##VIDEO ID:LahGFsNgNVQ## I think good evening this is a h this a meeting of the hamon select board and Board of Health being held in the townhouse Auditorium on December 23rd 2024 this meeting is being conducted in person and remotely using video conferencing technology please stand for the pledge Le pledge the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under godible with liberty and justice for all thank you uh is anyone recording the meeting other than ourselves now Kristen such I get tonight seeing no one the first item we have on our agenda is minutes from the November 12 2024 meeting in which we discuss something wrap up the fiber optic funding uh and the special town meeting warrant articles that's it accept second all in favor right uh the minutes from November 18th 2024 uh we had a discussion of poll p poll petition Hearing in which they're putting the new polls on japen Road and we also discussed at that time the double polls and it should be noted that they finally Brian am I right they finally tick tied those items to be taken care of I believe so they've open work tickets to take care of those uh the fire chief was here with a Cadet a couple of cadets uh and the chief U uh the fire chief spoke about selling the ambulance to the town of of Palmer which we had bought from West Hampton talking about EV charging stations uh the cable TV agreement attorney sign the agreement with him uh permiss we approve permits yearly permits and licenses I was not here for that meeting so okay motion to approve second all in favor I I okay next item we have on the agenda is a Board of Health item so fin zoomed in but uh has been aware that health department has been aware of a violation on scanic road and I believe if we could unmute Finn and bring him up it'll give you the particulars of it can you hear me good thanks um sorry sorry I'm not there in person tonight I had something come up um unexpectedly so um Happy here for this though um so I have just a quick timeline um of what has gone down um at this property um October 30th I received a an email asking if um a person living in a travel trailer um can rely solely on portapotty and u a generator um I informed uh Jan that you can't rely on a porta potty um you need portable water um for bathroom facilities um to wash your hands Etc um December so between October 30th and December 2nd um I had uh noted that there was activity at the this property um there's usually two cars that seem to be parked there um so on December 2nd um I finished documenting everything December 3rd the notice of violation in order to correct was sent to the owner of the property uh regarding the violations of the state sanitary code and um local um Health regulations um those violations included the lack of running water inadequate bathroom facilities um no approved residential structure and unauthorized living in a travel trailer um December 11th um the notice was confirm the notice of delivery was confirmed by USPS at about 9:30 I then went to the property um at around 1:00 um I actually had got there I met the owner we had chatted a little bit about what the issues were what the timeline could look like um I had notified him as the Board of Health the real concern is the lack of a permanent bathroom um and the heating in the travel trailer and the portable water um and between December 11th and tonight um there has still been activity at the property um between then and now the owner had requested to appeal um my findings and um that's what I have as the timeline I could go on further about the violations um the as I mentioned those there's really those three main um issues the lack of proper sanitation uh which is the use of the portable toilet as a long-term bathroom facility um a potential environmental uh issue as well with the lack of running water um it's you know it's well sorry it's possible that you know it's not being take taken care of properly I did look inside of it when I was there with the owner it was clean inside of it but you know uh the sewage within the Porta putty you know I can't confirm how it's being disposed of um and then that could lead to you know some some other health issues um and of course the um as of last night to today um the cold cold weather risk uh amplifies the the public health uh burdens um with the lack of heating it could lead to potential hypothermia cold related illnesses um it may need uh may lead to a response from the um local fire department which could put another strain onto the town as well um and it does have an impact um you know on the neighbors um potential foul odors Vis potential visible waste although I will say when I was there the property was neatly put together um but it could still lead to um you know unwanted pests Etc um yeah so I mean really it's uh it's a strain on the public health infrastructure um and that's why the enforcement of Sanitation um and health standards are critical here um and that's that's all I have at the moment so he's he's appealed it appealed it they appeal it to who's they appeal to the board of health or Court ran we got we got a letter we got a letter right my understanding is it's appealed to the Board of Health so the um a hearing would need to be scheduled okay if a hearing would need to be scheduled is that right Finn but Bri but Finn you formally notified him he must vacate yes so that's you know it I by what um technically there are you know um 24hour violations um so I I didn't uh force it right away after talking to the owner um and him wanting to appeal the decision I thought it best to bring it in front of board to in on the situation okay now typically one honestly this is my first appeal of a decision that I can recall so would you normally other towns that you work for have separate Boards of Health and select boards there aren't too many where it's the same board uh we could have this at a separate date we could have it inside our meeting done whichever you you feel is appropriate um honestly there aren't many facts in dispute here so there aren't the the bylaws are clear the state laws are clear and I personally don't see much of a ground but we'll for an appeal but we'll discuss that has there been a building permit applied for for this property that you're aware of I don't know if you're here for this or just in here for fun I'm here to support director mul but yeah a violation letter was sent out halfway through October certified mail he's also appealing that to the zoning board of appeals no violations are living in a camper having a camper on a undeveloped piece of prod property excuse me and also a storage trailer which is not allowed um our bylaws say that once you have a residence you can store a camper MH and no way can you live in it and I agree with director mul where with this cold weather they're obviously heating it somehow um these aren't made you know with smoke detectors or Life Safety as far as I know and the only exception for a trailer is construction after a fire and that's catastrophe or something like that to your home you have the ability to have a trailer on site right and do that because the reasoning behind it is I think when people are going to build their homes they can say I'm just going to live in this trailer for six months while I buil the house but due to a million reasons Financial whatever sort of hardship they might not MH and you might end up just having someone squatting right well it's if it's it's their property it's their property and we we understand their property rights by the same respect everybody in the community has rights as well and there's a lot of nice homes the neighbors work hard on their property and now there's a full-blown campsite there well I mean there's a the neighbors also voted for a set of zoning bylaws which this isn't in violation of exactly so he's appealing that to the zoning board of appeals my my question is and I think John was starting to get there um is there any building permits is this just a temporary thing while he builds a home there's no permits in place so there he has no intention of the pre the person who he had bought it from yeah had a storm water permit and a driveway permit yeah and they were working towards getting a building permit but then they backed out and sold a property okay so all the documentation we have has somebody else's name on it so there's no updated anything with regards to that so the way we're looking at it right now this situation in individually there is no intention to change the living Behavior outside of what it currently is correct that you've seen as the building inspector Building Commissioner the person has told me that they're going to be pulling a permit but you have you have no record of that nothing okay I think similar to what Wendell said and I said this to Finn last week if he was 98% done with the house and there was a little tiny that would be a some grounds perhaps for the board to consider right but there's not a hole in the ground there's not a building permit ask for there's just our bylaws state that you can ask the Building Commissioner for a construction trailer while you're building your home but a construction trailer is not a domicile right right so sleeping in it is I think one of the big MH sure okay so there are two hearings to be scheduled we would schedule one appeals would schedule one they've already got one scheduled with the zoning board of appeals for my violation letter do you know when um I believe it's their next meeting so in January okay well in the meantime in the meantime is he in there yes and what enforcement do we have now f um uh basically uh I mean you it can be fully enforced where we you know the trailer was essentially condemned for theck water BS um it is a a serious health risk and um so yeah we essentially would condemn the trailer um or ask that he leave the property within x amount of time 24 hours take the belongs with him have the trailer locked up and if that doesn't happen and if they don't leave right you've already you've already done right yeah so um it's it's enforcable um through the police department they could be um forcibly removed um out of the out of the trailer um all right when would you like to schedule I mean obvious we're not meeting the 30th you want to do the next meeting after that well did the letter we received from their lawyer did they say they were formally appealing it I believe that's what it and is there a timeline that we have to act you know some of these going have to act with those S days or 14 days or for that type of appeal I worry about a bit of a prescriptive easement on it's been going on since October I think the faster we act the more solid our I mean I don't know if there's a so if we schedule for the six is that I mean is it is it enough notice or is it fin is a six too soon or too late no that's that can work um yeah the sooner the better but that that's not too late by any means I mean it's I it should be done as soon as possible well I'll say it I mean is this a reason to have a Monday meeting with holding this on the agenda I I throw that out there yeah I know that's is there a certain number of days we have to give notice you know the hearing is going to be held right exactly seven days or 14 days you know have ex number of technal working days we got you know we had a couple of we got a couple of U holidays in there I'm not I don't know the health code off the top of my head um that's a good question let me I'm sorry I'm I'm sure we got to give there's got to be a notice right but seem like 48 hours which still would work with uh I mean Friday counil a day even though we're not here yeah right but Greg only we to for is Monday a noo for you or if this was the only thing is this something that could work next week yeah that's a noo for you anyhow the whole week or just Monday well then you got New Year's Eve new day right I mean um I don't want to go Thursday then it choice to be Thursday or Monday yeah Thursday's out the first second second okay well now we wouldn't have a a full board anyhow I suggest we have uh an appeals hearing on the first Monday in January 6th right y there all right [Music] six make sure yes I was just going to get let you know though um it is uh the boards of Health are granted Authority Under state law it's chapter 111 section 122 through 125 to take immediate action in response um which is that makes sense yeah so because it's right but I'm okay with the six if we want to use it for the six um well he's appealing we' you took you've taken your action he's appealing your action M so what what is our recourse in the in send the police there and take him out yeah technically he's in violation now of the leg want to rephrase that take him out of the trailer right ongoing fine then too Finn a daily fine there there is um a daily fine associated with it and has that been running has yeah it's been running since the 24 hours um after he received the notice how much is theine 50 it's it's um yeah it can be any it's anywhere from um 50,000 a day so I usually go with the minimum but it can be escalated um as well but I mean all right let's leave it on the sixth you know all right so I guess we'll put it on Brian then respond to both the attorney and for that that we set that dat do he had a communication so far this appeal has been follow with the Board of Health correct fin yes sorry yeah Y is been a file with the board with the Board of Health yeah the letter went to the Board of Health yeah yeah we will schedule a hearing for the sixth I would can I just ask I think have the board of the board well I'm sorry I guess the Board of Health can't select board meeting so this here we can it's a joint meeting yeah it's a Jo meting well I was gonna ask to if you could vote to like um uh ratify or I guess that's the word my decision um on it being a health emergency oh I'll entertain that motion I guess second all wait you I'm I'm asking as B ENT okay so moved second second all in favor all thank you Who's got what hat we we got we got our chairmanships mixed up there it's we have so many titles you know we still overseers that are poor and remember that yeah we are overseers them too all right are you are you on for the Board of Health budget thing too we don't I mean basically I figured he was here we could touch on it but Ben gave me the two-word recap we're in good shape basically right okay all right forward where in good shape yeah you have one to it's actually five yeah four and a half thanks all right thank you Finn thank you Finn thank you commissioner see you on the six a long ride back see you on the lights are beautiful stay warm all right pilot agreements but Brian's recap was pretty there I think pass I agree would nice Kelly was Kelly read in on your thought did you CC her on that Brian your response um good question I be curious to see what the differences are between the pilot agreements and what they are just straight off the tax base total after 20 years right which way you go how much are we collecting at the end of it if it's just two different ways of collecting the same amount money I I just always had a problem with the depreciation you know yeah I don't understand how something depreciates that's making them money and the money that they're making goes up every year because they're getting different kilowatt rates as the years go on we're taxing them technically on the physical hardore there which as we know depreciates it's not like I mean for we might be taxing say mnar and they keep the same trucks while the trucks are depreciated now maybe they're charging more and making more income but the physical things they have are worse less worth less and less every year just because of the the work that they do they're able to collect more money kind of the same thing with the solar field if they don't upgrade the panels they're worth less every year just because they're charging more but we can't take a bite out of their earnings per se just of their physical equipment yeah there's there's really two different ways that the DLS allows us to to do the pyus and one is based on the income generation model one is based on the the fair market value of the system so when you do the fair market value the it depreciates quickly over time so uh Revenue payments to the town decrease quite rapidly and then they then they level out around year 15 the income generation model is more complicated because you need to take into account uh srax and all the different net meteer credits that that happen and there's an assumption as to what the cost of electricity will be over that 20-year period so um it's for me it's a much larger discussion I think than than um you know then uh uh however 10 or 15 minutes here with with with the uh the solar developers here trying to pitch their ideas as to how it should you know which which one we should use and what's really the fair market value of their equipment because they're going to give us a low number because they want to pay less money and we're going to give them a higher number because we want them to pay more money and it's really a negotiation that in my opinion that needs to happen outside of the outside of a regular select board meeting because it it's going to there's going to be a lot of back and forth if if it's done right um and there is there's a big difference between between the the the two different uh models that the ls allows us to use yeah um so Brian's suggestion about that small group thing and I like the volunteer dealt with a lot of Pilots over them the years and his suggestion of perhaps the assessors some representatives and then bring it back in yeah cuz in my opinion it's a it's a it's a decision that's being made about the next you know whatever it is 20 years on the finances and it has impacts especially if it's decreasing Revenue because our expenses go up and now this Revenue that we relied on we keep relying on goes down so that Gap widens and if we don't plan for it it can it can bite us so would it be appropriate at at this when you meet with them this group to bring up a community benefits agreement like a lot of communities with solar now are saying a flat you know we need a cash payment of 50,000 bucks cuz we have to train our firefighters and everything to take care of if there's a fire that brings up another Point too police have to protect it's a good label for lii storage you I'm just saying it could be up a good point because some of them have the small scale batteries not not the the large ones we were talking about but we're not we're not equipped to handle that no so so so so we're going to have a a committee focus group basically yeah in my opinion that's that's the best way to do it um it's the way that the past if if it's if you if it's a committee that reports to you right we don't have to focus yeah all right I'm good with that and there was really no rush on on the solar developers part to get it done the the rush was if they wanted the pilot to apply in FY 26 it needs to be executed by the end of the calendar year they didn't seem to be too interested in pushing it so okay no reason to really Rush the decision all right and John's volunteering okay very good murf contract extension reach out did some research on it the numbers that they're offering are not bad it isn't I think they're going to get better the 5year term of it is a bit I wish was shorter that we maybe a threeyear that we were allowed to extend much like the trash one we've done done has it always been five years yeah yeah yeah I would have preferred three with two potential one-year extensions but we don't have that option at least we're getting more for it now than we used to get and there's a good chance that pretty soon we'll be in the positive range like Don M years ago we make money on it all right so we need a recommend endorsing this okay and move we uh sign the amendment sign the amendment to the uh extension EXT extension of the murf contract as outlined second second you second all in favor I I'm earning that money tonight nice what are we sign oh he signed you signed right John sign what a heal s follow moving right along the here we know Mr mcdal here he must be addressed award the water district project contract so the um the project was put out to vid by our consulted time Bond and again it there it was three parts it was broken down into three parts one was The Pump Station upgrade and increasing capacity the second one was a waterm extension the third the second by second one I mean the the first alternate was to do the uh water main extension and then the third uh the second alternate third component was to do the service connections to the individual houses um there were three bids received and um the winning uh the lowest bidder and uh was our Contractors Incorporated with the total uh base bid plus alt one plus two of just over $2.8 million the other bids were obious one was base State Regional contractors that was uh just over $3 million and then bisco Building Systems was the third bidder that $.1 million uh the recommendation from our consultant time bond is to award the contract uh base bid one and two um do about desired contractors and the water Commissioners met last Tuesday I believe it was sometime last week and I'm conveying their recommendation U that they support TI Bond's recommendation that the town um award the contract who bounces our Contractors Incorporated hey Brian has uh this contract I know it came from Time Bomb but is this standard language has Rose looked it over um it's it's very standard language the uh that the contract is is the one that we see very often okay there's no hidden you miss it by a day there's a p okay right yeah what do they offer in in Boston sometime if you finish early there's a bonus too that would be nice you would do it on their own without a bonus I will say balthazar's name I think we've heard many years good reputation Mr mcdal you have some questions about this yep yeah I have uh number of questions I am feeling funny I'm the only one here am I too late no the decisions have been made well the decision was made at the town meeting to extend it but I don't know if if your house is I'm on the route I'm on Glendale Road right on the corner of Crossroad oh yeah yeah okay all right you're right there right okay so decision was kind of made for us by D basically yeah right d forces us to decision but do you uh you've had your water tested is clear yes right I go back to when Chickapee was doing it uh 25 years ago they when the dump was active they were bringing all those trucks from Bridgewater and Boston all those CN D CN was called two weeks ago came up Crossroad pass the dump on the right was looking at the dump I'm sorry I still C it the I used to go over there and come back with more than I took over and so anyway um did did this truck came up and it was a double bagger big long truck I knew what he was doing he at one time they were lined up to get into that dump and dump their waste toxic waste in many that's why that it it was CN D material Construction and demolition material was a lot of it you know it was it was bad if you saw it like I did and that truck that came up two weeks ago I went outside my house to make sure he had all he could do to make the left onto Glendale on the hill sharp because it was one of those big double bangers so were you they're still coming did you get the letter oh go ahead were you on Glendale or cross I'm sorry Glend GL which number what number what number 70 70 okay so my back lot he's been he's got detections I I can't use the word lot cuz it's not a buildable lot was originally backyard so your your house is currently being tested for the posos contaminant yes and it's it looks like according to this you've gotten hits of positivity no oh P kind of the whole thing that kicked us what originated from was the D came in and started this new program and they were going after small towns and municipalities that had um municipally owned um transfer stations um dumps have you and they just started testing for that contaminant because you've been on the testing schedule for a while then oh long time 25 years probably I I can pull up a a test that the town and I talked about the town did pay for there was some question so what happened now is the D is now mandating this new test for the the posos right and because certain homes detected positive for the the presence of posos in the parts per trillion yeah that it triggered from an annual testing to a quarterly testing okay so now now you're getting tested more and at the recommendation of the D at that time what this is right the recommendation of the DP was either we filter your home or connect you to clean water posos free so the DP in the state is very concerned about the posos and liability and all the the known hazards that come along with it so they they've told us that we need to test and fix so that's what we're trying to do now we're trying to appease the DP to follow along their guidelines and guidance so their their current guidance now is strongly recommend that residents hook up to um the scanning Valley water district which is you know we got to two wells in Laughing Brook see I anticipated that might happen in the future right and that would give me an option great so but I hate being forced into it so here here's where where the DP you're telling me that the DP and health is telling me that this is in my best interest correct well the DP is recommending this I don't know I don't really know anything other than what I read in the newspaper so we we we spoke with d last week just to get a a sense of what was going on and they said we technically can't force people to hook up however it would be in their best interest to hook up and kind of hey you should really consider this option because posos are forever chemicals you know they don't go away once they're there and it's it's public health safety to kind of think about about that um the other option is if there's somebody that's completely adamant against it is there may be a way for them to sign over to liability away from the town yeah I saw that in the news newspaper also right cuz right now the town's trying to trying to make it sure you know CU I I attribute the problem to the town by allowing all that toxic waste to come here to our our landfill well do you know there's more than there no there's a ton of it right but I understand but you haven't you haven't but when we talk about the testing the voc's that we've been testing for annually all the time you don't have hits for those no so your water has been good for that now that the new as Craig said the new P testing supported me in that but the new P fast thing and there's no guarantee that Don on Oak myself on North Road Craig on North Road we don't have past hits also we don't have on your ground right but we may have past as well because it's something that could show that volunteer program that people throughout town did and there was hitch throughout different parts of town right you know have no relation to anything had no relation to any Town thing it could have been but but important thing is right now to the sign up to have it connected is free correct yeah there's no cost to the connection and any of the homeowners that live any any of the service connections won't pay it's just if they sell your home outside of kin then new residents will be you know paying customer on the Water District which is pretty minimal compar very that's the other what is the what are the costs we're talking about for these tests and how many people does it involve is it just three people six people no 20 something well the in the article here it talks about I don't know the numbers six or nine at this this newspaper that might be the current current hooked up well currently we have about nine customers District that was a number right originally the D wanted to have us do another additional 10 homes and then they expanded their area and it became 21 I believe 22 is 19 19 more on top of this nine we have plus we also have three municipal buildings and four homes down here too so I mean we're looking at the testing cost was going to be hundreds of thousand of thousands of annually right I heard the numbers 2 million 3 million for other stuff well that was just a one time building yeah one time yeah but I mean if we're going to be testing at 125 150,000 a year that doesn't go away I wasn't I was told that I was going to have that auction to hook up in the future you say something did happen to my water supply which is possible that was discussed that people could be stubbed off that they could H up we were going to dig in front of your house no matter what the line's going in front that Road's gone leave a and leave a new St is going I'm sorry no we don't want to get into yeah well thanks we don't have Mark here for that part but I'm saying the pipe is going to go in front of your house the discussion about whether you hook up yes obviously it' be easier than we're just trenching to wherever your well is I don't know is your well behind your house or in front that's in front even better yeah but and I know Craig was planning on from the water commissioner standpoint to have a meeting inviting all the people on the route possibly for an explanation type thing it was disgusting I thought there would be some people down here from my neighborhood honestly well I think that's what you were saying we need to have a little Forum type thing right yeah John was talking about that yeah but I mean there's been a I know I know the guys who come by from you you probably know Paul geki who who lives right around the corner from you know he's he's on the Water Commission he's you know very you know very adamant about this project as well you he's environmentalist yeah you he's he's he's been around since the I you know yeah yeah I know I know that property I think I think it' be important to have a gathering so like you say I read but I don't know what the TRU facts are I think it'd be important to grab everybody together it's very complicated they have an impact on the value of your house so well I mean your value would go upep on that your value would go up when you say oh my gosh I got a reliable source of water to the house it see in my mind you'd have more value but I think it's important that to get ahead of gosh what do you call them the Middle School Rumor Mill going around where you know yeah there's there's no information out there a vacuum I wanted to come down and and meet you and maybe pick your brain a little bit since you're right in the middle of this absolutely and um yeah I can tell you what what the next steps from the water Commissioners what I believe they are going to be um so there's currently a draft letter that was that was written and it was going to be sent out to all of the I believe it's 29 residences that are currently being tested um in that letter was going to inform them about the the expansion of the water district and it was as John mentioned it was to schedule an informational session um for all those 29 residents to come in and pretty much just ask questions or have conversations about about the situation um we were waiting until as Craig mentioned we had a we were able to schedule a meeting with with mass D this past Friday Friday morning um and we we needed we wanted to get some additional information from them and have some of our questions answered before finishing the letter so hopefully get that out um if not this week next week I think our intent I think the commissioner's intent would be to have a probably an informational meeting sometime early January maybe middle January I will I would uh suspect and uh those are the those are really the next steps in terms of Outreach but hey anytime you want to stop by yeah you're more than welcome stay yeah yeah except Wednesday um he won't be here he won't be here Wednesday no the other thing is it it was mailed to my wife so I I might not even get this you know um we can't speak to that we can't speak to that right little humor you guys I this is going to be tough for you I it's a little uncomfortable here sitting on top of you okay that's all right glad came down glad you came down because it it tells us what we're going to need to tell people and there was good yeah I discussion thanks thanks for coming take a to see you guys we cookies you a lot you Brian Brian yeah hello L take a cookie before you leave I sure do here you go thank you now did Sophie make these thank you thank you you g give trouble have a Merry Christmas Merry Christmas that's what I want to hear there we go all right what are we doing are we so we made the motion that signed okay so we're off to uh we're off to sign it no we did we need a motion need oh that was the murf thing sign make a motion to award the contract of Bazar for the water district expansion plus alternance second as recommended by Ty Bond any further discussion all in favor do we need a motion for arpa 2 Bri to obligate that this will obligate the funds as long as we have a signed contract to the we got to sign all these every P um I forget what they look like I don't know this authorize me or you you can a big thing I think we should sign major a big deal right yeah it's about 2.8 million so probably be better if the board signs that the initial every page Brian you ever signed that what are these people doing over there yeah if you could sign before you before you go all right those those contracts you got to read every page we got to do every page right they dropped these off today is that that Omnibus Bill we got I was expecting the contracts today they dropped them off all right I I I got sign before we contract dropped them off sign four copies or is it just one copy or is that like all one just in four pages four sections four copies I just two spots not four copies we got a C signatures for Sher himlin we've already we already okayed this and this is the the state one of a couple little changes that it nothing has changed y signing this here yep yes yes sir you say yes sure yes sir I one place to sign hey I'll make a motion to authorize the chair to sign the contract on behalf of the Town there's only one place to sign right second I favor I I here you go [Laughter] joh that's that's is that sher's thing yeah that's sher's contract over here Don tell you half of the stuff she does is more paperwork than that all right we have engagement letter Y been too deep into it I thought your recap was good Brian and I would make a motion to uh authorize the chair to sign the engagement letter second all in favor just uh to engage legal services for another matter personel matter personel matter right okay uh select board members reports I went to the planning board meeting last week that was uh quite fun went to the concom meeting also fun I attended the ambulance oversight meeting over Zoom not as much fun um I would suggest that I I would like them to do a little more on their web page uh there's no list of members they actually had to hold the meeting up because they said they didn't have a quorum until Robin got there I mean Dian was there it looked like they had four members so I'm like how many do they have on the committee that four is there's only four yeah so I mean they had to wait for Rob to make a Corum I mean oh I think one of them got was sick and couldn't come that's what Happ but I don't know that funny either way but they could use a little more and if they had the meeting over Zoom I don't know why it wasn't recorded okay does Penny did the veterinarian has she bought that land yet that she wants to extend her parking I'm planning mean yeah yeah it sounded like it because they went over the part I mean it's a straight an anr yeah it really is one of the simplest anrs you're going to ask for and then the other people came to talk about the business they wanted to put in the old and they're going to keep the barn up right as well and again that seemed pretty straightforward I would hope that that would be something endorsed by The Neighborhood because it would seem to be a very low impact yeah as opposed to what they were talking about's been there for years now you know so maybe a couple extra dogs barking I can't you know reminds me I got my babysitting for my son son's dog nice I have nothing to report I have nothing to report oh I do have something to report you you'll see an email I'll for you an email I don't know if he sent I for you an email from the superintendent regarding the potential amendments to the agreement okay that that that desie the department of Elementary and secondary education has approved so we can go I did just see an email that the pool is back up and running though the pool is back up and running yeah count administrator report sure we touched on it a little bit um meeting with um water Commissioners John was there this past Friday morning with mass DP about the expansion of the water district and uh really really the question was you know what um what Authority does the town have if um if folks don't want to hook up to hook up uh to have them hook up and it really came down to uh whether their Wells were um really contaminated or not be a Board of Health matter right U and that's a board of health issue and uh the other the other question that we wanted to ask was if people don't want to hook up do are we still going to have to test their Wells and the answer was yes we are still going to have to test their Wells the only relief that we might get in that instance is mass DP over time would be willing to reduce the frequency of the testing especially where the where they have no uh no detections um I think they did say though that they didn't care who did the testing whether it was the town or the resident right y um so we got some we got some answers no promises but we got some answers we didn't we should have recorded it but we didn't yeah um because it was their meeting that seems kind of open-ended I mean you could be look at at worst case like we're spending 3 million to upgrade the system system and every all of a sudden you could have 20 people say they don't want to hook up right and they're still paying the testing fee which is why I thought you were saying that you could just stub off in front and look you can either have water or test on your own I think that's the greater conversation that needs to be had is if people say they don't want to hook up we stub off but then we need to come up with some type of agreement that says the town was going to pay for this free of charge to the residents if they don't want to connect then they're on the liability end of right fing they were offered a solution they turned it down and when I asked the DP flat out does it matter if the town tests or can the resident test if we can you know talk to legal counsel to absolve the town of any liability because we're trying to offer the solution if they don't want to be partake in it which is their complete right to then we need to have some type of separation between the the situation and the town yeah I I think that the issue that we're going to have is that the the the the former landfill is an ongoing liability in the sense that in theory there there could be whatever whatever's whatever's entering the groundwater as it's passing through and by the landfill um that's that's an ongoing thing into the future so we we address their for people who are harmed we address their harm by offering them to hook up I I think we might get into a little bit of a sticky situation where if someone doesn't have a detect now and doesn't want to hook up but then there's two situations that we talked about one is they're well whatever they're well pump brakes and they don't want to spend you whatever it is $10,000 for you know for bu for uh fixing their well um that situation seems like we can avoid by requiring to show a a a uh show that the harm has actually been caused in order for the town to to hook it up I'm not so certain about if two years from now if we're still testing if if somebody hits positive for posos that that we can say that we gave you a you know we gave you your one shot and you didn't want it I don't know how that would I don't know how that would how that would shake out but hopefully it would hopefully people will will will want to hook up and see the benefits to it especially if they're going to resell their home where you don't have this you know everybody has homes you don't have this landmine just waiting when to to go and then you T thousands of dollars to fix D has been D has been terrific at working with especially who we had Dan Tom Etc but I go back to the other thing we have a cap landfill and we've been testing for voc's for 25 years since we closed it now they want to test for Pas in my mind those contaminants would be coming from the same tendrils if you will from the voc's and if you have this property here that has been ND for voc's for 15 years and now has a past hit it's not like there's a marker that says it came from here right but I'm saying and they don't care I got that but in my mind that's not the town's pest I'm sorry there could be we're going to own it but I'm reluctant but we're going to own it there's no hard proof of where came from all over town because exactly because if the voc's didn't make it there and the P slid along and didn't come on but we own the I got it that is what it is but I'm saying you know some of these locations they've CH oh this had a hit yeah but it's been cleaned from vlc's for since the place was closed that's not ours why did you draw the map over there but it is what it is they don't want to disturb a pretty good relationship over that type of arguing if we can get past the hookup part you know where we are going to own testing forever to me I want to say it's a hill I want to die on but that's something I think the town really to open ourselves up for a testing cost forever when they had the option Craig you said 100% right we gave you a great choice we gave you a great solution the rest of the town is going to pay for water for you forever pump house and right the rest of the Town bought into helping you out3 million bucks yeah that's a good number what else you got uh tax rate was set last week or fiscal year 25 it's set at 159 right that is down from 1566 as we know how these things work often times when the tax rate goes down assess values go up so it doesn't mean that folks are paying less it just means that the tax rat's gone down this has vales have gone up which is the case in for fiscal year 25 nice uh that's about it the school on higher value did we sell the school comp sale anything else to report I'm all set quickly just to Brian review the anybody for the hundreds in attendance virtually the hours are the we have a half day tomorrow correct yep both at the transfer station and the town hall the same thing is true for next Tuesday isn't it half day for the New Year's Eve as well right so uh regular hours on Saturday regular hours for the transfer station next Tuesday New Year's Eve is not uh thank you for posting the uh Transfer Station hours this morning a couple inquiries uh okay before we before we adjourn I I speaking on behalf of the board I'd like to wish everyone and town a Merry Christmas a happy Hanukkah and a happy and safe and healthy New Year our next meeting will be motion no our next meeting will be January 6th there'll be a meeting meeting on January 7th of the commit the group that's looking at the build municipal buildings the that's the sth the 7th right that's what we said yeah okay that's 10 a.m. any else to come before the board motion to ad second all in favor better than I thought I would been half hour with that guy