I'll open these up noise that says we're on air and the zoom all set is the zoom all set is the zoom all set the zoom is all set yes Zoom is all set sorry sorry I wasn't welcome to the May 20th 2024 Board of assessors meeting for lunberg Massachusetts in accordance with the requirements for the open meeting law please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live over the lunberg public access channel on Facebook live on the public access Facebook page httpswww facebook.com/ lunenberg dpublic d ACC D cable d157 42727 97535 SL recording can be found on the lunenberg access YouTube channel after the meeting this meeting will be held in person at this location which is the B room of the lunberg Town Hall uh members of the public are welcome to attend this in-person meeting please note that while an option for remote attendance Andor participation is being provided as a courtesy to the public the meeting will not be suspended nor terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast unless otherwise required by law members of the public with particular interest in any specific item on this agenda should make plans for inperson versus virtual attendance accordingly for remote participation from a computer please use the link below which is the public meeting webinar it's a join Zoom meeting https colon us02 web. zoom. us. J I'm sorry slj sl84 1830 38660 meeting ID again is 841 8303 8660 from a telephone dial the tollfree number 888 475 4499 and enter the webinar ID again which is 841 8303 8660 followed by the pound signed pound sign if youve not registered for Zoom you'll be asked for your name and email address uh no participant ID is required just press the the pound sign when asked uh tele phone users may dial star9 to request to speak after joining the meeting computer and app users may use the the raise hand feature to request to speak the agenda list all topics which may be discussed at the meeting and of those reasonably anticipated by the chair votes may be taken as a result of these discussions uh not all items listed in May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by by open meeting law I will now call us to order just give me one second I do want to deliver something sorry for the Keystone Cops down uh uh would like to call us to order and open the meting for board comment any comments from the board had to do the who's here we are in person but we will do the who's here who's here not sure John rabbit Brian leond Sarah camer Linda McQuade and in the empty seat over there is normally Reena and she'll be right back thank you sorry uh opening comments from the board oh first of all s congratulations good job on uh not only being voted in but also going out and trying to recruit in front of the selectman I thought that was pretty good oh thank you good job thank you that's it congratulations to you Brian and congratulations to you was that it uh I just want to say um I'll be participating in this meeting I can't vote U because I could not get to the clerk's office in time for my other job well she needed to be again I was able to be sworn in this this afternoon so I am able to vote and participate in the meeting fully Mr rabbit do you have anything further comment uh no I'm going to save it for if items thank you any further comment okay I have none either uh any comment from the public seeing no hands in the air on the zoom no okay anything I will welcome a status report from the principal assessor Linda hello everybody well um our abatement period ended last Thursday um we have a total of 42 abatements five of them are personal property uh 27 abatements were from the Lakes R and I have uh started inspecting them uh we have more than half completed um so we're making Headway with those and um other than that I'm continuing to review um the 102 building permits to um you know review all the permits from the past to make sure we didn't miss any um Properties or buildings I should say I did happen to come across another uh omitted Bill uh which will be going out on um the 28th of May and that's supplemental or uh that's going to be omitted Bill okay the uh the building was yep uh and um we settled four ATB cases uh from FY 2023 um and um other than that it's been very busy with uh abatements the motor vehicle abatements uh excise tax abatements have slowed down a little bit which is a good thing some yeah um we did also submit the mdm1 which is uh uh reimbursement from from the state uh for the U the motor vehicle uh for the veterans exemptions as well and then any veterans that um had um that were issued a motor vehicle excise tax bill we get reimbursed for for that so so that's something that was submitted to the Department of Revenue and that was on uh May 1st we submitted that as well and that's all I have okay thank you current business we have minutes from April 22nd and May 6th I don't know if everyone the May 6th ones just came in this morning I made some amendments and send it back over I have copies here for anybody that was like one copy thank you I'd like to stay is current read it and it's okay the adjusted one yeah oh good good would you like one read yeah you can both read it we can read this I think I printed the not well you really want to give copies okay I'll take one just in case I read through it on my handheld on the May May 6th one yeah well we should probably review the April 22nd first just to be logical and I'll pass that over to you we've had a chance to see these in the past but I did make some amendments recently so one more I do thank you um I don't know if there was anything that further that need to be changed on this but you note anything please note it I'll make the amendment and move on oh yeah sorry I printed one oh two sided upside down to you know so much easier you might say Mr chairman is that uh rabbit is hoping the website will go live by end of the month rabbit was in Dreamland well it's what we said so I know no I'm just commentated I wish I wish you didn't listen so well yeah it's recorded I know I know your words will live long after you probably thank you yeah I I don't really have anything I found a couple periods and commas that's fine we can put them in I can I can make those amendments before I send them off okay are they in here yeah can I find them I don't know there's one more comma so come the next page it's after a date you call these will be fixed uh any more comment on the April 22nd minutes we accept them is there a second oh you you can't second so I'll second oh there we go so all in favor just the two of us so we will have to note that is approved uh that's April [Music] 12 yep April 22 okay and uh on to the May 6th any comment on the May 6th or Corrections I did not notice anything do you prefer it this way this way I printed Every Which Way doesn't matter I don't know if you had a preference uh the document as read this is fine but however I would like to make a comment to with regard to services to help people where's that V list in the first paragraph there comment on opening comments the board yep okay says John rert question go okay there are service that we offer to people with their abatement and I know in an earlier conversation we had indicated that if a member tries to help that's not perceived as uh it it it could cause a conflict of interest or perception of a conflict of interest I did check with uh Becky with regard to what are the right protocols I checked twice just to make sure and essentially if I were to go which I have and there's one of them I I have helped someone with it to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest I will Rec recuse myself as I've done in the past oh so so that's not in it's not that right but it doesn't show up in the agenda so and I know it tonight it might come up so well we could talk about it during public comment and the fact we probably should have earlier that's fine that's good okay I just held off okay so that would be the intent for the folks to know that if I do or any of the other members help they can't necessarily jump in to help them with regard to voting for it or against it they just have to recuse themselves so that was my only comment otherwise looks great do that doesn't change anything that's on like as I said there no change to the content there any changes any other changes suggest the changes to the content no okay I'll entertain a motion so move I'll second the two of us can we want to do some Unis and can we you're a singer you know yeah we could we could do duet yeah the and Harmony two-part Harmony thank you now we're again current with the minutes we had gotten in a re quite a bit it looks good uh review and approve invoices expense vouchers payroll billing errors Etc you have some things for us to review and sign we just have one from n nice for the settling of the ATB cases and that's whose bill um the MFS MFS MFS yeah it's for $450 $150 per so I know we had gotten several copies of Prior bills that we had already approved so this is the only new one this the new one yeah okay this was for the settlement of the last right right right right it was a combo yep special so we need just we need to approve this do we I think we just sign we have to sign it sign it sure if you want to sign it I think you sign sign it cuz you're not voting well then we can't get it through can we this is sort of the end of the of the contract with Nate for now right is that yes I believe so we have not um contacted him for any other thank you and that's it for the oh you don't need to sign it no I'm just passing it back through okay thank you yeah she should will I move you to the end so you won't have to do that and you can certainly comment on anything you just can't vote on anything I just can't vote yeah um update on the nebor neighborhood review team proposal um so I sent everybody a updated copy of that um I have so far three volunteers I'm looking for a real attor um and then I will have a full committee subcommittee no oh yeah committee so you have a lake person non L person and is is it okay to share their names oh yeah is it hidden is this a um sub Rosa so far for our contractor uh Reena has volunteered um we asked for two members at large or a member that lives on the lake and a member who lives off the lake um Mr Carl luck uh volunteered to be the lake representative and Miss Anna Lockwood um volunteered to be the non-lake rep resident great that's one n right yes so if anybody's typing up the minutes it's one and and on Anna oh an it's actually on on I yeah and I call Cara Cara but she's really Cara you know sorry and so you're just looking for one more member yep um if anybody has some suggestions on realtors in town that or that are familiar with the town they don't have to be in member of the Town they're familiar with the town that would be okay you can send me an email at scammer at lenberg Ma and when are you hoping to have your first meeting well I I'll have to get sworn in no you don't well yeah I do probably do I do I do I'm supposed to be the board representative um we you can represent the board without being on the board so yes I suppose I can I anyway um uh the earliest would be the second week in June two June because um we have on our books um June 3rd is a potential meeting we do also have June 10th as a potential meeting yeah and uh all of my other activities are happening between now and the end of yeah first week of June and um 10th 10th was mely tentative where we are on the third but that should give us some time um so that everybody on the board can or on the on that um subcommittee can get up to speed about the rules for um DLS about neighborhoods and um site qualifiers and then the next meeting that we can get together um we can then start to delve into what ours looks like and what we want to do there I'm creating a a GIS um so we can look at it visually uh in a map along with all the fields um which include things like site characteristics are in our current um classification for the neighborhoods um I think the thing that we'll need down the road which we don't need yet is um when we're looking at the neighborhoods deciding if they will be appropriate or not based on our previous sales um and so that'll be the the bigger thing to get but we have a little time to do that because we're going to have our first meeting at Le second week of June and then um the next one will be in July and the goal is to finish by the end of August wow great I've got other things to do after all don't we all yeah I think that's a great goal hopefully you can that's 8 to 10 weeks essentially right so that's not bad which is what we put yep that's good did you want to mention the thing you found today yes um I made a couple of calls today in fact I went online um and looked at groton's database because I had lakefront property and I knew we had a um we coded all the Waterfront the same and actually in our database um is a code it's a 1013 which is single family water so it's it's what we used in grotten for the Waterfront um and uh I copied off a card with the L use code on it okay I'll hang on to that and um it's in our dat it's in our database so we will be able to use that and then I spoke to um Kathy Miller over in littlton and Kathy said that um all her Waterfront are neighborhood one and it's everything that touches the lake and she said she has cuzz there's a few Lakes over there too she has them all coated as Waterfront one um she has a waterfront view but um and that's a a code number two she has seven codes and um she said most of them the Waterfront 2 she said when she did all the sales analysis to find out what just off the Lakes was selling she said there was no really price difference um from her biggest neighborhood her General neighborhood so she only from going to one to two one neighborhood one is right on the water and neighborhood two is anything that's off the water like a water View and she said when she did all the analysis there was like a dollar difference between one of her biggest average neighborhoods and the in the water in the The View so she said immaterial difference yeah there's no real distinction her big distinction is Waterfront one and properties that are right on the water so we talked about that for a little while and she said she has seven neighborhoods okay and Littleton is a I think a little bit bigger than us yeah yep and I think there's I think there's Three Lakes over there there's Manan Long Lake and I can't think it's an Indian name on the other one can't think of the well that's Mana wanaki but Long Lake and there's one other I think I there's one that kind of goes between Littleton and I think it's westre yeah I think and you know we'll get we'll get into it in the subcommittee but I think one of the things that we're really missing you know we we need to have the neighborhoods redone because it just yeah we need to have the right number of sales for the neighborhoods to work I think what we're really missing in lunenberg are the site qualifiers um so it' be and Kathy did say she spent a lot of time looking at all her sales yeah she said that's what she used as the base and I think the the site qualifiers will really help differentiate some of the the property issues that we've been having as a town and you might want to look at that card it's an interesting house oh it is look to see the old owner was really I won't say really old no I had missed that thank you and I had 800 feet of Waterfront over there cuz I was out on a point oh so can you see the octal house so cool I can't see that a tax bill any it's an octagon it's an octagon yes yeah that's cool well we built it to match the Contour of the land wow just a little side note that is really neat right yeah thank you for that update and thank you for that update yep and good luck I love running committees not where's that gavl yeah in the draw right there hit him thank you you want is that for is that for me yeah yeah okay thank you because it you know it CHS that lane use code and that lane use code is in our tables already we just haven't used it we didn't use it all right no instead we went to Neighborhood one one a 1 B Nobody Knows Why literally sorry uh thank you the next item is the brief status of the roll out of the website test plan release schedule okay you were able to I did my best yes I think I'm I think I was I sent you folks out uh oh first of [Music] all this is the new you have a roll plotter at home how are you printing these do you have a roll plotter yeah that's cool it worked when I had another business uh and later on how many of these are there there's only three but re at the office comment and here's your copies from last time just you can go home and do a comparison in your spare time uh forms in okay I think this is your writing Brian that's yours original and Sarah I think this is yours I think that's my kind of cuz I was kind of doing a telescope thing with it what that do telescope oh yeah you did not see me do this yeah I can't help it so anyway uh take a look as as Sarah I'm using your quote it's never done website is never done right it's never done and uh living do so where we are right now is that Cara is ready to go and we're making the movements on the temporary site that we have have that's going making it look much more like this less the icons you know we can't carry icons uh and if you folks are good for it she'll fire back up and there's a few pieces there's a pile of links that are broken we're going to that'll get fixed pretty quick and uh I don't know if you want another review review after this but or take a look at it and Cara I'm meeting with Cara on Thursday so uh and I suspect it's going to take her a week to at least to kind of piece this all back together you know it's said big thing that's resour big huge yeah I made that just so you could see it Brian thankfully I'm I'm actually having a hard time reading the little boxes oh no but I sent you the link with the high def PDF there and I I remember looking through that PDF and um at least the citizens box looks like um what we discussed yeah and then when I look under the other subhe headers those look like what we discussed so I I think I think you captured most of it I I'll double check but I don't see any okay reason why we can't move forward cuz this conceptually it seems there does what we wanted to do and I I thought it was brilliant you're right we had too many too many and so conselling down to seven was a is a good idea uh yeah and so we you know asking about the index and the and stuff we have an index in there we have a sort of table of contents in there so we're good and uh the the bottom half still has big pieces that they got to work on but that's a you going to make it a telescope again so so so so the bottom half isn't the half we're most concerned about rolling out right right it's where the citizens going to go look top half it looks pretty good Jack I would say that and yes congratulations it's not done yet butk it's never done it's never done done but we need to declare it done roll it out and then then we can move forward from there if we need to stuff we'll add it change stuff we'll change it thank you good good good Carol be good result no this is a good team effort this is a team this is a great team it really is hard work so yeah so with that that's my report we don't get to we she doesn't get to vote on anything but she can certainly feedback and I think the feedack from at least is let's roll forward let's keep going yeah we're going to discover loads of and after but we we'll just keep fixing as they go okay so thank you for the update so you're expecting to meet I do you have something scheduled with car Cara Thursday Thursday at 10: is it Thursday good yeah so we'll get that and then I don't know how long that roll out will take thereafter it depends how much work she's got there more testing when it's live live just to double check oh yeah oh yeah yeah yeah I'll be testing as she goes we still have if you need us to help with the testing once it's live too we can do that I I don't mean to volunteer you for anything but we me can help and I will check it out I'll expect you to do most of it you have the web address in the in the header here if you want to sit down and do a www kind of thing you can go it it's not going to change until she's comfortable and we're we're both comfortable and we can go with it but hopefully in two weeks we can come back and say yeah take a look is that when we come back in two yeah yep fabulous that's good great work no thank you this is a good team we all five of us are a good team we are we really are you know and I feel blessed to be able to work with you I do um all right are we ready discussion details and development of the assessing calendar I postpone the calendar session till I'm sorry June 3rd June 3rd yeah what are we doing on June 3rd discussing the Assessor's calendar okay okay where did they go so the rest of the agenda is postponed not yet well I just wanted we postponed the status on the investigation of the exemptions that we put off for now for now till at least next week okay um got some stuff go and I'll I'll do it at the very end it'll take two seconds go ahead we won't go through it and policies I think I sent a draft of a policy late was it today did I send it today I know if I sent it let me check my I don't recall now I'm not sure if I sent it at all I may have just written it up it was I I didn't I don't recall seeing it today no no I I didn't send it so don't look for it okay I have a policy that I've started to write but I really think we ought to have a policy format I'm not sure what that should look like I anybody that could write up a format you guys I got the side eye I can I can certainly volunteer to do that along with you I'll I'll put it out there and you can tell me what the format how the format needs to change I can get I can pull one down and find it easy enough that works for me okay uh upcoming meetings we are definite for June 3rd yep um I'll make all the arrangements as far as location I think it'll be here because I believe that this room is available on June 10th it would not be but I will reserve a room for the 10th just in case okay that would be really uh if we need to follow up on some abatements that are not closed yet so that would really be my focus on the 10th uh and then we don't have anything till July 22nd that's a large gap and we talked about going once a month and I don't know if we can do earlier in July I think there was some difficulty scheduling on earlier in July at least on Mondays right yeah so let's leave that for for another discussion on we'll check it on June 3rd and see what everybody looks like we we could try the 1 of July if we want I might be jetl what time does he have this down for um okay we'll talk about it on June 3rd sounds good fabulous see if we actually need it wow that then that was really aggressive nice so um anything else we just go to public comment any public comment on oh sorry go ahead I'm sorry then there'll be board comment that yeah perfect sorry sorry I thought I jumped um there isn't anybody on Zoom anybody no nobody's okay's on Zoom no comment from the public in the public we'll go to the board you did have something you wanted to say I I did I apologize jump in there okay okay just two really quick questions to the board and that's all you need to help okay the 41A that we're looking at that's a deferral piece the challenge is good I've been talking to Becky a couple different times trying to see who's doing what the challenge is going to be the banks and getting them to take a SE second position uh but there are some but I wanted there's also a question of what are the mechanics inside and I was and do I need to go to Adam to ask or to Heather or what's what is the recommended go talk to uh not clear what you mean by mechanics okay uh if someone's going to essentially you fill out all sorts of forms you have basically agree to allow the town to put a lean against you and and uh for this deferral so is there a mechanism there a voluntary deferral or I mean a voluntary lean and I know the state has a form and so and then at the same time can I start calling around as Banks and seeing what their position is on this document so if it's a lean and where the administrators as um an Assessor's department when it come to the lead assessor to then most likely yeah what what happens how does that lean get communicated I just want to build understanding of the process and for that matter make it really clear that uh you know do we have any limits and how far can they owe us about half the value can they owe us the full value I think that's something that we have to decide as a board yeah so where do I go and get information from that Reena I think they can actually defer any amount they they can defer all their taxes have taxes but up to what value of the property there is a number yeah um I don't remember it off hand but when we only had a couple in gron and when we I turned the deferrals over to the tax collector and he took care of it from there yeah okay I'm like I said I don't know what happened yeah he he dealt with the bank whatever Bank it was was yeah it's an 8% interest on the payback now from what I understand also and that been talking about the interest rates uh it's 8% automatic and by the way the town is already enrolled every town is enrolled in this deferral program if the town decides that they want to collect more or less it has to go to a town boat to change the interest rate and uh so yeah that that was kind of clear and I practiced all that stuff Becky twice and she gave me the same answer twice so that's okay and so that's the the challenge I've got to keep noodling that and uh I'll maybe Adam would know something about this or how other the towns or maybe Heather or Reena so I'm just going to keep charging on that one and the other one I'm having difficulties reconciling a little bit of the circuit breaker and uh the the house bill that just got passed from you know the the uh L and uh Tom doc docket because they say the town you have to live in the town 15 years got pass the legislature that's the legisl what legislature passed well it passed the house and I'm going be passed it went to the governor but it was bounced back to the governor was it passed again I thought it was had been passed and it was passed again got bounc it got bounced back from the governor's office but I don't know if it got passed again so new information so if we could if we could um well that was a couple weeks ago um if we could defer some of that conversation cuz that is a future conversation item y um so that's my chall thank you for the followup I appreciate and I thank you for giving me that ship I didn't know it and uh I was waiting for it to just come through it been approved but that's all right uh well it may have been reapproved I don't know that I'm not sure since since I was given information it may have been reproved don't know that I had looked at it like a month ago so I'm not sure where it is right now yeah yeah somebody will tell us um good thank you just a question is there some action we're supposed to take on this omitted Bill uh that was Ju Just informational y so actually we've had two so far that's the second one okay uh and that will be going out on the 28th and I have a letter too that uh is going along just to explain why they OST money yes this is it and I did actually go to that property today and did a I went off of the plans but I inspected it just to make sure that everything up we measured everything and the uh homeowner is aware yeah that the is coming we don't want anybody this is the same thing that this oh here you read one I'll read one yep you probably want to keep that right in the Bild can we keep these pretty colored things you can keep the pretty colored Bill though I like the pretty colored that's can you tell I'm black or dark blue Mr Cher yes I might just throw one more in uh the 41c exemption options we I believe I called Becky and I think Becky sent back to you folks that we got to come back and make changes to the index for the state and with regard to the exemption changes we have to notify them and has to go through the town clerk there's a notification process that the town clerk does yeah and so uh has anybody sent it to Kathy or we're waiting for the results and Kathy will do this we'll come back that's that's for assessment no this exemption changes where we voted for exemption changes at the last town meeting then no sorry yeah changes to the exemption age and amount yeah Kathy has to notify the state so it's up to Kathy we'll follow up with Kathy to make sure it happened but you don't need to do anything about that right I call her and she says you got to get an initiated I Becky yes she Kathy you needs to take care of that okay and we'll follow up okay thank you thank you that's what clerk does doesn't it don't we that's what the town clerk does no that's what the clerk of assessors this cutting me out my title that's an batment application okay we're getting bumpy why what's this one is this one different we start is this an batement application that's actually our first one to discuss oh okay we aren't there yet no we're not we're not there yet uh any other board comments uh I do have one thing that I wanted to say and that is I uh drafted up a letter to be included in the adjusted bills that will be sent out for those people that had exemptions where their property value was misstated um I'm going to if if it's okay that you guys have read through it I'll take this to the the town manager and let her modify it as much as she needs to to make it legal um I don't know if we've finished the investigation into the corrections yet haven't heard anything from town tax collector she hasn't said anything okay I'll I'll follow up with the town okay manager but I'll bring this as my Baseline thank you then I think we need to uh talk about moving into executive session for a batment review and I think you guys have to make the Motions we do do Mr chairman do we have to talk about that that's the one I about executive session at all or no no this I I just asked about this one yeah I just wonder if we need to go anything further in terms of how did that happen or doing any kind of Investigation on that why it was one of those properties that the was explain it was missed from the occy permit was issued the end of 22 and the building was missed so all of 23 there was no tax bill in 24 okay so we I'm that's the bill for the building portion and the out building because it was a shed so that's being sent just fell through the CRA previous principal assessor did not follow up on it so that's why I'm trying to go through those permits uh your heart and and and then luckily we had a realtor that called so that's how that one was caught because the realtor noticed that she was listing the property that was only land only so then I went on open. goov got the plans and today went out and in this wasn't on the list of 102 that we got from the um it might be I I'm still going through the list so there was a list of 102 that she's now investigating and yeah blush your heart so so anyway so that yes this an executive session it's just we have two of those so far that were missed two two omitted bills went out this is the second one right yep so would you like to read the executive session thing so we'll be it already yeah no not that not this one the thing at the bottom here of this executive session I suppose I could read it because okay uh would you like read that I'll read it okay I move that we move enter into executive session suspend the open meeting and enter into executive session not to return to open session After exiting the executive session the motion to exec uh enter executive session under purpose 7 to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law or Federal Grant in Aid requirements ex applications for abatement or exemption under this chapter shall accept in proceedings before the County Commissioners the Appel at tax board or the court of the com yeah the court of the Commonwealth be open only to the inspection of assessors the commissioner the deputies clerks and assistance of either the assess assessors or the commissioner and other such officials as designated by priv as designated private Auditors of the Commonwealth chapter 59 section 60 of the Mass General law is the law being cited and I move that we adjourn you have so moved you'll second second and then we will jointly vote yeah and that was thank you so we are moving into executive session if it is if it is the we have to go pleasure of the board what okay we need to oh I forgot turn we need to we're all set we're moving into executive session we will be shutting down the video video and zoom and zoom and shutting the door we'll wait for them to