this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers okay we're going to call to order the meeting of the Southampton select board for June 18 2024 at 6: p.m. and if we could start off by standing and saying the Pledge of Allegiance please I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all righty so do we have anybody here for Citizens speak anybody who's not on the agend agenda not necessarily seeing anyone at this point in time um do have a couple of announcements though Scott you want to maybe start off on our our afternoon Adventure here with code red just to sort of explain what happened there uh so unfortunately the state 911 system went down uh for most of the Commonwealth um probably about 3 or 4 hours ago um it's since been restored but a lot of people may have received phone multiple phone calls from our code red system um as well as maybe some other systems as well I know I got one from like Wier um and few other in the state um so there's there's definitely adequate notification one way or another um so you know we want to just uh we're still working out some of the issues with it um we don't use it that often um but we would still encourage people to still keep sign you know sign up for it um it's better to get notified than to not know of something even it might be a little bit of a inconvenience to get a few phone calls so today was a bit of a bit of a challenge there were multiple phone calls but it just showed that the system was having a problem I think as well which is anyway so please do uh keep on with your signing up for code red and just so that when there is a real real emergency um and you need us you can get at it yeah how would one sign up for COD red uh you would want to go to the uh town of South hampton.gov sign up for code red so those of you who haven't you can either get it I Believe by a phone call to your um well if you have a landline you can get it through a landline but I think you can get it to your your uh mobile and also a text if you want so depending on on whether you have code read or not do think about signing up for it there are times when it comes in handy for us uh two other simple announcements um one uh as you may recall we had some discussion earlier on from the bylaw advisory committee about the tag sale bylaw um we did put it up on the website and invited public comment had a public hearing uh and basically we had a a number of people that wrote in with some very thoughtful comments and so at this point in time I would just announce and it's on the website for the um bylaw advisory U board um commission page um that uh the bylaw committee has decided to table the bylaw it is not moving forward anymore so there's no fee no permit for tag sales in Southampton u based on the very thoughtful comments that we got from many people so thank you for those that took the time to write in and give us your your thoughts on this uh so that you can find on the bylaw advisory committee page and then lastly I know there was some discussion about uh the um someone from the assessor's office uh doing their cyclical property inspections and just to clarify that now has also been updated on the town website on the board of Assessors page so please go to townof South hampton.gov and you will find a message that basically explains what's going on um but just in in shorthand here the board of assessors is performing the ongoing inspection of properties that have not had uh an interior and exterior inspection in the past 10 years so they are required to do that and someone from the um from the office they hire someone to go around to the various neighborhoods they should be knocking on your door if you're not home um they still have the authority as far as I understand to walk around your property um so just to let you know that from what I've heard Saturday seems to be the busiest day for the person to come out because I believe he works in other jurisdictions as well but on the website there is a long list of neighborhoods that will be covered so if you want to go there uh a variety from eastwoods Drive Gilbert Helen Caitlyn way Kevin Drive Maple Street so there's a listing of those that are here not specific addresses but just generally the parts of town where the assessor will uh the Assessor's consultant will be coming around to look at properties for those of you that um didn't have that information before we've got it updated now so please consult that okay any other announcements from anybody no all right then let us move into the event of the evening here to start off with which is a tax title auction for 19 Cottage Avenue and Scott I'm just going to ask you to read the U the reason of or the the U I guess it's the the notice about the uh the sealed bid auction here yep uh so notice is hereby given that the that on the 18th of June 2024 at 6: p.m. at the Southampton Town Hall in accordance with the provisions of Massachusetts General Law chapter 60 section 77b Jennifer day the tax title custodian for the town of Southampton intends to sell at public auction by sealed bid in here and after described parcel acquired by Said toown by forclosure forclosure of the tax title thereon uh property address 19 codage Avenue and a parcel of L land with any buildings there on containing about 90 Acres being described as parcel 4495 a in the office of the assessors Southampton identified in book page 628-1902 292 page 27 with final judgment and taxl case number 19 TL 0000 376 recorded in book 14564 page 41 very good thank you so with that could I have a motion to open the sealed bid auction please I move we open the auction please second all right second ban okay all those in favor I I all right we are declaring the auction open at 606 Jen I think it's uh up to you you are doing this as a sealed bid is from what I understand so you have um I see people in the audience so I'm assuming they might be biders um you have sealed bids with you and I believe the procedure would simply be to open them in front of us and announce the um the uh the amount and the person or person or person's bidding on that my understanding so anyone in the audience who's here for the tax title sealed build auction for 19 Cottage AV no okay okay um so you have do you have your sealed bed sorry oh no I thought I fill out I thought you had like a form to fill out I have okay so this is what you're bidding now well I was going to bid more than this this was the minimum the that was on the flyer I can write on here what I've bidding okay that's okay sure you need anything like formally written or just a number um I guess just the maybe write out that you're bidding this and sign it okay like on this date right yeah so that that that amount in lie of whatever is already written there yeah sorry folks were you here for open time or for the public or just second it on the agenda oh perfect oh great okay of course the famous storm water presentation there we go perfect we look forward to it every year so we have just one one bid then or point it looks like yeah um all right thank you is that the check over there okay okay so I think you would announce the amount and the name of the person so Chad Alexander is bidding $1,134 for 19 cotage J it meets the minimum minimum bid the minimum bid is $1,000 so um he has to have payment today for the $1,000,000 on the yep and then the rest is due as of July 31st um so there is paperwork to fill out so I does the select board have to vote to accept the bid um it wouldn't hurt I mean it just has to be this just has to be really signed there has to be a witness signature the buyer signature in mine um but I mean just in case there could be a vote I wasn't told there had to be a vote well why don't why don't we do something that just at least authorizes you to to um continue with the process and sign the necessary paperwork or something like that does that work are we sure we're making it up as we go along I'm looking at item nine of the terms and conditions have any I mean this tax culan she's free to do whatever she want she has how to do I have no instructions on how okay I'll stay out of it I'm just concerned about item number nine in terms of conditions but I'm chair Jennifer go terms and conditions go ahead John no I'm on set thank you okay all right I think she did say that the um the the rest of the uh funds have to be paid by the end of July so there's more than just particular bid right right yeah okay there's a deed recording fee and a few other things that have to be paid as well okay so could I have a motion then to uh just allow the treasurer to proceed with finalizing all the paperwork she needs to do for the winning bidder well the motion is to allow the tax title custodian to transact it's a different position it doesn't have to be the treasure collector in this case it is her it falls under a different statute of law so authorized Jenn fr's tax tile custodian to execute it if she feels this is in the best interest of the town okay very good we have a second second all right any discussion all right all those in favor I I all right any opposed all right go for it so with that uh we have one successful bidder and I believe we can take a motion to close the public auction motion to close the public auction second all right all those in favor I I okay close at 611 okay okay all right that takes care of that so and you can work with Mr Alexander and get the paperwork would you like to be the witness signed up yeah absolutely [Music] okay okay personal address or business address business or personal address I you put your work okay and then maybe um one other thing if no one has any objections Jen you have a PCF before us um so that we don't hold you up um joh would you mind reading the PCF for that uh assistant treasure collector I'll take it up out of order if that's okay with everyone y that way Jen can finish all her duties tonight this is a uh administrative motion for a PCF effective June 24th 2024 for an namaki n o m AO treasur collector replacing Lexi Richard full-time benefited benefit l ible uh paid out of the general fund 30 hours a week admin Treasurer collector clerk step grade two step 16 of hourly rate of $18.21 okay all right you want to tell us a little bit about um just background a little bit yeah let's see so Ann is um she's local from the town of Southampton she spent the last couple of years working as a teller at BB um she's interested in learning municipal government and interested in working for you know the town she lives in particularly so we're going to try it out you know see how it goes she she has she worked at bank ESB and then it looks like she also worked as a teacher for a little while just as a like a Drama teacher but that's really not related so all right and this would take effect when John is this June 24th June 24th right okay so we have the PCF in front of us for the admin assistant to the treasure collect ctor 's office could we have a motion to approve that was John's motion I believe yep second second by Dan okay any discussion questions okay all those in favor I I okay motions approved all right thank you you're welcome thank you for taking this on your agenda early yep okay very good so next we have a our annual ms4 presentation whichever one cu conected so it easier so our ms4 presentation by folks from tyan Bond and we'll let them all introduce themselves I have the name of Haley Rivers here I'm not sure if that's our presenter all right perfect that's me that's you all right there we go perfect looks good we can just uh scoot that little TV down a little bit Scott that down right all right hi everyone yeah you can just speak right into that mic or pull it down a little bit if you need to there you go perfect good go for it oh yeah so introduce yourselves and tell us what you're doing here all right so hi everyone my name is Haley Rivers um I'm a planner at tyan Bond and um Abby and I are going to present your ms4 presentation Kelly's written on here but she's right over there um but anyway is this oh yeah it is the touch screen I just want to make sure we' got the whole thing in front of us okay all right so the purpose of our presentation this evening is to provide an update on southampton's ongoing storm water management program we're going to discuss the permit year 6 accomplishments the planned activities for permit year 7 and future permit year requirements we also would like to solicit feedback on the storm water program what is storm water rain water that falls on paved surfaces and Lawns becomes storm water if it doesn't soak into the ground storm water heads for the nearest storm drain storm drains feed to outfalls that dump storm water into waterways when storm water picks up trash chemicals um or other pollutants that's storm water pollution and storm water pollution is the fastest growing type of water pollution in Massachusetts when runoff discharges to the nearby Waters um uh oh here's the example of how the runoff discharges to the nearby Waters and then 40% of known pollution to the nation's Waters is caused by storm water the typical pollutants in storm water are trash oil fertilizer sediment sand and bacteria the epa's small ms4 storm water program ms4 is the municipal separate storm sewer system the program is jointly administered by the EPA and the masty EP southampton's ms4 area includes all of the drainage within the urbanized areas which you can see peaking into the town in the hashed red areas yeah it's these couple of little areas along the border right here and of course like yeah speak a little louder can I know I'm not right next to the microphone sorry it's all these little areas right on the border of the town and then we've got this one little one coming up like that sorry if it's a little hard to see how were those areas chosen um those areas were primarily chosen because they are considered like urbanized area which means more populated area um and I believe it is also areas of town that can maintain more storm water um the system and the structures yeah thank you yeah no problem the notice of intent or ni noi under the 2016 small ms4 General permit was submitted in on September 28th 2018 the authorization to discharge storm water was received on April 5th 2019 and was issued an expiration date of junee 30th 201 22 that permit was administ administratively continued on May 16th 2022 until a new permit is issued the storm water management plan was finalized on July 1 2019 and it is updated annually the um Southampton stormwater management plan includes what are called minimum control measures those include public education and out Outreach public involvement and participation an illicit discharge detection and elimination program uh construction site storm water runoff control storm water management in new development and Redevelopment and general Good Housekeeping and pollution prevention so southampton's impaired Waters um include peat Pond and the Connecticut River watershed which drains into the Long Island Sound which is impaired for nitrogen so the impaired water bodies within Southampton require a total maximum daily load and that is based on the Massachusetts integrated list of waters so um for southampton's storm water management program um what you have accomplished in permit year six um for your minimum control measure one which is your public education and Outreach you have done a significant amount of annual messaging to Residents to businesses institutions and commercial facilities a lot of that has occurred either on the town website or the Facebook page um you are also a member of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Connecticut River storm water committee and they handle a lot of your additional requirements for messaging under the permit um in addition you have a minimum control measure for public involvement in part participation and so part of that is you put your storm water management plan report um available online um to my knowledge someone can also walk into town hall and ask for a copy um you also have a National Prescription Drug takeback day you have a town rain barrel program and you have our presentation today um so uh your minimum control measure number three which is your illicit discharge Det ction and elimination program your field workor under this requirement has been completed um that was completed in three phases so number one was your dry weather outfall screenings um which were completed in permit year 2 in 2020 um your dry weather catchment investigations were not required or possible in Southampton because of the limited um area of your ms4 so you actually didn't have uh what is defined as key Junction catch basins or manholes structures um so we that just wasn't part of your requirements and then um in 2022 which was permit year 5 um we completed your wet weather outfall screenings um and I I did them so uh we have pictures pro great work um and um under these we did not find any signs of an illicit discharge within Southampton um oops so for your minimum control measures four and five which is your construction site and post construction storm water management um that was incorporated as revisions to your bi to your storm water bylaw and for permit year 6 there were no violations and there was no need for any enforcement actions uh for compliance with your storm water bylaw and so our recommendation is that you can continue to review projects under your bylaw and enforce it as needed um in addition you have a municipal storm water retrofit inventory you are required to continue to maintain and update this so this is keeping a list of potential sites for storm water best management practice retrofits which are included to um intercept any pollution before storm water discharges to water bodies um so far you have installed storm scepter at the East Street bridge and the town has also selected Conant Park on Clark Street to install a demonstration best management practice retrofit and you have completed preliminary tasks which include survey and Wetland delineations um or those are underway sorry the minimum control measure six that's your Good Housekeeping and pollution prevention for permit owned operations that's Town facilities and whatnot um the implementation of Good Housekeeping standard operating practices was implemented meeting of annual requirements um enhanced requirements due to the impaired Waters and recordkeeping thank you this looks like a lot this is part of the plan moving forward for permit year 7 however this is essentially a reiteration of the things that have been being met in the previous permit years um the you know everything that's described under the mcms 1 through six the moving forward for permit year 7 the mcm1 uh minimum control measure one public education and Outreach the plan is to continue with the annual messages and focus on messages for developers and Industrial facilities uh mcm2 the public involvement and participation um continue making the storm water management plan available for public review and comment whether that's online on your website and you know in the town hall as well for people to come review and then consider other safe ways to involve the public in storm water in the storm water program um for your elicit discharge detection and elimination program since your field work and sampling is completed when the town conducts any kind of catch Basin inspection street sweeping um cleaning out catch basins um definitely uh continue to train your DPW and how to recognize the signs of an illicit discharge through typically old factory or visual signs of a sewage connection um but no further sampling is required um until a new permit is issued for your minimum control measure 4 which is your construction site stormw water runoff control continue tracking your site plan reviews continue conducting storm water inspections at sites for new construction or Redevelopment and continue enforcing your revised bylaw um for the Post construction storm water management finalize a timeline for the implementation of recommendations and a regulatory review report which were drafted in permit year 3 that is specifically a permit year 7 requirement um and you are going to continue enforcement of your revised bylaw for minimum control measure six um you are going to continue the implementation of your Good Housekeeping standard operating procedures you're going to continue meeting your annual requirements including meeting your impaired water enhancement requirements and you're going to continue keeping really good and organized records of everything that you are completing so for your impaired Waters requirements um your nitrogen and phosphorus Source identification report was completed in permit year 4 by the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission under a grant um that report identified uh potential catchments that would have high nutrient loadings in town and listed potential retrofit opportunities that would Target those High nutrient loadings and so as uh construction um or Redevelopment projects come to your attention please incorporate those retrofit activities in new projects in summary Southampton is actively meeting the ms4 requirements and the permit year 6 annual report is due to EPA on September 28th 2024 so looking ahead at the future requirements that will include the annual ual reporting maintenance inspection and Data Tracking requirements um permit year 10 will be the mark to complete Phase 2 ms4 map and catchment investigations which you have already completed yay and the new ms4 permit requirements are to be determined based on what the EPA comes back with after they're done administratively continuing any question okay so I a question so yeah this whole uh report where you showed the areas impacted by the town right that's all Town responsibility it's with if it's within the borders of the town so what happens when you have a jurisdictional issue and the Cs or the catch basins where the water comes in are completely clogged and you call the highway department Highway says that's State you have to call the state so then you call the state and you can't get anybody at the state which is a separate issue but why should the town be penalized if we don't have jurisdiction to open up that CT and clean it but we're responsible and we have to report it so my understanding under the permit is that anything that is state-owned and operated is not considered ms4 it because ms4 might be color coded in there just because of the the fact that it's the map right that's just showing the large portions of College Highway that are under State Control yes so storm drains are often very clogged actually yeah so this map in particular is the urbanized area and it's solely the ms4 drainage so ms4 being the municipal storm sewer system well that that red thin section in the lower corner Corners yeah that's College Highway all the way up to the golf course right yeah is that College Highway it touches College Highway it it looks like it's just coming Southwest off of College Highway yeah it's kind of only that one little so all right so that's actually not in any roads that's the trail back there yeah yeah okay I wonder if that's like a cuz it looks yeah I don't know off the top of my head it's not owned by the to under the requirements of this specific yeah so it wouldn't necessarily be something that you would have to report at all it it could be something that you include if you want to go above and beyond but it wouldn't be required of you um I would say your only duty would be informing them of the issue and asking them to resolve it mhm okay yeah I know I've seen several on on College Highway that have either got you know branches or piles of leaves it just seems this cost us money to do which is fine and it's the right thing to do but the state gets a pass I mean they don't qualify under ms4 but they must have a different program or they exempt because they're the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts yeah yeah I don't know if there's a state requirement at this point um I think they start started with the small towns like the municipalities okay so we're actually in in going into pH into project Year 7even yes and this goes until 10 unless there's a new EPA regulation that comes out is that right yes okay thought issue in November Fe well I think we heard that last year too that we were waiting for something new from EPA I'm going and I just just a couple questions for me I I know Randle has mentioned it and certainly we've seen it in um Facebook pages one of the things that he does notify us of is things like street sweeping which is usually annually sometimes if we can rent the street sweeper uh we might get it more than once a year so that's one thing um the one I guess and probably Randall's more better more better goodness is better to answer this question but um there's there's a notion in that long page of of um a list of things you had there about reviewing plans for construction sites and reviewing drawings after after development is done or new development or Redevelopment to ensure compliance with construction I guess I'm just wondering our own internal systems given I know that we've had some gaps between things issued by the Building Commissioner the planning Board review the you know when when does Randall get involved in this is he a normal check off on all of this for the storm water review part of all the building permit and things that happen here I don't know I believe that is the case I believe um Randall is serving as the storm Water Authority for Southampton so when you get a site plan that would activate your storm water bylaw I believe a copy is sent to him for review okay something I don't know myself but I know we we we're trying to get more of a um circuit I guess I would say of all the right people that have to sign off on the right forms at the right time and I wasn't sure I haven't seen anything lately in terms of that so yeah and I I think think um that I did have a conversation with Randall to tell you that you hadn't had any review or enforcement actions this year and I think it was just the nature of the projects you were doing this year didn't activate your storm water bylaw but it has in the past so I know that Randall has gone through the process before I just don't think anything triggered it in permit year six got it um I know the planning board does issue storm water permits um subject to a threshold of significance and we did last year issue such a permit M um so the technical review with Randall's help is handled by the volunteers great but then Paul demon mentioned in passing and I can't elaborate much on this that he' met with Randall to go around to some of these installed facilities and see that they were performing correctly great it was more like I wish our records were better than we just finished all list okay very good yeah yeah I think overall the the fact that we haven't detected anything is showing that this program is the success and continuing this program is is a benefit to this town so thank you for your hard work and I think the results show speak for themselves good very good and I know one of the other programs that's happening right now is identifying our various culs around town too so there's another project going on to uh be sure that we know where some of those are and where some of the uh repairs and or or um um Replacements need to happen I think size-wise or just general General falling apart wise so you got my attention and left me hanging uh year 7even requirement is to revisit something from year two and set of implementation schedule and what is that yes um so I believe you are referring to the regulatory recommend recommendations report sorry I say that three times fast um that uh I believe we completed for you in permit year 3 essentially I believe that report gave a thorough review of all of your town bylaws and the purpose of that review was to see whether to see how easy it would be to incorporate Green Solutions or best management practices if you're someone who is going to construct or develop in Southampton and a lot of those were um just language changes that would make it easier for someone to come to the town and say I want to install a rain Garden um for this apartment complex and building at this house at you know um whatever I'm building and it would just have language that says that that is something that is allowed in the town of Southampton and um I believe some of those those recommendations would be trying to reward them for doing those kinds of things um I don't remember exactly what those specific uh incentives were but um the idea was that if they're implementing any kind of storm water management control on the property that they're developing or redeveloping that would be a process that you recognize and allow them to do easily instead of something that they would have to come to you and pitch and kind of reinvent the wheel every time so my understanding is that our revised Zone bylaws were just approved by the Attorney General qualified and can you tell me how much how successful we were in incorporating green incentives into our revised zoning I don't know off the top of my head but it is absolutely something that I can review with Kelly or Tracy when we get back to the office okay yeah great yeah all of those are up on our on our website obviously uh yeah so we have them uh all codified now so should be easy to search hopefully so yeah good any other questions from anybody no very good thank you thanks for coming appreciate it thank you have a great weekend consider this our annual presentation as we live that long I know everyone has tomorrow off so enjoy it there you go all right thank you very much oh right thanks okie dokie all right so let's move on we've got a bunch of uh appointments on uh resignations I don't think we have any resignations we have reappointments tonight and we'll have probably another round Judy's doing her best to thanks y thank you uh to get up to date with those um that are expiring especially U let me take the first couple since um uh I just want to make one comment and somebody else can um note on this uh cross off Diana fedman uh reappointment she's stepping down from the grant search committee um so um we'll just bypass that one but otherwise we can start and kind of go down the list take a take a small group if somebody would like to chime in and take three or four and then we'll do them by mini group or whatever I'll take the first two okay uh move that uh we reappoint both Chris fs and Caitlyn Rooks to the grant search committee terms to expire June 30th 20125 okay there's a motion second please second second by Dan all those in favor I I I all right any opposed all right uh how about the next group I move reappointment of Steven Crowley to the agricultural commission term to expire June 30th 2027 second okay all those in favor I I all right and then uh how about Dan John O'Shea reappointment uh public safety building committee as well as Mark darnold reappointment public safety building committee ter both terms to expire uh June 3 oh sorry one I have to do them separate John O'Shea's term will expire uh June 30th 2026 and Mark Darnell's term will expire uh June 30th 2027 both for the Public Safety Committee so I'll take those as two separate okay all right motion for the public safety building committee can I have a second second second by Steven okay all those in favor I I okay moving on um I'll take the next couple uh Dennis vogle reappointment to the Senior Center building committee term to expire June 30th 2027 uh art Lawrence reappointment to the ad hoc technology committee term to expire June 30th 2027 and Dan lavali reappointment to the ad hoc technology committee term to expire June 30th 2027 C okay motion and made and seconded by Steven all those in favor I I I all right someone pick up the next group I move to reappoint Ryan giler to the zone zoning board of appeals term to expire June 30th 2027 and also Amanda zonis Kemp reappointment to the zoning board of appeals also to expire June 30th 2027 second okay second by Dan all those in favor I I all right uh I'll pick up the next two uh Cynthia McBain reappointment to the Council on Aging board term to expire June 30th 2025 and Taylor seabolt reappointment to the bylaw advisory committee term to expire June 30th 2027 second n okay second by Stephen I think I heard first so all those in favor I I all right John how about some new ones down there or not it's fine I for purpose of the vote I will move to Richard fi new appointment hazardous mitigation plan term to expire October 1st 2025 Dana l new appointment Council of Aging board term to expire June 30th 2027 Steven Carrera new appointment Council and aging board term to expire June 30th 2027 and Elizabeth Miller grassy new appointment historical commission term to expire June 30th 2027 okay all right and just to note we have um letters in from both Dana lri Elizabeth grasty and Steven carreri in terms of their interest of um serving on these various commissions um they are Town residents have um one uh Liz Miller has been a grew up here uh in her younger life and then moved away and then has resettled back into Southampton uh Steve carrer has been in town for a few years and Daniel lri I think many people know is the uh the local dentist who is now retired and feeling like she's got time to give to uh volunteering to various committees so thanks everybody for stepping up so we have a motion and a second I believe yep you had a second by Dan okay all those in favor I I okay oppos oos okay I opposed to all four of them okay I'm voting against you're opposing all four yeah that was the motion they came up together as package so I'm voting against them okay all right motion passes 3 to one one absent was Cindy I didn't mention tonight cind is um still on travel so she's not here tonight so uh she won't be here with us all right so that takes up that package we should have some more um probably in our next meeting I think once Judy catches up with the uh XB expiring list okay all right Scott Town Administrator report so if you saw about 30 people in uh high visibility vest and walking around in hard hats along College Highway last week that was uh due to a site visit by mass do and Ty Bond uh myself and Randall we we walked along with them so that was um part of the uh safety safe roads to school program that would take place right around from College Highway to Norris school and then we also walked uh I didn't I left at that point but but they actually went really deep in the woods starting at uh Sheldon's ice cream and going towards the East Hampton Way um just to uh to tour and do a site visit of the the rail trail so great um that those are moving along and a lot of good information was going to put forward them actually seeing um the environment and how things work together over there so um took about 2 months of schedule after six cancellations yeah a lot of rainstorms in between if I recall uh the Norris transportation van was uh ordered through marot Ford and it's expected in late August or early September uh we had a meeting uh with some members of the select board and Conservation Commission to talk about the mainhand river bridge um and we are looking to get a second opinion on the engineering specifications and the um the construction cost um it came in a little bit over what we were expecting so we're getting a second opinion um probably won't move forward this year just due to the timing it takes 60 days for the bridge to be built um 30 days to go out to bid um so that a minimum is going to be 3 to four months even if we started tomorrow you might need to think about an extension of the grant yep as well um we did have a incident um on Sunday um police infire responded to a structure fire I just want to say um you know South anthon Fire did a really great job uh extinguishing the fire quickly and getting medical attention to the U the inhabitants um and just uh on a administrative note uh your select board accounts have been upgraded 365 and I'll um I'll do a tutorial next meeting and just a reminder town hall is going to be closed Wednesday uh June 19th so okay right yes 19th is juneth holiday so we will be closed but open again on Thursday um for those who need a cool place to come um can't really help out too much tomorrow but Thursday's at least open uh and usual hours on Thursday if anybody would like to come in either in here or at the uh COA I'm sure there's a cool spot so otherwise stay stay safe and check on your neighbors and uh is the library open on Wednesday uh everything I believe everything would be closed tomorrow as a as federal holiday yeah okay uh any select board reports from any different committees Dan anything in particular um well the conservation uh commission met I think one of the interesting topics was looking into evasive species and the addressing of vasive species and they're going to be organizing a program which will allow the town's people to tag the location of those invasive species so something for people to know um and also the the Housing Authority met and they're looking for people for the for the um the Housing Trust so that's something that we as a board and hopefully there some interested Town people can can help uh address right yeah one one of the things that's really under the purview a lot of of selectboard selectboard has a member on the Housing Trust which is distinct and separate from the Housing Authority uh Joy had been our representative so at one point probably the next meeting we'll probably reappoint someone to that from the select board but we need to do some active recruiting uh not only for that but a couple of other committees and boards that are getting uh smaller and smaller on their membership so good thanks Stephen Yeah question about the Housing Authority uh was there a discussion of scheduling a joint meeting with the planning board I can't tell you off the top of my head if there was I can check I appealed to both chairs that we come together for learning about chapter 40 R and how we might pursue that differently this time than previously okay um and just chapter 40R for those that are listening uh chapter 40R is affordable housing incentive um uh program uh it's 40R under the state code and um there was previously an initiative to see if it could could apply to an area around Big Y in Red Rock Plaza uh but it seems more appropriate now to look at it in the context of 117 125 College Highway and AD joining areas okay and yet um I think we may have outsourced the application last time and I don't think there's a good current understanding of how it operates and how we would Implement that okay all right planning board did not meet okay and open space either no no maybe not it open sent your last meeting probably not yeah and you I sent you a list of the uh the couple committees that you're on so we we named you the alaz on to the greenway committee now which is new for you oh that's right that's right I accepted the uh relief from two other we swapped you out uh Cindy took up a couple of those committees and you have have the greenway committee now yeah and John what's Happ just updates from Norris and um the L District committee as of this morning we have a uh new superintendent Dr VTO perero under contract effective July 1st for three-year contract and the Norris school committee will be looking to hold a joint meeting with the select board and the finance committee on the week of August 19th to August 23rd and the purpose of the meeting will be to walk every square footage of Norris with the building custodian prior to school opening so that you can get a firsthand experience of the status of the building as the school committee moves forward with seeking uh School building authority money so all right on clear your calendars mind just when we get closer to those dates but y okay good anything else okay good uh nothing much from the um Grant committee either uh we have uh submitted the grant for the historical preservation of the Old Town Hall that went in on time and we'll hear about that by the end of July and we should be hearing about the two fire grants U anytime within the month I'm hoping um so we'll we'll see what's happening there plus there was another one out for the Council on Aging um so we'll take a little bit of a break for a month or two here and see if there's any other urgent grants coming our way but I'll wait to see what else is coming in oh and we should hear too I think we' applied again for um Mass Trails for another section for the greenway uh that should be also announced before the early part of July probably okay so let's move into new business we've got a couple things Scott you want to lead us through a discussion on a draft of a remote work policy which is everybody you've got it on your screens if you brought it with you or yep anybody needs a hard copy I could dig one out of here need it you got it um I have it but I'm interested in um the genis of the conversation who initiated what's the process been to develop the draft mhm and I guess along those lines who's the source of the draft and why is it coming before us before PPP why are we bypassing our process I think this is a first draft to bring it to select board's consideration to see if we have any thoughts about putting other parameters in it if it's too much too little the kind of thing that we would want to then have Scott bring to pqb so it's not it's not bypassing the process it was taking an early Step At Us looking at it when the handbook was updated I think in January February um eded drafted a policy on uh remote work and that was never finalized on his part there were other parameters that needed to be included such as that description of how do you define your workday when you're at home what are the work environment criteria for working at home that part was lacking I believe in what he had presented to PQ and so that did not make it into the revised manual at the time so I this was a Scott's picking up from where that was left off yeah so I would just say for the for the fact that their Town Administrator still knew that this item is still sitting on the ppb waiting for the Town Administrator to come back so the fact that the the corrections have now come back and come to the select board who by its own vote can override the entire system just doesn't ring Goodwill to the other committee based on past practices just for the record okay I I think there was nothing uh unintentional here I mean the the idea here was to Simply get some feedback because we haven't really discussed it as a board since Ed's time and with an HR person in place now that has had more experience with these kinds of policies it seemed like a good idea to at least run it by us first but Scott can certainly present it to pqb and and come back around to us later on whatever you'd like it was a chance for us to ask questions um and if we don't want to take advantage of that tonight that's up to us I'd like to hear what Scott has to say I think it helps enable Scott in the role in embracing his his skill set as a HR um manager which we we I think is a role that we need to fill in in our organization here yeah whe he plays that role or we hire someone who specifically does that I think it's something to be addressed I don't have any problem relying on Scott's expertise my issue is past practice and perception and that this body has the timate Authority so if we say this is what we want in here tonight and this is the direction we want to go however strongly or however mildly complacent we are we are sending a message to that other board who has jurisdiction who is elected who is supposed to Pro all the first draft work is supposed to happen there there's no other body that can get in here to us get our feedback first before going to ppb that's that's all I'm saying perception is we're not following our own rules the book is outdated the policy is outdated needs to be changed but circumventing it says perception we know better let us do this no and I guess maybe it's a Mis misunderstanding but I was certainly not taking it as circumventing I was taking it as an opportunity to ask questions and get some clarity not making at the public at the public hearing process where all other department heads could speak that's fine but here they're not able to speak okay right so we get a private audience private view private opinion then go ahead and make your motion that you would like to no the chair controls the agenda you put it on agenda I'm good I'm just expressing my we're not always going to be an agreement on every single vote no I agree with that and and truly this was intended just to at least get some feedback given that Scott has had this opportunity in many other jurisdictions besides Southampton and what makes sense for Southampton so he was trying to offer that to us which I welcomed so knowing that the policy was outdated so if we are perceived as stepping on the toes of pqb we can certainly put this off and have Scott go and present it to pqb at their next meeting which is in another couple weeks or whenever it is yeah I would like to underscore that this is an important policy and we have a good experienced uh Town Administrator but I am quite moved by John's expression that the pqb is the place to vet these things and I had no idea when I asked about the process i v L remember um seeing a draft earlier uh but in my experience flexible work schedules are really important and the devil is in the detail and the boss almost always gets it wrong personal experience so I would speak for a strong process yeah I again if we want to have a 50,000 ft overview let's let's take 15 minutes and go through the seven-page document but the there's a bigger problem here and and the bigger problem is we have an outdated policy book that we really need to look I'd rather have Scott spend time on that whole process because we've already had some missteps where well this got approved but we're going to advertise it here because we're going to save money but the book says you can't do it so it just sets off these issues within Town let's I'm not a fan of of uh cherry-picking issues and work from home remote work is an issue that we need to resolve that we try to do but let's like the like the uh compens report let's take the whole thing and just deal with it all at once here here's how we need to update this and maybe because of who's in the ta's position now maybe the bylaw committee should be looking to change the PPP process because we have an internal candidate but but if we do that that means that the next ta needs to have that had as well right yeah so but again if we're doing a 50,000 look and we're not taking any votes and at the end of the day this gets ref let us instead of instead of continuing here and I will say though I I can't remember exactly which ones but but I am 99% convinced that we had two or three discussions with Ed on draft policies before they went to pqb so I don't think this is something that we haven't done before right or wrongly but this we can correct but this one went and is sitting on the agenda of pending business I didn't realize it was still pending I mean I thought it was canceled because it wasn't complete I didn't know that it was pending anything so I thought it just never got dealt with because it wasn't a fully developed policy Scott you want to give us two or three words in terms of your I'm not going to speak for you I I don't I've already spoken to you but just to give us some of the highlights of what you're what you're thinking about and why you think this is maybe an important policy without going into greatly do yeah uh so certainly developing these types of policies I always try to get as much Buy in as possible and with the select board being you know my boss uh I wanted to at least talk to the select board first before I propose it to uh the pqb um you know this was something I I know that had been kind of touched upon earlier at at stalled um I I do think it's important that whether or not it works for specific positions or specific departments that we kind of address it as as a town so that there's no uh disparity in in how people are are able to work or are working or not working um obviously you know there's certain positions that are a non-starter police and fire can't work from home um neither can Highway uh but as we kind of get further away from Co um we've kind of found that not only does it help morale but it also helps the recruitment of of uh candidates as well um not necessarily having 100% you know work from home but it does broaden our um range of recruitment of candidates CU someone might be able especially like with a part-time job they may be able to do a few hours a day but they might live in the Wier area so they're not able to commute you know an hour each way every single day but they could certainly do it once or twice or or three times a week and doing a lot of the administrative stuff at home that doesn't necessarily require the the personal one-on-one face to face um so it it's a very broad policy um and it focuses more on the the procedural part of it um making sure that the employee and the supervisor understand what the restrictions are that it's there needs to be a formalized process that there has to be a request and standards set forth and guidelines um that remote work if and when it might be appropriate for a specific employee in position um really is uh not necessarily right but it's it's a benefit for for the employee uh and it can also benefit the town as well um certainly it's it's emphasizing that you know remote work isn't whenever you want to work and it's not a replacement for daycare it's not a replacement for um any other thing it's essentially keeping your Norm normal scheduled hours uh and availability um as if you would be at your your office in town hall or elsewhere um okay so it does emphasize the eligibility um what the what the policies are and maintaining departmental policies but also goes into things like workers compensation if if you get injured um we we have people that may um you know live in Connecticut and depending on what the laws are or New Hampshire or New York uh depending what the laws are we we certainly don't want us now have to do payroll based on on that so we have to emphasize limitations on things right limitations um and and it really emphasizes you know having that plan in place that's written and agreed to by both the supervisor and the employee on what the expectations are so it's not uh hey I'm just going to work from home tomorrow type of deal but there's a consistent schedule that people can play around and much more formalized process good well I think at this point then I think pqb is going to have a meeting coming up soon in the next within the next couple of weeks so we would ask um that you would go ahead and and U get it on their agenda and see if you can at least uh go through the draft with them at that point in time I I did send it out to uh department heads just to get some comments as well so I'm waiting to hear back from from them very good okay all right next up thanks for working on this um I think it's a good good beginning at least it's something that needs to get done we've got many Loose Ends around here and I agree with John that the whole book has got some issues and they've made a good stab at trying to take parts of it to to update but it's a it's not an easy task all right uh vacation carryover Scott uh that one's to you as well you've got a few hours to uh request to carry over yeah I'm talking to Randall and then um Jin had mentioned that I guess I do have some I didn't know some acrs um I was planning on using them anyways but um it would just carry over a few hours into next year just in case but I don't have any with the new I don't have any plans anyway so I'll I'll probably be here so this was a request for was it 32 hours I think it was uh yeah up to 32 up to 32 hours okay would someone like to make a motion to allow Scott to carry over up to 32 hours into the next fiscal year I'd like to make a motion to allow Scott to carry over up to 32 hours into the next fiscal year all right make a motion can I have a second second okay any discussion all right all those in favor I I okay any oppose okay that passes thank you uh any other business that can't wait until our July 9th meeting um we won't have a meeting until July 9th which may have a fair number of items on it uh in between time as you all realize we do have our town special Town election on June 25th which will be uh actually next week um that's from noon to 8 and uh hope to have people come and vote or have mailed in your your mailin votes um there's lots of information on the town website on the uh various Facebook pages uh and Scott's still working on a couple of other things which um we may try to do a Facebook live at some point over the weekend but to be determined so um any other business though that's got to be done before our next meeting that anybody knows of all right if not how about anything on Old business C maybe you've got some updates for us on anything from the Green community to accountant Recruitment and those kinds of things y so we had the uh the tour for the greenway last week uh the green communities uh it is now just waiting for approval uh by the state so they had a few follow-up questions that we were able to get answers to so um everything is ready to go just waiting for State approval um the assistant Town accountant recruitment um Bradley and I were reviewing resumes and we hope to contact candidates probably uh in the next couple of days great um we've had some pretty good ones so we're probably going to narrow the list down to five and move forward with that depending on who's who's available um the hazard mitigation plan uh might get pushed back a week or two based on uh Chief ass's uh you the death in the family unfortunately M uh so he may be taking some time next week um for the uh salary and compensation report um I'm I'm almost ready to send out the initial request for information to the um the different municipalities uh I did contact uh Deb Bradway who is um a former Town Administrator in Deerfield a former HR director in amer um and the HR work for both South Hadley uh Hadley and two or three other communities similar to ours um just a touch base and maybe see if she'd be uh willing to to do a contract to do a few hours towards the tail in just to review everything she has a a pretty good knowledge of all the working you know given her experience um pretty good working knowledge of all the the positions in the in the region um so someone just to take a look and make sure we didn't miss anything or have any information that looks that doesn't look right to her um so I'm going to come up with a proposal um for that for a few hours and what's happening though with with Collins in terms of changing their comparables or adding in Grand b or anything and nothing's happening with them are we done with them or they are we still in discussion with them about things um we have to to get it done we're going to have to move forward I don't think we could rely on the Collins to to do it so we're going to we're still going to try to recruit or get some kind of financial money whatsoever but um I I'm not putting a lot of basis into it and you've had um discussions at least with the finance committee to also give you input on things right okay okay and last you um no movement on disposal of Access Equipment although I it's all ready to go it's got to get up on our website basically yeah it's all been organized it's actually growing day by day um we'll just we'll get one the ones that we've gotten ready and approved already from the library and the police and downstairs mostly uh but yeah and then uh for cannabis negotiations I have been contacted by um uh dreamers consultant uh we're just trying to uh set a date uh in the future about when we can just at least meet and start discussing it there's a lot of new laws involved um so I want to make sure I'm up to speed on everything before we actually sit down at the table mhm okay all right any questions from anybody okay we have a couple of um other pcfs um John would you like to take those up we have a prf first I guess motion to take up prf temporary labor Highway Department four no more than four positions temporary 12we positions 12 weeks and length 40 hour per week range 1766 to 1892 per hour certain okay um just just a question this is so 12 weeks so this could be either now or also in the winter time because I noticed on one of the requirements on the prf it was talking about needing a loaders license and all of those kinds of things which wouldn't seem to apply for now Randle took the labor job description and just changed the title mhm so I mean if he got the intent here is he wants somebody he wants temporary high school/ College folks that but they need to at least have a driver's license so they've got to be you know in his mind they've got to be 18 right um and up and this will be like a and the reason why it's temporary using the word temporary exempts it from workers's comp I mean sorry exempts it from unemployment in the Commonwealth temporary seasonal mhm so he has to limit the average number of hours in a rolling 26 so we had all these conversations he assured us he'd be able to monitor this on himself and that if he found a good person he could convert them into a full full-time day laborer um and this is his solution to just get somebody in because he doesn't feel he's going to be able to hire for any of his positions M until successful contract negotiations which don't appear to be moving very fast mhm okay so this is looking pretty much for summer help though like helping with the lawn mowing and all those kinds of things in particular okay I was just there's to me just a disconnect with the prf in the background in terms of the the kind of skills that were required for what I thought he was looking for summer help so if that's the way we do it that's the way we do it so I don't know if we've done have done temporary labor before this is a new position it's not in the handbook it's but yeah I was going to say I don't think we've done temporary labor before have we no okay okay so we have the um up to four temporary positions all right this have a motion can we have a second it comes to us with recommendation this is just so he can post the job and seek applications this is the first step so can we have a second yes okay stepen second okay any other questions on that okay um all those in favor I I I I all right and then a couple for the fire department if you want to do this John yeah I just have to scroll back up um do a group PCF for Richard Aldrich of Feeding Hills fire department new hire part-time as needed not benefited firefighter/paramedic 2479 um he did work for the town as a uh between 2020 and 2021 he's coming back and he has all the appropriate certifications to justify that compensation level based on the pay scale Jack basic Fire Department New higher part-time as needed not benefit paramedic 2329 with proper credentials and Ryan sherit fire department new hire parttime has needed not benefit of fire fighter paramedic 2479 per hour none none of these are the permanent ones I was going to ask that yeah these are these are all part-time so we still don't have our our active um full-time people recruiting no and I I would just say prior to um the passing of uh the chief's mother we were he and I were supposed to meet with the Town Administrator to start that process on how to how he should navigate those Waters to post and figure out the pay and all that okay I do I do want to say I did meet with the fire chief very briefly uh one of the concerns that we had was the way that the current scale is constructed um it's difficult to figure out when you look at the entire roster and who's earning what and at what step it's there needs to be some clarification and some work on that scale first before we can actually post the the range for the job cuz it's there's not a lot of I would almost think we do a separate scale for full-time employees and we might have because that one kind of addresses the fact that well you're on calls you we're going to give you a little bit more for this yeah they've always had a separate scale have they not from the main ones that we've been using in town hall yes yeah but how that was contrived I don't know so we have we have firefighters we have paramedics and we have EMTs and we have some that are firefighters and EMTs some that are just paramedics and each and there's all these little different things and U depending on how much years of service with the town uh or incomparable communities um there this kind of all over the place right now so yeah yeah so it's just the the compensation part needs to be addressed okay good so we have a motion in a second for Aldrich uh mackus I would say and Shen could we have a vote please all those in favor hi hi hi all right all opposed all right want a motion all in favor yes all done and noo uh Administrative Assistant that was y we did that already took it out that was we took out of order I'm sorry we took that one out of order for uh for Jen Jennifer's assistant so we've got loosening up for my reading that's okay we've got our pcfs and prfs taken care of so I guess we're up to Warrant Stephen how about that my favorite part of every meeting uh the following warrants have been processed since uh our last report P 24- 47 in the amount of $329,500 15789 then there was uh PD 2447 a also a payroll deduction warrant in the amount of $ 28,8 12274 and two treasury warrants W 24-48 in the amount of $247,800 the amount of 2,655 2 $156 okay thank you very much all right we have next uh couple of sets of minutes to approve I think we may have one more coming from February but we have one in now from February 15th 2024 let's take these separately i' I've seen a couple things on this particular one but um did you motion to approve minutes for February 15th 2024 um I'll make that motion but could we have a second all right second by Dan uh just for discussion there's a couple of typos but I think we could work around them and get it approved uh Cindy's not here to sign it tonight anyway um under the report to select board for the Building Commissioner I believe it was it's on page two uh talked about 304 restaurant inspections I don't think we have 304 restaurant inspections I can't imagine that we do I don't know what qualifies as restaurant so I think that's a typo um and then there was another part at the um end of the reports column where eded reported number J uh just says attending DLS forecast training in Palmer and that should really identify that it's the New Town Administrator and the accountant were going to be attending that so there were two two um corrections to be made if we could I think Judy could probably make those and then we could sign at the next meeting but other than that uh I didn't notice anything else anybody notice any other hpos or issues thanks to Cathy for providing very detailed minutes again all right if not all those in favor with corrections I I I all right and then the second one is for uh June 4th 2024 I have take a motion motion to approve all right second all right any question discussion all right all those favor I I okay motions has been passed and those are approved okay so very good I think that's what we have for this evening um so again just a reminder for everybody to get informed about the town election get on get on the website look at the assessors information if you need to know when the assessors might be coming if they're coming toward your property uh your general area of town uh do try to make use of the website we're trying to keep it up to date as best we can and uh we'll keep on working on it it's a work in progress but thanks everybody so we will call ourselves or take a motion to adjourn actually motion to adjourn second thank you Steven and Dan all right all those in favor I I I we are adjourned at 716 and by next meeting we'll have our clock e