##VIDEO ID:Bta-rU6GDzI## good evening everyone this is the select board meeting uh for November 18th 2024 6m we're in the land use room present are chairman Jason Peron myself Diane Gail Vice chair clerk Doug moglin assistant CAO naen signon and CAO Nicole Parker [Music] um guess we're going to start with pledge Allegiance and Marcus could youed to flag of the United States of America the for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you sir yes as well yes uh we are going to have a mo moment of silence for elanar Bank who was a former member of the finance committee and also for Mrs Barbara yes Barbara polverari um the namesake of our Animal Control shelter so if we could have a moment of silence please thank you and then we'll go to public comment if there's anybody in the room who has a public comment yes ma'am where do I I have to go the microphone uh if you can shout and they can hear you okay just your name name is Pat McMahon I live at dirty Laura Lane and I'm here on behalf of the cultural Council we are working with the senior center and we will be um putting on a funeral poor Mortimer Stiffler has passed away and he's we have his funeral on December 5th at one o'clock it is it is a comedy to say the least anyway you are all welcome um I I am fortunate enough to be playing his wife and and the poor man had a lot of problems so I I encourage you to come and find out about Mor's problems and I brought some some flyers for you if I may give them to you this is interesting it is interesting it's fun and it's put on there a three it's a it's what they call a senior readers play and it is put on by seniors three of whom are from Southwick and while we read our scripts we've been practicing and we know how to know here we we now know how to um Express things while we're reading so I will leave it at that um I hope you all can come it's at 1 o'clock in the afternoon because it is at the senior center for seniors but it's for everybody and it's free I think that's it any more commercials any questions one more time what's the date and time please December 5th at 1 PM one performance only one performance only unless by over rousing success we have demands for a second performance thank you I think that's it I'm off to the library which oh by the way another new topic the library now has 34 baskets and gift cards on display raffle tickets are being sold it's a major fund raiser for the friends of the library and that will conclude on December 11th with a hot chocolate bar 5:30 in the afternoon my commercials are done thank you thank you Mrs McMahon be safe say hello to mik oh good is there anybody online with a public comments no shout out I would like to comment were doing online so I didn't want to oh I'm sorry no go ahead my name's D oor I'm with the South historical society and I wanted to let you know that our thank you Granite Monument is done yay excellent there's a picture of it uh we're gonna have Southwoods make some bigger pictures but that's all we could do today for for you folks oh excellent and um we have been we've been collecting uh funds for it it's right on the roadway right near uh the what's now conoman Cafe yeah EXC and uh the total the total cost was $5,100 and we most of that was from sales of this book that uh Bob Madison wrote we re the Southwick Historical Society receives the royalties from it and we have a separate account that we take care of and uh most of the money came from that and um Bob Madison designed the image that you're seeing and uh we're still selling these and Jason was kind enough to help us by digging the hole for it and we would like to give you that as a gift as a thank you gift it's not much of a thing but we appreciate your help wonderful good job nice work thank you thank you and uh somebody brought uh our Historical Society programs the new program so thank you if you'd like them thank thank you good evening yes sir my name is Lee Hamburg I'm from the Celtic historical society and I just wanted to say thank you to Jason for uh his fine job at the excavation of the hall for the monument and I also wanted to U shake your tree a little bit about uh the potential for a special town meeting which is needed in order to approve the funds from the community preservation committee uh for the acquisition or for the conservation restrict uh purchase of 74 College Highway I do know that the CPC is meeting this Wednesday and that they have uh will also be discussing and perhaps approving I don't know what the status is uh the restoration of the facade of the Town Hall which is in need of Rejuvenation as it slowly falls apart and uh I hope that a special town meeting is uh called very shortly because we are under uh significant time constraints in that respect for this project thank you I spoke with the land owner who stated that they would wait until annual town meeting for the purchase we have a pns that has a li time limit and it's not April it's January for us um they indicated that they would hold off and wait until they they know that we were having an annual town meeting that it's you know not to set a precedence to have a special town meeting for one item and with that understanding that were going to wait and allow the purchase to happen later okay so do you need to get a new purchase and sale agreement yeah I can I I'll call him again tomorrow Co thank you yeah close yes sir Marcus Phelps 28 Depot Street uh couple years ago I was Town planner and also served on the planning board so I see on tonight's agenda you have a town planner position and uh I'm certainly interested in that and if it's going to expand to be such as a director of Planning and Development Economic Development I think that's very logical connection there's other communities in the area that do operate that way uh many times when I was the planner folks would come in looking for property to develop or they had questions about zoning and where can I put a building or business so uh the planner often is involved in Economic Development so I certainly would uh encourage that and if there's anything I can do to help out in the uh position description or whatever I don't have many contacts anymore but I'm sure Hiner Valley Planning Commission probably has some model position descriptions and I know Agawam has a director of Planning and Development so thank you thank you sir anyone else evening my name is Tim Foster 38 M Road actually here a couple weeks ago reason for coming back is uh would like to get if possible some more clarity as to what's going on with the a B&B situation with the town uh I'm I'm hearing all different stories so I'm really hoping that tonight can provide some clarity as to where this is at where it's going and what the timeline is um it's my understanding that this when this was developed it was to be presented to the attorney general for proposal my question is was that done is it done uh second where where where is the town at with this specifically I've heard talk that we don't know who the owner is I find that absolutely amazing I really do I think the town knows who owns everything if I don't pay my water bill you know who I am if I don't pay my C bill you know who I am so I that response of it being very difficult to know who the land owner is don't take this the wrong way but I think there's nothing more delay time so I just would like to know what steps have been taken since we've spoken last do you w address address it do you want her to address it go ahead and call um so after you came in I met with Kyle with the building inspector who has this under his umbrella and I mean to preface this there is a bylaw in place and there was some um revisions to it this past annual town meeting that has to stay with the attorney general until January 2nd and I've spoken with the clerk about the town clerk who kind of is the keeper of all of the code the code book that you know even things that are just pending we should have it somewhere so it's not up there right now so thank you for bringing that to our attention um and with that Kyle did some digging and found several homes that were listed on the short-term rental websites and so for what he found he has just sent out certified letters to all of the land owners all of the owners today um you know basically cease and assist and you have to fill out the application and you need inspections Etc so he he sent all to all of the addresses including the bylaw and his letter of ceent assist public letter or I have to no it's well you have to request it because nobody knows that you want it until you request it but it is public document you can call the building department tomorrow um I even have a copy of it he copy so I give it to you um and it is a it is a bylaw and it is allowed it just needs to be managed and monitored so that will be happen that will happen going forward okay fa enough and please feel free to reach out to me anytime I appreciate it very much sure thank you anybody else public comment anybody else online one more time okay moving on uh under new business we have to accept two donations totaling [Music] $300 thank you you going to be like you unreliable uh from C Ley from souck Mass total of $100 and from Jay Wigglesworth from southc Mass $200 these are donations to to the paary Southwick animal shelter so need a motion to accept those motion I'll second roll call vote Jason BR I Dan I Doug moglin yes we are also accepting a donation request for the library gift account $50 from Frank and Jean staris make the motion to accept that donation second roll call vote Jason Peron i m yes then um so sorry seem to be frozen uh we have a request from the south at clerical Union they would like to request taking a half day off before Christmas and a half day off before New Year's and combining those two into a full day off to be used Thursday December 26 I think that's customary custom y okay uh do we need to actually vote on that then okay so motion uh make that motion to allow the clerical Union to take their two half days and turn them into a full day for Thursday December 26 second second roll call vote Jason I thank I yes all right then we have a change to the HCA language what we did submit the um CCC although it is not under their jurisdiction to dictate how we deal with our property taxes they chose to object to our clause on that so we're just going to strive that one phrase and the rest stays intact and it was all approved so we're just going to resign okay those um I don't think you need to vote at all we had already voted to adop we did if you don't mind just signing last page nak can you read the change section please yeah um somewhere gosh I can there was a part in the old acas that in the original ones was both parties in in a were agreement that they wouldn't Sue each other and apparently the Cannabis Control Commission doesn't like to have two parties enter into a contract willingly so they want to be heavy-handed and struck that portion of Legally binding contract um but it was it was and it was around property taxes else it was under local taxes you read it I I don't have because it's not in there I know we struck it I can read though yeah neither the company nor its landlord shall object or otherwise challenge the taxability of such property and shall not seek a nonprofit or other exemption from paying such taxes and the company agrees it shall not transfer any real prop or personal property to a charitable organization within or outside the municipality so that's the part that was removed everything else stays the same so that section was struck yeah and it for our Council yeah the request of CCC so that yes yes they returned it with that objection and and town counil just struck the section yes that phrase of that section and I did talk to him about it because I still objected it's not their jurisdiction to tell us how to deal with our property taxes um but he said should they um change their tax their their if they should they change to a tax exempt organization they have changed their organization and have to refile with the CCC anyway which means they would have to re submit to us as a new entity anyway it's a new management team a new structure for their entity so it would be viewed as a new application and unless the Triple C change their own R allow everybody to transfer it to be a nonprofit and we're all exactly because Lord knows that Triple C hasn't changed their rules as we go and Council says we would have other remedies if that were the case which I didn't get into specifically he assures me we would have other remedies for our protection on that so um it is on the last page yeah the very last page oh we only had one we only had you sign it anyway right oh no there was three but wasn't here oh good keep up with past practice there on we're just signing hold on and it's coming down to you oh no need all that you and then give this one yep and then we can move on to select Board office configuration so in the summer when I first started and everything was being reconfigured um you would ask you know sort of give you a recommendation on how you know the staff should be in the office and what we should you how we should be Staffing it and with the addition of Margaret and naen has all of the HR um roles and a lot of the um other administrative um HR rules like health insurance and workman's comp and all that kind of stuff um you know I feel like the three of us can handle the office really well and so I don't think that we need to have any more staff but I would like I support the um increase that Mr Landis had recommended for naen in the summer before I got here so I do recommend that increase to 98 bring your consideration and we have about 55,000 that I've identified over here in in in some part-time salaries other salaries in in our department 10,000 yep that was this One MH that then m that discussion then from Chief Landers oh yeah I have no problem I don't think you need to vote itively I'm just as new as I am want to bring it to your uh for your consideration I know we were waiting to hear you settle in and we wanted to hear your take on everything so seems things are running smoothly even with the transition of Lisa it seems things are running very smoothly luckily we still have her as a resource STS I I think you need to bifurcate the the discussion in the two halves because I think the and and we talked about this previous even prior to your joining about the organization of the the town hall select Board office was we kind of let it State knowing we're going to go into a transitional period um and kind of let the new CEO decide how that office is organized rather than hire two full-time administrative people or however many people administrative people and then have the new CEO decide that that's too too many too little to whatever um and I think that you guys have found a very good balance and I think it was totally within the um Your Role to try to you figure out how that's GNA how that should run and how you think that office should run um and I think it's worked out great the other thing I'll be very honest I have reservations because there's an existing agreement that was executed that still has time to run and I think it's an interesting precedent um as we discussed previous to alter that in the middle of said agreement unless there we review the job description and update the job description accordingly and that would change the overall terms of the of the agreement that would warrant an outof budget cycle change to the compensation for the role and that goes for anyone I think we just need to have that we need to have that conversation in better detail I I know Chief Landis was getting at I and I I don't disagree with it I just think it it kind of sends the wrong it sets a bad precedence for if if you have an agreement with somebody someone or anyone that unless for without changing the job description that we're going to change you know there were other milestones in the agreement that were met and done but if we're going to change the role then you change the job description and then you you know part of that updating and job description is a compensation section of that agreement so it's not a personal issue it's just I think we need to be very deliberate in how we go about that okay when were you thinking you wanted to implement that um Well what we'll do is go back and redo the job description and see if you know it's something that you're willing to open up and if not her contract is up when it's up and then redis it but I'll work on the other side now and it might warrant a an executive session discussion absolutely okay okay and nothing wrong with having a successor agreement that takes that into account right you can you can update an agreement and you could even put years on it after that right and and as part of the the the overall negotiation for that is okay this this this deal had a year to run okay we're going to update the job description here's a new three-year contract that's going to supersede the exist one and you run from sure thank you no thank you okay Town planner position so do you want me to go yes yours so I'm sorry do you want her to go I turned it over to you today so like I said I feel a lot of sours here so so as you know we've been discussing in that John has a new position and I'm sure he's very anxious to move over there um working on getting a new job description out to be more comprehensive to include Economic Development work um and to really professionalize the position um I created this new job description with naen um but I you know it's really I have to I don't know if it's credit or criticism but I have to take it because I really was I this is me so um I just Envision what I think an excellent planner economic de development director would be as I'm seeing you know how the town is transitioning and modernizing and um you know some there's been talk about revisions to the to the zoning um you know all the issues that have come up with economic development we want to really put all those together with a master plan and implementation committee the economic development committee and I think this position will play a pivotal role in the future of the smart zoning and and and the planning department um and the person that I Envision will be you know really in tune with zoning with municipality you know I fully expect it to be a very professional position and full-time um I I I uh I didn't get any feedback from the planning board I sent it and I had asked some questions but I I didn't get any feedback so I I believe that everybody would be behind it I had randomly saw seen saw Jessica thoron who expressed um you know some excitement about having somebody full-time and and really delving into a lot of the um you know development in town so as you can see there's a comprehensive job description here if you want to have a you know break it apart or you know what you think think you want to see what you don't want to see um what could be included whatever you guys think um I'm happy to revise it again with recommendations it's three pages so it's not it's not chump change it's it's not but I think again I think it's important that we make sure that this position includes all of this to be able to really Encompass what needs to be done in a in a you know Municipal planning zoning Economic Development position you all know I like it I've been an advocate for this and this was something I asked interviews I asked her about these kinds of things if I remember I was hoping it was going to be under a CA CAO umbrella which if this person reports to her then it does um I'm all in favor I have some additions rippled out here but there's some red marks in there yeah changes yeah um well this is when I first got on one of the first things I remember asking Mr steinhart is do we have an economic development coordinator because you know that's we're souths right there at the cusp I mean we're we're at growing pains and it needs a cohesive hand steering to it to me oh and I mean he I asked him so who who sells the city and he's like well you can do it I'm like okay or town excuse me um and I I did a little bit of research and some reaching out and wasn't was had some stuff but this is I'm way this is something I 100% agree with and and really support 100% I think it's it's an eventuality I think we have to um I've read through that I I don't have nearly the number of notes you have but I have some notes to come back to the board with and um you know obviously we have to once again kind of along the theme here it's got to put it in the budget cycle and get it bought in because it's obviously going to be an upgrade um in the position and an upgrade in the comp and everything else that goes with it and we got to put that back into the budget and make sure it makes uh no pun intended economic sense um you know it is it it has a lot of potential it has some pitfalls to it too but I think um you have to develop kind of a comprehensive strategy around the development position to make sure that you are taking the right steps um to conservatively grow the town right as you know you need to do that you need to have a plan in place and then you you know the mpck and and whatnot is going to be a key role in that um that endeavor because you can see when you know you we've had people approach us we've approached other folks about expansion or or whatnot and then you're subject to um the purest form of government we have which is open town meeting so that's kind of a check balance against it as well so uh we'll come back in a week or so with with you know further discussion on that and then we as we start you know we're not very far from heading right into budget season where you're G to figure out how you're going to pay for that right yeah there's $288,000 there now so I would expect probably $50,000 more to get a qualified person who be a tough bill there's a lot of planners out there and easier to get this than an assessor it will be most definitely um um you know the other the other component of this is John Gard who has another job you know so you know he's just kind of in limbo really wanting to go start his other job um why we keep him here so that that's part of it too okay great well I will look forward to those comments to incorporate okay thank you for jumping on that getting that going conversation um CPC application uh you had said Sabrina cooler have something on that um no this is from us is from this the select Board office okay is um oh that was under be able to talk about it I'm sorry that one yep hello every hi there so um this started back with Carl uh in regards to the facade of the historical facade of the building some water issues and some 8 issues with the ramp that we're currently on waivers I guess so uh the application I sent you all copies um we've been back and forth a few times the question becomes what how do you want to approach it so and what is the ask from the CB CPC so you you would have the option of possibly the whole project which is estimated at 1.2 is million um or at this time going for the trying to go for the architectural fees so that you can go out the bid get a real real true cost of what it what's involved in this you need a sort of a special architect that's involved in historical restoration um the original thought in talking with Carl was that there were um The Hope for an annual or excuse me a special Tom Meed in the fall so that if this was accepted we could go out to bid go through the process hire an architect go through that process start to develop the plans and have true numbers that would probably by the Maytown meeting would be kind of aggressive but at least you would have it in place so that in Carl's plan was that something rolled off the books um that that might be bonded today within two or three years that's you're ready to go and then this could fit into the the bonding cycle if if needed if you weren't going for the full thing so the real question is what do you want to go for architectural fees or the whole gamut um and the the gamut would be BAS on what the roof architect estimated things to be but it's not Apples to Apples of and especially with pricing these days I I I wouldn't have a good gu feeling about it so I'm here to discuss that is there any estimate on the architectural feas so architectural feas is usually 10 to 15% so if you're figuring on a million dollar project you look you know 50,000 or 100 Mil yeah 155 in here yeah again that's that's a throwing a number at it and we are going for historical funds to do this work correct so even on there's been some back and forth on part of it is historical part of it is not but I'm going to say probably 80% of it or 70% of it is all historical because even if you're dealing with the Mason area and I was just having a discussion with Lee even if you're dealing with the Mason area the Mason inary restoration for waterproofing has to still be under historical guidelines so we can't just go water seal it it has to be you know there's a whole category for all of that so my thought was it seemed the easiest and the best would we go for the architectural fees through CBC once we know what we have to deal with we address that at that time whether it's bonding town meeting CPC again I revisit CPC partial all I you know all those things are on the table at that point but without a real record you don't really know um again does it have to be done tomorrow no but it it's something that should be on the on the radar and you can see visually it's you know the stuff starting to fall apart I would be you know the it makes sense you don't know what you doing that was my understanding from walking around a few times with Carl that's what he had intended to do was go for the architectural piece first get it fine-tuned right and then go back once we hadit everything for the second part of it to do the work right so know ofair that made sense there's always that there's always that and I think a lot of this was we knew a lot of it but a lot of it was revealed while the roof was off the building and we had found some surprises yeah we found several swimming pools we didn't know that we had um because best way to solve a drought is take the roof off the town hall by the way because it didn't stop raining for 40 days and 40 nights or put a new one on then you get a drought it hasn't rained since newow blower I'll never sow Lord but yeah I mean I think I think the best way to go about it is to is to go for the archetectural and then figure out what the total scope is then you go back for a bigger issue with CPC and see how you're going to with approach it with firm cost you know they much in most of their projects um they like to have fairly well delineated costs going in as to what it's gonna blame what it's going to be right they there's been some exceptions to that policy but for the most part and especially something with a big ticket like this um you know that's part of the obligation we have as a town to protect this historical building it was a decision made prior to any one of us being here um I no I didn't mean it that way but you know I did very proud of it Jim puam spoke about this you know um at previous events um you know they had the option I guess it's probably close to 30 years ago now was knock it down build the town hall and the town at at time voted to preserve this building and convert it to this use and when you have a building of this age this this is the kind of thing that happens and look this is a beautiful facility it's very well maintained it's very well kept it's a great it's well used used by members of the community not just you know for board and committee meetings the auditorium the senior center it's kind of a central point for interaction with the government in the town so obviously we have a we're Duty bound to protect it and preserve it as best we can and utilize it the best we can so I think that you know and Carl had this had kind of been a project at the end of uh Carl's tenure and to go and I think we we need to go through and you know be very deliberate as to how we do it obviously the roof project I I I jokingly called it the Carl steinhardt you know Memorial roof because it was that was a project that he steered everybody to it needed to be done and he needed to leave this the select board along the way to get us to getting it done um and you know we ended up having to bond that project and and go through that process to get that done and it turned out to be quite expensive by the time once you took the roof off and started down the path of the HVAC and everything else but it extended the life of of the facility itself and protected the contents they under including the people that work here this is a furtherance of that so my take on it is I think we need to go in front of CPC to get uh the funds to to do the analysis and then go you know make it very clear that we'll be coming back to CPC for you know the the larger project under the historical portion and it's up to the CPC by the way and the town meeting um to allocate funding from what funding buckets because they they take 10 10 10 and leave 80 or 70% in general un Reserve so even though it's a historical project they may choose to bond it they may choose to do something with it out of General unreserved but that's within their purview as as an elected and appointed board so they next is this ready to go to them we yeah make that yeah I it's on the agenda for Wednesday it's on the on their agenda for Wednesday and I don't mind bringing it so who would present that was the next question I don't mind I've been working on on it I just would need I assume it would be Nicole's signatures the old one was Carl's um I would assum determine the number if it's the 155 we want to go for then those are the two key ones I'll have an application for her to sign in the morning I'll put the package together and get on to Sabrina we've already talked about it a little bit yep Sabrina yep I I would propose that we vote on that as a board that that's that's the direction we've chosen to support I mean add credibility to the application in front and they're not going to meet on this this week right this will go into their when their next meeting is whenever that's going to it'll be discussed I'll be presented I don't know how they work so when is their meeting Wednesday okay they wouldn't have enough time under the ml it be posted on their agenda oh it's on their agenda oh it already is oh well then that's fine then we can go a placeholder we we could SE I would I would propose I'd make that motion if you're looking for one whoever is chairing this meeting at this time um I I'll put forth that motion to endorse a CPC application for the architectural engineering fees for the town hall uh whatever we want to call of 155,000 $155,000 and I'll second the motion roll call vote Jason prone I I Doug M yes because we minutes wouldn't be out is it already right if Nicole writes cover letter to say that you voted on it tonight it happen Okay course cool thank you see you tomorrow thank you y okay then we have a notice of revised meeting date the South tallin Regional School District um budget Round Table they were kind enough to reschedule that so that we could attend it is now Wednesday December 4th at 5:30 p.m. in the powdermill pool Library uh then any other new business second um Nicole you had something that you wanted to bring up as well gold old old business oh that was old business yeah oh yeah yeah it is old business okay while he's looking up Na and then and nothing else for good okay all right old business ride Surplus policy again you can chat on that so uh um there's it's been brought to my attention that there is some surplus vehicles that need to go and um you know again I think it's been said and known enough that I have to live off policy procedure rules and laws and regulations that I I don't know how to make them up and so I went into the code and found the Surplus equipment um policy maybe it's not in the code it's probably just in the policy book and um it's you know pretty light and the laws changed since then so I just kind of revised it and I um sent you also the mgl that went with it so if you'd like to revise it um that's great if you don't and you'd like to leave it at the way it is that's fine too I just wanted to kind of update it and bring it to your attention and with it has um you know the department that would be requesting this Surplus at there's now a form where they would be able to forward you know me the you know which department what are you getting rid of what year is it how many miles is it you know instead of just you know randomly telling me at a meeting that hey I have a couple cars or I have this you know a little more information so we can have it centralized and ready to go for when we can have an auction or whatever it is to dispose of surplus property that does not include real property because that's governed under different law it certainly expanded from the prior policy statement and defined which I thought was very good it's I think it's makes sense to kind of fall in line with Mass General law anyways and I said it at least updated it to the current decade so of regulations that so we must vote to adopt this amended policy think that's what you want to do I make the motion to adopt the amended U cplus policy roll call vote Jason Peron I Danel I dou just jumping back to other new business there was a just a notification from CPC of the conservation restriction where we supposed to just not receipt of that yeah I think I think it just somebody put it in there I don't necessarily know that it needs to be in there but I think it's just um yeah just to notify that it's going to go on the warrant it'll be it'll be CR as part of that Historical Society yeah just one note on not it's tangential to that because this was what Lee and um Mrs Zion we're talking about tonight too can we close out the loop on that between either the the seller and the town as buyer that would put it in writing that they're willing to extend the I wrote it down because I did drive by and the sign is still up so oh sure but if it they have a pns but if it is going to expire and they've agreed that they would extend it till we should just get it in writing that they agreed to extend it okay um other old business Jason do you have anything I saw the email from Sabrina regarding the lp again we're in we're in a holding pattern until that legislation comes across what is it read for the third and final time is that what we're waiting on for you mean conservation to be lpps oh yeah yeah yeah but with this I you know reached out to Randy who was working with Lee Corbett as the DPW director in subfield um because what you know was given our recommendation from Council is that we need to memorialize that's fine then it's there and it's it wasn't malicious no you nobody meant to put it on private property in Massachusetts however it's there it's doing job we're talking about three different things the same so that my my old business situation just the late permitting process that's kind of in a standby mode I know what you're talking about um okay so that's the update on that that's the update on the L okay so now you're talking about the drainage I'm talking about the letter that issu okay we received from conservation um that you know they're working within the buffer with no fmit and that they were uh s it was suggested to them to treat it like any other violation however they understood the you know complicated nature of what's happening right now so to just go and start finding or you know circumventing the work that we're trying to do to make this amicable with partnership in another state and so you know I just reached out to Suffield again I spoke with Colin Maul who is going to reach back out to the DPW director because they were putting the language together um to to make sure that they can they take care of the maintenance and they do any of the work that needs to be involved in this and that they get the property rights you know the um the secure the rights to be able to work on that Land from the beach Association whoever Private Industry owns it private land owner owns it and um and so you know just to say hey are you working on that you know we're not going to we don't want to incur any legal costs because you put it here so we you know I wanted you to write it up we'll have our legal review it and then um you know they we'll have this agreement in place so uh they're going to get back to us and I was just going to ask you if I can just let conservation know you know the update this is what we're doing we're waiting we're we're going to try to do this amicably um and that I do feel and I did say this to S Suffield today to Colin mall that they should still come in front of conservation with documentation with plans with everything so that's you know even though question is there going be any review work there has to be there you know there has to be so they know where you know what's happening what it is actually doing you know what what did you put that in there for what is it all of that so um you know so conservation can still review it because we know their conservation rules are different than ours too yeah and does it meet hours because it's in M absolutely all of that yes so they can still review it you know they should still go in front of them even though it's built and show them ex all the plans that they used and and what what it is there for um but we are trying to be friendly neighbors and just work through this issue without giving them fines and things like that so you're okay that I reply to conservation about this sure um I have no objection I think you know it was I brought it up to the chair while he was here at our other meeting like that was the elephant in the room to me was that forget it was another jurisdiction but there was work done in the town of Southwick that close to the lake or a body of water um and I would just ask you know I'm all for intergovernmental cooperation but we have to treat we can't treat them very desperately than we would treat someone else who dug five feet from Kuman Lake and drained a driveway into the lake they have to look at that and so yet they con and Suffield deserves the opportunity to come in and present to conservation that hey we thought we were in Connecticut subject to these rules because we all three of us stood on that land and none of us could agree what state we were in in the distance of between Jason and myself right so until I completely get where they were might have been confused as to what state they were operating in but they they owe it to the to our conservation to come in and explain what what they did over there and how they're going to either Rectify it or maintain it so that it doesn't become a problem yeah and there was some rumor that this the conservation commissioner was going to make them remove it completely and you know I I hadn't heard that so I don't know where these rumors come from but that's why I say you know can you just contact me instead of going on rumors just can we keep this communication open so I'll be waiting to hear from SE field in the next week or so okay what Mr M said was what you and I talked about earlier today any was just we needed to determine who yeah and then in the future who's you know what are they going to leave it to and then is it in right is it proper all of the things so right make sure that we're covered um I had just an update on the North Pond task force the bylaw the proposed bylaw for the comprehensive Parks and Recreation areas um they did a review on the enforceability and for any conflict with Mass General law and um they made it a little a little bit longer just throwing in a few more uh definitions basically they were they Town Council yes um and then everything else they're there's one other thing they're checking with on the any any issues related to the lake to make sure that we can enforce those that we Master says we have the right to regulate the Great Pond but with the approval um so he is going to contact that Mark beging is going to contact them and just get the scope of what it is they would what at what level would they need to review it would they need to write it or just dress it basically and and make sure that's all good but everything else in there um is good to go so I can recirculate that to you all with that one exception we're just waiting for that back or I can wait until I get that back from him whatever you prefer I'd say wait yeah okay um and that's all I had for [Music] old what's up everybody uh a couple things uh first of all uh huge congratulations and thanks for a great job by Town Hall staff um especially a brand new town clerk Miss mayette and treasur collector Jessica menz own but the entire uh TCC and Town Hall staff I um during the election last week or two weeks ago um you know large large turnout between early voting and inperson voting probably was a record total I I even saw the DPW guys out at Town Hall directing traffic it was just a well-run operation it all reports that I heard was it was very smooth and um and well run so thank you and I'd also like to thank the American Legion and the VFW for the uh and um our Public Safety folks for helping put on the the Veterans Day Parade it was very well attended numerous people uh commented to me about how well attended it was for even though it was a holiday and the kids were off from school it was very very well attended um the guest speaker was great as well and it was just a well-run deal um two items of note for internet wh City fiber is connecting their first customers in West Springfield this week um the week of 11:20 and I see that um it was someone sent it to me Long Meadow voted um in their second meeting to bond and move forward with their uh Municipal fiber project um and lastly I don't know if we're carrying it on the agenda um I and I mentioned it in passing tonight a little bit about the Assessor um we had talked about initially having um about that position and having somebody uh join the board of assessor office or the assessor's office sorry the assessor's office um ahead of T time of the retirement of the assessor um and I'd like to to just reiterate my my belief that we should post that role internally before posting or recruiting from outside organization I think it sends the right message to the staff at Town Hall that is all thank you do you want to just mention the survey oh yeah and one more thing um I was waiting for we were charged to send out uh a survey to anyone and everyone from the town of Southwick regarding to gauge interest and support for our own in uh Municipal fiber project um I've spoken about that ad nauseum here on this board there's a thousand and million benefits to this project it's expensive it was the recommendation of the highspeed internet sub to come back to this board to put forth a Warren article to bond to make a bond authorization for the entire project so that the project can be um gone into eyes wide open with the the known expense and have line of sight to completion Financial completion of the project um to that end this board recommended that we go back and do another survey which um Nicole Parker and I have worked on and it is going to go live and we'll put the link right on the website website Facebook all those places it'll be everywhere it's already on there it went live this afternoon so compelling everybody or asking everybody to you know indicate your interest to to this board and to a future town meeting hopefully that we want to go ahead and and move ahead with that project thank you I just had one other thing um Mr Dy walked in the room late um and I just wanted to thank him for taking that second trip down to North Carolina it was great and the feedback you sent back was great thank you excellent new list excellent good um and then we need to acknowledge and approve Open session meeting minutes from 1028 24 and November 4th 2024 so mov second uh roll Jon I Doug yes and executive session minutes from November four make a motion to accept the minutes executive session minutes of November 4th second the motion roll call vote Jason I I Doug M yes you read fast and then we need to acknowledge payroll warrant 2510 dated 115 2024 in the amount of 286 6259 and payables warrant 213b dated 1114 2024 in the amount of 10,1 14525 and then we have no executive session so motion to adjourn if so desired second second roll call vote Jason per I Doug mman yes