e I grab agenda did you agend m you grab all of them no I just grabbed one but are they on their printer yeah yeah they might be this one right here yeah all right good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting of the lunenberg select board today is Tuesday July 23rd and just as a note we do have a quorum today selectman uh Alonzo and selectman memy are both joining us via zoom and seleman Moore is not able to join us tonight please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all in accordance with the requirements of the open meeting law please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live over the lunenberg public access channel on Facebook live on the public access Facebook page and will 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 a 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 selectman Alonzo I also just wanted to make sure that they can hear us so selectman m key can you hear us Public Access isn't on Zoom that's just all right it looks like we're having some technical difficulties with zoom so I will just open it up to public comments from the public Mr McDonald good evening Dave McDonald 155 Island Road lunenberg I'm here tonight for a lot of different reasons but one I'm here and I only come out to the people that I respect and Heather I do respect you I'm very sorry that you're leaving I'm sorry you're leaving under these circumstances I know for 7 and a/2 years we work together pretty well we've done a lot of work together in town we've done a lot of work together during Co we done a lot of work together with fundraising with the fire department and you are going to be missed now if you leave it on your own that's fine but I think you've been kind of flimflam a little bit the last two and a half years has been very hard hot on you and hot on the town and hot on us but there's a lot of manipulation going on as well I hope you know that and I think you do know that and I hope the manipulation stops with a new uh chair um Caesar I hope you vote from your heart and vote for the people not for yourself and that's what's been happening in this town sorry Echo is that fixed so I just wanted to say thank you for what you've done for the town I would also hope you would reconsider I mean knowing what you know now I think you could really recover and I I really hope you consider that there's no reason for you to believe in the town of lunberg right now that's my feeling but I know politically you're kind of uh assassinated along the way don't want to use that word um but yeah it's hard to get out of a hole once room Start Spreading about you it can't stop and the board knows what I'm talking about so I apologize for that we're better than this it shouldn't come to this point Thank you thank you Mr McDonald are there any other public comments coming up and then if you could just say your name and address and then you have 3 minutes thank you Jason R 100 cents at Lane lunenberg Mass um this is not my thing but this is important to me and I don't know where I'm supposed to go with this I have two different issues I can't come to resolve with uh I live on the lake um one of them if we don't have time I don't know if you can tell me where to go or we could have another time at another meeting um that's how I was told sometimes this works uh first of all we keep having a lot of very large events happening unsupervised um not against Shady point I'm not against what they do I get along with a lot of people that that go there I like having them around uh recently we've had big events surprise I look out 60 fishing boats in my backyard not against them fishing they throw lows in my boat they've damaged a ton of property this year they've caused complete chaos uh I under the understanding that they're leasing their ramp to this private organization I have contacted Chris I have asked him to please give me a heads up if they're going to have a huge event nope can't do it it's private said sir this is what I would really like I'm not asking much he said nope can't help you um they told me to call whenever they have a problem I have three or four calls that were unanswered um so I don't know where to go with that I have a lot of other people that call me and ask for the same help too um they won't come here they are afraid to they're afraid to say something to people that are hurting their prop uh one kid said oh yeah they cut out my boat cover did you call the police well no I didn't think I could of course you can another topic um we also have a resident allowing an 11-year-old to ride a t Sky one of my friends said something to him we had a huge altercation we were not out of line they were I called lunenberg police they did nothing they came to my house took my report never heard from them again went to the station three times it took them 13 days to get me my police report and it said we couldn't find the house I I don't know what I'm supposed to do um I called environmental too environmental has been on the lake they've been doing a fantastic job when they're there I've seen them turning people around correcting what they're doing wrong Etc um I don't know you need more people to email write talk to give their side I can put together a lot of people they they've all asked me to help them um just trying to make things better for everybody and any thoughts on what I can do with this uh so the the first step if you don't mind can you send me an email so that I have contact information for you and just so I can actually have it absolutely um and I've been trying to come for about a month but I got really provoked this weekend we had quite a few incidences we had one guy fall off his jet ski and I thing went right across the lake with with his tether not on U we actually had to go get the jet ski there was another incident where another boat had 13 people and on the boat they left six of them floating and went out to me we were like you can't do that there's there's 60 jet skis around somebody is going to get hit you know we are going to be on the news very soon so um I would be happy to give you your my email and um I work 60 70 hours a week so yeah for me to come here is a lot I'm losing a day off you know a night off but um I will get that to you and then we can be in contact and maybe you guys can help me know what to do um just to make things better yeah thank you so much and sorry to hear you going through all that problem we'll take care thank you any other public comments Mr Burton yes B 39 just say it again when you get up to the microphone George Burton 39 Courtland Circle I just want to address Mr Jeffrey's comment about defamation um defamation trying to find out information of of an attorney that he told me he used I do not call that defamation what it it seems to occur here is that maybe he's a little um uncomfortable of the situation that's occurred of of tying his situation that I'm going through with a bunch of Trustees that we feel are tied to the town um have done you know some very unprofessional poor things to my family and I um that we feel the town is involved in and Mr Jeff is um directly involved we feel um making comments about a connection that we're trying to find it's not defamation if that's defamation Mr Jeff we feel that you must have some guilt of of why that connection might be made um we do feel there is a connection there but if being a connection made between two people is is not defamation at all um and on top of it defamation is is when you lie um it's saying something about somebody when it's not true I everything I've said is true I will not lie my my wife will not lie put our hands on our our mother's Graves and and our Bible to tell you what a lawyer said to us that you had his firm represented Jeff's Property Management he spelled Jeff I um so we kind of feel that that might be a little hidden um thing there that if we asked them directly and maybe it's not that attorney you know you addressed it that you spoke to that attorney what's the firm that your company uses that's what the question is and that's what we were told and and you don't want to comment about that and that's typical of what this town has done to my family and I is we send emails to the board to the to the police to the town manager we do not get answers like we've heard from other residents right we don't hear answers however they come and attack us when we get attacked like that and things change 180 degrees we feel there's a problem Mr Jeff we spoke to you back in 19 in 22 um you know you indicated I have emails and so forth you indicated we send you 500 emails untrue and if we they are emails sent multiple times it's to follow up with the town manager when we don't get a response on things it's to follow up on those certain things it's to follow up on you know when we don't get a response in videotapes from the town library when the town when the town is the state is actually telling the town to give us those videotapes yes the town got away from that by you know pulling a certain card and so forth of saying that there's children in the library why do we have videotapes and of children you know if we can't even get videotapes in a library seems very odd to me um you know we we are understood by the librarian that videotape is given to others all is we wanted the videotape is to prove that someone is harassing us however that that individual seems to be you know protected by the town um which we we don't know why the direct connection there however we are tracing it back and we've gotten some very um interesting connections made and um you know we we sent you a a email too Mr newow we haven't heard a response um we'd like to know how Mr Jeff wanted a response to my comments the last time I was here without I didn't see him speak to you um it seems like there might be some texting going on behind the scenes we don't know that was the question we asked you we don't hear things when you don't hear things you or you hear something opposite of what you heard before it raises concerns and that's where we're at um we're we're raised concerns the town manager we've sent many emails to her she won't respond to us at all um was told to give it back to the board the board won't even respond we've asked for um you know the executive meetings for executive meeting minutes um haven't got them um it's un un we don't understand but um there a lot of stuff going on for us in this town um unfortunate and we're going to dig into it we're going to get to the bottom of it and we know what was going on we know what people wanted to do to us they wanted us out of this town to not raise issues there were it was very clearcut that the the police chief being involved with a trustee and Association discussions with the old attorneys that we had now switched to a new attorney and fully attacked my my family we're not being told by the Association why that why they switched attorneys we understand why potentially and that's where Mr Jeff is is kind of getting you know asked the question of why his attorney and his firm was being used it it very much looks like a a a a I don't know what to even call it group we call group coordinated harassment that's what this has become and it's unfortunate that this has happened to my family and I we we looked at everything to stay in this town of lunenberg to raise our children to have our children come back to our home we're looking to move at some point as one of my kids graduated it's unfortunate you know we wanted them to come back to our home from college and so forth won't happen and you know we could have done a lot for this town unfortunately it didn't happen you know I was here 10 years we were we volunteered at other towns I volunteer at other towns at this point I will not volunteer in lunenberg based on what happened here it's really unfortunate and and I don't know if you know all the history I'm sure you've seen some of the emails but we would appreciate some comments um you're you know other residents are asking you for help I've asked for help for two years two years I went to the town manager she completely ignored us then I went to Mr Jeff and he kind of at one point said you're a good guy George I got emails that state that however he turned 180° on us 180° which told us there was a problem and an email completely states where he turned 180 degrees to me he told us to go to the chief of police I did what he asked and then I got this email back from Mr jeffre saying I was bat crazy okay defamation on its own pretty much right there Mr Jeff defamation again on January 9th you want to talk about defamation of what you did to me and my family that's what we're talking about and I will defend that in any way can and that's why we're here still fighting this it's going to go on for two years until people kind of come to the to admit what we we wanted what we we came about but we want to keep it going we can keep it going we're going to get to the bottom of it we're not going to be sitting here getting abused by a town and some friends of people in town Mr Jeff told us in 2022 that there was a problem in town with friendships and and he said that was being investigated we've heard nothing about that that was our main concern of of one of the things we went to the town manager and Mr Jeff about and we got attacked even worse Okay small town we understand it we have senators in this town we have you know others that are very powerful individuals that we understand have connections to other people in the town as well very small town what happened here should have never occurred and it should have been handled much more professionally than it did and I just I'm going to keep raising these issues to this town until this gets to a problem gets to stop and someone addresses the the problem with me I don't know why we couldn't sit down two years ago two years ago I'll be sitting down with a new town manager as soon as they come aboard and I will sit down with them and talk to them and I hope that goes a lot better than two years ago we had when me and my wife went on December 31st of 2022 to the town manager to talk about the issues that we were seeing with the the chief of police that we seeing that the the issues there with the chief of police that the Tom manager has oversight to did nothing flipped it back to the town the the the the police department and our problems became a lot worse like I said I'll leave it that Mr Jeff I know um you know has comments it's just very interesting how he had a comment when we didn't see each other speak to each you know to each other and you mentioned that I go back and forth it's back and forth because I don't get answers to things right and I'm going to keep drilling into it as I said until I do get the appropriate answers that we feel we need it it's it's a disgusting story it's happened in lunenberg we've understood before and it we want it to stop and never seen again you look back in 2014 when we had a a a biracial family right look at that situation pretty disgusting on its own what happened there you know we feel there was very similar situation which we discussed when it's just Jeffrey how you get pushed people out of town that execution happened to my family and I it definitely did and we can we have some proof we have some documentation of lies that you've let let residents lie to the police we brought that up to the town manager and they allow it allowed to be continued it allowed can you yep three minutes is over enjoy the rest of your night Mr B thank you any other public comments Mrs Lockwood the previous speakers were a lot good evening um on Lockwood 91 Main Street and I'm here to um say a bunch of thank yous um first I want to um well let me start with this I I recently resigned from The Parks Commission um and now I'm serving in the Council on agent um so I'm still part of the town but uh reflecting back on my few years at Parks Commission I first want to acknowledge my colleagues at The Parks Commission we have done a lot of work in the past few years moving the Marshal Park project forward and um and there was been a lot of work a lot of dedicated hours in particular I want to give a shout out to my friend Caren manard the amount of hours that she has put towards the work towards Marshall before I even came into the board it's it's just uh unmatched um she did a lot of work to help us with the grants and she's still a phone call away from just about every resident in town um and of course all the other colleagues then I also want to thank the select board um when you guys awarded that a million dollars for arpa money for Marshall Project you had it's difficult to to tell you how how important that money was that money along with the vote that we had at town meeting to for the $184,000 is what was gave us the ability to show the state and the federal government that the town and the slack board is behind this project so that seed money has in turn so you know I allocated a million dollars we were able to turn that into another million and a half so you know thank you to the select board uh for awarding us that money I think it's a good return on investment um I also want to give a shout out to Lou Franco and Heather Soka who participated on that vote and of course Tom Alonzo who's not here today you weren't there yet but you know we'll have chance to do another vote and so we'll miss m ke and my last thank is for Heather um you know when you have a town like lunenberg run by Passion of volunteers uh it is essential to have Town managers who are equally dedicated to public service and committed to maintaining the highest level of professionalism over the years I have had the privilege of working with you witness this professionalism M even in the most challenging times your skills have not only complemented the efforts of volunteers but have made significant impact in our community your extensive knowledge of town government and your steadyfast manner in guiding the town and its C citizens have been key to work success during the easy and the difficult times this dedication professionalism are deeply personal to you and it has shown in everything you do your commitment lunberg has been truly inspirational and be greatly missed I appreciate all your years of service and I hope you come and celebrate Marshall Park with us when it's Friday gladly thank you thank you are there any public comments from anyone on Zoom Mr chairman yep uh Dave Rogers 82 Highland Street can you hear me yep we can hear you okay great I'm calling with specific regard to uh the former um uh Miller Funeral Home on on Massachusetts Avenue if uh you've gone by recently you've seen that it's uh very unkempt and it looks like a a Hayfield so uh long story short I I took it upon myself to get in touch with the listing broker and and talked briefly about uh how upset I was that that the property was not maintained and she uh said that she would get in touch with the uh the folks that are interested in the in the property uh it's it's not sold as yet I understand and I just wanted uh you uh on the on the board of selectman to understand that because I hope that you would join uh in supporting uh the fact that this area needs to be cleaned up and uh uh I would encourage anybody uh that feels similarly uh to uh contact uh agency in in Peril uh it's the blood real estate agency and explain your concern and hopefully we can get this uh area cleaned up because it is awful and uh I thank you for the opportunity to bring this to your attention thank you Mr Rogers is there anyone else on Zoom that wants to make a public comment all right and I'll also give uh selectman Alonso or m key another chance since we have some it difficulties earlier do you guys have anything you want to say nothing for me no all right cool all right moving on to announcements I do have two the second annual Town official meet and greet will be held September 26th from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Low Places Ranch all staff committee and board members are encouraged to attend to meet and network with members of our local business community and the town Beach is open again as of last Thursday are there any other announcements can you just say that date again Mr chair sure September 26th 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. do you have any other announcements no okay Communications from other boards I don't have any but I believe selectman Alonzo does have one from the town manager screening committee that is correct thank you Mr chair from the committee I was unable to attend their meeting because we were in interviews for the interim Town manager last Wednesday but I caught up with the chair uh our moderator Mr Murphy who wanted me to read the following the commit the screening committee is committed to act as wide and and to enact a widest search as is reasonable to select the next town manager a limiting factor is that an ideal candidate will have Massachusetts Municipal experience not just any Financial experience hence MMA is the only targeted place to advertise at an MMA conference with select boards available on video all presented strongly encourag retaining a recruitment firm we've been uh given the firm uh as a recommendation Community Paradigm Associates as the most widely known and respected firm uh the current Town manager concurs with that they have half a dozen senior Associates plus additional support staff proof that they've been successful enough to build a large firm they they would if if uh hired would prepare our town profile to prevent the job to present to job Seekers act actually recruit Beyond just advertise vet and do background checks of candidates they'll assist in All Phases of the process right up to the hiring they'll you'll be negotiated with your preferred C candidate in 14 to 16 weeks compensation for their services is projected between 12 and $14,000 Plus estimated $700 in advertising uh if needed Heather can fill us in on the procurement and availability of funds so we are seeking as a screening committee the authorization and funding for $155,000 uh to engage with such a recruitment firm and we feel it's not a lot of money considering the importance of getting the best candidate for the position all right thank you and can you have the chair of the committee email that to the board just so we can include it forward that from the I will forward this email it was an email I'll just forward it to the board right now now that I've read it all right thank you any other Communications from boards Mr chair may ask a question of Mr Alonzo sure Mr Lonzo um given the uh timeline are you is the committee looking for us to make a more immediate determination if arpa funds are available on this yes we are the sooner the better because obviously we are going ahead with advertisement that we we have a meeting I believe uh next week I don't have the exact date right in front of me but we want to get forward with the finalized advertisement to get started with that but we'd also like to engage the recruitment firm if possible because it will cast the widest net and they come highly recommended okay so we can discuss it later during ouro thank you Mr Alonzo yep are there any other Communications from other boards that anyone has yeah the volume is a little uh yeah to the booth the volume is a little too high now so we're getting some feedback in the room thank you thank you all right so moving on onto appointments we have a 7:15 p.m. continuation of public hearing on notice of intent to convert and sell from chapter 61b Lot 1 and three of Kilburn street so I'll invite the attorney up so since we last met we heard from the Conservation Commission and the planning board um they are not interested in pursuing the property um while conservation does have a set of criteria as it relates to open space the open space committee itself has not actually met yet so that's where we're at on this now so good evening board members attorney Tom Gibbons for Tim Rick realy trust so yes I I attended the Conservation Commission meeting and the planning board meeting and both have IND indicated that they were going to suggest that the town not exercise their right of first refusal um and which committee the open space committee yeah and and so are you planning on not making a decision tonight I'll have the conversation with the board and see sure um I know that we did send an invitation out if anyone wanted to come from the open space committee is anyone from the open space committee here tonight no all right it doesn't look like that all right so like I said said I'm just going to have to open it up to the board and see where we're at the com uh the Conservation Commission does have a set of criteria that specifically relates to open space uh so they use that too so it's not like these weren't taken into consideration so where are we at on this I'll just open it up selectman Alonzo should I have a SE or want me to stay at the um if anyone has any questions you can just stay up there for right now no problem at all uh I mean again as per our usual procedure we do hear from open space given the fact that two of the commissions that we rely on or two of the entities that we rely on the planning board and the Conservation Commission have voted not to uh exercise that right um weighing I don't you know I personally I'd like to hear from the open space committee and but I'm weighing that against what their possible determination would be usually when we get Parcels that people want us to exercise a right to it's more than one entity wants us to do it not just one so I'm kind of on the fence right now about whether we should vote on it tonight or not I'd like to hear what other people have to say sure all right thank you and just to the uh Booth real quick I think we have to meet somewhere in the middle with the volume with where we're at right now and where we just were because now it's a little too low sorry about that select manmy so um first question do we know when the open space committee could consider this matter I do not know what their schedule is like off the top of my head do you Heather I do not no have that so no but we can come back to that though selectman Jeff um I I think I'm in the same position as the majority of the board on this one which is um how much I mean my understanding is that there's still a couple more months left in this timeline right and I mean I I say again August 14th is the next open space committee meeting August 14th so I mean I I understand how frustrating it can be for the owner that's looking to you know move forward I think the critical piece of this was the lot going to the child to build a house which we went ahead and approved already and so um and and that you know we don't want to interfere with people's ability to you know live in town and uh things of that nature but I mean I think that I think there's a process here um that just takes a little bit of time and I know I know it's unfortunate for the homeowner who's looking for a determination within 45 days or 60 days you know but with it being the summer with there being multiple boards you know it just takes a little bit of time I mean I think that what you're how I read the board's response is that you know if open space comes none of us have said that we have any interest in this property um and so we're just this is to me a for I wouldn't say a formality but we're making sure that we're going through the right process and making sure everyone has their input but it it seems to be going the direction so far that the toal's going to wave um is there any other than your client's desire Mr Jer I may ask the attorney other than your client's desire to you know have a determination sooner I is there any if this determination were made in August is that going to set your client back significantly more than and and was there some barrier in this process that got the request in late so I guess what I'm asking you is you know I know that we're kind of being asked to make a determination quick but on the front end of this like was there something that delayed the request coming in 60 days sooner than it did uh so there there was no delay on the on the submitt so the statute sets forth what the notice requirement is so I filed that with all the four boards well the commission and the three boards that were required under the statute on May 15th um so no delay there I mean I I respect that the town under the statute has 120 days uh where we were asking that the decision be made if the town doesn't think that they're going to purchase it then would ask that they not delay it because not only is my client the seller involved but the buyer would like to get moving um if the Towners are going to exercise their rights so the statute requires that the Conservation Commission and the planning board and the assessors get notice and provide the select board with their um their opinion their suggestion so the when I was at the planning board meeting last night there was one member on the board that may be on the open space committee or or may have heard I I don't know which it was but but he indicated that they they they may have some interest but you know with all due respect I think this was submitted in May 15th even though the town has under 20 days I fully respect that but there's been multiple opportunities that if if they had some interest to give the select board an opinion so I would request that that a decision be made tonight but I do respect the fact that you certainly have more time yeah understood I mean I think we all know what's going to happen here and also just to note this property is over $300,000 so even if there was interest I don't think we actually have the money for it right now so it sounds like we're going to wait and actually let the open space committee chime in so we follow the process as it should happen selectman M I see you have your hand raised yes thanks um just a couple of things one I think the open space committee didn't get the material to review until recently possibly but um I thought I saw an email to that effect but anyway looking at the calendar um if open space meets the 14th that's the day after our August 13th meeting which would bump it another day so I would propose maybe two options here one is um to approve contingent on the open space committee or not approve but um uh not take the the uh right of first refusal um not purchase a land in other words or property um contingent on open space committee not being interested in it or an alternative could the open space committee call an ad hoc meeting solely to review this issue like next week so we could address it on our August 6th meeting Heather would we be able to approve this contingent on that I don't know if that would really work would it I wouldn't recommend it yeah okay well then can open space maybe have a not HW meeting just for this agenda item sooner and no one here can speak to but maybe we can go back to them and ask because I do feel for the the applicant yeah I do as well which I voiced but go ahead and I appreciate that right what I would say is that the these well the planning board and the and the Conservation Commission under the statute it to give you their opinion the the other boards and I'm not making light of their responsibilities but they're not part of the statutory requirement and what I'd say with all du respect is that if they suggested that you purchase it but the board of Selectmen knows that you don't have the money and wouldn't purchase it is that form of a substance and um you know I would ask that if if the select board knows that regardless of what the open space committee suggests you're not going to buy it then there there is no reason for a delay I hear you go ahead I think Mr Alonzo has his hand up all right Mr Alonzo so what I think we should do since we are within our statutory Li you know limits still and we do have a policy whether it's whether their input is required by Statute like planning board of conservation it is our policy uh I would probably not want to undermine their input and do it I understand the position of the applicant and their councel but we're not intentionally doing this we we have something in place I think there is some internal procedures we need to make sure are are a little more U efficient than they are but even all that said we we still would be able to do it well within the 120 days I do concur with with uh select board member empy and we should ask the open space committee to have it before our next meeting or at least by the the our second meeting in August not wait for the third so I would be for I would before waiting but I would ask the open space committee to try to give us their input before the middle of August before their currently scheduled August 14th meeting yeah so I can reach out and see if they're able to do that um but obviously I don't know if they are or not so if we can try to expedite this we can so all right well I appreciate your consideration yeah of course thank you have a good night so um will we continue to a date certain just so I sor what was your question continue this meeting to the date certain would it be the August your toight your next meeting I'm just wondering okay yeah um sorry I didn't I didn't hear that so if they're not able to meet again we would have to meet on August 20th because that's our first meeting after their next scheduled meeting could could I ask to be placed on the agenda for your your next meeting even if it's status hey they didn't get back to us so that I can keep this on on track I don't have a problem with that we can do that mean is August 6th August 6th thank you very much good have a good night so um I move to continue the public hearing to August uh the 6th second any additional discussion this will be a roll call vote selectman Alonzo I selectman memy I selectman Jeff I and I for myself the motion passes unanimously thank you have a good night all right moving on to an update from The Parks Commission chair on Marshall Park I'll invite Anita up to the podium I'm Anita shers chairman of the Parks Commission 63 Chestnut Street good to see you all tonight um I was asked to do a brief update tonight regarding the status of the Marsha Park project and um the timing actually is really good because we have some good news that we want to share with the board and with you know our residents in town um since town meeting um where we last presented information about Marshall Park um we have now are in a position where we're ready to move ahead with Phase One using the existing funds that we already have assigned to the project so that is really good news so what it means is that uh we have 1.6 $3 million to do phase one work of the Marshall Park project and that phase one work aligns with the work that's in the scope approved under our Park Grant so that coincides really well um the six the $1.6 million um comes from a combination of the arpa funds that the B of selectman had approved you know to assign to this project it comes from a $500 $500,000 Park grant that we received from the state and also the remaining design funds that came from that previous town meeting vote so the phase one work is going to be a really nice combination um of the construction of a pavilion new basketball courts pickle ball courts a playground and a bathroom facility so that we're getting a lot of bang for a buck with this first phase of the project and these will end up really being kind of the central core components of the entire project other phases will include the um the playing fields Etc so um to get to this point um in order for us to move ahead we were required by law to hire an owner's project manager what I'm going to call an OPM as I refer to it as I go through this um with the help of the Town manager uh we were able to procure the services of the firm of scansa it's the Boston division of scansa OPM section and um with their help we're going to go through the you know the remaining planning the design and the bidding and construction of the project right now um we are we have a not to exceed contract with them to get us just through the first phase this phase one of the project and um Town manager I did not bring the dollar anount for the not to exceed amount for the OPM contract was it 256 let me pull it up and it's in that range but anyways it's monies that we already have that we can be assigned to this so with their help um we are going to be moving ahead seeking proposals from the design firms that we need to choose the best firm to help us finish the final design of the park to put together the um construction documents the bid documents and to go out to bid for construction we actually have um the the request for proposals is out there now it's been advertised um and proposals are due in by um from qualified firms by August 88th so we will be going through that review of proposals hopefully we get a good number and we'll go through that review of proposals in August with the hope that we can choose the best ranked firm and contract with that best ranked firm um by the you know first week or so in September um we actually have a site walk tomorrow with interested firms we do that to invite people firms that are interested in considering the project to come and see the project in person and it's um also a Q&A um section that will happen at the library so that they might have questions of us that can help them better their understanding of the project and to decide if they want to put a proposal in and what that proposal might look like for us so um as I said we're um the first phase um hopefully we'll get that contract with the designer in in place um under contract in early September the design work will be you know beginning in mid September and the first phase work for the designer contract is a not to exceed value of 143,000 just for that Phase 1 design the way the contract will be structured is that we will be able to continue to work with that Designer as additional funds are made available for the additional phases of the work the um the schedule calls for construction work to go out to bid in early 2025 so that's it's it's coming faster than we know and we hope to have that construction firm on board uh for a groundbreaking in late winter um I know that people are going to be interested in the grants that we've been achieved um in this because at previous Town meetings we did talk about how we would do our best to um achieve Awards of as many grants as possible so the grants that we um are able to secure so far are the $500,000 Park grant that I described a few moments ago um we've also received verbal approval of a $1 million land and water grant that would help us cover some of the other phases of the park project that is a conditional Grant though and we'll be back before the board in a few weeks with more information about that conditional Grant and when we might be able to hear if it gets awarded and what the what the conditions might be we've also um applied for a $136,000 accessibility Grant from the mass office of disabilities and if that's awarded we'll have funds to help us purchase more handicapped accessible equipment for the playground which would be really nice in terms of uh future funding requests I see on the agenda that you know that was part of the discussion you were hoping to have tonight um unfortunately we're not ready yet to discuss what we might be looking for at town meeting we know we like very likely will be coming to town meeting for a future funding request um but premature for me to try to make any statement tonight about what that amount will be um particularly because one of the things that we need is an updated cost estimate that the new designer will be providing us so while we um we may vote you know at our next meeting or you know prior to the deadline of submitting warrant articles for the special town meeting um we don't know yet what that dollar amount associated with will be and we will work with the designer to determine that and what I can promise you is that as soon as I have any more information about what it is we're likely looking at for an article for the special town meeting we will be back here before you to let you know about that because one of the things that we find is really important and very helpful to us is that when we come before you it helps us get the information out to the voters faster as well so um I do know that the um previous chair of the Parks Commission Anna Lockwood who spoke earlier this evening um had been working with our town manager previously um as to what you know the feasibility of requesting some funds at the special town meeting might be and um you know that looked pretty positive but as I said once we know what we need to ask for we will be back to you right away with that information and um that's basically it if I if you have any specific questions that I can answer I'd be glad to try if you have answer questions that I can't answer tonight what I will do promise to do is to take those back to the park commission and we will work as a group to answer those questions and get back to you with the answers as we can thank you Anita so I'll open it up to questions starting with selectman Alonzo you're muted first I don't have any questions but just as a point Mr chair I I think it would be best if we just open up instead of going in in any particular order if we can open up discussion just to the board and board can you know open it up otherwise it feels like we're going in a specific order and it puts people on the spot just so you're aware I don't have any questions I'm doing that because you guys are remote and typically that's what we've done we have members that are remote but it's fine I realized I realized we got into that habit I just hope we get out of that happen all right so does anyone else have questions I'll just open it up I don't mind no no all right well thank you so much for the update I just want um cuz I we do have an estimate for um the schematic design phase through wola so that total estimate was around 8.9 million for the total project at that time it was yep and there were some decisions that need to be make in terms of how much of that really need to be included and more importantly how much of those prices have changed since that was done I believe that was done in early January if I'm correct in my facts which I'm still learning details of the project so um that's you know of the things that we um we specifically want to make sure that we work with the designers to get updated cost estimate of the project I'm just wanting the public and the board and um eventually the finance committee significant advanced notice of you know the potential for what would be asked for at town meeting special town meeting think the the longer time to plan especially with the change and the transition of U my position um that it's going to be needed thank you all right I do actually have a question so is the parking lot uh included in Phase One or is that a later it is not later phe how many phases are there uh I believe it's four in total four okay although you know depending on how it ends up with the design we may end up combining some okay sure we'll see cool well thank you for the update I'm excited to see that we're making progress on this but it sounds like we'll have some followup so you know it's it's exciting to think that by you know mid 2025 we will actually have some new components of the park for our voters to enjoy yeah and if I may Mr chairman I would just like to take a moment to thank Heather for all the hard work you've been doing for us I know how hard the job is you've been doing a great job thank you no personal I do thank you so much take care all right thank you Anita have a good night you're welcome you too all right so we are moving on to interviews appointments reappointments and resignations I don't see any on the agenda but we did have some resignations recently from conservation right I announced that at the last meeting it was okay the staff and the commissioner oh sorry no that's on my town meeting report oh okay that's fine I'm cover it there all right then moving right into the town manager report okay for board committee and commission vacancies there is one vacancy the agricultural commission one vacancy in the architectural preservation District commission one Board of Health vacancy which is a joint appointment with the Board of Health until the next annual Town election one vacancy appointed by the town moderator for the capital planning committee one vacancy for the Conservation Commission three vacancies for the cultural Council two associate vacancies for the green communities committee two vacancies on the historical commission that um Chang due to Mr pao's declining the appointment that the board made at the last meeting so that went from one to two vacancies one member at large vacancies for the open space committee five vacancies on the Personnel committee and two vacancies on the Sewer Commission which is a joint appointment with the Sewer Commission until the next annual Town election anyone interested in any of these positions can find the volunteer application form on the town website return it to the select board's office and if you have any questions on the roles and responsibilities you can contact our office at 978 582 4130 extension 144 for employment opportunities with the town we have the following positions a 32-hour week position for administrative assessing assistant assistant to the Sewer business manager which is 19 hours a week assessor data collector which is 19 hours a week this is a new position in fiscal 25 conservation Administrative Assistant which is 10 hours a week and this is um was a resignation we received um at the end of last week the interim Town manager which is contractual land use director 40 hours a week network administrator 40 hours a week Public Safety desk clerk 40 hours a week and seasonal Cemetery labor with those hours vary information on each of these positions can be found on the website under job opportunities for Staffing updates the conservation Administrative Assistant Stephanie dundo submitted her Le letter of resignation and her last day will be August 1st Stephanie gave her reason of leaving due to finding full-time employment as the conservation administrative assistant position is 10 hours a week and she was working three part-time jobs I have periodically checked in with Karen Chapman from our regional planning agency to see if they would be able to assist the town with staff from mrpc for the role of the planning director until the position is permanently filled they had two planning vacancies at one time and those were recently filled so now they are fully staffed and the assistant Town manager HR Director will be meeting with them to discuss our needs for temporary filling this rule this week the assistant Town manager HR director and principal assessor have interviews scheduled for tomorrow for both the administrative assistant assistant position and the data data collector position the assistant Town manager HR Director will be schuling scheduling interviews for the network administrator position in August the assistant Town manager HR Director has forwarded eight qualified applicants to the DPW director and Sewer business manager since this position was posted on May 2nd to date no interviews have been held due to ongoing issues a sewer business manager has been experiencing with munus and the time needed to get demand bills out and regular uh commitment bills out in August the person that we contacted for the inspector of weights and measures position turn down the offer for the position due to the amount that is paid for the position um it's you say doing to be what that the for the amount that's paid there's 3,500 paid annually for this position to do those inspections we're waiting to hear back from the state on the cost for them to conduct these inspections we anticipate hearing from them by next week update on request for proposals and invitation for bids bids for trash and recycling services are due July 24th bids for the library solar shade project are due July 31st proposals for Marshall Park designer services are due August 8th and bids for the senior center roof project are due August 29th the bid um is written for the senior center roof project that the work once the it is awarded will be done in 30 days an update on 25 massav as part of the real estate technical assistance grant through Mass development BSC group requested we put the relevant documents on the town website this was done last week by our it Administrative Assistant carara McCarthy and it was placed as a subpage on the town manager page I've worked with the assessor office to obtain names of appraisers that hold their certified General appraisal license required to appraise commercial real estate once this is conducted the RFP can be put out to B bed that's my town manager report any questions for Heather all right um I just have one uh I don't see it in the Google Drive can you just drop it in there yes thank you I'm going to miss the town manager reports as well as delivered by Heather not that we're not going to have another town manager report thank you all right thank you heather all right moving on to current business so the first thing I have on here is something I just called select board staff appreciation so I've been spending more time in town buildings and talking to more staff members lately and this is just an idea that came out of those conversations uh so obviously morale is still an issue we've had several resignations recently and with the transition to an interim and eventually a new permanent Town manager uh I think it would be a good idea for staff to have a little more interaction with select board members just to know that we are here as a resource especially during this transition period so I don't know this could be an organized event we've done things like this in the past or it could just be something a lot more informal that based on our availability we sort of drop in and maybe just bring coffee and donuts or something like that um but I just want to get some initial reactions uh what do you guys think about this is this something that you think maybe we should organize or work on I I have no objection to a to such a an event as long as the event is kept at a high level of just appreciating what they do I just caution and I don't I know this wasn't your intent Mr chair but I caution against getting too involved when you when you meet with employees and things like this it can easily stray into day-to-day what's going on which of course is not the purview of the select board so we have a very fine line to walk not that it's not walkable but we should be aware of the line at this yep I hear you I uh yeah I think something you had said was that we're a resource and I I I think we are a limited resource um but I think that this is important I know that you and I have talked about this and uh you know I think that especially during the period of transition and I think it's important not just now but just getting in the habit of the selectboard doing something for our staff whether it's showing up with coffee and donuts or things of that nature uh maybe healthier foods coffee and donuts um maybe some apples and pears um seasonal fruit from our local farms um but I think I think it would be a good thing if if you know amongst us if we can kind of pull our own uh resources and and start thinking uh of things we can do to show support all right cool Selman Hemy do you want to add anything no I mean I agree with with the comments that have been made thus far I think the challenge will be you know finding time being able to get to town buildings during um operating hours yeah I get that I know I recognize that there are going to be some Logistics to uh manage with that but all right I just wanted to get some initial reaction so thank you so if I Mr chair as a as a next upep on this one I mean you know I know that selectman m key you know has to travel a little bit to get to work and so it is you know as does uh selectman more um and so you know there are going to be some challenges on on scheduling but I think that you know contribution wise and um and perhaps as we kind of talk through this that there might be an opportunity you know I don't I don't know when you know all the shift changes are if there's inate briefings but you know there may be opportunities for the staff uh for the members that are out of town during the day to be able to to do something you know at 6:00 or sure something when when some staff at least are in or even during a snowstorm I mean that's kind of I think a biggie is you know showing up during a snowstorm for all in town with some some coffee and donuts um I think those things go a long way in showing appreciation uh to staff all right thank you all right so moving on Recreation director increase in hours so we received a request to increase the recreation director's hours from 19 to 28 this is something that would have to be approved by both the select board and the finance committee per the salary Administration plan it would be paid for by the parks revolving account which already has the money in it they have about $774,000 not an exact figure but uh this will cost $377 15930 for salary and benefit BS uh Heather is there anything else you want to add my calculation of impact was slightly less um when I looked at the it may have been updated since I got that letter so okay I'll let you give the uh upto-date figures then uh 34,5 45 approximately oh okay so it's a couple thousand lower that's um cost inclusive of a family plan that we budget for for any person that's going from non-benefited to benefited not knowing what plan they'll choose and the salary for the adjustment in hours U which would um be a change in rate in around March is there anything else or um outside of what you said I mean the reasoning behind it is um due to the insufficient time allotted for this person to accomplish all their responsibilities with that position and also knowing that with the project uh Marshall Park project coming on there's going to be added responsibility for processing additional invoices for the OPM the designer construction um portions of that project as well an increase in hours would allow for additional programming to happen within parks and wreck and this could be pulled back to the um original hours if we found it was not beneficial but also I want to know it's um as far as retaining employees I think this there is a revenue Source uh to supplement what the town appropriation is uh unlike other instances where we've requested an increase in hours for position so this is a kind of unique situation um but this I think would help retain this employee MH all right I'll open it up for questions or comments from anyone who wants to just jump in since that's what we're doing I think the um benefited you know benefits make a difference I think as um the town manager noted earlier about the conservation role that you know the staff m had three part-time jobs and so you know was looking for a full-time and so I think you know when you have staff and and and you want to work with them the reality of of I think our day and age and just life is that you know people need a little bit more money and if you're you know you can't live off of 19 hours a week you can't live off of 28 either but you certainly can't live off of 19 um and so you know sometimes that that little bump up in hours for someone that's looking for part-time work that's that's right in the cust and then the benefits um you know not everyone takes the family plan I know everyone budgets for it but not everyone takes it and not everyone needs it um and so there there could potentially be some cost savings but I'm just in the mindset that as we think of rules sometimes you know I've said this previously we think of our own needs and we think of hey you know but we also have to think who's the person that's going to fit sit in this position what is that person going to need to stay in the position uh and so I support the request lman Alonzo than thank you Mr chair so I first have a question for the town manager this the recreation director is the highest level paid employee that's dedicated to the parks is that would that be a correct statement correct okay and am I also correct that what I've read is that uh with the hours it seems like the hours that are requested are certainly uh covered by what uh the position is being asked to do and therefore warranted but but I am under the understanding that this this is a new addition of ours that could be Revisited if desired or if wanted in the FY 26 budget cycle is that correct correct okay so with both those things in mind I I am for the increase in hours s NY so my question follows up um a bit on Mr Alonzo's last comment are these hours just for fy2 or do they automatically the the position automatically have these extra hours going into FY 26 unless town meeting uh changes that this could be Revisited during the development of the FY 26 budget so it could if the Ben there is no benefit or additional benefit or um we're finding that um the additional hours are not needed it could be pulled back I tend to doubt that's going to be the case I think you'll see that additional Revenue um is produced by additional hours and the availability of the rec director to work more hours um but that is a possibility for that to be changed right but if it's not discussed the default is the extra hours are present going into into FY 26 that would be discussion to make sure there is an available source for those funding so if it's not um supplemented by the revolving fund it would have to be in the um Omnibus budget to be fully funded okay and has finance committee they have not met meet Thursday to discuss this this Thursday correct all right so it sounds like a majority of the board is going to support this I support it as well um selan memy are you inclined to support this right now I am I'm just wondering if if uh we need to hear from finance committee or if we should okay um I'll ask Heather do you think there's any reason why we should wait to hear the finance committee's uh discussion on this and just just as a note like this would only get approved if we approve it and the finance committee approves it as well so if they run into some sort of issue and they don't vote to support it um then it wouldn't take into effect anyway so I would say it's really at the discretion of the board if they want to hear what the finance committee has to say about it if they bring up points that aren't haven't been considered that you would like to reconsider that's another issue yeah I'm just thinking they are an advisory committee we should let them advise well they're advisory committee to town meeting yeah so yeah I would say I would say on this regard since it requires both we lose nothing if we approve it if they come up with issues that are not that we haven't brought to our own attention we certainly have the ability to revisit and revote it with their with their new issues so for expedition's sake I would say that there's no since it has to be done by both we don't lose anything if nobody has an objection here we can approve it if they approve it then it's done if they don't approve it and they say we don't approve it for these reasons then we can come back to it on our next meeting we don't lose anything yep I'm in agreement with that how about you so am I all right so is there a motion then I would move that we approve the additional hours for the recreational director as presented by the town manager second any additional discussion this will be a roll call vote selectman Alonzo I selectman Emy I selectman Jeff I and I for myself the motion passes unanimously all right moving on to fiscal year 2024 third quarter financial report so Ezekiel isn't here to present the report uh he will be presenting it in person Thursday night to the finance committee but I'm told that it looks good and that there are no um anomalies at all uh so is there anything that you want to speak to on this Heather no I think you summarized it the are there any questions from the board on the presentation that was provided everything is looking on track uh third quarter revenues and expenditures no questions I have no questions me Nether all right thank you all right so we'll jump down to Old business now and we'll start with public Communications policy discussion so members of the board wanted to readdress this so I will just open it up to discussion uh Mr chair sure do we want to do we have minutes no so no so there's a weird formatting um thing with the agenda now where we did it for a reason because we wanted to rearrange um meetings that we had with the police chief so that they would be back to back uh but now current business is still on top of old business and to me it just makes sense to do minutes warrants action items committee reports at the end so I'm just sort of jumping around but thank you for bringing it up I know that uh I skipped that and it was intentional okay so on the public policy that was voted introduced and voted last week I sent an email to the board indic indicating that it the pass setting of it that night violated our own policies uh that is why I asked this to be put on there so at that last meeting I asked and was disheartened and frustrated and angered that with two members asking for more time for language that we had just received that evening via email by another member and with the town manager also wanting to review more of this that that request was not afforded and yet as soon as I got home and I reviewed how policy our own policies about how policies should be accepted clearly as day that we violated our own policy and we would have not done that if we had just allowed it to go you know for the additional period as requested which I would ask in the future at least as of now I think we should resend that vote and put it on a meeting when we have the full board again and we can revisit it and we could discuss the merits of the actual policy with all of us having had enough time to review its potential impact and the causes why it's being asked to be passed and why we would need to pass it Etc any additional discussion all right well it doesn't look like this has moved at all um I think we just need to hit pause and readdress this when the entire board is here in the same room but I agree that we need to continue having this discussion uh and it will need to be readdressed as seleman Alonzo brought up uh but I don't think that's going to happen tonight yes if I may for the interim I want it to be clear and I want to see the consensus of the board that until such time that we Revisited and revote it that officially we have not adopted that policy because it violated our own policy do we least agree on that that until such time as we discuss and vote on it again the policy officially should not be adopted if I may Mr chair you can sure I I think um you know Mr Lonzo I think brings up a a good point um which is that you know we we create policies for you know a reason and and there're four boards to kind of guide future boards on how to go about you know conducting business I think you know we we have a lot of policies and I I I openly acknowledge that while I verified conflict with the charter and um and uh I think it was policy 2.11 that I I was not aware of the policy that that Mr Lonzo brought to our attention uh you know I I think that I I don't think I in this instance can um can agree that it doesn't have any effect I think that the um I I I'm open to having this conversation when the full board is here but I uh read it as the as the policy being in effect so I I don't think our vote at the last meeting should be um valid I don't think the proposed new policy should be in effect because it did violate two of our existing select board policy or two parts of an existing select board policy yeah so my understanding of this to put it bluntly is that our policies are more so a guideline and we also violated our policies when we did reappointments this year uh to no fault of anyone but I don't think anyone is going to say that those reappointments aren't valid um should we have done it that way probably not and as chair you know I will take responsibility for not knowing the policies inside and out and bringing that to a vote but I do think that it would be in our best interest to at least wait until we have the full board present to really discuss this and then we can continue having this conversation so I I think we can discuss when the full board is here but I think in the interim we it we should revert back to the previous I mean to the what was the policy the new policy should not be in effect because it it required four votes to be passed um I don't think that's a guideline I think that's that's pretty clear yeah well select board policies they are guidelines and I don't think we should do this often I think sometimes it's warranted to put it very bluntly but if I may like why have policies at all exactly who's to say it's warrant or not I if you're not going to follow your policies why have them at all I to answer your question Heather I mean I think that policies first are are are guides but they're also there're also regulations in effect um you know I feel quite strongly about like our alcohol policy which coming into this role I had no idea I was going to have such strong reactions to issuing alcohol licenses um you know I think that I've sought compliance uh with that policy I I I think that we become aware sometimes of of of things and you know we have to be it's hard it's hard to have a a a a conflict with each other it's hard you know um for me to have a conflict with my peers to put us in a challenging situation you know I think that the policy that I proposed and voted for um I strongly support and I don't think there's a Prohibition on on anything it's just adding in a a a step of communication and verification um but I don't I don't think it prohibits anyone from being able to perform their their duties effectively Mr chair yep first of all I could not the town manager because I'm not in person got there before I did because I'm remote but clearly I could not agree more with her statement I mean policies what's the point of having policies if you don't follow them especially ones that change the rules about how you make policies so if any policy should be super you know sacran it should be how you make policies to equate that we didn't follow our policy for appointments so you really going to equate that with politicizing potential press releases of everything the town releases and and and going into the authority of the Town manager or any other department head which is what this policy does are we really going to say that Ram roding a a a policy on the same night within within the time that the select board members had you know seen the text we had 15 minutes to decide on it and the majority just thought oh let's do it I mean there's reasons why that first that policy 1.03 three is there it's absolutely to protect that and to have a discussion in the school committee when they have policies they have three separate readings and they're there so people can think about the policy think if there are conflicts think about the context and provide an opportunity even for the public to provide input about the new policy this is not a nothing policy this is not like something that has no bearing on anybody this is a very very serious policy that potentially impinges and and Crosses over the line of authority of many employees in town so they're not the same thing as our appointment of you know a fence viewer for instance selectmany I wholeheartedly agree I mean I am extremely uncomfortable between the fact of getting the policy to review while sitting at the select board meeting I mean I I've thought about it and I I even have more questions now than I did last week and and to just selectively ignore policies and how who decides what policy has followed when I mean we might as well just take the entire document and just throw it in the circular recycle bin I mean this is this makes me extremely uncomfortable and I I can't say that strongly enough that I I don't agree that this policy should be in place I think think we should revisit uh when the full board is present I also think it changes the board and it says that to the board it says to the public that anytime there's a three- member majority we can do or change anything we want that's what it says it means there's no procedures since they're all halfhazard and they're all you can do them when you want and support them and enforce them when you want then it's just a majority rules on everything so what's the point of having a booklet that we spent oodles and oodles of time reviewing and trying to perfect uh generally you know I think that what my opinion is I think that what selectman Alonzo and selectman iny are saying is pretty much on point I mean I don't I don't really disagree with them um I I think that exceptional situations in which the majority of the board is in agreement um I I I my from my perspective I I I agree um with Mr Alonzo I agree with selectman imy uh and at in the same breath I also believe that um that exceptional circumstances um may require the majority of the board to make a exceptional make an exception um I I don't I'm not a believer in a lot of Regulation as everyone knows but I am a believer in following the rules um but I'm also a believer in majority and respecting it um you know so I I mean I think that we're I think everyone has a valid point tonight there's nothing I mean there's nothing that selectman Alonzo said or selectman imy said that I'm going to disagree with I mean in the sense of the attitude about our policies the perspective that we're supposed to spend time working on them they're supposed to be um you know something that that we visit um multiple times that is good policy making and I don't disagree with that um I don't disagree with that at all I think the circumstance under which the policy was proposed was exceptional and that's that's my perspective on it and I and and and that's my perspective well Mr chair in all in all in all fairness that the policies emergency situation was not presented last week at least not to anything I saw uh or or heard in that conversation number one and number two you know my colleague who just spoke clearly he does this all the time he did this last week with the traffic study he'll say that usually I I really support the idea of data except now and tonight it's of course I support the rule the rule of policies and the rules and the guidelines and I don't disagree with anything my you know that Mr Alonzo Mr empy said and in the same breath says except that I don't agree with him in this case which means that he didn't agree with me to begin with because my whole point is if we had the policy and the policy says we shouldn't have been able to pass last week then we shouldn't have a policy in effect until we have a full board to discuss the context and the ramifications of the policy you can't have it both ways either you're for the policy and you should stand that the the vote from last week should be rescinded or you don't agree with the policy and therefore you can do anything want but you can't say both things because they are untenable logic does not hold both of those and there was no emergency situation at least that was brought to this board's attention that would supersede that yeah Mr Alo I mean I I think I just I think I always reserve the right to change my mind about things but I mean I just don't agree I mean I you know you made a reference to last week you know with data and I I thought I was pretty clear I thought we had enough data I didn't think we needed additional data um you know and I thought the data was pretty clear and when it came to the to the policy that the residents were asking for to drop a speel limit but I mean I think that we can healthfully agree to disagree uh I don't I don't have much more to contribute to this um tonight all right so it doesn't sound like this is moving anywhere tonight but we will revisit this at our next meeting when everyone is here so the two members who are present I just want to be clear to anybody listening for this now and in the future you do not want to resend it and to your mind this policy is in effect is that correct yes it is that's my perspective as well I'm going to quote our existing policy four votes of a five member board is necessary for adoption because adopting a new policy is a serious matter and we're just going to ignore that we're not going to ignore it we're going to come back to it but like I said we're ignoring it if we say it's in effect that it passed with three votes we're ignoring it we're ignoring it right at least admit that what you're doing is ignoring it all right well we're going to come back to this when we are all present in the same room and we can discuss can can you just State what the current what the situation is now what is the ex what is the current policy in play with regards to Public Communication it's what was passed at our last meeting you want to read it I mean is that what she's asking I don't I don't know no I just want to hear because was I don't believe it was passed and even that policy says approval of the board what level of approval three votes four votes five votes what's approval of the board mean I mean it's just it's not ready I don't every week I believe that this board can't possibly go more astray of what our rules and regulation should be and not disregard the the the service to the C citizens the service to our own members the service to the our own policies but every week certain members of this board do that and build up a whole record of inconsistencies and things that make me embarrassed to be part of this board I have to say both of you make me embarrassed to be part of this board for for the public record I want to to tell the public to go just search the town website for select board policy and procedures go to section 1.02 the second paragraph that's what we're talking about plain as day English and we're ignoring that all right I think we've said everything that we need to say that is productive on this for tonight so moving on to interim Town manager search possible vote on interim Town manager contract we discussed our agreement in executive session to extend an offer to Carter terenzini um is there anything else we want to discuss on that tonight all right is there a motion I move that we approve the contract as discussed in executive session with contingent upon labor Council reviewing and approving it and not bringing anything to our attention I do this to expedite the process again as I just did with the recre recreation director second any additional discussion this will be a roll call vote select Alonzo I selectman memy I selectman Jeff I and an i for myself the motion passes unanimously Town manager salary range so Julie is working on some comp Anis but I did also look on the MMA website uh just to see what communities who are currently looking for Town managers are paying and the two that I saw are Sandy fields which I've never actually heard of before and Randolph um neither of them are a good comparison to US though so sandyfield has a th000 residents in a budget of $3 million uh they're paying about $ 85,000 Randolph which is technically a city but still has a position called Town manager and assistant Town manager their budget is a little larger than ours 70 something million and for their Town manager they're paying 215,000 so again it's not really a good compensation because their budget's a lot larger than ours um but I did the math and if you adjust what they're paying versus the size of their budget it's actually a pretty similar salary to what we currently pay um so personally I'll need a little bit more data before I know what I think is an appropriate salary range um the postings by the way for these didn't actually include the numbers so uh I think we have some more time to really discuss this and we get more data so is there anything we want to add on this tonight if I may ask Mr lzo uh how soon this the committee is looking for a number from the select board on this we don't have a specified date obviously the sooner the better because the sooner we can especially if we engage with the recruit uh recruiter because they're going to want to know so they know who to go to and they can speak knowledgeably about the position and that's part of I'm sure what most candidates are going to want to know pretty close to the beginning of the questioning about where it is and what kind of town it is and then how much it pays so the earlier the better if I may ask the fall to Mr Lonzo um you mentioned earlier about uh looking to uh hire a um consultant uh search uh recruiting firm um do you have do you have a kind of a timeline on how soon given the procurement of that that that would take place we are interviewing the candidate or the The Firm at our next meeting which is I've confirmed next Wednesday but uh obviously we can't commit to it we just want to know if it's a a good fit and if so we want to be able to act right away again I mean every part we delay on the delays getting a permanent Town manager M you have your hand up yes I have a question for Mr Alonzo as being a member of the screening committee um do you think the recruiting firm could help us in in defining the uh the range the salary range and can we or would it cause undue delay to ask them to provide input if if we engage them I'm I don't I can't speak to it I have not spoken to them but I would assume as part of if this is what they do for a living I'm sure they could provide valuable input about who they placed and where they placed and if that if if recruitment of town managers and town administrators across the Commonwealth is what they do I'm sure they have a good handle on what the salary ranges are I I would I would like their their input if we could I think they would have their finger more in the pulse of of what's going on out can't do that until we engage I know I know so I was bring up when we talk about arpa um but they definitely are going to have insight to that because from what I'm aware they're responsible for like 60% or something like that of town manager searches so they definitely have this data um can I ask a followup yes um because I watched the the recordings of the screening committee meetings um it sounds like you're going to seek assuming we engage in in contract with the recruiting firm we will seek their input on the ad that will post it on MMA is that correct repeat again it cut out on my end I apologize are we assuming we go ahead and contract with the recruiting firm will they be providing input on the job posting for MMA or or is the committee planning on posting that um sooner without without their input currently we are on our a schedule to advertise the MMA on our own if if we engage in this firm before that goes live then we will use them if not we will post it and if it gets revised by the recruiter we will just revise it it's an online post and the printed version doesn't go out until the end the next month anyway because we missed this month's deadline for a printed version of The Beacon I think the beacon is actually maybe even later I think there was only one Beacon issue for the summer oh well there you go so I haven't looked at so we're going to do one regardless if we get if we get them online beforehand we will obviously engage them okay so it sounds like we're probably going to pursue hiring this contractor and is everyone on board with at least having them provide their advice and feedback on the salary range yes okay fine with that all right well sounds good to me and just to be clear Mr chair we haven't we as a board have not committed because we haven't even interviewed them but we want the ability uh to know that we can if we need to so if we a lot money in this meeting or whenever from wherever we want to make sure I want to make sure I don't mislead people we haven't voted on yes that's what we're doing we are pursuing that Avenue but we want to have the money available so that we can pull the trigger if we need to gotcha thank you for that clarification all right any additional discussion on this for tonight all right moving on to the outdoor dining policy so I do have a draft but there are still some things in Flight right now regarding the application process that I um am still working out Annie's in the office right now so I haven't been able to really go through that with her uh so we did extend the temporary policy so it's not like we don't currently have one and that this is like very urgent so we can just wait until uh we have the full board here to uh further review this so then up next is arpa we sent out the email we've received about five or six requests so far um but since the window is still open I don't think it would be appropriate to really talk about the requests that we have so far um so I think we can hold off uh until August to start really going through those um we did get some guidance from the treasury Department and maybe Heather can speak more more to this um but we do need to have everything under contract by the end of the year uh so that was actually confirmed so this is going to be a quick process um probably to try to get everything allocated by like September I would say you want to have everything in place by the end of August the end of August yeah okay it's going to be a fast turnaround I think it's doable because there is not a lack of items that we could use this money for so all right is there any discussion or do we want to talk about the um Town manager consultant now I I do I do want to comment on on the oper review and that is we should make sure we do a full review of every item top to bottom that we've allotted money for and see where it is in the contract uh in the contract timeline to make sure again because if there are projects that haven't even started and take a long time for rfps ETC we have to resend that and reallocate to other places so we have to go line by line not just the new projects but not just the new requests I meant but all existing ones to make sure we do not miss December 31st contractual deadlines for those monies yeah which means we should probably ask for updates from all the parties who had funds allocated to see where they stand yeah I know Heather has been doing a lot of this already um and just looking through this spreadsheet here it looks like they're all I don't think there's any that aren't at least under agreement if they haven't already been completed right really I brought up in my email to the board about the money for the Parks Commission for Marshall Park M um that it needs to be decided the amount specifically and what contract they associated with cuz you can't re obligate those funds after December 31st so for instance if um 800,000 was committed to the construction portion of that project then that after December 31st can't be changed to some other um need for Marshall Park okay just making a note of that other than that though I mean everything looks like it's in a good spot that's currently allocated the building design yep we have to do the RFP on that okay and I sent a forwarded an update from the seaware commission on that project okay I'm comfortable tonight moving forward with the allocation of $15,000 to support the uh Town manager um recruiting company and that way it it allows the committee to make a determination if they want to pursue that if they don't we'll hear back from U Mr Alonzo and and we can always reallocate those funds as of mine and sounds like everyone else is too right well I would ask I would ask the town manager if there's any other monies in the budget outside of arper that we could use for such a request only the reserve fund that I could think of for that request s an unanticipated so do we do would you have a recommendation of I mean if we can use the reserve fund is there anything else vying for the reserve fund right now no arer we can use for anything so do you have a recommendation as far as the reserve fund or arpa um no I think um right now there are no other requests but it's early in the budget year for the reserve fund uh we typically haven't had to tap into the reserve fund we've reallocated those funds at the annual town meeting towards um deficit in the snow and ice budget Allowed by law but we typically haven't had to tap into that we do have funds set aside for the um within the reserve fund um in the unanticipated um unknown amount that the trash and recycling contract will be okay so Mr chair I would I would probably make the recommendation for financial flexibility is if we approve the arpa but then make a request of the reserve frund therefore the board uh the streety committee will know next week that they have some funding and where that funding comes from is still unknown but at least we know we have ARA but if we can get the reserve fund transfer that would put more money that are flexibility into into what we can apply the ARA money to yep I agree I mean there's no harm in allocating 15,000 for it tonight and if we find somewhere else to use funds for it we can always reallocate it so I'm not concerned about that so is there a motion I would move that we assigned $155,000 for a recruiter recruiting firm for the the town manager screening committee and additionally that we request $115,000 as a reserve frund transfer from the finance committee for the same second any additional discussion this will be a roll call vote selectman Alonzo I selectman mki I selectman Jeff I and an i for myself the motion passes unanimously anything else about arpa that we want to discuss tonight all right sounds good moving on to draft Financial policy manual so Heather sent this out to staff and boards and I have not received any feedback yet so there isn't anything uh relating to feedback for us to review tonight is there anything else you want to add on this Heather no okay and then moving on to board and committee handbook this is in the same situation uh I haven't received anything either so is this also just sort of on the agenda so this on our radar put it on your radar keep it on your radar cool so next this was a revision that uh Heather requested pretty late so sign intermunicipal agreement with lemonster for Wastewater collection treatment and Disposal so I will let her introduce this this is the intermunicipal agreement with lemonster and this was brought to the board board previously and there's been some very minor revisions that have been um reviewed and approved and lemonster is looking for the town to sign off on this okay so I haven't had a chance to look at this yet but just going through here um everything's Redlin that has changed so some references to state state law have been changed I see a grammar change um yeah this it all looks very minor I don't see any changes in terms of substance yet um so here's one thing that was changed so section 4 um it it was called hold harmless SL indemnification indemnification was struck out and release was added but it looks like this is still sort sort of not really substantial if I may ask go ahead um to the town manager has the um Sewer Commission been able to take a look at this and is that usually something that they do in this process um that the Sewer Commission um this yes so I'm I'm under the assumption because this was sent to me by the sewer business manager that the Sewer Commission has fully endorsed this and this is the final version from our Council as well okay any other questions for the town manager on this I was going to ask those two questions and if it has been passed by this elected Sewer Commission who I know is deeply involved in the negotiations of the the new agreement and if it's been reviewed by Town Council and we're looking at our own town council's revision then I am for the adoption all right sounds good is there a motion a move that weop we how is it written in the agenda I don't have the agenda intermunicipal agreement with lonster so I I move that we approve the intermunicipal agreement between lemonster and lunenberg Sewer Commission second as presented any additional discussion this will be a roll call vote selectman Alonzo I selectman mki I selectman Jeff I and an i for myself the motion passes unanimously all right so moving up to minutes there are minutes in the drive from July 16th uh I do have some notes for it does anyone else uh have any feedback I have not had time to review it I would ask that the uh the votes be included in the minutes rather than just passed say what the uh the vote tally was yeah so it's um kind of related to one thing that I had um so in the beginning when we moved into executive session uh passed by roll call vote it has to actually be listed out on that so we can just do that all throughout the minutes and then the other thing that I had um under announcements it says that I reiterated that the meetings are broadcast live and recordings would be available on multiple platforms and that I confirm that no further public comments were being taken uh via call which is not accurate I did not make that announcement and just as a note so we're trying out um an AI tool to generate these minutes um so I think that's sort of what we're working through with these um but I do think that we just have to like really make sure that we're looking through them and sort of catching these things but anything else yeah um I I agree I don't I don't think that tonight the minute should be adopted uh I think that it's important historically um to record how members vote uh as noted so beyond just the result um also uh I know that you know we're kind of playing with different fonts and colors here uh I when you go to copy something that that's this light blue it doesn't always come out very well um so I would just ask that we stay with the same color of black throughout all right is there any other feedback looks like so we're not going to vote to approve this tonight Mr chair yep I to your comment that we're trying out an AI thing I I I hope it is true I don't mind the trying out of AI but somebody who if if somebody is not actually writing the minutes somebody has to at least review the minutes before it gets to the board the board shouldn't be reviewing raw AI minutes that that is a waste of the board's time to do and somebody should be if they're not writing it they should at least be reviewing them and that should save them a lot of time but they should still make sure it's accurate to the best of their knowledge yep I hear you Mr chair I just sure address that go ahead that I have previously broached with um the executive assistant that um although we're using this tool that it's still going to have to be checked against the actual recording U to make sure that everything's accurate mhm all right looks like we have a good list of feedback here is there anything else before we move on I just want to you know acknowledge to the office and um you know the attempts to try to bring a new technology I mean AI is a great tool you know and and you finding tools that will make the work more efficient I think um is is a good great way to go so I certainly applaud uh the energy I think that this format can be probably um hand tightened up but I think it's a certainly a step in the right direction and then also just want to acknowledge that you know these are minutes from last week that we're talking about this week um and so certainly there's a exp you know it seems to be Expediting uh the process of getting them out cuz you know it can take a long long time to sit listen to a meeting that lasts 3 hours and then write down the minutes I mean that's it ends up being more than 3 hours to do it because you got to listen and and transcribe so it's a lot of time that goes into these things so I just want to acknowledge the efforts and applaud them absolutely all right moving on to warrants Dar sorry here's one here too all right we have an accounts payable warrant in the amount of $479,500 47 uh so we're only going to get two signatures today so we're going to need someone to go to town hall to sign this as soon as possible I think the other way around that if I ever call and uh is is to the town manager for the majority of the board to designate the chair to sign can we do that for warrants I think you would have to have that on your agendas got it okay and another accounts payable warrant in the amount of $1,597 in 12 cents action items I have two so um last week you know we received a presentation from uh from or request uh it was on our agenda from residents who live in the fla Hill Road area uh requesting to decrease the speed limit and and you know this is somewhat of a comment but also an action item um I would hope that the board would be willing to revisit this sooner than later uh I I think that part of the reason why the board and and I don't know I accept that the reason as I see it that the select Board gets to decide speed limits when there's no requirement for any of us to sit here and have any experience at all with speed um is because there is a a line in my view between you know what someone may determine to be safe for a road in terms of what's passable versus what residents themselves who live on those roads and elect us um may decide to be an appropriate speed limit I think that the you know even the information that we received uh if it was not today or yes or yesterday this week that was kind of a initial review of of the current traffic survey I mean it it largely is repetitious of the previous one um in indicating that you know not a significant percentage of cars are going over the speed limit I think that what we saw was 3% or or 2.8 and 3.4% respectively U which is pretty consistent with previous reports but those handful of cars I mean one of them was going 62 m hour um you know and so some of these cars are are traveling at a high rate of speed and which residents do not feel safe uh we know that the average speed is relatively is already below 30 m an hour uh and so I just would urge the board to uh reconsider this sooner than later and the second uh thing I wanted to bring to our attention is we received an email earlier today and I also received a call um from chapal Lane um and I I just want to highlight what the request and the problem is um you know Chapan has has operated a you know car um has sold cars in our community for decades um and in the course of that time they've had to have minor changes to the language of their license at one point they stopped selling Pontiac um and they were able to come into the office and get Pontiac removed from their license without an action of the board um at one point they they stopped being a General Motors dealership and they were able to come to the office and get General Motors taken off their license and the license was reissued without an action of the board and what the request is now is that the license that they were issued last year in which they came before us clearly articulated that they are no longer in the retail Car Sales business and are now in the wholesale car business last year's license didn't note retail or wholesale but no change and this year's license did and this year's license erroneously says retail they've never once talked to us in recent years about retail but the situation that they're in is that they had to mail back in their license plates today and can't be issued new license plates until now this board takes an action which we can't now take for two weeks um until our next meeting or whenever we put this on the agenda it would seem to me that this is an administrative action um the difference between retail and wholesale we can look at the minutes we can look at the meeting they never once said that they're going to be selling cars out of that place they haven't done it we didn't anticipate them doing it um and and now they can't operate for the next several weeks um and you know I I don't think that the position we should be in um when we have businesses that are at risk of going out of business losing their lier um uh not licenser but losing their ability to sell through the RMV the ability to transport these wholesale vehicles to me that rises to the occasion of a administrative action uh so I I just want to comment that I hope we can address this sooner than later as soon as possible so that way we can correct this uh correct this error thank you selectman mki um two things one um I saw uh Bill Bernard uh DPW director last week at our attempted storm water task force meeting um and he mentioned the flath Hill Road speed limit and said um there is a process with do I don't know the details but um there may be more uh to resetting that speed limit that is beyond beyond us um my my second is is truly an action item um to the town manager would it be possible to ask Town Council during his office hours this week about our um the select board policy and the Public Communication policy situation yes I can put that on my list thank you select Alonzo thank you Mr chair I just wanted to let everybody know in regards to uh Mr Jeffy second action item issue about the car dealership that we did receive I was notified about this for the first time today and we did receive an email from Town Council regarding the official position on changing the license so according to that there is a specific process to go through for better or worse I cannot speak to previous changes to the license uh of whether they followed that process the proper process or not or whether the new process was changed since those other alter you know uh alterations of the the license but we did receive the fact that we need to go through a specific process to go and amend the license just so everybody is who's listening is aware of that all right any other action items moving on to committee reports does anyone have a committee report just I have finance committee as is previously noted in the meeting is Thursday and the both the uh Town manager screening committee and the capital planning committee on Wednesday the 31st right right after each other and I believe we should have a full Capital planning committee by the end of the meeting next week slman MP do you have one I have three um as I alluded to the storm water task force was supposed to meet last week however we were unable to reach a quorum um trying to get a meeting scheduled before the next monthly um budget task force met last night um we reviewed the Benchmark communities for Town and school um and our chair um Mr scol bini has proposed um a layout of meetings every two weeks believe there were 11 meetings um that get us to the end of the year um so we will be um meeting on a bi-weekly basis and school committee is meeting tomorrow their sole agenda item is arpa requests thank you do you have one second Jeff yeah the only update I have and and um you I'm going to make a public comment um so I'm not going to say it then but I was notified from the members of the library trustees that one of our trustees um Mr Bob Conroy uh unfortunately passed away recently um services at this point um are private um but um I think there was some communication that there may be a public memorial service um you know Bob has served our community for many years it certainly was a tragic event um and just want to extend condolences to um the Conroy family uh and also to the members of the library trustees who've worked with Bob for many many years thank you select and Jeff for sharing that planning board met last night um they continued their public hearing that's been going on for what seems like forever now for the stormm approval for 255 Sunny Hill Road uh and it's coming to a conclusion so they didn't vote on it last night um just because one member of the board wasn't there but it looks like it's going to be approved um and they're extending the or continuing the public hearing until sometime in August I didn't write down the date but they limited the continuation solely to vote on it so discussion is over uh and that looks like it's going to pass um but other than that there wasn't really anything that I felt uh needed to be brought up in this meeting all right so upcoming meetings we will be meeting next on August 6 there's no meeting next week uh and then we'll also be meeting on August 13th and August 20th moving on to public comment the town manager do you have a public comment tonight I do thank you as tonight is my last select board meeting meeting I want to take this as an opportunity to say thank you to all the residents business owners select board members past and present our state delegation past and present and all the town and School staff past and present that I have had the privilege of working with and being your town manager the last 7 and a half years since making my announcement in June I would equate my experience to the movie It's a Wonderful Life sometimes only the immediate issues at hand or crisis of the day are the perception of the impact you have thank you to everyone who's taken the time to send me letters emails texts phone calls or have stopped by the office to say thank you it has always been my intent to do what I can to make lunenberg a better place to live work and visit whether this has been to support departments in their vision of growth Provide support resources for Staff address aging building needs create Partnerships with businesses and nonprofit organizations apply for Grants to lessen the burden on taxpayers introduce policies and procedures that strengthen the organization advocate for the needs of the community with our state representatives and Senator or simply act as a liaison to address a resident need I take this role very seriously and the responsibilities that come along with it I believe there have been many successes more successes than failures in my time here and I also attribute that to the many committed residents on different organizations committees and boards and the dedicated staff we have that I've worked with that have made these successes possible since I began as Town manager we have Implement implemented a long-term Staffing plan for the police and fire departments by adding six full-time police officers and six full-time firefighter paramedics through a reorganization plan per the charter Town facilities Department was created with a facilities director and another facility staff position added the position of assistant Town manager HR Director was created a part-time Recreation POS director position was created a part-time administrative assistant position was created a part-time data collector position was created a part-time councel and mu site manager position a part-time assistant counil and aging Outreach part-time library assistant positions part-time clerical position of the police department seasonal Cemetery labor positions an assistant to the Sewer business manager part-time minute clerk positions a part-time conservation administr a conservation administrative assistant and we have incrementally increased for staff um hours that were cut since 2008 the same as the school has done during the tenure of the superintendent toward the long-term Staffing plan yet there still is a long way to go and more progress to make for the next town manager there also have been a number of Capital Improvements over the years such as repainting of the Town Hall remediation of mold and bird waste in the basement and attic at Town Hall making the second floor Ada accessible making the town hall ramp ADA Compliant repairing a portion of the roof at the adult Activity Center The ada8 Pavilion at the adult Activity Center the break room at the Ritter building the design for the entrance of the Ada accessible and design for the replacement of the windows at the Ritter the roof repair at the DPW the replacement of the fuel pumps at the DPW the Hazardous removal at the old primary school and demolition of the building the replacement of the carpet at the library in the public safety buildings and all the work associated with getting 925 massab to the point where the town can be poised to sell and redevelop this property improvements also occurred at Wallace Park and the town beach buildings in the last several years there are many other projects that are not mentioned here that are in the planning stages or being prepared to be put out to bid for infrastructure soon after I began in 2017 I worked with the DPW director on a complete streets policy for the board to adopt in order to become a complete streets community and be eligible for construction funding new sidewalks Ada Ada ramps and access path through the upper common were funded through this program the Summer Street Improvement project occurred during my time here we applied for a small bridge program funding for both the pleasant and fla Hill Bridges and a request were fully funded for both again many more projects for infrastructure um were in done in my time here and that was with the help of the department heads and support of the boards and committees involved there are countless other things big and small that I am honored to be a part of making happen at my time here during lunberg that I did not do these things alone it took working with the select board the finance committee the capital planning committee other boards and committees residents the school and many Town department heads and staff over the years to name everyone here would be impossible as there have been hundreds each of you know who you are thank you now back to my reference of It's a Wonderful Life some may think my proudest accomplishment has been how far we have come on 925 Mass have oh this was the property I noticed that could be redeveloped and instead of being eyesight in the downtown area could be a gem my proudest accomplishment are the relationships I have made and then ones that will last beyond my time as your town manager I do want to clear up some rumors I have heard the board did not ask me to resign nor did we meet an executive session to discuss anything related to my resignation as with other was with any relationship trust is very important to me and losing trust had a role in my DEC ision in the end this is the best decision for me and my family lastly I want to thank my family my husband Jason son Ryan and daughter Ella without them it wouldn't would not be possible for me to do the job that I have done over the years so thank you thank you so much Heather working with you has truly been a pleasure you are one of the most hardworking and dedicated people I have ever worked with and I truly mean that and I want you to know you will absolutely be missed so thank you so much Heather I also want to thank Heather uh as she departs um you know I've gotten to work with Heather now for 5 years and for two of them pretty closely um as chair Heather is a dedicated public servant um unquestionably so um she has found for our community hundreds of thousands of dollars um for in Grants and and other sources she is well respected um by her peers and colleagues and other communities um and Heather is one of if not the best people that I know um you know her and I have not always agreed on everything U but we have certainly agreed far more than we have not uh We've leaned on each other um during during challenging times and I want to acknowledge that over the last couple of months it has been challenging we've all heard rumors um many of them you know are not based in in any sort of fact um but Heather despite all this finished with us incredibly strong um you know I think a lot of times when people decide to move on um from a community you know they kind of step back a little bit and I think Heather instead uh leaned in if that was even more possible given given the hour she worked um with plans assisting the board in our transition to an interim um and really just laying the groundwork so that way someone else can come and pick it up I think that you know being a town manager for us is part of the work of has been part of the work of Heather's life um I also want to thank Heather's family um her son her daughter and her husband Jason um they've made an incredible sacrifice for our benefit over these last s and a half years um so Heather thank you for all of your hard work for our community um it is it is very much so appreciated and I sincerely wish you all the best San Alonzo I see you have your hand raised I will hold off in case somebody else wants to speak first I just uh I'll be really quick cuz I wasn't sure if I'd be able to be here tonight so I Heather I gave thank you last week but um so I'll keep it brief but I have a lot of respect for you I want to thank you very much for your dedication um and I just want to wish you nothing but the best going for forward okay Selman selectman Alonzo thank you Mr chair um I I don't know where to start first of all uh I also did not know I was going to be here at on this meeting and because of the interim Town manager issue I I I'm attending from vacation uh everybody who who's followed these uh meetings is knows my position on Heather's performance uh I have worked closely with her throughout my tenure here uh on the board gotten to know her uh as a chair as a member as a fellow Committee Member working with other committees whether it's Capital planning or others and every everything that everybody has said about her is absolutely true there's not one decision she's made that did not have the best interest of the town at heart uh did not have the best interest of the citizens at heart uh hardest working worked through vacations all the time despite my counsel that she shouldn't um worked as many hours through past her you know her resignations instead of pairing down again work just as hard to run through the Finish Line when most normal employees would not do that uh and all of those are hold her I hold her in the highest regard I also don't want to ruin her moment but I have to say a butt here there gets to be a point when I can only hear so much it's almost like Mr Jeff is sorry to see her go uh the effusive praise he just laid on would indicate to people listening that he's sorry to see her go but we all know and I will say this out loud that he is largely the reason why she is leaving number one he has created an environment of speaking things publicly saying things privately that contradict each other and create an environment that makes it impossible for her to do her job as chair when I when he before he stepped down I had asked about the town manager's contract and when those renegotiations were going on and he told me that as far as he's concerned he was a no vote on renewing her contract anyway this is before she resigned he also contacted a fellow board member and asked if they would support a motion that he would raise to remove her from office and yet we just heard the most effusive Praise of her job with him doing this behind the scenes I do not bring these to light with any pleasure but it gets to be the point where enough is enough and people need to know what is actually going on there is no reason that we should be losing our to manager there is no reason she wanted to leave other than the environment became too hostile for her to be involved in and that is the saddest fact of all she has done an excellent job I have not agreed with everything she's done she is fully aware of that and you know what I've been very vocal about that openly in those times when I disagreed with her but the accomplishments that she just raised and the things she's been able to do and yes we have more to do but everything she has done has done been done with Integrity has done with hard work and consensus with his as many people as possible and that I hope is what she is remembered for but to see people throw praise when she they are the reason why she's leaving is just something that I could not stomach any longer and I'm sorry to ruin her exit here with that news but I think people needed to hear that news thank you Mr chair all right thank you moving on to public comment from the public Mr Bowen uh I just want to start by saying Heather thank you very much for everything you've done John Bowen Jean Marie price 162 Highland Street uh don't worry Mr Alonzo we all know about Mr Jeff and Mr Doo climbing up the same fence uh thank you very much for clarifying that because we know what that policy was for my comment is on that policy that that policy that you have in town is actually a contract you can ask any lawyer your signatures are on it you're agreeing to follow and abide in it you've made a contract that means that you're in breach a contract changing of that policy based on what miss m he said that thank you Miss M for bringing up the fact that Heather should be talking to the lawyer about that why because the select board and as the select board Heather can hire that lawyer to be able to put out a temporary restraining order okay on an emergency order okay which this action in this policy is actually a violation of one free speech it's also a violation of Ethics rules as well as open meeting law the reality is okay is that when you are a Public Employee your employer cannot regulate your speech okay it's regulated partially and only through the ethics commission and therefore enacting a policy running a policy through without abiding in a policy can have court ramifications that you could get done in less than five days then Mr Alonzo thank you heather you could say the things Mr Alonzo said cuz you know why Mr Alonzo is an elected official and guess what he can say way more than you can as an employee and he just did that and I commend you Mr Alonzo for that for being clearheaded and that is why I said he has a babysitter as the chairman of this committee Mr nozo and that babysitter is Mr Jeff and Amanda Moore is nothing but a thumb in who's not here tonight is that because she has free babies she has to take care of now she wants to use AI so she doesn't have to do a lot of work well reading minutes are a legal document they all need to be in Black okay it's a legal document and it needs to be not interpreted by AI okay because it will not be accepted or suffer scrutiny by any Court I can guarantee so continue using your AI continue acting in this manner and you're going to see because as a citizen if I want to I'll file a temporary restraining order against your little policy there Mr nzo Mr Jeff and I can do that you know why because I'll accuse you myself of breach your contract and if you think I can't prosay that on my own read all the cases that I have run through court prosay and how many I want just go on mccs.org and gooogle you understand it's all I have to say thank you very much for your time and Heather thank you and I wish you the very best thank you Mr Bowen Mr McDonald you're muted if you're talking right now sorry about that all right we canar hear yep I just want to say uh I I have to agree with uh the last couple of uh talkers one other thing is that Mr chair I lost some respect for you tonight I thought you had Integrity you serve our country and I and you do it well but you have to look what's going around you are being manipulated and that's what bothers me you're being manipulated this town has been manipulated and and it's it's almost to a point where it's a joke and when you have a chair for been on the board for the last two years and did nothing but interfere with other departments that tells you something right there Heather it's a shame you're leaving and like I said to you in person I I wish you would reconsidered but it's it's gone too far so Mr Mr Jeff as far as I'm concerned you can leave anytime no one's holding you here and I just want to say to you Mr Jeff I think your 3 minutes are up thank you all right thank you Mr McDonald are there any other public comments all right seeing none is there a motion to adjourn so moved so moved can I count that as a second you both said so moved second all right any additional discussion this will be a roll call vote selectman Alonzo I selectman Emy I selectman Jeff I and an i for myself it is 9:16 p.m. and we are adjourned thank you everyone for tuning in tonight and we will be back here August 6 have a good night everyone