##VIDEO ID:Q8l6l3v93Yc## good evening it's Monday September 23rd 532 pm. conference room 2 the hybrid meeting for the board of assessors is now in session call to order Al Hoy here Dean heric here sugar here first John Kane is absent John Kane will be absent tonight first on the agenda is public comment if no one moving on I don't see anybody so we're good we have an appointment with Mr filios next on the okay okay go ahead Mr Pho oh okay that's so this is it yeah you're on okay uh I'm fed Vos I um I live at uh 23 Meadow Lane I have a house there and I also own a business at um 34 Huds and drive uh called WGI I believe I've been told that we are the largest employer employer in southw which is oh that's nice I I kind of like that idea but I wasn't trying for that or anything and um we have you know um we tend to keep a low profile we're um high tolerance high tech manufacturing company uh specializing in Aerospace and um and we had you know we probably the most um tight uh tolerance um company in the area uh I've been saying that for at least 20 years and nobody's contradicted me so um we do do a lot of things that nobody else can do um pratton Whitney once described this as being um a small but very important company okay um I won't get into bagging about my companies so but I'll just leave it at that um now we uh come to a situation where um Sor about the beginning of the year we realized that we're running out of space okay and we needed to expand our business now there's um fellow uh Southwick electric has a a building down there and he um you know he had extra space and you know so about half a building we rented from him because we needed to the space you know and he's building another building apparently in that same um you know park there and uh we have first dibs on that as well okay he what was that you had he has a first dibs on a new building you have first dibs on the new building nothing nothing for him oh okay but um we've talked to him and we told him we'd like to to rent it when it gets you know built cool they got their Co in August yeah there built right he just built a building down there one yeah because I know somebody who's renting part of that yeah so um we want so we're looking at using that space as well um and but uh really what we want to do is have something a little more coherent than a couple of small spaces here and there MH you know um where company is split in two one is what they call OEM which means uh uh original um equipment manufacturer which is um most people don't know this but you know that that thermos you got there um I I don't know what the label is on it butti yeah I guarantee Yeti didn't build it okay someone else was the original equipment in manufacturer and they you know maybe made it to ye specifications or something like that and uh then they you know Yeti buys it and then they sell it as Yeti right okay and that's just about how everything goes um very few companies that are selling things actually make them um and so we have that's half of our business the other half of our business is uh overhaul repair in other words air aircraft engine goes for so long it has to be taken off the wing and every part is inspected and anything that needs that shows too much wear is you know fixed and you know engines reassembled and back on the way it goes um so our overhall repairs area has been expanding a lot and that's the part of the business that we have some in our main building some in the Southwick electrical building and um you know we're looking for place to put some more and what we like to do is get it all in one place which like you probably understand would make a lot of sense uh so there's we could could rent or we could buy now we do have some land we uh buy build buy SLU uh we could uh and we could build a building on that um that property but I'm told that today in the economics of real estate that renting is much better okay now I have to look at that okay and we are in the process of doing that um we're doing a lot of analysis about that because that may be good for somebody but it's not good for us if you know what I mean there's a lot of things to be considered one is of course money you know if I I rent a building you know over the life of U normal life of a building what would that cost me and um that's one thing about it the location is important okay the location we have is good um fortunately we're not in a u a business where we have to be right next to the consumer you know uh we can we have to be near a airport you know and we have Bradley which is not far and um that kind of thing sometimes people have to have railroad um you know station or something like that but so that location if we're the only thing is we don't want to be spr buttered all over the place if you know what I mean we want to be you know able to control where we are and um the other thing is um ease of use you know how um whatever building we're in has to be one that we can easily use you know that has the um capabilities of you know that for instance getting the electricity having a one part of our thing is because we are so close tolerance we need to um have temperature control okay some of our parts believe it or not you know they have to be handled with chopsticks and other things like little Pinchers and things like that if you touch them just leave them alone for a half an hour then you can come back and do something with them again you know just that amount of heat from your hand can make a big difference when we're dealing we're dealing in millions of an inch you know um so and then there's the atmosphere um now in other words we have people who are very good at what they do they're they're artists to some degree and um you know so the atmosphere of the company makes a big difference and one of the things that um helps is the community that we live in okay whether we're welcome that Community or not essentially um so one of my things is then know moving from that to at let's talk about atmosphere I'll talk about money also um atmosphere I'm I um have not been feeling welcome recently and S it started with the planning board um and probably try to understand this from my point of view okay because I know you you're got a lot of considerations you have to can look at from you know the Assessor's Viewpoint right and um that's why you're here but um you have to also realize that you're dealing with real life and there are things that I'm going to mention that could be considered bi assessors but usually are not if if you understand what I'm saying um but they do get considered by people you know real life people and anyhow we had a situation where a fellow um bought the area uh a wooded area at the end of meal Lane and and um decided to turn it into a u well it's a he bought he wanted to make it a uh what do they call it a estate estate the planning board did approve an estate lot yeah estate to build up but it was he you know he also made it pretty clear that he wanted to have a bunch of animals there and um and in talking to him he wants to be able to sell it to as a farm maybe you know or to later on on you see he's he's in in real estate that's his business and um anyhow he basically clearcut the the forest uh which he wasn't supposed to do in fact there's uh Wetlands that he clearcut which nobody seems to care about um and um well it's not I you know I used to be at the end of a lot I'm not anymore under the end of the called and I'm not anymore and that as you know makes a difference in the value of property although it's not something you consider usually okay but it's something you could consider if you wanted to and um as a as assessors you're here to you know this is a small town and is it a town I guess it's it's still a town yeah pretty much bedroom community yeah I 90% is housing yeah it's it's you know how the terms I I I'm not I know there's probably exact terms that yeah Massachusetts is a farming yeah commun farming State yeah I tell that to the guys in Boston right to farm yes I know they have that the right to farm I don't think they mean that for every arm of Massachusetts but that be a little silly um but uh you know as a town you are you have to R do what you're doing in favor of the residents um that live here the people that live here and um that should be at least I hope well you follow the zoning well okay zoning bylaws yeah yes I know there's bylaws the bylaws are created for the um benefit of the community and if you look in your bylaws you'll find that that's true because I've seen it okay so that's one of the things that seems to be missing in the planning board when they decided that they should put this um uh lot that should approve this lot which they don't have to do by the way and that was brought up that they don't have they didn't have to approve it that was up to them whether they wanted to approve it or not despite the almost total you know uh objections of the people on met Lan which was totally disregarded and pretty much told that you know um and but nevertheless what happened was they had to have a super majority okay to prove it and they didn't make it they didn't have a supereme majority and one of the Mr Goddard I think no not Gard uh dhy dhy he's the head of the thing the chairman yes he made a big sort of a big show of well you know I can see how the residents feel and so forth and so on so you know I'm going to vote against it now I know politicians okay I've worked with politicians I've had to deal with politicians and one of the big things I got I got to talk to you twice in one day how are you yeah well we're g we're gonna be talking about um possibilities of you know building on a lot and again I'm trying to take this all into consideration you know depending on what happens there is going to be a business decision but part of that business decision is um the atmosphere and whether we feel welcome or not because obviously we don't want to work against people that are surrounding us okay anyhow Mr um Dory was uh going on about that and you know politicians will often um if they feel their constituency wants them to have oil wells they'll vote for the they'll vote for the Oil Well Bill even though they know it's not going to pass and even though they'd rather not do it because they know it's not going to pass so they say you know and then then when it comes to getting voted in I voted for the oil well even though they didn't pass it you know it's it's a very very very common politician trick okay and that's what Mr doy was doing because when when he found out that he didn't have the super majority that he thought he had I never saw such a dumbfounded person in my life there is he didn't know what to do and he just didn't talk for about 10 minutes and you can see all this it's on the video um so next the next um meeting right he said okay uh we it was voted down but now you know um he's come back with a new plan he didn't have a plan I was sitting right next to him and I said yeah don't had a plan okay and um and so we're going to vote on that and boy do didn't have a single objection at this point okay and they pushed it through no there's no discussion from since even though that's part of the law you know you get a new plan you have to open it for discussion again okay not only that I think there's a time period you have to wait before you can submit a new plan that was all pushed under the rug and it was rammed through now why would a person do that Mr dity is a attorney and apparently a wellth thought of attorney you know his thing people think he's skillful as an attorney so I think he knows what he's doing why would a person who knows that that's not ceration procedure do that I'll leave that to you at decide I have made my my own mind but I'll let that I don't want to say it because well I think you know why um anyhow so I didn't feel too welcome with all of that you know and I work in a business where you have to be honest because people's lives are at stake okay and I will I will keep a person who makes a mistake but I won't keep a person who covers up the mistake and tries to push it through to me that is Despicable okay you're not saying he was making mistakes I knew thinking knew exactly what he was doing and um so uh I don't like anything that I feel is not kosher not above board not all on the up and up and I didn't think that that what happened there was on the up and up so let's talk about money okay now you are a group that you know you bring money into into the town and the town relies on you to make sure that they get enough money to do what they want to do right now I I'm also aware that the town is not exactly in the poor house let's say that there's there's a surplus and that's fine in fact one could argue and I'm not trying to argue that this one could argue that you know and if you want to um work for the benefit of the whole group of people in a town then you can you might want to lower your rates again I'm not trying to argue that but I'm just trying to sales is what we use yeah I know oh I know I know and um but that's uh but you could if you wanted to you you could decide the rate would be different the Department of Revenue tells us what the tax rate will be they SC all the information that we submit with all our values they tell us if our values are within the range that they have set for guidelines the other half that determines all that is the accounting all the finance they have to send that into Department of local Services yeah and they go through and scrutinize that so when they get through going through both of our in all the information then the Department of Revenue will tell us I'm not I'm not here to argue that I know I'm just just putting it out there it's really not up to the people on the board or otherwise to think it would be I don't think it would be but you would certainly have a just put if you wanted to say something about it I'm certainly would be listen to I'm sure you know um this not what I'm trying to talk about okay all right now um so it is important that you get some money basically if you don't get money the town's not going to do well so that's kind of on your shoulders and I understand that okay um I think I've got a situation here where um I of course like a lot of people my taxes went way up and um and I looked at my taxt I found out that I think there was a evil there I think there was a bath bathroom or a bedroom yeah there was a extra bedroom that was listed and went through the yeah the square feet is pretty much the same the square feet was fine different listing but you know the there were there wasn't a bedroom that was being counted and there I don't think there was a I think there was a too many bathrooms also whoever the assessor was at the time of the walk through when it was first done yeah well I don't know could have just went off a plan or saw something else maybe but there never was any more bedrooms than there are now and were any more bathrooms so um you lowered it a bit not much in fact hardly any but he did lower it a little so it went high up and it came down a little bit um I listed a bunch of things that could have been taken into consideration but are usually not taken into consideration and one was I'm not I'm no longer at the end of a called the sack you know and um the uh I have to now put up with um a guy driving his off-road vehicle around making a lot of noise and um you know also there's a beautiful Forest that was there which is no longer there now it's just a lot of I don't know nothing much really you know you know and um so you know personally I don't think I could sell it for as much as I could have before he showed up now um I'm not looking to sell it but maybe I am I'm beginning to feel like I am okay and um if I'm going to pay a high tax rate I want to have a property that I like you know so so that's where I'm sitting and you could say um well yeah there are reasons that we haven't considered which we could maybe consider if we wanted to um and uh but why should we consider them for one person well most of them are one person things in other words not every resident on the on Meadow Lane is um is no longer at the end of the CAC for for example okay and not every resident of metal Lane uh has a neighbor who's running an off-road V vehicle you know uh and not every resident of meal Lane is no you know no longer has a forest next to them you know so these are these are things that are could be you know you don't have to in other words it wouldn't be necessarily singling out one person making them special you see what I'm saying and you may think that well you know um we've given you a little bit back and that's all we can do you know well that's sort of up to you whether it's all you can do or not um you know it's uh like I say it's all up to you really um and honestly I in your situation I don't know if I would be changing my mind much because personally I mean somebody even asked me do you want to join the board or something like that I was you and volunteer and um I've always tried I tried to keep a low Prof profile I like to don't want to because because I am the biggest employer here I don't want to throw my weight around you know I don't like that and uh you know there's a lot of good things about Southwick you know which I like and um it would be for me to leave Southwick would be I'd rather not you know but I do have to feel well these are the considerations I have okay and I think that there's that could be done if you were willing so um I guess that's really it I I do you have any questions I mean I'm not trying to I'm not trying to Blackmail you you know like I say keeping the business here in Southwick is going to be a business decision okay and it's going to be based on those factors which we are investigating as we go and and my uh my general manager is saying Fred you gotta get moving on this so you know something's gonna something's going to happen where they going to decide to build or not decide to build and that's when I was talking why I'll be seeing Doug uh Wednesday and we'll be talking about you know the what ifs if we stayed here and that kind of thing um so I hope you don't feel like I'm trying to you know black man or anything like that CU I'm not you know but it will make a difference to some degree it's one of the factors and I'd be you know dishonest if I said it wasn't you know okay okay we appreciate your honesty we as a board will uh we will discuss well good I and I I said um miss cind the um she said you know they're not going to have you discussions right away you know I said I wouldn't want them to you know I like them to think a little bit about what I said you know discuss it amongst you you know and um that's that's to me more a more business-like approach yes that's fair yes okay so I guess I'm leaving now is that okay thank you for coming thank you yes we appreciate you're welcome I was nice meeting you all and seeing you all together and that's what I think take care sure oh he forget something that his pen there was just one thing I forgot to say and it's very short um I could have taken uh the flying board to the court yeah you know there was a lot of good basis for that uh I decided I thought about it I decided not to because I didn't want to be fighting with my neighbors was one thing okay that's you know I have to live with myself okay and I don't want to be that person okay and you know if I took the planning board to court I'd be taking Southwick the town to court I didn't want to do that either I didn't want to be that person okay yeah thank you sure good evening you're okay next okay next on the agenda is to review the minutes of August 19th 2024 can I get a motion to approve I make a motion to approve the minutes what's the date August August 19th August 19th there is no old business for for new business can I get a motion to approve the August motor vehicle abatements I make a motion to approve the motal V vehicle abatements for August I Allen wait second the emotion can I get a motion to approve the 61a agriculture lean for Co Hill Road in the name of the the prascus prascus make a motion to accept I Allen ho second okay can I get a motion to approve the chapter 61 forestry certificate for 53r Honeypot Road Iden heric make a motion to accept and sign the 61 chapter 614 certificate on 53 R Honeypot Road I alen ho second can I get a motion to approve the pilot for us treasure treasury in the amount of 6,1 $22 hi dinic make a motion to accept and sign the pilot for the US Treasury in the amount of $ 6,122 I alen ho second can I get a motion to approve the WB Mason invoice for $24.77 iic make a motion to accept the W mation Bill in the amount of $24.7 7 seconds I Alo second can I get a motion to approve this the WB Mason invoice for $46.99 junor at make a motion to accept the WB Mason bill in the amount of $46.99 I Allen White second that's the one we just signed can I get a motion to approve the WB Mason invoice for $27.98 I dinner AIC make a motion to accept the bill on behalf of WB Mason the amount of 20 $7.98 I Allen ho second a motion to approve the Southwoods invoice for $126 I make a motion to approve the Southwoods voice for $16 I Allen ho second and I get a motion to approve all the statuto I make a motion to approve our the statuto I alen ho second is there anything the board wishes to discuss I'd like to make a motion to adjourn not second motion Mee that concludes the meeting at 610