[Music] all right good evening everyone I'm going to call the select board meeting for today Thursday July 11th to issue order right now we have uh Denise Kevin we have Roger myself Alec could not make it tonight so we have four of us tonight and let's start off as usual I pledge Al to the FL of the United States of America and to the rep for stands one nation under indivisible Li and justice for [Music] all okay under appointments and resignations retirements first up we have a joint meeting with the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners to appoint Kleen O'Brien do we have to do you have to open your meeting again so you okay a at the we have to open our we have to open our meeting pardon me have open call to order so it's a call to order for the north Authority Joanne please yes no here Paul yes Ralph's here and our candidate is here Council here thank you we're all present okay excellent so [Music] to we're here tonight to build a vacancy of Jim denel our dear friend who passed away after uh some real challenges with his hell and uh we miss him dearly and we now have in her in his replacement another member who lives here in the community Kathleen would you like to join me at the so they can see you and get an idea if they have any questions they can make them directly you absolutely would you just identify yourself for the board my name is Kathleen O'Brien I live in El building 107 with the meows I was a good friend to Jim he was good friend with my father for years at the senior center so I'm happy to um step in for her we're happy to have her here excellent so if there are any questions from the bo i' just like to briefly endorse Kathleen's uh nomination for this she is a u uh many of the having served on the board and not being a resident here Jim was always very useful giving us some information of things we should be aware of and input and uh now we have another member of the community who is she tells me she's been tuted by Jim uh in those years well that is true and um but I have a history um about 25 years of being a certified hospice and paliative care nurse right um working in home care I operated on the Ethics Committee I was a preceptor for both home care and hospice nurses coming to home care which is not an easy profession um but one that I loved and if I could still be doing it I would be so I look at this as an appointment for us to be a better board more efficient board by having a member of the community who lives here fantastic okay um Mr chair first I'd like to uh Kathleen thank you for the service that you provided to community up until this point and thank you for uh volunteering your time and uh looking to get this appointment and absolutely I would uh make a motion that we appoint Kathleen O'Brien to the J Housing Authority a second okay motion a second all in favor I opposed all right congratulations well you have another vote I guess my end of the meeting meeting a for the well we didn't we have to vote we have to vote on I thought I could sneak out all in favor of the selectman and our approval of Kathleen say I I Voice vote I I and I and you can't vote for yourself so not yet not yet I'm just going to say me [Music] too now you can close your yes thank you very much gentlemen seeing us and ladies for seeing us first it's appreciated thank you thank you okay next up we have an appointment of Select board member leison for the Elm Street sewer project um Mr chair Mr I'd be happy to be the select board representative to the Elm Street sewer project I'm going to I'm going to um step back and Kevin if you're willing to take on that responsibility I'd be happy to let you have it a sh that's a that's a thankless one there was something in your tone no it's a honestly I think that's going to be uh very important position that one of us has to be in over the next who knows how long but it's it's an important uh project that's got to be going on thank you for taking that all right so we uh Mr chair make a motion that Kevin Snider be appointed as the uh select board the Aon for the Elm Street SE project a second motion on second all in favor I opposed okay well thank you Kevin appreciate no problem okay and we have a couple resignations Christine devau is resigning from the Recreation Commission I think we need to go into it right and Co Thompson was asked to resign from the finance committee so he's resigning from the finance committee effective yesterday or today not us okay I know later on we have an announc so we can do that at that [Music] point next up we have approval of minutes um what do we have just the June 20th uh regular and executive session Mr chair Mr Maron I make a motion that we accept the uh minutes of the select board on uh June 20th um regular and executive um we can do one at a time or both whatever no we'll do separate so yeah the regular minutes is there a second second okay motion on a second to approve the regular minutes from June 20th all in favor iOS Mr chair was back any OB yes okay so three three [Music] andion okay now need Mr chair I make a motion that we accept the uh minutes for the executive session June 20th okay I'll second you need I got thank you sorry okay so where were we do we have a motion in a second yes okay that was a little strange uh all in favor I I uh obs now oh that's right that's right ear the day it you're absolutely right okay so let's try this [Music] again so let's say that Roger executive session motion was for the early executive session right so now we you went for the late executive session okay uh Mr chair Mr meron um I'd like to uh make a motion for the uh late executive session on June 20 to approve to approve please second all right motion of a second all in favor I itions can thank you thank that's all it means so now we're on to license of the Departments so it's what do we have here if you discuss our vote to approve the application for I'm going pronounce this horribly I apologize cheryn uh men man okay uh D says time for tie for the transfer of the Comm particular license at 63 East Main Street Unit 5 and one and would you like to just let us know who you are hi my name is j CH and I would like to transfer the license um to um J M and open up a t restaurant which is right across the to Hall and we have couple of the restaurant already I got one in um M and one in E and hopefully to open up another one over here just to the business that's in the same spot as the other it used to be a time rest and we taking over business okay we're excited my daugh was upset I was verys um does anyone have any questions um how did you find us in Norton and want to be here um I know the P owner and she's um she want to move closer to her um her house so I offer her um I want to take over her business that's how [Music] started anyone else have questions I don't have any questions we all just wanted to open is that what you're saying you didn't bring any samples did you not yet hopefully to open you this coming along you renovation inside yes a little bit all right excellent all right I'll make a motion to um approve the application of cheron mangang LLC DVA time for Tai uh for the transfer of a common Vic license at 63 East Main street5 North Mass a second okay motion of second all in favor I I I opposed okay EXC congratulations coming in thank you thank you all right next up we have some announcements uh well there's vacancies on the finance committee with Jack going to come in or see is there coffee going tea it sounds like a tea so when is the town hall going to be open maybe they oh right so there's there's currently two vacancies on the finance Comm um I don't have it in front of me of his email to uh send information I have [Music] it uh it doesn't say it just says that you want me to read it oh I have I have his email you got okay so anybody interested I'm sure there's another way but I know um his email for the town is J Conway nordon ma us.com so anybody interested I I know he's already got a couple people uh interested but um it's it's it's a it's a tough committee but it's it's very um very important to the time very important extremely important to the U Mr chair just uh he mentions he's accepting uh interest uh expressions of Interest through Friday July 26th so if you want to be on it get your requested before that okay have until the 26th do we have any other [Music] announcements okay I guess we can move on to new business we get 6:15 yet okay so now we're going to open up the public hearing on the application of pH Norton Incorporated doing business downtown public house manager Glen J stard for transfer of section 12 on premises Comm VI all alcohol beverage license at 292 West m Street Norton from 292 lme Incorporated doing business as the downtown okay and who do we have speak good evening uh my name is Christopher tson I'm an attorney U generally out of Norwood but now I'm kind of out of the cape so I am uh happy to present this to you um so you should have a full package and um all the notice has have been given um I have with me tonight uh Glenn star and John Cox they are the uh principles of pH Orton uh they're taking they're going to be taking uh over this uh downtown location they're involved in other successful restaurants um one in Ram and one in Franklin uh they basically have a casual in uh fun kind of family atmosphere uh to their restaurants it seems to have gone very well in in these other locations in fact um I can honestly say having represented them in front of the boards and the other locations the uh the other towns are very happy to have them in town they get involved in the community uh they tend to um be involved in charitable events and giving and you know they're they're I I've personally known them for a long time these are good people um and they have quality food and and a quality establishment um they're planning to do a Refresh on the restaurant itself they have a patio that's uh part of this restaurant with live uh music they're also going to have a game area that's kind of a I don't know if we had a chance to look at the uh schematic but the game area is going to be adjacent to the parking lot they plan to have that enclosed uh they plan to have portable type of uh alcohol service there uh with a member of the staff Whenever there going whenever it's going to be open um we make sure that all their staff is tip certified and they have someone on U staff who has the uh Chum uh uh certification in case they encounter something like that um one other thing they wanted me to note was that um the clerk Jennifer Reed was extremely helpful and extremely knowledgeable and uh uh she's a j that they were very happy to work with so you guys have good person I don't know if there's anything else that you want to hear about uh this particular IEM I'm happy to answer any of the questions but that's basically uh what they're going to be doing they're looking you to look upon this St okay so I I've noticed that you doing some work over there already when when is the estimated opening date uh would have I won't hold you to it I'm just uh just late August late a that's what we're Target all right any questions F uh go ahead no you go you mentioned you had some other facilities where they located and have you had any issues with those facilities uh one's in Ram one's in Franklin they've had no issues with those other facilities they want a clean operation and uh I should mention that Glen is going to be the manager of this license he's currently the manager on one of the other establishment licenses his plan is that once assuming this liquor license is transferred and it's approved he's going to um come off that other license as manager and focus on this license while it's you know up you know coming on online so to speak to make sure that he's focused on this license it may he you know when things get going and and assuming everything goes smoothly he may step back from that but he's a Hands-On guy he wants to be um in charge and control okay you stole my question sorry um uh so I'll come up with another question um the uh the establishments in Ram and Franklin what are they called uh one of them is the gavl I don't if you're familiar with that and the one in Franklin is called the  okay um all right um I noticed on the application that uh you're going to be open 7even days a week you not closed any days they so their model is to try to make sure they take advantage of whatever business opportunity they can in terms of being open uh certainly um if if they're allowed to be open they're going to try to be so that they can uh make their business more work how was uh how's it going finding staff that I will have to defer I I I can see personally from my Vis it's horrible fun Stu it's very difficult but they're there uh we we cultivate a lot and we we very s to move people from place to place but we set things up so that we have to in order to maintain staff we can uh but you can find them you have you have to manage them differently today than you did years [Music] ago absolutely true okay anything else yes all right all right so um nothing else from the board is there anybody in the audience that has any any questions yes um I can't wait to try out the new restaurant right thank you pet I did have one more question sorry what kind of food do you envision that would be served there uh comfort food oriented uh you know family style pizza's coming yeah pizza with that I've hired all the people that were involved so yeah you you know that obviously you're you're aware of what the location has been over the years uh I've heard a great many things I'd love to hear what you I've heard nothing but great things about the downtown in that area um I just know that uh I don't know if you were going to be doing something totally different than what was there previously or just going to try to continue no our attitude is to take what really worked and what obviously everybody's interested in and then accentuate it and and add a couple of things to it to maybe round it out so it appeals to even more people excellent great thanks okay so if there's no other questions from the audience I guess we can close the public hearing make a motion we close the public hearing on [Music] the application of pH newon Incorporated doing businesses downtown Public House a second we can Voice vote this one but then it has to be an individual for the license rate okay so all in favor I I opposed all right so if for the vote for the for the actual license we have to do a license license okay okay so you want to make a you are welcome to do it okay um that we uh transfer BL to on premises Comm bicular for all alcohol garbages at 292 West Main Street Norton from lme Incorporated doing businesses downtown to downtown public house okay is there a second a second okay now let's go down the roll Denise yes Kevin yes Roger yes and IM yes excellent all right thank you very much good luck guys you very made my husband very ACC so in our packets number two was cut off um but if you printed it it should be on there discussion in vot to set the fall annual town meeting there was a paper kicking around and had the wording that we need you have so what we're requesting is that you vote tonight to open the uh separate date uh for the uh October town meeting which would be Monday October 21st and um once you open the um town meeting set the date that the uh will accept articles up till 3:30 p.m. on August 27 conat Qui question um Mike did you check the school first to make sure no events happening at that time yes okay and if we had to change it I mean if the town hall was open and we have it there we can change that up until up until then what is it 35 days before or I'm I would think you could do it to 14 days but i' check okay worth asking Nowa anticipating any um High attendance matters coming up should we be thinking about if if you if you ask that question on Sunday we probably have a final answer but I don't think we have that answer yet okay so I think I think Jack did a great job um again calling out Jack doing a good job uh coordinating everything after that yeah we ini been with t oober yeah I think I think it's on everybody's R to make sure that we're going to be well prepared okay okay so there is a wording and a motion you you want just read this okay uh Mr chair I know that uh we vote to schedule the fall annual town meeting for Monday October 21st 2024 at 700 p.m. at the dorton high school and to accept warrant articles until 3:30 p.m. on August 27th 2024 at the select board's office Municipal Center 7 East Main Street noron okay is there second second a motion second all in favor I opposed all right next up we have the discussion on the future use of the former Senior Center um so over a year ago the American Legion had expressed interest in uh using the old Senior Center um and I want to see what the board thought um if they in there it would be on a uh basis where they're responsible for everything utilities maintenance we're not going to spend a dime on the building so they'd be responsible for everything and it would be more or less an at well leas so if uh we decided at some point to do something else with the building that we could okay has there been any uh I'm sorry okay has there been any other uh interest in the building from any other parties there are I I who was there was some the other day I don't the nonprofit yeah another another nonprofit I looking to use it um and another question would be when do they expect to it to be available to be used um that's a great question I would say in camera so I would say that uh this it's not really necessary for us to take action today but just to have some discussion about it um I'd like to see if there are any other um groups that are looking to use it that maybe we could uh even in a joint uh Community thing use it as several groups used the building and on different days or something if they could work something out like that as opposed to just saying we're just going to let the one group use it if we're just going to be using it for nonprofits there may be more than one nonprofit that's looking for a home yeah going you chair I going to suggest something similar Roger we to take multiple groups if we can somehow evaluate all of them and decide he we get them to fit together but if if not we do assign to one some some way of kind of voting for one or ranking them or something like that so fair look at them right yeah my concern too would be you know taking over the utilities and everything at all the costs um and how you work that out that would be that would be something to to work out yeah MH yeah but I I just u i i i wouldn't want to just say yes to one group without knowing if there's you know there's other groups that might a fair chance yeah yeah okay great so next up is a item I wanted to bring on discussion on creating a committee for Budget oversight financial planning um that that name that title is not set in stone I think I wanted to bring it up to the board here just for your thoughts and feedback and then I wanted to take it's to Town Council and see what we can do legally about setting this up and if we need to have um more members my initial thoughts and we I I think we talked about this at the town meeting and I spoke spoken about it a few other times um you know a couple members of the select board finance committee school committee um overseeing throughout the year the budget and mainly in my mind I see the strategic planning for the future so we don't run into any issues that we have run into this year with with finances or we avoid them if possible so that's my thoughts that I mean I'm open for for any other thoughts or we can so my um my initial thought was would be that if we're going to do something like that I think it's a we should make it a smaller committee than to do like we did in the yell school or things like that you don't want I don't think we need to have that sort of a thing I think it should be um something more in line as an Advisory Board to to get give information back as opposed to trying to be have everybody oh yeah no I think I think a couple list two members of the select board two members of Finance two members of of school committee so um so nobody has to worry about the meeting law with their own boards and they can have their committee and report back to each so a lot of it too for me is communication um I'm going to I know we're all trying to communicate more as boards together I think that's going to be a huge help having members of each those three boards together meeting you know monthly or what however they want to do it um but this is in the initial planning stages I wanted to bring it to your attention before I even did anything you know like talk to the the town attorney or like that I'd rather get all of your input I think it would be a great idea any any any way that we could have more communication between especially those three boards that you're mentioned um would be great and you may want to expand that into some other boards as well uh if if something that's happening is applying to them as well yeah yeah okay yeah no I think it's a I think it's a great idea um and I think it's something that people want I know people have approached me about it I know they've approached you about it I think we've all yeah yeah so um so I think it's something that you know we can be responsive to to what the uh you know what the town has asked us to do so I think it's I think it's I think it's a great idea and I like the idea too of keeping it small you know any type of I me my opinion is once you get you know more than six seven people it starts to get really hard to to manage all that so I think keeping it small is a good idea but like you said like if you Roger like you said if you want to bring in somebody from another department or whatever um so yeah I think at this point makes sense to just sort of wait for Town Council recommends as far as setting it up and I'm assuming that's what we're waiting for Town Council to kind of advise us on what to do or yeah exactly and that's I want to make sure we set it up properly and we have you know the um the the rules written out clearly as to what this this board is going to be responsible for uh before we even put it in motion I don't want to I don't want to come back in 6 months and say oh well we never told them that they were allowed to do this or this or that so I want to make sure it's all written down clearly from the attorney yeah it might be maybe sorry Steve Mr chair uh maybe good idea for us to to get together also and talk about you know goals you know expectations um all of that as well you know be very clear right from the outset about what we expect from this um this sub not set them out in the wind saying yeah so so my thought process is was to bring it to this board first you know make sure and I and I did say it publicly and and um I did say it was a great idea publicly and I wasn't lying I 100% for it um so I want to bring it to you first next step is is go through the attorney kind of Flesh it out a little bit more and then have the attorney come and talk to all of us and go over it um a future meting yeah sounds good ideally sooner than later I don't want to drag it out I'd like to do it and get it moving so yeah all right I I thought I saw Sandy in there I know she's a big advocate of this if you want to come say something you [Music] can oh I didn't see you there I'm sorry that's all right get shorter every day I wasn't I wasn't wearing my glasses I can't see that's was my face no I really appreciate you all talking about this um just from long experience and having lived through something um as slight as the public library planning process which libraries are required by Statute to have a 5year plan before they even put a numeral to a budget so that we have to know where we're going and I think um from my experience being on on the leadership committee for the town of Plum it's some planning your long range planning will determine your budget um your oversight you guys do on a regular basis you see the warrants you approve them you ask questions you have a finance committee that does that same thing but the town of Norton needs to know where we're going to be in 5 years in 10 years in 15 years in order to adequately plan and I'm speaking I don't I don't care what happens on Saturday you know either way we need to know where we're going to responsibly manage our funding so I would definitely encourage you to look at the long range planning aspect first rely on the professionals you have and your your own oversight that you do when approving the warrants and I do assume you look at them and ask questions to make sure that everything is there um it could really benefit our town and help us in the long run and I appreciate your time thank you thank you thanks good I I think we had a good conversation last night at the finance committee um when we're doing the budget coming up rather than spending a lot of time reviewing budgets that there's no way we can fund it say here is the money this is the revenue this is what we have schools get this town gets this do do your budgets don't come in with a 12% increase in your budget if we only can increase it 3% this is all the money we have for our town Services build your budgets on that and so we we said last night we'll do we'll do that early on in the budget process so everybody knows and uh go from that yeah and I also think um you know know this group will help guide us in directing you as far as you know what our priorities are going going to be and the same thing the school committee direct direct the um the superintendent on what their priorities are going to be because I mean to your credit and to to the superintendent's credit I feel like it's been okay just do it get it done within the limits and it's no real Direction I don't think in the past several years um and that's on us as a group so I I want that to change I want to make cier the direction you need so you can say no this is what this is this is what was asked of us to get done I mean it's nothing to say you can't say right this is this is what we had for Revenue so this is our our budget this is what a level Services budget would have been if we had the money to find it but we know this is it but spending hours on and hours on something that you know and and God bless all those people on the finance committee I I don't know if I could have done that myself and I and I've been in numbers my entire career so um I just I'm thankful for every single one of that committee and I think early on um like the finance committee said um that the select board should give an opinion on what your priorities are in the budget and from there yeah and that's that what what I getting at too they can help that that committee can help guide us as far as you know what we can do and I mean Kevin and I have been on the longest here and I don't think we given Direction yeah on it's more of a reactive process it is a proactive process we got to flip that to make it more proactive absolutely if there's any way we can get in front of the ball instead of chasing the ball yeah it's going to help everybody I mean I think it's a win-win doing this so Mr chair if I could ask Mike a quick question um I think another part of this is going to be not just looking at thinking about numbers going forward but about policy and about financial policy we have a financial policy in place is that correct okay so um so when you form the committee actually could be something the committee could do is review the because it's been three it's been three years so review the policy and see what tweaks yeah yeah because it's really hard to look forward I think we've all found that during this most recent process it's really hard to look forward one year let alone five years and figure out what state aid is going to be and you know so um so the idea of having the again I like that word expectations to have the expectations through the policy of what the town wants to do whether it's policy on stabil use use of stabilization or use to free cash or whatever it is and then use that to hold foot people accountable for it so to the so and I'm personally I'm all about streamone as much as we can and having it having our our joint meetings was great having everybody there and and everybody's opinions going but that can take so much time and and if we have this this committee that has members of the boards can report back to each board and then when we meet together it's not going to be a 7- hour meeting right so we'll hopefully be on the same page at that point so you're talking about state aid look it's July 11th still ex that's includ that policy too let outline some guard rails for contract negotiations like what expectations are when negotiat contracts M um all of them right um should all be the same yeah all right yeah maybe one of the first excuse me one of the first things that that group should do is set up their guard rails and set up that all right this is where we're heading with this committee we're not so that we're not just wandering down and if we this direction P I want to make sure they have a clear mandate what it is they need to have a clear mandate so they're not going in there just pulling things and trying to figure it out on the go I want it to be clear before they start so y you can you know I'm going to talk um you know you do you do have Financial policies in place that you that you do follow if I could just make two large suggestions the municipal side needs to begin their budget season much earlier than they do to begin a budget season in January February for a town meeting that is in April or May is no time um your budget season from experience should begin in late September early October because your department heads are already thinking about next year and they will need a directive from the board for what their budget development should be you know either we're doing a 1% budget or a 400% budget they need that directive which you all set early enough to start putting together their reasonable numbers and their expectations for the following year that will give if you back it up to the fall it usually it's the department heads budget and then it becomes this town manager's budget the town manager's budget becomes the board of selectman or select board's budget you should have your budget in place before Christmas which then gives the finance committee January and February to figure out what they're do you know what they're going to recommend everybody comes back together and then you go to town meeting as a as a coales group not as you know I think this I think that but it it provides for cohesion and it gives a sense of stability to the community which I think is what Norton desperately needs at this moment is a sense of stability and it's that's that's on you all um you can plan 5 years out um my classic example of a a um a goal my goal is to make it through the day my activities are what I'm going to do through that day but on top of all of that is a vision that I'm going to have a good life so it's the vision that the select board sets and you can set a vision for 5 years within 5 years we will have increased Economic Development by 2.3% we would have repaved you know 33% of the road you know whatever your vision of a long range succcess for our community is and then your department heads and your town manager take those and build on the budget so I encourage you to start the planning process first but also to start your budget season earlier so that people have time and there's not the Panic that we're so used to in Spring and that would be helpful but got faith in you all and you're elected here to do it it's your fault you volunteer so that's it thank you all right all right so uh let's move on to the if there's anything else guys no all right we will be discussing this quite a bit more in the future so don't uh don't let it leave your your mind next up we have a discussion and our vote to take action on Traffic Safety Committee recommendation of truck traffic on W street we have Kim [Applause] here evening Rob Kimble 51 Pine Street I also chair the uh Safety Committee um so back in June of 23 we sent out a request to C Regional planning the to u to assist us in U coming up with some Solutions in area area of wer stream from home Foods in Wood Street uh truck traffic all the other various issues we got in that area um so it was two part the part I'm here tonight talk about is wooden street now Wood Street has been posted there's no tra truck traffic for past 30 OD years before my time it was posted it's not wle and not being forced and when you see a sign anywhere in Orton quing my Street Pine Street uh those signs are tole and the police are not able to enforce I know it's right in front of your house I know it's right in front of my house you have to get over there uh anyway the uh police cannot enforce it so you know they pretty much put take a blind eye to it so again it was a two-part program so um leis the was the person who U who helped us with this and he sent out a memor memor random on on February 5th of 2024 and what they did is they put down some strips and they did some some research to find out exactly what kind of traffic was being used on these streets Southwest Inwood Street and you know it went down to the point of how many bicycles went down the street so they knew exactly what was happening um traveling along wooded Street what they go by is a range of 5 to 8% so when you hear people say to you you know we can't have tra truck traffic on Pine Street as an example um there are many different factors that come into play but most importantly truck traffic under on M on on Massachusetts upon the transportation dot uh if you don't exceed 5 to 8% if the traffic is less than that you have no right to restrict the traffic and Dot will not approve it so in the case of wooden Street uh they they did the range and um and took a look at it and found out that the 58% actually exceeded quite a bit which surprised some of us we didn't expect it to be as much um just some looking at the existing conditions uh street is about 30 20 20 22 ft wide that's 30 m per hour speed limit um has had an exclusion on on trucks for the past three decades uh even though it doesn't under under Mass law it prohibits municipali from Dearing any rules that would exclude heavy commercial vehicles from any way because we receive Captain 90 BS the say so chapter 90 pretty much allows them to to rule the rules you know mean they tell you what we can kind of do by doing so so anyway it ended up being a number of pieces of criteria on how to do it um and the board went through a lot of a lot of that information our but um automatic traffic recorders were installed in October 2023 and the information was was gathered from that um there's a different number of warrants that have to be addressed before it's approved by Master team and War number one would be to justify a heavy vehicle exclusion the volume of heavy commercial vehicles uh heavy commercial vehicles will not exceed 5 to 8% in accordance with the uh glassification two ax of six tires are considered a heavy commercial vehicle with a carrying capacity of over 2 and2 tons and these are delivery trucks such as UPS fex Etc although included in the ATF percentage totals if exclusion is in place and force these ve vehicles are exempt from any exclusion and general purpose of making deliveries or anything like that I know recently we taking a lot of heat for the um trucks using um new stre as an example they're going to a destination they're going to a a business and even if we had a truck exclusion on that on that street that own of that property has the right for that truck to continue Contin to use that road for that purpose so they would not be excluded as an example so the results from the ATR um showed that on average um let's see the percentage of W W Street was recorded at 32.1% I don't know where that came from but that's what that's what the uh accounts were so they can count they can count the delivery trucks in that percentage but they're not count they're not necessarily ban yeah I say just Amazon alone I mean that could be all Amazon but because it is R back and forth that mean the second warrant is to justify heavy vehicle screws would be a condition of the pavement and they found that the uh the air Road has a severe roadway deterioration especially from Uh Wood Street back to 140t Avenue the other way doesn't seem to be so bad but that side is pretty bad the third justification is L Uh Wood Street is serves primarily as a Residential Properties um and the town could consider a night explosion possible but again it's a residential area and that's why I think the original members of the board of Selectmen put a presription on it 30 plus years ago to try to reduce the amount of traffic also keep in mind the rail track is a rare track that goes through there which has no no Crossings or no arms or nothing to Sock it down so all the information was included in the checklist and what they're asking us to do is to take a look at the information that was given to us and request a um a request a from Department of Transportation and to they recommend that the volume exceeds 5.8% and poor pavement the heavy exclusion in the residential area and it's recommended that the T of Borton Borton submit a technical me memorandum in coordinate with Master District 5 uh to work out restricting the property on that on that on the traffic on that road this traffic state by the way which normally cost the town $8 to $10,000 we worked it out for shping but it didn't cost us anything so this was done for for freebie we're allowed on the surf Recreations to get a number of things done every year um as part of the agreement we pay we pay into it so we can we can take advantage of that another example is we recently asked surfit in October this year think it's a different year we might be a to swe some more out of them if I look at um what Main Street from the town common to Route 495 and look at that entire Corridor to determine speeds you know correct speed limits prodist all over the place there 40 mph there 30 mph it's 35 it's everywhere and with a new bike pass coming on the line and everything that's going on in that quor um we want to make sure that that is looked at uh we College recently has expressed a lot of concerns about traffic speed of traffic in front of n and we're taking all that under under advisement and continue to work at different ways to come up with a solution to it but again if serpent does it save the time another $110,000 we don't have to go and pay something to do it so for the wooden Street what do you need from us do you need us to approve send a letter what I know I had to send a letter for for the study for them to to pay for the study no the study's been done yeah so what we have to do is give them the how many pages was it I think the total Pages was what it was a bunch 70 Pages or whatever it is put that into a packet sent a cover order to massot division 5 and asked for a u restriction on truck traffic on on um W Street in addition to that you may want to ask if there's any um money is available for an LED lighting system where truckers can be aware that that street is not available for the truck traffic and advance and then turning right on to Wood the street and saying whoops there it is how do I back out they can't back there's no possible way if we have signage and perhaps LED lighting up in that area inic case I 140 is on 140 there's no truck traffic on on Wood Street so they go up and down go up yeah down Eddie Street and and submitting this letter and getting it approved would mean that that those no truck traffic signs that actually can be forced would Beal so question of 31% traffic do we know how many would actually be able to be excluded like is it all just FedEx whoever is on if I have a moving van I say you're moving into a new house you got a 50ft moving van coming and move you in there that's a lot CU it has it has to use that street how to make it make it the work you know the impact's going to be like we can actually help anything by doing that I think what we're hoping to do is to keep um uh truck traffic that's going down to home foods from cutting through woodwood Street and they they'll have to go around the truck route which is down Eddie Street go down Eddie Street then down south wester and not cut through wood and it's it's to allow the the the police to actually ticket and and do something about it because right now their hands are tired there there's really nothing they can do right because they come down Woodard Street and then they have to make that sharp turn to get on toer to go in to the to the building and cutting over the railroad tracks and it's it's a narrow Street there I mean it's a it's much more residential area than going down Eddy Street and around the other it has some curs a new age of ways where you put your phone in your phone these guys are not familiar with the area and taking the sters that's what w Is Telling do and by seeing the signs of realize they can't use that street they go another Mile and I think somehow that it gets into ways in those kind of uh platforms as well that when it as soon when the state says that or when dot says okay that is a not a truck roof that is no longer available okay um can I just ask a question camarina at for dve home to displace you and maybe actually the questions to you um I know I grew up in Foxboro and when the new stadium was built Rob craft had to do different things and I lived on Beach Street which was a major cut through to get down you know to The Stadium from one end to town they put in sort of islands at the mouth of each end of the road which I know would deter the ability for larger Vehicles like that is that a possibility on some of these roads where we could get away from what the law make it just not feasible you know we don't have to change laws we don't have to change rules we could just put some sort of deterrent in you know that makes it not a convenient cut through for the larger vehicles from from my understanding this is the we're going the inexpensive route first which is this hasn't cost us anything yet okay so we did the traffic study first which you have to do no matter what um and then the letter to the dot which isn't going to it's not going to cost anything thing um that's that's the first in my this is just my personal view it's the first step to be able to enforce no trucks down there um rather than and what is is I don't know if an island would work but I know what you're saying with with Fox just you know I mean Road design and I mean don't I'm not into rotaries because that's way too oh excuse me roundabouts but you know just some sort of a deterrent that makes it a less attractive route for it yeah and if and the other side of it is okay it's enforceable but that means we have to have police down there you know and so that takes away from other places that they need to be and if we're going to be short-handed in Department I spoke with Chief Clark about this specifically and he said that if we do this that's great it'll become enforcable but the on the off chance that there's going to be a cruiser in the area when a truck goes down that road is going to be very slid yeah but yeah uh they're not going to sit there on Woodward Street looking for a trucks going down that street that's so plan B maybe we can look at speed BPS would like that so to move this forward so what do you need from us do you need us to authorize somebody to to work with you to send that letter or just authorize you to send it you to send it okay you guys have to send it all right it has to come from the board okay appointed committee we can I'm not writing 75 Pages I'll tell you that all you have to do is please see the T for report traffic traffic report and outline what you want want done you want to put up no truck siid okay so then I would think that we would want the board to authorize I guess me or somebody to to work on the letter with with Mr Kimble and then send it on behalf of the board we'll do it um I'll I'll take care of that so um Mr chair do you need a motion to do that we do actually I think okay you want me to make the motion make the motion so I'm not going to be it for yourself yeah all right um so uh I will um I'll make a motion to uh uh to um authorize the uh select board to have Roger marsan work with um the chair of the Traffic Safety Committee um on on a letter to the do regarding truck traffic restrictions on W Street second you hit every Point very good all right we've been doing this all right so motion a second all in favor I oppos I can I bring one one thing we'll pull yeah um I was talking with Chief clar the other day and um you know we will you be able to change speed limits um I want to work with the chief and we'll come back uh develop a policy so that if someone wants a speed limit changed they have to go through the Traffic Safety Committee who will refer it to the safety officer at the police department and he'll make a recommendation that will come here that sounds good to me we'll work on something and get it here future okay so Bob I'll get in touch with you and we'll put the put a letter together with that packet and we'll uh do you uh do you guys want to see it before we send it to do or can we just send it I'm fine with you sending it um yeah i' like to see it but I don't think we have to approve it we need to put another St in there yeah okay and Mr chair one more thing just thanks to Bob and the Traffic Safety Committee because I know they're getting a lot of requests I mean you talked about Newland Street and and this and Wheaten and all that kind of stuff so we're learning a lot things that we thought we could do we can't do it right and the uh much appreciated the Traffic Safety Committee does uh a lot of work U i' I've been to several of their meetings and just uh the amount of people that are around that table and the information that comes in is amazing that stuff that people assume is happening that is not happening not legal and I and I know it's coming up on the agenda at some point but Roger wants to take that from me he wants to be the the appointee to that committee I said that's the only one during the day I don't know if I that all right what you see un roundabout they're talking about right thank you Mr thanks [Music] soti 15,000 oh okay I just want to make sure okay sorry about that uh do we have any topics not reasonably anticipated any okay um so we were supposed to review and discuss the building department permit fees um what's going with that have Nick uh Nick won't he he'll be at the audience meeting so we can okay all right I'm I'm fine table in that but I don't want to table that any further than August I think we kind of we're going on almost a year now for that one okay okay so now Town manager report so I just want to uh let you know that uh treatments are going to be starting on some of the lakes and plants and uh we have post posted notices on the town website and there will be notices posted out at the Lakes uh so July 23rd wion Pond is going to be treated um July 25th will be the initial water chestnut treatment at chle Pond um on July 29th through uh July 31st water chestnut H pulling will be at noron Reservoir and August 8th will be a followup water chest treatment at Char pond so um notices will be posted around those ponds and all the information's on the town website also say mik does that mean no um swimming in the ponds during that time period not safe for dogs to drink water right Don fish so basically the month of July the month of July and August stay away so yeah I think it I don't know how many hours it is after they treat it's not that long yeah okay yeah I think it's like a we yeah um and just uh an update on the recertification process that's still ongoing with the assessor office and I know there was some people saying that the assessors are coming out there just because they want to raise everyone's values and raise more money and so I just want to remind everyone that we can only raise our leving 2 and 12% so if values of properties all go up the tax rate comes down if values went down tax rate would go up everything has to stay in that level area so they're not just doing it to raise more money Mike can I ask a question um for the for the sort of Road assessors that go around do we use our own employees for that or do we third party that out okay um the commercial is usually done by a third party RSS is go out and they'll have a third party at it times too okay and excuse me one more question um is that town wi you're doing it or they just doing townwide okay so yeah it's the fiveyear recertification programs so everybody is going to have some sort of somebody coming by their property to do an assessment on it yeah okay so do you want to outline what that entails when they come into the property cuz I think people were panicking thinking they're they're going to come into my house and they're going to do this and that I just just for clarification if very and everyone can get a clar of view the next victims next week on the information television shows on cable this week uh Jared Ferraro is on talking about the recycling center I want to thank him for that and uh we had Melissa on talking about uh the ever Leonard uh pool um so next week the assess is going to be on and the veterans agent she'll be talking about this so they they go into everybody's property and um you know if there's anything that new has been done it may increase the value of the property but um it's all standard you know just properties could go down in value if a house has become run down so they want to make sure if uh anything's been added on the property you needs to assess get out on but now you have you know the I want to make sure we're all clear normally during the to managers report I wouldn't have comments but I'm little all because Roger next time so to answer your question Roger all inspection inspections will be completed of all properties in town unless the property has been visited within the last four years so cuz it's the 5year program all right so if somebody's coming on your property they're just coming on to re assess the value of your property it's not to raise your ta it's not to raise anybody's taxes and if your if your property becomes worth more your tax rate may all go down right so the some of the data collectors are members of PK evaluation group they'll carry a picture ID and a letter of introduction from the assessor's office and the collectors will measure from the outside all the buildings on the property and then do an interior walk through the final goal is a uniform fair market value of all properties in Norton in other words a fair assessment of your property okay did you have a question I did um kind of question statement I think I know on social media over the past month there's been all sorts of talks about strange people in people's yards and all of that and you know I think clear identification I think maybe communication is such a key is such key we have so many resources to do it now I think that letting people know just like you read Mike just now you know saying exactly what this is and letting them know this is what they're who they are what they're going to be doing and according to Social Media I haven't seen them you so here say um people didn't see any identification so I think for their own safety too the Assessor maybe should have some sort of badge or something that's visible and required to be visible that they can show because I wouldn't want that jum all right go all right so uh just another thing um last night uh we I met with the finance committee and we did yearend transfers so um we covered everything for the year we did transfers last night of $65,500 this was all from the reserve fund um to cover $52 in legal Town Clark $1,762 snow and ice 8,749 uh the Veterans office $1,773 Park and W $566 interest on long-term debt $9,400 $60 Medicare tax 21,000 Municipal Building 10,000 and uh also um data processing 11,681 so the last two we had quite a discussion on and uh so the data processing the $1,681 was for a switch um for the communication system at the police department and we have tried to argue that that we wouldn't have to do that if all the equipment wasn't being moved out of there as part of the new town hall project CU now all the server and everything's going to be in the new server room at the Town Hall but that's a dispute and uh so we couldn't hold it up because it has to be paid so um as I discussed with the finance committee last night if who's the representative to the building committee if the board would encourage the rep from the uh building committee to bring it up at the next meeting we can then this money would then become if it's covered under the building project it would then be free cash you go about this would be return as free cash and this would be coming under the B project both ways as I said it's coming out the taxpayer pocket both ways so so my thoughts on this one and I know there's another one that's part of this too so you want to do both them yeah I'll do the other one so the other one the municipal building would have been fine uh the issue there was um as part of the project where the building's being built down in that area the parking area of the building that's where our septic Trail used to be so they had they put in a tank a large tank is part of the new septic system which is connected to a pump system that will pump it up to the field so in the meantime while we waiting for electricity to come and the full pump system to get operational which just happened this week we've been paying to pump that tank because there's no field for anything to go to right so we spent like 13,000 paying seus to pump that tank all during this time and so that was another discussion that that could be considered of the project because you had to take over our field and put a tank in and now we had to pay to pump a tank several times we would had to do if the project wasn't on own okay so my my thoughts on this are um that both of those need to be paid through the building fund through the perent building committee I don't know if we can um as a board I I would recommend that we deny payment through through free cash I don't think that we should be paying it cash that should come out of the the the buildings if I might as forward chair of the building committee I'm I'm going to allow one more comment but but no honestly this during the Tom report this should not be happening so just I have some contextual history okay if you can make it brief yes I can um I believe you were at the meeting Mr Hornsby I know Mr O was there Meg Arts um I believe you were there Mr Schnider when we came to to the Selectmen to discuss pumping stations and lift stations it was agreed at that time that that would not be part of the building committee project but that the town manager would use ARA funds to take care of everything that was had to do with the displacement of the current septic field and that was agreed at a select's meeting I can't tell you how many years ago but I remember I don't remember but it was agreed at that point in time that they should be paid through ARA funds and not through the construction project the construction project was only responsible for getting the materials to the lift station and the pumping station the town was going to take the rest of it okay thank you so in my in my opinion um even though that was said during that meeting this it didn't have to the septic system didn't have to be connected in order to cause that that pumping I'm I'm sure some of you have talked about this I had an issue with a property that had pumping and cost $100,000 so it's it's uh quite a bit this is 13k I think I think it needs to go to the permanent building committee as part of the project um the the data processing moving those wires that to me is a no-brainer that's part of the project so I don't know why we would you know with all this talk around town about spending free cash on things that we shouldn't this is a prime example of it in my opinion so anybody else please yeah just one quick question I think 22,000 what you read There was the Ben was benefits Medicare Medicaid uh 20,00 21,000 was Medicare tax so why was that not included in the budget um because the budget um was a lot High the salaries were a lot higher than anticipated um for a fiscal year 20.3 guess I'm not sure how you had anticipated the budget was made up with salaries so we knew they were well we know on the town side but on the school side I don't think they were we weren't aware the salaries were increased 5.6% and just W aware of that you know the school budget we get a one just one number right yeah Mr chair through you Mike um so the uh do we have any arpa funds left so you knew that question was coming right so the discussion on arpa was arer was going to pay for the installation of the entire sect system and then as the project went on the decision was made that they didn't need oper funds to pay for the system so we were going to use brist County oper and we pulled it back CU we' notified that they didn't need our funds because I I would imagine cu the project came in lower than anticipated yeah know I believe that was prior to my time as being on there so I don't yeah remember that meeting yeah I'd like to make sure that we plan better too for the benefit piece because I'm sure like if you had asked for a list of everyone's salaries for the year you could get that pretty pretty easily so we should able to get that information drilled down before the budget cycle comes up so we're not doing I believe that was requested from the schools right did you request that I think it was thought I saw that somewhere yeah I mean my point is we shouldn't be going to free cash for benefits that should be built into the budget it's right this isn't free cash this is coming out of the Reser Reserve fund which is part of our budget okay so I mean at the very least for me you know the 13k for the um for the sepor pumping and the 11,681 for the data processing um should be paid through the permanent building committee's project um I don't know if we need to vote on that or I'll make a motion if we need can so what's yeah before you okay yeah so kind of where what would be next in the process I guess I'm I'm a little fuz on the process right now the finance committee's approved these transfers um based on our approval because well no they've approved these transfers okay because they had to because it was the end of the year right right and they got to with the these bills that have to be paid um but as we discussed the finance committee last night at the select board um asked the building committee and the building committee agrees that these two should be paid out of the project M then the out can make an uh entry okay on these two take them out of project and then stay in those Aon which would become certified as free cash so if we make a motion to have the representative as the bill committee to right so we're sending St fix that's basically what we do we don't have we we can't make a recommendation to pay that we can Rec make a recommendation that uh our representative go into the build F on this I don't think we need to recommend anything I think we can we can we can vote and say that the building committee has to take this out of the project I don't think we need to recommend it I mean am I right we can do that yeah so so I would I would vote I mean I would vote right now to to have it come out of the permanent building committee project budget I mean so I'm trying do they have the money to do it yeah yeah right and and thanks Roger you keep doing that but um yeah that's kind of what I'm thinking it's like why there's there's why are they fighting the last the last meeting there was about $500 $500,000 contingency for the the um the town hall and7 or $800,000 for this Senior Center so you know bickering over $23,000 coming from a budget where we're so short every year here is ridiculous to me taking it out of our Reser and going and going to ask with our hat in hand is not the way to do this we need to say no this this is coming this is from your project this is coming from your project budget I mean yeah chair Mike what was the vote for um the vote was to was it was was it unanimous um yeah I think so I'm breaking my own rule sing will you come up [Music] one I'm sorry to put you on it was unanimous but it is unanimous to because we kind of felt like we it wasn't our place to say where it should come from that's not our it's not our position so we said we you know pay the bill with res funds but then to um to have a conversation I mean you know I do think it gets a little tricky when I appreciate that that's your you can overstep you can overrule um as a volunteer on the boards it would be nice if you know the conver sorry the conversation was held instead of just a just wa conversation yeah you know just you appoint these people and I think to undermine them is or to to rule against it is kind of undering them I don't know when this was discussed at meetings um I heard of it I'm on the building I don't know if they voted on it what the discussion was I didn't know any of that last night that was kind of what I asked if I feel like I missed that whole conversation um I I've missed a couple meetings and I don't have a good memory so it could have been discussed and I just didn't didn't really catch it there was there was no discussion on maybe it's just the LPM right it could have been just one or two people saying you know but so that's it would be nice to have at least the PBC weigh in give their um give their feedback give their rationale um you know to what di was saying earlier maybe they can elaborate on on more recent conversations that have happened um before just you know it seems a little heavy handed just to say we're going to that's just my well I I understand what you're saying but they didn't come to us with that request they didn't I mean as far as I know nobody came to us for that request the first I heard of it was a phone call I got on my way here about it so this is the the first I've heard of it so that to me is is you know just it just seems odd to me that it's I'm sorry no that's okay it's it's kind it's kind of I feel like it's out of order it's coming to us kind of out of War that's why I'm struggling with it a little bit like I agree with what you're saying like you know just make a decision but on the other hand I'm feeling like stuff is supposed to flow from the PBC to us and they're supposed to make recommendations and then we are supposed to take it on our advisement and then make a decision I feel like it's kind of like we're skipping a i I want to say we're skipping a step but like some something's not lining up here so if I can if I I mean I feel like this this kind of thing happens way too often in this town where it's you guys got that last minute last night we haven't even heard of it and all of a sudden it's $25,000 just gone out of our budget and and I and that that happens way too often in this it's happened for years and I don't like it I I don't think anybody here likes it I think I think and I don't think it's anybody's fault I'm not blaming anybody in particular I just think that this is the way business has been done in this town and it's not the way it should be done and I'm not blaming you bling me so I'm sorry I'm looking at you where did it come from did the 20s you guys I think it came I'm sorry um I think it came from we had to pay the bill so that was the Catalyst for everything so we had to pay the bill and now it's like okay we paid the bill but who where's the money going to come from so and then like the bill for the switch we sent and the bills to the OPM and then the OPM tells us no this isn't considered part of our project right so so maybe the so that was what you're thinking maybe the OPM came back and said maybe the building committee doesn't even know that the OPM is I didn't see I went back to the minutes I didn't see any votes on anything no there was nothing so there was no VES maybe they're not even aware and having even had the discussion and and again you know it would be worth a conversation it's not I mean the bills in paid right it's not um there's no rush I don't think at this point right Mike to to make a decision tonight so I think um just out of you know consideration for your volunteers who you to give them an opportunity to to have a conversation with them so the OPM is the third part contracted to run the project right so why own this project they said no this doesn't fall us why we actually back and say yeah it does well yeah we're alling the same thing today well yeah this is your buil yeah I mean I mean I I I would take it back to the primate building committee and and have them come to us and give us a reason as to why we should pay it rather than around I feel I'm sorry um my bigger question I guess is what kind of roadblocks or safe guyss do we put in so we not doing this which is what creating that committee for so yeah you not not we're not going in six directions you know there's a streamlined way to do this there's a there's a way to have this happen yeah I get the emergency happen some seems like seem like we should have anticipated yeah this wasn't or it could have been something as simple as they like they're saying well I'm going to put this in on July 27th so I know they're going to have to pay it all right if you have a brief comment I want to wrap this up um when you're looking at your Charter and your bylaws all money for the um maintenance construction and updating of municipal buildings including the schools falls under the purview of the municipal building committee that's according to your bylaws and your Charter I would recommend as a former chair of the building committee that it would be politically astute of you to have a conversation with them I know they are trying um when I talked with someone yesterday on the committee they're trying desperately to return as much money back to the taxpayers as they can and not have to borrow the amount and they may think they might be viewed as oh the town can't figure out how to pay a bill but there's a big pot of money over here so we'll just take it out of that I think you would be best politically served to have a conversation with your building committee and come to agreement because they do control money okay I I can I can speak myself I'm sure you all know this I don't do anything politically motivated so my decisions are based on what I think is best for the town not what I think is best for me publicly time I did have that conversation last night with the finance committee so if we have the money available and pay this taxpayers are paying it if we it's put on the building committee the taxpayers are paying it with interest because it borrowed you could say about anything they could say we want new flat screen TV we're going to get them out of D interest or we're going to get them out of free cash I mean you could say that with any expense that they have so to me to me and again I'm not bling anybody to me that was like slipped in in the dark and I and and I don't like it's Shady business and I don't like it it does not sit right with me at all but you know I'm willing to talk to the building committee that's yeah Mr CH I was just going to suggest like maybe that you know I I think that would be I I like I said I I feel like there's something out of sequence here and and maybe it was because they they were under pressure time pressure or whatever and they just did it I don't think it was intentional person I don't think it was intentional be good to maybe let them explain it to you as the select board rep and then we can go from there I think just get a little bit more information there just something there's something we're missing here I feel do yeah definitely a okay so just a couple other things um so uh Jared's going to start working on the uh Tennis Courts at the middle school to create the racket ball pickle ball pickle ball um now school's out um also I sent you an email um that the LPGA is coming on uh August 26th through September 1st and they do have um opportunities for uh charitable groups to work the concessions to raise money so if anyone knows of any charitable groups that are interested in that and just one other thing um we've had a some concern raised about people using the bike trail and cut cutting across 123 in front of traffic technically the bike trail is not open yet the bike trail is not finished the safety measures on up so uh just they're going to try and put up barrels blocking some of those uh areas right now but just caution people that the bike trail is not done okay all right this year under y okay so we got um anything else back you okay so we have the select boards report mail I know Roger some things so um I just have a couple of things um I just want to uh make make note of the passing of uh James denel um he was a uh longtime uh resident in town um he was a US Army veteran he was a uh life member of the BFW um spent 21 years on a Norton uh Director of Human Services and the Council on Aging he's uh was a as we heard tonight he was a member of the Norton housing authority and um he is going to be greatly missed in our town um I'd also like to uh make note of uh several Boy Scouts in town who are uh attaining the uh rank of Eagle Scout [Music] um uh Mr D would you like to come up and uh talk about these gentlemen or um not no okay uh so anyway uh Matthew Christian uh Copley Casey Tyler Dion Andrew G and Johan Joseph Aruda um so at 1 p.m on August 11th 2024 at St Mary's Church there will be an eagle court of honor um to elevate these gentlemen to the rank of Il Scout um we have some letters that will will be uh bringing there and um I will certainly myself be there for that um got a letter from Comcast here as well okay we we have one less Channel I guess and the price is going up the price is going up so um that's all I have thank you all right anybody else nope okay I approved the warrant as written and our next meeting is August 15th where there's a public hearing um anything else we no executive session tonight so I uh Mr chair motion yeah um second second yeah thank you and uh