##VIDEO ID:zoOhSrKXWV8## e e all right we'll go ahead and call the select board meeting to order for Tuesday October 1st 2024 um we have one member uh sh I do Anan is remote and will'll be participating remotely and all other members of the select board are present for this meeting at town hall room 215 216 in person at this ter at this time I will ensure that select board members s man participating remotely can hear and be heard Mr Manan can you hear us I can hear you Brian and all can you hear me okay y all good so it works in here Lane it's not in there is that what you're say no okay uh the public has the option of attending in person here at town hall or via zoom using the link posted in this meeting's agenda this meeting is being recorded all votes will be taken by roll call vote so with that we'll begin tonight with public sorry with the Pledge of Allegiance please pledge allegiance to the of the United States of America to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty okay uh agenda item two public forum residents are invited to share ideas opinions or ask questions regarding their town government would anyone like to come up and say hello hello name and address please good evening Kelly depalo 6o way um I saw on the agenda that you an executive session tonight I have uh on it an update and strategy session regarding the arbitration filed by Officer Timothy Brennan so I brought with me tonight um a summary of the order of the single commissioner of the post Commission that might help you in executive session it points out the important details from the commissioner's report um the super important things are all in bold and underlined to make it easy for your reading pleasure this evening so I hope you guys take this into consideration and we look forward to hearing your results from that great thanks Cody thanks anybody else seeing none will go on to the next item the consent agenda there are three items on the consent agenda accepting a gift uh the select board consider accepting a donation of $250 from the hington Garden Club for Horticulture related books in honor of its 100th anniversary celebration new employees the select board will consider confirming the town manager's appointment of Cara Charles as reference librarian and Alyssa fluette as Public Safety dispatcher and third resignations the select board will will consider accepting the resignations of Anna dorsy from the historical commission as an associate member and chrisanne Connell from the trail coordination and management committee does anybody want to break anything out of the consent agenda the chair nothing to break but um I just wanted to extend our thanks to Anna and chren for their service great thank you okay seeing nobody wants to break anything out would anyone like to make a motion for the consent agenda I move to approve the consent agenda second we have a motion and a second any further discussion uh Mary Joe roll call please Mary Joe leer yes Joe Clark yes am yes with thanks to the Garden Club Mr Man Brian Brian her yes it's unanimous and so carries all set on the consent agenda Amy would you do me a favor and hand that to was submitted this evening to us and you want to you're going to leave Ro there whatever okay um all right next up item four the select board will consider making appointments to the following boards and committees the Conservation Commission has a one there's one vacancy with a three-year term ending on June 30th 2027 the applicants are Curtis Smith Heather Burton Raymond Smith and suep MTI and sarab faramarzi I hope I got those names right and then there's also a sustainable green committee uh there's six vacancies with three-year terms ending in June 20127 and we have one applicant Thomas Donahue so let's take the first one first Elaine if you would please uh for the Conservation Commission um there are a number of applicants and some of them should be here this evening do we have have any of the applicants for the Conservation Commission here with us this evening okay seeing none someone is raising their hand they have a different name but no they put their hand down okay is there someone in Zoom none that match the names oh so someone's raising their hand even though their name doesn't match so maybe they're logged in as someone else so should we 11 them up Sor so the name on Zoom is Malcolm Smith which is not one of the names of the applicants but they could be logged into someone else's account they could be part of the Raymond Smith Raymond Smith okay contingency yeah so should we live them is Raymond Smith on Zoom by chance I am it's Malcolm Smith same name I'm sorry so Raymond you're on the Malcolm Smith Zoom uh link I confuse everybody who's my middle name my my real my given name is Raymond okay got it okay and then so we have one individual that's here and no one else um someone else just joined initials RMS is that we're a little early here um you know what I think we should come back to this in a few minutes let's just table it for right now Raymond hang in there uh we'll come back to you in a few minutes minutes but I want to make sure we do this uh with enough time for folks that were going to join to join so thank you all right we'll be back to you um and I think on the sustainable green committee we have one applicant Thomas Donahue is Thomas here by chance Thomas would you please join us at the table how many folks are on the sustainable green committee overall uh 14 um adults and one youth one Youth and this is all the the six vacancies are for it actually I think there may be four vacancies but they're all for it could be a youth and it could be an adult okay I think six it says right elen didn't hear the question I think um on the agenda it says six it does but I think there may only be four there's plenty there there's one applicant there's a lot we'll leave it at that for now um okay so Thomas welcome why don't you introduce yourself and give us uh your interests or why you're here to talk about the sustainable green committee um I'm Thomas donu I've been attending their meetings for about a year at this point and I'm interested in uh helping the environment and helping curve the effects of climate change okay great do you have any background in this area or is this a just a a passion of yours or you studying it or did you study it or um I've I mean I take science in school I'm part of the science fair and general like research about it okay great so is is Thomas here as a as a student member or is he here as an adult member do we know uh he could be either okay I don't know if we're allowed to ask those questions anymore I think there's one seat there is a student person right there's one seat set aside for a youth but that doesn't mean a youth can't fill another seat okay great so why don't we start with Mrs Ritter Bush any questions comments for Thomas I'd like to thank Thomas for stepping up I just wanted to clarify because we recently rewrote the charge for the sustainable green committee um does Thomas meet all the qualifications of the new charge yes it's been reviewed by the chair and all is good okay great thank you you also Thomas okay great job um no questions appreciate you coming out showing support for this it's a great cause that's the frer it sounds like you're very interested in science and you're getting a science background in school uh is that like a major for you I mean we don't have majors in high school but I okay thank you Mr Manan any questions or comments for Thomas uh no questions uh thank you Thomas for stepping up uh and this is a you know very important um area and uh looks like you're passionate and have a lot of energy so looking forward to having you and uh please spread the words as you have heard we have uh quite a few others open so welcome and thank you okay okay uh I don't have any questions for Thomas I think it's a great opportunity for the town I think it's a great opportunity for the community and certainly a great opportunity for Thomas to learn even more about the various things that we're working on to make our world a better place uh with that the chair will entertain a motion to approve Thomas Donal to the sustainable green committee for a threeyear term I move to Appo Thomas Donahue to the sustainable green committee for the term ending June 30th 2027 second second that okay so we have a motion by m friend a and a second by Mr Manan uh for Thomas any further discussion Mary Joe your vote please may Jo frer yes Joe Clark yes am yes Mr Manan man yes Brian her yes it is unanimous and so carries congratulations Thomas you're on the sustainable green committee thank you thank you is there a swearing in or is there a uh does he have to go to the town clerk for that position yes so wece an email with all the instructions so Thomas you'll get an email from town hall and then we'll go from there yeah one hour ethics training and you'll get yourself signed in and do you swear in for that too correct yes great all right um still a little early for Conservation Commission so could we go to the next one and I think we can the bottled water rebate item number five on the agenda the select board will consider a recommendation from the director of Public Works to resend the bottled water rebate program for Municipal Water customers due to the Su the successful completion and implementation of the pafs filtration system Mrs Lazarus so uh DPW director ker Reid could not be here tonight um but uh her uh memo recommends uh discontinuance of this program now that the pest Filtration plant has been installed and there's been three months of successful testing so the water is is good to go okay okay Mrs R Bush any questions no just it's great that it's working so effectively Mr Clark no questions M the front here oh I'm very glad I'm using the water using the I had big bottles in my kitchen tap water now okay Mr Manan any questions no happy to hear that um everything is going uh plan and Remediation one quick anecdotal question El do we know how much um budget savings should that translate to for the rest of the year I don't know no I I think the question was What would the savings be for the balance of the fiscal year so through June 30 25 yeah I don't know the cost of the bottled water rebate program so okay you ask Carrie and just have her follow up with us on that just as a curiosity point and we got a scratch for pennies here um to the chair anything else Mr Manan uh no nothing else this is good thank you Amy I was just going to say I think we all just got our water bills for fall so there wouldn't be another billing period yeah and we get the water bottle rebate off the bill and there's not going to be another bill till the new year okay uh do we know of anybody that is highly dependent on the Bott bottled water program to this day has there been any concern expressed in the community by anyone anywhere you heard anything I have not heard that I don't know if the DPW has heard anything okay but the water does meet the standards and the water is testing consistently to meet the standards and it will continue to be tested okay great all right with that the chair will entertain a motion on item five I move to resend the bottle water rebate program for Municipal Water customers due to the successful completion and implementation of the P pass filtration system second we have a motion on the table and a second any further discussion we'll start with Mr Manan how do you vote please yes mayor Joe frer yes Joe Clark yes amush yes Brian her yes it's unanimous and so carries all set that rescinded program well the program is now resented okay um I think it's a little early on the budget message because we might have some other folks attend that uh we could probably talk about the special town meeting item number seven Elaine you think sure um at the last meeting the board set the date for the special town meeting of November 18th uh and what is needed now is to set the time of the uh of the meeting and to open the warrant which will close 10 days after a notice is published which would be on Wednesday November 18th is a Monday we would typically start an evening town meeting which most of them been over the years at 7 p.m. is that correct does anybody have a screaming to desire to do something different than that just okay can we ask the planning board if they are going to be ready for presentation on the MTA area of planning if they will have it by the November 18th it will be ready yes MH okay will they have their warrant article drafted before the 10 days are up yes okay I mean that's the primary one of the primary reasons for the town meeting is for that particular right topic correct and the map or multiple Maps will be there may be more than one option but they'll know before the closes okay are they planning on doing some uh preliminary you know meet and greets or preliminary public hearings or sessions to discuss the issue before town meeting there will be a public hearing um I don't know the date of that yet but there will be a public hearing and all of the abuts uh to the land that may be selected will be notified by mail of how no matter the number of options correct so all the options will have a butter notification all the options that they're going to go forward with so I think my understanding is that there are three and if they uh cut that down to two before the public hearing then it would be two okay all right great um so you want us to set a time yes and open the warrant itself okay so I believe there's a motion for this there is you want to go ahead and do that I move to set the time for the November 18th 2024 special town meeting for 700 p.m. to open the warrant for the November 18th town meeting 2024 uh special special town meeting due to close the warrant 10 days from the date of publication of the notice when's the notice okay so we have a motion on the table is there a second second okay everybody good with the motion do we need to set the location or that can be done later uh the board doesn't need to vote to vote that but it will be the Middle School auditorium okay okay no other questions so we have a motion on the table in a second for a special town meeting on November 18th to begin at 7 p.m in the evening any further discussion Mr Manon questions comments no I think that sounds good uh but I would agree we want to kind of review the Readiness um in the next few or one of the SS okay great all right with that I think we're ready for a vote Mr Manan man yes Mar joa fer yes Joe Clark yes am Rush yes Brian her yes it's unanimous and so carries we'll have that special town meeting at 700 p.m. on the 18th and warrant is now open and we don't want any Financial articles correct shall I repeat that yes we don't want any Financial articles except ones that except for one that gives us the money back we don't want to spend any money we don't have any money to spend okay um so that's item number seven Elaine do you want to try and tackle the because we're still a couple minutes early here do you want to try and tackle the Town manager report kind of back we now four we're supposed to start at 6:15 before it's almost 620 65 okay you're right all right I applicants are on Zoom so let's do that let's go back to item four uh board and committee appointments select board will consider making appointments of the following boards and committees and the one we haven't done yet is the Conservation Commission there's one vacancy we had several names here uh do we have any individuals in the audience in the room for the Conservation Commission appointment seeing none I believe we have someone zoom two on Zoom yeah two on Zoom who would those be please so um see Raymond Smith and Heather Burton Raymond Smith and Heather Burton okay why don't we go in alphabetical order with those that we have on Zoom uh Heather if you're out there can you hear us yes can you hear me we can hear you great thank you uh welcome uh if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself and giving us uh your background and your interests in serving on the Conservation Commission please sure thank you for giving me the time I'm I'm trying to if you can't see me um yeah so I'm Heather Burton um I am an oceanographer by training I have been in higher education for about 15 years now last about 13 years have uh been spent teaching oceanography and the like at Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzard's Bay so I um recently moved to Hopkinson about a little over a year ago but spent um uh close to 20 years on Cape Cod and in that time uh you know have made on a personal level many connections with the natural environment um in regards to sustainability and environmental science that is both something that I'm passionate about but also is very much a focus of my career and teaching um so yeah that that's uh that that's about it thank you great thank you for that um I guess what we should do is probably go through each one first and then we'll kind of go from there does that make sense sure so um Mr Manan do you have any questions for Heather uh thank you uh Miss buron for stepping up um and this is again another very important area for our town for our overall climate and and globally I would like to understand you have an excellent background great resume and thank you again uh how do you plan to use your experience for the role for the town sure yeah that's an excellent question um over the last five years I've gotten um both faculty you know on in my department as well as students highly involved in um storm Water Analysis and I understand that that's a topic that's you know not critical only to Hopkinton but um becoming a a major issue and getting a fair amount of attention so I think I can bring some background in um you know storm Water Analysis right now um my department works with local municipalities um we get funding from those municipalities to do analysis of um you know those those various towns so I think that's one critical very very much uh direct relationship um but also again I have that that a background in um uh climate change uh you know uh sustainability and environmental science um so yeah thank you I appreciate your sharing that all set yep thank you great Mrs R Bush I don't think I have any questions okay Mr Clark um Heather thank you for volunteering it's greatly appreciated um my only question is a newer resident to town um have you had the chance to attend any concom meetings recently and just kind of let me know what your expectations are around that time commitment and uh what you be signing up for that is a really fair question um yeah I I have not unfortunately I have spoken directly with Melissa um we've had a couple phone conversations but but outside of that no I I think that's something I would really need to uh you know get caught up with it would be a bit of a steep learning curve at first but I'm willing to do it gotcha thank you that's it questions no I I don't think so you sound like a good fit for hington and for the job so thank you I'll set mhm Heather have you ever participated in a public meeting where open meeting open meeting laws uh are required to be followed I'm now oh I think I was just I think Malcolm was speaking for a second there um oh my goodness but it's been over 20 years so I can say I was on a Conservation Commission when I first moved to Rhode Island for uh graduate school um but that was a long time ago so I would say I would I would also need to study up on that as well yep other than Zoom it really hasn't changed in the last 200 years so I think you'll be good okay was almost I didn't I didn't put it you know in my write up or anything because I thought it's a little embarrassing that it's been 20 plus years since I've U been to a meeting like that but um yeah no need to be embarrassed oh I was just saying uh there is a training in the should you get the wonderful okay okay great uh all right thank you heather if you could just hang on for a few minutes uh and now we'll hear from uh Raymond Smith uh Raymond if you're out there if you could say hello please good evening yes thank you and do you prefer to go by Raymond or Malcolm um I confuse every by using my middle name which is Malcolm thank you for recognizing it so Malcolm Malcolm is how you want to be call okay great welcome Malcolm thanks for joining us this evening uh if you want to take a couple minutes introduce yourself and share your interest in the Conservation Commission please thank you so you'll tell immediately that I don't originally hail from the United States I'm from the north of England originally been here now for nearly 25 years uh came over as an orthopedic surgeon Mass General I've moved around several places in the area um and recently moved to Hopkinson um my professional interests are obviously in medicine not in conservation um but but personally I'm highly committed to the environment and every aspect of conservation in the home community and everything we have around us um so i' be a lay member as as such but I have lots of experience in committee from my work I've administered major parts of hospitals um set up systems and organize things in that respect so I've been enthusiastic and uh committed member um and uh clearly couldn't offer the last ladies uh professional experience but I'd hope that' be acceptable too okay great thank you why don't we start with Mr Manan again any questions comments for Malcolm uh thank you m Malcolm uh Dr Smith for stepping up and uh uh happy to see that U you're committed for this um I'll ask the same question but before I do that you have um outstanding resume of course and very ful literary background intelligent U background in as a thought leadership in your field so very impressive and I just had my surgery last year actually so I might take your advice on some of the future ones hopefully not uh that I would need but uh great to see you committing for volunteer services um so again how do you see your passion and your background um being you used for for the role that U you have applied for well I think conservation and the environment are the most important things in our world today and every way we could affect that um is critical I recently moved from Framingham and noticed the difference in in in the town there and the last five years with masses and changes in housing and access and the roads and traffic and and clearly there ways you have to change to accept things that are happening around us but but the more we can control them in the appropriate way the better i' be highly committed to help people do that and to the work of the committee excellent no no doubt about it and seems like you have um you know very thoughtful um analytical considerations on that and very passionate so another question and I would ask it to miss bton as well since we have only one position uh if this works out great if not would you be interested for uh we have other positions as well as in sustainable grain we just talked about it there are another five positions or three positions available in that so um no matter how tonight goes uh I would like to see you both be stay interested and engaged and go for something similar where your passions align yes I would be I mean obviously I've applied for the one I've applied for but um if I can help in another way I'd be delighted thank you thank you again I appreciate it uh nothing further great thank you m the frer I I have no questions resume uh Malcolm thank you for volunteering um you said you moved to hopkington recently have you been able to attend the concom meetings whether virtually uh recently yes recently joined one by Zoom sorry I missed that last part you you joined one of them recently yes the last one by Zoom okay perfect and what was your expectations around like the time commitment needed for it any issues there um not really I I don't work full time anymore um I still work but uh it isn't quite as fulltime as it used to be um and the advantage of doing things occasionally by Zoom make things totally manageable CCH you awesome thank you again Malcolm Amy yeah I don't really have any other questions we have the information in our packet and I was happy to hear from the candidates and I was just going to bring up the same thing that Shai du did that we do have openings on sustainable green and other committees for whoever doesn't get the spot the spot tonight great thank you uh same question if I could please are you familiar with the open meeting laws and have you ever you know participated in a meeting that's governed by them personally no I do not okay I'm sure I'd learn quickly it is you can be a very quick study of it it's not a big deal I'm just curious trying to gauge the market if you will okay uh so uh with that uh thank you Malcolm for your inputs um and Heather thank you as well uh we have two great candidates I think in front of us so uh does anybody have any interest in proceeding One Direction or another all I like uh right now Heather Burton I I like the fact that she's she's not local hington but she is local she's worked at Mass Maritime and participated in in a lot of uh local Massachusetts issues and uh I think that will help her get going in conservation here in town okay anything else Mr Clark um I would actually agree with Mary Joe I think Heather's background is much more in line with the specific requirements um of concom I think we just lost our conservation agent recently so it's we need all the help we can get there um so I would go with Heather okay y I was leaning the same way but it would would encourage uh Malcolm to apply to for the next opening um yeah my sense is there could be another opening or two you know in the next next few months so uh okay thank you anything else Mr Manan any thoughts uh no I would the same I think uh um he there's uh Miss Burton's experience is um a little more closely aligned and uh I feel both of uh um the candidates passion and they're both very smart uh very accomplished and have deep uh expertise in their field so great to have you both and um Malcolm please apply for the sustainable green or other uh committee um and uh we'd love to have you there as well but for tonight I think I'll go with Heather okay great thank you both for applying um it is a Great Commission uh to be part of and I'm sure there'll be future opportunities for others that are interested with that the CH entertain a motion anybody want to make a motion I move to appoint Heather Burton to the Conservation Commission to the term expiring June 30th 2026 okay second that so we have a motion and a second on the table any further discussion seeing none Mr Manan how do you vote please man yes Mar Jo Mary Joel yes Joe Clark yes Rush yes Brian her yes it's anous and so carries Heather welcome to the Conservation Commission Malcolm please do come back I'm sure we can find a home for you very soon thanks for being here this evening thank you so much Heather uh the town will be in touch with you the town mre's office will be in touch to get you set set up and sworn in and all that sort of stuff thank you very much I'm very pleased to be selected I appreciate it thank you okay um item number six is the budget message at 6:30 30 so we're just a couple minutes beyond that which is great I think we have most of the key players in the room um I don't think we have to have everybody come up and kind of get into a whole round table so much uh Lane do you want to kick this off and maybe make a recommendation or two and we can go from there sure um so the purpose of tonight's meeting is for the board to uh develop its message and guidance and expectations that goes out to town departments for a submission of the white 26 budget request um and I just going to briefly review the budget process where we go from here uh once the budgets are submitted the T manager reviews them along with the CFO and meets with every department head um then the board will be meeting jointly with the school committee at key points over the next several months so that by the time that budget is submitted you'll have the information and history on that budget as well then the town manager develops a comprehensive budget and submits it to the select board in January um and this includes the school department budget requests and also includes the capital plan so while all this is going on the cic is also taking its uh Capital review under and that process has already begun and then the select board also uh will meet with department heads and the school committee during its review and right now uh Kyla will review the numbers and then uh after she talks about the numbers we'll talk about the recommendation okay so you'll see the sources and uses document in the issue paper that was um submitted ited last week there are this is a pure estimate so it's so early on in the budget process that I want to call your attention to a couple of the line items so the first one is excess prior fiscal year certified free cash you're going to see that in the sources or in the sources of funds over $10 million that is coming from the overlay for the LG um transfer as well as certified free cash from 24 as well as high balances from 24 so this is purely an estimate at this point but we believe we're going to have an excess of $10 million in free cash obviously our repayment of debt and debt and principle of Interest so that is almost doubling to 13 million and as we know in 26 in 27 it's going to continue to rise our transfer to stabilization this year we are projecting or we have um deposited 700,000 in our forecast we were supposed to reduce that to 250 however given where we are in the town I think we should continue to transfer 700,000 into stabilization to make sure that we have a good cash balance that is equal to 5% of our operating budget which is our FIS our financial policy also included in the uses of funds is a capital article line item for 6.5 million that is a pure estimate because the requests coming in from the town are over 10 million so as we go through our Capital items and the department head meetings we literally have to go item by item to see if we can actually get to this number by prioritizing what's important to know here though is this balanced budget is outside of our financial policy so we're supposed to use recurring sources for recurring uses that is not how this is balanced we are using free cash to balance this budget right now so we will have to make an exception this year or scrutinize this even further as we go through the next couple of months to make sure that we're within our financial policy areas of risk there are four health insurance is estimated to increase 8% going into 25 it was almost nine and after further conversation with human resources we think eight is low but that's what this budget is forecasting contract negotiations we have eight different ones going on this year we have teachers custodians and maintenance nurses cafeteria workers dispatch fire police and DPW all this year in our forecast those are estimated approximately 5% but we don't know how these negotiations are going to go inflation 5% of the overall number correct not 5% on the salary line correct inflation is still steady and while we see interest rates decreasing we still believe it's going to continue to rise but not at the level it has been rising and then energy costs what's happening in the Middle East is escalating and could impact the energy cost that we pay across the town so we're doing the best that we can can with this estimated budget this early on in the process but those are the highlights for us to consider okay uh do you want to go to recommendations before we get into some questions yeah and I think it's just important to not note that you know we talk it's an estimated budget so as yet budgets haven't been submitted so we're estimating what those might be at this point and so given the numbers presented um I'm recommending level service budgets be sub subed um and that document departments will document and justify budgets from the bottom up that departments will use this opportunity to review approaches to current operations with a goal to streamline and improve efficiency um and that any special circumstances or requests for additional services or an expansion of services will be called out uh and it will be based on WE documented and based on regulatory or statutory requirements Community growth or needs that Aid the most vulnerable in the community and that departments highlight one-time funding requests this gets back to our imbalance between recurring and non-recurring revenues and costs so if there are some one-time funding requests we can look at funding those perhaps from non-recurring revenue and that uh departments provide metrics to support their requests and that department should understand that as these numbers get firmer over the next several months we may need to make adjustments and so they have to understand that just because a budget is submitted doesn't mean that that's what will be funded um and I just want to thank Kyla and the finance team for all their work on this um they did a great job and it's much appreciated okay so your budget recommendation or your budget message recommendation is that we go with a level Services uh budget expectation that we also expect that everybody present a Bottoms Up budget and I'm assuming that everyone will understand what that means as we get through the process here a little bit some folks most will do most do some won't maybe they're new or something but that means you don't start at okay I get 100 Grand therefore I get two and a half so I get 10 12,500 no you start at zero and you figure out where you need to go and then we talk about it from there um okay um and what else would you what else you recommending so level Services bottoms up bud style if you will Budget Building style or approach that any uh expansion of services or additional um items be based on be documented based on statutory regulatory requirements or other community needs um and that highlight uh recurring um non-recurring um costs be highlighted okay great all right um why don't we begin with uh Mrs LEF frenier m frary rather I'm sorry um your thoughts on Elaine's recommendation well I had a couple of notes here when I was reading the agenda and one of them was level funding and the other one was even at that no guarantees so I am absolutely expecting people to come forward with short and cut and level funded budgets present us with because we can't afford more so if I could level funded is different than level Services right level Services is maintain what we've been doing on behalf of the residents or for the residents so level funded would be same funding as this year okay so yours is a little bit different message a message as one person right now tighten our belts big time okay I I've had I've had people come up to me and tell me not to continue to try to find ways out of this which you know I want to do but they said the people voted all the stuff at town meeting they voted it again at an election we've we told them all the way through that this is going to be very expensive and cost a lot of money and for some reason every year we find a way to get around it and to help them out and I've had other people say it's time we paid the piper so I I you know this is a message that I'm getting from the public which which is surprising uh and then again I'm hearing from the elderly and people who are in trouble and who are you know begging for Relief so I I would rather work that way actually and and give them more relief okay that needed anything else for right now no okay and and by the way folks this is a months long process with an s on the end of it this is not a final decision tonight we're not setting a budget tonight we're not we're not even close to going there this is just the beginning of a months long process and we will massage and massage and figure it out and answer a lot of questions and go through all kinds of stuff so please bear with us we go through the process it takes a while uh it's a very public process but we're not making any final determinations tonight we already have a little bit of a disconnect and that's good that's healthy that's what we got to figure out okay Mr Clark um I I certainly agree with starting with level Services you know it's it's really tough to start cutting Town Services you know both from a town employee standpoint also you know resident what they get from that um but I think as we dig in you know from the bottoms up approach I don't know you know how granular we've gotten in the past but I think we'll get very granular this year when we do that with the different groups and I think that should be the expectation is um you know how heavy we do the bottoms up digging deep okay good for now good Mrs Rush yeah um I agree with Joe that I would like to start with the level Services um I think the town is growing and people are yeah we still haven't quite caught up to all the services people need so I think we should start with level services and if we have to get down I wanted to note for the public that our new growth numbers are down this year we had been growing very rapidly and it's not quite growing as fast anymore um so on one hand there's few people coming in but at the same time um there's less New Growth money um there's some good slides in our packet I hope the public will take a look at those that show some historical perspectives um and comparisons with other towns and the de amount of debt and amount that goes to the schools I think those are helpful too and then a question not for denight but for the future for the town manager and superintendent I would like to know about the NBA communities act I know there are a lot of Grants we're going to lose out funding for if we don't pass the MBTA communities act so i' would like to know specifically what grants um will particularly impact hopkington I think some of the water fixes like the mwa connection would be affected and not the big school building grants but I think um other school grants could be affected so I just want to have make sure we have that picture before the November time meeting it Mr Manan uh thank you El I think you know this is a well articulated uh message and I agree with level services and to me that um translates to managing our U quality levels for our residents and um Quality levels of the services and managing the growth uh should we see and the data shows that uh and I I also want to I um I mean I've been an advocate and being uh very strong on mentioning that we wanted to bottom up and it going to be only need and priority basis and given the financial situation that we are in um I hear a lot from the residents everyone's super concerned about the tax impacts that we are experiencing and um the tax burden that we are seeing on our um bills so certainly we need to be extra extra careful and have our laser beam Focus that I keep saying onto our budgeting on to all the financial activities that we do so this resonates well with that and I would uh only add that uh bottom up budgeting in my view uh I'm going a little more one layer down would translate to three things uh if I may one is that uh we want to look for opportunities where we can optimize the budget from our previous few years learning and that would mean and may sound like a broken record but this is another perfect time to interject um since we have 3 and2 million in free cash um unspent from last year we want to go line item by line item and say okay what was allocated what was the actual where's the savings and do we need that anymore and we have to Absolute uh have you know uh full justification based on risk Regulatory and other compliance needs and or uh severe um Quality uh uh impacts to justify that again it's not granted uh as you have laid out just translating it to a little more granular level and the second one is that we also want to look at our risk factors I fully appreciate and always have been tremendous support um supportive of increasing and uh improving our stabilization fund our opep fund to meet the requirements and the regulatory or um best practice thresholds and that said we also want to see that uh we don't want to deprive any immediate urgent need uh to overshot overshoot I don't think that is happening or is in the proposal but that is something I would also urge to uh take a close look and looking at the numbers looking at the you know thresholds the percentage and then add adjusted if we think it needs to be adjusted should it be increasing should it be reducing should it be staying the same I know Kyla you mentioned it was 750 which was probably the highest in the last 20 years which is great and if we can afford that I would go 700 if a million stabilization is always that right or rainy day fund uh but should we see that it is above our 5% even 6% I don't know the latest number and we can adjust and tone to hire another uh you know uh help in Senior Center to hire or help with our health care and Health Department to help with our uh sped uh education or school or our fire or our police uh and again risk based and high priority based level Services based decisions then we should also look at that closely and then the third one is you mentioned it the 10 million that we have and doesn't have to be today i' would like to see some proposals what is the best way to use that in terms of looking at our two major things tax burden and level services or quality of services and if reducing the debt would have a good start on that front let's look at that and if uh again we don't want to see any more Capital spending that is pretty much our going in position but should there be you know uh something that's as threatening as I'm throwing out example not giving ideas um that can be U compromising with services to quality of life or even um um our Safety and Security or anything that is I would say level five category we should look at that and see without you know adding more to the burden if we can accommodate that and again not giving ideas going in position is no more spending uh so with those I would U uh I think uh extrapolate for what our budget guidance would be and I think elain you have captured it pretty well with the statements that you mentioned and I think I covered pretty much and I also liked the criteria that you have provided for any new request expansion request or additional request for the opix as well and I would I am a data guy so I would add if there is a way for us to interpret and for the town to interpret when you have those requests when we have those discussions I would like to see if um Kyla you and others can come together uh at some tiering of those requests or uh scoring of those requests so it translates based on those criteria that this is the number five priority wise uh or sorry U number five in terms of our need wise and uh this is low number one that would I think help our conversations not having it more as a judgmental conversation but actually datadriven and um risk scoring and our key idea key criterias of meeting the um or mitigating the tax burden managing the U service levels and and managing the risks for our town so I think that's that would be my guidance on this okay thank you um Kyla the estimate purely an estimate that you have this evening that balances it all out per state law does that include a 2 and a half% tax increase yes for the existing tax base yes okay the 2 and A2 % tax increase it's the estimate that's been sort of the norm over the years it's been a little less most years but whatever um is that 2 and half% built into the number that's the 125 going to 185 for the average house and hopkington over the next five years yes so that's built into that is there any more built into that 185 number or it's just two and a half over that it's two and a half and plus operating expenses increasing two and a half on the operating side yeah okay got it all right um you know we can't this entire process ever take our eye off that challenge of we're already going to 185 but we're going to 185 with two and a half right so if we save let's say over the next five years we only did two and we pick up two and a half points over that 5year period is that taking cost value of money I don't know 1.7 or something off that 18 five number but our operating expenses are growing faster than 2.5% that's what this shows you is that so we're worried about a we're worried about a deficit even at the two and a half correct got at the 185 number correct got and that's what so your profit this is what recurring versus non-recurring revenue is showing that our operating expenses are growing significantly more than what our property tax can keep up with and the estimate for right now to start the process is assuming how much in New in New Growth 1.4 hold on 1. 1489 million which is down from previous year correct which was a high of two and a half something like that a couple years back yeah last year was 1.5 it's a decrease of 5% all right um okay stable ization is currently around how much it's yeah once we transfer another 100 another 700,000 in in 2026 M if our operating budget stays at this number we will be in line with our financial policy of 5% which drives our bond rating correct which drives the price in which we pay for the money that we borrow correct so if we mess up the bond rating by not having enough stabilization savings our bond rating goes down our interest rate goes up and our operating expense just got that much higher correct because we have to pay that much more in debt service so the stabilization is a big piece of this puzzle that we got to keep an eye on correct right and we can have a buffer with free cash so it's a balance between free cash and stabilization to equal that 5% free cash and stabilization is the 5% not just stabilization correct okay so wouldn't we be a little bit higher than that right now we can if we don't spend free cash on Capital articles that are critical need like pay as you go talking spending through the chair um while we at just clarifying um so Kyla thanks for those numbers so how much is on our stabilization today and we had free cash is 10 can you give those numbers yeah I they're in the packet hold so all right as of August of this month of this year stabilization has a $5.7 million balance and if we contribute another 700,000 we will be in line with our policy so we won't need free cash but free cash is always a nice buffer to have we won't need it in FY 26 we sure could use it in 27 and 28 and 29 maybe right because it's just going to keep on going up there okay Mr Manan any other question I know you you good there uh am yeah I I think that's very helpful and um another data point if you have it um I wanted to check is um for our OPB what is our current level what is the required level and how much we are anticipating for the coming year that's one and going back to the uh free cash question um my understanding is we can't keep the free cash floating right then there is a risk of uh sudden utilization at some point in town meeting or somewhere so we need to find a home for that uh is that are those two can you clarify on those two sorry yeah that's a correct statement about free cash for OPB we are due to transfer $875,000 which is the standard 25% increase year-over-year and we are due to be fully funded by 2048 but we could take free cash and put it into stabilization therefore it takes it out of that bucket and they can't go after it right yep and we can carry a higher than 5 or 6% stabilization number for future years when we're going to have to burn that down by transferring it back into the operating side correct right so that I mean that's kind of my thinking is we have this free cash and please there's no such thing as free cash it's your tax dollars okay it's just the way the state calls it free because it got freed up it's not free cash we have this cash that if we put in stabilization we protect it and we could use it in future years so we don't have to have a override two years from now we could pull money out of stabilization and put it back into those Revenue source for that particular year and then we'd have some but we have to put it in stabilization to have it be savings correct right so I think that's one of the things we want to consider is how much can we save not Beyond FY 26 what can we save for 27 28 29 because it's only going to get harder to balance this out each year we also have a capital capital stabilization fund that hasn't been utilized year-over-year which we could put money into 2 two given the capital requests that are on our 5year plan great segue we have 10 million right now in capital requests is that correct over 10 million over 10 million in capital give me an example of some of these Capital requests that we're getting already um well they would pick on anybody I'm just curious what are people looking for right now we have the police vehicles we have improvements to the fire and police station which are union impacting we have um DPW has about five different vehicles that they are requesting water insur Enterprise have um certain improvements that they need to make um I'm trying to think okay that's good oh yeah the public safety radio which has fairly normal requests as well except for the public safety radio which has been on the um proposed to be on the warrant for I believe 4 years years now which is at a critical State okay all right good all right so uh thanks for answering those questions and we're going to be drilling into all this stuff over time here uh but you can just see sense at least where I'm coming from about saving money for future years because that's going to be a challenge I think we're going to be okay in 26 we'll figure it out I have no idea what we're going to do beyond that because it's going to get worse not better and 26 is going to be a challenge but we can figure it out I that's why I'm worried about savings okay okay with that we have several guests here with us this evening we have the school committee we have the school administration we have Capital Improvements committee we have Appropriations Committee I think I've covered all the various uh public entities here does anybody have any thoughts any ideas things they want to share about the budget message that we're trying to put together tonight we don't want to get into a lot of the budget discussion what's the budget message that we want to make sure we're all on the same page about that's what I'm curious about at this moment Mr Mar if you would join us at a mic so thank you so thank you KY and uh Elaine for putting that budget and that message together I I agree with the message that we have to be really tight with things but one thing I do want to point out when you're about the usage of free cash uh I know you said there's a balanced budget using that adding that $10 million in free cash what I noticed is that 2 million of it is using uh recurring expenses and that's the danger and I would like to see that avoided so I you know we haven't done that for a long time and I that's going to dig ourselves a whole because next year for 27 we're going to have to come up with that come up with the money plus that $2 million because we may have the free cash so I just wanted to make that statement to make it clear I think it should be a goal to eliminate that that $2 million use okay thank you that was the Appropriations Committee but any anybody else please thank you for the opportunity so Matt kizner speaking on behalf of cic so I'd like to try and emphasize the need for long range planning and long range planning reconciliation as part of the budget messaging process one of the things we've really struggled with as your Capital entity is what I like to call prize requests they're things that I can't find on two or three year ago Capital FY projection but they're coming into the current capital FY and I'm going to heed your advice about not getting into specific examples it's been a recurring challenge for us so as I hear your message about savings managing expenses tightening up a little bit one of the things that I think we can really get stronger about is that long range planning having an honest and forthright discussion today about the things that we know we need in the future so that we aren't confronting 27 and 27 or 28 and 28 we're planning for the now which enables a significant strategic flexibility in some of the other budget minations that we've discussed here I have some things I'd love to discuss about partnering but I'm going to fly high on the details per your request here I think that's a good message for the department heads and the town as a whole we need to be thinking a little bit longer term great thank you anybody from the school committee good evening welcome thank you Nancy Kavon I'm from the school committee I just want to say um for those who at home who maybe have not followed our budget over year over year I appreciate the zerob based um the bottoms up that is the approach that we always take it is hard going into it to predict exactly where we're going to be in a couple of months so that's where we start we do have a very public process and I'm hoping that um not not just members of the S board but people at home will share their input with us as we go along and I look forward to the the back and forth with all of you in trying to get get the budget that serves both the needs of Hopkinson and the taxpayers thank you thank you anyone else from the school committee want to share any thoughts seeing none anybody else from Appropriations share any thoughts yes sir uh through the chair I just want to piggy back a little bit on um Mike aric K and uh this is my second year start of my second year on the committee um at the uh last budget approval I noticed uh a lot of uh articles not a lot but there were a few articles that were funded with free cash so I guess when they're developing their bottoms up and I learned the difference between level Services level funding to have that be in consideration that they not have to hopefully go at the end to use free cash you know because unless something extraordinary comes up that requires it so I just wanted to mention that okay great thank you okay seeing no other takers at the mike um any other final thoughts from board members before we go to the town manager for maybe a little bit more codified budget message motion type Concepts any anything else you want to please go ahead yeah I wanted to ask a chat question um and uh since we have all the key um budget stakeholders here this is a great Forum so our um growth has been projected or currently to be 5% less right which should give us some respite that is U uh but at the same time we losing some Revenue but I wanted to understand does that growth translate into the school growth going downwards I don't think so but do we have data for that if not now we can recollect and uh reconcile this through the budget process but just to understand the uh housing growth may not always be translated to student growth the same way in the schools anyone uh from budget or sorry from uh school or Kyla if you have any data that you can share yeah the new growth figure that's in the sources document is from um property tax so it doesn't um equate to school growth at all it's not that there's no growth it's just less growth than last year right correct yeah the one data point we do have in the room Mr Manan is when you ask that question most of the school committee members were shaking their head no so I think that there's a sense that that's not necessarily the case that just because we're slowing our growth our school growth is not slowing in fact it's doing the opposite thank you for sharing that Mr chair I I did suspect that because uh I also wanted to bring it up because we want to take all data points and all analytical you know minds and facts into consideration as we go in so appreciate that great thank you anything else just a small comment uh when we mentioned all the vehicles that need to be replaced I remember a long time ago we were in a real bad budget crunch we had a garage uh at the DPW and these departments are all asked to see if they can't squeeze another year or two I know that we had we have a schedule for replacement of vehicles but if we have a really good vehicle that can be saved let's let's put it off for a year or two okay anything else Mr Clark nope I think the message I think everyone's in agreement on the message that we're trying to send y I don't have anything else okay so elain do you want to try and put a motion in front of the chair that we someone could then make so the board could vote to adopt the recommended budget message with any changes you wanted to add if you wanted to add something say about long-term planning for Capital so we have a recommended budget message from the town manager's office and that is for level just the basics are Level Services Bottoms Up [Music] approach El one time onetime funding things highlighted one time funding source highlighted any additional regulatory things highlighted y provide metrics and that there's an understanding that things might change throughout the process okay so basically we have a budget message that is level services and build it from the bottom up and we'll go from there okay and seeing a lot of folks nodding their head in the room I think we're all basically in agreement with that message so does somebody want to make the motion I would make the motion motion that we approve U the budget me message as outlined and stated by Town manager elain Lazarus second okay we have a motion on the table and second by Mrs rter Bush any further discussion Mr Manan how do you vote please man yes am yes Joe Clark yes M Joel yes Brian her yes it's unanimous and so carries we have our budget message for fy2 six five six FY 26 okay thank you thank you for your hard work on that there's a lot more to come thank you all all right let's move on to item number eight we almost got to it uh Town manager report right so with regard to the Main Street Corridor project um highlights at this time are um as long as the utility company continue to stay in schedule uh the transfer of overhead utility lines from the old polls to the new should be completed by the end of October um and then those poles on the west side of the project will start to be removed uh the work connecting uh underground is continuing on the east side of the project um the installation of the bricks began on September 9th uh and is continuing uh they're working every day getting those bricks to fit uh in the in the strips out there and it's starting to look pretty good um the Landscaping is planned for the fall um and changes are under review by mass doot which might result in some changes and meetings are ongoing in that regard is there anything else regarding Main Street questions on Main Street okay okay um there are no uh Town Department petition vacancies that have come up since the last meeting so nothing to report there um and then regarding the uh Center School playground um as you know it's been some time since Center School has been used as a school and over that time the playground has deteriorated um there are um neighboring um people who do use it occasionally um and it's been a nice neighborhood resource but it's deteriorating to the point where it needs um at least $50,000 in upgrades in order to make it safe uh for everyone to use so I've been working with um with dut W and with the facilities department on what we can do there and the recommendation um has been to close the playground to the public due to the liability and safety concerns uh and we since we don't know what's going to happen with the building putting a lot of money into it right now just doesn't seem to be seem to be prudent at this time so we would close it and make it secure which is a shame I know that people use it and it's a good it's been a good resource and that playground is within our purview and not that parks and wreck that's correct okay because we took the building from the schools not took it but right responsibility for it once it was closed yeah I mean some of the playground equipment had been temporarily fixed with plywood a number of years ago and that can't stay that way um so things like that just haven't been fixed okay there's other public playgrounds in town there's uh EMC Park right M there's uh playgrounds at or playground at Marathon correct I think at all all the schools yeah are there others Elwoods I think is gone now or um Hopkins is gone they didn't have much one I think Sandy Beach might have one now is that right Sandy Beach have a small playground area I don't know but there's other options for folks in town if they if they're they''re been using Central School there are other places they can go and those are safer and I just want to clarify too the grounds will still be open I think there's Trails people can access back there oh yes you can still access the trails back there okay the picnic tables I can't Rec at one point there were picnic tables back there too they're still there up on the hill okay so it it is too bad but I understand man yeah I I I wanted to keep it open but it's just it's unfortunate okay so you're going to take care of that yes you don't need to vote for that that's correct okay uh anything else uh not on that no and then the final item is uh Town Council and labor Council um the board in uh around the 1st of July um by bylaw should be appointing Town Council and labor Council the board had talked about you know exploring other options but we're well into the fiscal year so I'm uh just recommending that the board uh appoint our current Council uh through the end of the fiscal year and if the decision to look at options uh for next year we can do that in the months coming up okay so you're making a recommendation to go ahead and do the reappointment yes with the understanding that we would if we want to do something different we'd get into a more formal process come January February right we'd need some more time okay all right is that something you need imminently or is that something that we should noodle on or uh I think if the board could make the appointment tonight that would be good that would be appreciated okay so let's let's hang on this topic for a minute then um so Town manager is recommending that we reappoint Town Council and labor Council for the balance of FY 25 correct correct does anybody have any thoughts or opinions on that M the friend here uh no I I would I would uh no I don't know about label Council to tell you the truth very much but I I would reappoint Harrington and he that's my personal opinion okay Mr Clark anything um this was something we obviously brought up earlier this summer and so I'm still of the belief that I'd like to see options to to make a change just know what's out there sometimes changes is needed or the right thing but I also understand the time commitment needed for that and it's not the thing to do right now but if we could like formalize some type of plan of you know middle of January we'll have we'll get options together ahead of this June so that we're not coming into like next summer um scrambling I'm I'm good to move forward temporarily yep we can do that y probably work that into the motion I think we'll have to yeah Mrs redw I don't have any questions or comments okay Mr Manan any thoughts on this topic uh I think I would go with elen's recommendation for um managing the risks and the uh Logistics that we mentioned and we can bring it up for discussion at a suitable time of course okay thank you so with that and because well it's on the agenda so we can I think we can entertain a motion this evening uh to your point uh to reappoint both Town Council and labor council with the understanding that a plan for a market survey and perhaps interview process be put in place for reappointment for fy2 6 right so does somebody want to make that motion um before we do that so realistically like what's what time frame do you think is realistic to get all this pulled together and kind of talk about it again is January too soon I think January is a good time to start start in January well would be on my side it be done with the the budget and be ready to to work on something else as you take take on the budget very optimistic all right so there I think there's a suggested motion to reappoint Town Council and labor Council for the balance of fy2 with the understanding that a formal process to review FY 26 options for Town Council and labber Council be undertaken no later than February 1st 2025 so move we have a motion on the table is there a second second we have a motion and a second any further discussion on the motion please everybody good Mr Manan you want to vote first man yes Mary Joel fer yes Joe Clark yes Amy Rush yes Brian her yes so we'll continue to retain those folks and work on a process to look at possible options for the following fisal here okay anything else from the town manager's office no that's it all right item number nine aison reports sorry I did have a question on the town manager's report okay sorry go ahead um so um it was back in um July 16th at a meeting we were told that the negotiations with Southboro had paused while we formed the water Sewer Commission have they started up again or they're waiting until we appoint I think they're waiting until we actually have a a body appointed okay so we're delayed a two probably three months now okay okay good all right um Elaine you're good right yes okay so let's go to item number nine then on the agenda which is leaon reports and or board invites may Joe anything no I have I have a three or four coming up in the next few weeks so uh I don't have anything right now okay uh Mr Clark um the one I want to call out is kind of two things you know one just kind of a thank you to our Police Department fire department as well working with the schools we had a swatting incident at the high school today and it was well communicated throughout handled quickly um and the debrief I got was very thorough and so I want to send my uh thank you to all all the people involved in that and then the police are also offering a um coffee with a cop tomorrow morning 9: to 11 I believe at all fresh for any residents that would like to get out and meet our Police Department great Mr yep um so I wanted to point out for the public that the um the town of Milton has um fought back against the NBTA communities bya act and that's going to be in court on October 7th I know people are kind of hoping that Milton will win and therefore we won't have to do the npta communities act but I want people to keep an eye on that realistically because they I mean there's a good chance they will not win against that battle um second October uh 10th the MMA is holding a workshop that sounds like right out hopkinton's alley it's called um what role do Arts and Cultural initiatives play in Economic Development how to communities of all sizes and location Advance arts and culture and I think that really ties in with our downtown project and the cultural district and the potential Arts Center so I hope maybe some of us can attend that or maybe Julia Chen could attend it's yeah it's in the morning unfortunately so it's during the workday so I don't think I'll be able to attend but it looks interesting and art on the trail is coming up October 10th through 16th on Center Trail so people will stop by and see that great Mr Manan um not a whole lot but just wanted to State the winter Farmers Market is going to be U starting in November 3rd Sunday 11: to 300 p.m. goes up to uh March midm March so I'm very happy about that and please keep it on your radar uh it's a great uh place to support local business farmers and get good organic healthy food I'm a big fan of that so uh just to put on uh just to let you all know uh and there was a cultural committee did a wonderful job there was a mural opening on 922 and then uh Faith Church celebrated their 300 years um uh 922nd as well so congratulations to them um that's all I have and I also wanted to extend U deep thanks for the services by our police school and fire department they did a wonderful job I'm I'm hearing and my daughter is in uh school so we as a parent we all appreciate it and great to see that um we have such a wonderful um safety and force um behind our town thank you okay thank you uh I don't have anything to add at this time item number 10 is future board agenda items um and Elaine and I did get together after our last meeting and clean the list up a little bit of those things that we've have have taken some action on um I know there's still some things to come for some of those but that'll be the normal course now not necessarily a future board agenda item but still open uh as the economic development advisory Council uh the liquified natural gas plant oversight and advisory committee we did introduce that topic one night but we really didn't get to it uh in any great detail uh we need to get that back on as an agenda item itself uh Tax Relief Committee uh like another one like that we have another executive session this evening specific to the Hopkinson Police Department um we have uh on the unredacted documents we're still working on that a little bit we've got some some information from Town Council uh he was going to wasn't he going to revise it one more time and come back to us right so we're still awaiting that got it okay so we'll leave it there for Now understand the options for the Town Council labor Council we just took a step for that forward tonight um but we'll leave that there for now and then Senior tax credit hours we just put this on last week because there was a change in uh the understanding or the expectation or the law itself I don't know which uh around tax credit hours and what could be done so I do think we want to give that a full agenda item in the very near future to help those that we can uh so that's item number 10 does anybody have any other future board agenda items they want to add to the list I do have one um I should have mentioned it during the budget season but we tried to have budget listening sessions last year and I don't think anyone came to any of them so I wondered if we could try to rethink that a little bit this year maybe we could have them not at our meetings but um maybe somewhere less formal that people would been more comfortable coming to ask okay all right anything else uh Mr chair I have one um and I think it's important I know I keep adding um but I would like to hear from our disability commission and um to see where you know the current state of things they had uh been meeting for quite some time and have very uh thoughtful discussions and uh I think analysis of various policies and various um opportunities for our town and I would like to um see if they could come to us and uh just to hear them out first and then see how we can help them uh formulating the policy or support or our um you know uh moral uh kudos to them so that would be a good addition I believe I'm sorry the name of that committee again uh it's disability oh okay yeah got it yeah okay thank you all right uh anybody else um oh you I just I just want to make a comment and say congratulations uh Brian Thomas Thompson and his wife Christine both born and brought up here in hopkington uh Brian has just been elected to the Rhode Island Senate they have moved to Rhode Island so I think we should congratulate them great thank you Joe um I just didn't see I know we have to do the revised Charter for the new trails committee I just didn't know if that was already on the next agenda but I just wanted to bring that up oh you're right that's been removed yeah yeah should be for the next the next agenda still meeting with people on that no I'm I'm I figured I just wanted to call it up so yeah still pending is the trails committee reconstituted um upper Charles Blended the whole thing and still to come is the water and sewer advisory commission or committee I'll getting that finalized get some people led up for that so okay anything else on future agenda items okay uh with that let's move on to item number 11 in the uh select board agenda for this evening and that is an executive session uh the board is going to go into executive session to update and Str uh for an update and strategy session regarding arbitration filed by former Sergeant Timothy Brennan Master General Law chapter 30A section 21A purpose 3 and to approve executive session sorry to approve executive session minutes from 91724 so I believe there's a motion to go into executive session if someone would be so kind I move to enter EX itive session for an update and strategy session regarding arbitration filed by former Sergeant Timothy Brennan pursuant to Master General Law chapter 3A section 21A purpose 3 to approve executive session minutes to allow Elane Elaine Lazarus Nicholas anastopoulos Joseph Bennett and Scott Van ralton to participate in an executive session and not to convene an open session at the conclusion of the executive session you second that okay we have a motion on the table in a second any discussion on the motion hearing none M LEF frer how do you vote please I vote Yes I'm sorry Jo yes thank you Joe Clark yes yes Mr Manan man yes Brian her yes it's unanimous and so carries we're going to go into executive session we will not be reconvening in public session we'll be adjourning at the end of executive session thank you all very much have a great evening