thank you we didn't hear it here good evening and welcome to the select board meeting for Monday April 8th time is six o'clock we're here in the select Board conference room at Town Hall thank you this meeting is being held in a hybrid fashion uh if anyone is recording the meeting please make it known to the vice chair uh in attendance tonight is myself chairman Doug mogin Vice chairman Jason Peron clerk Diane Gale active acting CEO Chief Robert Landis assistant CEO naen signon and Lisa Anderson is in the other room if we could please Diane can you lead us in the pledge tonight stands Nation God indivisible with liberty and justice okay this time I'll open the floor to public comments uh if anybody has anything they'd like to address to the select board now is your opportunity uh last week I started in the room so this week one of the meetings I'll start on Zoom if anyone has anything they'd like to uh address to the select board if you could use the hand raise function uh please go ahead seeing none will go to the room is there anyone in the room that wishes to speak under public comment seeing none we'll move to our first appointment which is fire chief Rich stefanowitz request to increase the current ambulance billing rates for the town's Ambulance Service Chief and I'm going to ask the deputy chief Bishop to join me so hello Deputy chiefo I was able to get some U paperwork out to you which kind of gave us an overview of um the ambulance its performance as well as some of the um increasing call calls themselves um what some of those are it also covered um through a really lengthy process and unfortunately somewhat of a not very high-tech process of determining the amount of calls um that we are capturing that we refer to as a second call or even a third call um so there's a lot of data here and I just kind of want to go through some of it before we get into what we're actually charging for rates right now and what the proposed increases would be so um when we talk about the ambulance we want to look at it is is four different categories of billing first of all as well as call volume so we'll refer to BLS ambulance calls which is basic life supp Advanced life support one which means there's just a set number of interventions for that call als2 usually a very high Acuity call with several interventions and then ALS intercepts and we provide ALS intercepts uh to Granville on a routine basis but we're also equipped to do that for other communities if need be so when we look at the overall numbers um in comparison we used 2021 and these are calendar years not fiscal years uh 2022 and 2023 um for the most current data so just looking at overall call volume um and the calls we responded to in 2021 we responded to 1,188 calls um however there were mutual Aid responses um from neighboring communities for 47 of those calls which brought the total true responses to 1,235 calls for services in 2022 um we responded to 1,286 with 41 Mutual Aid responses coming into town um we also Prov provided more Mutual Aid and provided more intercepts than we did in 21 we had one of each in 2021 but now that we move to ALS full-time in 2021 um we had mutual Aid responses four times in 2022 and eight intercepts were provided but for our total call of services was 1,327 now if I going further that's not the total number of transports that's the number of responses okay transports um are anywhere from 60 to 80% depending on the type of call you're looking at BLS versus als1 or als2 it's really hard to capture that data and give it to you specifically we're working on some other information from the state to see if you can provide that but right now our current software have a real it's limited to be able to give us that differential okay um but there's data out there that breaks it down to the minute the time of day the time you know the day of the week and so on and so forth so jumping to 2023 um we responded to 1,4 36 calls those are the ones we responded to 82 of those calls were second those calls that we were able to capture in 20122 we were only able to get 20 of those calls in 22 we also added full-time fire prevention officer that is a Monday through Thursday position typically um and he's also an EMT So he responds on the ambulance the same time the deputy came on board and responding to ambulance calls so our staffing during the day Monday through Thursday is very good but if you look at the numbers closely on our mutual Aid responses you'll see a gap in uh Friday Saturday Sunday and even some Thursdays where we really relies on Mutual Aid coming into town um in 2023 we provided um Mutual Aid 52 times um but we also had 66 requests for Mutual Aid uh coming into town so uh that numberers up that's a potential for us to be able to look at with additional Staffing of capturing those as well as um working with our pums which has helped on some of those but overall we had responses requests for the ambulance of 1, 152 times so in three three years roughly um we've seen a significant jump of almost uh 14 to 15% just for calls for services and then when we break it down it gets a little complicated as to where they go but we saw an increase across the board in mutual Aid requests in 23 as well as the capability for us to respond to those calls so any questions on that sheet as it's presented right now and the backup sheets to that looked through each one of the months in each of the corresponding years and it references when the mutual Aid calls occurred and the days of the week not so much days and the the time of the day um but that data is available but I didn't feel it was necessary because we're working 24 hours anyway that's kind of how we look at the at the day um so those that indicate wsk indicates that we captured that second call on those days and you'll notice that mostly Monday Tuesday Wes and Thursdays is when we capture those um we were able to pick up some on the weekend Sundays being the worst um and that statistically is true for all three years consistently okay um but overall we saw an increase with the additional Staffing coming in in the form of fire prvention and the deputy responding as I did when I was a deputy um to capture a lot of those second calls so when we look at um ambulance dispositions which is the chart here this talks about basically how those calls break down for BLS calls als1 and als2 and then the total of number of transports that we provided so on that sheet let's say for instance on 2023 it shows that we provided 963 transports those what we refer to as billable calls those are the calls we transported that doesn't mean someone came in here Mutual Aid and transported we didn't make any money money off of that call they build their billing rate so if Westfield were to come in they don't bill at our rate they bill at their rate whatever that happens to be say for agam or for subfield and so on and so forth um so that statistically kind of breaks down what the dispositions were for 21 22 and 23 and you could see that the P majority of those calls are going to be ALS level calls um we had in 21 somewhat of a transition from ALS 247 and we're still kind of BLS heavy but then we moved into the the uh ALS world and our ALS call volume went up while BLS stayed somewhat consistent from about $260 to only about 200 calls on BLS side in 2021 and certainly in 2020 the BLS calls when there was need for ALS was still the intercepts okay we have not done an entire ALS intercept this year and we only did three of them last year so that has made a significant difference in the money that we paid out typically to Westfield or to agam for intercepts all right when we look at collection rates we're doing really really well um we hire a third party company by the name of Comstar please do not confuse them with comcs because Comstar knocks it out of the park every chance they get they are wonderful to work with they statistically um track a lot of what's happening trend-wise but also agency wise and it was actually the owner of the company Rick Martin who uh when I talked to him last September said you know you haven't had a rate increase in some time and it's time because everybody else is moving past you and again these rates were adjusted in 2021 was the last time we had an increase um but you can see we talk about our percentages collected for BLS als1 and als2 consistently in the high 90s um 2023 it's difficult to look at that year and say okay we did great but keep in mind that in 2023 we're still going after some of those collections so the billable call if it occurs in 23 will show up as Revenue collected in 23 if it's not yet collected it could be something that's Tangled Up in litigation or insurance claims and things like that so it's a little bit of a delay but if you look back at 90 at 2021 and 2022 you'll see that we're in the high 90s for each one of those and then they talk about the percentage of Revenue collected is based on the standards typically set by Medicare and on Medicare collections we're typically around 100% on those as well as veteran services 100% on those and for the most part most of the insurance companies as well where where all agencies suffer private or fire-based is in self- Pays and the self-insured okay uh very fortunate in Massachusetts we do not have a lot of self-insured because you're apped to carry health insurance in Massachusetts but there are still um some transports that have that are completely un uninsured cstar tries to work with all of our clients to try to make sure that we um have a successful collection for services provided um but even um they do their best but even they are unsuccessful sometimes on the on the self-insured and uninsured but we're doing really really well um overall and so that's a good thing so if we start looking at the rates um first of all just preface this the rates I gave you on Thursday which is when I delivered the package here um I was hoping to get the most updated one for 2024 and it showed up at four o'clock on Friday um so that fee sheet on that survey compared to the one from 2022 has a few departments that have been added to it which will taint some of those numbers so if you look quickly I'll list the the Departments that have been added are Hatfield mson and orange and each one of them obviously um come in at different rates some of them are exactly the same um we often compare ourselves to mson because population wise service wise and area coverage were pretty similar they are a newer ALS Service as well too um we're not quite orange as far as Staffing is concerned but again comparable numbers but more importantly we look at the adjustments on the averages for BLS als1 and als2 too and you'll see that compared to the chart from 2022 um there have been some increases there and some of the communities had significant increases but some have also remained the same I think most notably is going to be we had a significant jump and how they're they're looking at things East Long Meadow had a pretty significant jump agam was marginal um belot toown uh quite a bit and uh West Springfield also um kind of similar to to what um uh aam had done just a marginal increase um but wilam also kind of increased their rate significantly but again speaking in averages if you look at the chart even from 2022 our figures on the chart for 24 are unchanged so we can use those for comparisons um we're Below in all the categories and some more exaggerated than others I think BLS is the one area where we were the lowest when you look at the new sheet from 24 and you look at BLS we significantly lower same is for als1 and als2 um is is pretty steep but again given the level of of service provided on that um there's justification there when we look at ALS intercepts and what we provide for and what we charge it's a set rate of $275 and that's for anybody that we intercept it doesn't change from agency to agency um and currently the average is going to be $320 and4 cents um if you're asking Granby fire from grany Mass is the one that put 47 cents at the end of that so I that's a typo or somebody just being fun with it but it definitely gave you a weird number to look at so a I understand a lot to digest here so I tried to simplify it as best I could um there's a chart looks a little like this one here that talks a little bit about where we are ratewise in comparison to community averages and what some of those differences look like and the shortfalls that were're compared to the community averages and then there's a chart on the bottom that talks about proposed rate increases and it's broken down for 25% 2015 10 and 5% increments it shows the adjusted amount and what that would be as well for both for for all three categories um at this time I'm not anticipating or nor do I feel we need to increase the ALS rate I would like to look at increasing the mileage just to become a little bit more in line with what's out there but when we start talking about ALS one als2 and our BLS transports um it runs a quite a spect of numbers and I would suggest that we take a look at this and kind of figure out what we would like to do for a percentage increase if that's even on the table Deputy anything to add at this time just only that like everything else our fees to provide the service have to match the fees that we have to use when we buy the supplies and you can't stay stagnant forever and try to run an even base I was asked um at the budget hearing last year what does it cost to to run the ambulance and I said well I don't have the answer for that and the deputy and I have both been working on that to kind of even come up a balart figure and the more you look into it the harder and harder it gets because there's so many variables because you have to take into consideration which hospital were they transported to how many supplies did they use what was the fuel cost at that time fortunately the depuy's been working on a very in-depth Federal program that's looking at that number specifically but we won't have that date until 2025 yeah by the time it all gets taken in and it'll already be two years old at that point because they're collecting from last year and this year excuse me and we've done everything as much as recording our how much fuel we consume every time we put fuel in we record the gallonage it gets recorded and that's going in there you know how often do we replace tires what types of supplies are we using but the medical field after covid saw a huge spike in the cost of medical supplies and like a lot of other things hasn't come down in fact it continues to go up we're trying our best to buy bulk purchases on items that don't expire but even then there's always a little bit of a risk because in EMS everything expires eventually um even in very regular use items you know those are like four four months on the shelves and the stuff that you don't use a lot could be out there for six months or a year but eventually it all expires so we've been very good at watching what we do but you can't really do on time delivery with a lot of the stuff because you could consumables you can go through them very quickly based on whatever happens in the town so you don't want to get caught short there's also some uh mandated equipment that we have to carry for like the ifax and emergency bags for any actor active shooter situation and we ended our it was about five years is the length of time that that equipment lasts and although it is medical supply um types of gauze and things that belong in those bags the purchase I think just to fill the required amount of bags that we have to have was like $5,000 but that's every 5 years and just it's hard to balance out you know when those things come they you don't get to decide when they expire well couple things one I'll be glad to throw those things out every five years unused in a trash same second I actually had this conversation a couple times about this I think once with you and there's like a fixed and variable cost to all this right if you had zero calls in a year you still have a ginormous amount of expense in order to be ready to take the first call and then you know the hundredth call or whatever um and then you've got the variable cost of you know each run and then the hospitals and the gas and and all the other stuff but it I would not I am not envious of whoever has to try to calculate that whether it's you or the federal government it's not going to be an easy number to get to I'm going to be very good friends with Laura by the end I'll bet we can ballpark it but even when you that you go that's not accurate either because the minute you have three people on a call because it's a high Equity call and they go to Bay State that call just almost doubled in what the average is because of that extra person the mileage and so on and soth and the supplies used so it's very difficult and if you came out with a law of averages people will hold this to them AB well how come you're charging me this when you told you know said in the meeting it was only $300 for the call and that's a very random number I just pulled out of the sky that's not it it's the same thing there's a price to turn the key on for the first time right for the first time and you've got the building and all the stuff and everything else it's really rough winter so heat was high you know but you know it's the same you know and the buyer service is no different it's just different math I mean you've got really expensive equipment sitting there that hopefully you never have to use right we'd all be glad to buy that stuff and never have to take that thing out of the station in Anger this data collection program it actually goes to the functionality of the building so I have to have whatever improvements have been done to the building what it's everything they'll want to know how much we paid to plow the driveways it's it's a lot it's it's all relative right we have to do it um my third thing I guess is is a question sure is ALS is ALS is ALS so no I get it the one and two so Agawam Westfield Southwick it's exactly the same the parameters are the same so why would would would we then look to or why wouldn't we look to or would we look to Westfield and Agawam as our key Mutual Aid partners and be and even though they are not in lock step and billing on that well yeah why wouldn't we just follow what Westfield's doing or follow what agon's doing and I did I did notice real quick I didn't look in detail but there's a $300 Delta on an ALS suit call from Westfield to agam and we are uh below both of them go just below Westfield and agam's at 3,100 bucks leading the way and then you know instead of I guess it's one of those things do you look Community to community and say okay mson is the same size as Southwick or do you look at more Regional and say okay Westfield and agam I did if Westfield's coming because you know we're not available wouldn't it be great to get the same bill as you got from Westfield and vice versa that's fine and that certainly is a very good way to look at it these well all of the services are what the community can support and will endorse we recognize that and I'm not afraid to say that out loud because that's really what it needs to be it needs to be a balance against what covers the cost of the service but is also what the community can support sure and I think that's a good basis to look at agam and Westfield our neighbors to say yep because if you look at Granville um they're the most expensive one on the sheet yeah they're way up they're out there they're out there but that really they don't even provide ALS so if we were provide an ALS intercept to Granville and it's an alsis level two Granville will bill for that call at alsis level two rates and pay us the $275 intercept fee and they collect the rest even though they're not an ALS service so they a little unbalanced in that regard so we may want to take Granville out as an outlier on the high side and then even when you look at this I believe um Turner Falls and Southwick are two of the lowest on this chart so where does a little differently because they build for interventions but if you compare where this year this chart where they were last chart they went up um even should higher than us on BLS um higher than us on all all three categories actually and a bill for an intervention I wonder if you if you're conscious when you get into the ambulance and wear if they give you the little menu of things you can choose would you like a cardiac monitor right if we go from the middle of agam and Westfield um it would be 1100 183,000 11 18 and three well agam's 12 westfields 13 we could go up to 11 and still be below or we can on the BLS or we can just match the lowest one of each Community right yeah well either way our BLS is going to go up significantly even if we match to westfields Under 12 you know um you guys are the experts where do you need to be give me the high number well the high number for BLS would be the 20% and even if we went up 25% on the BLS side we're still not at where Westfield is correct okay so if you wanted to do 25 across the board which is what our increase was last time we had an increase I think that that kind of puts us in a pretty good place um well why does it have to be a percentage why can't we just do an absolute number and get it there we can that's why so it could be did you promote it could be 1,200 2,000 and 3,000 well 20% would be 1113 but our number is really low right and I I want to assume as we step in the additional Staffing too that BLS call volume will go down right you don't it doesn't matter if you go out ALS you Bill ALS right no you build on the disposition so that's this chart that we talked about earlier a BLS call is a BLS call it's build it as a BLS rate and that's based on the Acuity of the call and that will be challenged and has been challenged by insurance companies as well too to say I'm sorry but this did not re meet the requirement of an ALS level call even though you did those interventions and we're comfortable saying you're right that's fine but at least we have piece of Mind knowing that that person got a full ALS workup and if they didn't need it then okay we'll we'll take the cost of the electrodes and the and and whatever else we use on that call but for the most part um we don't have that discussion the insurance companies they've been very supportive of our services and our people use a very good judgment to determine what's what so Dian can you just run one more time so you 1200 2,000 and 3,000 okay would put us at the lowest BLS and in the middle of ALS one and two with the other two communities okay and then we can just match the $36 from Westfield on the mile rate then you got nice round numbers you're where you need to be and then and then The Intercept rate is the same as you stay the same with 275 which is what agam and Westfield both do well given my preference even at you know at these percentages it's not getting you exactly where you want to be might go for the dollar there's two ways to look at it right I mean we could have very easily just put round numbers on here um I like the percentages because we worked with it last time and we had an incremental increase at 12 a half% followed by a second at 12 and a half% but if we wanted to make a judgment today and say these would be the new rates affected such and such a date I I like the The Proposal right out there right now for BLS at 12 um als1 at 2 2000 and 3000 for the als2 what do you want to do with the mileage well it was recommended to go to 36 for Westfield um on mileage I personally would like to see it at 38 yeah I'm not going to argue with you yeah or further well that's it you know given the rule and not to mention there's things that also the mileage is supposed to cover the vehicle cost and transport the cost you know I'm not going to everybody knows the roads in southw are worse than the roads in Westfield or agam it's just a reality I live in awam I know and those things will get get better but it adds to the wear and tear of the vehicle as I was talking earlier today tires are the number one consumable on ambulances no matter what truck you buy you go through a all the tires and that's just you know that helps offset some of those costs I guess that would be the final proposal be the 12,000 on BLS 2,000 for ALS level one 3,000 for ALS level two and mileage increased to 38 and keep 275 that's a 20% increase at BLS 6 called 16 at als1 and 13 at als2 122 and three from your existing rates y you don't think it needs to go higher you think that would be okay there for sometime then sometime would be relative or I think it would happen again next year and it would make sense to review these annually it really would if we're really looking to keep cost in in align with the rate and not have a a you know a windfall somewhere or you know significant shortfall we I think we really should look at it every year and I think looking at it based on a just a solid number increase instead of a percentage would give us a better attitude towards and understanding of where we are going forward you know anything I'm okay with the numbers I'd like to see the mileage somewhere in the middle of Westfield and and agam though instead of up at 38 they're at 37 and 36 so I I'd be okay at 37 I guess but I don't want to cover the costs so whatever's going to cover the cost Medicare 40 and 45 and 48 in other communities 40 40 but keep in mind Medicaid adjusted mileage that at the bottom of this chart talks about what that um mileage is so if the average rate is 35 the Medicare allowable rate is for R rule which is us is $92 cents of the mile on the mile and Medicare Medicaid makes a a substantial coord portion of our doesn't matter where you said it but for the Medicare ones exactly you can charge you want Medicare still Medicare paying a percentage and that's a fixed number and that's what everybody gets in in the end of it all you know it's a dollar per mile on a thousand calls so could figure out exactly what that is but I don't I don't have a problem with a 37 it would be acceptable to it's still above you know what we are right now and still not the highest and still not the lowest um that's why I asked them what they need so I'm defer to them what they need is what I want to give them so we're saying 37 on mileage 1,00 BLS 2000 als1 3000 als2 and 275 intercept agreed you you think we should I was thinking the same thing you think we should increase the intercept um 300 seems to be the oh 275 275 33 33 only for Grand I just add 47 cents and call it good I don't know I I mean if they've got a disparity in there I know it's even tougher to run a service up there but you know they're billing out at 3500 and paying us the 20 right so if we were to go 300 to The Intercept I don't even think they'd feel it right was a $25 increase over the cost of that and our our predominant our ALS intercepts are for Granville thand for Grandpa F exactly and Holland's not on this chart right now they're not running an ambulance so they wouldn't be here but I'm not sure what their older numbers used to be when they ran that but we share that Community there's um the out of Becket cover some of it and then Hilltown cover some of it as well too it's kind of divied up in thirds depending on geographically where the Call Comes in had the number on here on the charts the ALS quantity was relatively small I think's yearly uh EMS runs was like 40 something 30 I would make it 300 bucks at least okay no dispute from me all right so let's let's codify this so the BLS rate proposed is $1,200 als1 is $2,000 als2 is $3,000 the mileage rate is $37 and the ALS intercept would be $300 did I capture that correctly that's how I got it like it yes would you like to make that in the form of a motion I will make that motion to go with those rates second any other further discussion an effective date what what when when would you like that to be effective so it would be a very clean sweep if I again doesn't matter in the fiscal year so we're changing some of our software right now so that could add to how we capture a little bit more data um if we had that in place by May 15 so if we do the increase on June 1 you want to update your motion accordingly make the motion to raise the rates for as of June 1st second you said May June 1st is when you want it yeah 2022 Doug mowan I Jason Peron I than I good thank you all very much thank you it was only supposed to be five minutes on the event we ran over we're making up on Saturday called it to make it free thank you is um is Ethan Davidson he's not here is he on zoom out there see here he's got run out of time it'll hold him over till next week I did see an email from Mr Davidson earlier today but it wasn't directed to me it was just a copy um okay payables payroll in minutes acknowledge payables warrant 24 23b dated April 1st in the amount of $449,500 approve Open session meeting minutes from 32524 make a motion to accept the Open session meeting minutes from 32524 second Doug Mogan and I Jason I than I and same for April 1st make that same motion for April 1st 2024 second Doug mogin I Jason P I thank Al okay uh last week this came up after we had already posted for the meeting I had a conversation with Jessica menone um regarding early voting for local elections and I did not at all feel comfortable posting an amended agenda and having that on the agenda for last Monday um given the sensitivity of the topic and the fact that frankly my term is up and my name might be on the ballot and so I didn't want to have that appear on an amended agenda so I carried it to this week for discussion amongst the board um so for this year we're going to have early voting those dates are already posted they're on the website everybody can come and vote on whatever days that are on the website to do it and hopefully we'll be able to submit for some level of reimbursement from the state for the for the time and the hours that are committed to that process that being said I wanted to have a discussion with this board noticed I think it was agam or was it Westfield had a discussion just this past week regarding opting out of early voting for local elections so I wanted to put it to all of us to have a discussion and kind of set a direction at least for next year and maybe even going forward um and I don't want to well I'll just give you we're we already have mailin voting we have absentee ballots and you have in-person voting on the the day of the election so someone who can't be here on the day of the election can certainly do an absentee ballot or they can elect to do mailin voting now for all elections you got the form in the mail people can check it I think we mailed out over she told me well over a thousand ballots or something like that um so is it worth it to do we do does everyone get a chance to vote if we don't have early voting or do we need to have the early voting to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to vote given the Myriad of options that are available for people to vote the way things are set up now well for decades before this we didn't need early voting correct so I would be say get rid of it that's my preference there's plenty other options how many people took advantage of it it was very small numbers each day I don't know what the PO they sent an email every day during early voting for the primaries um Jason's looking those up right now total percentage it wasn't big numbers I mean people did come in but and it was double I believe it might if you add it up it's double digits maybe it made it to 100 total I I know it's double digits because it was like 27 32 but I just think with if you have and if you take away the option or delete the option to have ear early voting people have at least well they have three other ways to come in and and and vote one is mail one is absentee and one is to vote on the day of the election so if they can't do one they still have two other options available so it's not like we're saying look if you can't you you work a double shift on Tuesday and you cannot get there to vote while the polls are open well then your your vote doesn't count right you could always even take an absentee ballot for that too but okay you still have the mailin voting option Etc Etc and I just think for especially given our histo the trend on local voting is not great though I was heartened by the number of people that did turn out to vote in the presidential primary was a big number um you know but in the local elections you know you may have I don't even recall the last local election how many people total turned out throughout the course of those hours not including the early voting and everything else see Saturday February 4 they had 36 Monday February 26th they had 26 I'm looking for anything that says early voting those are the only thing that popped up a moment no those are the two numbers that I have so I don't know if chess sent out like a brand total I'm not seeing one but when we when we have that early voting you have to staff for it yeah and either pay overtime or or call in additional staff in order to do it and those people are unavailable to do whatever else that they normally do do so at some time we made we voted to do early but we can revoke it yeah it was something it was done a few years ago it was part of a and it was actually it came out of somewhat out of the all the covid things too to kind of keep people spaced out at the polls if you will but then it you know and then we've had mailin which has become you know state law but this they actually left the local opt in up for at the at the early voting when do we have to make this decision I don't think we're any rush because she did not say in the letter I had did you see one I didn't see it I didn't see a date in there that we had to decide by I just think we I just think with all the options I wanted to be clear that I don't think we're looking you know no one's looking to deny anybody their right to vote and the and multiple options to vote this would just cuts down on one lane if you will um and I I I just don't see it increasing the turnout at the polls dramatically by having this and it does create a bit of a burden for the staff at Town Hall to do it we can certainly carry it under old business for next week but I just wanted to have an open and Frank discussion about I'd like to see what those numbers were for the last few sure I think I would want to see the numbers and the costs associated and then what's just feel on it this past time around firstand because and there there was some there is some reporting that you have to do to the state and there is some reimbursement available from the state but we know for those that have seen this movie uh they always give you money until they don't give you money and so if you're locked in you're locked in here's your mandate yeah we're going to help you for the first couple of years and then money goes away and it becomes kind of an unfunded mandate type of thing so can we send a request to Jessica menzone you want to know the total early voting for the last few elections and the overall and the overall cost we have those numbers so yeah okay but that's why I want to have and then her input on what kind burden it was if she can just sure short short memo on that yep but said that's why I wanted to bring this in front of the whole board as a regularly scheduled appointment or regular scheduled item okay uh okay now I'm going to get to that be with yeah you're mingled yeah of course we are so last week I asked that a I had asked if we could put on the agenda this week that we make a proclamation which weine yeah here we go and here is the proclamation whereas realizing an urgent need for donors around the country the national Donate Life month observance was established in 2003 to promote a greater understanding of the life-saving benefits of donation and whereas National Donate Life blue and green day is celebrated each April and represents the national effort to raise awareness for organ and tissue donation and transplantation and whereas the transplantation of organs and tissues is made possible through the compassion of organ and tissue donors enabling gifted surgeons to not only save thousands of lives every year but also to restore health and sight to the recipients and whereas people of all ages ethnic backgrounds and religions need organ transplants and whereas the town of Southwick supports the vital efforts to learn about donating tissue and organs registering as organ and tissue donors and willingness to give the precious gifts gifts of Health sight and Life to people in need and whereas the town of South recognizes National Donate Life month and National blue and green day as great opportunity to join in the fight to save lives therefore it is to be proclaimed by the town of Southwick that the month of April is designated as Donate Life month and uh by vote of this board uh and by our signature we would make that Proclamation a motion sir I would sir I'll make make that motion second and a roll call vote please Doug mowan yes Jason clone yes thank you thank you very much and um and as some of you may know we had a a lady in town who was a uh art recipient she recently fairly recently passed away unrelated to the heart but um she was a a big force behind doing this every April we used to have a big kind of event out here and a flag raising for it um but I still want to continue the tradition and to make um continue to have April be Donate Life month and encourage people to sign on to be a a organ and tissue don't I think the lights were going to be green and blue as well I think I think we're going to split it because um April is also autism month and you'll notice the blue gel on the on the lights outside so we'll have to get to around the 15th or somewhere we'll switch over to okay blue and green or green and red okay uh next we have the acknowledge an invitation this um Memorial Day and Veterans Day joint committee select board and the Town Administrator and your staff are cordially invited to attend and participate in the Memorial Day Parade to be held on Monday May 27th 10:00 line up at 9:30 and it will start at the Southwick Plaza and continue continue Down College Highway to the Town green then there'll be a procession to the new Cemetery for a ceremony immediately following and there's usually a stop at the old cere old Cemetery along the way um so put that on your calendar 10 o'clock okay we have a we have to acknowledge Holly H hamon's resignation from the board of assessors and that is an elected position given that we are about a month from elections I think we can kind of let that ride until the election I have not seen ballots yet so we'll see if there's somebody running um and then if not if yes then great if not then we can make an successor appointment through to the next election is that okay with sounds like the way it goes work for me okay approve library's cash donation of hold on $8 into their gift account I need a motion please motion made second Doug Mogan I Jason I thank you approved chair to sign the fiscal year 2022 fiscal year 2023 Southwick CDF number 00977 Southwick Community develop program special conditions letter to Boston and there was a long explanation from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission about that yes so I need a motion for the chair to sign I will make that motion second Doug Mogan I Jason p i van I okay approve a donation for the American Legion auxiliary for $200 to the emergency management for holding an emergency management information class I'll make that motion second Doug Mogan I Jason Peron I I okay and then I have a note here from Jess menone treasur collector and acting clerk to please reappoint Nancy m zadun to the board of registar for a three-year term commencing on 41224 to 33127 any objection to making that or a motion to appoint there's no objections I'll make that motion second Doug Mogan I Jason Fon I I okay I'm going to do something we haven't done in a long time sign this and we'll send that to Jess so that she can update the book and update the website with the appointments may I bu you a pen you may can't talk without a pen though okay approve the warrant article to move get L thank you approve the warrant article to move the opioid settlement money from free cash to special revenue account and decide which warrant it will be on on ATM or STM all the emails I saw it said it doesn't matter I just assume put it on the special then so that any free cash that that it doesn't get swept out to free cash um from this year it seems to me so I would entertain a motion subject to the uh Town council's approval to put this on the special ahead of the annual I'll make that motion second Doug Mogan I Jason Peron and I I okay and we have a request for us to authorize Department of Public Works to submit the fiscal year 25 deer Culvert replacement Grant application oh suddenly Mr G jumps up so I'm thinking he's here to talk about that that hello Mr G good evening everybody uh the representative and the composer um what you see before you the department of ecological resources uh Culvert replacement Municipal assistance grant opportunity is something that DPW uh applies to generally speaking on an annual basis this is a program that is funded very lightly um from the state level um and there are I'm sorry it's the 351 municipalities in Massachusetts um that are eligible to apply this program for support uh accordingly awards are typically small uh but can range from we'll call it data acquisition to construction with construction uh of our most minor stream Crossings at our public roads coming in north of a half a million dollars it's not feasible when a program that just has a couple of million to utilize Statewide um back in basically year 22 we received or executed uh an award for the that acquisition uh design and engineering and permitting for the Westerly stream colr Klein Road um there was a demonstrated need this program looks for that ecological benefit and basically it brings these steam Crossings into we'll call compliance both for the passage of flood waters as well as for the movement of wildlife within the stream corter um and since then we've been fortunate to receive uh other grants to support well currently in construction yeah uh moving towards construction on our project right now we want to look at the Culver just east of there um that's uh a Culver that historically has been damaged um during severe storm events it does overtop the roadway and Roads the embankments on either side um it's a it's a clear need we've held off in previous years over concerns that this particular program wouldn't support the necessary size for that Crossing um we have some initial feedback that says oh we think you can fit right under the gun um in terms of sizing and there's been some additional flexibility communicated from the program it says you know what if you trip past that black and white line that says you're now a small Bridge instead of a cver we'll still support your program uh the other change that we see this particular year uh is a reflection that we're dialing back the approach a little bit um I steadfastly hold on to the one-year we can doit all approach but that does balloon the cost a little bit for for an award this is a no match opportunity typically um so what we've done this year is say let's just do data acquisition uh and we're going to call it a preliminary level design just to inform some of those next steps we'll work this one three pieces um the data acquisition the design engineering permitting and then the construction um one other change to help incrementally uh increase our scoring on this application is that this year we are looking at a minor um Financial commitment uh if awarded this particular project projected uh values what we're asking for is uh a total of 63,000 from the program and there would be $7,000 commitment um through dpw's existing uh funding or some minor scope items related to anyway so the action item before the select board in order for DPW to submit this application we do need an endorsement um from the select board chair it has to be signed by the select board chair entertain a motion for the chair to sign I'll make that motion second Doug I Jason any questions the project absolutely there a demonstrated need and would the project then be eligible under an MVP Grant probably going forward for this this project or yes uh and you know the more more meat we can put on the bone the more appetizing it is uh for these Grant awarding programs to say there's a turnkey project you let's grab out and make a difference ready yeah perfect thank you all so much thank you thank you okay any other new business Mr Vice chair I have none right now no sir had plenty of old business recently I just have it's not I guess it's new business I'm I'm requesting authorization from the board uh to send a strongly worded letter to Senator Warren to in support of the fire department safer Grant the the chief has already sent one there was communication actually there was a news article today about that Senator Warren telling people please apply for these grants great well we've applied 19 times and never got one so maybe a I doubt my strongly worded letter will do a ton but it can't hurt but I if we're going to communicate uh if I'm going to communicate as a chair of the select board I would like a motion to authorize me to just send that letter as the chair of the select board with your support in that endeavor for the safer Grant absolutely and I will make that motion second Doug Mogan I Jason Peron I thank perfect okay any other new business not new no no I didn't know okay old business COA director internal posting application deadline was Friday the 5th it was did we get any applications one one and is it the current interim correct so how do we Pro GNA be a tough interview that's gonna be brutal can we tell her we had five oh now she's gonna watch the video darn it all right so let me I would suggest that we reach out to the COA chair and see if they want to when they're going to meet next or at least have a discussion with the COA chair I did have one informal but it should be more a more formal communication um and then what's your pleasure uh we need it filled so I me if that's what they want everybody I've talked to was pretty much said agree please offer to Cara absolutely okay so then can we authorize the I will make a motion well let's let's let's have correspondence with the chair of the COA and then we'll come back forth with to authorize the chair to to to create the um what what is it is that Ana job or is that memorandum understanding position yeah moua whatever yeah okay uh high speed nothing um did I miss it oh there it is marijuana dispensary any update this week I will hopefully get some communication from Ben Coy and then I will wrap up and get something to you to authorize to post great with deadlines for submission Etc hunting bylaw proposal related to private land reminder public meeting set for April 16th that's a Tuesday 6 o'clock in the auditorium um review of land license for American Legion I saw a note in the draft warrant I need to reach out to Ben um to see what's up with that because he put a note in the draft warrant um I thought we have to go in front of town meeting for that so I'll talk to him and find out uh 61a we're meeting after town meeting Town administrative recruitment well interviews were Saturday the 6th at 10 a.m. they were held we did make a uh an interim appointment subject to all the Y yatas um I did have the the pleasure of speaking with Miss Parker today I wanted to congratulate her and and offer any assistance that I could offer her in uh and working on all the stuff that needs to get done and also she needed a tour town or other introductions and so on and so forth so um we're going to move that process along hopefully we can work on um the agreement at the same time with all the other stuff that has to happen and and once that is all in place then she can give her proper notice under her current contract um she did ask me if she could come to the town meeting in May and I I said not to be brisk but or anyone can come to the town meeting you just have to sit in the on voter section but it I think it would be I don't think it would be detrimental to he her there at all so of course not I extended the invitation okay so I think we can take the interview part off of the agenda and I think do we want to take this off of there or you want to leave it on there until we've settled a contract and all of that stuff I think we remember yeah I think we can take it off okay finally we take something look like a shorter agenda T-Mobile Hometown grants application review authorization and pursuit waiting to hear back from Cara and Mike sheal as far as uh you have some connection now that you can get some he's out of town this week I will tell you for a fact all right so um that's all really I've done got my portion all done and then once we know for sure what we need to put in there for the ex my portion don't accept that I need a a cost and once that's there I can finish that portion and then the remaining stakeholders can sign off on things okay town clerk in internal posting application deadline was Friday April 5th and the answer is fantastic oh man do we want to schedule interviews for we're not meeting on the 15th 16 17 22nd that's not is that written below that on the 22nd that's not a holiday right it's Earth Day Earth Day okay we'll be well grounded full moon the next day well even better and then Administrative Professionals Day a busy week okay 22nd interviews me sure we have any I don't think we have anything else like public hearings or anything that night I got addition training but I'll be available you'll be here oh yeah I'll be here I'll I'll be able to be back in time okay or scheduled for that day anyway yeah yeah yeah but well it was a work it was a work thing that if I wasn't going to be back in time I was back in time got okay well let's let's put it on for the 20 second let's keep this yeah should all right thoughts on the master plan implementation committee is Mr Dow on tonight I didn't see him no not tonight hit the mess well I don't have a problem with the composition which is the board select board and three members of the public think we have at least two one I had my last notes I'm sorry to interrup my last notes was one select board appointee one planning board appointee and then one resident select board appointee one planning board and that's not right it wasn't a resident planning board appointee it should be three residents right yeah but you you had suggested one chosen by the planning board one chosen by that's where I was typing it y this board and the other one is f the coin well I don't think it can be a joint appointment because um that's kind of the one foral appointments that we have right is the planning board associate is a joint appointment but it's like playing a five on three basketball game you will lose most of the time so I don't I don't think a a I don't think it should be a joint appointment of the two boards so we had a planning board member a a select board member and then I I I'd like to figure out how we discuss that and I know Mike and I discussed it a little bit already and we probably have to come back to him to get his uh his final opinion but there was three members of the public one two three that's six we need we need one more you can't have an even number on a board what it's five I can't Ma sorry yeah three that's five so that would work for me and then who's going to appoint those three how about the economic development commission appoints the third one novel okay and then lastly so then that kind of splits up the appointing authority and so it really does it doesn't really much matter from when you look at it that way um it's not a subcommittee of the planning board it's just it'll be just like another border commission or subcommittee of this board for that matter and that it will be chartered I guess I don't know if we have to go to town meeting I need to talk to Ben um or just by our own or a local not a local bylaw but just by the the establishment of the committee that we can establish that committee and give it a charter of you you will report to these guys you will do this you will do that um it would just be an ad hoc Committee created designated by the select board right it would be and then but that but that does create it then we we would be the appointing we would be the responsible party kind of like Lake Management Lake management is an ad hoc advisory committee to the select board these guys would have a multi Adis jurisdictional role right they're not gonna they they can't command anybody to do anything but they can you know they they can report to and you know ask of other boards and commissions to report information to them just is like Lake Management Lake management and not picking on Lake management but Lake management has no statutory Authority whatsoever they must utilize the powers vested at in law by those other commissions or boards to enforce what or to do their bidding so if they have a problem with the um you know the permitting piece on the lake the dock thing the uh the lpp they got to go through conservation if they have a problem with something else they come through the Harbor Master or to the select board uh they have problem in suff right we're the ones that call up the militia right but and you know conservation has their Lane planning board has their chapter they operate under are you raising are you raising your hand waving or just I'm good oh okay just check um so I'm fine with that and then we just have to find out how you Charter it right by by the mission this miss you know like EDC adopted their own mission statement but this we kind of said you know I I think I mentioned it what I would like I would like and you know subject to discussion here is reporting to the town meeting so it would be in the town report report to the select board and planning board at least by annually whether we have a joint meeting or they go to both of those boards um identify successful strategies conduct Outreach um and evaluate progress and there's plenty of opportunities for evaluation already in the master plan I think I called out Norman he was here at the last meeting where those metrics are kind of in the master plan already to evaluate progress and there may be more added later but um and then meet at least six times a year that's pretty much what I had given you as so Can Can I with your permission can I just put that the form send that to Chairman dowy for to agree on it and then we'll come back and vote on it and then we can start taking applications because we can they haven't adopted the master plan yet so there's no reason to exist yet for the mck until the master plan is done today they might do that tomorrow could be they might be voting on the master plan tomorrow have you seen their agenda it's still on there Bo that's one of those meetings where you're going to want to pack a lunch they got like four or five public hearings tomorrow yeah couple and none of them are at all controversial so they should be fast okay any other old business Mr Vice chairman no Miss Gale I'm happy to say that the board and commission handbook is published today just in time for us to reappoint soon you know what it's a good point um we should carry for next week no eight we're not meeting next next week for the 22nd because the timing is it's kind of good if not the 29th we've got a little bit of time because appointments run through June 30th we'll try to let's try to move that in a little bit I mean last year we're making appointments in September let's try to pull that in closer to the actual appointment dates for folks so let's uh kind of go over what we did last year what worked what didn't work how we could do better um I think the process was way improved last year compared to previous years but there's always room for process Improvement there um and you know start and start again start Outreach for those that are you know if there's positions that are coming up that will be vacant or what have you but let's start to bring some folks in that want to serve the town on a border committee that is an appointed position let's let's do that could I make a request to to add to your new business you have to pick a time you want town you need to start cuz we don't have a bylaw it's we changed it though we do have a bylaw well it doesn't have a specific start no because we changed it to take it out you'll have tode let's carry that to the next meeting yeah just to put it I mean we have time typical is we don't know what the special is looking like yet but I'm thinking 6:30 and 7 I was the you 6 people I I I struggle to get here for six so I I'd rather have it that's just me because I will not be here right but I know you know a lot of folks that do work out of town to get back to town to get to town meeting six we just start the special this one and looking at the warrant I I don't want to say it well I don't care I won't be there um you know this one doesn't look like it's going to go late just because you're not going to be there right well last year we had a couple of start the special 6:15 okay that way the annual would start at 6:45 the latest okay that's my we'll carry this under for 422 for discuss when we're all ready to go to print we'll have that sure I mean that's probably prob yet we do we got it today I think it was like literally four o'clock or so it came across so yeah you have any other old business um I did have a question did we ever get information on the um liquor license application fee comparability to other towns um oh had asked about that did we ever get that I did not info just curious cuz someone's going to ask us again yeah probably the next time I go to Tu and it'd be good to know yeah so they specifically asked maybe we can reply once we get that anything else that was it I think old business old business do we have a need for executive session tonight briefly okay oh good I get take longer to read this thing probably Mr chairman of the finance committee folks sorry I didn't get um you don't mind just a few minutes as chairman of the finance committee when we met the other day you guys met I was the guy in the back he didn't go over um when we redo when you guys redo everything you need to get a line item and a dollar value for the park and park person now stay with me in theory the COA you hire the new one technically the old one that was the program coordinator which is her job before Co preo pre pre Park and wreck you need to look at that job also because that's going to go down as far as what the duties are and you need to put a line of dollar value for that two place because we're meeting next week as a group okay you know what I mean we're going to do that ad hoc at that meeting is what we're going to have to do yeah we're going to have to thank you right CU we're not meeting again until then and I don't think I'm prepared to go into that detail right this very second anything else no I just want that was the plus Min I was talking about on bodies and dollars yeah thank you thank thanks to everyone who's who's put in a lot of time on this I know I think every single one of us yourself included have spent a ton of time on the budget this year it's been extraordinarily the dollar is there you break all that up I don't think we're fing more money no no no you're right we have to cut it up yeah you're right 100% all right any other any other hands all right we are going to go into executive session pursuant to Mass General law one more month then you're reading this buddy Mass General Law chapter 38 section 212 and 3 and chapter 214 section 1B labor Council litigation matters and strategy for collective bargaining with police Union Coalition fire I DPW non-union staff and clerk upsu move to go in executive session to conduct collective bargaining sessions with non-union personnel and not reconvene an open session move to go in executive session to conduct contract negotiations with non-union personnel and not reconvene an open session the chair will declare that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargain position of the body and not reconvene an Open Session uh move to go into executive session discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining and the chair move to go into executive session to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel and not to reconvene an open session move to go into executive session to discuss strategy respect to litigation and that the chair declare that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on litigating position of the body and to not reconvene an open session and a person shall have a right against unreasonable substantial or serious interference with their privacy the Superior Court shall have jurisdiction and Equity to enforce such right and in connection therewith to award damages I just want to note here that our agenda states that we will reconvene I did read this as we will not reconvene I assure everyone listening at home we will not be reconvening and we are adjourning the meeting tonight and we'll adjourn um the exec session and conclude our meeting for tonight I need a motion please motion made second Doug mowan I Jason Peron I you I thank you all