##VIDEO ID:et8rDbzGU0A## e access channel on Facebook live on the public access Facebook page and we be uploaded to the lunenberg access YouTube channel after the meeting the agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the chair votes may be taken as a result of these discussions not all items listed May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by the open meeting law we're going to begin tonight with public comment are there any public comments from the board yes yes um I have a couple of comments tonight so the first is is mostly um I want to make the public aware of something then also uh give some credit to the lunberg police department so a couple of weeks ago um a few weeks ago rather um I ordered an iPad through AT&T and it was stolen off of my front porch now for anyone who knows where I live I live out in the in the woods a couple football fields off uh of the main road and so I want to share this because apparently this is a something that's happening so in my case uh someone was home and when this occurred um and you know I we reached out to the police department officer Hill was tremendous uh as were the investigators with FedEx but I just want to share with the public what occurred what occurred was about an hour before the delivery happened uh a car came down the driveway and apparently dropped someone off who then H hid out in the woods across from my house and waited for the FedEx truck to show up um and and the camera footage from the FedEx truck showed that when the truck came and they made the delivery the person came out of the woods and from the time that the package was put on my literally front door to the time uh and again uh my husband was home he put his shoes on to come open the door and within 15 20 seconds someone came out of the woods grabbed the package went running down the road after reaching out to FedEx and the police department apparently this is something that's happening um all over the country uh they they they believe that either the FedEx system or the AT&T or Verizon systems have been hacked uh resulting in packages getting stolen so you know just to make people aware uh that you know it happens every day um but you know if you have a package specifically coming that's an electronic and from AT&T or Verizon uh it may be best to get delivery instructions that allow it to be picked up somewhere else or if you are home when the delivery occurs uh to meet the driver at the door and then second you know I just want to also acknowledge It's been a interesting couple of weeks um someone re ended me uh last week and uh you know before I could even call 911 I I called them and within you know before I could even tell them why I was calling them the lunberg police department was already there uh clearly they were doing some patrols officer Brock was amazing um in the instant so I just want to acknowledge the lunberg police department for their professionalism and then also again make the public aware when it comes to electronics um to be mindful that there is a a thievery ring going around we've seen postings from the ashram police department as well related to similar incidents we've heard things in Townsen uh so there are things going around that is stealing this so I just want to make people aware of that that's it thank you for the PSA are there any public comments from the public Mr Mackin good evening good evening uh just a quick note today is Constitution Day and I didn't think we should let it pass without you know acknowledging that um and I just have a few thoughts that I'd beg your Indulgence it was an unusually hot and humid Philadelphia summer in 1789 when delegates from the 13 uh States came together to rescue a nent nation with a shaky future the United States of America had been lurching forward for 12 years under the Articles of Confederation which as a feature resulted in a weak federal government it had no executive or judicial branch states were free to uh raise their own tariffs uh there was no uh ability to raise direct taxes to meet the government's needs National Defense was nearly non-existent it was nearly impossible to amend the Articles given the fact that it required the unanimous approval of the 13 states finally in 1786 protests uh broke out by poor Farmers over debts from borrowing during the War years and this occurred in Western Massachusetts it's commonly referred to as Cha's Rebellion um originally it was a protest uh but eventually it morphed into a armed Insurrection against the state government Shay's Rebellion even attempted to seize the federal army in Springfield and the F federal government was uh uh had was powerless to respond with all this fresh in mind the delegates to the constitution convention convened and 1787 delegate George Washington appeared in his full dress uniform and was overwhelmingly elected to the chair of the convention through that long hot summer they debated in utmost secrecy on this state in 1787 the delegates gathered to affix their signatures approving the document it was a magnificent and deeply flawed document because humans are magnificent and deeply flawed when delegates and Elder statan Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of uh government it created he said a republic if we can keep it it is up to us we the people to keep it thank you thank you thank you very much Mr Mackin are there any other public comments from the public in the room tonight all right seeing none we will move to zoom and Mr oconnell hey uh can you hear me all right we can hear you all awesome um so I just wanted to um give a quick um update on something I had talked about previously um with um programs and stuff that the uh Town employees use I was able to Crunch the numbers on um cost benefit analysis of using um different tiers of Microsoft 365 um currently my understanding is that the lowest tier the uh business based B which is $6 per month per user um is what's rolled out uh and there have been productivity issues because of that in my opinion um the web apps that version only lets you use the web apps as opposed to the desktop apps as much as Microsoft likes to Market them as similar products they're just not um the interface is different and for users that have heavy learning curve to uh get past with that if they're using a different interface that isn't like the programs that they're familiar with that hampers them pretty heavily um so from scraping the town website I believe that the town employs around 141 employees uh and that includes the full volunteer fire department and um a bunch of other users that wouldn't be doing as much heavy clerical work um and the cost that we incur if every one of those users on business basic 141 users time $6 a month uh time 12 months in a year is $110,000 And1 100 uh $1,152 the cost to upgrade them to business standard which includes the desktop apps that everyone is familiar with um and greatly expands the functionality of each of those apps uh is only $12 per user per month so $20,000 uh to the town per year and from the productivity losses that I've seen I think in a cost of $10,000 is is really a drop in the bucket at least in Municipal terms um believe that's everything I had thank you all right well thank you Logan uh for coming back and giving us some more feedback um we definitely will uh talk about it and look into it so thank you very much Logan all right are there any other public comments on Zoom I'm not seeing any all right so let's move on to announcements I have three tonight uh the first two are about upcoming events that I've been plugging regularly so the second Town official meet and greet is next Thursday September 26th at 5:30 p.m. at Low Places Ranch which is at 441 Goodrich Street if you're a business owner or a volunteer in town it'll be a great opportunity to network and meet new people and to enjoy a wonderful event uh the lunenberg agricultural commission will be hosting an agriculture Fair on October 5th 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at TC pasos you can find out more information about that if you are on Facebook by looking at the agricultural commission's Facebook page and lastly I need to switch over to the laptop now representative Margaret Scarsdale will be back in town in lunenberg for office hours on Monday September 23rd at 300 p.m. at the lunberg adult Activity Center are there any other announcements Communications from other boards I don't have any tonight does anyone else all right awesome so we're going to jump into our first appointment so we have a joint meeting with the Sewer Commission for three vacancies and tonight we do have four applicants so as they all came in I introduced myself to them and explained that we have a bunch of vacancies on all sorts of boards and commission so uh unfortunately looks like one person will not be making it tonight uh so so I hope whoever that is uh will still be interested in volunteering for the town on another board and committee uh and I will go through all the vacancies at some point later on as well uh so how this is going to work I will invite the two members of the Sewer Commission up to the table uh there is you can ignore that microphone there's that little microphone in the middle that will pick you guys up so if you want to sit there at the table and then for the applicants we will bring you up individually up to the podium and then as I talked to you when you were coming in I'll just have you guys introduce yourself and you know talk to your interest in volunteering to the town and why you would be a good fit for the Sewer Commission so let's see let's start with uh oh and by the way I do want to note uh there's only two members of the Sewer Commission right now uh so they're not able to have a quorum to call their their meeting to order but you guys are obviously still allowed to participate and you're also allowed to vote as well still you guys just aren't going to call your meeting to order all right so let's start with Joe Hurley this is a no particular order order talking to you guys know you can face up here um I did right is this on yes it is yep it'll pick you up so you can just talk normally okay um well good morning or good evening board members thank you for your time and consideration today my name is Joe Hurley I'm 42 years old and I'm a proud resident of lunenberg I was born in to my parents who lived in B R I grew up in barnable and I worked in and around Boston throughout my 20s after college as a regional man regional manager of an organic and natural grocery store chain for the last decade I've traveled and lived throughout much of the Mid-Atlantic my wife Jen and I sincerely hope that this most recent move with our was our last and we plan on raising our two children quinland 5 and Piper 4 here in lunenberg after living in cities and staying inside a lot during the pandemic we're enjoying the increased yard size size fresh air and Hiking Trails um when I first received your letter I did not have a previous interest in sewer management but I've always been interested in public service and government having moved nearly every year or so after college this is the first time I've lived somewhere long enough to allow for civic engagement at the last local election I noticed vacant positions on the ballot without a candidate and since then I've been curious about ways that I might be able to contribute to the town I've enjoyed coaching my kids soccer teams and I feel feel that I can do more for the community my work experience is in managing organic and natural grocery stores I've worked my way from a cash year to at times managing over 500 employees in a dozen stores uh currently I'm opening stores and developing a new region here in New England while I don't have any public work experience I'm confident that my skills um that I've acquired throughout my management career can contribute to the success of this team some of my skills include developing other leaders managing meetings and projects overseeing hiring scheduling and Leadership training reducing costs increasing efficiencies uh and meeting uh financial goals I've never had a Clear Vision of how I want to get involved in local government but I feel compelled to participate now since the rise of social media I've seen the country become bitter and divided and it seems like many people feel participating means yelling at friends and loved ones on the internet I'd like to take a different path and contribute in a meaningful way I'd like to leave by example and instill sense of civic duty in my children the way my father did in me uh I thank you for your time and consideration today and uh good luck in your decision awesome thank you so much Joe um but we'll have you stay up just to see if there are any questions from the board or the Sewer Commission members sure uh so I will start with you guys actually do you guys have any questions uh the commitment is for a couple of hours uh twice a month for meetings but it really often requires much more than that so uh I just want you to be aware that that's something that would be involved um but it also is something that you can you can manage because people can expand their involvement or keep their involvement to a certain level that's comfortable for them so okay just to make you aware of that yeah I'd be willing to do more I mean what's like a highend what's like a well our for our former chair would get up in the middle of the night and go to a a spill but um we're not looking for that kind of commitment at this point yeah all right um yeah I mean if you told me it was 30 hours a week I'd have to fix no no it's definitely not 30 hours a week we wouldn't be there either thank you thank you for for for stepping up you're welcome thanks for the opportunity so now I'll see if this our board has any questions so I'll start with a s manmy um sure I just have a couple first of all thank you for um for submitting an being willing to volunteer um have you watched any of the Sewer Commission meetings on you don't mind just moving a little closer to the podium so it picks you up I have not okay um and I'm just curious are you a sewer customer yeah yes so you you got the note in your bill is that how yeah I did there was a letter that there was a a v just doing some marketing research you know yeah okay um and then I see on your application that you're you're open to other potential other volunteer roles yeah you know I I would like to participate and be involved and I I I guess I don't have a specific interest in sewer management I just was looking to contribute and it was in that mindset and a letter arrived at the door so it seemed like a good time to apply oh thank you I imagine with two little ones it's not easy so thank you they're just getting to that point where you they can play without your involvement you know I will also say thank you and say that was a very eloquent introduction we need people who Embrace those kind of principles so I appreciate you coming forward and stating those uh similar to what my colleague just asked about other committees when you filled out this form there were a lot of other uh committees listed here yeah did you by chance take an opportunity to look at them in any regard I didn't I maybe I assume that um checking a box would suggest that I thought that that committee was open or something gotcha okay um and I'm only asking this for the sole reason as the chair said is that because of the number of applicants and the number of openings sure somebody's not going to be there and we hate to lose volunteers and so there are openings in other places and I'm just trying to gauge an interest um with that should you not I have no idea how the votes are going to go obviously um if by chance you don't and you'd like to talk about it please feel free to contact me I can tell you about any of these committees about what they do and uh okay what their commitments are as well sure but thank you for being open to that you're welcome thank you again um as my colleagues have already stated I don't have any additional questions but I think it's great that you are open to volunteering and again if the other three people are are more specifically interested in sewer I hope that you do stay committed and and look at some other opportunities because we absolutely need volunteers so thank you awesome um uh thank you for stepping up you know uh it's how I think a lot of us get involved in government is you know I can think of my own self in which you know something happens you want to step up get involved offer the skills that you know we've cultivated over our careers back into the community so thank you very much all right well thank you very much Joe thank you and up next I'll invite up Scott how you doing thank you for the invite tonight from the board I know uh my name is Scott dll I live right down the street here on uh massab right across from Marshall Park um been here for a year me and my wife uh kids are a little older graduated last graduated college so we find ourselves with a little extra time and we've always been ones to volunteer especially in local community um between even my myself and my wife we've been coaching for over 20 years uh numerous school boards um we're originally from basically Medford um we were on the new schools committee um to you know trying to delegate the tricky work of the federal funding and uh where what control they would have on where they build the new schools um you know basically anywhere that stuff was needed you know whether it was PTA you know our church at the time um really anywhere that just needed a hand we were one of those people that were there before to help set up and we were usually the last ones to leave it's just how we were brought up and the just how you wanted to present yourself as you know don't go any into anything with just one foot just jump in the whole way um so that being said we finally found our forever home as we moved around um just on the Southshore trying a couple different places lived along the beach and uh went from a complete different culture shock of living right on NASKA Beach to coming up to a a 100-year-old Farmhouse down the street um my wife did grow up in the area so we know it very well um been coming up here with with the kids for 30 years to visit family um so now it's time to really you know the house is just about settled and really get our Roots down um myself I have a business degree I was an accountant for 30 years um I recently stepped away I did go to it school and I um did that for the same tenure I was also an office manager and uh all within the same thing for basically in the wine and spirits import industry and that's what important in distribution so uh between my IT background and my management and my business I'm very anal I'm very very direct um at heading on problems but also it's to get ahead of problems and plan ahead um you you need to forecast you want to be Pro proactive you certainly don't want to be reactive especially W with the sewer department or water department I mean basically anything you can translate it to but um I mean in the end it's just my particular skill sets seem that there would be a good fit for any form of trying to help just management and structure and I understand it's a small town uh but it's a good amount of square footage and square miles that we're dealing with here so uh I am on the public uh um system albe it on a state road you know whether that has any direction but um yeah I mean I've had a few interactions with the water department good interactions you know just coming here there everyone that I've talked with in the town so far has been very helpful uh on the government level so uh I never saw myself as a public servant um but I also have no uh hesitation or doubts in my skills that I think I could really come and help the town or in any capacity um but that's about it for me all right thank you so much Scott no problem all right now I'll open it up to questions starting with the Sewer Commission members well really appreciate you coming forward that's with Joe and the others uh I think he'd be a you sound like he'd be a fine addition um um your business knowledge would be certainly helpful um and again as Mike had mentioned earlier involvement can be whatever you want it to be uh but you would be a welcome addition and thank you for coming forward yeah you're you're welcome no problem at all thank you thank you all right awesome questions from the board all right so I'm going to sound like a broken record but thank you and I'll thank the other two applicants in Advance um it's really nice have such a you know four people step over for three positions that's a great problem I have um along those lines would you be interested in in volunteering in for any of the other yeah in any other that's not an issue I don't have a particular uh love of sewer or knowledge of sewer but but but it's beyond that it's more of you know just just management and organization okay um and I'll ask you as have you watched any of the sewer I did I watched a couple on the YouTube channel um a little uh they had a little tough go I think cuz I think there were only three members in the last one I was watching so that's when I I did go in once I received the letter from the town and kind of found the channel and stuff you know I would apologize you know I do live like a 3 minute walk and I haven't been to town meeting and I have certainly haven't looked it online but um yeah that was my first uh okay you know real experience with it okay great thank you yeah yes thank you again um just take that as a blanket uh are you retired I'm not retired okay so you're still I look older than I am no no no I no only wow wasn't all when that was going but no I I I currently work and I quite frankly have a little bit of a commute I work down near Brockton okay wow that's yeah so I spend 3 4 hours in the car that's kind of a Comm any any any rush hour traffic in the side streets at uh 5 a.m I can let you know that's um so how many in the organizations that you've worked with and you've done you've managed people right y oh yeah plenty and more importantly than managing people have you had projects that involved teams uh yeah in a sense of as opposed to being that you were the Boston it yeah I mean we went from a you know $2 million single loer company to the eighth largest wine distributor in the country so I was in charge of New England but and I can't take credit for the expansion but I did manage that part uh and we were in early in the mergers and Acquisitions of that so I became kind of a go-to of structure of how you know basically I wrote a lot of uh Sops a lot of you know standard operating procedures um along the lines and there's you know I mean look everyone has a story as managers but um there's a lot of different experiences there's things you would never thought you would have to put a pen to paper to tell people not to do um but uh in the end I think you know I've covered a lot of that um so nothing's really a surprise now um and quite frankly some of it's to be expected so you can get ahead of it excellent I'm sorry to hear you don't love the sewer by the way I mean luckily we're not looking for people who love the sewer thank you very much you're welcome I don't have any additional questions but again thank you as we're all going to continue to say because we really do appreciate people stepping forward thank you as well all right great thank you Scott all right um all right so we'll move on to the next appli then thank you and I'll invite up Eli good evening everybody my name is Eli um pretty much um I'm 50 years old I've worked in a whole Depot for 18 years um I happened to work at one in rock um West rockberry was my home store I worked in the one ler I worked there for 6 years I was an assistant store manager there for 6 years I ran a 67 people average we see 25,000 people a week in that in that store uh we helped build uh John Apple seat the the memorial and then pretty much we proceed um we um donate product for Lemer to um pretty much do cleanups and everything else with that um pretty much um the reason why I'm here today um I worked on lifting um in L I mean lunberg for 13 years and um right across on mass sou right across the Jaz store um I happen to have my cousin Jr or basilo Torres which lives in the Hickory like s and um he invited me over and we went over his house and um we went ended up in Dave's house uh the first thing that he goes he's like do you got a boat and I'm like no I don't have a boat he's like okay so you don't need to sign anything he asked so I was like that one CAU me very a little bit of surprise but my whole point was that um when I seen that and I'm a people's person and I seen that um it actually made me want to come in here today and help out the people because we are a good people at the end and um pretty much I always done that in my life that was the Valu that I brought brought up with you know treat people the way you want to be treated you know and um and I believe that that live that by every day you know and um and I'm I own a se you know F across the street I do have it and um yeah and it's um something that I always like to do and the only way to meet your people you know the people that you live with it's just by working together and try to do the right thing for everybody at the end of the day because um it takes all of us to make it right um pretty much uh right now I don't work in Home Depot anymore um I pretty much um hbac certified I got my CDL license B AC certified pretty much management I done all my life I drive forklifts I drive everything that you can name under the sun you know anything that I put my mind into I'm able to do and pretty much yeah and I could bring a lot to the table and um and I like the opportunity that Cesar said that it's other opportunities up there that if it doesn't work today something else will work for us and um yeah and I'm just nice to be here and thank you for your time for just being here I appreciate that thank you thank you Eli all right so I'll open it up to questions now starting with the Sewer Commission first again thank you Eli thank you great to have you here um we'd be excited to have you on board yeah thank you so much and could certainly use your help yeah sure anything this way anyway I like to work out and everything else so and I'm still moving around pretty good so I still got a lot of years to come and I'd like to help that's the whole bottom line you know and Mee them people that's that's my and commissions are a group event you know a team uh player situation um and you know we we'd love to have your brain a part of that and your presence it would be great thank you Mike no questions no questions thank you all right for the board um thank you Eli um I was wondering can you talk a bit about any business or any experience on the retail side at Home Depot sure yeah sure so like yeah so we built a John SE the memorial out there play Flory I work with Mike robosa those are big people out there you know I work I work with lots of prevention so I do know a lot of cops in there because people do bad things so we know we we had a handle those phone calls I hired fired people you know I teach and train you know I pretty much put people under my wing because and you know I'm the boss so it's a reflection of me to make sure that they're doing a good job and treat people the way they're supposed to be treated you know so pretty much everywhere where I go pretty much I start in a bottom and I work myself up and pretty much I ended up being the leader because just the way I speak and I speak from the heart so I speak the truth and I whatever I said I believe on and I live those values every day okay thank you um so is there any anything particular about Sewer Commission that attracted you or you just because you were aware there was an opening no no I mean like yeah I mean that did open my my experience but like I said prior you know living on the Hy you know Mass half side you know not interacting with a lot of people by coming over here to the Hickory side you know and my cousin de bazilio he has a lot of work and he met a lot of people he helps a lot of people and that's what we all about helping people out and like I said you know it was Labor Day weekend I came out there and I felt like I was home at the end of the day you know so it was really good that was the whole experience besides that and then when I saw the I'm like oh wow this is pretty cool you know what a way to introduce myself here in TV and show them you know what I could do because at the end of the day you know we could talk all that but it's actions but the words so maybe as a side note we should think about getting more letters out yeah I was thinking exactly that send townwide mailing thank you yeah no problem thank you for your time yeah I will thank you and uh I guess I asked I asked Joseph and I didn't ask Scott but I'll offer I mean I offer it to Joseph but I'll offer to all of all the four candidates uh that if you're not appointed you all have great energy you all have great sense of commitment and that uh if you are not appointed tonight and you're looking through the list on that Talent Bank of other places and you want to get information please feel free to contact me and I'll I'll let you know you know you tell me what you're interested in Beyond this interview and I'll be able to point you in a direction of places that there are vacancies because again we don't want to lose any volunteers but so far we've gotten three very enthusiastic very experienced people and this is like the best lot of people we've had in a long time thank thank you Tom thank you for your time I really appreciate that I Echo all the same sentiments and again thank you for for coming forward thank you and uh I do remember you at Home Depot I had a issue once and you were very helpful so thank you for that back then too that's what I do you know it's like you got to put yourself in your in anybody's shoes you know at the end of the day you know it's like we have to help a problem everybody got everybody hand those problems different you know but you know you always got to think about yourself you know and then after that it's easy after that because like I said in the beginning treat people the way you want to be treated yeah thank you so much thank you so much Eli no problem thanks we got one more y so I'll invite up Tom thank you for having me here tonight um my name is Tom en um grew up in Westboro Massachusetts um spent most of my life living there um I graduated from high school there went to Community College for automotive technician um or auto repair graduated from General Motors School two years and kind of waffled around on some careers got into law enforcement I spent probably that was probably the biggest chunk of my career was in law enforcement um I worked in two towns and then the majority of the time over at Bentley University in walam um went back to school in my 30s to get my bachelor's degree thought that would be fruitful for my career turns out that wasn't that wasn't a good choice but um I did did get a degree from Western New England in criminal justice um and I left enforcement about 10 years ago bought into a franchise small business called Junk King um I'm based in Fitchburg been doing that for about 11 years now and I've tried to do some reaching out to support the town that I'm living in I moved into lunenberg in 2016 um with the hopes of making sure my two boys end up in a better school system um seems like the town of lunenberg in general reminds me of my hometown as far as the size and the community and the structure and stuff it's a nice quaint town or whatever um so I feel like I've dug some roots in trying to participate in the community um I reached out a couple of times to do some donations at the um boys and girls club here in town um for their Halloween events um donated the bouncy house that they had the last couple years that train giant train thing um and I try and support the the sports teams I'm I'm finding it a challenge to get sponsorship they like get sucked up in 24 hours they're all sold sold out um but I do try and sponsor as many teams as I can my kids are both actively in the sports um I don't know that I necessarily come to the table really qualified about sewer or sewage um I think I bring to the table a willingness to participate in town politics um and I bring common sense to the room I guess as far as like I'm not I don't think I'm very biased I stay in the middle of the table on on most subjects um and I want to see if I can help where help is needed all right awesome thank you so much Tom I'll open it up for questions the same way we've been doing thanks for coming here and wanting to be a part of the community more and getting more involved um we could certainly always use more common sense in any meeting or any commission um so thank you for coming forward and you know we'd be happy to see what you can do to help awesome thank you something I should have asked the other the other applicants is that the term is 3 years I believe and uh the expectation everybody's going to serve their term if you commit to this that that would mean completing a complete threeyear term am I correct with that no no so um there are two vacancies that expire in 2025 and then there's one vacancy that expires in 2026 okay so that that would be the term of of how people would be appointed all three I'm sorry what all three are actually on the ballot in the spring yeah they would need oh okay well so it would be up until next annual town meeting but one of them so how would we determine which one all them so everybody who gets appointed tonight meting any of the midyear appointments of elected officials have to be on the ballot the following year and they'll be on the ballot for mixed terms you so one will be well one will be two will be for threeyear terms and then one will be for a one-year term that's what I initially thought I guess I don't know why I got this then I apologize I hadn't thought of that question before but I'll ask you would you intend to run for the off office if you were appointed for the interim term yeah yeah yeah I'm here and would it be possible for me to ask the other candidates the same question yeah that's fine all right for the public the answers were all yes oh okay um thank you uh did you also hear about this through the mailing I did I have Town Sunny Hill Road all right um have you watched any of the sore commission meetings I have not don't I don't know that I even have it's on what cable access or something or uh lunberg access YouTube yes it's on YouTube it's on Facebook and yeah Channel Zoom live Zoom yeah I I meant the recordings my my it department help me which would be my 13-year-old I'm not a techer but I'm sure I can figure out how to get on there with when we get really overwhelmed with technology my 9-year-old steps in he's the head [Laughter] of okay um well thank you again for coming forward thank you I will also thank you as I did everyone else uh I would say just to one of your comments that you're willing to you know join the political process and while being an elected official is I guess technically a political process being part of the Sewer Commission is a very task oriented right very you know you're in charge of the system you're not in charge of wild policies that are that would lend themselves to many political you know uh prophecies or policies or anything so it's you you're safe there the thing is to keep the system running at a good price at a fair price and make sure you know repairs and everything are on the so um but anyway just getting involved in it is obviously a big step and I appreciate that as I appre with everybody else and and uh obviously all four candidates I think was just noted responded to a letter so for those people who say well why why did we have the US mail and just rely on social media this is why because we put out we put out responses on social media and requests and got have gotten very few if any well I won't I can't say we didn't get any but very few and here we have four people after one mailing so that made me rethink I had a comment at a uh franchise owner group things we talk about marketing spends and paper Door Direct door mailers and there census is paper is dead I'm starting to revisit maybe that's not true I'm saying that's what I'm saying right I agree you know it has a different I'm not saying that all of them don't have a different role but certainly not dead and this was just proof of it so thank you for your responding echoing the same sentiments um maybe I'm just mixing everyone up at this point but did you say you're solely interested in sewer or you would be interested in something interested in any sure thanks just wanted to clarify that and I my 13-year-old they're probably in the same grade it's also my it manager yeah I understand uh thank you for coming forward thank you all right well thank you so much and um yeah so first before we before we discuss this I do want to review some of the other vacancies cuz I know the way that this was advertised was a little unorthodox in the sense that you know normally I think people decide that they're interested in volunteering they look at all the vacancies they consider all of them uh so I just want to go through all of them I won't speak to what they are exactly but uh so there's one vacancy on the agricultural commission there's one vacancy on the architectural preservation District commission there's one vacancy On The Board of Health one on the Conservation Commission four vacancies on the cultural Council two vacancies on the green communities committee two vacancies on the historical Commission one member at large vacancy on the open space committee five vacancies on the Personnel committee one vacancy on the public access cable committee and then there's one vacancy for an alternate alternate on the zoning board of appeals I think we're also missing the finance committee because that has one vacancy and probably two vacancies pretty soon uh chair stormw water task force has a vacancy too yep the storm water task force as well so there are so many boards and committees that do all sorts of things in town uh that are great opportunities as well so I do want to ask do any of those boards or committees sound more interesting to any of the applicants than the Sewer Commission I know I know in this because I wanted to I want to educate them first of all because I know a lot of them directly responded to this posting so just raise your hand if maybe there's an applicant who wants to try something else out so I wouldn't mind try yeah M may I make a plug for personel you want to make a plug specifically for the Personnel committee uh sure you can make a plug so you know although we have many vacancies you know what what sometimes happens in town is when you get below what we call a quorum which is the minimum amount of people needed to have a meeting which usually is three members most of our boards and committees are five members many of them are um but you know the risk right now with the Sewer Commission is that the only two members so they need three to have a a meeting the only other committee that's in Dire Straits like this is Personnel where we have zero members on the Personnel committee um and so if anyone has Human Resources personel management background and that seems more appealing uh you can't meet until at least you get two more folks um but at least it will start that process so I just want to make that plug that if someone wants to volunteer to say hey I'd love to be interested in Personnel instead uh this would be a great opportunity to choose to do so all right so is there anyone who feels strongly that they would like to maybe consider a different committee or board at this time no all right so we'll move forward and uh we'll do the awkward deliberation of deciding the three that we're going to appoint if I may Mr chair sure just as a reminder to all the applicants again so we're going to be nominating people and voting on people if you know who knows we're just we're all I believe all of us just meeting you all for the first time so this is as they would say in one of my favorite movies it's just business it's nothing personal so somebody's not going to get nominated or or we want to encourage you to look at one of those other ones just to be aware of that I mean we don't want anybody leaving saying that's it I put my name in once and I'm now I'm done with the town I you know that's what we're trying to avoid so just want to set that up yeah I completely agree it would be nice to have you know whoever doesn't make it tonight to still be uh interested in volunteering for the town uh but that being said uh we will need to uh decide who the three are and me personally I'm definitely going to defer to the opinions of uh your potential colleagues uh so I'm going to pass it over to the members of the Sewer Commission to uh speak to uh any potential nominations that they'd like to make we should probably do them one at a time too instead of her slate right I think the first suggest that formal motions however come from board okay that's fine because they don't have a quorum them suggesting they might like and then this board motion and then the collective vote of all s yes I you take over well I wasn't prepared to have an embarrassment of riches today uh This was um wonderful to see so many enthusiastic dedicated people setting up standing up um all of them just for the first time which is a blessing to the town um we've had a a quick uh conference and we believe the first three candidates would make the best match for the Sewer Commission first three I'm sorry yep so the first three okay so I want to just verify that real quickly that'll be Joe Hurley yep Scott do yep and then Eli Torres correct okay and again um like you all we have just met these gentlemen for the first time M um so uh we're quite sure everybody's would be incredibly helpful but that's what we're recommending all right so I'll again the the I think any one of the candidates would have served well uh but you know by matters of millimeters you have to make a decision absolutely I agree they were all terrific candidates uh so now I'll pass it over to the rest of the select board to see if we're um okay with nominating the recommendations of the Sewer Commission members yeah I support the recommendation yep okay cool so a question for how we're making this motion I know that they're all going to be uh up until the next uh Town election but do we have to determine who is in which SP now did not no okay cuz there's effectively no difference right for tonight all right cool I can make the motion yes um would you like to as a batch or all or one at a time um I think it's fine to do it all three at the same time agreement on that sure all right uh I move to appoint Joseph Hurley Scott dll and Eli Torres to the Sewer Commission uh for a term to expire at the annual election of 2025 second any additional discussion I just I want to just offer a comment um you know I really like the background of Tom um and uh if I was making nominations Tom would have been in uh definitely would have been in my top three but I will defer of course to the Sewer so Tom I want to just encourage you as we mentioned earlier that there's other um boards and commissions that would really appreciate your engag engagement and involvement um and I sincerely hope that you know this you know sometimes when you we go for appointments you know again it's always hard when you have four people cuz someone you have to unfortunately say no to um but I really encourage you to uh if you'd like to reach out to any of us we're more than willing to explain what the other vacancies are we can put you in contact with some of these other boards and commissions if you want more information um but you know when someone steps up and says I'm willing to help we always find a place for them so thank you Tom for coming forward and and I know you're not going to be selected tonight but I also want to give congratulations to the three members of our community who will and uh and again thank them for you know seeing an opportunity to give back and being willing to be that person to do it yeah I agree with all of that and Tom you would be a great fit uh on any of these boards or committees so I hope you're still interested after tonight so thank you so much for coming in and thank all four of you and Carter you wanted to say you need a second in a vote I second oh we're still I second it already did still to vote y okay you want to talk after we vote all right so all those in favor say I I including you too you guys can vote all right all those opposed no all right the motion passes unanimously all right so congratulations um so the next steps for you three will be to go to town hall uh during business hours to get sworn in you want to go see the town clerk so she's the first office on the left once you go into town hall downstairs we have some appointment papers for y'all to sign and we'll make sure they're aware of that okay yep we'll do that as well and I'm assuming someone on the commission will reach out and be Con in contact with them as well and all right perfect well thank you so much for coming in tonight if I might I've um thought that rather than waiting for Tom to see if he might be interested if I might proceed to talk with them about the finance committee and Mr Fon Alonzo about the finance nominating committee I think it'd be an excellent fit there we're entering the budget cycle and we do have a someone who's a short termer over here if I understand when he gets his uh gets his moving done so I'd like to reach out to Tom tomorrow if everyone's agreeable that is an approach absolutely yeah Tom I'll give you a call tomorrow the finance committee is a really great way to learn how like the town operates cuz I I feel like you sometimes you know PhD in lunenberg figure some of the stuff out but the I I think being on this board planning board you know and especially the finance committee you really pick up the gist of how the parts work together I was on the finance committee for a little bit before I was on the select board and I can say it was you know it's a great experience and yeah you're going to learn a lot on the finance committee so that's something you're interested in definitely uh pursue it Mr chairman yes yeah I just want to Triple that I was encouraged to U once I I left the uh school committee to join the finance committee and I learned more about how everything operates in that that one term on finance committee that I had learned all the time I had been around so I encourage uh uh Mr in to consider it well yeah awesome well thank you all for coming in again uh I hope that you are interested Tom in pursuing uh the finance committee or any other board committee congratulations uh to the other three of you for uh being appointed tonight and thank you for you two for coming in so I hope you all have a good night thank you all thank you everybody have a great night all right up next we are moving on to our meeting with Bernard Lynch from Community Paradigm Associates uh regarding the town manager salary so this is the uh group that we hired to sure yeah you can wait a little bit just waiting for the room to clear out was that supposed to be 15 minutes I don't know all right anyway so this is the group that we hired to assist us with the town manager screening committee so they're helping us with the entire process of selecting candidates and organizing all of that and they're here tonight to talk to us specifically about the town manager salary so I will pass this off to Bernard to let you introduce yourself and your group to the community and the work that you're doing and also talk about the town manager salary good well thank you thank you for having us here tonight and uh let me just by uh by way of introduction uh we we had an opportunity to submit a proposal and uh to the town and U having an opportunity to meet with the uh screening or search committee on a couple occasions now uh earlier this summer and then more recently uh since the awarding of the contract uh and we've we have the process underway we know that getting this position filled uh is a priority for the town uh you're in good hands with Carter there certainly uh but we know that U uh you'd like to get a new town manager there as soon as possible so we're we're moving forward with that process uh as part of that we've uh reached out to uh the department head of the town to gather information from them regarding the issues that their departments are going through we've had conversations just as of today John petran who's uh really the one that's on the ground there in lunenberg is is talking to the U department heads uh I know that he's been reaching out to members of the board as well uh again our goal here at the initial stage of this is to gather as much information as we can from um you and and the department heads about the the challenges of lunberg the opportunities of lunberg and what the skill set is that that you need uh to successfully fill this position uh our hope is that we can have this position out on the street uh in early October uh so that we can then move forward with the uh committee to uh evaluate candidates choose semi-finalists that they go through a an interview process with um they'll choose finalists uh who we will then proceed to do much more extensive background checks on those candidates we do preliminary checks on all of the uh initial candidates uh and then um you know bring you the three finalists that the uh committee chooses or three or four finalists that the committee chooses to move forward to the to that stage so uh and then give you an opportunity and work with you to as a board to um choose the next town manager uh our purpose right now is to gather that information to develop a position statement that we then use to market the position uh and then we'll use on our own and with the town to uh evaluate the candidates to see how they match up to what we hear from you and what we hear from the uh the department heads one of the key elements of that position statement of the advertising of the posting of our conversations with the uh potential candidates that are out there uh is obviously going to be what does what is the salary for this position position uh I know that uh John petran had a conversation with the committee last week when they met talk about this and I I think they they moved it on up to to talk to you about this we've done some some salary survey work in the area we've been involved with many of the searches uh in across the state but particularly up in the uh Lunenburg region uh and you know based upon that we see salaries with the exception of a couple of outliers and by outliers I mean lower salaries than in some smaller communities with some um manager or administrative positions that have limited Authority and limited responsibility uh we're seeing salaries somewhere in the vicinity of6 160,000 to uh roughly 185 you know possibly a little bit higher than that uh but you know we see that 160 to 170 uh to 185 range uh and you know our recommendation to the board is that uh when we post this position uh we Peg a sort of a midpoint salary at about1 170 to $175,000 uh that's consistent with the most recent searches that have been done in that area uh which include Bolton Harvard um Lancaster uh and uh we think that that's you know sort of the market that you're you're trying to break into and and look at um when we do a search we generally recommend not putting a range not putting a an exact salary but putting a number with a plus or minus uh showing that there's potential to go above if you find candidates that are extremely qualified uh with extensive experience and a little bit less if you find candidates that have a high upside not quite as much experience but uh you know you can bring them in and and bring them in at a little bit lower rate uh to give them the opportunity to sort of move up the um the salary schedule from there so we think that number of1 170 to $175,000 is a is a good number uh you know I I I would say that at this point we would we would recommend the uh one of those numbers and then again that plus or minus depending upon qualifications and I'm happy to take any questions that the board may have regarding this matter all right thank you so much I'll open it up to questions from the board starting with selectmany um can you or maybe someone remind me what the previous Town manager salary was7 it was 157 and some change right and then I believe that there was a Deferred Comp um yes in that and that was an F my understanding is that's an FY 24 number uh so we're now in fy2 and I'm not sure what the current if that changed at all in fy2 but but yes I that's the number that I have in front of me as well so my recollection on that was that it was like four or 5% something like that of her salary every year it was I have 4% yep okay and uh one followup question I'm curious why you prefer to use the plus minus as opposed to a range uh I think it's sort of a a we like a we like a single number that people can focus in on to grab their attention uh it's sort of psychological if you will U the other aspect of that is that it um it it doesn't lay out the cards right in advance as to uh someone's thinking you know if we put out a range of um let's say that 160 number uh up to 185 uh you're going to have two two uh reactions to that some people are going to feel that the town is you know intent upon bringing someone in at the low number and other people are going to think automatically they should be able to come in at the highest number and work from there we think a mid-range point is one that you know a mid-range person coming in at the rid mid-range point if they're a little bit more qualified they're very qualified the board then has flexibility to adjust a compensation package built around that and if they don't have that we I'm always very careful when I we're working with the community to not push for something that is too high because there may be we don't know what the candidates are going to look like and if the candidates uh come in and they again they show great upside we want to have the the town have the ability to commit at a a lower number but we don't want to necessarily uh you know absolutely committed to you know put that low number out there we've done ranges and but we found that this is the more successful way of doing it okay thank you I'm on the town manager screening committee so I've met with uh Mr Lynch and Mr petran this past week uh as a followup I totally concur with Mr Lynch as he's uh portrayed and outlined what the salary range should be and why and that range was exactly what mine was when we first talked about it on this board back then and I concur with it now and I do concur with the mid the midpoint as one number because I think when you give a range you get people thinking wild things when they're applying and I I couldn't agree more with his logic so I'm totally for the proposal I would Echo those sentiments and I don't have any further questions thank you so much thank you my question is for Carter um what is the ceiling of what we can afford uh we've taken steps to ensure that you have sufficient funds in the budget to meet a number that we think uh you might have to negotiate whether it's a little less or as Bernie says a little more um we we'll make sure that you have the capacity to do that I'd prefer not to put out what that could be do do remember that um you simply have to have enough money to meet the first fiscal year of the budget but I'm I'm confident that we can uh work this and happy to talk with you after the meeting all right thank you all right I'll just say that this aligns with what I was hoping that we would say and what I was thinking would be reasonable as well I know based on our conversations and not just this board some people were saying that would be over 200,000 and you know that's what we would need to get a very qualified candidate and what other communities are paying for I got really concerned about that and I started looking at other communities and um it's just not what other people are paying so I had this understanding that we were like wildly underneath you know the median or average um with this position and it just doesn't seem like we are even looking at communities that are different sizes I was sort of adjusting it based on the size of their budget to ours and it seemed very aligned with what we were already paying the town manager so my instinct said you know 160 to 180 and I'm very glad that this aligns with exactly what I was thinking and what other members of the board were thinking as well um well Mr chair I mean yes I agree with everything you said but I think that something we need to note is that on top of salary are benefits um and you know health insurance you know we're over $200,000 when we're talking about a salary of of and then taxes I we're over we're over 200 Grand un comfortably when we're talking about a salary of $175,000 yeah Fair Point all right and if and if I if I may sorry to interrupt U but I I do think that there there is the the market conditions for managers have changed dramatically uh as I think we discussed with the screening committee the um you know the number of uh turnovers that have happened across the state over the last 5 years is uh people it's it's it's nearing 80% I think that as people have been retiring they've been moving out uh the market has become very intense for uh positions like this uh it's a sellers Market uh but that's that $200,000 number is really one that's coming more out of uh further east than than lunenberg uh and um so that's why we we have a comfort level that you know looking at the market that we have uh that you region that you're operating in we think that 170 to 175 so uh you know we might say you know and I I throw that out at 170 175 I guess I might recommend that maybe as of right now uh maybe we put in a number like 172 five plus or minus somewhere in between there and work from there down or up and obviously it's a whole compensation package as one of the board members just pointed out it's more than just salary it's also the other benefits that need be worked in and then negotiation that takes place with that so that would be my recommendation and I also just like selectman m key it is a little strange for me this concept of having um you know a middle point and then plus or minus instead of having like a very well-defined range even if it's a very narrow range so you don't have someone coming in and saying oh well I want you know 210,000 or whatever cuz that's like the top of the range if you have you know such a big range I don't think I said it's I don't think it's strange it's I I just posted a job for for my group and I think we had to post a range and and I actually like the the one number better cuz I I can already see that applicants that have come in and what one of the questions HRS is what are your salary expectations and you can guess what they say absolutely independent of what their experience is never fails it's at the high end of the range all right well back to what I was saying you know I think a pretty narrow range that's right in that middle like 170 175 I think that's like fair to post um I think like posting that like plus or minus does give candidates opportunity to then come in and say well my expectations are like 195 or something like that um but I don't know I guess that's still open for discussion but either way I mean these numbers align with uh what I was hoping they would be so thank you very much are there any other uh questions or comments is there an action that we're looking to take I would make a motion that we I'll make the motion I'm going to I'm going to take out the 500 Bernie because it just makes it too long so I'm going to say if we could this board could approve the posting number for 173,000 plus or minus and pass that along to the town manager screening committee so that everybody knows what the salary range we're going to be advertising is that would be helpful to get moving along to the next step so I make that as a motion second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppose no the motion passes unanimously thank you very much Bernard for joining us tonight thank you and and and again John I know John's going to be looking to reach out to all of you to I think had a conversation with a couple but uh we look forward to talking to you and working with you through this process thank you thank you have a good night could we take the girls call out of order um yes we can all right so Carter is requesting that we uh switch up the order real quick I hope that's okay so I will invite up um we'll do the lunberg boys and girls club uh haunted house on Memorial Drive for October 18th 2024 request hi everyone I'm Michelle bisa I think you all know me I'm the director at the Boys and Girls Club in lunenberg um this is my 19th my 18th year there it's our 19th year serving kids in lunenberg um I think this is our eighth haunted house which is amazing I remember the first year we did it I was like no we don't have money we can't do that and um Brent was like yes we can and we're going to and here we are 8 years later um and it's such an amazing Community event um and so I'm not sure what you have for questions for me but um we've proposed that we have it this year on Friday October 18th from 6:30 to 9:30 at our club on Memorial Drive and we've reached out to all of the department heads police fire DPW previously Heather um Senior Center Library school because we um collaborate a lot with those organizations and agencies um we rely on their support of either giving us some space or a a light Tower um and I think it's an awesome example of how this community can really work together um to do something great for the people in the community and it benefits the kids obviously um I completed the special event policy for the first time ever that I didn't know existed um so if you have questions about that I'm happy to answer them um and we're just hoping that you'll support this effort all right are there any questions for Michelle do we have a copy I was say I don't see it I didn't see it either which I was going to bring up and I didn't know if I just missed it or something no no any missed it are you doing anything differently than you have done in the past okay no it's just going to be scarier I don't know I no it's the same um same hours um the police the fire does a great job helping us um they come and inspect the structure and make sure that it's safe um police help us with crowd control and traffic control um we just we do need Memorial Drive shut down for that event um and so I think that's the biggest reason that that we need your help right y um hi hi Logan loves this event every both my kids do but you know how Lan is um food trucks and everything same yes um I think we have three confirmed food trucks so if you're not a big like haunted house hay ride person come and eat um and the parking lot um we call it our monster Midway and so local um organizations like the Bengals and the Blue Knights and the PTO and the scouts they all come and set up a table either with um a bake sale or a game or um merch whatever right and so that kind of gives like a festival feel and while your kids are running around doing the scary stuff you can visit with you know Town folk and support their events and organizations um so food trucks good stuff and when I have the names I'll post them so that you guys will wanted to make sure you gave that extra plug because I think it's a great Community event um I think that people of vol just can enjoy it come hungry and it's free to attend um to come through the haunted house and the hay ride we do have admission but it's it's free to just come and enjoy some food from the food trucks and enjoy the Midway and watch the kids get scared that's always a good time it's better to eat before you get scared or get scared before you eat I mean I don't go through the haunted house so I literally will not go through it so I can't speak to that they' really do a great job some know was enough Cloud to to to push yourself up the agenda I'm going to support the event thank you all right any remaining questions or is there a motion I make a motion that we approve the event for the lunenberg boys Girls Club haunted house on Memorial Drive uh on October 18th 2024 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. as presented second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppose no any extensions I obain all right the motion passes 4 0 to one the only other thing I would say is that if you are watching from home or you wanted to be part of a committee um come and get involved in our haunted house come help us build it come adopt a room and scare people um that's a real thing um so yeah thank you guys very much for your support I appreciate this of course thank you for all the work you do thanks Michelle have a good night you too all right and now we will invite uh Chief Sullivan and we have a couple things that we're going to be discussing tonight so the first is the ambulance operating subsidy or lack thereof um um ambulance I'm mad about that the ambulance uncollectible account right off and the ambulance rate so we'll start with the first one all right good evening uh as you're aware there was a press releas it's taking a further step back the closure of nooba hospital it's obviously going to affect our region significantly on August 30th there was a press release from the governor's office that they were going to make money available to communities to offset their additional costs for transports uh longer runs things like that lunenberg was not included in that for reasons that are not clear the impact to our community is significantly less than some of the towns like Air Groton Shirley that were very much closer and almost all their transports went there that said there is still an impact to our to our department and that my request has been and I believe you got a copy of the letter that I typed up quickly to be sent to the governor's office to our legislative group and asking to be included in there and the a rough estimate of what I would anticipate our extra costs are going to be which is was around $28,000 I can give you the rundown if you want on how I came up with those numbers I believe you have them in front of you any we do yeah I just don't understand why we weren't included in this really doesn't make there is a master list of all the Departments that go beyond those eight towns that have data that's been put into that I will say also too that that was released in the 30th no chiefs that I'm aware of in that area have seen one thing from the state as to what's available how they would get it or anything that was put out and then nothing's been seen since wow you know I just have to say it's like especially frustrating because we signed a petition and sent it to the governor so it's like we were explicitly ignored yes it's the effects of that are going far beyond those immediate communities for sure if I may Mr chair what percentage of ambulance runs did did the our department go to noova it was about 13% which have been creeping up out of 760 some OD transports we had 110 last year they not insignificant no it's not insignificant and assuming even half of that that we're going to be going a lot further than lemonster hospital now and some of this figuring was also Mutual Aid because these other towns that used to be tied up for a half an hour hour and now tied up for an hour and a half two hours going further away that's going to Ripple out we've had two that I would count as part of that so far that we've gone to other communities because they've been tied up and their normal Mutual Aid is tied up could I ask the chief to address how Mutual Aid in this instance Works where we're just not on standby you actually backfill the other station we would resp if their ambulances are out they have what we call run cards all towns have that as to who they call next in line for that they would call us we respond out from our station we transport obviously we bill for that but that takes one of our ambulances or depending we've had days we've had both ambulances out of town covering calls in other communities it doesn't happen that often but you know that takes us out of the the district and our duty crew out for depending on where they're going anywhere from 45 minutes to two 2 and 1/2 hours so I'll read the letter there are no more questions all right so stated today September 17th 2024 to Governor Healey with cc's to the legislative delegation I write on behalf of a unanimous select board as you know the closure of nooba Valley Medical Center has impacted multiple communities in central Massachusetts including their Municipal ambulance services the governor's press release of August 30th spoke to funding being available to offset unanticipated ambulance costs in eight of the communities served by aoba Valley Medical Center our board was disappointed to learn that the town of lunenberg was not included on this list while the impact on our ambulance service is not as extensive as some communities it is still significant our fire chief anticipates at least 55 transports now having to go further to go to further facilities than nearby lemonster hospital he also anticipates at least an additional 50 Mutual Aid calls to other communities this will be due to their ambulances being sent out of their service area more often due to longer transports while we hope to be included in the possibility of receiving Capital grants from the Department of Public Health we must report that our great concern is with operational costs we will incur within the limits of proposition 2 and A2 our achieve estimates of the closure will result in a roughly $28,000 in additional expenses for the balance of fiscal year 25 we would respectfully request that lunenberg be included in the list of communities eligible for any financial assistance the state may provide to mitigate our expenses with this ultimately closure with this untimely closure sinc silia yours the lunenberg select board all right so there I would say that by the way on the second to last paragraph you need to remove the word a before roughly okay I have one comment too y um I'm confused the first sentence says I write on behalf of unanimous select and then since talk about that now yeah well not no not that part in particular just the language yes because the first sentence is I write on behalf of a un by the chief yeah right okay okay so I think we can we can give it like a quick glance I thought this was a letter coming from us this is a letter coming from the chief well my intent was or when I spoke with the town manager it was coming from you folks okay the intent then it should be then it should be not from you then it should be from you Mr chair right yeah okay so it does need to be yeah I was going to bring that up as well all right is there anything else that we see that we want to fix I don't have any other thing else I want to fix but Chief you know I spent many years at the station and I understand you know how busy you guys are and you guys do great work and this closure is is definitely going to impact us all um and I appreciate your work that you put into this and in this letter and and getting all these statistics for us thank you thank you all right is there a motion to approve and authorize the sending of this letter with the um updates that we mentioned so moved second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppose no motion wow this predicted the future what do you mean because it talked about an unanimous select unanimous yeah yeah incredible all right motion passes unanimously all right moving on to the next subject ambulance uncollectible account writeoffs as uh with the town policy we've gone to quarterly reviews of the uncollectibles off of the the uh the ambulance Belling as we said previously this is these are this is more of an accounting function that they're being removed off as a liability off the town's books they're not being completely written off they still go to collection to the town to uh our collections agency so there may be a chance of getting them you know seeing something out of this but this is again e he can possibly speak to a little bit more of that on the financial end of it on that this is more of an accounting maneuver than anything else so can we y certainly um yes so um I believe you should have the spreadsheet in front of you that has the cost breakdown as to the uncollectibles at and the reasons why so currently we have uh 12704 there are signature need is uh from patients uh for Medicare billing they have been been reachable uh we also have an additional 20 patients with uh $1,078 that are deceased so those are uncollectible for that reason we have another three for 1798 for hardship letters submitted they're waiting approval and another three for 2080 for Mass Health free care they're pending abatement so this is really like the chief said this is an adjustment on the books didn't um other than the deceased um they are going to in the abatements in the hardship the first portion here are still going to go to um to collections in order to um draw funds so hopefully in the future we can have that Revenue come in but um for our last meeting we're trying to pull this quarterly in order to bring that in front of you as supposed to last time the last write off I believe was 48,000 several years back exactly so we try to keep this in mind to give you this more often so the write off will be a less of an impact to the town Mr chair I have a question um I don't want to sound callous as I asked this um but the deceased um do we put leans against their Estates or do we ride it off if they pass away uh the question regarding leans to the Estates Went to Town Council I believe Carter speak to that uh there is some basis for trying to lean property the Big Challenge uh is sorting out exactly who the responsible party was uh particularly if a responsible party did not actually own the property so there is only one town that we found that did it um I would respectfully suggest it might be more trouble than it's worth y but if it's something the board would like to do we can bring you the appropriate uh documents to put that in place I asked the question no I mean I I think that if you have a I think it's subjective but I think that you know when you're talking about $475 $1,294 to me you live in a community the last thing you should get is a lean against your property for 400 bucks you know but I I think if we were talking you know $115,000 then to me that's a different conversation you know but I I'm it's it was a question but I'm happy to hear the answer that no we're not putting leans against people's Estates for $844 many of these ones they've looked into when they I no funds had nothing to speak of the the process you're using is the one that appears to be most common uh across the state as I said we only found one community that actually leans properties and there a number of issues in trying to do that yeah yeah I mean it's was that Potterville um I I don't think it start I don't think it started with a p but beyond that I can't remember sir is Potterville a real Community Potterville is from It's a Wonderful from Wonderful Life a couple of us got the reference I I didn't oh it's a great Mr chair if I may I asked the question only question I have is there anything in these amounts for this time period that raise a concern or is this pretty standard from what we've seen just that it's collected more in the past I think it's pretty standard yeah um looking at the history it's pretty standard okay as well um the majority of the receips are collected this is just okay all right yep soam U one question what time period does this represent is this a quarter roughly I I just had another question uh Mr chair at the very beginning uh the section where you said that these were um signature needed for Medicare no response from patient can you just explain uh kind of I haven't ridden in an ambulance ever um so I don't you know I have no idea how how the billing Works uh when you ask them for I know when you go to the emergency room before you even can see a doctor they're wanting your information right away you're signing everything saying I will pay this bill um so how does that happen can you just explain that to me so I believe um at that point in time there has to be additional signatures in order to build u m um Medicare there is usually supposed to be a patient sign off exactly sometimes we can try to get that in the truck that isn't always possible so the bilding company will try to pursue that afterward and a lot of them people are probably either ignoring it uh it never gets to them wrong address things like that it also could be the state of the patient at the hospital if they're not a able to sign they obviously won't at that point in time and Mr chair if I can just ask a clarifying question because again I don't know the answer to this um uh when when's the decision to utilize an ambulance is that made by um trained Personnel or can someone just ask for it under state law if somebody shows up and says I I want to go to the hospital we have to take them okay they can they can have a boo boo if they want to go to the hospital we have to take them all right and so is it fair then to assume that the patients here um that are Medicare eligible that they're not just showing up with the boo boo saying give me a ride that they're people who it was determined that they needed to I'm assuming yeah the vast majority of legit people that need to go to the hospital okay we don't charge unless we actually take them to the hospital if we get called and they don't want to go to you know for whatever reason they go that's you know that's what you pay your taxes for we're there to help yeah I appreciate you answering the question I know they sound probably kind of simple and stupid a little bit but I'm sure many other people at home and and myself included you know just don't know the answers so thank you I'm in favor of the request Mr chair as am I any other questions or is there a motion I would make a motion that we write off the uncollectible amounts as presented to the board this evening second and any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oos no motion passes unanimously I was glad to hear the chief used his extensive medical RAC here tonight too this there's probably a category you'd be surprised some of the categories they have for medical conditions nowadays oh I'm sure all right and now ambulance rates all right uh again you folks have the uh the information uh do you want me to run through the slides quickly um if you want 12 of them if you want to put them up on the screen if you can um sure yeah I can do that let me just uh find 12 slides I promise it we'll go quickly yep that's all right no worries let's see are these slides in our can someone directly to where the slides don't on the Consolidated PDF yeah I'm trying to find the actual page six 17 oh is that slide okay that's what I'm going to have to open up hold on one second what were the pages again 17 yeah I only see three too I only see three slots all right hold on let me share my screen should be more than that yeah I don't think the whole thing is in but at least I mean it's I wasn't that abbreviated three well there are only three in the in there's a few more I can only go by what you sent okay my apologies is a few more than that so I'll read from the slides and I'll I will get you that that you can f it on to great everyone else I the one I must have sent you for some reason didn't have them all so I have something up right now what is this this is a ambulance rates that's the I gave you the actual PowerPoint I know I don't think I can find it un yes I have that there was a PowerPoint that I forwarded along do you have the title of it was maybe it is here uh should be I see things about leans the uncollectibles so this was a PowerPoint slide of ambulance rate increase proposal can you email it real quick are you on the internet uh yeah if you email it to me I could pull it up okay now you see sorry Wii a 13-year-old available [Laughter] Tom I am not your technological uh yeah sorry about this I know you had a PowerPoint for this let's see you want me to send it to the select board or to you I send it to me okay let's see take a break sure is there a way to turn these fans off I think yeah is that that there's a DI over there try it should have just went to you okay what are you looking for oh um I don't know where it is actually did that that didn't do anything oh why are you guys cold it's kind of like a fridge in here I don't know got to love this time of year where you could go from 85 to 48 in a short period of time I'm pulling this up now I apologize to the folks at home since we're uh taking a little bit of a informal recess here uh let me get the slideshow open and now oh I have to share my screen before I do that yes uh send this to the chief I will yeah I I thought I did but maybe it got lost in the shuffle all right there we are all right you can just go it's all right all right again uh with our current rates we have not increased them in uh around 8 to 10 years uh and currently compared to Across the the fire district where we operate we're tied for the lowest rates in the area uh we're about 40 to 50% below the district average and our expenses have increased significantly over the last few years uh inflation we've seen an increased call volume over uh the last 10 years we've added staff we've gone to the paramedic level which cost us more money and supplies some additional equipment so there was a regional survey we looked at those numbers uh these were from 23 but we came up with some newer numbers to see to look and put us more in a competitive range for the area so when you look at the the base types of rates when you see the uh the categories BLS is basically a generally stable non emergent patient this may be somebody with nausea and vomiting this could be a simple broken bone we're not doing Advanced life support skills we're we're picking them up we're taking them to the hospital an als1 is an Al as a paramedic level call or an advanced EMT level call that they're doing an advanced level assessment and probably doing at least one sort of treatment whether it's an IV whether it's some medications uh things like that that's probably the majority of the calls that we're doing right now and als2 is critical patients these are ones that are getting three or more IV medications or at least one paramedic advanced level care either uh cardio version some of the meds intubation stuff that a basic EMT or an advanced EMT cannot do so just so you understand when you see the different categories on the left uh the current rates that's what we're charging right now the proposed rates are on the right uh and again those move us up into the midrange to maybe slightly above mid-range for the district where those came from was what a lot of departments have done they've taken all those ancillary charges for cervical collar oxygen different things they've all put them into the base rate and that because a lot of times we're using most of that stuff and one of the issues when we come up with unbelling is as a question well did you actually use this because it wasn't written down well we actually did so rather than that it just goes right into the base rate uh because we weren't paramedic previously we did not have a charge for a cardiac monitor looking at other services uh we came up with a average charge of $324 for using the cardiac monitor which uses gets used pretty often uh and that would be included in that new base rate as well the mileage went from 20 uh 20 to $36 a mile that is sent is it sents I'm sorry $3 it's getting away that is that is the mid-range for the district and again it brings us in average for the district to slightly above average the ALS intercept rate of $350 is what most uh Services charge in this area that is a very very small fraction of our calls most of our mutual Aid calls we transporting so we're charging the full boat we have a few that we're meeting up with a service that isn't paramedic and we provide The Paramedic Services for what other communities would do for us for years and we were building that out to those communities but as of right now we're not seeing a big impact with that but we do have it there in case we do do I think we did six calls for that last year that's just a quick comparison chart of what Medicare pays what our current rates are the proposed rates and what the the region average and the regional top rates are on just to kind of give you an idea of what we're what we're asking to do so if I may y Mr chair are we so if we put our rate which is already above Medicare so every Medicare one we just take a loss on to begin absolutely okay what about the typical Private health insurance rates do we have evidence that is what these rates would be where of all of our transports about 64% our Medicare Medicaid which I'll get to in a little a little bit in the slides why when when you see what we actually think we'll make for money on this it's not a lot no no I I don't think so what I'm worried about is that if we put people over what their private insurance not people are not on Medicaid and Medicare but just working people who have general family health insurance if we're putting it above what even they cover then we just set ourselves up because we just did you know writing off some uncollectibles are we just doing these and then we're just going to increase the uncollectibles it's you know a lot of it will be the private some of the private insurances will B some of them will not okay and a lot of times it depends on what the call was this has been an ongoing thing that a lot of the insurance companies would like everybody to to sign up with them and pay their rates like like you do with some of your preferred providers and that's a big battle with ambulance services Nationwide because that's a nightmare for us to try to do that because we don't know who we're going to deal with right well I know I had a big battle with my own health insurance on the one ambulance ride I ever had in my life so and I think that was with us it was with you with you personally even yes it was so again limitations with this increase it will generate some Revenue increase the rates don't apply to Medicare Medicaid patients which like I said is 60 to 65% of our transports the Federal Law requires us to accept what they pay on those rates and we can't chase people for the extra currently it's about 64% of what we P pay if we go to the new rates it's only about 25 to 37% of that on the flip side that does protect our elderly most of them are probably going to be Medicare Medicaid they're not getting hit with huge bills I know that's always been a concern this is something that does does protect them on the downside and this is a problem that's far above our level is the Medicaid Medicare rate seem to be going down a little bit each year the federal government wants to pay less than less every year and that's certainly an impact for a lot of services uh the estimated increase and this was done in conjunction with the billing company was based on our FY 23 call volume uh with the new rates applied and we estimated a a little over $44,000 increase which again I said doesn't seem like much but again 65% of our calls Medicare Medicaid uh consider that's a conservative number uh we're seeing a higher call volume than we did in FY 23 our calls have been going up steadily we're doing far more ALS calls it used to be it was about 2/3 BLS 1/3 ALS when we were relying on ALS Services coming from out of town because a lot of times if it didn't seem all that serious we'd back the paramedics off so they were available for somebody that was sicker now we have our paramedics right there somebody that we might have backed them off on they're going to get a monitor they're going to to get an IV and we've already had a couple cases where that's like oh put them on the M something's going on here this is actually somebody that's a lot sicker than what they look like so it's been a benefit to our patients that it's caught stuff sooner uh so you're seeing more higher charging als1 als2 calls and and we're also not paying the $250 $350 to other services to do our alss for us and that we were spending out0 70,000 a year in that the first year we saved 30 I don't have the number right in front of me but it was 30 to 40,000 on that and that was when we were still not full-time paramedic and that so that number that number is probably always still going to be there a little bit for other second ambulance calls when maybe we don't have a paramedic available and we have to call somebody in but the vast majority of the first calls that's not an issue anymore again the rate increase reasoning is I've always said it's to offset our expect we're not making a profit on this and that the ambulance fees absorb some of the expenses uh to support emergency services for our residents and that we're not a money-making operation it's just absorb some of the impact of providing the service to people and like I said previously we only build people that we transport and that if we don't take them to the hospital there's no charge circuit breakers again for this fixed rates for persons on Medicare Medicaid PA we can't charge for the difference uh and if there's a challenge there is an abatement process available and that we don't see a lot of it but uh you folks do sign off of them when we do get them comes up that it's based on the federal poverty level for the area but there is an option for that some people do take advantage of that and that was it said i' make it quick any questions yeah I don't I'm going to ask this just cuz I don't want to assume but thinking about the mutual Aid and covering neighboring towns our fees you go to air yep to cover it's our fees if air comes here it's their fees it's whoever's truck we riding in okay and the fees don't change if you go to a neighboring nope outside your own town okay no that used to happen years ago when the federal government said that's illegal you can't do that so yeah you you charge what you you do so I will comment that the chief has always been conservative with his numbers and very thorough in his research so given the fact that we haven't touched these rates in 10 years which surprised me I thought it was sooner than that but again I it was a while ago yeah so I mean these all sound reasonable to me and so I'm supporting the increase you're here I have several questions sure um so the first is uh how much is uh the what is or how much is the average cost per ride currently currently uh pull back that up let's see on a current ride, 1400 an aos1 so it's $868 add in probably 8 10 miles uh depending on IVs you're probably $2,000 somewhere in that that's to go to lemster hospital that's to go to lemster hospital so what will this uh with these rate increases what do you expect that to become that would go up to an als1 call would be 1810 plus the mileage so so that would put again you're a little bit higher than that again before you had all these different categories if you go back to one of the slides it said there was a rate increase proposal you'd pick and choose those those are all added into that base rate now okay um as an example I can go like the private service that was in the area and this is going back several years a ride from one of the ready meds to lemonster hospital was $5,000 and that was a long time ago and the mileage calculation does it start from the person's home or does it start from the Poli from the person not from when we drive out the station all right and just I think I heard you answer this earlier but when there's a difference um between what insurance pays and what is charged then that is on the um patient or customer to pay that if it is a private insurance it may go to them okay and again there is processes for abatements and things like that and a lot of you know some of the insurances are better than others y if you had to estimate the average age of your of the clients that are not covered by Medicare um or Medicaid uh you know can you say that there's an average age are we talking the full spectrum is it General without looking back in the running the statistics I I couldn't pull that up I you know I could throw you out a number of 30 35 not Medicare Medicaid but that would be something I'd have to go and call the numbers okay through the system and then you know when you do the cost per mileage it seems as if you know there's kind of like these preset destinations where it's limra hospital it's going to be one of the um or UMass um or Memorial in Worster why why differentiate between the resident who lives you know on the lster line versus the resident lives on the towns in line in terms of you know why not a flat fee per de that's what most Services charge even the private Services charge from when they put you in the ambulance till you get to the hospital okay and and again for us it's some of that varies going off topic a little bit depending on what's going on with the patient some of it is patient preference some of it if if you're actually having a true heart attack you need to go to UMass and Worster not lemonster because lemonster can't treat treat you adequately for that UMass Ken so that some of that plays into that too you know on the flip side like I said we're not going to take somebody with a stub toe to Emerson in the middle of a snowstorm I if that's what they're normally seen you're going to go to lemonster and that so some some of its condition some of its patient uh preference some of it's the conditions that you're dealing with so earlier you know when we were earlier in the this presentation discussion you mentioned with u the closure of nishoba valley that roughly 133% of the cases were going there and I think you estimated that approximately 55 trips would be going further distances than nooba that further distance being Emerson or are you saying Boston my my anticipation we there's state regulations that can sort of say how far we can go under normal circumstances under normal circumstances for us it's lemonster the wiester hospitals Clinton Emerson and maybe Haywood it's basically out 30 to 40 minutes okay we don't normally transport into Boston we would I say that with a caveat we have done it under certain circumstances normally we would try to get a private to take them in but if the private's not available which is one of the reasons we got our own paramedics because they weren't available uh certain people they have a condition that that may be only be able to be treated down there and if it's stable enough to take them there we we will do it if we're the only game in town we can't sorry say sorry you know we can't go that far but some of that we sometimes we'll even get on the radio and talk to the doctor and that that's our medical control physician to determine where we're going to go with them okay but normally we're not just hey I want to go to Boston yeah it's not how it works but the but the impact I think what I'm trying to get to is that the impact for roughly 6 7% of the community that's going to need that previously hadn't to show as an option where based on your numbers that ambulance ride would roughly be 2,200 bucks that now they're looking at approx only 3,000 right with the rate increase and the closure of the hospital you know the additional distance okay yep all right thank you and chief I I I will correct myself cuz I corrected you saying cents and dollars it is $20 to $36 it's not cents it's dollars yes oh okay $36 per mile and it's one way you're not telling the we're not charging for the ride back to the station but I'm sure that that's factored as I always say I can give an example we talk like what replacing Vehicles we used to retire ambulances back we retired an ambulance in 2008 with 47,000 Mi after 10 years old the truck we have that has that's 5 years old has 70,000 on it now the one that's coming up on replacement is close to 100 yeah that's the difference in what we're putting on for mileage and um Chief I'm curious so R rates haven't been examined in 8 to 10 years what what frequency would you recommend and what do other we probably should look at them every five honestly we had talked about that and for the last few years we were focused on The Paramedic program and getting that up so it wasn't on the top of my radar and then as say this nicely some of the financial challenges the town was looking at over the last couple years I didn't bring It Forward at the time because there was a lot of other money related things going on and I just figured there wouldn't be a lot of appetite for it so I left it alone Carter was looking at um establishing like a uh I guess like a list of all of these um fees Etc that can be updated at you know yeah my my recommendation is that you look across the organization and you put them on a rotating schedule and so maybe one year it's uh you know development services planning zoning concom building inspector Board of Health next year perhaps it's Public Works uh next year perhaps Public Safety you know so that on a 3 to 5e basis and then you stick to that rotation you know when the when the town manager starts the budget process it's oh remember this is your year to do your Revenue look see um because otherwise it becomes a you know somebody says oh my goodness we haven't done this in 10 years um so I think that is part of your budget process that you might want to consider adopting M thank you Carter all right are there any other questions or is there a motion to approve the new uh ambulance rates yeah I move to approve um I move for the board to approve the ambulance rates as proposed by the chief second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppose no motion passes unanimously thank you thank you very much chief for coming in tonight thank you and Ezekiel you too thank you for coming in did you have any questions on on the warrant some concerns expressed no all right so let's see do we have next the interim Town manager report uh so first um the Consolidated PDF was Annie's first try uh left a document out inserted a a draft that wasn't um the complete copy as she grabbed it but um I think this is what you were talking about at your last meeting um and we'll be working with the town clerk uh as we work through this to make sure it's available to the general public as well Mr chair if I may so in our policies I think the expectation is that this all meeting materials are provided the Thursday before the meeting uh do you think that going forward we'll be able to get this on the Thursday before the meting I think we can uh work towards that it may be Friday but we can certainly work uh towards that um and we've talked about about bench strength and some other challenges that we we have okay but I think you know we always need to build in some flexibility with this because depending on what's on the agenda you know sometimes we have things that come in Monday Tuesday and I think we should be allowed to update it with new material you know instead of you know throw a wrench into whatever discussion we're having that night I think it would be helpful to to get the packet on the Thursday and if there's a supplement that comes in yeah I mean that that's or Tuesday that's been my hope that's the norm that I'm used to as a single packet goes out um and that's certainly what we're going to work towards at least with my time with you excellent cool no this is a great initiative though and I'm glad that we were able to do this so quickly so thank you uh so um I'm I'm not going to go back through the Committees I think that was uh covered by the uh the chair and um I just want to step uh thank all those folks who who stepped up and uh Paula and the folks at the sewer department uh who got that letter out in the mail once it was once it was written uh so we have a seasonal labor a public safety front desk clerk undergoing final background checks uh and um should be before you at your next meeting uh we also have an assessing administrative assistant and uh we place that phone call today and um are hopeful that they'll take it that leaves us with with two positions open Assistant SE business manager and the network administrator and um we'll be talking with the uh school department may I just is he okay if I just mentioned that uh when is he's meeting in the finance team tomorrow we're going to uh raise the possibility of one single network uh administrative team as opposed to the way it it's broken up right now I think the biggest challenge is when you have a combined system you have to think that you're buying a service from the larger side of the house and treat it that way you know it's just not the same but uh filling the position has been difficult uh if I if I may just ask for clarification on that um so my understanding was that we had a unified system and the schools chose to go into a different direction are we are we talking the IT service provider um so are you can you just clarify we're looking to revisit the way we collaborate on that issue got it uh lunenberg adult Activity Center the uh bid's been awarded and the contracts being finalized historic properties we received two bids which are now under view uh the library exterior paint project bids are due this week um pay you throw recycling uh we have a final contract meeting tomorrow at 2: and then we'll get that out per Mr Alonzo's request Library teen room um we we've modified the scope both for purposes of trying to have a project we can fit into the budget and by modifying the scope I'm saying uh first you you've got one wall that you were going to remove that was turned out to be a sheer wall it shouldn't be removed frankly uh but we would have a base bid and then we would have ADD alternates for the painting the flooring and some things like that the idea being you know I want to get you a project and um that would go out to bid uh by the 2nd of October after meor signs off on on everything and to clarify so when you hit the central register you need to publish it the week before so you're saying that this is basically complete the end of September so that way it's published on the second of the plan the plan is that next I've set up a Tuesday after meeting afternoon meeting with the assistant Town manager procurement uh myself and the facilities director uh and um the plan is that he will have final drawings in a scope of work next Tuesday got assuming we're in good shape on that or we can get that into shape within a couple of days we would send the central register in on Thursday got you then that is published I believe the following Wednesday yes so you don't have to wait if if you've got a good sense of where you are you don't have to wait till everything's done go ahead and advertise it and we can take uh we can save some time in the process so that's what I'm trying to that's what I'm trying to do here is to go through these projects figure out if we can break them down into some of their simplest elements uh and then get them out there with that alternat and get them on the street Ritter building I know the facilities director and I don't see eye to eye on this one but maybe you do the roof the gutters and the trim work first the add alternates or the windows you don't have enough money to do most of these projects so to bid them as they are you with all due respect you're just wasting that bidding time so that's that's every Tuesday 2:00 that's our Point got it thank you Mr chairman thank you and that allows me to you know one of the things that we went through today was hard date and if it's not ready in the 24th we'll go to the the next week but I'm trying to get Hard dates for these projects to get them out to bid so if you if I may Mr chair through you to the Ingram Town manager take us through the library project so it gets published next Thursday it hits the register on the Wednesday and then take us from there like sure um so assuming it's already on the 24th or closer enough that we're comfortable in advertising it um it would be advertised on the 2nd there would be a walkth through about 10 days later we accept questions from biders by the 15th of December we take two days only two days I trying to bring this bidding schedule in you said December I think you October October I'm soorry was going to say yeah okay um not only are compressing the schedule but apparently we're rolling it backwards uh so the 17th of October we put out an addendum with the answers to any questions any changes we've made bids are opened on the 23rd 3 weeks I'm trying to bring the schedule down to 3 weeks can't do it in 2 weeks it's just it's too much and your contractors will walk away at a 2 we notice 4 weeks might be the ideal but I don't think we have the time to do well that's my that that is actually why I'm asking I mean I I don't I this is all yellow flagging to me in fact maybe orange flagging that I don't think we have time for a lot of these things the the rules the rule I all I can do Mr Lonzo is try to get as many your projects under no no I I hear you and I appreciate that as possible and it may require some last minute shuffles um where we move things around just for the sake of moving them around and then try to get the town meeting to move the capital money around um because we also in addition we have the roof and chimney on this building we have have all the work at the Ritter building you have the roof at the public works you have the floor at the DPW there is a considerable backlog going back to fy22 yes I would tell you that you probably have one or two staff members that are't particularly thrilled with me right this minute uh but I don't see any other option but to just keep trying to pour the coal on I'm showing my age when I use that reference um well my my questions why I brought up the library one is specifically because of arer I mean the other things have to be done and I brought them up in other regards I'm just very concerned about anything we have in arpa that we may not have under contract and you know again the time is ticking this is starting to sound like you know a Tom Cruz Mission Impossible movie you know we need to get all this under contract in 3 months we're we're concentrating on the arpa projects but your other projects um very well may have shortfalls also and I I don't know what you have here I'm just using a number let's say you have $100,000 here uh and the project comes in in 100 qu where are you going to get the money but perhaps some arpa money that hasn't been fully committed you know at the adult Activity Center you had a budget of 35 the lowest bid is 40 and that's before you remove any Roofing and you hope there's no damage to any of the underway payment anywhere uh we're hoping to bid the DPW for repair and the tree work that is our both of those are up on that same schedule is the DPW roof also orpa uh it is yeah it it is uh the facilities director concern is that the repair of the floor is more temperature uh sensitive than the roofing because the roofing can be done essentially in any temperature whereas the DPW floor needs minimum temperatures uh for the epoxy to cure properly that that said I'm hoping the DPW roof um goes out on the same schedule as this roof and we're no more than a week or two Behind These schedules that it for your report uh well I just wanted to um uh let you know that I did meet with the finance committee uh and the finance director uh they did approve $5,000 to support the transportation fund until we can get to uh the town meeting uh they did ask me to explore um the transportation program has a limit of 20 mi they did had asked me to explore that anyone anywhere within lunenberg could go to Emerson that's a little bit beyond the 20m limit um and we we are exploring that with them um and we started the schedule for the fall town meeting we'll have the draft before you of the warrant on the 4th of October and um then we'll need your final vote on October 15th and we're uh working with your finance committee and your moderator as to how they like that structured um the rest I'm going to have to get you the revised report on the rest as I said Annie you know she did uh her best effort today uh and this will evolve but we have got to get better um uh with respect to Mr Jeff's comment about getting these packages out complete earlier anything else I unless there's any questions all right any remaining questions for Carter all right thank you very much all right now we're moving on to Old business and we have a status update on committed arpa fund so pass it back to you Carter u i I don't know what more I can tell you but um the senior center ordered their material uh the price is actually down a little bit um because they can't deliver it the way they thought we're going to have those kind of variations um we will be meeting every Tuesday um with facilities director and then with staff to try to keep these projects to try to get these projects moving what is the if I may Mr chair through you to the inter Town manager are there funds that we have allocated with arpa votes that are again yellow lining like there are we don't know if they're going to we're going to get them committed in time they all scared to live in hell out of me I'm going to be I I think when you talked with some of my references they said if nothing else he's he's kind of blunt you'll never have to worry about where he's coming from um frankly I'm worried about quite a few of them but you have two trucks coming in uh middle of December that are over $400,000 you have two more trucks coming in about 4 months later that you've signed contracts for under arpa they're around $450,000 right so what I'm starting to try to keep an eye on is where worse comes to worse you buy the first two trucks with the arpa money that cash is now spent and if you haven't committed your monies you keep them committed to those trucks that are coming in in March and then with the Goodwill and Indulgence of the annual town meeting you reprogram the monies that were originally for the trucks in December so we start it it it sounds like a shell game the New York City Corner um and frankly it's a little bit like that uh but at this point um I think the only wild card and I believe Mr jeffy's committee is working on their um request for qualifications requests for proposals uh everything else we know what we need to do to push it out the door it's just a question of of time we're on the same and I can give it I was going to say it later but you know the timeline that you have noted for the room um our goal is to send it over to Julie next Tuesday so we are we've already met we went over the RFP we're looking to meet again on Monday to finalize that review so we can get it to Julie on Tuesday knowing that it needs to get published by Thursday in order to get into the register the following Wednesday so we're looking to basically follow the same exact timeline that the library is on except that it will get to her a day earlier than it sounds like the library lo my my suggestion to any committees that have projects is if they have vendors they would like to work with or if they can give us a list of vendors we then can get that notice directly to them and I'm not just relying upon the central reg the goods and services y um I can definitely do that with Municipal bu and design because of what I do for work we work with architectural teams all the time uh and so I can find someone that I'm not conflicted with uh and make a couple recommendations for at least three or four vendors that we can send them directly I think that is the biggest wild card right this moment Mr alzo so so my next question before I make the motion that I said I was going to make for the last month is are there projects that we could spend the money on that already that haven't been allocated money the next one on the list I I would need to look at the list cuz I have to say and I've been saying this pretty consistently I am not confident at this point in time in the calendar year that with the RFP not even being being uh approved by the committee to get it out and to get it adopted and everything gives us zero Runway if something doesn't happen and I'd much rather see that money come back and allocate the things that we know we can get bids on or things that may have gone over that we have to fill in if bids come in over that we have money to apply to them to get them done the let me just say that the challenge is for any project where you have to put together a scope of work and push it out the door for bids that's a 5 to 6 week cycle by itself right if wor come to worse the best way to get money committed is a piece of equipment that is somewhere on a state contract M and even then chasing those vendors to get written proposals so you can sign on the bottom line can take 3 to four weeks it's I've never seen anything like it and I've been doing this for a couple of years now um so we I don't I don't have the list in front of me I I don't either but I don't recall there being a lot of equipment on the list no I think a lot of them would have to go out to bid as well so that's so the the shest way to do it is to substitute projects that were in the pipeline that you have Capital Money general tax levy Capital Money uh and then work with the good will and forbearance of a town meeting getting them to understand the shell game that we ended up playing repeat repeat that repeat that last part that last phrase the last part of that sentence the shell game on a New York City corner you know no that they don't play show games anymore they play three Cardman but anyway the same thing different neighborhood I've I guess you lived in a different area um you know I'll take some this I didn't realize how far behind these project I've been here 7 weeks now and I didn't realize probably until 3 weeks ago uh how far behind these projects truly were I I I'll own some of it we've been getting updates I mean during my tenure as chair I asked I saw that these projects were not moving and I asked for updates every other month on where we were at with the capital plan and it's been pretty clear that for the for the big part of the last year not much has actually happened and that too many projects are sitting out from years back so I mean it it's not news we've this information has been coming to us regularly with little to little updates and has been coming to us almost every other the month and I know that the previous time maners skipped a couple months when there was absolutely no updates from 3 months prior or two months prior but but I I agree that this is a problem but it's been a problem for for a while I've never turned back a dollar to the federal or state government and I don't intend this job to be the first time I do it well I mean if I may offer an opinion um I I know I Mr Alonzo has been pretty clear with his perspective I think I just have a different one um you know I think that we have right now it looks like four projects that are on the same bidding cycle basically um and you know if we're not making decisions today on where we're going to be reappropriate the funds then my opinion is that you know if come October our first meeting in October which I believe is the first yep um that come October 1st if any of these things are not out to bid and published as they should be then the fund should be withdrawn um because that that then provides us with 90 days I mean October is a full month you know November so that gives us 90 days to re-evaluate what remains and what we can quickly get out the door um or at least to have that conversation come October the 1st but I I don't think it's advantageous to for us to withdraw funds that that are already in cycle to get expended and under contract by the end of next month and leave it all sitting there for 2 weeks while we don't meet again well I I just want to I would have to respectfully degrees disagree on you having 90 days I want to revisit two time frames I gave you if it is a piece of equipment Y where there's a state contractor you're probably looking at 3 to 4 weeks just to get them to react to you and give you that you know four page quote on on the the six wheel dump truck or whatever it is they're just not reacting and you're not the only town in this position correct so you need to figure five weeks 3 to four weeks to get the bid from them a couple days for you know DPW or somebody to look and make sure it's everything's there and then get a signature and get it back so it's timestamped in time but if we start that process on October the 1st I mean it's based on your professional experience is it fair to to assume that we would likely be complete within those 90 days depending upon how you're reprogramming the money if you have equipment to buy yes I mean the only viable way or if you have real you have real drawings on this building you have real drawings on other buildings that you know I I looked at some drawings today 2022 for this building if you have real drawings ready to go that's 6 to 8 weeks the only way to the only viable way to do it that I can see sitting here right this minute and I could be wrong won't be the first time uh is equipment yep so Mr chair I I will ask the inter Town manager between then and August and October 1st I next meeting so first of all I will say I am not comfortable I was going to make a motion to withdraw the ARA funds because it's not even out to bid but you know what I'm going to defer to October 1st noting that the risk that other members are taking but I'm willing to go along with it the two weeks in the interim I like to see if you can talk because the capital planning presentations are coming up this fall find out what equipment the Departments are asking for that are on that list and have ready something that has all of that for us so that we can switch if we need to on a dime and get that started on the October 1st meeting okay are are you saying okay because it's doable or are you saying okay because it's 9:15 I say okay because I work at the will of the select board and if that's what you want I will figure I'm offering that as one person I am I will figure out how to get it done now it may I may come in on two wheels you know at 5:00 p.m. on the 1st but we will we will uh look at and and develop uh an alternative approach um sure yeah I'm much more comfortable with that too because it makes no sense to deallocate funds tonight without a plan to reallocate them and then leave hundreds of thousands of dollars unallocated for a couple weeks first of all second of all even if we did there's still a risk inherent in reallocating hundreds of thousands of dollars so if we do it with ones that are going to be simple purchases nothing that's going out to bid then that would be a little better so we that we could go have ready to go out to bid that day so we would need a solid plan for reallocation that's what I'm asking for if it gets to that point so we we're a five member board so let's let other members chime in please suy yeah I think I've been saying since March that the clock's been ticking I I've had the December 31st in my crosshairs for a while and time goes by so fast I I don't want to lose a nickel I don't think any I mean if it gets the end of year and you know open that WB Mason catalog and and order some ink ton or paper I don't care pens something um so I think you know I I defer to the the experience of the interim Town manager having gone through this before and the time and the runway we need to complete this to meet that year end deadline um if it's equipment I mean I don't it's it's kind of a a unfortunate situation in the sense that we're going to get what we can and maybe not what we want or need the most but that train has left the station so um thinking about vehicles and equipment I just want to mention um school had a had a truck I believe on their um somewhere on one of their requests Capital requests list I forget for what year so think that's upcoming that's something was the meeting that I sat in on you watched that was discussed that evening it's um a pickup with I don't know Mr hee has has a truck in mind yeah I think it was a one ton with fully equipped mhm um shouldn't take you much longer than 10 months to go unfortunately I'm not going to be here October 1st so I will have to miss that discussion um but I'm comfortable waiting to be honest certainly don't want to wait past I mean I'm already out of my comfort zone waiting so that's my two son sing more I just wanted to Echo that I think um asking the town manager to come up with that alternative plan that we can take action on the first is a great idea um but I appreciate how much work that will put on you and the staff so if there's you know not sure that there's anything that we can do but I do app appreciate any work that you you're going to put into that because I know it's a Monumental task for us to ask um and it's appreciated we we that's actually the easy part I mean Julie's carrying the the weight at this point this stuff has got to get out the the door all right any remaining questions or discussion on arpa for tonight I do I do want to comment on one thing that is bothering me in this you know last week we heard about the library and the library has been meeting about the teen center and everything and there's been a constant a constant back and forth working with designers and everything it's been a constant project but one of the articles that we're talking about that was got that got committed got committed last year and hasn't there is no reason why we in this position with the RFP not even being out they didn't have a meeting for 10 months people in March on this board people in April May June June and July were saying that this was a problem and we shouldn't have been up against the deadline because the committee never met the committee didn't even the committee didn't even see the RFP till last Monday that's on us that's on the committee you know it's not like they were working and they ran into problems they just didn't meet at all for 10 months when they had $225,000 out allocated now we're trying to get it under the wire and causing a i a lot of anxiety certainly anxiety for me I don't want to speak for anybody else and it shouldn't have been that way because this should have been taken care of over the summer pretty readily and so I don't like the fact that we're in this position because of inactivity if activity happens and things come in and you know projects escalate because of design issues that's one thing but when there's inactivity and we're up against a deadline that's just hard to swallow and that's the last I'll say any other discussion yeah um I think there's two parts so I mean I fully disagree with that I think you know I think if we bring it to kind of like what everyone does at home you know if you're doing a renovation on your house and you want it to happen next fall you know what you don't want to do is you don't want to get a cost estimate too far in advance as we did previously because then it's wrong um I think that there's definitely a need to resocialize the project um I think we all can agree that this was not the spring to bring it forward as a town manager advised us and and I don't I I think the timeline that we're on is is okay but I also think that the you know we've had in addition to the capital requests that have been asked for from staff that we've had two go rounds where multiple entities have requested arpa funds and that perhaps in our discussion on October the 1st that in addition to evaluating uh those Capital requests that are coming out that we also take a look uh I remember some Council of Aging items that didn't get funded uh that there may also be things that have already been requested from ARA that we can commit funds to that are already on the list as well all right thank you I'm sorry I just have to say one thing that has been bugging me um the fact that an RFP was not brought forward at town meeting or the project wasn't brought forward to town meeting I think is irrelevant to having an RFP ready to go so having an RFP out and getting numbers and then being out of date 9 months okay fine but you could be sitting on the RFP ready to to you know hand it out the door for review so that that's my disappointment of why it hasn't been ready to go and I'll just leave it at that all right moving on to carent business we're going to take care of minutes warrants and action items first and committee reports as well then we'll go into our goals Workshop which we're still doing tonight a little later than I thought but that's all right so minutes we have two sets of minutes tonight uh let's see December 5th 2023 and September 10th 2024 are there any um questions or recommended edits for those two sets of minutes so I sent some edits to Annie some got in there and then I sent sent some later today that didn't get in just some general comments about um the ones I sent later today were General about um calling Carter Mr tanzini or interim town man you know some details of um making the minutes A little I don't want to say formal but more official um so those haven't um Annie hasn't had a chance to to modify those at all I saw so many many of the main the same things and I was working on my goals last night that I submitted to everybody so I didn't get a chance to make the recommendation changes so uh I'm not ready to vote on these just yet I I I would like to see again there's some some basic things that like the naming of people that you should use people's names you know and you know Carter shouldn't be Carter in there you should be Mr terenzini and the chair and the vice chair should be chair n solo and vice chair Jeff instead of member and the three members you wouldn't really put clerk in front of it but you could I guess I mean it's just these are like basic minute taking notes and then some of the like the committee the finance finance committee appointment committee the appointment committee part was picking off so it looked like I was reporting on the finance committee and um again I don't know who's how they're being generated but if they're being generated artificially you know that was clearly stated when I said what committee I was reporting on so are they AI generated do you know um I know that uh she started to and um they weren't really great right even after being people R um I do notice that I've I've had to make more edits and recommendation changes in the last three months than I had in the past three years and it's hard to track I think we're all submitting Corrections and comments and then when are they all collected in what version of the minutes are we actually voting on can I suggest that um I'm seeing some things in your operating procedures well that either don't exist or could use some work it's 9:30 I would like to not that anybody wants to come out again but I would like to suggest that you consider uh scheduling just a workshop not lots of Citizen comments not formal agenda items get together down here little informal do your goals we'll bring some process issues before you try to get a better handle on this and bring minutes back back to you uh in a manner that is is more fitting what you're looking for um all right and you know if there's another issue or two that maybe would be good to be workshopped if you will um I could work with the chairman and we could add that to the uh agenda that is that is my suggestion to you as a path forward yeah that's fine to me what do other members think if I um I think that's a great idea I agree having a workshop separate because we know our time is ticking and it's getting late um but regarding minutes I think um member m mentioned you know it's hard to track so if when we do do this if that's how we move forward if we can have a list of the ones that are still pending cuz I feel like there's ones that we've sent back but we haven't got back again and it's hard it's hard to track which ones we're at so I think having a comprehensive list of you know once she submitted to us that we've sent back kind of a thing would be helpful as well all right cool well that kind of bleeds into action items so all right we'll go to warrants we have one warrant one massive warrant you guys want me to pass the whole thing down is this a payable no this is um yes account's payable do you want me to pass the whole thing down or no just that okay that's fine and while you're doing that Mr chair I want to publicly thank uh the finance director for sending the email explaining why we were getting some warrants because of the change in the payroll schedule which made sense to me and I I appreciate his explanation all right any action items oh I'm just realizing I didn't read that can I see that back real quickly sorry so this is an accounts payable warrant in the amount of $689,500 sorry about that all right any action items I have some I think for the inum town manager um one that popped into my head um and I just want to say it before I forget it the status of 925 massav I think oh his eyes just bugged like I drove by it this morning and said what am I screwing with this thing okay yeah I looked I mean we got the BC group presented to us on June 11th and then the former Town manager um gave us a report on the 23rd I thought it was going out for RFP I don't know if it has gone out even so I have several properties that I want to discuss with the finance team tomorrow afternoon okay 925 needs to be offered uh you're getting a uh warrant article to uh sell the Brooks property um which you're going to need to discuss because of the land being adjacent to the school in the library uh we've got some tax properties so um I will look into that and have a report for you okay good um another one um you've mentioned it twice now in your weekly report about the um the facilities director and the projects and us not having enough money to cover them I wonder if we can get a summary overview of those projects and and kind of where they stand um yes just to help if I see it all Consolidated get most of them haven't been cost estimated I can give you a status of the project how much money you have okay uh from what year some of these go back three fiscal years now yeah not surprised um when I tell you you don't have enough money let me just just so you understand I work construction for 8 years uh then manage the construction of several of the state's Park system and uh managed the rehabilitation of uh number of apartment buildings and the like so it's one of those you know what you know when you know something just I can tell you there isn't enough money there so I won't be able to give you cost estimates but I will give you a schedule of all the projects just even having all of them in one one summary would absolutely um and then based on what we heard and and saw tonight with the success of those uh letters in the sewer bill can we look into putting a letter in the warrant that is mailed out for a fall town meeting oh absolutely and we can have a stack of volunteer to serve your town forums I mean we always have the forms at at town meeting but right now I'm working I'm not so some town just do the warrant and then um they do a voter's guide some towns smash it all together so right now I'm working with your uh your town moderator and your finance committee chairman of how do you want me to do this thing because you have to I have to get this thing mailed out to everybody so the good news is if we smash it all together it's one simple document the bad news is it's more to print it and and mail it um I'll bring you two samples of at the workshop but since we're going to be doing a mailing to every house in town can we take advantage of that absolutely absolutely I'll I was really happy to see and you all saw the letter that I did for the Sewer Commission right yeah absolutely great thank you well um I'll do it inside the front cover so it's the first thing they see when they open it any other action items can I just give you one update sure uh I did meet with the um I'm sorry I didn't put this in my report uh I met with uh police chief met with DPW um they will have their final report to me on fat Hill Road by the 25th of this month they will appear in front of you on October 1 okay cool thank you try to get that off the list to the extent we can sure sorry Mr chair I just thought one too before you Mo on um just keeping it again on our radar the munit issues and the IT transition I know you've had a lot on your plate but just keeping that on our radar as well MH yep totally you have one of the busier traffic control centers that I've worked with yes all right any committee reports oh um budget task force met last night um we had department heads we had uh DPW director Police Chief Fire Chief the union reps teachers union reps uh I'm I forget we had a I mean I want to thank them they they stayed for the whole meeting it was a long meeting um to review what they're hearing from from the unions you know in terms of salaries and and open positions and retention and I think it's probably you're going to hear a lot of the same things at the listening upcoming listening sessions is my expectation um we have another budget task force meeting on Monday the 23rd um and there's a school committee meeting tomorrow and storm water task force meets on Thursday this week Town manager screening committee met on Wednesday and discussed what we about how to proceed with Community Paradigm one of those discussions was uh about the salary which was got brought to the board today and the rest of it was the timeline uh everybody on this board and department heads should have gotten an email from from Community Paradigm saying they want to have a a discussion with everybody and get their impression about what we are looking for in a town manager so they will coate that and we're looking that this process will all be done by the end of the month and the final ad go out the 1 of next month so that gives us a two or 3 week time frame so hopefully by by the end of October we already have candidates that we can schedule interviews with that is in a very optimistic timeline I don't have any um library is meeting next week um and the municipal bu design committee met last week as I are discussed and we're looking to meet again next week uh I do have a question though for Mr Lonzo and his committee report is there a rubric uh or kind of guidelines that you guys have agreed to for how you're screening in terms of like how you're evaluating or how you intend or is that something that that will be developed with Community Paradigm we don't have that right now and we were when it was decided to go with a consulting firm we wanted to wait on anything we did so we didn't have to revisit it until we got them and so those will be done and how we they will get the first discussion not they won't qualify as interviews they'll have the first discussion with the candidates and then present all of the candidates to us for a review and what and how we are reviewing them will be part of what we will be developing over the last few weeks got it thank you all right so the 300th committee met um on Monday they are meeting a little too soon to do anything other than talk about uh long-term projects but they're still uh discussing events that they want to have uh the bonfire is still the most Wanted event but obviously the location is the biggest issue there um they discussed historic signs similar to the tent ten ton tenery signs that were put up by Massachusetts in the 1930s uh so they're re researching some locations in verbiage for potential signs that we could put up uh they talked about um establishing or planning an above ground Time Capsule similar to the one that was done in brain tree uh and having it out to 50 years I believe um the anniversary is on August 1st since it falls on a weekday uh the celebrations are going to be from July 28th 2028 through um July 30th sorry about that uh 2028 and and they want to have events like fireworks and a possible Carnival and Olympics not sure what that means I wasn't able to attend this meeting in person so I'm getting this update uh through someone else and there also this is a really interesting one looking for potato shaped rocks um to use for the Luther Burbank Monument from Builders and excavators in town so anyone know why I know I was what size I mean are we talking about like I'm not sure that's the one I um I wish I asked for clarification so I had an actual explanation for that um but yeah uh so it was a pretty good meeting uh Council on Aging met uh last week um and it was their first um recorded and broadcasted meeting uh so if you'd like to watch it yourself you can and see all the work that they do and get all the updates yourself um but yesterday right yes it was yesterday um we had our celebration at the adult activity center for the New Boston Post cane awarde Olga D toaso uh which was a great event I was honored to be there it was a lot of fun and her entire family showed up all generations I think she had I don't remember off the top of my head but um 13 or something like that grandchildren um I think it was upwards of 10 great great grandchildren maybe four great great grandchildren I think I might have messed that up but something along those lines uh so it was a lot of fun and they are holding their annual volunteer recognition day on Friday thank you their recognition day for for the people working at the Council on Aging for the volunteers so the volunteers at the lunberg adult Activity Center yes okay all right upcoming meetings so it's sounds like we're not doing the goals Workshop tonight are we uh all in agreement that we'd rather do it another night I know that Carter wants to so I'm fine with that I'm fine either way all right we can reschedule it it's fine with me so upcoming Mee we be meeting on Mr chair can I ask a question the document that you shared with us is does that include everyone's goals I only had a chance includes the goals that I have received so it's youi and Tom if I may ask just for no right to not consolidate pre- consolidate them if you can show them in their entirety the way they were submitted we need to consolidate them I I appreciate the attempt to consolidate them but I think it may have confuse things a little bit too okay yeah that's fine can I sorry one more on that when we do have the workshop can we set it up so that you know we have a laptop set up maybe for a screen and we can make live edits as we're working was do I have this one here just not the normal one that I have so okay awesome thank you Mr chair all right upcoming meetings October 1st and October 8th I'm tracking that selectman memy will not be here on October 1st are there any other anticipated absences during those two meetings all right cool public comments so are there any public comments from the interim Town manager none Mr chairman all right any public comments from the public see if anyone on Zoom has a public comment nope any public comment from the board none all right seeing none is there a motion to adjourn so moved second any additional discussion those in favor say I I I those oppose no the motion passes unanimously it is 9:43 p.m. and the select board is adjourned thank you everyone for tuning in tonight and we will see you in October pending a newly scheduled goals and maybe other uh topics Workshop have a good night good night