##VIDEO ID:xXqyogeN_Fc## this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers all right so let's get started here okay I'm going to call to order the meeting of the Southampton select board for December 23rd 2024 at 602m and uh with that let us uh do our usual call to order here and I think East media is with us so we will start by saying the Pledge of Allegiance okay I pledge allegiance Al to flag United States of America and to the to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay now let's see if we can go through our agenda here do we have anybody here for Citizens speak as everybody's on the agenda okay so let's take it away here I guess on the agenda let me pull up the agenda here if I can do that at the same time for myself uh so we have a an appointment here for Evan Huff for the Conservation Commission and I gather Evan is with us tonight I am yes that's great all right so would you like to say a few words about yourself and uh tell us how you're interested in concom and how did you uh get convinced to join the uh the committee yeah uh yeah so um I moved to Southampton in 2013 um I bought I bought a house on um Mountain View Circle um across where Opa Opa used to be and then sure in uh 2018 moved up with to Fulmer road with my wife um where we now are raising our four-year-old son um so yeah I I've obviously enjoy Southampton enough to buy two homes here um yeah and uh uh you know I've been lucky enough um to travel uh quite extensively across North America racing my bike um and somehow always seemed to end up back here um and so yeah the I've always um wanted to get involved um much like my my father was when I lived in Russell um he was on he was on every board imaginable it seems seemed but uh yeah so have um wanted to be more involved with the town um being an outdoor minded person and and someone looking to make sure that um my son Logan can enjoy the outdoors much like I do now um when he's old the Conservation Commission seemed like a perfect fit for me that's great wonderful nice to nice to hear that background that's really good okay so I think uh Dan since you're on the con con would you mind leading a motion to accept well thank you for allowing me to do that I'd like to make the motion uh to um admit Evan Huff to the Conservation Commission I think he'll make a a great addition all right and this will be a three-year term Evan uh to expire June 30th 2027 all right so could we have a second Cindy all right uh any questions discussion if not all those in favor I would I I would be supportive of appointing Evan um admitting sounds clinical and wrong but we're on the same page yeah it is an appointment you're correct it is an appointment English is our first language tonight all right so all those in favor please hi hi hi all right I'm not hearing any nay so EV thank you very much you have to do a roll call vote for virtual oh I do oh because we're back okay sorry roll call yep we're we're on Zoom so roll call vote sorry Cindy yes okay Dan L Val ey okay Stephen johnon I okay and fouls eye okay that's all approved and all official so Evan your next step would be just a touch base with the Town Clerk and get sworn in uh before the next concom meeting and uh probably given the holidays and so forth you may as well wait until early next week I think yes that sounds that sounds great thank you for stepping up but we really appreciate it hey I'm on the Conservation Commission Now Evan um so I'm Dan uh if you have any questions or want to know anything um feel free to reach out to me um I'll send you an email so you have a point of contact someone to get you help get started on that so that great thank you great thank you very much all right okay and you can you're welcome to stay if you'd like we're not going to have a very long meeting but uh you're also welcome to go have dinner or whatever excellent all right so let's uh okay moving on let's go to uh some reports uh Scott Town administrator's report uh actually would we be able to take the arpa applications out of order just with the uh the tech committee here okay sure yep that sounds like a plan I don't have any objection anybody else thanks yeah we do have U art Lawrence Megan H and Dan laali representing our ad hoc Tech committee so sure yeah go ahead and pull up what you're needing to talk about yeah it's great to have you guys one moment um so in the packet um I there's there's question quite a few items in the um for the application for the arpa IT Tech uh It's got Sorry one thing can can your volume be any higher your volume's a little low for I'm not is that better for anybody okay all right go ahead okay sorry about that my earbuds are this this is why we need a new laptop too there we go uh so right here um we have a uh a list of what our current it uh think so our our current it inventory is and if you can see there's quite a bit that are either we're not sure when they were purchased and some that were purchased almost nine 10 years ago um so it capital needs are one of our biggest issues no not sharing Scott sorry oh yeah you're sharing a general um a general page but not the whole um not what you wanted to do I think um is that it there you go yep okay so right so this is an inventory thanks s for putting this together he was actually able to Ping all the different uh machines on our Network um but as you can see some of our um laptops and some of our desktops are pretty old 9 10 years old um so there's not only compatibility issues but there's also um moving forward with you know the different windows that are going to not be supported pretty soon uh so does require an upgrade uh and art was kind enough to put together a draft of a capital it plan moving forward and it capital is just one of those weird things that it doesn't quite reach the most things the $5,000 threshold for our traditional Capital um but this is something that art has put together that we're hopefully going to be using in the next couple months uh and and what it does is really it just Cycles out all the different Hardware that we need and keeps track of our software and potential upgrades and he's do just some sample numbers here but with the arpa money um everyone see the word document see PDF okay let me just stop here so just just while you're looking for that so what I'm understanding is you cycle out a few at a time every year is that it yeah because I think a lot of these laptops I'm not sure about desktops but the laptops were bought during the cares act stuff which goes back at least you know pre or beginning of Co so they're certainly close to 5 years old if not worse yeah yeah uh so additionally uh the Ada request last uh board meeting was uh $112,500 for from the arpa money um turns out there was actually a capital request a little while ago for uh pretty much the same exact thing it was supposed to be uh Ada accessible door openers um so that leads about $872 difference uh tonight I'm just requesting the um select board to reappropriate uh $9,250 for the um it ARP application and then we also that leaves us with a little bit of money and uh one of the things that's going to be coming up not only for councel on Aging but also the parks as well uh talking to the Parks Commission chairperson uh are aeds and AED accessibility um we only have one in town hall uh it does pass um does pass inspection thankfully but um eventually we're going to be looking at one specifically for the Council on Aging which is what this request is uh but with Kate's memo it's also going to be uh something El affortable a80s that we be able to take like pickle ball and different sporting events for the senior center uh and then our uh Parks Commission in this year's budget request uh is going to be looking for some permanently installed on Sir Conan Park um so just to get it on the table but this one we have just enough money for um the first request from Council on Aging and uh that would leave us um with a little bit of money left over so I would still keep that money the $1,068 um to continue with uh to be spent for the ada8 door operator request and that would just offset the um the capital request this is a little bit of a tension from the IT thing but is the AED request for Parks is that something that is becoming uh required by the state or I guess where does the idea of having like those devices at like Parks come from I'm not sure if it's required yet um I just got the bud I just talked to their chairperson last week on it so I'm still sorting to their budget um interesting but I think it's I mean if you look in the news it's unfortunately there's been a lot of incidents with um athletes um oh having a cardiac uh issue okay right so Scott in order to you know because each of these arpas become a separate application um so what we're essentially doing is whatever the the application number was for the Ada doors last meeting we would actually take a motion if if correct me if I'm wrong we would take a motion to reduce that 12,500 down to the amount you're asking for um hello uh it be 168 down to 1,68 so to reduce it down to 1,68 and then a separate project is then the it capital technology and yet another separate project is the AED for the senior center correct that's correct okay um so so we're looking for like three different actions here I think so okay um right uh so we we will still have hang on here so I'm seeing 114 432 as the new request total and it was a little bit less than okay we'll have a little bit left over there too okay okay so I think we'll take a motion first of all let's reduce um well first of all anybody have any questions I shouldn't interrupt yeah questions about this and just if art or anybody you want to talk a little bit more about the replacement strategy there where you're starting with some of those by all means just a a quick thing uh Chris um this is pretty standard throughout the the real world the the industry certainly the industry that I I came from and um we got caught caught up pretty bad over the over the number of years uh um for not doing this and ended up with a bunch of junk basically um this is a I I think what Scott's got got going here is is is really good and and we do a a piece at a time and this way we stay very current and we also will be including in this U request some some mini PCS that actually can um go on the back of the uh of a monitor and uh so not only does that give us uh some really nice technology and new technology but it um it gives additional space on the on the desktop and um um and of course uh this would be primarily uh uh for assistants and admins to use there there's an example that's got pulled up on the uh uh again this is called a mini mini PC so that's basically all I have it just just be nice to keep current and you know to re replace the the technology u u as you mentioned Chris we are running generally we're talking three to five years on most of this equipment and we are starting to exceed that on the laptops thank you right yeah that's great I say I think this is is great the hardware I also had a chance to take a look at it I know you guys I don't know if you can share it but you had a good spreadsheet of what age each person's user's computer was and which ones we wanted to Target there it is yeah okay that was really helpful for me to understand and um see that we we'll get into the cycle of of replacing Hardware in in in town um I hope that this becomes a yearly line item for the technology committee uh uh identifying you know 5 to 10K worth of computers that that our employees are using that we just periodically cycle out and get into that pattern I can't believe that we have a windows seven oh my goodness thank God it's not being used though but you can see the next one there is there some guy by the name r Lawrence uh y um I got a lot of chewing gum and bailing wire on that one but yeah I bet a little duct tape too huh the other item I thought would be good to add to this and I mentioned during the technology committee meeting was this our town cell phones and employee cell phones getting a list of the age and models of those so we can get into a Rec a uh cycle of upgrading those as well yeah I think we have to be clear on on who actually has those because I know there was some some discussion at some point that you know department heads didn't want to have two cell phones and you know that it was easier for them just to use a regular cell phone or or whatever um so it it you know we probably need to craft a little bit of guidance or policy around it in terms of use of official cell phones if we're going to do that um because I don't think it's very clear right now so good all right well this sounds like a great uh great idea and I know just following up with art I think a lot of our our um computers over time because they were bought kind of here and there and kind of halfhazard quite frankly I think that they're they anything and everything I mean I'm I'm amazed that these are kind of all somewhat similar but I think it's because this was the first attempt under the cares act to try and get some level of standardization but we had a hodg podge of stuff before so one of the things I like about the standardization is we're getting all this through Novis which is becoming our our single point for all our it needs in town so they'll be the ones who do the installations of these machines and the support so they'll be familiar with these and and getting them all to the same Lenovo I think is the majority of them so again aligns with what you're saying Chris just want to mention that there's also a a color printer they're adding too which will be good uh because I don't think you said there is no color printer right now in town so not available so make it a lot easier for um for Budget season so instead of doing 10% gray 20% gray and 30% gray in our parts it'll be actual color there you go yeah okay this sounds like a good uh good idea and so basically we we had forgotten I guess that we had actually put some money aside uh in capital last year for uh doing some ADA compliance with the doors especially the bathroom doors and so that is the 11,000 x if you want to pull that screen back up again Scott that we had um available from the from Capital last time so we will use that Capital money and only the balance of whatever we need from arpa so I think what I need then is to have someone make a motion uh to reduce last week's arpa approval of the Ada uh door Changers whatever we called them uh door openers um from ADA Compliant uh at 12,500 there were four doors I four doors I think Scott right okay to change the uh the request of 12,500 for the uh ADA Compliant doors down to an amount of 1,68 let's have a first motion on that so moved as stated by Chris hopefully it's right okay could I have a second so like Bon Cindy Stephen anybody uh Cindy seconds okay thanks all right uh so let's do a roll call vote all those in favor please Palmer yes L Valley yes Johnson yes BS yes okay so that one is will be a a revised uh proposal for Judy on her tracking sheet okay and then the next one will be a new proposal and Judy gives these numbers and she'll track these down uh so then a new proposal don't don't lose that Scott I need those figures for somebody anyway to make the motion um so we need a new new proposal for the it capital technology for $9,250 so new ARA request yeah go ahead Stephen somebody I'm Ave New ARA request for it um equipment in the amount of $9,250 okay second all right second by Dan okay any further discussion on that is that pretty clear for everyone okay all those in favor roll call please ommer yes yes Johnson yes files yes okay that one passes and then the final motion I guess for the uh AED um for the uh senior center in the amount of 2182 I move that uh an AED be purchased for the senior center for the amount of 2,182 $2 okay second and second by Dan okay any discussion on that and so Scott you're not asking there's nothing being asked here now for the portable one or all of those or the park one that's all going to be dealt with in capital or somewhere else uh yeah those are going to get a little bit expensive yeah yeah yeah okay but even even Park to to have one like this that that isn't going to help solve their problem at the moment okay all right okay so we have one one AED request for the COA Center um all those in favor roll call please Palmer yes the Val yes Johnson yes okay fouls yes okay great all right so that uh is one one set of business done so a bit of a revised um motion on the on the equipment uh for the AED uh sorry Ada doors and then um two new proposals added onto that so we'll get Judy to update her list yeah Dan I was hoping we could take another item out of order uh for the technology committee people who are here so they don't have to wait all the way for down to Old business so we wanted to discuss the Broadband committee charge with the select board um so is it'll I mean it's up to you but M perhaps we could do that one sooner rather than later so they're not waiting sure no absolutely understood y yep okay do you mind if I jump into it no go for it please okay great so um you may remember a few meetings back we had the subject of how how as a town we wanted to structure a committee that would continue to move the the pursuit of uh Broadband fiber-based Broadband for for all our residents forward we had the establishment and passing of the MLPs through two Town volts and the question was the technology committee itself wasn't really feeling that that was felt that that was just too much scope or too much for them to handle as as a committee that had enough going on that that committee should be separate from the technology committee and through the discussions for the technology committee and Scott it was it was determined that and also the select board that came off that do is would this form as an MLP were to form as a Broadband committee and we think the best recommendation I'm speaking as from the technology ad hoc technology committee um would be to move this forward is to have the select board form uh using the charter or charge the Megan has sent over a ad hoc Broadband committee which has the has in its charge um determining what the best structure would be getting together what um research needs to be done for the town to understand and form the way it should structure all of this so rather than say form an MLP now or form a uh a Broadband committee that's permanent form a ad hoc Broadband committee that has the focus of moving this forward into the right structure for the town for the next whatever number of years so so rather than going into an MLP committee itself another sort of interim step is that what I'm understanding yep because we think that there is a there is um a consultant we want to we want to involve in helping inform the town of the best way to structure this for us so before we so we want that we want that add talk Broadband committee to be present to to guide and work with that consultant to to figure that out we think that may be too much scope of work for the for the select board to take on out of all of this it may come out to say some towns have the MLP under the select board or they have their own organization that that that handles this but um having having that committee work with the first part of their their work will be um probably putting in request to the select board for some fun or getting a grant together for some funding to work with a consultant around determining the best way for Southampton to move forward with fiber to the home and this would be picking up from the work that the tech committee has already done in terms of meeting with a couple of the uh the providers in Westfield and the hoyo area right I mean you've already had those interviews and have got some Basics about what the whole program could look like but I think that's the you know the big the big question is how do we make that decision how do we know what's what's the best deal and you know is this really going to be a cost effective thing for the town I mean the idea would be that the town actually manages this and has a bit of an income stream as well but we're we're the sole owners of it basically the way we had originally um talked about it I think when I was hearing some of the work from the tech committee um which is very different than the model from eastampton now that they've chosen to go to and I think even Northampton yes um is not that kind of you know MLP model anymore so um so what I'm gathering is you'd like somebody to kind of sort of look at the pros and cons of all of that or yeah absolutely I think it it's carrying this forward we look at the technology committee and like we said before they have enough scope of of other things they need to get done um this Broadband in itself is a is a project so it was the it was the advice of the technology Community to the select board that this kind of that that topic get spun off into into a Broadband ad hoc Broadband committee which will then advise the town uh through the use of a consultant of the best structure uh for us to to make this happen that makes sense okay Megan do you want to add anything to it I'm kind of doing all the talking so no you're good um yeah it was kind of just gonna become what we already are on the tech Medan Advisory Board um to be the ones to go to to kind of have just a specialized committee to take on tasks and in in doing that remind me Megan Have You identified some particular skills I mean I know it's it's taken us a while we've had you know a variety of members you know on and off on the tech committee and and as you've seen us trying to recruit members for many committees um were there particular skills that you wanted to have on this new committee and yeah so the one um let me just get it back up here um so I was suggesting minimum of three people with technology experience and up to two without technology backgrounds um for a minimum of like five to seven people um like the tech committee is now um and I think having the two non te technology Savvy people um would be to the benefit of it because then you could go back to the general public and say like oh this is this is how I understand it and then have the technical side kind of support it I always thought it'd be great to have someone with a more business-minded uh philosophy on this committee you know we got a lot of smart technically minded people but a lot of this is is starting a business you know so understanding that part of things is important as well yeah H okay well think um interesting idea I don't know if select board members have any thoughts on that tonight I I don't know without John here I I wouldn't want to take a vote on that tonight but we certainly bring it back up in January and get it on the agenda and talk it through a little bit more and just you know have have Megan's um draft charge in front of us and uh kind of review that um I'm gathering that none of the existing ad hoc members would be on that committee from what I'm understanding is that correct um so Kurt nean has offered to be part of it at least as of right now um he has to check his you know the schedule commitment and everything but he has offered to join it okay all right good Sydney yeah um thanks for mentioning that Megan I'm glad there's somebody that's come forward we know as a town that sometimes it's been a challenge to find the qualified people we need to to staff these committees so I just and I guess staff's not the word um to join the Committees and be appointed um do do folks have a sense for how you'd go about and recruit that or what do you think I mean it sounds very good I support the whole concept um do you know of people that are eager to be a participant have people reached out to you at all or not as of right now personally to me um I don't know if Kurt may have someone seeing as he's already agreed to it I think a meeting or two ago um we were talking about it brought it um briefly to select board so I don't know anyone personally yet MH okay well we can always put out the call like we try to do so hopefully Scott is coming back in oh there he is good his laptop froze so there we go guys perfect timing Scott I I know that that uh that was totally intentional [Laughter] right we we didn't ask for a show and tell tonight but you're back I take it okay you're you're on mute but you okay looks like you're there at least okay all right oh we can't hear you can't hear you at all so so you have still have to unmute yourself somehow maybe no maybe it's your earbuds Scott try them without it but your your screen still shows you on mute though sorry about that um there you go there you go where you got per yeah my computer literally just died um okay um sorry um awesome that was good no I think I think we got the gist of it uh in terms of uh you know having a request to have the select board consider this uh other committee uh what was the name of it Dan Municipal what um it's the immed ad hoc committee I believe uh for Broadband Municipal Broadband committee okay all right so what we said Scott was we probably just take it up on a as a formal uh uh agenda item on our our next meeting or sometime you know early in January whenever we meet again and then uh have the charge that Megan had in front of us and understand better um what that would look like and what kind of people we need to recruit and you know take a take a vote on that or finalize the charge at that point in time so we could move forward on it okay so I think that's that's good I think that gives us the the kick to keep on moving I agree with you we've we've gotten through the the hard part of two Town votes which approved it but um we need to kind of keep on moving otherwise it's gonna you know things are going to pass Us by all of a sudden while we're standing still so okay good anything else from the tech committee otherwise we'll let you uh go back to your lives but we really appreciate you joining in tonight and U filling Us in on things so thanks guys thanks Megan hey Merry Christmas Merry Christmas thank you thank you good all right so with that let's continue on so go back to the regular order here so Scott I think we're back still to your own uh Town Administrator report if you don't mind y uh let me just get on my phone here sorry um so just a few things of note um the first one was we attended a uh the Hampshire Regional central office budget uh last week um I did put the the presentation on um the town's FY 26 uh budget page so that's available um it was a pretty comprehensive budget that was given by the superintendent and his staff and there's there's still a lot of work to do they're really untangling um quite a bit of numbers over the last couple years uh but hopefully you know they're going to be able to give us a a real actual budget in the next couple months so uh there's a lot of positivity that's coming from it um we also started uh our cyber security and vulnerability uh this week uh between the eot eotss the executive office of technology and uh I for the the other ones but uh um and they're teaming up with novas in a third party to test our Network and see uh where there might be vulnerabilities and this is going to allow us to um obtain some future grants uh we're thanks to Art and the ad hoc Tech committee we're actually going to be uh putting in an $80,000 grant for um tech support uh for January 6th once the uh Community compact uh applications open up um the other big highlight was uh we actually toured College Highway as well with uh pvpc and uh Dodson and flinker uh so we walked the whole perimeter and they're going to be uh quickly starting a new timeline for us that would kind of um you know help us to apply for some grants this year uh and we're looking to start working on getting some focus groups uh ASAP and some of the stakeholders together um preliminary budgets uh were due December 19th so most people submitted everything thank you Scott let me just interrupt I'm sorry I wasn't able to join that field trip I was down and out um but I'm recovering um and uh I'm curious to hear more of the detail we'll take that offline um but I do want to flag um public safety building committee is going to meet like during hangover season uh the first day of the month or some yeah first day of the new year um and it would be really great if they can engage with this upcoming series of uh Public Safety Building Council on Aging Housing Authority bing bing bing Dan um concom even um because they're all stakeholders and then we'll figure out how to fill in um with with the rest I mean the a committee and whomever yep yeah I think we can I sort of second that I think we'll hopefully work on in the scheduling and whenever we've got you know regular meetings or or if there needs to be a special meeting with the planners um that can that can be arranged I think um I don't know on the public safety one they may be wanting to wait a little bit more until they hear more from The Architects uh that were changing around some of the planning there some of the footprint so I'm not sure about that I get it I get it um I I still think there could be a meaningful conversation about dividing up the road Frontage yep so we'll see you know Scott can fill us in later on in terms of how how the meeting went and what they thought about but sure that sounds good okay Scott continue please uh and we only got lost for four hours and only had to do one emergency evacuation because our I'm just kidding um so budgets were due on the 19th and uh Bradley and I were G be meeting with individual departments over the next couple weeks just to go through them line by line um go over all the requests and start putting something together um little bit of a new processes here so it's going to take a little bit more time um and then sorry about that and I think that's that's it for right now okay good um and where did you say that you had posted the uh the Hampshire Regional first presentation is it on the town website or on the Shar Drive um it's on the town website under FY 26 budget okay and that would be on the TA page or the accountant page or oh uh underneath government under government okay perfect okay very good okay any questions for Scott about that all right um how about any reports from select board anybody have any last meetings since we met that they'd like to report on Cindy anything offand uh I was gonna mention oh here we go we uh we got from the Department of Revenue the Bureau of accounts the tax rate for fiscal year 25 and that's for the board of assessors and um it is last fiscal year current fiscal year it's 1425 per th000 but for next fiscal year it's 1417 per th000 so it's a few pennies Less on a per thousand basis but don't forget our land valuations our property valuations have increased and therefore taxes will not necessarily go down so I'm just letting you know that um it's not yet posted on our website the assessors website but I'm sure that'll happen pretty soon so that's one point to make about the board of assessors um and um otherwise there isn't hasn't been any additional meetings from Board of from the open space committee since the last report uh and Board of Health um I was unable to attend their last meeting and I don't have any specific thing to report from Board of Health okay thank you Dan anything yeah excuse me um I think the two meetings or two two committees that are ting to report on are one the the Housing Authority um we had we had a joint meeting with the Conservation Commission um me being on both I I checked with with our Town Council through Scott as well as the uh the state Ethics Committee to make sure there was no conflict of interest and me representing both at the same time and and there wasn't because I'm at the end I have no stake in the matter and um I I'm serving the town uh at a volunteer capacity um but the the question on the table uh for those meetings was uh 318 College Highway and there happened to be the previous owner had had dumped some some um yard I a yard waste fertilizer whatever you want to call that uh into a pile which had formed something along the lines of some a a a small pile that had to be dealt with so the the um the house housing authority gu has permission from the Conservation Commission Now to to treat that as a man-made uh uh obstacle and to move forward so that should help to alleviate that issue they were having on their property so can continue on this is the property across from the golf course right yep yep the one the the dream there is to uh get it to um uh work with get to work with Habitat for Humanity to uh to build a single maybe double house something on that lot to uh help out some family in town um okay and then the other thing is Conservation Commission you I you all may know but maybe not the the chair had had to step away for personal reasons um so they had their their last meeting no one has stepped up as the new chair in the meantime uh the committee members have offered to do a rotating chair so people will take terms for a month or so of being playing that role until we can find someone who's who has the time and ab uh capability to to fill that role so that's that thank you yep okay all right uh Stephen no I have nothing we meet quite frequently okay all right very good um two things I guess um from my end then uh one um just tying in a little bit to planning board this went around on a on an email uh many of you were uh informed of the um Westfield impending Westfield project public hearing that had happened for the proposed battery storage um system uh in Westfield that would have been located on basically on the aquafer uh and affect not only Westampton but Southampton um we did not get any kind of a notice to my knowledge either the planning board or the select board uh and certainly never got it in time to attend the hearing but the planning board and select board did do a joint letter uh with comments and um questions about it and that has been submitted and it is also posted on our town website it's on the homepage under news if you scroll all the way down it's also on the planning board page and the select board page so if anybody's asking about it I know there's been a few pieces of information out on Facebook wondering and I know I tried to chime in at one point saying that yes we we had replied but if anybody wants to look at it it's there um the other thing that's happened we spent a long time last week on grants so uh the grant committee and uh especially uh Fire Fire Chief fi and myself spent time working on the two assistance to Firefighters grants and we were able to submit at least the two applications again uh last year if you recall we had put in for a 2,000-gallon tanker truck uh and uh that we put in for again this year prices have of course gone up um but basically um I think our our request is uh some where around $730,000 of the federal government uh we have to put in a $335,000 share we have about a 5% match of the total the total the total value ours and theirs together would be around 752 I believe uh thousand and then we put in also another grand application for replacing 22 of the SCBA airack harnesses um these are the self-controlled breathing apparatus and that was around close to 100 $69,000 and that would be only about an $88,000 match so should we be you know lucky and get any grants um our match is really very minuscule compared to what Fimo would would put forward um so we got them in by the deadline and now we sit and wait and hopefully this time we will make it through the computer round and get to a real person to actually read them uh we reached out and we've got support letters from Congressman Neil's office Senator Warren and Senator Mary's office so that's about the best we can do and hopefully we will I know make it through at least the beginnings here and get into another round and um you know with a little luck well we won't know anything until probably about June but and just to say that those requests have gone in and so a special thanks to the grant committee and uh Chief ofi in particular for working several long days to get these in so that's where that is and that's about it I think on my end um other meetings have happened but they're we'll just go through the minutes and take a look at those at any other given time from Senior Center building to public safety building to master plan actually had their quarter quarterly meeting as well um so we we've been catching up on meetings and uh minutes are available or will be posted shortly um okay uh let's keep on moving um Scott you want to come back in and talk to us a little bit about the uh classification plan I guess we we've gone through the arpa applications already so we'll jump down to classification plan um yeah I'm still finalizing everything so next meeting I should have a um a spreadsheet for the select board to adopt on the placement of each uh employee in the um in the range very good okay and so far You' you've passed that around to the employees and that seems to be being uh accepted and understood um for the most part I was able to sit down with each department head individually and go over everything very good okay good okay all right well uh probably the other uh next agenda item is the 250th anniversary info uh some of you have been probably bombarded by two or three different emails sorry for that but you're on too many uh mailing lists um we are kicking this off folks and I think um we're trying to get the word out as best we can but New Year's Day uh is the kickoff for the town's 250th anniversary celebration uh has mentioned been mentioned before we're going to try to do some event uh every month throughout the year uh hopefully some you know keynote uh anchor kind of event and then maybe some smaller events during the month and we're starting off with two inaugural events on New Year's Day so let me turn over to Cindy for a minute if she wants to just announce the uh first event okay for all those early risers on January 1 who are hikers uh and it is important that you recognize this is a hike not just a walk we are going to go to the sum of Mount paloy which is in Southampton by the way we are accessing it from Westampton however that's how we go in this is limited to 30 people and the way to sign up is to email me or text me directly and I think probably the best thing is to go through C Palmer townof South hampton. org that's the easiest way to remember um we've already got 15 people signed up so we only got room for about 15 more preference goes to Southampton residents I've had a few people request whether you know their family member who might live in another Community could join it and I've said yes for the time being because I really want Southampton people to do this and it's going to be um approximately a 2 and a half mile hike um and there will be about a two or 300 foot elevation change holes are request are really required I think if you could possibly get them good Footwear certainly the right clothing for January 1st and then from there we are going to do to the go to the next event which Chris will mention all right very good thanks meet you're meeting at 9900 am in town hall parking lot very good no that's that's great I'm glad you've got some people that are interested in wanting to sign up and that's that's fantastic very good so hopefully you'll be back from your hike in time um we're asking people and this is for the broader community so not not limited at all so any anybody and everybody and families and kids um come on down to the church the Congregational Church at about 11:45 we're going to start gathering at about 11:45 hopefully we can be standing on the front lawn if not people can be sitting in their cars so if it's too cold or windy um but we are going to start off by ringing the church bells 250 times uh and that will be preceded though first of all with a uh an acknowledgement of our Native American origins of town uh sort of a land acknowledgement statement will happen and then the ringing of the Bells and I've been told they will not take more than around 15 or 20 minutes at the most and then everyone is invited in for uh just some soup and artisan bread and uh some cider coffee uh so just come on in and warm up and we've got some homemade soups and some Breads and so everyone is invited and just uh come on in for an hour and take a break between whatever you're doing in the morning and uh getting ready for the football games in the afternoon so hope we can have a good crowd uh spread the word we've tried to get it out um we've contacted the Gazette it's up on our bulletin board at the mother's club it's in a couple of newsletters uh it's on our Facebook page uh it's on uh on the town website um so however else you know to get it out feel feel free to share it yourselves okay so I hope to see people there uh that will be great all right next up um who's got the agenda handy in front of them now that I closed it down with what I was doing here help me up here uh next is any other necessary business that is there anything that's uh I don't know of anything offand we'll have an agenda for the 7th we're going to be meeting again on uh let's see January 7th will be our first um first meeting of the year uh so I think that's it I don't know that there's anything urgent between now and then um we will be open only a uh half day tomorrow uh and uh obviously closed on on Christmas Day and I know some people are probably taking a a little bit longer week um but anyway that's that's the official uh closing um so for those who may not be hanging around uh just wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and hopefully uh a enjoyable not too cold holiday week um it was certainly windy enough in the last day or two and very cold but uh maybe we can hope not have too many more days like that right during the the Christmas and and Hanukkah holidays so thank you for everyone um with that let's go into I think licens and permits we've got a couple of other common victual or license renewals that had not come into us uh at the last meeting I believe there are four alog together there was three on our agenda and there's one that came in late um so if someone would mind just reading those and making a motion to approve the um the request for the common Vic license uh I'm looking yeah all right I move to accept the common vict license for license year 2025 for Good Eats to go okay let's just do them all together as a group I think it's fine and you got it the next one is km operations doing business as Subway okay and the next one I hope I'm not missing one is Walgreens Eastern company doing business as Walgreens number 17885 and then um I I'm sorry can somebody else find the other one that just came in because that's a different stop stop and save thank you so there's four right uh uh right so these would be license license renewals U for the common Vic so stop and save good e to go Walgreens and um Subway Subway all right okay so that's a motion can we have a second Stephen I think I heard a second you do okay any any all right could we uh have a roll call vote then all those in favor of all four of those Lali ey Bai johnon I BS ey okay those four approved very good I think that's all I don't know that we have any more that I'm aware of anyway um okay uh next up I think we have some minutes from uh November to take a look at uh let me just pull it up here second um hold on oh de too many things here there were just a couple of typos I think that just need some small correction nothing nothing major um those before after the warrants I'm not finding them um I'm just trying to scroll down here for a minute no I think hold on a second they're right after the common Vic licenses so it's November 26 minutes I see them yeah yeah um and there were just a couple things that um I think just need a little tiny uh typos I think the um the person for the cultural Council if I'm not m not mistaken is Deanna mcfaden not Dean mcfaden I think there's an A on that uh we can check that with Lucy just to be sure um and then um I had a question Cindy if you I don't know if you've seen it there there was a question on the what you had reported on the board of assessors uh what What's listed in the notes Here is hoo waterwork taxes and then it says engaged a title examiner Barbara Webb to review is that that doesn't look like that's totally accurate to me is Barbara Webb the tax examiner no she's the title examiner and that's what it title examiner okay she is a title examiner okay she one okay she is the title examiner okay then that is correct then I believe it is yes I'm looking at it okay okay fine I misread that okay fine uh and uh I don't know was there anything else let's see I think that was basically basically it I can't think if there there's anything else it was very tiny probably a typo at the most so um if anybody has any other comments on that if not I'll take a motion to approve the minutes of November 26 I moved to improve the minutes of November 26 with the one spelling correction okay there might be two I just couldn't find it right off with any spelling Corrections okay that's fine okay could have a second second Dan second okay all those in favor roll call please Palmer yes Lal yes Johnson i fs yes okay minutes are approved all right and and then next we come down to our favorite time of the meeting our warrant reading dramatic reading yes okay um we I have signed uh or endorsed uh five warrants apparently since our last meeting and I will do the usual recitation if I can get it big enough PD 25-20 a in the amount of $236,300 346 next is W 25-21 the amount is$ 35,9 71 p 25-22 is in the amount of$ 356,000 pd- 22 is in the amount of $6,150 finally W 25-23 is in the amount of 2,770 30 very good spare the Applause all right thanks for that it's almost harder to say the the figures and it is to look at them right TR trly all right uh how about any old business Scott I just want to run through a couple things I I know we just talked about the Broadband committee charge but anything else on a couple of those other uh items under the old business uh still trying to do a Hal Mary on the manhand bridge for this year's Grant um Tove the the money that we have so far and the green energy so they should be starting the uh control system at nor school today I wasn't able to run over there yet I'm going to try to stop by maybe tomorrow uh make sure they're doing it but that's going to um affect the controls in the library and the main office so that's the I think it's around $80 to $90,000 grant for the green Energy Great okay and how we coming with uh the 23 audit are we got questions we've got to answer or uh a few left um Bradley was mostly working on the tax recap over the last week week and a half um but now that he's uh now that we're done with that we're going to go back on track for the um the revenues and then hopefully close up the FY 23 audit ASAP great so we should be pretty much we're getting quite caught up on revenue and expense reports from what I've heard yes um Bradley's just a little bit behind schedule that he plans on catching up this week uh so ultimately we're still going to be done for January great okay very good okay um and then we'll still have to be working out about our Capital committee and uh how we're going to look at Capital requests this year yeah I think that'll um be part of the budget process I think that'll help out okay okay very good okay well we have our next uh select board meetings on January 7th and January 21st and that's uh basically all we have to announce so with that just want to wish everyone a very very happy holiday season merry Christmas happy Quanza happy Hanukkah however you choose to celebrate and uh just stay warm and uh try to come out on January 1 we'd love to have you come out and celebrate and see if we can kick off the Year's events and you know make it a special special time in Southampton so thanks everyone May there be peace on Earth that too indeed all right thank you everyone can I take a motion to adjourn please motion to adjourn second all right all bsy okay we are Jed at 701 thank you very much everyone take care now bye-bye for