks like there might be something else that we might want to have more input from the US Rec or some else can out okay and we'll pull in you know people just because they're not per se on the committee doesn't mean we won't pull them in like I've had uh in-depth discussions with our energy manager consultant Kathy Stanley and she you know she has already said she is willing to jump in and you know be a part of that because there's certain uh energy credits and just you know looking at how we want to do the building that she can um provide her expertise on she's actually on the wall pole is building a new M I think over $100 million High School couple hundred million and she's on that building committee for the energy side of things so she can help us out with those things as well any confusion or appearance of impropriety if you have Mr gain and Mr Joy on on the building committee where they sit on a zon board appeals and the planning board any concerns there or they sit on a publicly elected position or appointed position where they serve on that building committee no I mean the only one that you can't be on the only the only position you can't hold more than one of is finance committee board everybody else you do that advantageous to have them serve most qualified yeah I mean he was we we had appoint him he was on there before but I would certainly keep him there because I think he does an excellent job but um I mean I was moderator and selectman at one point um you can you can be on the school committee we had a selectman here a couple years ago was on every school committee plus been a board of select one the only one is the finance committee by bylaw they they can't be on yeah I was just thinking and I don't mean to you know to off track here I was just thinking that you know where this was a little bit of a contentious issue uh at time meeting to build have the senior center approved um a little bit divided the time might have been a little bit divided where you have numers board this the the the function of a of a of a building Committee in this circumstance uh is really uh more technical than anything else and their function is to um open I mean they're not they're not necessarily making final decisions on on on designs or anything like that but there's their function is to make sure they would do interviews for for uh project managers they would make sure the project manager does their job make sure that the curricular work does their job that kind of a thing um this project is already um pretty much it there's no final design yet but we know what about how big it's going to be we know generally what the what the uh structure is going to be like um so all right uh and one special town meeting yes so um we had our internal town meeting preparation meeting uh last week where we went through with the moderator and the chairman of the selectman chairman of the finance committee myself Town Clerk and town accountant uh just to prepare for town meeting so as we do uh every year we I put together a draft of the packet for you guys um and I just wanted to go through make sure you know what we did last year what seemed to work was any of the articles that were being proposed by the selectman one of you guys would move um and then finance committee was the same way the the chair of the finance committee would typically move the ones proposed by the finance committee uh so I just wanted to go through make sure that you know delegate these to you know whichever one of you felt comfortable so we had a plan going forward so um yeah we can take it article by article but I think um whatever way you want to do it I think with na not here he gets the ones we don't want to do what happens when you it the only one NAA has to do the 41 41 she's the only Farmer on the board that's it it's experience yeah it's 150 bucks okay um so so article one yeah we can just start and go through article one uh John you had moved this one last year so yeah this is a funny article anyway I've never understood why we even have it uh because it doesn't really serve a function normally but it does give the uh various boards including the board of selectman opportunity just to make a couple of comments about it so I I'll I'll just give an introduction yeah I'm glad you're handling it because I don't understand this is what's on the agenda this is you know what what we voted on and and and that's all seems arade it's funny you say that because in my discussions with uh Council you know you see this at sometime meetings you don't see it at some others I you know I kind of asked him is it a legal requirement and uh Paul dures who obviously is knows town meeting better than probably most um basically said this was a legal requirement prior to 1970 early '70s before towns were required to print an annual report and now towns are required to have an annual report and so you actually don't need this anymore um and so maybe we can look at taking it off but I wanted to make incremental changes and didn't want too many changes on I'd be um I'm happy with I mean we do need to clean up some things and that's one thing we could clean up because no most of the time they say Okay moderator says uh you know we have a motion we have a second on this and that's it what's the next one so all right okay so next year maybe we'll take it off next year time yeah all right uh article two is uh wage and personal bylaw uh who's so Jonathan had moved the one in the past so I had tentatively thrown him into this but Jonathan again that's yeah I can I'll do it if you guys want me to Sure game on okay um three uh is a finance committee article on the uh elected official salaries correct yep so Todd Dary will move that all right um for the operating budget which is a finance committee thing um Todd Todd um we talked about that just so we we know what we're talking about um I think the moderator will follow the practice of taking um sections uh for a vote essentially splitting the vote uh splitting the question I should say um and but doing each line so we'll go down line one 2 3 4 five and then they'll have a chance to have a hold have a hold then uh I think he's going to go back and handle the hold first and then go back and vote the whole thing so that's worked in the past and it seems to be the best way to keep it moving all right uh five is the umol revolving funds uh so NAA had moved this one last year so I had him moving it again this year um yeah okay that's fine it's it's a pretty standard thing and by the way I had to remind myself that uh this doesn't appropriate any money at all all this does is set limits as to how much money can rotate through that account all of these all of these uh accounts uh uh they charge like for our Earth removal byot board select we charge for advertising and so on but that circles its way through it so there's no appropriation to this um six is uh Reserve fund that's uh that's a finance committee um seven is so seven is is the solar pilot we're going to pass over so I we would just need one of you guys to make a motion to pass over I'll I'll do it you can second capital plan uh proposed by Capital planning committee which I guess it's me right yeah at this point um and uh I understand the U the moderator is probably going to handle it the same way in other words you'll take them about the fire department uh they holds on the turnout gear mob mediation vote it go to the police department go to the roadway go to the highway so or water department rather so John you want to move this one uh yeah I can do that let's Tod once to we can if he likes but oh it does say move by Todd Todd oh so we already talked about that so Todd's going to do it yeah okay the uh sorry turn up you're up for a discussion at time we just did that only half of it that's half so half will be up discussion at time meeting um well we don't have the motion here so I don't know I assume it's coming out of rais an appropriate I suppose for which one for the capital uh no the it's actually just as printed in the warrant which is 594 th000 from preash okay from pre and then uh the remainder from the water Enterprise rain yeah all right uh nine let's see here uh oh Community preservation that is me it's Jonathan okay can't wait that be quite the PowerPoint I can't wait for that you laughing at here knock your socks off knock your socks off boys going to blow your hair straight back uh 3500 uh to support South Coastal um that's myself yeah and Pam has all the backup if we have any questions about it y uh 3500 on the next one article 11 for Southshore advocacy for domestic violence yeah that's me and article 12 is the $150 for the County Extension he's a farmer um uh we have Article 13 is um the uh change of um uh increasing the fee um change each this is the demand fee so $5 raises it to 15 yep right now it's five uh 15 is in line with um you know all the other communities and and actually a lot of communities are even higher than 15 okay um this is the fee just to be sure about it because I I know the town uh collector wants wants wants us to move it so I'll do it uh but does um uh this is when you send a demand mhm for a late basically late payment late payments so this is a basically a late fee basically yeah on top of Interest I'll I'll put some notes in there too so with all the comparable data so you have it okay uh let's see uh uh the um air conditioning oh no the parttime resource yeah so Silver Lake I I sent an email over to Paula hatch today uh she will either her or Gordon laws will move this okay um Article 15 uh the um we're going to pass over the $25,000 for HVAC and Silver Lake and the reason is they don't have any they don't have a good solid figure on that so which one of you wants to move that one just we just going to need someone to going to need someone to move over make a motion to pass over y are you going to do that one I'll do it okay right though uh 16 transfer $75,000 from free cash to Unemployment uh this is a finance committee thing uh just make sure we have enough money in there in case there are layoffs um article 17 is the annual election article uh the special town meeting one so this was originally proposed by the school committee is that right but they have I don't know if they're taking it off they're just not ready to they asked us to to to do a placeholder they were um they they may they were concerned they were going to have an operating deficit for the current fiscal year so but they weren't going to have enough information to confirm that prior to us printing the warrant so they had asked us to put a place basically a placeholder uh hence the vagueness of this article uh for this and since then in conversations with the superintendent and the Director of Finance and administration or in operations they do not anticipate having a deficit so we will not need this so procedurally the the moderator will have to open the special town meeting um John do you want to make the motion to pass over so John will make a motion to pass over the article it'll be voted and then the uh they'll close the special town meeting I'm going to um mention that in the opening by the way that we have this coming up at 15 minutes later and that uh it's going to be pretty short so just back into it so I will update uh this packet with uh the from tonight I'm put some notes in there we have our three Bing binders once we I will email it to you so you have it as soon as I'm done and then Pam will put it into the binder and then um by the end of the week it'll be available if you want to pick it up but I'll also email it to you so you have it Ahad time please not use both sides of the page all right you got it only for yours I'll double side everyone else's problem the problem being and it happened to me in December was I couldn't follow what I was doing and then I get myself all mixed up so y you did great you do Mr chair could I make a request yes I've drank about 64 o of water today could I please use the men's room we minute recess thank you very that'll be plenty of time be right we're almost done anyway so want start so everything the first what about this Blood oh I guess she just didn't come so as long someone signs this one this one says Clerk of the board but here so this first page here needs to be signed clerk yeah but Na's not here we can I'll cross I'll cross out afterwards and put chair we T that's the and everyone and then everything that has a red sign here is what you guys need to sign and there's a lot to Tod to Tod 36 well um I was asking for an updated uh budget status report oh oh yes he did he ask for that he did okay can we have it before tomorrow night's finance committee meeting you ask me for that I will email it to you we'll see it tomorrow not the blue ones though right yeah not blue just red thank you guys my apologies not no reason to apologize okay uh when you get old like me I know I'm getting there I'm right behind you oh like these guys um okay so we take up our agenda uh updates yes so MBTA action plan no new updates on our submitt although uh the board had requested that we draft a letter back to representative lanatra regarding uh her response to your initial letter um I did email her requesting you know what you guys had asked for which was you know for her to come in and have some sort of public forum I also followed that up uh and had you sign the formal letter today we also included um several uh basically all of our surrounding communities that our that are um being held to the law and we also included several communities that have voted down the law um in that letter and invited them to join um basically the public for that we have uh and then with that also Middleboro um did is is filing um you know some uh uh they yeah they did so yeah so and they uh my understanding is they have basically put out a call if there's any other municipalities that wanted to kind of join them um so I just wanted to bring that up as well on the Amicus part uh so it it's not normally well can be if we wanted to do our own or but frequently uh you can have multiple uh um uh people uh support yeah right uh support on the same brief so I think what maybe we could do with that is talk with um uh Mr dures probably I guess uh and uh and and also with Middleboro ask him if uh they would like us to be a co-s signature to it and then we could take a look at it and go from there I would like to do that I think that's a good idea and then as far as the letter to uh the State Rep and and we've been saying this we've been saying this for over a year um the I'm a lawyer I spent a lot of time in court and I think that we are going about that that most of these towns are going about this completely the wrong way the right way to do this this is a this is a law this isn't something that came from the Ten Commandments this is just a law p placed by the state uh passed by the state legislature State Legislature can change it tomorrow they can say hey this isn't working this is stupid and it is stupid it isn't working and it's very much opposed by almost everybody in the area um and so I think we need to put the pressure on the people we're giving them a pass we're giv the state legislature a pass we're giving we're giving the state a pass we're giving the Attorney General a pass we're giving the governor a pass all of these people have the ability to fix this problem and what we're doing here is spending a lot of money to go to court so that four or five or six people on a court can make a decision when we don't have to do that we have our people that are supposed to be representing us um that should be listening to us and we can't get representative latra or Mr Cutler at the time to come down and talk to us about it and so that I think that is what what I would like to press with all of our surrounding communities is that we can fix this problem a lot easier by just telling the state legislators you got to fix this we uh we you know we vote for you folks and we're telling you we don't like it so it should be it should be addressed that that's my view on the whole thing I just think I just think the the anger I think the all of that is misdirected it's got you know we're letting them slide we're letting them SL we're letting it slide you know oh okay I'm I'm a state legislature but I don't have to do anything well that's not true you're supposed to be you're supposed to be making good laws and we made a bad one fix it that's how I see it so anyway that's my rant for tonight I've done it before I'll do it again and I'll continue to do it because I really think I really think that it's just it's a Dem we're representative democracy that we're that's that's the path we're supposed to follow we're supposed to be having the state representative the state senate that the um the governor uh um at least at least listening to us I'm not saying they going change their mind maybe they won't I don't know that's their that's their choice but at least they should come and talk to us about it sure so that's how I see it anyway so much for that is that it on our agenda uh Morse Brothers no new updates other than the their work under the current permit is complete y um training for boards and committees no new updates as far as Staffing and operations I've had a series of conversations and meetings with the town of Bridgewater regarding our conservation agent um they've been very productive we're at the point where I actually anticipate bringing a uh intermedia School agreement to you guys for review and approval uh within the next few weeks uh Bridgewater is drafting it and then we'll review it um basically to spit split a conservation agent um 50/50 they will host it it'll be their employee and then you know they were just work for is this East bridgew or bridgew this is bridgew um with uh going along the conservation lines we have uh filled the admin role for conservation Patty sand who uh provides uh administrative support in our Board of Health is going to take on that role so once we get the agent that department will be fully staffed uh Kathy Stanley our Green community or our energy manager consultant uh put together a $225,000 Grant application under our green communities grant that was submitted last week uh for various projects uh some new uh AC condensers heat pumps here for Town Hall some weatherization uh increased insulation uh across all of the Town buildings so uh fingers crossed we get that back um we are working with the engineer uh that was hired through the donation from Maryland's Landing for the uh Hemlock Lane landfill repair so we had a meeting with them uh last week week to discuss some options they're going to put forward uh plan and writing and then we'll also be bringing that forward to you guys for your review um and discussion on that uh and then the last is uh the Halifax page that we launched has been um quite popular we've gotten a lot of posts on it it seems to be pretty productive so again just want to push people if they have uh you know fact based questions go to that page you we try to get the answer out U as quickly as we can some things that require more digging you know can take a couple days but uh if it's a simple question you know I actually try to answer it within an hour or two um and that's been really good and just you know the thing with that I do want to push is if it's you know fact based questions ask it on there if you're requesting documents or you're looking for kind of more in-depth uh opinions or information I do that through an email it's just it's more effective um that way but it's been it's been very good very good I have one question for Cody regarding a conservation agent over Bridgewater he currently on their payroll or they in the process of hireing yeah they don't have anyone right now so they're looking to hire one right now they'll get the agent and then we'll take a share of that correct yeah okay exactly so they're searching as well they are uh they they actually haven't posted it because they wanted to touch base with us first they recognize so uh basically their Town Mike uh their Town manager had reached out and saw that we had been looking for one on a part-time basis and S and in you know my discussions it's very hard to find a part-time conservation agent so we basically decided Well if we team up and offer a full-time position it would be probably a lot easier to attract a candidate um and so that's how the discussion started and so they they had someone in the role we're looking to fill it knew they were going to have a hard time and yeah so we're going to try to fill it on a full-time basis Bridgewater's employee that is um you know we receive a portion of and pay for a portion of well that makes a lot of sense does yeah I can't imagine what be split at 50/50 though we may we have a lot of conservation needs um as many as bridgew well they only have I'm shocked they only need them 20 hours a week is what their estimate is and so we definitely could use someone 20 hours a week here um so surrounded by water all right anything else to come before the board uh motion to adjourn is a so moved and I'll second um I need discussion all those in favor say I I vote it's unanimous our next meeting by the way will be Monday night at the elementary school at 5:30 in the large conference room we post the agenda tomorrow all right thank you [Music]