##VIDEO ID:UuZSrj5xj6w## e e is it okay if I uh show your video if I undo your video you there Sean hello hello Mary's here um Mary can you you don't have your microphone on so you need to allow the microphone and your video is not on either I see you there though oh connecting the audio okay how you doing Sean not too bad yourself I'm fighting some kind of cold but other than that I'm doing pretty well I'm fighting something I can't figure out if it's from the flu shot allergies or just like you said like a weak flu or cold but it's it's been a long week I might have given it to you maybe I might have brought it back from Vietnam and Cambodia oh I hope not but I hope not too yeah it won't go away that was like five weeks ago geez yeah I just got like a been very nauseous all week and oh I haven't really had that kind of stuffed up and not completely so like yeah it's weird sounds a little bit like it yeah it that's maybe the flu shot because it's been a little over a week for that and now the symptoms are starting to get less but I haven't had the flu shot in years well my husband got the flu and it's probably better to get the shot yeah yeah well I had to get it for years in the military and but uh every time I got it I'd always get sick um by the way we are recording so I'm GNA okay hello everybody I am going to start the meeting and I am supposed to announce the names of all members participating so I will start with myself Merill Mandel chair Sean jro this a recycling coordinator Mary glavin Gail fiker Barbara Bigalow Peg Ross and Steve Rice and Marla kilo and who was the other person um Tim Logan were unable to join us and at this point I will ask Tim TP typically takes notes I need a volunteer to take notes tonight if anyone would step up I'd really appreciate it just for one night Tim's always here to do it I can try to take notes if I can read them afterwards that's great you can always check the recording if you can't read them so thank you for agreeing to do that yes thank you okay okay and then um I think everyone is audible except for Steve Rice he's got his sound off but that's fine until you want to say something to you if that's how we want to go did everyone get a chance to review the minutes I can put them up for you to look at if you haven't I think I I thought they were really complete and detailed for what thank you said Tim did that he did a great Tim does a great job with minutes he does he really does does anyone have excuse me hi anyone have any comments or changes on the I had a question actually yeah down under uh I research options to recycling the styrofoam and done so is that going to happen do we know if that's going to happen again this coming year or do we have any um Sean you were you the one who found out about it last time someone uh there was a uh collection going on I thought it was in Leverett or one of the nearby towns maybe mayy you saw that I thought was it monteu that did it transfer multiple towns yeah and lever was the closest one to us oh and we advertised it is what happened we advertised it uh through town announce and also on next door and on Facebook as well great so don't know if that will happen again we haven't taken the initiative to make it happen here and I haven't heard how they coordinated it behind the scenes if we hear about that we could try to offer it here the problem was even with the dates they supplied for the Leverett transfer station um I had residents emailing me saying that they went there and the gates were closed during the times bad move that's no good yeah I I don't know what had happened um I double checked the dates I even went on the lever transfer stations website or Leverett and they had it listed so I don't know if they didn't have the Personnel that day or what oh that's odd okay I mean we could try next time if that happens beforehand to just talk to the transfer station person and confirm that they will be open ahead of time if we're able to do that again okay just I think it was just an oversight because the collection period was earlier in the morning than they're normally open on that day so they made may not have changed the time for their transfer station to reflect their open hours is probably what happened that's too bad okay um any other comments on the minutes I'm sorry I just thank you I just was wondering about that I didn't hadn't realized that it happened last year so sure so do I have a a motion to accept the minutes approve the minutes I make a motion that we approve the minutes of 32824 second all in favor we we actually have to any votes we do we have to do by roll call so Merill Mandel I I Sean General I Mary gevin i d rice I okay prce our alphabet yeah I know we should do ay alphabetically but then everyone has to look at the order and I'm just looking at the order of what's on the screen for me probably is different for everybody else different yeah okay so thank you on that um comments on trash bag distribution uh as far as I know everything went fine the only comment I would have is that still a little uncomfortable how we handle the money um I just kind of checked every time and picked up the money and brought it to town town hall and deposited it um I I guess I would prefer if the person who's working could try to get it to me or to Sean to do that um but I mean it's not that big a deal we don't do it for that long but I just don't want to leave a lot of money in the shed so can you can you sorry ml go ahead I didn't mean to interrupt you um can we can we take that money directly to the treasurer of course where it's on Saturdays and stuff so I guess that doesn't work um and we use a specific um form and we fill it out I mean it's not that complicated or anything but I think we should keep to a minimum who's handling the money it's just more accountability yeah and usually just the first few times there's a lot of money especially at town meeting but after after that the numbers you know go down but it's still still a good amount so um I think it should just be limited to me and Sean if agrees with that it just seems safer yeah that makes sense that makes sense less confusing yeah and then we're also consistent how we fill out the submittal form and you know things in town right now are really upended so we have an acting Town Administrator Ator who is actually in favor of giving committees more responsibilities and I'll go into that in a little while uh but uh part of that is I want to make sure we're doing everything really clearly the the flow and the procedures so that as a new Town Administrator comes in and you probably know this but the administrative secretary is also gone they need a new administrative secretary to the select board and administrator so we need to keep close tabs for now on things I thought that position was filled it was and and she's leaving it's for family reasons she just she had too much on her plate it sounds like couldn't it was just too much and and it's unfortunate because she seemed really nice and well but they really could use someone if anyone knows of anyone please pass the word along Sean how about your wife well I don't know if that's happening anytime soon um pass the word around yeah what was that position again it's the ad secretary to the select board and the Town Administrator and I think it's roughly 20 hours a week but it does come with health all the health benefits uh healthc care and everything you probably get that too though but yeah just means attendance at night meetings yeah anyway trash bag distribution comments um one thing I want to ask people is that I spent quite a bit of time and got some input from others thank you Gail and and put together did you guys all get the the spreadsheet that had our ordering history pretty much over the last 10 years for bags I thought that was really kind of enlightening and the main thing was we're ordering bags once or twice a year and you can also see the cost of the bags went way up yes I mean really went up but um seant did an inventory of what we have now and we have enough to get us through early spring but then we'll need to order for the year um for the for the trash bag distribution so we'll get there and that's the next item uh but any other comments on the trash bag distribution I think people expect it Gail you I was wondering about um if you're going to talk about changing of the pages in the binder the additional column for the um transfer station sticker so we have track of which people the the individual purchased by the person not just a list of dollars and the number well that's an interesting question do we feel that that's helpful to have the name of the person who bought a transfer station sticker I mean we could we could just add one column for that and yeah I I think the concern uh and this was gab's Point um that the town underwrites the cost of that and if other people come from other places and are not really Town residents and get those tickets then they're it's a misuse of funds basically so as as they sign up for their bags and buy their transfer station there'd be a place to check it off uh or put the number of the transfer station sticker in it so that it's clear that this person is a is a legit resident taking advantage of a program for our residents now somebody just to do either of you have any you or Gail had any thought that that's ever happened because I pretty much whenever someone bought it it's been someone getting their trash bags well maybe Town Hall I don't know there was an instance where somebody came and bought one one on the town meeting day and they made a comment that it's cheaper here than somewhere else well it is cheaper than ammer slami so it is cheaper than buying it in lever yeah people that's because they can't we can't bring trash or recycling there right but they're getting the same exact sticker I don't know they don't get the same sticker no they don't they don't it is a different but either way made that comment I don't know where they're from or anything like that but going by what um Gail was saying that was kind of like off-putting in a way like well if they're buying a sticker and shoots Barry and they shoots by a resident why would they even care what the sticker cost and lever it well you should if anyone makes that comment you should explain to them that in fact there's different stickers RS say shuberry and Shotsy residents are not allowed to take trash or right recycling there they just can take bulky waste and that's why it's less expensive but I don't think it's a bad thing uh Sean if you want to write a note to yourself to just add a column for you have to add two columns though because some people buy this fiscal year and some people buy the next fiscal year just little cols with a check mark yeah to put the the transfer thicker number in it yeah I agree with that because if we have to track them on a separate sheet anyways we might as well add a column for in the spreadsheet right there would the name already up I agree with that Gail but you need two columns right for them okay and um so wait a minute this is really minor but in the book The you need to change the front cover too because it still said last year's cover that's just a picky little thing wait a minute does this mean we have to fill it out I'll still fill out this the another page that has the sticker number yes yes because we need that for deposits that's a much what this is just tracking so you would you would put it on the name but we also have the separate sheet where we write down the one sold that day and we add those up to make sure it matches with the cash otherwise have to go through the whole book look at that date and and get it so yes you now will have to do it in two places but it take a second to do it in the book all right then how about on that separate sheet we add one column uh two columns the person's name and the address leave the binder the way it is if you're going to have to do the the The Leverage sticker on a separate sheet anyway well the reason why it's nice in the binder is that that that'll stay together the other sheets kind of float around so if you were looking it up you could look right in the binder at the person's name by Road and quickly find that I just thinking have your point though of having to it doesn't take long it won't take long to do it I mean Steve do you think that would be honorous all you doing is is writing it really you have the two stickers you just writing the number in two places and the dollar it's not a big deal yeah I I think that's that's a better check I I just think it's safer that way we'll try it if we hate it we'll change it for next year the year after but I I appreciate the comment Peg you have who has the binder Pages the the program Sean does yeah I have that yeah okay and it was his first year doing it I thought he did a great job yeah he did yeah much more logical not you know it's just easy to use P just a comment last year when I was uh selling the stickers when we were handing out the trash bags I had two different people say on two different occa two different dates why would I buy this sticker when I can just go down there anyway and get rid of stuff there were there apparently well know they had both gone in and gotten rid of some of their stuff without a sticker you know the people that work there are kind of LAX about that okay that's what I of Wonder but I would just say you know it's an honesty system we use this to cover our costs it's and and that is one thing that I uh we we have a separate tracking for the money we take in for stickers against the $3,000 per year we pay leverage and we are above that $3,000 so we're okay but I think you know you just have to say to people that we're trusting you to do it honestly I smiled them and I said well you know it's it'll help the town if you can do it and they sort of yeah tell them they're cheating if they don't get one that's the de you know that's what you're doing because this just because someone didn't catch you doesn't mean you know you're cheating basically yeah so anyway just just a piece of info it happened on separate occasions and I was both last year it had never happened before it was just last year okay sorry I I'm hesitant to get in touch with the transfer station and ask them to look more closely at stickers because they're not gonna want to they're busy exactly yeah yeah they don't look at all so they don't have to look more closely just given the guilt that Karma will catch up with them for doing that agree any other comments on the trash bags distribution okay I thought it went well generally we sort of have it down now and um we'll see how things go up at town hall though especially having some changes there we'll probably get some calls Sean you're gonna have to help me check on that and also uh you know because they're not going to have the person there who's knowing what to do with the bags or the money or but Gabe Gabe knows but um hopefully they'll get someone else there soon all right changes at Town Hall new procedures so I started to get into this and basically the the short answer is Gabe who's the current acting Town Administrator feels strongly that committees should take on more responsibility for doing things then you know Becky used to keep everything close to her stuff and two of the things um that they want us to do now which we've wanted to do for a very long time is order off the state contract um for items and also sign off on bills that come in for our stuff that we order so they want us to order our own trash bags our own compost bins off the state contracts and then when the bills come in for that either Sean or I is who I'm proposing would have authorization from the committee to sign off on that so I think that's a huge Improvement because we've had a few years where we couldn't get the bags in time for distribution and and it makes us look bad now we won't have anyone to blame at least we could have blame Becky but it was our fault that we're not getting them we can't blame anyone but I I think it's really good that we have more control over this I do too I do too yeah so with that said what um we need to have two votes the first vote is to authorize the chair and the recycling coordinator to submit warrants to the select board for payment um so does someone want want to make a motion for that I move we authorize the chair and the recycling coordinator to uh sign warrants for the select boards payments submit submit the okay and then this is a roll called boat so maril manell I Mary glavin I sorry fly Shaker I jro I Barbara Bigalow I st rice I and Peg Ross Peg Ross I excellent okay well Sean now we got more work to do and then I think it'll go smoothly though and then the next one is a vote to authorize the chair and the recycling coordinator to order off the state contract for trash bags and other committee Town needs so make a motion so moved so mov so mov okay um so all those in favor Mandel I Mary I jro I BL Shaker I bolo I Ross I Eve I all right thank you all it's unanimous that's great we'll see how that works out I think it should be I think it should go fine though I got a question about that Marl I don't know how much you look into the warrants and ordering off of the state contracts um would you or I have to actually get a warrant to order off of a state contract or is do we board member that is warranted the order off of the contract no so so my understanding and we'll know better the first time we have to do it and that's why I'm asking I actually tried to reach Gabe today and couldn't reach her I tried yesterday too but my understanding is we since we are authorized by the committee and we will make that known to the select board I will send them an email tomorrow telling we had this vote U to select bordon and the Town Administrator uh that if we need to order off the state contract we can look up the state contract and order from the town of shutesbury and then and you know say it's from the recycling committee and then when the invoice comes in for that then hopefully someone at Town Hall will let us know or they'll stick it in the recycling box and you or I will sign it and then submit a warrant to the select board for payment and we'll need to get you know the forms for submitting warrants but it's pretty straightforward okay do you feel better about that well I I'm trying to separate the government side from the state side with that I just know that um a while back when I was looking at Greenfield that mass does have like a a warrant for um town to get qualified Statewide for um working contracts and that's why I was curious when you kept saying the state contract if somebody from town is on that or would have to get that certification from the state in order to order something from a state contract off of a supply schedule okay so we we'll find that out U but we have the authorization from the committee to do that and my understanding though is that there are entities in the state that do the purchasing that come up with contracts that they negotiate for Statewide use so we would look and see what companies have the Statewide contract for selling trash bags and then as the town of shutesbury we can order those trash bags through the state contract right yeah I understand that process as far as that goes I just don't know what we need in place on our side to be able to do that that's all like I said I'm trying to separate Federal from state but Federal you would have to be a warranted Contracting officer to order off of another schedule or contract no very different than Federal right and I when I Greenfield that the mass had that certification program that you must have in order to so I was like I can't remember that verbatim that was a while ago I looked at that but yeah that's where I had me asking those questions sure and we'll find that out I don't think it's anywhere near that complicated but okay strange things have happened so once we we should when we get a chance I can talk actually I'll just talk to one of the select board members or or um to Gabe but she's so busy I hate to bother her yeah but I'll do it well before March when we really need to order the bags okay and hopefully we'll have a permanent administrator in place by then that would be really nice all right U then the Mercury bearing way shed at Town Hall uh so Sean do you want to talk about this um yeah I can talk about it a little bit so the rec committee has authorized one of the residents to run like a youth soccer program on and giving them additional funds bought a bunch of balls and some Nets and everything like that uh the problem that we are running into with that program is storage so our old shed at the Town Hall the Mercury waste shed is fairly empty pretty much empty Merill and I cleaned it out we were wondering what the committee's thoughts on allowing the wck committee to use that space for storage of such items and just to let you know the way so it it's was completely emptied out and cleaned out of all junk and we disposed of all the cardboard I actually found a gardener who wanted it to kill grass so that worked out really well took all of that and then they were just some Oddball items we got rid of and since then we've placed in there some buckets that have that are full of um our batteries but there's quite a bit of spare room in that shed and it's not in the greatest condition and we have new keys and locks for it U so what we could do is partition off the area that we need for our Mercury bearing ways but there's still a lot of room in there if it really helps another committee so the question is what and and the thing is it would be great if someone stole all the batteries out of there then we wouldn't get rid them so there's nothing of value in there that we need about so as Sean's saying the proposal would be they would have to make their own keys for the shed or you know Sean how many people would you think would have access to it well as of right now it would be myself which I would already have a key and um Sam I can never pronounce their last name yes there you go okay yeah so I mean maybe her husband yeah but we're pretty much the three that uh been spearheading the Youth Athletic program here in town so I would uh I have no problem with sharing the space with them but I would like to see somehow you know a a a partial petition or some something separating the areas or maybe they have a box boxes for their stuff so it's clear separation but um I would uh move to allow the rec it's a Rec committee you said yes yes and no yes and no yeah yeah we we do not I'm the I'm chair of the rec committee okay we do not run the program we're we're we call it sponsoring but it's really a parent Run Okay activity which we Supply money to for the balls and things um is there a danger of I this is the first I've heard about this but Sam I'm sure and you have been overseeing this well is there danger of the soccer equipment balls pennies things getting contaminated with Mercury no oh okay good no these are closed plastic buckets H okay yeah this and we don't collect Mercury um lights or anything like that anymore so we don't have anything to worry about with that just batteries just batteries yep but the batteries because they're heavy should be close to the door on you know on the when you want well the Door's in the middle isn't it so maybe off this stuff off to the sides but you you could figure that out but um I would like to make a motion to or I move to allow the rec committee activity heads thank you I would like to limit to to preferably two people have keys and Sean you'd be one of them to have access to the to the shed for only the Mercury bearing way shed for uh storage of equipment so moved we here a second second okay and let's vote Mandel I Barbara I oh Mary I why Shaker I General I Steve I excellent unanimous so that's great and Sean can I leave it to you to let Sam know and yep I'm actually going to see them shortly so okay and I mean you guys can figure out the best way to separate the stuff if you had you know this actually a big box in there I think maybe you could use that is that still in there yeah it's a old uh it's it's a very heavy duty box you can maybe use that for some of the stuff but you'll probably need more than that you'll figure it out yeah but just somehow contain it is all I'm saying Y no they're all already in big bags so okay um next item is upcoming grants Sean do you want to give an update yeah there's been a a bunch of new changes and there's some meetings going on with the RDP program um unfortunately I've been in class for two weeks so I couldn't make it to any of them um they're not too bad Merl already um checked on some of them with the accounting making sure our revolving fund and everything like that um they haven't announced the 2024 grants yet nor have they announced what's going to be available come uh fy2 in the spring um but there are opportunities for the town and our committee to maximize our points for what we get and um I'm looking more into that I not sure what our finances are like I know Merl had mentioned um trash bags have gone up considerably I'm looking at the spreadsheet and uh are quite pricey um there may be ways of reducing that as well um within the RDP program that was least available in the fy4 grants whether we qualified for it or not I'm not sure um we just applied for the same Grant we always do and once those come out I will get the information to you and maybe we can have a another short committee meeting and go over what's out there and um if there's anything that we should pursue that would be great thank you and what he was referring to with the accounts is one of the new RDP points is to have a clearly separate account uh set up for receiving the RDP Grant monies and then also showing how those monies are spent and um so we have that account set up now U and uh some you can use you can buy recycling bins you can buy blue bins and you can buy trash bags with it things that we use all the time so as justifiable expenses for the RDP monies and so we're in good shape with that um one of the thing is I recall with points there there's something with our website and since we have Gail here I know you're on the web Community as well um I don't know how much power you guys have over there over the town website as far as being able to do certain things we could talk about it more at a later date once I know for sure but um we didn't qualify for some of the points last year I remember going through it with um Susan and um that was because some things missing on the website um she did a last minute quick check to see if it was up there didn't really give me details but I will try to work with her once now that we have the new RDP program guidelines emailed out to us for fy2 I'll have to go through that and talk to her but um if you just tell me what you need to have there and and in what form is it have to be text on our committee page for instance or does it have to be see there has to be text and some links and others okay so if you if you tell me what those requirements are I'll see what we can do about getting them posted I'm sure we can get them all up there and Gail's really good about following through them it's just a matter of her having and I don't have access to it either Sean you're the only one who does at this point uh on the website because I can't get into it oh the retrack yeah I was talking about the town website unless you unless you give me the U password word at some point for that I could try to get into it yeah try to get back into talk about that at another time but that sounds great Gail thank you we'll we'll keep you up to speed on that uh oh I have on here does anyone want to write a newsletter article Sean is okay with writing them but sometimes it's nice to have someone else write one if there's a recycling issue that you're interested in or want to promote can we do an AI that okay I'll just keep that out there but I think actually just a review of some of the basics would be helpful because new people are always moving into town and just making sure they're aware of what they can and can't do you know the batteries comes up again and again but it still needs to because last time John and I went through them there was so many alkaline batteries in there it was ridiculous yeah the battery bins really need to be addressed I'm just not sure how to go about it yet I mean you have all those nice signs hanging up above the buckets yeah thank you GI it's just it is what it is and um without any type of controls over it that's how it's going to be I just don't know how to go about the controls at the moment and then article would be another chance to get people to used to going to the website to ask questions or tell them what's there that they can answer their questions well that would be that's a great idea to just have a little walk through our web page and all the things I can find there that would be great you'd be an expert on writing a just a short blur on I saw that coming yeah no it just makes sense because you're so familiar with it but only if you want to no pressure um okay the other thing I want to bring up U before we get to action items from 328 is the textile bin in town so a little issues come up related to that and uh people really like having it it's been full a lot people use it regularly apparently it was so full last week that it was practically overflowing and then when they came to pick it up the highway department had that was the day of the seven inch snowstorm and they had some contract people who parked in front of it um so U they blocked it so the truck couldn't take it but they came back this week so that really wasn't big deal and I I talked to Dave about it but one of the things that Dave said is he's concerned about access in and out of the highway department he feels that the site distance isn't that great coming and going from the yard um part of that is due to the burm and I think in the spring we might take that back a little bit on the ends but he would love to see the textile been moved to another location completely I can see why um y but I mean to me that seems like a really good place to have it on a on a paved surface tucked in there in a working you know location so it's yes and no so I will say that uh the place that he suggested that it go is on the paved portion of wendle Road between town hall and the AC Club there's like a little pull off area where there's a bank of mailboxes yeah and uh I look I I talked with the assessors found out about the uh ownership and there's two little Parcels there but one of them is basically as far as I can tell it it says it belongs to the Franklin Regional Council of governments but they don't own anything they gave everything to the town so it's Town land basically so that's a viable location um I talked briefly with select board member and they weren't real excited about having it there but um I just thought I'd see what you folks think about that I mean the a good part about it is if you put it right next to the mailboxes it's just one more thing in that little spot and it's pretty easy on off pretty accessible and is that dirt soil or is it I don't like it what we do in storms who's going to clean it out so the trucks can get in and out uh empty Dave said he would do that he'd plow it I mean that's how much he wants it out of there well I don't blame him for wanting it out of there I I promise you that where is it again on wend it's you go towards the AC and where is it so uh on your about halfway to the AC on the left it's a big clearing oh okay okay yeah oh this is awful you can't see anything never mind um it's right it's prly opposite Highland Drive do you know where Highland is that's yeah the road that goes off so it's kind of opposite that as you go to the AC it's on the left and and I think why why it was under Franklin Council region Regional Council governments is because that was where the old road RightWay was and they straightened out the road because that's why it sort of looked like a little road going in there yeah so it's not our decision anyway it'll be up to the select board but um do we want to take any kind of action do we want want to vote on moving it or just have the select board deal with it completely what how do folks want to deal with this well I don't feel like I can make an informed decision um I think you had mentioned that there were concerns and Beyond the concern about plowing what were other concerns that they had for the highway department for the highway department Department was the one that had the concern and that was they feel with the vehicles coming out you know it's an active Highway yard that there's a potential for a conflict between their vehicles and someone coming in and out I meant the concerns with that location with the other location yeah were there other concerns expressed the only concern that I heard was aesthetic aesthetic they just thought it wouldn't look right sitting in you know on the side of the road next to the mailboxes but it's much more visible there it's just out in the open and I don't know uh how accurate that is as far as uh the owners but according to my map it says it's owned by Kevin and Jerry Hayes no that's there two little there two little Parcels there so this is parcel I've got the it's we're talking about parcel uh H one's the number here h160 is the map ID number so you're looking at the one next to it which which goes with a parcel across the road but this is a a bigger parcel that's next to it which is where the mailboxes are and does it would it include access as well as the placement so that we wouldn't be driving across somebody else's property I don't believe so but we'd have to confirm that for sure something yeah that's something to really me it looks like a fa large you know wait a minute um you know what I think we should do is get Dave to draw up a map for the I have it right here let me finish please yeah and the access and make a proposal on here's the piece of land here's what he sees as the placement of the object here's free access all within that one bound with that particular piece of property and find out for sure who owns it well according to the assessors you say it's Town land then that should be confirmed it is confirmed I got it from the assessors that is Town property yes oh okay so then take that proposal to the select board that Dave do it and that we don't yes I agree with you I agree with you I think that's a really good suggestion and have all his ducks in a row in terms of the property lines access plowing that he would guarantee the plowing it's got to be part of that look happy I mean we're just an advisory committee yeah so well I think temporarily the town hall would be the spot and then once the library is complete put it at the library the library did not want it and Town Hall says no yeah well Town Hall doesn't necessarily not want it the problem was the person we were dealing with from cmrk felt if we put it behind Town Hall it wasn't sufficient sufficiently visible to the public right and and you got that was the concern yeah right so even in fact even if we say we're good with it going on wendle road we haven't spoken to cmrk about it yet so I I agree with you Gail 100% it's not our responsibility to follow through in this this was a decision made by the select board in consultation with the former Highway superintendent and the recycling committee supported putting it at the highway department so should leave it to him I I agree with you it should be up to the highway department to make any moves and we should not really do anything yeah I just worry about illegal dumping being on wendle road with no oversight whatsoever I mean not that there's much oversight at the highway Department anywhere else we put it but there's always that thought that you're in the open you're at the highway department or you're in the open at the Town Hall if I'm sitting in my car and the thing's full I can't just leave all my stuff at the bottom of it somebody else will take care of it you put it on W Road there may not be anybody that goes by that spot for 30 minutes 40 minutes you do it at night no one's ever going to know I've just seen it on not so much shoots Berry but other towns when things are out yeah you know in the open it just invites dumping it becomes well Mary you're taking notes right because these are really good comments to get down in our notes and uh I I think those concerns are very valid so no I do too I do too yeah I saw a very similar box it was in Hadley and it was a mess I mean it stuff had just been dumped and left and sat in the rain and uh it could be a big issue if it if it's not been under somewhat a type of supervision this is a really helpful discussion I thank you for the input I mean what about I hate to say it I mean the school could be an option that's visible um I don't know if we could talk to the state about the State Beach area that's probably that's a long ways for really we need a central location and the school is not visible enough either and again you don't want to be somewhere where all the school buses are coming and going with the kids they don't want traffic it's really I think it an optimal location right now the only other one that I think makes sense is to put it behind Town Hall yeah but I don't know if C CMR would agree to that is there any other place on the highway on in the on that property that's the best spot there it's really so nice you just go in and go off to the side you're not going any further into the property and then you just turn around and go out it's actually really good location as long as they don't block it so good for us and not so good for the Department all right right so what I'm hearing is that there are some concerns with moving it we're not sure that the new this the proposed site on wle road makes sense for a Hoster reason and it's really not our role to make this change we are sending it back to the highway department to pursue uh and answer all these questions good correct that's a good summary good summary all right very good though this very thoughtful I appreciate all that let's see I'm going to go real fast through the action items because a is done B is done C is done D is done e is done do you want me to read them no okay F was a little iffy no that was working at bag distribut contact John and Mar over $200 in cash in the shed we'll pick up the money and deposit at Town Hall so we talked about that and I mean it's basically done but I think we need to be a little more careful about how we handle that and then the last one is done with the m Mercury bearing W Shi so we don't have any action items to to continue from the 328 meetings we just have possibly some new ones does anyone have any other items that they'd like to discuss oh I did had one more sorry uh we uh put before the select board uh Sean and I work together to to get a new contract Amendment for the recycling uh with the recycling the murf materials uh recycling uh Comm facility and we approved a new contract with them the prices have gone up unfortunately but we basically have no control over that we need this contract hi Susan we need this contract the prices are with the price are and so I'm just happy we're able to get in on a regional contract that's very good so just so that everyone knows that's all set and okay all right Sean do you have anything else um yeah if we got a little bit of time I just wanted to go back to the the discussion we were having earlier with the columns for LTS stickers and sticker numbers and everything and I know how we had talked about it a little bit but um getting a laptop for committee um as we just keep adding form after form and fumbling through the three- ring binder uh if we could look into possibly a way of working a laptop into trash distribution in order to track all this stuff easily for the committee members that are Distributing bags um between finding people's addresses updating people putting numbers in with stickers these are a lot of columns we can't only fit so much in the three- ring binder um and I know me personally last year was my first year so trying to go through the addresses then back to the LTS stickers and then back to this back to that it made it not difficult just time consuming fingers get a little dry everybody knows that um and I don't know if that was an option I know I brought it up to somebody I don't know if it was Steve when we were doing trash bag distribution what the thoughts are with the comedian on something like that instead of the binder we'd have a a laptop and do it with the computer yes with an Excel spreadsheet already set up so when somebody comes up for their bags you can type the first few letters their last name find them boom right there then you'll have columns like you asked for for uh FY 24 and fy2 LTS stickers with the numbers and um I think it's a great idea so is there is there power in the shed so that's where we'd have to work through some of the obstacles with doing this yeah whether you'd want to leave a laptop in that shed you wouldn't because it guess can get really hot right I so I mean I am very computer oriented I use a computer all the time so it would be nice if it was a simple way to do this yeah but I don't think it is so simple because we have different people every time so then you're having to coordinate passing off the laptop making every sure everyone is comfortable using the laptop uh and keeping it charged um I I just think it it's a great idea if we had a permanent you know plugin for electricity and and U that type of thing but um I I don't think it's that cumbersome at all to use the binder I mean it takes a couple of seconds to look up the road name but it would take that with the spreadsheet too you'd still have to locate it and yeah you could have as many columns as you want but again I don't think that's a big limitation that we have now um and you know the we use it for two months three months and then we would just have it for what for the rest of the year I then can go to town hall like our binder does for our town clerk to have right there to be able to input the data and so we'd have to make sure someone else was using it us it correctly entering it you know not messing up a spr we're doing that with a three- ring binder anyway that's we got to make sure people are entering everything where they need to enter it go ahead Gail I was just going to say that the social element to this and this is because I just had a visit with my PCP and she talked to the computer and said to me and I found that offensive and I'm standing in front of me with the binder it's a personal neighbor to neighbor connection that I think would be interrupted if if you've got a computer interface um just that is being handwritten and manual has more a personal feel to it can I was gonna say can we do some Post Distribution data entry like if you wanted to have somebody do some data entry and put the numbers in for dollars and stuff so it's electronic you know transpose from the binder to a database to a spreadsheet doubling the work though I I don't think that's a good idea because Sean I mean we totally support you in wanting to do this but the problem is it doesn't I don't think it Mak a sense technologically because of the limitations we could probably figure something out with charging a laptop but it's it's such a limited time that we do this and and the other thing is the amount of effort to pass it off to the next person yeah to make sure everyone comfortable using it using that particular program if it gets messed up having backups you you know you don't have that problem at all with with a binder and it seems like an older technology but it's pretty tried and true and I and I Gail I I kind of agree the personal connection uh is kind of nice so keep thinking about it Sean and come up with some more ideas if you can convince us but I'm not there yet yeah that's fine and if we had other uses for it as a committee that would be something but we really don't I just think I sort of reiterate what what Merill said um with the number of people that are doing this and there are several people who aren't here tonight passing it from one person to the other and making sure that it's everything's working right I just there are too many too many fingers in the pot too many hands in the pot moving po parts yeah right right and you have people like me who use computers but are not computer wiz people yeah so I would freak out I would freak out if something happened while I was in my hands it would right and then what do you do if it's on paper you can deal with it you can write it down computer stops working in the middle of a line of 15 people like what Sean you just have to get all the old people off this committee I'm making notes like said I'm really computer oriented and so is Gail I mean she yeah I know you know I don't think it's about that it's not an age thing no I'm just being I'm just saying that I'm hearing your pick that's fine I'm hearing but I'm disagreeing because I don't want to be in that some people are PC or computer find that fun or toys and other people are like but I would feel terrible if something happened that I couldn't deal with with all those people standing in line yeah anyway that's Electronics it's it's irretrievable if you make a mistake in Excel forget it yeah yeah sorry Sean oh just waiting on everybody to retire so I really don't about that I don't think it's about that I think it's about make sense for for application U but keep like I said keep working on it you can convince us but now the trash bags is so expensive don't know if we'd even have the money to get one um all right does anyone have anything else they'd like to bring out has anybody um how's the complaints or praise for Cabella how's that going so it's been a lot better um I can tell you that uh the normal driver was out last week so we did have some issues with the driver that covered for him um but those got taken care of right away other than that it's been pretty smooth since probably late July for the most part and I will say I often see sometimes I see Sean's responses sometimes I don't but he has a really nice way of dealing with people I've heard very positive things so Sean thank you thank you for being so considerate to people yeah that's great the only thing and I'm just going to put this out there for any residents that are watching hopefully um we did have that old Egypt Road thing where that was just a carryover from the old garbage hauler that wouldn't go all the way down and I had a resident complain because all the neighbors would bring their trash to the end of his driveway because USA wouldn't go down the road to pick it all up and he just ended up having a mess at the end of his driveway on trash day every week that he'd have to clean up and I reached out to cassella and they're like I don't know why we don't go down that road yeah we went down it was on old old Egypt Road we both or I went down there and rolled the road and I'm like there's no reason they can't go down there and turn around so and we had that incident on uh King I think it was King earlier in the Summer with the new red resident so we're trying to work out all those little wrinkles I guess so if you hear residents talking about oh I'm tired of having to Lug my trash barrel all the way to the end of the road or something just bring it up to me so that Merill or myself or even you we can go look at it and we can see if it's on the list of restricted roads whether it be seasonal or not and maybe we can work something out with Cella in order to excellent I mean I've noticed that on some of these things with that um cassella is either getting away with how USA wasn't doing it and cassella wasn't doing it without being a Cahoots I have no idea but they had no problem going to get it winter might be a different story um we don't have winter anymore yeah speaking of that though cassella reached out on Monday and complain of icy roads Monday or Tuesday and I'm sure there was some slick spots I mean my roads were all just puddles when I got the email um so I don't know if that was setting us up for something I just haven't heard what's happened yet like they couldn't get to a road but oops claiming it was icy because it really was you haven't heard though that's a good sign right but um just for Tuesday mornings and Wednesdays like I know our town Highway Department is usually pretty good about it but Trasher gets an early start to the morning and I remember leaving my house at quarter to 5 in the morning to go to work and the roads weren't touched and normally they're just getting to work as we're going by so I don't know I that one kind of threw me off but if it's if it keeps happening we may have to talk to the new Superintendent at the highway department I forget his name is it d da Dave Dave um and find out what we can do about Tuesdays and Wednesdays as far as that goes sure um I will say you know i' I've talked to Dave it's it's it's hard to say whether we should go directly to him or go through the Town Administrator and or select board um to talk to him because he doesn't work for us so if all these departments go to him and are requesting things demanding things sometimes it gets to be an issue so depending on how big an issue it is it might be worthwhile to bring it up either to the Town Administrator or to one of the select board members and have them deal with him about it because they have more authority over what he does yeah yeah because they didn't specify what roads either just some of the back roads they said so I I I found out a little suspect the back road should have been perfectly fine with the warm that we had and rain and everything coming up monu they come up to our house from Leverett and that can be the hill can be a problem for sure and it's early when they come up was that pretty muddy earlier this week or soft I can't remember what day one day we didn't get plowed to a little bit later but I don't think that was our were're a Tuesday and I don't I I don't know I can't remember when was the big snow was it Monday or Tuesday that was last week last week it was Thursday yeah last Thursday yeah that's why I was thrown off by the email icy roads this week yeah because uh when we the driveway and I think it was the next and he said by noon he was out there finishing plowing whatever snowy day it was and the highway crew had not been by which is unusual mhm maybe they had an issue or something but I know I can't there's a change in Highway superintendent so you know they may just be getting it all together too yeah although Dave worked there for a while so yeah the drill just the coming up the hill when the and they come up at 7:30 by the time they get to our house it's just a little after 7:30 and know I worked I worked in Winter maintenance with M winter maintenance for transportation for a long time and it's really an art the snow and ice control and timing is really important the temperature is important the pavement temperature is important whether it's rising or or dropping the amount of moisture in the air so there's a lot of factors that really affect the road conditions and if you have a newer superintendent it's not as used to it you know he might still be working that part out [Music] but point taken um we'll all watch for what that's about but you know we had all that snow and now it's all gone because of all the rain so yeah but the temperature dropped and that's when actually you can get those iceing conditions because black ice you know it's a thin film of water on the road and then it freezes and then you have skiting cars so anyway okay um anything else anyone like to make a move to adjourn I make a motion that we adjourn the meeting thank you P second second okay thank you all for attending I really appreciate it and uh we'll be in touch for our next meeting great thank you Marl you're welcome and Mary when you get a chance just send me those those notes is there like a temp does Tim have a template or do I need just need to go back to a previous one and try to just you can there's no template but if you can see what his his format looks like and just kind of use that as an example it works really well okay give me a little bit and I'll get it done okay yeah no no big rush thank you very much for doing that I really appreciate it no problem okay and Sean thank you too and all right do you do we need to make another key for Sam or do we have more extra keys thought you have all the keys you put the lock on right at that yeah I gave them to Becky I they should be you might want to make extra keys then yeah let's we'll we'll try to track them down because I know they were trying to get a handle on that so this video will be is it it'll be on the website like soon tomorrow or immediately how quickly they do it it might be when we end the meeting that it goes to the town's YouTube I'm not really positive okay all right ask the town clerk she's the one who knows okay great all right thank you thank you take care good night night night Sean