on Zoom can hear me is anyone on Zoom interested looks like we don't have any takers if there's no one that's interested in making a public comment we will move on to the grant 60 or a few minutes early anybody opposed moving on a few minutes early you pay your bills if you'd like Mr chairman all right since we will move up skip over that and wait till 6:05 we need to acknowledge the payables warrant W 2428 B dated 528 2024 in the amount of 617,000 72736 we also will need to approve the Open session meeting minutes from 513 2024 and the Open session meeting minutes from 528 2024 I'll make a motion to accept 513 Open Session minutes and the 52824 as amended there was one sentence that just dropped off needed finishing Doug Mogan second the motion roll call vote Jason perun I I Doug Mogan I we need to approve the executive session minutes from 516 2024 5222 522 2023 and 528 2024 let's see 162 just a note on the May 27th I was not present have that okay I fix it7 have a motion I'll make a motion to accept any executive session minutes from 516 522 and 527 second R call vote Jason Peron I than I I sorry and looks like we are at 605 so we need to discuss some Grant applications for the DPW and planning board with Town planner John Gard thank you very much everybody good evening evening we are up for another round of uh Grant submittals to the state uh through their Community OneStop for growth portal kind of a clearing house um let's see about a month and a half or so ago they had an opportunity for us to submit expressions of Interest which uh through this program they go through and sort of triage what you're looking to accomplish and how best to find those funding opportunities so following up on those expressions of Interest we're looking to submit uh the formal Grant proposals uh state for four projects uh the first uh would be a continuation of the work for the Powder Mill Road uh I'm going to call it the Reconstruction project where we have some infrastructure being designed at the moment um and a contract about to wrap up along with sidewalks and some minor roadway work as well as the intersection reconfiguration that's with Ty and Bon um uh the second uh project would be looking for design thata acquisition and permitting for the Tannery Road Culvert this is the one just Southwest of the tinic um landscape operation that's slab Brook right there um and S you to advance that to a shov condition the same type of projects um is being proposed for Vining Hill Road over at um at Pearl Brook where we have a covert that is uh begin to advance in deterioration and we need to bring that one towards a shovel ready condition and open up other opportunities for funding uh the last project that we'll submit for is going to be under their Planning and Zoning category and that's going to be built uh Z diagnostic that pvpc is currently working on slated to wrap up this month we'll be be looking at updating um our current zoning bylaws to align better with the town's goals identified in the master plan um as well as work on readability and consistency so with that I would be looking for the select board to um I believe Lisa shared a print of a a quick draft of I'm call it acknowledgement or authorization um letter I penned essentially monumen uh your author for authorization for me to proceed with the submitt of those applications any have any other questions for Mr D um I don't imagine you have any estimated cost for what these par would be so for the Planning and Zoning category looking at a cost that's not likely to exceed I'm going to say the range between 65 and 75,000 the Powder Mill Road Grant opportunity is capped because of the funding source at $500,000 so that's going to be essentially providing the opportunity to advance some of the permitting efforts out there and likely a portion of construction um and a two Culver projects they're coming in at 125,000 uh a piece for geotechnical borings survey Wetland delineation the project design and then the project permitting efforts so of course you do have an idea did I say no at the beginning I've only typed them in six times today and and retyped and retyped uh so we work in concert uh with local consultants and pvpc to provide to work with the estimates that we subm alongside these documents as with many deadline oriented processes this all comes through kind of at the last moment and waitting to see those final figures hence my hesitation on those reasonably accurate but ballpark figures and just for my background the Powder Mill Depot Street is that redesigning that intersection it's actually carrying design work all the way from the intersection with South longard up to essentially the limit of work on Feeding Hills Road so there are there's underground infrastructure that is going to be installed or upgraded throughout that section right there providing a pedestrian connection um from that intersection on towards the schools uh linking up the parks the rec center uh and the residential communities in between uh with the Town Center um and then yes realignment of that uh intersection is part of the design proposal as well okay 500,000 sounds short on that one oh it's it's a it's a drop in the bucket I I think the well yes it's a it's just an opportunity to ask and perhaps start coupling together the funding sources to get towards construction there was $600,000 in a sewer design for that road that was expended and done that the project was not approved at town meeting uh yeah eight nine years ago yeah so that pre their previous design work for that is that something that if someone started digging up sewer possibilities uh that would that I'm assuming that design work would obviously have to be updated to today's specs I have to confess that I wasn't part of that particular design effort so I don't want to speak with any Authority about it sometimes you're able to piggy back work even on the design side um I don't know the value of that previous work I can chime in on that if you don't mind say loud enough I knew it work so uh that design still on you know on the shelf and the Ty B did utilize that design when line laying out the new road away road so there was not a lot of value but there was some value from that design that didn't come to fruition seven eight years ago because I know I mentioned last year maybe looking into entertaining trying to find some way to convince you know if there's any sort of Grants out there I know the biggest issue we have with the sewer is obviously it's not paying for itself very well and we need more people on it and if the opportunity were to Rise um for like it's more of those agricultural Grant or was it um R development those grants to because the biggest sticking point I hear are two things one people don't want to continue paying a fee but I know a lot of the neighborhoods houses in that neighborhood that's where I grew up the septic systems are all failing and I mean what's the average cost for upwards of 20 25,000 and there ver septic and if just it's just a throwing that out there something to think about um that I was I saw the mentions of the sewer in there where I might just at least get nosy because you know if there was a possibility to come up with some grants to hook hook people up I know that cost is is a killer it used to be three $4,000 now it's 10 I think is that about right Randy or a connection yeah when we were doing P Road it was more like 20 to 25 wow and that didn't include the unlock that was a connection one well it's just something that tossed out I know because we always talk about it and it always comes up with well you're raising my fees again and the people that are on it are are be holding to it and everybody else is I mean we're paying the taxes to offset that but you know that's another comment that I hear all the time so it's just a thought process out there so it's a fair thing to point out so like I said I might be nosy it's good to ask questions but um sry please is there a a an area of the consultant for zoning diagnostic worked at an area of focus for that or is this an overall review of the zoning diagnostic work and perhaps I put a arous term in there that's actually coming to a point of completion and that's uh chapter 185 sub to nuts I'm looking to expand if you will The Horizon a little bit because I think there's overlap between as I interpret it the town's ideal for flexible residential development District special permits uh and that being we'll call the preferred solution in many cases um and right now that's that's a good example of misalignment between that and subdivision regulations so I want to make sure that overlap uh is managed in this next section of work there's a misalignment with recent court cases around that too that need to be rectified sooner than later as sooner I think I've made it you guys aware of yeah sooner better because the town's got a lot of exposure there yes the master plan is driving at you know higher density on smaller Lots but but our existing zoning doesn't support that endeavor at all according to case law that's correct as we found out up in a recent subdivision on more mining yes yes indeed you need a motion to I was going to say needing a motion to approve Mr gner to for the One Stop growth Grant application I'll make that motion I'll second the Motions that would be a roll call vote Jason Pon I thank you all so much I look forward to having it submitted uh and I'll look for that signature sheet uh in the coming days now okay next we're not too far past it 615 a discussion with Inga hotelling Washington and Greg DIY from the economic development what we're sending around is this is a flyer that we created through the economic development commission for our shop.net so that's what we're talking about is what that flyer is so first off thank you for seeing us all tonight there's pack it for you that to go to the Chief and may what we wanted to discuss with you this evening was what the results have been from the Google analytics that have that Greg's been tracking from our shops southwick.zoo I'm going to be focusing on some results we did of of the survey that went out as well launch and the survey results and and the priorities and I want to put this in the context of our mission for the EDC which we wrote up as being a catalyst for measurable business and economic growth through the town of southw working with publish officials Town boards commissions with track assist and retain businesses in southw to support the town's long-term economic health in keeping with the rural character and goals so what I'll emphasize there is we're looking for measurable things and we're not just looking for growth we're looking for economic health and we're looking to keep that growth within our goals of retaining our rural character so we we did a a mailing I set up in Google forms all this I use free software wherever could uh for all the responses to come in and I did this survey with really three purposes one was to get our kick off our directory our business directory because we sent them to a site where they could fill in the information we needed to start the business directory but then I also the last four questions were survey questions and those had a couple important re reasons for one was to set a benchmark for where we are now so we can do a survey in another year and see if we move the needle um then another thing was it was designed to set the priorities for what kind of things the businesses want to want to see us do because we don't want to you know prioritize according to what we want to do we want to do what businesses think would be valuable to them so you've got a a page in your packet that gives the response summary and we had I've had so far I think 63 people filled out the survey I hope it keeps going up it's hard to get people to respond and everything but we we have a good statistical sampling here and the way I designed it was to get and I've done hundreds of surveys in my career I like to get four levels one is where people you know for example in the first question question was how responsive is the Southwick town government to issues affecting your business so I like to have the first one being very positive yeah they're very quick to respond the second be moderately positive fairly quick to respond or fairly slow or very slow to respond and the results here is 41% very said very quick so that was encouraging and 46% fairly quick so between that 87% answered in a positive and only 11% said fairly slow and one person 2% said very slow now I calculate a weighted score which makes it easy for if we do another survey to do a comparison and here it comes out 56% I just wait the first one 100% positive the second answer 50% positive the third 50% negative and the last one 100% negative I think a good Target would be to hit 75% on all these so 56% is not terribly far off and the next question I said well how does the general business environment of Southwick compared to other towns in western Mass so I I wanted to have how satisfied were they were they with our general business environment and here 24 % said much better than most other towns here in western Mass uh but 57% said a little better so that was still uh 81% answered positively and 17% said a little worse and just one person again said much worse so that was a 43% waiting you know more room for improvement there and then the third one of this type of question how helpful is the southw economic development commission the EDC H how how helpful have they been to you or your business and here I the choices I gave them were very helpful or somewhat or I really don't know what the EDC does because I figured a lot of people would answer that or not helpful and here the waiting is balanced out to zero the the negative side balanced out to positive 50% 50% don't know what the EDC does so a lot of potential for improvement here measurable Improvement yes these will be measurements we can make if we do it at you know again at the end of the year early next year so that's that's our Benchmark those are three our Benchmark questions the the last one is our prioritization question and what I did is I gave them all of these these choices of possible priorities we could have and I said pick two or three no more than two or three because that's better than having them rank it or whatever because that tends to make the ones that are most valuable rise to the top and sure enough one of them did rise to the top 71% of the people marked as one of their two or three choices uh that a priority should be to create a broad ongoing by local camp campaign around our shop Southwick website which is the other thing we're promoting in in this um response so they agreed that that was a first priority uh the second one at 56% was to promote Southwick as a great recreational destination to attract prospects from a wider area so probably not surprising but it was more than half so that was one of their things the EDC should be doing and the third one was the possibility of setting up a Southwick Chamber of Commerce now I would I wish I would have worded it a little more broadly I would have said in general Business Association as opposed to chamber of com Commerce may have been a little too narrow but the idea there is you know have an association of businesses um and then the next two were top upgrading our main business corridors make them more pleasant and attractive to potential customers and that would you know especially affect those people that are in those main corridors so that would affect how many people would put that in um and then providing free consultation to help small businesses Etc and things that were down toward the bottom were John job fairs or roundtables and that's good thing to know because we don't want to put a lot of effort into something that people aren't really interested in were there any writings on that there were only a couple rins I did give them a place for write in but there were only two and they were fairly narrow so I didn't add them in here one of them I think was uh you know have a have you promote the free offers that we we make you know like free Les yoga lessons on Wednesday night so it was it was a fairly narrow think but but we did give them a chance to add add their own choice so that's the any questions on survey response I think what's exciting to see about this is we just delivered the businesses on College Highway directly four and a half almost five weeks ago and we did the mailings as well and we already got some good responses and we're going to follow up with the ones that we haven't heard from in regards to what their opinion is as well so it's a great start for something that we've never done before in the town and this is going to give us the direction of where we're going to take the rest of this year and roll over into the following year as well for objectives that the EDC is going to work on to support the data you had over 400 476 and we've gotten back I'd say probably close to 30 businesses that just are no longer in business a lot of them were small Mom and Pops that were pretty much thinking were out of their house as much as you do the research it's really hard to tell online they their remnants stay online so I find these small little home businesses online but you don't know if they're active unless you went through and call them all we thought well it's just send letters we'll find out so we were able to uh get right now we have 63 people who respond to the survey I've got another 80 some that I went ahead and put in because I they were Central businesses that I knew were active I put them in but I'm going to follow up with an email to them and say you know we didn't hear from you I'm going to search online one by one I'm going to send an email and the advantage of that you get a letter and you got it you set it aside you got to type in the yourl you get an email you can click the link and you're right there at the nine questions takes less than five minutes to answer these questions and that way and we've also requested the email address andion to send emails to them we we assured them we're not going to share with anybody else and almost 100% of the responders said yeah here's my email address you can so that gives us that contact point with businesses is an easy way to send out notices about events and and about you know things we're going to organize for them you want to talk about this yes and then we so we got the website launched but we focused primarily on the shop Southwick tab of that because we felt that was the highest priority we are going to quickly try to fill out the others with events and helpful things for businesses and you know we're just doing all of that with volunteer effort the only ongoing expense is $42 a year in in the you know web server for for this we're we're using you know free uh software even the business directory is a free add-on to the to Wordpress WordPress that that we're using and the Google forms that we do the survey is free so we're we're making it a a good value but we're we do want to drive traffic and we're doing things to drive traffic we got the article in the Westfield news on on Mass Live that actually caused a huge bump in traffic and if you haven't seen that included it in here uh but it it we could see the bump immediately in traffic because I'm on I've got the website on the full Google Google analytics which is also free where I can track daily hourly traffic to the site what pages they look at how long they stay on the site how how many different interactions they have how many page vies everything is there so we'll track that there's no point in having a website unless you have traffic so we'll probably do some promotion some really targeted promotion with some of the the money we have in the account maybe the gift account uh online promotion is especially efficient because it takes a while to get a website like this a directory into people's heads and show them how easy it is it's something that you can put WR on as a shortcut on the home screen of your phone you tap it you instantly can go to with a few Taps go to any restaurant any uh local business go right to that business find their hours their phone number their website and call them right from the phone and we have 146 right now we have 146 listed on the business recory right now we I think that'll go over 200 with our next push to get get more people in there so it's a and it's it's something that people don't have any real easy way to to find out what these businesses are because I know that because I searched online in so many places to find these businesses there's no one place to find it I as I said in the the article that's here I asked people how many restaurants do you think we have I got numbers like well is there seven or 10 or 12 or 15 and people are surprised that there's 27 places they can get prepared breakfast lunches or dinners and and uh can this work in the reverse world too whereas if the community was doing something such as they want have a farmers market at Wally Park or somewhere big where the information would go to these businesses inviting them you know to participate or national motor cross bring tons of people into the community a lot of people some of them may be affected by them or they can utilize their resources right this is a reason for getting the email addresses because when we have events like Motocross we have organizations we've got a big sign that's going to go up at Motocross sending them to Local it's already out there really huge 4x8 foot banners with a QR code can just scan and go right directly to we're g to do that and and and that brings up you know the second and third so this this is all part of the first priority of the business directory and and promoting to shop Southway uh the second and third one was promoting Southwick as a recreational destination and we a project that we're developing that we think can do that as well as fulfill the desire for Business Association and and I put in as an example of what they're they have in the Bel which is a recreational map with destinations which then incorporate businesses now they have a tougher time I know the person who does this is a friend so I know all the inside details and how they distribute it and it's been successfully done it for seven years and you can even if you get enough in a year you can do an even bigger version and get to fold out and what they do is distribute this through a brochure distrib distribution agency Berkshire brochures and they easily get 14,000 of these put out for a distribution cost of body $1,800 which is is reasonable and the nice thing about it is this is 100% financed by the businesses that participate and for here they charge $95 for business that wants to participate and we could easily get that many because you would Target what you would Target this brochure to specifically are you know for our town the recreational things you want to reach golfers Motocross fans uh hikers bicyclist boers campers you know people that that would be that kind of people and you find them this brochure distribution yeah horseback riding would go to hotels and any places that do brochures you know rest but I mean that's where people look for ideas for for and and this is something people will keep because has information about the activities um so this is just a really good cross-section of what we're wanting to do with the EDC is to really promote our local businesses with the directory look at coming up with this type of uh of a destination for the community for recreation which would also then cross-pollinate over to our businesses so it's just a work in progress and this has all been complimentary also to what we saw in the survey from what our local businesses are saying about what they like to see us do so what I wanted to ask you folks this evening is would you be willing to on the homepage of the town's website promote our shop south.net directory just a little blurb a little tiny blurb Banner that just says and find businesses in town shop south.net um so we we're just trying to go out in every place we can reach to promote this that would be um even the businesses will help us promote this they'll put signs in their stores or give out the the little information sheets that we've developed we've got more that we can deal you know that we can use to promote for this but right now we were thinking we if you would allow us or guide us to who we would talk to about putting it on the homepage for our website and also our town CER which is in the grismill plaza the electronic um unit put on that new Southwick business directory shops component on it obviously we're going to be reaching out to Ken to do a promo piece on channel 15 um I left some flyers this evening in the the town clerk's area on the counters there and obviously we've been handing it out at the annual town meeting we handed out over a hundred that evening as well so it's just a way for us to start stimulating something new and this this is the type of thing we'll be tracking you've got one that shows the EDC traffic website traffic just in the first launch month we've already had uh 1,300 page views on the website now that's not a lot yet but we've barely started we we're just beginning to get it into people's hous uh 141 visitors at this point but we want to put that into we want thousands of visitors um over time and this will help support our mission to be able to show you measurable results going into next year I have no something we have know there's a spot on the website now we have four of them now we could add one more slide to it also this one right on the homepage recreational opportunities is right up front which is all the recreational opportun unities right so there could be another for shop and Dy or shop dying in business shop D business or shop ding Services really wanting to promote our service related businesses want if somebody needs a plumber or a contractor that they're going to call South before they go someplace else shop South quick is in the broadest sense it's any goods and services available right but I also want to just touch on something that you said Chief in regards to the directory this is our first um promo piece was to do the directory to help the businesses we're going to have multiple tabs available we want to have a tab for events I've already sent out a letter to every Department saying once this comes up live please if you're in the rotary if you're in park and wreck whatever you are if you've got an event happening let us know so we can put it on our website it's also going to host a jobs posting as well for our businesses we're eventually going to go into business solicitation after we sit down with the assessor's office and understand how property is assessed so that we understand that process so that we can then list the properties that are for sale on our site and be able to use it as a solicitation format as well so it's going to grow over time but right now this is the first child anything that brings in business and anything activity Recreation people you know income to the businesses in town so I don't know if we'd um maybe entertain a motion to allow the EDC to ask you know put their shop souck initiative uh On This Town H page I think they would have to work with Jim Middleton to find the you can if there's a spot there or if you combine with that one or something I do it with the marijuana stuff to get stuff in there perf which I think is a personally I think is a better one than this scrolling foro buttons because nobody really knows those buttons will and Jim would also be our point of contact for the town CH as well it's right on the website now there's a one page you fill out you just goes to Kenny I think it goes to okay and if it's anything controversial I think he runs it by us yeah I don't think this might be on that fine line be right everybody benefits to the residents bus so I I think that all sounds good I'd be looking for a motion to go forward with that uh make a motion to allow them to contact both P 15 and Jim midleton to find a good spot for that second we call vote Jason Fone I dou great thank you very much thanks Mr M is not just here that causes the things to go past schedle time 6:30 p.m. we had discussion with DPW director acting building ground supervisor and park and wreck board members Mr Anderson Mr Brown mror come on up I noticed they all coordinated outfits as well I can't help but notice so this has been obviously an ongoing discussion um I listened to your presentation because I wasn't here and Mr dor listen to the park W um Andy so I don't really know where we are guess this is kind of like a juggling act right now so my biggest thing with the whole thing is it's been I personally would want some sort of like more indepth analysis what the benefit actually is going to be I mean I've listened to ry's opinions and Russ I listen to yours as as far as the uh the layers of bureaucracy and stuff like that and that that was something that caught my eye as well and just I know sometimes you get too many hands in the cookie jar starts to make things a little bit difficult and I know with the park and wreck angle of it that would still be kind of a separate thing as well so I'm willing to listen to anything else I just think it's an idea but it still needs a lot of fleshing out determine if it's doable and and really what the end benefit will be and benefit being to the taxpayers that's kind of what I mean because I know we've talked about uh a need for possibly legislative action with the DPW um structuring and you know that seems like that would be a a time consuming task would be my my guess based on everything else that we've had to do legislatively some sort of and I know Mr M I listen to the thing like I said and I know you this was an idea you kind of brought forward so I just think it's one of resource allocation and I think that there's you could combine Manpower person power from DPW plus buildings and grounds and be greater than the two individual entities when the need arises as far as it being you know as a long-term you know the longterm how you would have to structure it there's more work to be done and obviously we have to you know you have a new CAO coming in and a bunch of other things going on like that but the I I had the documentation from the previous CAO that the DPW is organized under a special Act of two divisions so if you ever wanted to add a third unit you would need an act apps in a charter so but that's more higher level stuff as far as that goes if you wanted to do it you know to do something on a kind of a trial basis or or to see how it goes or to even start to get yourself in position to do it this is not something you say oh you know Tuesday we're doing this you know you do those things in parallel you'd have to go in front of town meeting and then send it to your your legislative delegation to put in front of the governor and that's going to take you know a couple of years um to get to that point based on prior experience with the the two special acts we've asked for in the last three years um one of them was just signed the other one hasn't moved at all um they just have no appetite to there's not a lot of urgency around those types of things but but here and there I just think I brought it up as a point of discussion given some of the challenges that Park and wreck faced that I thought building s BRS was facing and the timing was appropriate given the director position before we go if we were going to go and seat another director and then do this well that creates an interesting situation right now that situation you know that situation presented itself where there's an opportunity to take a broader look at it and say okay does this make sense and I still think it has some Merit and you know I I I reviewed and and I you know I appreciate Randy and and um we still call you chief chief Anderson hey you you know uh Chief Anderson coming in with their their take on it you know but and and I had my own you know my own take on it as to why I proposed it um and I wanted to have that discussion and you know we I had talked to Dave um and jeie prior as well to to try to figure out you know what would be the best way to support and it's not just you know it's not just park and wreck that's affected here it's there's a lot of a lot of people and and departments that are affected by by a decision like this but this was a key driver to it because there was a you know last you know we tried to do something with counsil on aging and park and wreck and then we try to do things with having buildings and grounds being responsible for well buildings and grounds and including the linear Park and Wall-E Park and those grounds and that neither of those combinations worked out great over the last couple of years so we we changed things up a little bit this year and put some summer help under directly under Park and wreck and gave them them some resources to try to make that go better this year um there's going to be a and but there's going to be um a mix you know you know using Wally Park as one example you know W Park is just such an asset to the town but you know and we're adding a spray Park which is going to take maintenance no matter how you look at it it's going to need to be you know if we don't even know yet what all that entails there's still the bathrooms there's still the other infrastructure up there that the you know that the temporary folks aren't doing it that the buildings and grounds folks are still going to be responsible for it we're adding pickle ball to it we don't know what the maintenance for that is yet you know when we see stuff happen on the rail Trails another good example in linear park there seems to be a you know a Confluence of you know who's doing what when where and how when depending on the severity of what's going on and I think if if you know given the resources we have available um and you know with much appreciation for the volunteers on Park and wreck that have done yman work over the years um where we were asking an awful lot of those members to to do above and beyond what either elector or appointed official are supposed to do so you my just my take on it was okay we have the water department sewer department and and the road guys and and the transfer station guys and if we add you know we add that resource the buildings grounds resource to that so that they can they can EB and flow a little better no pun intended um I think we'd be better for it Chief Anderson made a great argument a couple of weeks ago you know on why that maybe not be the best idea you know Randy had a a an idea around it about you know that kind of had Park and wreck sort of under DPW which it's an idea it was not my original idea my idea was to have a Supporting Cast to support what the resources that Park and wreck needs along the lines of the grounds that they're you know they're charged with um so that and you know everybody's here we should have discussion it it seems like these are task or equipment driven needs and then people with the skills to do them and I think right now park and W I think you have the people you need on your end for certain things you have the people you need if a tree falls down you have the people who have the equipment to move a tree I think it could be looked at that way instead of trying either to create a new department or shift a new department or divide a new department but let's look at the tasks and who's best suited to deal with those so I think you know you guys maybe need to get together and what are the the task issues look at it that way not a sweeping change to the organization that makes sense yeah I don't see why we can't share people or tasks today but we have to identify what those shortcomings are I think there there seems to be some conflict to to what those probably have a list of things for all the the Park and trail things which I could put together or I know Randy you'd have to deal with Union issues a I think my bigger issue is is not just the the the time that Personnel time but it's the cost so what is the cost yeah everyone talked about the tree that fell down the rail trail right fine we help take it out who's paying for the cost remove that shirt that was one of the things IAL is it DPW is identified is who's best suited for it and then does that just shift to that budget or is something that could be built Tok I think it should be built to park and wck that's my thought process if that was something you were going to take care of and I know over the years we've had Culvert things where I've called you about because I have no experience in that just just to get your advice on those and we've had to have people come in and and do that thanks after I've gotten information from Randy on it but I think that's something could be built into the park and wreck budget I mean as it is now I think our tree mine item is $4,000 a year which maybe covers two trees if we have to call in a tree person I don't see any tree M budget this year I I know we maybe not this year I know we did last year and we had somebody come in and take down a lot of Leaning things and dead trees but that only got us I think from Miller Road down to not even the tunnel not sure logistically how it works you've seen this issue not too long ago is paying one depart one town Department invoicing another department and it usually the money doesn't go to back to that salaries line item so I don't know the Mechanics for that it's usually goes to the G would General I mean like our water bill like that goes right to the water department now for Walling Park water and go water department but the trees so I have a line item for forestry in my you know dpw's line item in the past we've had to use that for Park and W trees what I would call parking red trees I never came back and that was nothing that I could use for what I would say DPW Tree on a town you would always need to carry that line item if you you identify if you identifi the skills that are going to be required you'd have to make those line items in your budget for you to pay your G when you pay your salaries it would come out of trees or whatever for Park and wck you wouldn't have L it's Park and wck trees or it's roadway trees okay so right now on DPW we have several line items for buildings and grounds that that Russ can tap into for you know maintenance of the DPW facility and that that makes sense to me because it's under DPW but you know building and grounds are responsible for that that task and that work comes out of that line it right I see specific to each each facility right right that was when I my discussion I've had with a couple people over the last couple days the com the conversation we just had was what that was the we're definitely way underfunded for what we look after I mean as far as the trees it's I I know we appreciate you doing things but I mean everything else it's kind of a hodge podge of people taking down trees removing trees getting them off the trail I mean it's a little bit of everything I mean you know great job from ingr and them but you can't promote Recreation and not support it with the funds needed and and expect volunteers to be doing everything and and you're starting to make a monster with a park I shouldn't say a monster but you're creating an animal that's needs to be fed once in a while and everyone's been trying to do it whether it be from Park and wreck or whether Building Maintenance and there's been confusion and I think we worked it out now things seem okay yeah I don't think it's a long-term solution like having the park and wreck board overseeing the part-time maintenance guys either at the park and the rail trail I mean we did it this year I think everybody knows the reason why we did it this year um but I don't think that's a long-term Solution that's kind of what we were doing four years ago and then we had maintenance oversee and now we're back to doing it this year and things are running well but I don't think that's a long-term solution especially if we get new people on the board they might not be quite as ambitious overseeing people I mean it's kind of like a part-time job doing this this year and the research I did though on DPW handled a lot of it it was Lawns and snow removal which are two things that we don't do we contract out so if it was going townwide I don't know if that's something you want to look at is taking that on as a new entity or not but those that was one item that when DPW handled the facility stuff is Mowing and snow removal were two things that they did which seems to make sense in a way but here we don't do it that way we contracted out both items we looked at that for the park but it was expensive astronomical I mean it's what we got and to rany's point I think many years ago buildings and grounds had line items and basically mirrored the town budget by department so they had buildings grounds they had their buildings and what they did was they just moved those line items around to the various departments and then had the buildings and grounds work with that department had to come up with those budget but they're under those budget lines like you you brought up the DPW building there's a maintenance item in line item in in the DPW budget so instead of there being a building a larger building inrs budget those monies are in the department budgets but they feed into the you're do it just it's the same money it just got moved to different places in the budget it's not anymore because if I'm running over or running under on a you know on a fire and police Public Safety has merged if I'm running over budget on that I can't take it from town hall or DPW maintenance those those are line items are held in track one the reasons they did it correct but it ties your hands you abely no absolutely but that was also one of the reasons I believe predates my myself but I believe that that's why that was done but um I think you're not wrong on the park and we got to have you know it's a budget discussion that we you know here we are we haven't even started the new fiscal year yet and we just went through you know two months of budget hearings and town meeting to vote and ratify a budget and there wasn't a ton of discussion around that it's you know drastically underfunded we I realize that I see it more as the maintenance tasks and and kind of a segregation of who's doing what where and where does where does buildings and grounds run out of resource that DPW has and then sometimes you know where's the disconnect there I mean a good example was there was some Vandal vandalism this weekend along the rail trail that I you know I was made aware of and I don't know what the end result of that was because I was kind of on vacation so just stepping back into it that was part yeah that was called so great but you know and I I don't know why the trees are such a big deal but you know the tree tree falls on the rail trail and I don't know somebody comes and cuts it up and leaves it and then someone else has to come in and either clean it and move it or do something else I guess we appreciate it and maybe that's just one symptom of it I don't know but that's why I started a discussion and why we're you know we're kind of talking this through and figure out what's the best way to approach it going forward yeah I think if it's if DP W doesn't have the resources to do every tree I think we need more money in our budget for having a regular tree person to come in I mean when the trees come down we don't have them chipped up it's basically cut up and rolled off into the woods but it's not that many really in a year some years are worse other people stop walk on the rail trees are going to come down randomly all the time right no it's not the case but I think it was more of the symptom than the than the actual issue probably 10 to 12 last year I think yeah quite a few I mean it seems year last year section yeah it was down a lot towards the Westfield line and a couple years before that it was on but some of that could H and Depot some of that could be fixed with preventative planning and checking them out you know yeah having a budget to get rid of the Deadwood and I mean there there's an awful lot of trees and no I know it's lined I mean an awful lot of money even the preventative part of it right like you said Mr M it's something that other than when you sat in front of us have you guys all gotten together and discussed any of this stuff no not yet I think that's something that needs to definitely happen um see you know between the three you might be able to come up with an even better plan or how make it work whatever M Mr Brown or whatever Mr Anderson you know Park and wreck is doing what works the best you know I I my thought process was along the same like but as Chief Landis said we don't know is that money going to go back into ry's tree budget or where is it going to go um I don't know you know the the the stuff is happening now somehow things are getting done somebody it's in somebody's budget if it's just needs to be identified and the best resources available and we correct the budget we can look at that and make sure the budget is enough to allow for if we were going to do it realistically with the trees without volunteers down there it's not trees looking you've got the spray park maintenance coming up and is dpw's water department best for the maintenance but is it your line item and they actually do it and and you pay for it those need to be identified com up with the it would be the same the irrigation guy would be taking care of all the maintenance at the water park as far as turning it off and turning it on at the beginning of the year other than the main water that's going into the park and who's respons and you can't forget that the water department every year you I you're focusing a lot on the park which needs to be focused on but there's five facilities the the day-to-day operation is the meat and potatoes of what's going on and I got I don't know 12 or 15 major projects worth $2 million all at different stages different grants different things that all need management and need Hands-On uh day-to-day activity that I think is where the issue I don't see a benefit for putting it under DPW because as I said it mentions a ler bureaucracy so how do you how do you fix that is the question getting more details oriented more more people on it I don't see this move adding any positions because I don't expect that you know someone from the um you know the transfer station be come over and paint a room if it's getting backed up you know that that type of thing so I don't know where that sharing of information sharing of help would help for the day-to-day operations I think On The Fringe items like the park there's definitely some benefits that could work from water or from DPW or whatever on the day-to-day operations it it just seems like there need we need a couple you know another another person on the on the grounds to be able to be dealing with things granted I'm only part-time someone that took my position would be able to add more more time to it that would help um but I think that's the motherload is all the five facilities and all the issues that are going on within those facilities The Fringe stuff I think we could could really attack in a different way I don't just disagree with what R just said but I will say that in past years I know that W mowing the Wally Park has been an issue finding staff and I've had my my my guy DW guys have Express an interest in taking that on you know if they do it over time that they would that would be available to them and they would mind doing that but that was never asked to you know public works at the time I wouldn't have a problem if it ended up going that direction as far as the maintenance of the parks not not the fulltime but like I get I'm talking you you had you had some staff who wasn't available for a day or a week whatever you couldn't find someone I think Mr W himself found some other employees to well the the park they were short last year so some of Public Works employees Year got we've got it pretty good this year with the guys we have there but that's not always going to be the case and I thing you gotta be careful with that too is it's not just m it's striping Fields it's lining it's getting rid of Puddles it's you know there's a lot to it can they do that under their contracts well you'd have to make it work somehow but might be a negotiation yeah it'll be an M Mo and then it's you're gonna take an overtime rate versus this you know a right hard time right now so it's going to cost you more exactly and one of the things I noticed that I actually just went with my wife and W and walked um the Farmington Trail not the this one that the in Farmington Unionville that one and that one it's twice as the width and it looks like they've gone through might be something where we approach CPC and like have a one time go through and widen that up and open it up I mean that's another thought process as far as with that because that the sides of the Drone yeah put it back like like ever Source has done with there's some places where it's you're in someone's backyard I mean down Around Gillette where that other tree was you're in their yard almost it looks like so some places are probably you could but I don't know what kind of rway there is with it either I know because on average it's from the center line probably 20 ft on either side but it's not that on the whole part of the trail Trail 12 um I think 10 10 well two dogs wi two dos twoy big dogs or little dogs big dogs so I guess we need to do some more investigating And discussing and see if we can come back with something that works or continue along the way we are with some modification not not yeah not not the way we are I wasn't saying you you got to go out there cut up trees and then we got to call Randy with the truck you know but come up with if you know if we stay the way the course we're at you come up with an M MOA mou where they call your guys get the overtime you know however however we figure it out but it's going to take some work I guess we just got to keep this on the radar as far as whole business yeah CU it's going to get a little more time sensitive in short order you know and then like you said we just did the budget it might be time to sit down and look at budgets and well we we will I guess I'll get to do that a little bit more this year huh yeah and um well but it comes from the budget process right so this wasn't really identified very well the budget process through the budget hearing process by you know the the effected have to be their best Advocate and and we had a little discussion on it here and there but we need you know we we brought some salary line items for you know kind of a park and wreck director you know not quite director level position but a part-time position there but you know this we're going to have to talk about it more into the next budget cycle but I'm I'm more also concerned about you know we're coming up on July for you know a what's going to be a long term play at the director level there and and if they all this is going to move I definitely people that are interested in that I get it I don't want to and I don't want to you know if if things are going to change you you got to represent what you're doing to potential applicants talking about our director or no building BR okay doing excellent work on sticking around 1,200 hours where are we at now [Laughter] 1147 you know the other thing is we could always write it into the future um Police Department Department Lieutenant Loa kidding side Duty for the chief yeah yeah well no that contract's done but the LA for the LT is not done yet all right I guess we're gonna throw this on Old business we're have to continue ask what should be should we three be meeting next or one of you far the discussion what's I think it makes sense for everybody to sit down rather than you know because it's tough sitting right here to just try and figure it all out so I would say the three of you guys get together and then maybe one of us get involved in the discussions to be included I'll throw my hat in for that one if that's fine with um scale and Mr M it's fine with me we coordinate work on things and see what we can come up with something that works sounds good thank you thank you thanks guys all right next we already did that looking like we're see make sure we got the wait I say something we need to approve the one- day liquor license for the Southwick in block party for June 29th um I don't know and we do an Omnibus on this since they have also looking for one on the the October 4th can we do them both in one shot or do we need to do them separately that's up to you I say we do it in one shot I know Mr molan you you're GNA be abstaining from this one since you got two I don't see a problem for me to abstain I will make a motion to approve the one day liquor license for Southwick in June 29th 12: p.m. to 10 10 p.m. outside to 2 a.m. inside for their annual block party and for the Southwick in October Fest party on October 4th 4M to 10 pm outside 2 am inside and I will second that motion roll call vote Jason Peron I move was it's almost too busy um all right done to approve and sign the contract Amendment sidewalks project Balian Bond we talked about this just a little while that was John this is Randy conru probable costs and Randy's back want to ask about that Brandy you got any input on the um po Mill sidewalk for timean Bond thing no this is a Amendment two so we got a grant um Ty bond has gotten they've done phases basically this is the third of three phases so the design is about 30% done uh this amendment will get us to the full Grant amount and get us to a full complete completion of the design and this is a project that John mentioned ear any other questions M scale if there are no additional questions I would be looking for a motion to approve and sign the contract Amendment for Powder Mill Road sidewalks project for tie in bond make that motion does I need all three all three are signning y second roll call vote Jason Peron I thank you I toy the no must be why you have so many I must have realize that earlier and then I forgot I didn't Landis H it's yours to keep all right I make a motion to accept that appears to be as we discussed I'll second the motion to ratify I will make a roll call vote Jason Peron I next we need to approve parking on the grass the Westfield Bank for employees and customer parking throughout the day in the parking lot for June 15th through the 21st while there is paying anything we need to worry about as far as they're doing to it and liability wise they've given usar of given that's theirs okay for some reason I saw a USA triathon and Iron Man Came tonight I be looking for a motion to approve for Westfield Bank to park on the grass between June 15th and June 21st while they are Paving are they going to be parking on the grass or in the parking lot they're going to be parking in the parking lot well it says parking on the grass throughout the day in the parking lot where's it not in their letter customer parking throughout the day in the parking the employees the EMP yes the employees will be parking in the grass customer parking would be in the parking lot right the employees will be out back and then the customers can park so to clarify the employees would be on the grass customers would be parking here the 15th through the 21st if there is no other concerns for motion nowhere else to go so I'll make that motion call vote Jason per I dou um well when we need excess pickle ball parking we know where we can go I think with our um we're stepping into the new business and I think we need to or the two of you need to discuss something else before we discuss a a sergeant vacancy well you have one vacancy under do retirement as soon as this week right next week yes yes who last Paul's last shift is tomorrow so but you're right because this the the applicant's in front of us for lieutenant our Sergeant so it would uh my recommendation to the chair would be to hold this item till we go through the process for the lieutenant because then you'll have two Sergeant vacancies and you could post it once for the candidates so we don't have to do this twice and it may be the matter of an hour yeah to to to create that I would uh that would be fine so just come back to that just come back to that I guess yeah and as far as new business for myself um I've got nothing going on that is new I have nothing uh I just want to bring up because it didn't get carried to the agend agenda um I alluded to it last week but we were notified that we were awarded that Municipal uh fiber grant for $250,000 but I think it would behoove the board to vote to accept said grant for $250,000 and have uh make a motion to have the chair sign that um Grant I'll make a motion to accept the Grant and have the chair sign that document you yes so second motion roll call vote Jason Peron I dou I 18 anything Chief next we will move on to Old business um starting with statement from school committee chairman Robert Stevenson there was a letter in our file two weeks ago I believe I saw earlier does he want waving and Frozen Mr Stephen make an additional statement uh no I don't need to I'm I uh submitted the letter for the select board to review um and I'm looking to see if you're going to be discussing it or taking any action or getting any updates from legal I know uh a little over a month ago Miss Gail had reached out to legal to determine whether certain actions were appro following the policies of the select board and I'm looking to see if there's an update on that and there was a second item there that I outlined quite clearly in the letter that I uh like to see if it's going to be addressed I have not received uh confirmed response back from legal councel on that they were tied up with town meeting and a couple of other things so I'm still waiting for that determination is that is that something that we can find out how long it would take them to get that response or is this at the purview to their discretion as to when they get back to you uh I remind frequently and I am still out of hand on it as far as the other in situation Mr Stevenson um I will address it but I was planning on coming to your next meeting to address it um that being stated I would appreciate it if you were to apologize to my wife for and my family for including them in something that was never mentioned my they were not mentioned in I would appreciate that where did you go I'm sorry you want me to do what Mr prone I would like you to apologize to my wife and my family for including them in your statements that you and Miss um emman made that night when you made the accusations that this was a political scheme by the Peron family uh sure if that's incorrect I certainly uh don't have a problem apologizing to your wife and family I do think the actions that were carried out by you on that day certainly to say that they weren't coordinated is probably an understatement um but Ian I can assure you that is not the case my wife did not need any help with my as you as you stated I understand your concern where my position May give the inference that I was trying to influence people that's not the way I work Mr Stevenson I take my Integrity very seriously that is not how I work if you felt that way I'm sorry but that's just not the way I work well I certainly uh understand that but when you send a letter to the superintendent and the chairman of the school committee demanding that this that our committee um asks and if they do not that we should do whatever is possible in order to have them be removed from the committee that is certainly very difficult for anybody to not see that is you in your position as a select board member trying to influence a committee that you have no authority over correct you're a completely separate governmental entity that was my personal opinion it's still my personal opinion um but you're correct I have no authority over what you do uh as far as that goes um like I said that's still my opinion um I'm not going to go into the any further reasons as to why at least not here um but I understand your concern there but I know there was comments made regarding that this was due to allow my wife to step into that scene I would never ask my wife to sit in front of the select board or the school committee ever again to be appointed because I don't think she'd get a fair opportunity that being said um I understand your concerns and I acknowledge them okay so we so are we going to address the item that I that I outlined with respect to your behavior during the public comment absolutely as I say it I take my Integrity quite uh to a high smot and you're absolutely right I did mouth what was said in that because you involved my family in something that was not their business when you drag my family into something I take that very serious as I stated you also questioned my Integrity therefore the what was mouthed is what was said behind that mute and I had no problem admitting that well as as a as a select board member I mean was it appropriate no I'm going to take that responsibility and say that it wasn't appropriate but at that moment moment you made me emotional and you included my family in something that had no they were not any part of and and if you research the ethics violation because you're separate entity there was no ethics violation I've reached out to the ethics board there was no violation you can you know there may have been some unconscious influence or whatever you'd like to call it but that was not the case and for my uh actions I do apologize to you perfect it was it was inappropriate so at this point I guess I'm waiting for some sort of response to Mrs Miss Gail's request of legal to look into these actions to determine whether they were following your policies or not and we don't have that yet as soon as we do we'll address it all right that's all I got at this point all right thank you Mr Stevenson next we are moving on to the lpp issue um with scary Drury property believe those are actually two separate issues no I believe that's the state line issue that we one issue it's the lp license that was issued we have to go out there and do a S yeah yeah yeah you have is there a time that you would like to do that because Diane's seen it so I'll go out again like to do it either Saturday afternoon if it's possible I don't think that's gonna be a problem or even Friday Friday look for me that looks smaller it's I can't replace it quite yet um Friday the 7eventh Saturday the 8th at my make sure I've got nothing that uh what time works for your Mr the Saturday would be from either one for me Friday or Saturday Saturday afternoon be all right or Friday afternoon like after 4 around four Saturday 4M that work Friday 4 Friday Friday Saturday anytime Saturday after um Friday at Friday at 4 can be able to yes know if that works out for you were Jason you were getting in touch with uh the first selectman yes um get back had my email um I think as of right now it there it if it's going to be on their agenda it would be on this coming Wednesday I will be there regardless um to bring it up in their Open Session I just wonder if he could attend this because he he has some background that might that he shared with I'm actually waiting to find out if it's going to be on their agenda because there was some confusion with Mr Maul asked me did we get anything from their Town attorney um as far as I'm aware of I asked Lisa and we have not received anything from their Town attorney um and I know Miss Gail had talked about not uh having a conservation voting conservation Committee Member on our Conservation Commission and starting their own Lake management um committee I did send that to them I haven't heard anything back as far as the Lake management aspect of it that's not this discuss yeah we're talking about determining the line okay which he had U access or knowledge of the project that was involved that uh they used when they surveyed that property several years back so you were just going to see if he was available to come out to thisit again totally separate from the other issues well I will ask that one I will admit that one slipped me okay because I was dealing with the other lpp process so all right so tentatively Friday at 4 I will reach out to him and see if he can can make it or if he designate someone to come with us next is and I believe you're correct we wanted to keep LP with that suggestion I had made yes I don't know if I have anything further to really go in on that because those that was the discussion back and forth with me and I reached out to Mr Maul Thea text I hadn't heard back from him I emailed his uh assistant and she did get back to me and uh she apparently there's some confusion as to whether they're waiting on something from our attorney or vice versa so um I need to speak with concom about that aspect of it but um I need to see also what they're looking for other than what we've come to as far as an agreement was my understanding that there was nothing to really present until it went in front of their select board and their select board said yay or nay so so I will be there um I'll at least be emailing or trying to call them tomorrow um because we were not on their agenda for next or Wednesday um if I can't get on that their next one would be 16th I believe um and I will request specifically to be on that one and have it addressed by their select board I know they were dealing with a an internal Town matter regarding some litigation so um that just was settled today or at least it came out of the paper today so can I just back up on that same topic with the uh State Line do we want conservation to be back out there for this one or not at this point I mean they have the same information we have we visited the site before I mean I don't know Norm was going to go out they wasn't there correspondence on that that they felt that they didn't want to be involved in it but but Norm was gonna go yeah Norm would go as a courtesy appreciate it has anybody I know they had the Connecticut do do does do we have a Massachusetts version of that survey somewhere I have we have we've seen nothing other than from the first Selectmen about they did when they did the project they were he was at least at the site saying that they didn't want they were certain it was on the Connecticut side they made sure of it they didn't want to go through Mass conservation to put in that drainage and that's where when you look at the marker you can see that it's clearly Accord according to him um been moved at some point in time um again from my standpoint is more so of the jurisdiction of where we are now when we're First Responders or answering to any call or anything is what side of the line are we on so I think there's an interest for both for that part of it not so much the property owners but for us as Southwick and South who we reach out to on the Mass state side Maybe well I mean I would I don't know if this some that comes under dick grenolds perview or a like dick grenolds and then who on their side is the same thing to me they seem like the proper entities to bring together put their heads together grab their notes and and try to figure this out J C's tried to find any documents and he's come up with nothing it's all on Connecticut has everything as my understanding and there's been different Engineers that have since left that were involved with that project that supposedly have the history there I spoke to there I forget there his title now but he's like the superintendent um I mean Randy might know a little bit about the workings of it but I mean we were you guys were never involved that project was that even before your time I no I I think it was in the past 10 years based on the first s comments yeah and I I was not notified and I talked to even my predecessor people who have all been Public Works prior to my time here and they were not aware of it as well so was all Connecticut all right [Music] um guess we G to go out there and take a look at it four on the last agreement that that agreement came from their Town Council then it went to Our Town Council back to their Town Council to agree with the changes from our Council and then it came in front of their respective boards for Signature I don't think we even I don't remember if we saw it for because we kind of just outlined what was going to be in the agreement and then the lawyer put it to form that's what he said he said that he they sent something and then the Assumption was that it seemed that's the assumption that I got from his assistant today was that well we're waiting on something from your attorney and I said well last I knew we were waiting on something from your attorney so um you think they could just take the old one and change some dates around so and add in the line add in the the right numbers um I'll keep pressing them on that like I said I'm going to be at their meeting and see if it at least comes up or try and I will bring it up in their public comment session see see if we can move this forward and get it done I'll try and get Norm or um dick to come with me possibly and the next topic discuss and deliberate the new appointment for the new LT from the pool of candidates and as I stated previously uh as I am related to one of the candidates I will be refusing myself at this time I just want to State there's no updates to the appointment process and Status oh I'm sorry but the um except for the MP is in there it is there and to your point this is the week that the town clerk will deliver us the vacancies and expiration of terms for appointments for various boards and commissions so it'll probably get a little more interesting starting next week we can have that list to share with everyone it'll go on the website I mean it's there now in raw form if you go on to each board and go on that appointing thing but we'll make it a little easier and have a summary um and yes the the uh mpck is on there as both the first choice and second choice board yeah that's scale me that I discuss and delate the new appointment for the new LT from the pool of candidates and as I said that I will be stepping away and refusing myself okay this is the hard part so um I appreciate the opportunity to go back and reflect and watch those interviews again and put it all together in my head with my meetings with you all with all the input that I received inside and outside the Departments um and I apologize for that delay but it was important um each of these candidates brings something unique to this opportunity here and as it's been said anyone of them is a good choice um I did my own three-part assessment here I did some scoring based on how they met key characteristics and then how they strengthen those rankings during last week's interviews I then matched them against the many specific requirements of the actual job description and finally consideration had to be given to who would be the best fits not just in technical skills or the ability to take on new administrative duties but in all respects and who would best complement the incoming Chief to ensure the success of both and the department as a whole um after evaluating all of that the whole um my choice to promote to Lieutenant is Sergeant tiger interesting um a little more inal than I was going to be on this because I I um I I had a conversation with at the time of patrolman um that frankly I passed over for sergeant uh early in my tenure and um we had a Frank and thorough discussion in the garage of the police station I think it's now a wait room but um it's not me and uh yeah and um we kind of had a very Frank and honest conversation and on how I had come to my decision at that time and how what I thought that that person could do to to put themselves in a different position for the next round of of promotion and they did all that and they were then promoted to Sergeant and I'm I'm referring to current sergeant ueni and from where I sit um I I had a tough time with the interviews because I thought everyone put on a fantastic interview um and I really felt that uh sergeant arduini had had put himself a little bit ahead as far as uh being in a position to be the next lieutenant and I also put a lot of thought into um you know kind of who's the compliment to the Chief and looking at that the positioning of the bench you know for uh for the future of the Southwick Police Department guys are busy um so I I want to recognize that and and and i' I've known um I've known all of you guys for well close to a decade now and um I'm super impressed with the difficulty in this decision because that just is a testament to the department that we have right now um and to be honest um can I call you Diane or Madam Vice chairperson can um you know I I would have if it were strictly up to me I would make the um I would would make a motion for sergeant Arden um so now you and I have to kind of have a discussion to get to a decision because is just you and I there's there's no uh we can't draft someone from the audience to to break a tie yep because there's plenty of volunteers out there I think but um you know so that's where I'm coming from and I you know I really looked at you know I I was I'm super impressed with um I I was impressed with everyone's interview to be honest with you I really thought they were really really uh they were really well done everyone was very well prepared the material that was was given to us um I will give bonus points again I think I did it last week to Sergeant tagert for his little qualification sheet so that I didn't have to dig into the resume to see that they actually qualified for the position um but that's where I landed so I I I I want to be clear and make that that um to make that motion or to make that nomination however you want to look at it and then you and I can discuss where to go from here I was afraid that was going to happen uh this might be a first I don't know I don't recall it happening before where especially when you have two I mean and I've been in a position um in the past where I felt I brought um I've seen it where we've had uh promotions in a department and one select board remember brought two members along and convinced the other two um but I don't think we ever had a board of two trying to make a decision and have you know each have a candidate so I think we need to kind of have a discussion in public um yes as to how what's that so that's only the second most awkward part of today's we did yeah yeah well we're not done got a little bit more so well let me let me start with what I I guess I found to be some of the Leaning qualities the the number scoring was one thing and um people skills was a big thing um starting from an intern and I'm talking about Sergeant tager starting from an intern his involvement in the infant program the youth programs the Elder assignments um you know talking about stepping out at Big Y when on duty there and and just being out with the public I think the the public interaction is an important part being an instructor the the Firearms program instructor the training officer um as I understand it the you know the the younger Force has a lot of respect for his instruction his training methods um I like that he when I asked him about that he said if he has to correct somebody he looks at himself first did I instruct them correctly first and then he'll fix himself first before he'll go talk to them that was important to me he has a very controlled demeanor and um you know they're all multitaskers but again he is a multitasker in all of his training programs and I think it's a good checks and balances to those two positions somebody's got to take the call right and that's no shortcomings on Sergeant ardin different skills different qualities but I to me this is a good mix for Success all around it's a tough this probably one of the toughest decisions I've had to make since I've been on this board this is definitely my toughest I think I slept five hours over the last two days and I'm not kidding you're on this one I am I am I'll second your motion well there you go call D Doug M thank you everybody thank you congratulations congratul right there definitely the toughest not for me it wasn't and no offense but I was glad I was out of that one and I know what it's like to be there so on either side you know there's always disappointment oh I know next we need to discuss the COA director internal posting done external job posting done naen we talked about it a little bit today UI Landis Chief Landis and our screening five candidates tomorrow and Wednesday to yeah get a general idea of um why they think they're a good fit for the I want to come here they've already been contacted and they are still interested in pursuing yeah that's this round they're they're going to so they think okay yeah he going off an awful lot [Music] yeah is there a oh do you want to come back to the sergeant posting now since sheing on the job posst we can come back to that sure why not so let's discuss the sergeant vacancies uh to be clear it's subject to all we all the Y yatas Mr chairman but first time I've used they have to sign an Mo MOA and and um letter of understanding a letter of understanding it's not a contract like the chief it's a understanding because are structured a little bit different than what I'm used to unless you were looking to amend it in any way shape or form it's a boiler plate that I wouldn't think you'd have much issues with getting I'd love to renegotiate that I just don't see it being workable yeah based on past practice I think that it's right for at some point to have that looked at not not now but I think it it does need to be looked at not in the midst of change well that would be the perfect time to do with but I don't think it would be fair my my idea on it is fairly radical and I think would need to be vetted a little better than okay and I've discussed it and I think that the the any of the it'll be fine the way it is just leave it like that very good for a first you know because it's it's is that also for a period of time year it's a year so I mean technically it can be every year I believe there's wording in it but uh yeah but they have that one year to go back to the union like a probationary period the Lieutenant's position could go back does it I believe I know the sergeant one does I didn't know that the LT the LT did too who's the chief said couldn't no going back from Chief though that one's a keep got you have to go to assistant C after that so that's I wanted to acting CAO there's two acaos and it's confusing yeah I know COA and COA caos um so we discussed a little bit as far as the vacancies as far as what we wanted to do as far as the postings so I have the the posting um done from for two now I can make it for two now please yes um the and then Diane while we were talking when we got here maybe we could do the interviews on July 1st and what's significant about the two this time so you have to think about this when you when you interview them would be to probably rank them one and two because one of them is filling a retirement one of them is filling the the um the promotion you're absolutely right so what happens is if the one is a temporary position and they're both subject to probation but one could do if the lieutenant wanted to come back so you you had to at least in the back of your mind know if something were to happen who was my one and two 100% what's the window if the lieutenant wants to go back a year year one year okay I think it's a year and the same thing goes it's actually in the it hasn't happened to my knowledge in a long long long time if ever when you make the appointment for sergeant which creates a vacancy for patrolman and you hire a patrolman and let's say the domino fall the guy without the job is the new patrolman that you just hired right yep okay so tentatively then July 1 for for those interv okay good yeah everybody's here yeah oh yeah unless I'm having surgery can zoom in well I was at town meeting the day after the last I know have you got any more relatives coming in I so I just told Mr mowan you don't have to make that decision just the two of you okay next we will go back to um old business the high speed internet committee IMA for Westfield gas electric for ISB we have no update now that we voted to accept that Grant this week we did have a um no further update other than they did have a meeting and a walk around and a a zoom meeting I was unable to attend I don't know if anyone from the high-speed internet was able to attend and observe Web City discuss some time frame type work very good marijuana dispensaries application deadline June 7th as I mentioned earlier they're uh very active right now hot and heavy Q&A going on yep what does this mean what does that mean what what's that document and then we still have the chapter 6161 a right of first refusal policy review we are going to be doing a joint meeting in July on that one can we pick a date finally when do we get to appoint all our new committee M so we can um so meeting in it should not be a meeting night okay there's no meeting on the 8th and there's no meeting on the 22nd far as I but conservation has meetings on the Mondays as well so it's usually a Thursday is the least active meeting night for relative parties I think conservation historical agriculture that the fourth is definitely a no no yeah I or would you be opposed doing it on the 11th and like can give plenty of notice to the other boards and commissions well that gives us more than a month yeah that's fine and that keeps us meetings and stilles us and Lea can circulate that uh potential date then just tell them that's I would I would actually say that's the [Music] date 6 pm. hear read that and Lisa will notify then I'm saying that Chicken F ranking for sergeant do retirement in promotions you got your own glasses on today I don't think his glasses would help him read it he's I have horrible handri I always have they tried to get me in school and it didn't work no I'm asking if you need the chief glasses to see no no can I put them on my head or right here so T-Mobile Hometown grants application did we get a chance to talk to Mr she no no sir and he is not in the office today I have no problem I'm reaching out to him myself by all means okay I just didn't want to I actually started looking on your website to try and find his email but I couldn't find it just was the WCA CA o eem so I know I'm sure uh you're very busy over there MTS trying not to put it on um I didn't say that so um select master plan implementation subcommittee members so we uh I still own a final conversation Mr dowy but the it is on the application form as was called and thanks for catching that I didn't put it on the alternate one but I fixed that one too but this is um this is a select board member to be the select board representative is what this is carrying here for it's full I thought well for you to finish the discussion with Mr do so we can but then we and then when we do the appointment one of the the mic will have a select board member all right and I think we beat that horse to death tonight for a while and I don't believe we have an executive session something I'm aware of and with that hold uh new I'm sorry that's right I have not Mr uh I just wanted to make everyone aware the Iron Man is this Sunday morning coming through town so uh one keep your eyes open be careful and come out and cheer those folks on as they come through our town because I went working what's that having swam in the Connecticut River so so anyway I just you know it was a very well attended event surprisingly well attended event throughout Town last year U which was its you know the first time coming through town um kudos to you know Southwick fire Southwick police that helped organize some of the safety and and and whatnot that goes on with that event there's a ton of coordination that goes on with that um but it was great to see a lot of residents come out and support those athletes as they they wind their way through our town so and if you're out and about just be careful because there's a ton of them so it's all I have thank you very much and as I said I have none naen Chief and with that I would be looking for a motion to adjourn make that motion second roll call vote prone I perfect