leading the Manchester by the SE Jeff here Brian here Kathy here and's here John's here excellent um the first order of business is a police sergeant saring in GRE you or Todd again want to have anyone come in so again thanks every for being here tonight thanks to Ryan's family and friends for uh coming to this this occasion tonight we're here to swear in officer machine as ceremonies we held at this meeting um even though these ceremonies are very short it recognizes the officers uh commitment to the town and the uh and the residents of Manchester by SE so Sergeant machain joined the police department in 2004 and has served the town in many different roles roles so almost about 20 years Ryan's been here he was an auxiliary police officer call firefighter full-time dispatcher a reserve police officer promoted to full-time police officer and he served as a role as a detective for a short period of time um Sergeant machain is also our accreditation manager he spends a lot of time down in Lieutenant McCoy's office going over policies and procedures makeing sure over up to date on everything that uh that we have to do to maintain our accreditation uh as Grant uh 2004 graduate of Manchester Essex Regional High School uh did us his high school score project with us currently holds a Bachelor's of Arts degree in criminal justice and is working on completing his Masters which will be done very shortly um so at this time Diane town clerk come up and Ryan step forward and he can take the oo office for sorry do you solemnly swore that you will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America the constitution of the Comm mes and the bylaws of the town of Manchester B City and that you will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incing upon you as a sergeant theci Police Department the best you I do congratulations thank you congrulations and finally uh to to conclude the short little ceremony I asked Ryan's wife Joanna and Son Jackson come up and I think a photo it you can take it back afterwards the important get thank thank you for allowing us to do this apprciate time thank as often happens I skip the first parts of the meeting um which is to ask for public comments onl agenda items I see no hands um is it in fact Our intention to start a public comment a serious public comment at our next meeting yes you talked about that so the next meeting on the 15 you said start have a half hour per form at 6:30 with the meeting starting at 7 and and I think the topic uh discussion is open but we will be looking in particular for comments on the mvta zoning um efforts and and whatever people have to say so that's a change um and that was my Chairman's report now um well actually on the action it yes oh sure um I believe we had discussed getting a debrief for the board on the emergency preparedness tabletop I'm missing it I don't see it on the action items so if we could add that um was any like that'll be available for the next meeting that I mean we're meeting with the public safety officials at the next meeting so if we I think it would be an ideal time since they're going to be here anyway um you know specifically looking for what's working well the deficiencies and any actions that either are in process or we think we need to take thank you yes thank you de I move to select Bo open the water and sewer R public hearings second Jess yes yes yes says yes John says yes how we [Music] doing happy to go over up send a series of emails I hope you didn't spam me or you didn't consider it spam from me uh but um you know like we started to discuss at the last meeting uh some fairly substantial Capital Improvements that we need to make and tried to offer a couple different options for how we might go about paying for that based on utility rates rather than on tax rate and um not sure if you want the specific details but um I think I landed kind of in a kind a middle scenario where we you know we did need to uh Institute a call it a capital fee by meter size um I started on the low end on that one but we also need to you know do something with the volumetric rate at the last meeting I heard and we could consolidate some tiers uh because there wasn't a lot of differentiation between a few of them so I think I explained you know how I would approach that and seemed to make some good sense one on the you know consolidate the bottom two tiers and consolidate the top two tiers to end up from six tiers in the current system to four um you know we kept the um you know tiered structure so you know the the more water you use the more expensive it gets per gallon or per 100 cubic feet um today uh sorry I didn't get to it earlier but I gave you some uh kind of scenarios where if you know if you're a family of two what you might expect uh for an increase in your bill and all the way up to family of seven as well as uh you know if you're on the higher end or of the irrigation scale where you'd end up um we also had to look at the sewer rate because as you know we are planning our Capital Improvements for the wasw water treatment plant um so I you know think the m checks out it's just a matter of what uh we think we need to uh Institute and when over the next few years I tried to take a approach where we're kind of even over the next few years so there's not a sudden increase you know three or four years from now when we're you know all the bills are final on in and we need to pay for it you know for real um but happy to take any comments or answer any other questions there's thought I assume that's you wanted me to start was there somewhere else to start I was hoping you had a slide or two because oh I'm sorry I'm not sure which are the pieces of paper I'm talking about right if Greg wants to bring up my email that would be probably um oh I have a question yeah um I think there were some aspects of the information and I call I you know there was some late breaking information I have not reviewed it um I think there were some aspects of what you're recommending that have been reviewed by fincom and some have not um on the capital um charge we is that one of the ones that has not yet been reviewed by pcom so so pcome has has talked in general about having a capital fee okay um and after going back and forth they did conclude that they would support a capital fee okay but they haven't F numbers okay so they in general are fine with Concept um but not necessarily how we go about implementing that concept you they didn't talk specific numbers but did they talk about it being based on usage or meter size or did they come to some agreement that because they're they task to advise us and they they did they did agree that basing it on meter size would be appropriate okay um that's not problem like I said they did go a little bit of back and forth yeah I I presented the same fee structure to them that I presented to you guys back in January okay so which was based on meter size and kind of winding up generally around a million whether it's you know a million all at once or ramp up to it they didn't really get into those specifics okay just the numbers in general what what percentage of our meters are above 58 a have our 58s a quarter are three are three4 and the rest are in lower proportions yes as sorry as Chuck has explained many of the people who have the large meters don't need them aren using enough water um and and they are they are installed because it's convenient to install a meter that's the same size as the incoming pipe um so there will be lots of opport unities for people to lower their um Capital fee by changing out meters so when the new meters come they can go to a smaller meter that and who's uh the advice will something dpws vir downsizing The Meters so our approach would first be to just change size for size and then if there were you know because this would be happening sometime after we ins this fee likely um you know if they wanted to uh ask for a different size we could that we could accommodate so I guess the question would be what um what might prompt them to do that if they are unfamiliar with why they're getting charge you know what I'm saying yeah so I mean there there's a lot that goes into your you know meter size in terms of you know like and said I think most of the non 58 34 meters in down probably don't need to be that big uh I think it was an instance where most uh water services when they come into the house or an inch and so they would try and match that inch um sometimes they you know have a reason where you know they are irrigating a lot and they know that and they want the bigger meter and it would you know there are size thresholds for you know volume of water directly corresponds to the size of meter so if you were to arbitrarily just downsize for the sake of downsizing but not reduce your consumption correspondingly there would be an issue there so we would have to you know review the last eight years or not eight eight quarters worth of bills or something like that to be able to make an informed decision so the request would come in you would review and make your decision based on two years worth of uh usage yeah we could we could there there might have to be sort of some sort of offsetting so to do that you would need to pay a plumber to downsize the fittings and stuff coming into the house of Comming meter um so we you know I would say as I see I'm here right now if we have it in the budget I'm happy do it if we don't then I would have to put that back on the home yeah that's that's their choice yeah but they're about three or 400 meters that are in this category the majority are probably not there and this is going to be proactive or reactive or our c yeah so the way the way a meter change out goes is they would you know we will have a a contractor that's on board to strictly just change out meters basically one for one and so they would be uh reaching out to homeowners to schedule or they would have websites or you know call centers where a resident would get a bill that said hey we're on you know walk a road today or you know this month or whatever and you know we're looking to schedule appointment so that would be kind of the first opportunity for them when they see that you know door hanger or mailing or you know how social media like there all those different things are on the table we'll probably utilize all of them at some point right and that's when they how are you going to manage I mean give it you know right now who how many meters there are of each size you're going to order meters if you're allowing people to change in progress how are you going to deal with okay I've have suddenly got 100 leftover 2 inch meters and I'm completely out of 58 yeah so we don't we don't get the 2600 meters on day one like it's a kind of a rolling inventory and so you know at some point there will be a you know horse trading of okay we we actually only installed you know 300 meters instead of 600 so therefore you know they they would offer you know the the breaking price so that's part of the RFP in the uh insulation contract prices they they they all meters cost a different amount so the the larger the meter the more it costs so that's going to be kind of our base budget and then as you know we do or don't install that many that's what we would actually pay for so that that's the opportunity so um I I think we have to be proactive in this if you just go up and say you got a 1 inch meter and we're just going to change and then they find retrospectively that they could have gone to a smaller meter there going to be some people that are going to come back and not be happy about that it would seem to me you know I don't know what the math is because they got to get in a plumber but maybe it works out instead of paying 400 bucks a quarter or whatever it is I can pay a lot less and it doesn't cost that much for a plumber to be there it seems to me you're going to have to kind of rank all of the users in terms of size and then volume and make a decision right it would seem that you already know out of the homeowners who is eligible yeah to have their meter size reduced because if it's based on usage you know what their usage is so whatever that short list is you have a cuddle um you you may consider reaching out to them although um and you know if you're going to be charging fewer people for the larger cost then that means everybody else's cost is going to go up as well so I just I think you know I would just suggest thinking that through a little bit thing seems a little not to say it but fluid yes no pun intent it's fluid it's not necessarily changing water consumption because those people have the habits they have and the costs that are associated with that are associated with a meter which all of a sudden you're not putting on a bigger meter it costs us less and it's going to cost the consumer less right would helpful I think to know how many people are eligible for a meter size reduction based on their usage and the size of type um it's a small number we don't have to spend a whole lot of time talking about it but if it's a significant number that could change the way you want to set the Fe so I mean there's there's 2,000 58 of three so that's a lot of backlog of work before we get to the point where we're worried about okay but you're going to do it by by neighborhood and not by inevitably there's you know you don't get into every house people work people are away you know like it it's going to be a situation where you know we have to accommodate you know all these things so when I when I first look at your idea of having a capital charge I thought you were didn't read it carefully I thought you were talking about a capital charge to pay for the new meters and that that makes sense to me because only people who have meters um have are going to have meter upgrades but that could be taken care of with a half a million dollars over three years rather than $3 million over three years and the the I'm worried about the huge single step I think it's going to be harder to I think we are going to have more unhappy people with a huge increase particularly one that's not for anything we currently have in our fixed plant you're just build you're building up a uh a bank account um to spend in starting in 20 probably 27 maybe maybe not even then well 27 those bonds will be we'll have to start paying those bonds until which bonds but but the P which is what we this I'm not worried about the sewer understand but you you we have through 4 million in water yes and and so paying off those water bonds will start in a couple years okay so you could ramp up the capital fee over the next you know couple years to get to get to that number but I think we're doubling and more than doubling a lot of water bills well that's why I'm saying ramp up to it over twoe period um we have in the past paid off water bonds from um from um taxation general fund the general fund um and the general fund is reviewed fairly closely by the finance committee um um I'm I'm worried that we're building a slush fund and I that it um yeah I'm I'm confident it won't be a slush fund it'll be spent um and you've already identified spending for it the question of whether or not to use taxation versus user fees that's you know that's a debate you can have for sure and and user Fe are usually based on usage and not um this the arbitrariness of the metor size most people aren't going to recognize that they have a problem until they see their bill and it's got a $600 a quarter or $400 a quarter extra to fee on it and then they're not going to be happy so so this is this is an attempt to give some relief to the to the general fund the difference between the general fund and and the water the same pocket I I understand it's it's probably a dozen people well the same residents are paying taxes that are paying water there there are a dozen people who are not paying water but so is this something where um we we might ask fincom to get a little more specific on their advice to us before we make a firm decision that would that would certainly make me happy yeah I I think so I think you presented some really good information um like I said I I just haven't reviewed all of what came in this afternoon um so I I personally don't feel comfortable making a a firm call on on the rates um uh I'm very pleased to see the rates being from six to four I think that's fantastic on the water side um but I do think we ought to allow fin can we separate the capital charge from the rates yes um I think the rates are clearly presented and and um the one thing I had hoped to get and and I didn't communicate is to take some specific people's bills right from two years ago so you have the full year and project what what they would be with the new RS so that we can see for someone who's not using a lot of water for someone who's using a moderate amount of water for someone but not not just what the ranges are you can figure that out for the ranges to yeah I mean that's what I sign yeah that's not what you said well if you he he sent us theoretical scenarios but I'll bet if you go through the database you will find somebody resents but you just omitted the names okay you said there was something that came late this afternoon and I like I said I have not it was a it was a it was a family of two a family of five and a family of seven okay the family of two isn't not is one I have this that was just me P pasting the rates there for but down below is where I said 65 okay and so he he assumed you know 65 gallons per person per day okay for the two people that applied today's R you have that page yes that you could you put it up you're on the family of two1 yeah Well's putting that up Chuck Fe you've got you you've got suggested Capital charges $50 200200 $50 more or less PA over I don't know a couple of years or so uh would cover in effect if you wanted to say this covers a meter that would cover a meter the bigger meters don't cost like you know $400 a quarter or something like that in other words that money those monies are certainly being more broadly collected all the water initiative it's still pretty close it's but those meters cost five times a 2inch meter is over a th bucks okay and what's the smaller what's the regular meter like all rightly but it's certainly a lot it a shot what are we trying to amortize these things over what period of time so I was just insing kind of a base Capital fee so like I know this is new to Manchester but this is not new to the water industry by any means you know it certainly is a you know you can call it a lot of different things like so there's Capital fee there's um you know in venom it's just a meter siiz fee um in marsfield it's a uh base rate so like you know so if you use in our tiered system if you use just within that tier you only get build for way to use but there's some that just start that first year it's a flat fee so you know it would be in our case it would be around 60 bucks a quarter would be the basement so if you're you know like John's example somebody not using any water they might get a $20 bill like that just doesn't happen in other Town that's how they that's how they do it but that's not you know to say that's right or wrong there just there's many ways to do it and so what I was trying to do for to answer your question is just you know we we have these uh costs they're definitely coming there's if to the extent you want the users to pay for it we have to figure out a way to do it and this is a way no I get that part I'm just saying is that you're trying to retire this debt over two years three years so so in my mind about the capital I was instituting it for until basically the p is paid for which is GNA probably be a 20-y year B so it's a 20-y year payment uh and I think what John and Ann are getting at is you know if we're just using the capital fee or a meter fee to pay for meters it'll only take a year or two at the rates I proposed and then the money will just continue because hey we've got the people deal with and it'll just kind of blend into that well I we would still be evaluating the fee every year all of this is subject to the annual review that we already do I'm just trying to start to at a spot where I think three or four years from now we're not quadrupling this Fe we're not cutting it in half likely but you know it's somewhere kind of in the middle to make it a steady transition de by a Thousand Cuts versus I'm just if I'm reading this correctly if I'm reading this correctly family of two under the current proposal their their water bill would go up by 20% less than $30 their sewer would go up uh around $70 but then the meter assessment would be um $200 right dollar annual so so the volumetric rates are not you know right significant I would say but you know they are going and then the the base rate Capital fee or any of these things if you got to start somewhere I I I looked at this I did an analysis of this this afternoon I had a little time and for this scenario that person's bill is going to go up 20% and most of that 20% is that $200 capital B you back that out the rest is the 7% that you said everything's got to go up by 7% for reasons can talk about that but that's the number you you would assign for the second scenario it went up 40% this family of five and that's the only irrigator and I have to say this example this is one of the top 10 consumers this is over a million gallons a year this person uses and 90% of that is water in their lawn this is a very big lawn a acre and and their their number and they also have large meter and their their number goes up 40% and then the third group was a family of seven they weren't irrigating anything and uh but they were using about 160,000 gallons a year and it went up about 11% so the lower users are going to see greater increases because that Capital cost that you're suggested is a big percentage of what the increas is and the most most of the people in town here are down in in that area so they will see those numbers in around 15 to 20% so all all due to that fee when I say most I I mean 70% right so that's where you could you could ramp that up you don't have to to hit the 200 a year you go in the first year 100 and then the second year another 100 so you could yeah if if you wanted to step it up gradually the other I understand that you're concerned that you won't that there are other competing needs for uh capital in town and that you want to do this to put this money outside of that competition well not only that but these are half all the other stuff is subject to toy all that stuff and and you like you said it's it's going to be a debate and it's going to be a town decision these are not really Town decisions and I feel like it needs to be taken out of that um but I'm sorry I think our budget is a town decision not and when comes to the rates for paying for the like we don't we don't have the option of doing past any other you know buying a DPW truck buying all those are decisions you know typically they're you know not controversial but they're you know they are choices do we know this p is not as chice you we know how much the p is going to cost uh I I can say at a minimum it's going to cost 10 million uh actually probably more than 12 million or 10 million and at a maximum 27 million is the numbers I have today that's with no help from the state Big Range very but even a even a $10 million bond is roughly a million bucks so year in order to kind of stay on topic to your point in we want to separate the discussion around the rates versus the capital and I guess my question is are we comfortable with four tiered rates um that Chuck has presented or do we want fincom to take a look at that as well if you're asking me I'm happy with the fortune it's my a poll you I mean Je yeah I'm okay with that but like I think you're right with the capital end of it we need to look into that one I agree I think uh we're asking throw in the capital we're asking TAA B you know sucks right now you don't want to culture shock here no I'm I'm good with the four tiers my reaction after looking at this and I think do have to have some sort of a capital piece in there but because it's such a large percentage for such a large percentage of the population here that maybe the rates don't increase quite as much at the lower end and maybe they go up a little bit more on the higher end I don't know talking about rates just just on the four TI the four TI the four tiers and so yeah in general I mean I can live with what you've got chuck if I were making a recommendation I might go down a few percentage points on the lower numbers and a few percentage points higher on bigger numbers but I'm okay seems like in this sit situation we're not going down maybe not so um I guess my suggestion would be that we take a vote on the water rates right um and and give fincom an opportunity to advise us on the capital um um I I hear that as the consensus right now I so I would move to accept the um we want we haven't public hearing here so I didn't know if you wanted to well okay let's just establish for sure which the sets of rates we want to okay and and I think I think we're talking about the rates that start with Um $721 814 y 1080 1418 that is what I was so it's it's that second tier of numbers yeah that's on the screen right so I guess we at this point close the or continue continue well if you want to bate yes um you can approve the the volumetric rates tears this evening okay but you should first see if there's any public comment okay then you're right it's public hearing after all I opened it so I know okay um is there public comment in the room yes M iani 28 P Street just a reminder I know you all know this and good questions from C over there a lot of our population two people are seniors I just want to throw that out we know what and no Jas so thank you is there any discussion not see any here one in the room yes I'm sorry yes I don't know was there already people giving inut on the water r or is the first this is we we we have we have talked about this in the past but okay well I I'm avue um and um I'm not happy about the four tier plan that you guys seem to be happy about and particular every time it's discussed paper or publicly is this mention about uh the top tier uh parenthesis these are mostly people who are doing large scale irrigating and so forth well my rate often goes up into high into the higher I have a very small house you have five adults lots of showers lots of washing next to no watering outside at all and um so I think you know it's it's a complete blind spot or a fallacy to be talking about this top rate as somehow it just affects the states who are doing uh large scale watering and I have a suggestion about that Outlaw it period if irrigation is causing a problem then it shouldn't happen we have times when we have water shortage we have everybody has to you know cut back and do whatever right and no watering well then that's this maybe if that's the problem then that's the way to address it but I am opposed to this these higher rates they affect me and I don't you know I I replace leaks I do whatever I can but somehow I creep up into the third category or have and it HS me nowh so um thank you spread it out if that's the case formulating something here I don't how to articulate this maybe next month I it's by reducing yeah go ahead so I hear what you're saying um you know the volume metric rate actually the higher end the wwn water and irrigating actually does uh offset somewhat the lower tier so the lower tier is not the true cost of water if you look at our operating expenses and our salaries divided by the gallons produced so it's kind of a little bit of a conundrum in catway 2 that you know even though some folks are just using it for indar indoor use or have other uh you know extenuating circumstances that they they might not see their build will go down uh and that's just a function of the fact that we have basically fixed costs when it comes to our energy our chemicals and the cost to produce the water and then we have a finite amount to sell and as we feel the pressures Brian was talking about the inflation and all the all of these things they're kind of going in the opposite direction so it's not as if you know we can just pass the cost on to you know some invisible person or invisible estate that's exactly Happ we all we're all here response is to that if I may is that I I disagree I resent you know using the water rates as a theoretical tool to manipulate and me suppos to somehow find a way to solve the problem uh I if all these cost exist and you know these these different tiers have come about you know a group of people who thought this was you know a wonderful idea to try to you know teach people a lesson but I think it's better to just if if you want to if the costs are high the cost should be born by everybody perod I have a question yes uh Chuck just mentioned something really interesting um what is your cost per 100 cubic foot uhfor I don't have that number but I came tell you I have done a lot of uh theoretical thinking on all of these things and uh so when we were looking at a million uh a million for our kind of capital uh charge you know I got there by saying $50 per uh meter or you know some variation of that over the size if we wanted to get to a million dollars of Revenue we need about a penny a gallon so our current uh expenses are around a million and a half a year without counting any of the capital chart so that's just to keep the power on at the plant to have the water pump into the tank out of the well and into your homes um so that's roughly uh thing we did the math based on based on all of the consumption that we typically see it's about a little less than a penny a gallon for per 100 cubic feet I'm sorry so I'd have to do that that's a conversion that I don't have off on my head but I'm just saying you can say a penny a gallon is roughly our million and a half expenses and then anything over that if we tacked on like we're saying here you don't want to do the meter fee that's fine they're eight G approximately eight gallons in a cubic foot okay so that would be eight pennies times 100 eight bucks eight Okay the reason I asked the question was because when I heard you answer this gentleman's question it gave me the impression that the higher tiers were a subsidizing some of the basic cost of the system and it looks as the so if it's roughly $8 per 100 cubic foot that's what our cost is then it's that lower tier um we're not covering our costs with the $721 uh no it's that's an all is that correct you know basically from year to year because the you know sometimes it rains and people turn off the irrigation sometimes people get a smarter irrigation or they turn off a leak all of these things come into play every year so there's no there's no you know Silver Bullet that answers all of these questions everybody has a legitimate point of view based on where they sit and how they just trying to understand your statement yeah and so to to put it to answer it bluntly yes the the top tiers in a typical year subsidize the lower tiers and we count on all of it to make our million and a half you know roughly annual revenue so approximately the first two tiers the 721 and the 814 are paying less than the cost of producing their water if water is is seven 481 keep mind I mean we're at you know roughly 100 million gallons a year so like the year lot that goes into it yeah generally yeah you we're coming up with a process that we could go by to say that we approve the rates and we want to we we want to continue to discuss the cap right so um so two sets of rates volumetric rates Water and Sewer so you could have the same discussion now on the sewer rate and ask for any public comment okay and if you look comfortable with those those recommendations for both want Inu or you could then close a portion of the public hearing dealing with that but continue public Hearing in relationship to Capital fee okay um so so I think we have we I'm hearing a consensus on the rates the volumetric rates for water so now we should start discussing the volumetric rates for sewer so we want to close we don't we don't need to close it yet talk sewer we have to sewer water and sewer volumetric rates we'll close he so think you want to move on to the Sewer rate now which is proposed as a a 7% increase um and over a threeyear period that would generate sufficient funds to continue sewer paying 75% of the new Bond which is your historical practice and then the remaining 25% would be out of Taxation yes and the logic behind that is that everybody gets some benefit from having sewer sewage no doubt not running in the streets right so question yeah so Chuck you've got 7% your suggested approaches right just do 7% for the next three years I'm not sure what happens after that is that 7% based upon simply increased costs or are you trying to build up some Capital reserves associated with that pay down debt no that will when the bond comes due the payment will be making that and then um there there are additional projects that need to be done that could be done in that time so so these rates generally go up couple of percent a year they always have okay so that 2% is buried in that seven so the other five is building up a capital reserve so to speak to pay down well I mean it's not anticipated anticipated okay what happens after three years you're saying okay I've done enough 7% and I'll go back to whatever the yeah I don't anticipate it being 7% again but I don't antici I mean 777 through fiscal year 27 fiscal year 28 you going to go for another 7 to say all right now we'll go back to two and a half or three I don't anticipate that right now okay but I wouldn't rule it out based on our system happen expect well it's money spongeable it's going in lots of different directions here with regard to the bonds so so right so the answer right now is that we don't anticipate additional needs for Capital that would require more bonding but as Chuck says you never know what surprises lurking been waiting for us so so baked into that number is about the 200,000 in capital that we've been doing some of that goes towards pipe some of that goes to oneoff projects in the plant obviously we're doing a much bigger project now so I wouldn't I wouldn't use that money for oneoff at the plant but we do have a significant backlog of pipe work uh that will'll need to get done that's kind of yet to be budgeted and so this will allow us to you know divert that 200k a year roughly into those projects and I don't anticipate that going on forever but so I have a question is um we have the opportunity to revisit rates each quarter is that correct or is it twice a year not Sur once a year once a year yes I'm I'm definitely um a little uncomfortable with this building of a fund without a clear so that we are not building a fund on the SE side what are the water side for that matter based on the volumetric rates the capital fee all that what you want but the volumetric rates are really paying for the volumetric work that needs to be done on an annual basis and there's no necessarily building up um it's just these these projects are very Dynamic and you know this this is funding that needs to go into the Enterprise fund so that we can authorize it uh at the following count meeting so this is not a situation where we're you know we know exactly what the you know bill is going to be we just know that there there are bills coming and um you know just because I haven't said it's a $200,000 pipeline project on tapen Street doesn't mean that that doesn't exist and I I would say if you look at our a trend of our Enterprise fund going you know because of all the volatility that we've seen in the market we are we are drawing that down and if you look at the revenue numbers that I did provide versus expenses they are now expenses are outpacing Revenue so this is a correction so let's I just want to make sure that's very clear I'm not trying to run up a bank account so but the sewer I guess for the rate payers it's about what 200 2.7 what it 2.7 2.58 million that's the sewer that's the for the extra expenses you've got associated with so that's the bond that was approved that's the project that's what was going in there 5% was going that's public so that's over and above the 200 or the Enterprise Fund in general right right right okay so you've been spending a certain amount now you're going to be spending more because you need to spend more to do that the 70% is covering that plus whatever you've been doing every year which is a couple hundred, okay so we're not building up anything although that money doesn't get paid because that's coming out of bond money some of that money is Bond money and you're not paying that back until until the project closes but there will be Bond anticipation notes and what not before like 2000 it'll be a couple years but that but that's why he's he proposing ramp well that's right I mean it is collecting money in a sense that you're going to write a big check in a couple of years and you want to have that money to write that check and and this one is going here by here incrementally and not raising it 21% this year One Shot no correct but that's the alternative you could wait two more years and it goes up by 21 and it goes up 21% this we thought would be more palatable for people's budgeting purposes to go up a little more incremental my question though is you know anytime you talk about like a 7% operational jump that's huge right so um next year when we're sitting here if if if we're sitting here um depends on what we vote tonight what are we gonna what are you going to ask for for an operational increase if we going back to the two and half% or is it going to be another 7% on top of this what I'm budgeting is 7% per year as and it's we are we are trending so that we need to do we need to pay that bill when it comes doe on an annual basis we also need to do projects in the interum so that's that's why I'm keeping it flat so you're talking so like my honestly my operational expense this year was held flat zero knowing that we had to raise the rates to cover all this other stuff so I'm trying to play both sides and get it down the middle well you're talking 7% over how many years you don't know each year years so three years it's 21% but at the end of three years you're [Music] saying all of this is we'll reevaluate year to year but what I'm getting at is we have projects and we have bills to pay over the for forever it's never it's never going to thought but you know I need to I need to plan on these projects I need them to be U fundable uh and this is this is how we get there but buying any other major surprises the plan would be after 3 years of those 7% increases to go back to the one two to 3% increase so this is from an operational perspective this is covering the fact that it's too our revenue is less than our expenses we need to correct that we also have plenty of projects on the horizon and we have projects that are in planning stages that need to get done um I I can't come to you every year and say Here's 16% here's 5% here's 3% I think what would be helpful in the future is you know a rate is just a way of liquidating cost Distributing cost that's all it is right um what would be helpful is understanding out of the you know $17 six per whatever rate how much of that is true operations versus projects literally literally sent that pie chart yeah that P chart that's what his email to you lots of operations uh emails um and well I mean this is a very complex topic and this is the deepest we've ever got into it and I mean I I am here every day work living it so I just want you guys to know I didn't come to this decision lightly to you know so the taxpayers and the rate payers this is CH I'm sorry which email should I be looking at it's all in the same chain so if you go to any one of my emails it's me responding to a previous email 2 o' this afternoon no the r one came this the P chart one came this morning I've got 210 um that was the one that was had the so I've got a question two family seven family five okay got a question about the pie charts and you said it didn't quite match up but water Revenue went down in two thisal year 23 and Sewer Revenue went up now water eventually become sore not all of it not all of it but a good Chuck of it I'm just wondering why can you do you understand why that happened or is that just because things don't quite so like like I said seasonally and year to year nothing is ever the same so that could have been a rainy year where a lot of people turned off irrigation it also could have been uh you know coming out of covid where we saw differences in work from home not work from home going back to work going back so there's been significant external factors that have last last summer was rainy and then there that the irrigation which does not go into the sewer and then there was there was one year where we actually had a mandatory so like all of these things happen every year based on the situation that's why you know I'm saying 7% you know tell me tell me what really happens and I'll tell you what we have to do but like so I'm just I'm just doing the best I can to make sure things get there I'm trying to give you all the information that I think you want that you've asked for um I don't I don't know how else to do it so want me go like this to water goes on that's all we care about yeah I mean most people they just want that turn it on there's also theill so so I do think Manchester you know there's no doubt that we we are not covering our costs with what we ask people to pay for you know I know what my relatives pay in other cities and towns and they see my bill they like you're kidding right so it's it's there's no doubt we have to right siize things um but but I'm just trying to think about the best way to communicate this to people um because we're talking about some pretty big jumps and and um you know we shouldn't undertake that lightly so I think you also sent some Trend charts and and I think so that's what people remember is what they paid last year you know so um looking for that right we also need to remember that voters approved both the operating and the new debt y so voters have approved that so now now the question is how do we actualize the payments that people have authorized right so when we talk later on in the agenda about the budget process um we want to maybe revisit this conversation as a way to do things differently when we ask people to vote on stuff because they vote on stuff and may not fully grasp how that's going to impact the bill that they get um and and maybe we can do things a little differently it's I think it's subject for discussion our rates right now are the task force looked at rates in surrounding communities and we're about in the middle not not not sewer not sewer no we're trying to talk about sewer okay I'm sorry sewer that's correct youbody dismissed one but are there people that have meters just for irrigation that don't pay sewer how how many of those are there so it it's kind of a combination of irrigation and dedu um and so there's roughly 600 and that's in that 2600 so there's about 2,000 you know main services and about another 600 second meters roughly and and then there are people who are not on the sewer at all correct yeah so about twoth thirds of the town is on sewer and the other third is septic um oh okay so what we're talking about at the moment I hope is the sewer rates going up by 7% to cover the bonds that the town has already voted for following the um division of costs that the town has used consistently which is to say that 75% of sewer Capital goes on the sewer rate and 25% goes on the tax rate so this is what has been practic Us in town for at least a decade probably several decades um and you're saying that there's a need to significantly increase the sewer rate to meet that the bond your 34s of that Bond I'm sorry the Enterprise funds y um and you're proposing that we do that stepwise rather than going up 21% one is that is there a way to phrase our approval here so that there's some kind of a check at the end of the three years every year well I just we're relying on institutional me yeah we're relying on institutional memory here um and I'm not that's what I'm not comfortable with I am perfectly fine um with raising the sewer rates 7% over the next three years that's it that's where my comfort ends I mean I'm only asking for this year assuming that we're going to stay because the voters have already voted for that yeah we're not voting for all three we're just voting for one but I'm concerned that the five of us may not be sitting here three years from now and the Town Administrator may not be sitting here three years from now and we rely on institutional memory to know that we're supposed to stop increasing it by 7% and I want to to ask Greg is there a is there some way to memorialize this conversations such that we um it's clear that there is no intent to raise it by 7% every year after that I mean I'm sorry I just like to say like I I would be happy to annually report our last four quarters of Revenue versus expenses and that's really what's driving 7% and I think if it's reasonable that it you know that that Trend goes back down and there's reserved retained earnings the Enterprise fund that there's not a 7% increase that's not that's never been our approach that be a one L be how it goes I think we need a yeah obviously you can memorialize it in in the minutes for for your vote um but you can also you if the board is different even if the board is the same we we have this discussion every year right and you can't you can't boards but but but Chu will be here every every year at about this time and he will show us show whoever is sitting in these seats and and I mean I think it's a fair thing for me to put in my memo every year there has to be a memo coming from my department that says these are our prop this is why right I'll add a line to that memo so that next year when whoever is sitting in your seats reviews last year's memo it says we will be looking at Revenue versus expenditures every year from now forever I think what might be helpful though is because your team does a lot of great work to try and hold down expenses and I don't think we see that information as clearly because like I said just just high level conversation I'm gonna increase my budget by 7% every year that's you know that doesn't happen a lot in the private sector unless a company is growing right so usually there's some sort of a force to try and hold down expenses and and I I know your team is doing a lot in that area but that's the piece of the puzzle that's not visible how are you holding down expenses um to try and minimize the pain on on on the residents um because usually you know You' look at both sides of the equation before approving a rate yeah so I mean that that is part of the budget process so like every year I would say it's incumbent on all of us and anybody that's interested to you review the budget but yeah yeah I think you just for a road back to how we got here yeah I can see that yeah so um we are where we are but I just maybe this is a conversation like I said when we talk about revisiting how we do the budgeting um just to make sure we have the right checks in place to keep expenses under control um a lot of assumptions go into expenses and and and maybe we need to help with some of those assumptions okay are we ready um is there public comment on the sour yes please Rani 28 hin Street I think Kathy can correct she suggesting is that um with regard to the 7% that there be some sort of sunset provision which will force the for to memorialize it uh will force the issue at some point I don't think we're second guessing anyone I just think um you have a valid point I I don't know what the language is in in municipal government I totally understand I say we're only asking to approve this year's rates any subsequent rate that was just my kind of best ethnic going forward there's no you know you don't have to vote on it just like you didn't have to vote on the capital rate table it don't table it don't do it I mean it's not a it's not a sunset issue it's just you don't like the 7% rate tell me what you want it to be reasons why it needs to go down totally I understand I'm just I think sping comment um I disagree that we need a sunset provision because we're not voting on the rate of increase in subsequent years we're only voting on this year the fact that Chuck has said that in his opinion we need more 7% is that's we'll revisit backit that in the year well not yeah you want an example of kicking the cat yeah right something El no I I appreciate that and um do I have a mo do I have a motion to close the public hearing for the volume at yes that's jff that's me but I'm go ahead to close the uh public hearing for the volumetric rates of the water and sewer that's but we're leaving the we're we're we're just closing the public hearing for those things that way we can vote on them with the hearing closed we will continue the hearing for the capital um over search charge on the water r okay so I move the select board Clos the evident portion of the hearing for volumetric rates rates and the sewer volc rates for water and sewer second John yes anyone says yes yes happy says yes Brian okay um then we will we will continue the hearing on the capital uh sir charge we need a vote on this I move to continue the a public hearing on the capital portions of the is it water and just water so sorry correct me so just needs to be a date certain so so July 15th meeting to July to the July at 630 at 6:30 um at s s seven yeah that's fine that's right did you get all that debie didn't you me you got it got it she's good second John yes says yes yes says yes Brian yes yes okay so now we need to take a vote on the volumetric rate for water um and Sewer so I I move move to um set the water rates and Sewer rates the biometric rates as presented here um you want me to read them off as probably I I'll I'll read them up for the water rates um per 100 cubic foot for the first 1700 cubic feet use that's $721 uh for the next tier 171 to 5700 cubic feet used at $814 the next tier 571 to 16,000 Cub feet used $108 cents and the next tier at uh 16,0 And1 to 39,000 cubic feet used at $418 that those four are for water and the sewer rate uh to be set at $176 Cent per 100 cubic feet uh an amendment yeah on the last water rate that 16 000 plus oh just 16,000 Plus thank you very much anybody want to Second all second sorry watch the recording Jeff yes Brian yes Kathy yes says yes John yes so I think we don't have to stand there at happy anymore I'm get there one way or another okay the um next item on the agenda is the town FL petition so we've received a request by of residents requesting that the flag pull at the war memorial be used only for the American flag and that the second flag call be placed on the P common for any ceremonial or ceremonial Flags so that's that's the request that's before you you you talked about this issue for the last couple of years couple three years um we've U going back and forth on it but you in the end have always concluded that um that the main flight will can accommodate the the few requests for ceremonial or yeah ceremonial Flags um typically we'd have one maybe two year so it's really it's really been the uh the June um Pride Celebration that you have um declared a uh it's part of your policy to to endorse that for any endorsed event as a town event that you would support a flag so that's the one that has come for you I uh I support the flag okay I support the multi-purpose I prefer and I've talked to a lot of people on Asko up by the point I got talk to fo and wck there times when there was more flag to for pled lead or the uh national anthem during uh events at Park think uh you put it way up at the point by the flag state flag even town flag I think at some point not that iconic but it as voters come into the hob they can as they get closer I can see it they can see from the C Rail and I think that done properly is it's going look good there a demountable pole I see that got just L of disaster kids s Hing on it whatever's going to happen hanging their hands on it and as I said in a previous meeting I just don't want to not in the I got chastised by saying literally the uh I just want to keep I like the calm and clean and I think that to could benefit from the whole anything that's my I I'm also an advocate for the flag pole I am okay with it on the town common I can be swayed to also masomo but I think the town common is a is is probably the most public place for it um you know reasons that have been expressed before um that's why I think I should have a second one simply because the memorial flag pole really should be for the veterans memorial and that's it's on Memorial it's or I should say veterans on on a role but uh [Music] I think it should go there I've been kind of tracking how things have been working with other communities over the past say couple of years there now are probably about 30 communities that have policies with regard to flag polls uh about a third of them don't want any kind of commemorative flag pole uh about a third say yes you can have a commemorative flag but they're silent on whether on what flag pole it's going to be and then there are about a third of the communities that have said uh it can be a commemorative flag pole only in other words the flag pole that has the US flag on it can only have the US flag and the P flag I think we're rather unique here in that we have one flag pole in town that's really the principal flag pole in town and it happens to be in an honoral setting it's not just a flag pole in front of a town hall so there is any other town that I've seen that has that particular unique situation that confounds things of course so my position is I've seen the the diagram I think uh the plot plan that that Chuck said and he suggested a flag pole that could fit out there on the on on the common and be a collapsible actually removable it it becomes flush with the ground so it doesn't stick up at all and then would be mounted Whenever there are there are flags that the uh select board would deem appropriate to put out there based upon a review of this situation so um I I the petition that's in front of us is a little bit different than what we discussed last year um I personally don't see the need for another black pole I just don't think we have the volume of requests to Warrant it um however um you know that all saying the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result so we've been talking about this for about three years now and um we haven't scratched the itch or answered the questions that the residents have around why we allow commemorative flags on that flag pole I think to the average person walking by they whether resident or visitor the honor role looks like a memorial it look whether it was intended to be that or not um it looks like a memorial I think the town made a mistake by putting the town flag pole in a place where it could be misconstrued what its purpose is ar ar their argument is not that it's the town it's their plat well that's what I'm s I'm getting there so apologies for being a little long-winded but I I I feel that the visual that's on the town comment is confusing it causes confusing confusion um so we are where we are um I personally do not see the need for another flag poll but I can support bringing this conversation to a town meeting where I think that needs to happen um I think we have some people here with with you know views that are um you know we heard last year we heard the year before I think there are people who may or may not be in this room with different views but I just feel that this is a conversation that may be best adjudicated at a town meeting because it involves some type of expense anyway um I would not be in favor of the collapsible flag pole I think that does a disservice and is disrespectful to whatever flag would be on it I hate to use the term cheesy but it sounded cheesy to me um I I think that is disrespectful if we talk about putting a second flag poll on the town common um I honestly believe you the right thing to do would be to hire a landscape designer to find the right spot I think we got into this situation by maybe not carefully considering the right spot as to where the flag P could be um so I think all of that involve some expense and conversation and if the town wants to do that fine I I personally don't support it but I just think the town might need to have that conversation that's kind of my head my you didn't have I'm sorry yeah I I 100% support the second flag pole or some second means for people to display commemorative Flags um I've talked with a lot of veterans a lot of families of veterans who are no longer with us to me that flag pole the way it's set up is an integral part of the honorable um a lot of the veterans don't want another flag there I can understand that and um you know I don't there's a controversy here that's going to keep going on and on and on if we don't do something and I feel that we should do something um I don't you know we're making one group very happy and then we're making another group very upset and I don't think that's with the circumstances Around The Honorable I don't I don't think that's something we should be doing I think we need to come up with another answer whether it's mascul a I don't have a preference on what it is or where it is but I really believe something else needs to have my take is that the honor Ro and its flag somebody else is not the town flag pole we need a town flag po I think it should be on the town I think it should be taller and more prominent than the flag pole on the honor role and that it should fly the US flag and every day heighted properly and when there is a commemorative flag it FES underneath that and I think it should be a big prominent flag and we should Kathy's I agree with Kathy hire a landscape architect and make it as attractive as possible I think putting it off in another park it demeans our our celebration no masomo Park is not the center of the town the common is the center of the town we canre I'm sure we've all disagreed so and again my intention is not to hide the flag okay that's I mean and uh I just think that actually a on the point that masconomo is a prominent place so I like what an said though about um because I was thinking along the same lines that um the average person walking by thinks that's the honor role a memorial flag poll because they don't understand the history nor should they the visual is wrong um from a town standpoint and if we do put another town flag pole with the American flag it should absolutely be taller and more prominent than anything else um we might have on the on the tone comment that I could support I still think you know you know you may it sounds like it would be involv some expense and we may still need to have this discussion at a town we could hear various people I don't know if there are how many people are on the line right now that want to express their views but I just don't know whether folks think that town meeting discussion is valuable or not I just throw that out there is so I've just got two follow-up comment comments I agree that we probably should consult with somebody and say what is the best spot I don't think I think I think Chuck may not be the best personal truck wherever you are yes but so I I agree with that but I also think that flag pole that we that we put up on the common will be a commemorative flag pole I don't think it should be a flag pole that has a US flag there has been a lot of discussion in a lot of communities when there's a US flag on a flag pole I so I I stand by that is not our policy no not right now and so I think having an empty flag pole standing there is not a good symbol 11 months out of the year right right right right well I mean you could put up a town flag I mean there are a number of things that you could put up there and instead the only Town flag I see is flying at H Point okay do we anything further Jeff no I just I didn't know if you want to hear from the public oh yeah I just wanted to make sure that we had had a chance and and there will be um there will be uh opportunities for us to um and and to re or or agree um especially as it goes along um as usual I will take comments from people in the room um John could you make sure that no one speaks for more than two minutes yes thank you don't don't get stand at Bruce iy 49 Pleasant Street um I am um on the committee for the veterans honor role and I also um when Dan senle and the select board came to us to have a new veterans honor role and that was a section of land that was given to us and yes there was a town hall flag pole on that property and that's what makes everyone think that this one now is a town hall flag pole um but it wasn't because that was taken down by the town and and I thought it was going to be replaced someplace else but it did not but anyways um I am in full support of yours with a another flag go on the property um leaving the veterans honor rooll to be the veterans on a ro and the American Legion would like to take the Forefront of that and make sure that it gets well maintained and the proper lighting and everything else that's and the whole bit but uh I just I want to say I support your motion to put a separate flag pole not a motion it is just a suggestion and I do not have a majority board with so this is not a topic that's we're going to settle tonight but thank you for your comments okay yes sir John S 48 Pleasant Street I also support a town flag on the Comm and and um why wouldn't it why would it have to be a bare pole all year long we could fly the American flag that pole but then when someone wants to use it that flag can come down and and the other thing is you do not fly a flag higher than the American flag so if you have a huge pole you do not fly a separate flag higher than than the American flag which is on the PO so they have to be the same height and then if we fly thank you um right we would need to be careful not to put a secondary flag higher than the American flag on the honor Ro platform but we could fly the American flag higher correct okay this is a nice idea to have a second flag pole I'm asking no beautiful you know you could have you we can't have more than one flag and you have American flag amican the end of Master let's get through one a time you know no thank you anyone else anyone online uh Mr Gilbert Jer Gilbert Gary go ahead can you hear me yes and we can see you okay hi uh thanks um uh let's see I support what Ann Harrison's suggesting I think there should be a single poll it should be relocated um my dad was a veteran he was a foot soldier in World War II and that was a big part of his life and I know that he felt uh gay people are part of our nation it's part of what he fought for um uh the commons having a flag on the commons I mean the word Commons alone suggests all of us as a community and if we were to ex include some people that are part of our society on a different poll that that's an exclusion and it's not an exaggeration to say and we should keep it in mind I mean one of the issues relating to gay people is um kids are committing suicide on a regular basis in in our society because they're excluded by our society and sometimes by their parents and it's tragic and as long as that goes on I think we need to take every step we can take to um recognize that we're all part of a Nation working together and we should be supporting each other and I think it's very symbolic to exclude a sizable part of our population um and it's potentially tragic on some levels um and I have a great deal of respect for veterans um but I think they're part of our nation too we're a group and we're supposed to work together um I get those are my two sents um I just want to say that I don't think we're just talking about LBGTQ flag there's going to be other things coming forward so I uh first of all I think that the a separate flag pole should be out on the town common because what Gary is saying is true we don't want to exclude any group um from the recognition is this is a very um noticeable place people walking driving by will see it but the Veteran's honor role is for a specific purpose which is to honor the veterans who enrolled from Manchester and it's not for any other reason and it's not this is nothing to do with LBGTQ or any other group it's just about the the fact that that is a veterans honor Ro and that's should be exclusive to them than you yes Rani 28 Hind Street all of us are here because you know we we come together as a community and I don't think the intent is to exclude anybody but what I want to say is I agree with you um and I'm hoping that everyone keeps an open mind here I gave um a lot of research to the select board on the history of how the honor Ro came about and certainly the design um is with the Flag fold being intrical um for the honor roll and not for another purpose so listening to everyone's concerns whether it be veterans or Gary's concern or whoever I think we have to learn um and I'm sorry to say it this way but honestly we have to learn to listen to everyone's concerns and if there's a way of meeting uh in the middle and doing uh and actually um coming up with a resolution then I'm for that and I don't think that is a major ordeal so having the the restoration is is what I'm calling it because we took down the municipal wag B we took it down and we cut it and we dumped it in the DPW site and I made sure that I told everyone about this as well I think that what we should do is establish and restore the flag pole and I think I'd like to see it um on the comment because again in parody in with everyone and you know quite frankly the town uh itself might want to use that addition the restored Municipal flag Poll for its own purposes juneth Black History Month women's month we could go on and on with the federal proclamations and quite frankly we adopt many of those like we have you know recently so it's not about a single group it's about all of us and quite frankly I cannot understand why we wouldn't look tonight for a solution here it's not it's not impossible what we're doing here is people are coming together and we're looking for a solution the solution is two flag poles parity Equity it would look enormously uh beautiful on our common and to show not only the honor role to honor the veterans but also another flag poll to restore it since we cut it down and trashed it to restore it with uh for municipal purposes so I feel very strongly about this in and quite frankly um this is about the third time or the fourth that uh the select board with different members has discussed this very issue I think it's time for a solution these people are spending their time here our veterans to come forward to be heard so basically I'm passionate about it thank you for allowing me to speak on it and providing me with some information on it but I appreciate that let's look for a solution thank thank you yes I uh also I wrote an email the boy the first meeting and I think a second flag pole is a town life I also had suggested that you could put flag stats on The Columns of the town hall for the purpose of groups clubs who should be recognized with these mon all these different months uh all these different U achievements from our great students and and things and like um all the different groups in town all you know all the everything should and why couldn't we have column on those columns have a Flag Staff that would be open for banners and and flags of different of different grops and a town flag full for the purpose of the American flag flying somewhere on the Comm there's plenty of room and you know can't have too many flag Poes look how beautiful the haror thank you wel okay my take is that the project we're we're talking about if we want to consider a panel flag hole is something that that should be brought into the budget talked about and and and it's I I'm not ready to force a vote right now and and I you know we will we understand that this is a Hot Topic in town and we understand that there are strong and divided opinions and I think ready come down in any particular one Jeff what about a motion to look into the cost and design second flag thank you that would be fine I I make the motion to look into the ccept and design of a second flag pole on the con friendly amendment to be at least as tall or taller than of The Honorable yeah I mean that would be second second vote I just want to make a comment sure um I hear everyone I mean the my suggestion to Mas Point try to be compromise okay I have the second pole on town hall on on the I was trying to kill two birds in one stone I still believe the flag really really good out asking Point okay but if he uh please no side conversations but as far as I'm concerned I can support flag here that's that's my comment okay for a vote one more comment one one more comment there has been many private discussions about uh donations people are willing to donate to support a second flag pole that wouldn't cost the time any and donate it to the town different groups and individuals so looking into uh cost and and put in the correct place and having you know maybe even working with an architect to find that there's a lot of people that would like to donate privately to have this done so it's not you know that isn't going to be an issue with the time thank you any further comment before we vote so I I I guess my comment would be looking into this there really two things that were looking at here where are the flag poll's going to go and I think there's still some question of whether this is a a removable flag pole or perent that's not a question in my mind absolutely not we don't want a second rate flag po all right well that'll probably come out be the most prominent flag PO on the town common that is what I believe the most prominent would be the town flag the town okay yes please I can get quote from the flag pole company that we had install that one to get one a separate flag pole for the town common I I appreciate your offer I appreciate the offers of of support for for the funding but I think we really need to make this a town platform okay and and and not moody these Waters even more I think that's how we got into the situation in first place yeah well it's ations are given with the idea that it will be a municipal flag for will know under the under the select for and the town I mean it shouldn't be an issue I me you can donate to things what we're what we're currently discussing is investigating with a landscape architect a location and a design um and and I we we can we can when we have a location design that we like then we can look at fundraising in any of the possible ways awesome okay how think there was a behind us I'm sorry uh Dave m y uh I'd like to make one comment and uh I think that there should be one flag Po in their common every generation loses a little something everyone tries to accommodate another group some things should in my opinion stay the same there's always been one flag pole in the center of town with the American flag line if since then they had the Mia PW fight in my opinion that's enough you can't have every organization having their political view or whatever one flag pole the American flag and in this case the Mi P flag you want to have a flag hole somewhere else with uh interests have it somewhere else one flag ble in the center of town that's the way it's always been and that's the way it should be my opinion thank you thank you there is a motion a second a second we there's always provision for discussion after the motion in second and and before then but I think we're ready to vote I think so John yes Ann says yes Kathy yes Brian yes yes Jeff okay thank you this concludes the discussion of flags and flag polls for this evening thank you all very much for coming thank you thank you thank you for the people who are here as candidates you have my apology for the delay um however um we have three candidates here for um interviews um and I terrible at reading names that would be me Susan was still thank you very much thank you very much thank you um could you explain um just briefly you don't have to stand up but if you'd like to that's fine um um your your interested background and you know why you're here asking us to appoint you absolutely um I've been a resident of Manchester with my family since 2014 um I recently retired well two years ago January of 2022 um for my full-time job as a prosecutor of USS attorney's office in Boston um and since that time I've been doing U some voluntary legal work with the conservation law Foundation which focuses on a lot of water and sewer issues and things of that nature um and also more importantly for these purposes working at about uh being a driver for the Meals on Wheels program once a week here in Manchester and as a driver what I um came to realize is a lot of these folks just like really need someone to interact with and someone to talk to and chat with and feels if they have a community many of them basically don't have anybody but their caregivers um and so like my delivery meals for two minutes of their lives on a Friday morning um is a highlight and that's a rather sad State of Affairs and so I came to grow okay to gr and I've had compassion for the um for for the plight of our senior citizens and um I just feel as if I want to do more to help them um I know that a senior citizens u center is a big issue right now and I fully support that some kind of Center be developed um and so so people can congregate and spend time together and now that I have a time that I'm retired I'd be happy to help on out part thank you je jeen I'm right John okay you don't look a little maybe a grow be really exactly that's missing well good um Susan thank you for raising your hand on this um um and I don't I don't know you've been you've been involved with some other with some other um you know Town organization I was a member of the cultural Council for I think two or three years prior to that that that time I was full-time working so I honestly can say that probably did not put my full neotion that but you have some famili familiarity have you spoken with anybody in the Council on Aging at this point I have not and that's a it's uh I'm glad to see that you're starting to get familiar with a few of the seniors especially the ones that are confined and maybe in the senior center initiative will uh work out I I noticed um you've got a problem with Wednesdays right now um well yes just only through September is this because you're pessimistic about the Red Sox opportunties to get to October right now some Red Sox will season will be ending in September and I if they have a game on Wednesdays on they are not here so of little F I'm devoting I haven't seen so many Red Sox game in my life this season is is that a regular roll I'm sorry is that a regular it's not just for this season well I um got this part-time job for this this year and I'll have to decide if I want to do it again although I do know if um I'm just a ner and so what um I did learn is that if they did wi win the World Series I will be walking around with they were World Series ring so keep that in mind so how and they've taught you how to wipe down the seats well I know that they didn't teach us but that's something kind of on the job training get no that's good so is is your flexibility I I I think the COA is probably flexible on times that's that's my own that's my only other commitment I have right now um so I don't think should be isue in fact I looked at like on the council website there isn't it doesn't seem as if they had any meetings since May or something uh yeah they probably skip maybe three months a year and we're like in the middle of that right now okay so um so as far as I can tell my only issue of time doing Bas season okay well I I think that we probably can move the COA meeting if there's one person that can't accommodate that cuz Frank most of the people on that board are retired and have some flexibility in terms of timing so um I think we can work around that but your familiarity with some of the senior population is definitely a plus and the COA is going to have to take a bigger role here as we move into uh building a senior center yeah I do realize that be future project thank you for raising your hand um just thank you for stepping up it's great to work with the seniors um because I know a lot of them are you know can't get out and uh that you're going further into this it's great so thank you you're welcome just Echo y okay thank you for stepping up same thank you um I would encourage you to to reach out to you know the chair of that um committee it does look like they do have meetings on Wednesdays um so but as John mentioned that can be you know adapted to what excuse me what time do you have to be in Boston depends on the game time say 7 o' game have to be there by 5 which 3:30 um I guess my comment would be if if if it's not possible to rearrange um the meetings um I would ask that you accept an appointment subject to their being able to rearrange their meetings um I think it'd be Diane meet they meet in the morning well that's not what it says on the website that's that's why that's why I raise generally their meetings are at 4: p.m ier I mean I've attended several of them okay generally four four o'clock okay okay i' be I'd be happy to to accept the appointment subject to aail Y having having an a member who's absent makes very hard to run a committee um but thank you you okay are we ready to make a decision I am how about I move that the select board appoint Susan Willow um to the Council on again teach us again look at the look how it's spelled out it's with postill thank help if would help if I put my glasses on as well Susan potillo excuse me to the Council on Aging for a term to expire on June 30th 2027 subject to the um uh meeting with meeting with the um chair of the committee um regarding scheduling the meetings on a different day second joh yes answerers yes Kathy yes Goan yes thank you very much I think you're going to be [Laughter] great um we have two candidates for Marks and wck um Ellen Flatley and Paul stti thank you um Ellen please ask you for um hi I'm Ellen Flatley I'm 23 Lincoln Street um thank you for taking your time to speak with me this evening um I think uh parks and Rex of any Community especially a SM small community like ours is vital to the community um the parks beautiful parks and a robust uh Recreation program makes a town and a community a desirable place to live I think currently our Parks and Recreation Department does a great job at that um so I want to give a little bit of my background to see where I could potentially help in that um I was born and raised in Manchester um I have fond memories of attending Parks and Recreation programs um uh you know went to playground my whole life in fact I wish I could still go to playground and I could that could be hat day and I could have post and go to canaby Lake Park um so um I know how important playground is not only as a I don't know do you graduate from playground I don't know as an alumni playground um but how important that is uh for the children but also for the families in town um as a teenager and a young adult college student I worked at the beach actually my first year I worked at the beach this is maybe tell you how old I am the beach was still being operated by the police department um but my second year it transferred over to the Parks and Recreation Department so I'm intimately aware of the operations of the sort of crown jewel of our of of our parks department um singing Beach and I know the challenges that that it can bring as well um professionally uh what I have my professional life how this all comes into play I've worked in tourism for the last 15 years um specifically in the sort of sales and marketing side of things um I lived in New York for 11 years and I worked at two New York uh museums I worked at the Intrepid sarn Space Museum which if you don't know is an aircraft carrier in the middle of the Hudson River um and what I did there is I ran the overnight program so primarily it was um for Cub Scouts um I uh Cub Scouts would come aboard the aircraft carrier and they would sleep aboard and have a night of programming and I did everything for that program from soups to nuts from the conception to the planning to the budgeting to the the sales and marketing of it I was on the phone with Scout leaders selling it um I was even getting on the mic at night introducing the programming and getting all the cup Scouts excited to sleep on very uncomfortable CS all night um so from a event management in a recreation setting for Youth and Family programming I do have experience in that and on a fairly large scale um also at my time in New York I worked at the 911 Memorial Museum I was there for over six and a half years and I was part of um again I was on the sales and marketing side so my primary function was working with um third party ticket brokers which is actually who I now work for I worked for one of our third party ticket brokers that I worked with at 911 um but our goal at the 9911 Museum was to create this public space that had um a lot of stakeholders um emotional stakeholders a very unique site um and well there's not an Apples to Apples here in Manchester but um being part of the operations and management of a public space um that's designed for a very specific reason um and putting that operational design into play was what I did on a day-to-day basis um uh and also within that I was was working with the sales and marketing budget so it was all about Revenue growth growth and budgeting which I think is a really big part of any sort of recreation programming so that's how my professional life sort of plays into what I think I can bring to the Parks and Recreation Department um again I think our parks recreation department does a great job um so I think I offer unique perspective and just on a personal note I feel um sort of feel a call to to help the town and to represent the town in some way um maybe on a DNA level my um not that this should matter but my family has a strong history of Public Service I'm going back Generations so I think it's in my DNA to to help the town somehow and this is my little footstep into possibly doing that so right uh no it sounds like you're very qualified and uh thank you for coming aboard thanks no I'm good I just I was on the inre two weeks ago oh there did they have the grow when you were there too y The Growler and actually the Concord too which I know just came back so um this I was the Space Shuttle came after I left but I was part of the effort to get the space shuttle so at one point we had a rally and I was walking around in astronaut suit Grand Central Terminal trying to bring the space shuttle to New York so welcome to New York City so um I think your experience is wonderful and I'm curious given your experience and your experience with parks and wreck um is there something in particular that you see that you'd like to work on yeah I think shap yeah exactly I so I'm am in a unique position I think a lot of parks and does a lot of great family programming and obviously they should do that again it's important to community but I'm in a unique position I I do not have children and I would love to see the adult Recreation be grown um especially I'm a adult that works a sort of typical 9 to-5 type of job oftentimes a lot of the recreation for adults is offered is in the middle of the day so so I would like to look at that adult Recreation um or Recreation for all that might appeal more to adults than to to Children um having that be expanded and especially in off off hours or on hours depending on what Recreation hours are considered on or off thank you yeah and I slept at the battleship when my son was a Cub Scout in Fall River yeah I you can't imagine hundreds of snoring young men and their dads was not the most enjoyable experience I've been the only one awake in that room right now it's room car we do that we we had an ages Battleship oh ages some years John yeah come in very good good Ellen yeah I want to thank you for raising your raising your hand couple of couple of questions have you spoken with the head of the parks uh committee yet I haven't because I knew there was another um candidate I was quite sure what the order of operations was but of course I would reach out to the director and the committee members as well I'm just curious in in your little by line here um you're you're kind of exploring lots of different things you you've listed a few few committees down there that I guess interested you and I just wondered if you reached reached out to any of these folks and said what do you guys do is this something I'm interested in or not or I didn't I just I was I did put that in my application that well this is my primary interest given my background I do want to say that I am willing to sort of serve the town and in other capacities as well and I knew there were multiple openings and I wasn't quite sure what was still open because I I think I applied um towards the the tail end of it so um it was more just a willing a willingness to serve in capacities where I think my backgrounds might operate or help well you're an enthusiastic person you would contribute great thank I no questions thank you very much thank you for letting me try to um join the parks and re committee uh my name is Paul stre I live in Foresta Road I've lived in town for almost 25 years my wife grew up here um I have worked very closely with the parks and recs committee and also parks and recx Department uh I have been on the Manchester Essex Little League board served on that board while my son played Little League for about eight or nine years um I also was on the travel basketball board um for about eight years um I was also on the board with a friends of Memorial Park in Essex uh that field project we did over there worked closely with all the contractors ess6 DPW the high school U the athletic department um to get all those dogouts put in and did man did a lot of manual there as well that field closer to town I have recently about a year ago started the Manchester essic Softball Association because to be honest with you the field down there for the girls softball just needed a lot of upgrading um all the baseball fields Little League fields were in top shape and there wasn't a fair shape for the uh young female athletes in town with that so we created this board we did a lot of fundraising if you've been down to that field we've added a scoreboard fence cleaned up the dugouts resurfaced field um it's really grown out program immensely the past two years Again by doing that working with chyl hea uh and also the parks and rec committee getting a lot of approval I was here earlier this year trying to get banners so we could place it down on the field um now that my children have aged out of the Youth Sports I now have more time to serve the town and i' really like to be a candidate for this job uh I'm available I know a lot of former members and current members so but just really want to ser of the community and I think that's my best hit right now Kathy um same question you know given your background and strong connection to parks and wreck um is there a particular area that you want to focus on you know that you think we could be doing things differently and there are probably things that I don't know about you know like for each different uh topic you know I don't know most of them but for the fields I think a lot of the athletic fields are in great shape uh our athletic director with the high school has been phenomenal working with all of us in the community for all these different fields even the Youth Sports because we share the junior varsity varsity share the softball field and Little League field so there's been a great collaboration and with Cheryl and Heather Park and Rex we've really turned that around there are also you know the beach there's some ideas I have about um but in some of like brought up some of the I would like to advance to some of the adult sports and recreation time as well you know I cross path with while countless times probably never you never yelled at me I'm not no referees and things basketball potentially existing um and obviously the resume speaks for yourself we've seen I mean they're tangible results to his his work you know the understanding for us is that fox R is more than just his Sports yes and uh but if you would attack everything with the same Zeal that you did with uh softball fields and everything you've done um thank you for everything you've already done I me it's pretty impressive um and thanks for stepping up to do even more yeah no I mean I look at your resume you've been like a member of parks and rec EX officio for I don't know 10 years for for for a long time so um you obviously kind of know how things work and I understand I see where you want to go with the adult angle little bit more because when everybody thinks parks and Records well mostly it's kids to be honest I don't know there are very many programs for adults I guess there are a few but yoga I mean there's a painting program go there we to go there yeah how do you feel about pick that's a loaded question I will be honest with you working on that field basically five nights a week and everybody back and forth uh I think we do have to um address the parking issues that we have down there okay to be honest with you and we' I've worked with Park and Rex to uh alleviate some of that when there are games going on and stuff that's just insci that was really mostly yes yes that worked real well didn't it yeah really did okay excuse me I'm choking on my foot uh I don't have any more questions I um we have a provision in our appointment policy to delay an appointment if um if we want to um on the other hand that's a little unar candidates so is it the desire of the committee to make a decision tonight and I just got one question for Al there were other if there were other opportunities on other boards yeah is this something you would consider absolutely I think okay so well so I guess my thought on this is we haven't heard from Cheryl ah okay and personally I think the best committees have a diversity of background A diversity of thought um now we have two strong candidates with strong connections to park and wreck so it's it's not real clear who might offer the newest voice on that committee and I would be interested in hearing Cheryl's thoughts on that um that makes sense to me if everyone else is yeah I'm I'm I'm fine deferring and hearing what cherl has to sayir yeah yeah okay so we will leave you on Ted hooks for thank you just a point of order would it be coming back to another select meeting or would just be like a email type DEC um we would have uh Cheryl talk to us in a select board meeting and we would make a decision in a public meeting um you don't have to be here um I think we would not be looking for more information um would be insulted show up that's all the fun so I just yes also add that it would certainly be fine for I guess Paul you you worked with shelle before so ell if you wanted to order of operation you're right okay um I'm supposed to make a motion no no we're just continuing this discussion at our next meeting on Jeb you want to put me down with that weeks I'll make sure you get that Mr Lan yes good evening uh my name is Prescott Logan and I'm here my interest in joining the um the win field committee um I live at 110 Bridge Street so I live just across from the field and um uh we my wife and two kids we moved into town two years ago two years ago this month and um and I think I just sort of um fell into the committee a little bit because we have a RightWay through our property so I got some Mike Chapman who walks me through how it works and then we ended up in the field and he explained how that works and uh I've attended as an observer several of the meetings over the last two years years and helped out with um one of the work work days one of the clean up P fall and so Mike said um did you have any interest in joining um I said absolutely it's an amazing resource and um and I think that uh We've attended several of the Town meetings I think since moving here uh one of the pleasant surprises is what a small town it is and how cool it is to go to town meeting and get to V vat and see people such as yourself putting all this time in so I think it's probably my turn to start to you know raise my hand so I guess this is um my way of starting to try and contribute so I don't I I don't think my professional background uh other than I like to go out in my yard and uh play with my toys uh chop things down or cut lawns or whatever but um but no I have a passion for the outdoors and I think it's an amazing resource so yeah I have anything well is it fair to say that you were recruited so you've spoken to the chair yeah I've spoke yes I I yeah I've gotten to know um actually the whole committee unfortunately Becky Jake isn't here anymore so they're chopping things down is not an issue that's right that's right no I just thank you very much for St up I always like to see new folks in town you know raise the hand it's really great thank you very much uh yeah I want I want to thank you for raising uh ra raising your hand Prescott and of course this committee is made up of your neighbors that's why you know them all because they're all around win that's true that's true and the fact that you love your art work and live across the street in a place those are the top two criteria yeah um say that it would be Jaan interested in having different perspectives everybody else on the committee has lived in town since the day one as far as I know that's true went to school when Mrs went so yes that that that sound it sounds like a really good thing um ready for a motion y I move that the board appoint Prescott Logan to the Wi winthrip field committee for return expire on June 30th 2027 second John yes answer yes Kathy yes Brian yes yes je says yes excellent good luck your weed whacker you have discussion topics um with here I if you could do item six before number five oh yes I'm sorry yeah please let's St early voting to the state primary none of us here has ever made a mistake ever it's really tough being us so I have a request for you to vote on the proposed early voting hours um first of all just to let everyone know the state primary is Tuesday September 3rd it's the day after Labor Day early voting is required from Saturday o 4th through Friday August 30 law says they are to be during the weekday hours the hours of town call office because we are under 5,000 residents we are allowed to vote to do less than that 25 not less than 25% of our hours um early voting has to be set up every day has to be taken down every day and there's computer programming that has to happen every night to log in the voters that come in etc etc so what I propose is to start at 9ine every day as opposed to 8:30 that gives me time to come in get it all set up and to close at 4: and only because I like even 9 to 4 or 9 to 6 um so I have that time afterwards to put the room back together for meetings and also to make sure I can go down with the ballots secure everything put it on computer so um we are doing early voting on that Saturday from 10 to 4 and on that Friday in the 30th from 9: to 11 so I don't think in all there's less hours than traditional Town Hall hours but it is important um so to do that we need to vote on you to approve well uh am I going to make a motion or do we have any comments oh do we have I had a question you mentioned we're allowed to take a vote because we're less than 5,000 residents did you mean 5,000 is what I meant yes to clarify that's right I know wor I'm good okay then I move the Court approve early voting at Town Hall from Saturday August 24th and Friday August 30th and the hours to be Saturday 10: to 4: Monday and wednes Monday to Wednesday 9 to 4 Thursday 9 to 6 Friday 9 11 John yes I should ask Is there further discussion or comments from the John says yes an says yes yes K says yesan say yes yes says yes done like to thank you a couple just notes so the election date will be at Memorial Elementary School be voting from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm vote by mail postcards that went out once are going out again they will all be mailed by July 15th by the state to all voters who have not already requested a vote by mail ballot even if you don't want a vote by mail ballot all voters will be receiving money just so you're aware um and election officers throw a shout out there I reached out to the Democratic party the Republican party I got two volunteers that are interested but we could use more election officers with all the early voting and the elections coming up it's a lot of time on everybody so if you have any suggestions or anybody word have them reach out to me Tiffany yes we have Tiffany do a open call like does for other yeah we've done that every now and then but I will ask her again in the in the tide and you know yeah that's a good in the select one section on the cricket and all of those places that everybody ought to read I never actually I do and with that I I thank you all very much okay thanks y food truck we haven't had a request for a food truck okay but has my di salad give me a salad truck backward right so you you had your Workshop the other night um summarize those those priorities that you identified hopefully hopefully I got them right if I haven't please speak up and we can correct but just if you like to list of you I remember your memo [Music] start the MBTA zoning again this is just talking about disseminating information there will be a request to have this probably next not too often to open up the uh the rooms and C Center maybe that's a place to set up uh some signage just some you you can set up to District board so again that request hasn't been I haven't made the request yet I think that once you do that is a good opportunity yeah I hope they're Medical they' been amenable so far for anything else on a per use basis so yeah first one was just assisting with the planning board and the task force the efforts to get the information out proposal for new zoning that would be compliant with the 3A the M zoning mandate and um and working towards fall fall town meeting most likely mid November would it be appropriate to choose a date now it' be wonderful to choose a date we need to obviously verify with school yeah verify but suppose just see I still have charging this see what November looks like um let's see um the Thanksgiving is the 28th I believe yeah how about the 18th which is a Monday give up a select board meeting give up a select board meeting we will be plenty of times between that right no I'm just saying that that's that's it's it's that's when we typically have our coms are typically on Mondays yeah so if we could start checking with the school and Allan and um everyone else um I know Alan is already working with the school's ad people to deal with the possibility that we have to have um two rooms um and the two rooms would be probably the Memorial School gym and the High School auditorium and he's working um with U on B person from the district and other people to to establish exactly how much extra material we're going to need if we in fact have to go to two rooms I'm sorry did you say two rooms or two locations two location two sites two sites that's okay that's absolutely we have had two rooms in the same slight I have a different opinion on this one I think the high school June in Auditorium mind mind okay to separate the two is a problem I hate to have people go to two different that is just he would be trying to fill up the the memorial school first and then how do you communicate that to people you turn to people aways nightmare what about um what's understand he has a hesitation with with the gym in terms of its Acoustics yeah we did it that one time it didn't seem that bad we had a problem with the connection with the CER the auditorium at the time but right but I thought we did okay with the Acoustics there because um our electronic voting how would we have two locations that you have two separate electronic voting each room would be handled and then it also so we have the capability to run two locations we will get that capability we have to get okay I think that sounds unnecessarily complicated from very important town meeting where we really want everybody together I mean his his goal is to be able to seat 1300 people and what's the capacity Memorial School that can't is the high school with the uh plus the auditorium I don't know what the high school gym is the the the memoral school gym I because it includes the cafeteria everything shot that's once you get 815 place has to stick to yeah with if you get over and we don't know where the fire chief would be on that so that's we can we can we can recommend that's we don't need to make that decision be aware yeah yeah I don't understand the wisdom of the thought process there I think they just you know what we did I know it was failed somewhat when we did two years ago at the high school work those kicks up now so we think the a the other because the the other thing to then we have to have two infrastructures set up yep if we have two rooms we have to have two infrastructure B don't they all check in they can at the high school we have two check-in places you're right but if we were at two different locations we have to set up two differents yeah it's uh fine that's that's something you can hash that out we have we have a couple of months before we have to make Summer's over on on Friday sorry but it is under goals that we need to yeah I don't I didn't know if you wanted to go through them or I think they all are accurate I would just um suggest that some of these things are um you know goals are typically where you want to really focus your attention I feel like the board committee training and Outreach is something we've just kind of operationalized yeah that is more that is more just that I think we can take that off um the other ones I think we so the other thing to think about is is whether or not each of you want to should be a champion for one of these that makes sense to you or to do collectively as a group I think I think sometimes there it's helpful to have a champion so again not something you need to decide on tonight but something perhaps to think about and visit excuse me sure I'm not really sure what's going on right now but an open comment period during the meeting that's what I've been waiting your to say I'm sorry um please go ahead yes okay um I wanted to bring attention to something that's bothered me for some time um which derives from my role as the leader of the Myster B Club at the library for the last 20 years have number of people that parti that every month and as you probably have heard PR there's four different book clubs that meet there there's a Board of Trustees that meets there and uh at this last meeting of our my book club the by the way it meets at 10:30 in the morning so you can imagine they're all like my age seniors um so one of the individuals came out of the library so we're there for the 1hour meeting they get there a little early so and they've got a $50 ticket on their windshield and this has been this issue comes up repeatedly on Church Street it's next to the library those slots there are I won't say they're Library slots but they're more or less Library slots there you know and uh people come to the library many of them come in walk in do their thing and walk out but there's an awful lot of people that walk in and attend a program and they're there for more than an hour there needs to be a different mechanism than ticketing people punishing them for going to the going to the library and you know this particular individual that was ticket is 82 years old you know and it's more convenient to park there so she does but you know you say well why don't you go down the back there and again there's a lot of seniors involved in our my particular group anyway so you know I think there's one hour parking there and I'm not suggesting that they make it two-hour parking because you know I can see that throwing things off but I don't know there should be an answer and one possible answer is to supply the librarian the director with authority to hand out placards or whatever to put in people's windshields while they're attending programs there and uh so that they're not ticketed only happens you know during the summer months when we have the summer Patrol that goes out and does these things but it come it seems to come up every summer somebody gets nailed and it just doesn't seem right so I I I I think in the past I've heard that the librarian has not the current one but previously has reached out to try and do something and just nothing gets any I'm not really sure why so I'm coming to the horses whichever part whatever it's called all right so thank you do something about this please and talk to Cynthia or make make it some kind of a solution thank you thank you I'm sorry the uh initial comments section got kind of lost in the crowd at the beginning okay thank you thank you for waiting y um so I think we are thinking about which of us will adopt which goal I'm not prepared to no no I think that's something to think about okay so the budget process so again we talked a little bit about this at the workshop U desire perhaps to focus more of our time and energy on some of what I call the bigger picture issues and the long range forecasting I think we have some real challenges ahead in terms of um pacing ourselves on capital projects in particular um and and perhaps spending less time know through more streamlined process for other the line items the lineal accounts that get reviewed and ultimately approved so I was interested in in your your thoughts on that what ideas you might have again we' be worthwhile to have a discussion finance committee before before the fall p and gets under way we schedule a joint meeting with them in early September certainly can yes yeah I think a joint meeting would be helpful I think though some of this stuff we probably discuss in the summer I don't think you can wait um especially if um they start the capital process in September right and your team is when does your team start working the budgets which yeah it is in September and know Capital ready by middle end of October so yeah I'm just thinking if we want to um you know have a discussion and make some changes um or enhancements I should say um makes sense to have that discussion before your team starts working alth although the the early discussion is capital so this past year we we took up capital in I think there probably less of a problem with capital than it is with well a lot of the other stuff that has hundreds and hundreds of lines well that's true I just think that the the big rocks is re and I keep refering to this um it's more than just capital and does it make sense to have some discussion about how we tackled the all of the GRE rocks not just the capital that's I'm not suggesting that we don't talk okay before we have a joint meeting with us I would very much like to have us have a unified position on what where we want to go understand and then talk to the finance committee rather than having it be yeah so sorry I didn't mean to wipe out pretty much wiped out but we want to drive the bus we we need we should right and and um I agree with that 100% yeah so um where do we want the bus to go well that's another St and and how is the bus how fancy is the bus lots of other stuff and and I think maybe um we could think about um we could talk about what we feel we need as a board um what information do we need to start that conversation even amongst ourselves you know we may want to revisit the facilities you know master plan we may want some other what are the what's the list of the other Big Blocks right we have the facilities master plan we can pull out but what's not included in that that's very expensive that we might want to introduce into those conversations there the word S6 spr yeah you know I'm just didn't want to go down a ran hole like I did with the pickle ball so um but I think we need that really holistic view here all the big stuff and and then figure out how we want yes I can prepare Su yeah that would be awesome that would be wonderful so yeah don't Mo that's the place to start so do you want have that discussion as part of your next meeting you want to do a workshop setting we seem to be able to get a certain amount of work donee we can try that yeah yeah couple yeah yeah I will be remote for um all of the meetings in AUST but I would do your star Yeah question for you on this list um one of the things we talked about at the retreat was um an independent review of our internal operations and I wasn't sure if you were including that in the TA recruitment or the budget and finance section had that so that operational audits in in the budget and finance got it okay okay I know we've discussed that and we there are advantages to doing it with the current with Greg right exactly I think that's where we landed and so therefore I feel sense of urgency to get moving on that right I would agree so is there anything for a number of reasons we need it before the budget season really gets that's true too far away so do you need anything from us in order to get red on that no okay identify a couple three folks who might be able to do that for us I'll get some proposals to get under your rules as well how do you keep people from getting fascinated by the little bright Stones so the little bright shiny stones so one of the things that Greg mentioned in his note is a common um technique which is you have the Liaisons go over the nitty-gritty detail not the full committee okay and and so usually you start from the top down there are like Financial boundaries right okay here's what you spent last year either you're projecting a flat budget or a small increase budget you work within those you have the liaison work with the department head within that set of boundaries and as long as the they stay within those boundaries discussion over okay okay and that keeps everybody out of the Weeds now if somebody wants to spend more than the boundaries then you have a discussion with the broader committee that was is that wanted to articulate that when we were here um anything else on um that we need to deal with today on I think that's fine yeah let me let me get some more background information that te it up for the next meeting okay um there's all updates me um so uh bik and head and downtown Improvement are working together um downtown Improvement presented their 2.0 plan to the bike and ped committee last week and they were discussing how the two groups could work together to present us with you know joint recommendations on areas where they overlap instead of coming to us separately and so um I've encouraged them to focus on their inputs to the culbert project because we know that's going to happen next year it's part of downtown pedestrian access is a big topic so they're going to work together with ch to to come up with a set of recommendations so we don't have to deal with and I also went on a very nice longevity bench walk with um the bike and ped team hosted that on Saturday we did one of the routes that was in the little handout at Lisa Bonville at wonderful two hours it was a great time they did a nice job with that then if they host another one I encourage everybody to join walking yeah I put in 19,000 steps that day cuz continued on to Manchester and cluster so my feet went not guess you don't want to be leaz on for that [Laughter] committee I don't really have anything at the moment I haven't u h haven't spoken to charl but you know we have that ongoing saga which will not be named yeah action should be on Brian's name see I think that uh so there's a date for the barriers I think July 10 the email you sent was the eight okay next week regardless it's next week they tried to get the testing set up now so we can we need we need the testing pre pre installation we should be prepared that it's not going to be know no we're going to do it yeah yeah as long as they meet the metrics then we pay them and if they don't meet the metrics we don't pay them that's all we're evaluating and then we're done with conversation how long is that installation is this like uh one day or is this a week oh it's couple days tops probably couple three days who is responsible getting the um pre installation testing is the company or is it chery sher's working with the company been working with another company okay so okay so there's a third party which is does the actual testing they are working with the installers the company that's providing and now a source subject of uh I would like to consider removing a source of contention which is parking on the street okay okay I think on think that once that those barriers go up we've got a res St Park on a resident town on Resident Street if if not we're going to have this constant uh battle as to why parking on my street I pick up off I just like to remove there's anything in our parking regulations that says what's your parking for exactly but we've accommodated residents but I think that that accommodation at this point I'm sorry I'm not clear on what we're saying are we there are a couple of residents who object very strongly to having people park in front of their houses understand that um I'm not sure um if they are residents and it's a resident only Street then they should be able to park there right even if the purpose right I guess what I'm asking is is is there a resident only sign on that street right now is that Resident only parking yes okay and there's been so and we've accommodated them two years now right about two years as far as those cones the Traer cones I'd like those removed and just Chief and I talked about that the other day okay yes that go away yeah but they would it would be restricted to Residence correct yes absolutely and but no can block somebody else sounds like yeah you know gotten some complaints about playing after hours pre or post posted hours um people people need to call the police if they see somebody God bless you if you want to climb the fence a Lock Fence you know it's the police have a camera and a they do it's not it's not very it's not they don't they're not sitting there watching it so when there's when there's someone at the desk yes but if there's someone's not at the desk it's not being watched camera is is motion sensitive I think cor the problem is is that it's not big enough to pick up all six courts so somebody I don't think everybody knows what the angle story is with a camera but if you're in another corner monitor safety camera is worth very little maybe just a motion detector that sends it I don't know I'm unhappy that the relationship between the police and those residents is as bad visit um I understand that the residents are difficult but the police should be able to deal with difficult people yeah that's another discussion but yes talk to there's certainly two sides to that story I'm I'm sure there are but I think residents need to respect the police I mean there needs to be a mutual respect there so I don't know I don't know we know the whole story the right so know knows how it really goes down yeah it goes back High School um okay um uh yeah just one thing on on the seniors Greg and I met with the uh friends the Council on Aging last I don't know Tuesday or Wednesday or something like that to discuss fundraising for the senior center and to kind of get a plan for how that's going to evolve uh I think Greg's looking for a number of fundraisers over the next couple of weeks or having somebody do that at the same time Su is going to be looking for Grants associated with senior center there is money out there at the state level or federal level or something and kind of get the ball rolling in all of that the expectation is that we can get some sort of a money in thing e effort going by early fall or so so we'll see we don't know if there are a lot of people that have experience in fundraising especially with senior initiatives or not but I guess we're going to find out how are we doing on getting the deal information we actually had a meeting with them today um so we have our T attorney working up with pns as well as the condle docks so we're hoping to have a draft to the Masons by the middle of July and with the aim of finalizing it by the 1st of August is there any chance that we could have a draft available for us yeah most certainly at our next meeting um I'll try okay if if not then first meeting yeah let me let me see I it's a good deadline for to be a little clout La a little bit my board wants so please give it if we need to has a g I thought I was oh no there it yes yeah because once that's done I think we can start having some activity there or I hope once we have a signed pns ass the trigger for a few things then then there it would be nice to be able to start right um from the Mason perspective they will wait to sign the pns until after we have a green light from the zbaa to do the expansion yes okay so so it's not instant but right so my hope would be to have that all signed sealed and delivered by end of September great so that's what we should okay um the MP um Z continues um primarily working on Outreach right now but also simultaneously looking at worst case scenarios if the state comes back and says no you can't do and there I think there are two areas where we are at risk one is um the state made decide that Newport park because it's currently um de restricted to seniors can't be included um and that would require changing the geography somewhat it's a pretty critical piece it's it's possible I think Mark is working but I think it's possible to extend out Pine Street um being really careful about not avoiding large Lots um but it may not happen um it's it's a slightly unusual situation I think our our consultant um may not have seen may not have had to deal with exactly the situation trying to reone something that's part of the um State Housing Authority um but I hope that by the middle of the summer we have something that if the Bo comes back from the state probably now at the end of September we can we can move the other the other thing that I'm slightly worried about is that we put a lot of weight on the site review plan um and typically site reviews can't fail and problem is that we have some regulations that ordinarily require a special permit um for building in the water shed to the well for example and there's one other section that's of question and the what are what the um proposed bylaw says is that you as to to pass the site review you have to pass the same requirements as the um um special permit but it doesn't have a special permit um so I don't know how I don't know how we're going to deal with that um if if that comes out as a problem but we are trying in the last several meetings the nvp is zoning um has met jointly with the planning board and that's that's a what you do if you're trying to get actual work done if you're trying to integrate it's great but if what you're trying to do is resolve a problem um so the mbda zoning will I believe uh be meeting independently on July 19th to talk about dealing with um contingencies of out of the St and lot of CH and thank you for making a good Community Center yeah we'll come to that that's that would be the more people I think that the more people see the districts and get used to the idea where they are in fact that most of it is two and a half stories most of it is restricted in the number the units that you can put on a lot rather than the number of units by just by acreage I think once it's understood it makes sense and obviously that's sounds foolish but no it doesn't um some things I understand don't make any sense at all but I think that the sky is falling mentality okay yeah we have to cut through that yeah and demonstrate that but what I after after what I sat with this last month or whatever it was it's obvious to me that task force did everything they could do to comply without giving out away anything at all and uh I think I did an admirable job doing it now whether the state knowledg is that or not but then we have to get through got to get that to the voter that information package in such a way as oh wow okay yeah I think that's that's the whole job right there right I mean right now all the you know maybe the hard work is behind you now now the real hard work is trying to simplify it so as I've always said I'm the lowest common denominator and now the I understand it so we should be able to fly right through this [Music] thing that's what's going on um the school appears to have disappeared it will show up again in September I I will before I disappear I will get in and talk to fact before our next meeting I'll talk to talk to Pam and um see what she's thinking about next year's budget we're done with newone updates um I have a comment on the minutes right um on two in the way finding planish we voted to um put up six signs to be funded in this fiscal year um I hear from maren Dolan maren Dolan that she went to check about putting up signs he said he didn't have any money and it's the fiscal year is over thank you spent a lot of money on those green signs of say electronic monitoring figure enough of those H you think there are enough of those see green talk about a little over over I we have to do it obviously but there's a lot of those signs see I saw one oh right all the way down street I think every two spots um I I think it's important to get the new signage up and get feedback on it so I would appreciate you so it wasn't a comment on the on the minutes per se it was a when we vote on something I like to see it happen so other than that is there are there any can we approve the consent agenda appr consent agenda I yes yes yes yes yes make sure you're not stepping out of me on my to yeah please explanatory pre hearing follow you know those three that you appr that you approve taken down we did to triy on one of the big trees at 49 with the table company on the other oneast put that other one down um Ocean Street Grant was on the action followup um so the grant is due later this month get you the U the proposed scope once we have it finalized um it it'll focus on an array of options in a public engagement process that will include trying to get some of the Regulators in here to talk to us about what what sort of permiting hurdles and options we have so when we have that submitt ready to go we post it and you can have copies as well we do have a number of letters of support that residents of O Street have written which is very helpful as part of the Grant S so that's coming along well um and obviously July 4th is almost here Pan Cake breakfast went off well on Saturday good crowds and one only one kid got stuck in a tree that I know I don't think we lost anyone overboard on the shuttle a lot of people were using the shuttle which is a good thing I think this is the shuttle is a great idea I think that's there's only there's a hand not a handful there a large group of citizens that don't get on the water except for that yeah it's a nice it's a nice it's a nice addition it does relieve some parking for sure and obviously we have the concert coming up and then uh fireworks on Wednesday night and the parade obviously on on Thursday so looks like the weather's going to cooperate hope I didn't just drink s so that that'll be great it's a I think Mana does a great job on Fourth of July it's it's a nice set of nice set of celebrations the point of the parade what time should we meet at the uh on was like 9:30 I think yeah 9:30 um at the corner of Vine and uh L Y start two was serious drinking before think John is writing h on that yeah I think so my son will show up with the card I think at the appropriate time and I've got uh 20 pounds of candy here courtes Kathy Flags bub group these are in fact four packages here so this is prepackaged yeah and and you will monitor that we don't open extra packages before we get I can't be responsible of my grandfather's Behavior your grand so you the parade Zar is where of M yeah has uh um Cheryl or Hulk chosen a community hero yep so is she like at the head of the parade or yes lad truck okay I the old cars have to go first yeah the antique cars go first should we ride one of those bikes yeah the big wheel once's you're up there is great I guess I don't know I'm good I looking for a motion second all in favor thank you all very much good I told Jim to expect me around