##VIDEO ID:YeCkhL_-lac## good evening everyone welcome to the select board meeting for October 28th at 6m hearing room and on Zoom um we have in attendance myself Diane Gail Vice chair mland clerk Jason Peron the chair is not with us tonight and we have assistant CAO I'm sorry assistant CAO naen signon and CAO Nicole Parker here um we will start with the Pledge of Allegiance if Mr putam would lead thank you I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you sir play ball enrio Palo so we're going to go a little bit out of order here we have um something on the agenda to present a sister city Proclamation with Mr Neil Parkin the adder and Worthing council member from Southwick West Sussex England and yeah want to come up yeah your daughter just R ran away tell Ellie to come back stitch me so we could go to him yeah why don't we give a little background for the folks in the room so um Mr putam as uh chair of the Southwick 250 and please step in any time um introduced us to our sister city of Southwick from England during our 250 Southwick 250 celebration a few years ago during Co and um Mr Parkin was kind enough to record um we had a couple of Zoom meetings with you guys and then we had a they sent a very nice message to us to the 250 from their Town common um to celebrate our 250th um and I believe Mr putam traveled to England a couple of years ago or last year and had the pleasure of meeting with Mr Parkin so uh what we've done is created a uh sister city Proclamation between the town of Southwick Mass and the Parish of Southwick West Sussex UK and if I may whereas the town of Southwick in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts USA and the Parish of Southwick in West Sussex United Kingdom share not only a common name but also a mutual desire to Foster International friendship cultural exchange and collaborative opportunities just nod like you've seen this before whereas both communities are committed to enriching the lives of their citizens through shared experiences cultural understanding and Global Goodwill and whereas this sister city relationship will strengthen ties between our towns and encourage cooperation in education culture and commerce for the benefit of all residents and now therefore we hereby proclaim the formal establishment of a sister city relationship between Southwick Massachusetts and Southwick West Sussex and invite all citizens to celebrate this lasting bond of friendship signed this 28th day of October 2024 by the elected representatives of Southwick Massachusetts and Southwick West Sussex and I see that Jason was nice enough to come in and sign this ahead of time so if we could um we have pens if we could sign those and then send them back and then we'll have we're going to sign two one for Mr Parkin to take with him yeah the other P I do that's right you get and Mr Barkin if you would be so kind don't look what your scientist just check it it's not blank check and and we need your Visa code number yeah times are tough here in the [Music] colonies right where's where's celebrating our 250th they're celebrating their 1250th something like that no since 1974 the council that is oh that was just south Council if I could have your Indulgence uh because it is very interesting how far back does the name southw for your village go yeah before the uh the this kind yeah I think you told me when I was over there or your town historian told me it went back to when the Saxons yeah it came to England and that was in about 500 ad uh so they got a little head start on buddy wasn't even on the fire department yet maybe right in front of our flag yeah he been a long time we'll get a get a picture yeah here you are sir thank you very much indeed thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you well made up thank you thank you so now the photo op as we usually do in these types of things oh yes you should told me out the shirts on I didn't know they were going to do all this said should I dress up and you said no I'm not she at least given you the South shirt put a for that thank you all very much thank you enjoy your stay yeah thank you thank you folks thank you a [Laughter] lot all right then we will continue with public comment if anyone in the room has any public comments please raise your hands sir name is Tim fer reside 38 Road wife uh so the reason I'm here is was brought to my attention that there was member in our neighborhood losing a house isn't a which friendly didn't go over very well be trly honest so my first step was try to gain some knowledge I reached out to John provided information relative to what was he pushed me to the zoning enforcement agent Zach eventually hooked up with them I'm going to be really honest if that's who I am conversation was good I will say that I think he was a little taken off guard in my questions but couple of things that came to light by both John and Zach was that there were no applicants at all in the town of sou and that was confirmed so after a five minute search we immediately found the post in our neighborhood and I believe there's four others operating on an Ord pond so with that said uh I have reviewed the charter I think it's 36 and they're with me but I just want to bring to light some of the things that down that are concerned first and foremost no one can do this without registration there is no registration second of all the applicant needs to apply to the Zone enforcement agent on an application that's approved by him which tells me that there is no to formal application for an Airbnb I may be wrong but I can't find them part of that application is notification to all the ABS part of that application is having the house inspected fire safety Health building the whole nine yards I am going to stick my neck out and say that hasn't been done um registration with the state we should be part of that application I don't know um I think I understand why this was done this whole concept seems to be very popular for vacationers quite frankly it's got my cup of tea don't know why anybody but that's that's just me uh I just feel that one needs to look at where exactly this is in current relative to zoning neighborhood is dense we've got homes less than 50 feet apart um I just I just think if if this is how it's going to be then it needs to be tightened up but the bottom line is you can't enforce it this is beautifully written says a lot of stuff but your enforcement agent is the neighborhood these they and with all due respect I don't think they really knew that these people were doing what they were doing um so it's opened up a can of worms for those that have to reside by it I will get it that if this is the way it's going to be this is the way it's going to be but until then I've asked twice to put a halt to this until all the Ducks are in a row and it's being done in the right format and I'm going to ask again um I haven't got a response to that request which is disc concern be honestly and I can tell you right now it's being done tonight so that's my public comment relative to the Airbnb Charter in the town take it as you want I appreciate your time we will look into it okay y yes so this whole road is Miller andette Avenue and we're all bearing out C and the reason we're putting our little faces here is you know we okay yes Thomas 45 m road one of the things that's little disc Discerning with all this too is one neighbor doesn't talk to anybody hasn't really been uppr up with anybody for this and this is one of the reasons the renter yes no the owner that's what I mean the the person rent we have an extreme amount of little kids in the neighborhood like real little to teenagers we have some weird people that have been staying at this house we also have the walking trail which is directly across the street on Gillette we get all the weird people from them parking down into the street that like to ride and go through the neighborhood to add to this whole thing isn't good you stuff that you don't know what you have in your yard to the people that you don't know who's staying there there's people that are in the cars until 3:00 in the morning sitting in the driveway so there's supposed to be a whole plan and and stuff like this which like Tim said there's nothing enforcable there's nothing you can find and I believe Doug was on the bylaw committee for this way back and it's now gone like oh it's in file cabinet here we go nobody's been you know say anything well I can tell you right now we're here to say something and we're not going to go away if we're g to come we come back each week we come back each week but you know I've talked to Doug because I knew he was on the committee trying to figure some of this stuff out something's got to happen understood thank you name James love 15 Jette Aven Dy corner right directly across the street I have a very good observation of the place my background is military intelligence I'm inherently paranoid I moved into this neighborhood for one specific reason I would be able to find out who the people are that are living around me now I cannot there are people that have come in in and out of that residence in such an inconsistent and abnormal state that it's very very concerned Davin said there are people that have come into the neighborhood onto that driveway and stayed there for over an hour an hour and a half sitting in the car no way of identifying who they are what they doing by the nature of that building or now what it's intended to be used as that draws an additional strangers into neighood as well AB the ABNB has absolutely no vetting process for any of the people that are using any of those residents they've had multiple problems across the country because people would either overstay in the residence causing police enforcement problems many of the buildings have been burnt throughout the this country as well because they have no vetting process there have been incidences where pedophiles have been reported using the residents because they don't have to register a temporary building a tempor temporary residence so was also mentioned there are tremendous number of miners in our neighborhood it's extremely concerning me that someone can come into that neighborhood not registered not vetted with less than Pleasant repent and not just our neighborhood but any neighborhood understood anybody else in the room we will look into this right away and get some feedback to you all is there anybody online with the comments looks like none thank you all thank you very much just one quick question who who who is the point of contact is it is it Zach is he the one that we go to or I mean I I I get the impression that you know obviously he's got other things on his T in the whatever talking Kyle that's what I was gonna ask sir I think are you talking about Kyle Scott the zoning that was gonna be my question was who's Zach yeah I got you got a lot to do we don't know yeah we usually don't have back and forth on public comment but I will commit to you that I will reach out to Kyle and and have a conversation I apologize not at all just making sure we're all on the same page yeah that's fine and and if there's a gap in the process we'll get that filled because there is no back and forth in in this conversation um how will you let us know oh we don't normally do back and forth tonight but we will if you want did you sign in and leave okay I can get a hold of you and and you can I also want to give you my card with my cell phone number and I be more than happy to appreciate email address on there prer things to be any one of us our first initial last name at Southwick mass.gov you can reach out to any question for you when will the minutes for this be available because I intend to report them for not having a a business license for this meeting yes ma'am uh we will well the recording will be out tomorrow okay on on uh on YouTube will there you can get a link to that right on the website okay will there be a written no sub minutes okay yeah those won't be out tomorrow understand yep usually approve the meeting one or two meetings after this meeting we approve the and then the the written will be published at that yes it'll be on the website yes thank you very much thank you all very much well we'll do it we can okay uh then on to new business we need to accept $180 deposit to the library gift account from Friends of the sou Library a refund from the purchase of prizes for the libraryies winter reading program for children teens and adults can I have a motion for that so I'm not used to make an emotion over here so M you want to give a Pap okay you made a motion I'll second that Doug yes and accept a donation of $50 to the Southwick police gift account from Mrs jacine lvo make motion to so move seconded roll call vote Gale how do you vote I Doug Mogan yes sorry okay thank you uh we need to appoint Robin goodsell Robert lipik and Ruth staus as election officers for the November 5th 2024 state election so move roll call vote a second roll call vote Diane Gail I Doug Mogan yes and we need to acknowledge the resignation of Angelina Simone from the agricultural commission and that's just to acknowledge that right yes we should encourage anyone that wants to apply to be on a to are actively recruiting um and we also have a vacancy on the Historical Society I can throw in historical commission commission rather yep yep all right and then we have a mediation session on Thursday 10:31 at 900 a.m. um not in costume parats oh it could be could be we could all dress up and is the protocol for attendance of well I did than one of us I did post the meeting if all of you wanted to come but if there was just if you wanted to name a representative that's sort of what the attorney was saying to go with me and then we report back um I I don't believe that we're just going to have one mediation session so I think that I think uh you can either designate someone you can all come none of you but you posted right it's posted um and Jason isn't here to weigh in on that so it's up to you and I you're going do you think one or two does it matter are you available I'm available by Zoom I cannot travel to uh to the event that day well I can do you want me to go in person if you're able I am able so um I guess we can vote to have if you want to make that motion so move okay um second roll call vote dangale I Dougan yes and um then any other new business from you uh just one I and it's it's more perfunctory I think um I had sent a request to the chair to create a proclamation for a bunch of uh young men who had made eagle and I think I had seen the proclamations I would like to suggest that we bring them in front of this board either at our next meeting obviously tonight's a tight schedule and they're not here but next meeting to present said proclamations n was coordinating with them to see when they could make it oh great so you're already talking to miss Margaret Margaret oh Margaret sorry okay either way great please let me know what you need for me because I had been corresponding with the lady the mother of one of the young men I want to say it is next week but perfect that's great we'll see what we I'll find out all right okay I have no other new business yeah I just have um a change order for the HVAC system um it is for new space temperature sensor tying into the existing control and control valve which is existing and it's for $2,850 so I don't know if you could uh just vote to authorize Jason to sign it it's just for one or authorize you to sign it as Vice chair it doesn't have a do dat he can come in and sign he's got other things yes he can so what's the dollar amount please 2850 within the line item yeah yeah and it shows you know the price for the journeyman and it's really all labor I I'll make a motion have the chair sign second roll call vote saying I Doug yes n any new business no okay under your old business uh we need to approve the statement of intention on behalf of Carl J steinhart which we have all I have seen need signatures and that is on the counter as well correct no not okay you want us to sign that here I do I need to vote of the board so I'll make a motion to for us to submit this statement of intention of the South B selector on behalf of Carl J steinhart second roll call vote Dian G ey Doug Mogan yes want us signment we have next theal dog hearing update may she would be here tonight um she's not here do you have anything you would like to update us with um you want me to read the the letters that I sent you you might as well okay sure okay um so the first one M on October 1st I wrote to the select board this is to follow up on the August 26 2024 meeting where in Lori vial of 24 birwood Road in southb was given instructions as to securing her dogs and offen in area in her yard at that time Miss vajal was advised to have both gates fitted with automatic locking closures on or before September 25th among other stipulations outlined as I was out sick I was not able ble to check on the gates until today 101 I contacted Miss vial who stated that she had not had the gates modified as of yet at this time I'm finding Mrs Jal in violation of an order issued to her by the Southwick select board I'm requesting that the agreement become invalid and that Miss FAL be brought up on this violation which would also include her responsibility to pay all fines issued her to her by my office and then on 10 15 on this date I responded to the fil residents at 24 birwood road to deliver the notification of a hearing for Monday 10:20 1:24 upon my arrival I rang the doorbell twice and heard a dog barking from outside the residence The Barking became louder on the right side of the home and then I heard a woman's voice that sounded like fijal yelling hey get over here from the sound of both the woman and the dog it did not appear that the dog was restrained as out line in the order given to Fel I then called the fijal residents however I received no response I left a voicemail for Miss FAL stating that I was at her door and that I had left her a letter for her in the front door I requested that she come to the front door however by the time I left she still had not responded to the door in checking both gates in the yard it was seen that the self closing locking mechanisms had still not been installed on either gate it is apparent that Miss FAL has not followed the conditions given to her he um repeatedly refuses to answer the door she'll refuses to answer the phone I'll be standing there at the door ringing the doorbell it's only when I leave and call her that she answers the phone she says yes I know you were there okay kind know we need to answer I have been dealing with her um refusal to cooperate with town bylaws since March she has been given ample opportunity to address each individual find that she's been given since March she has not done any of it um I do believe she is basically ignoring and disregarding any recommendations that were given to her um she does not seem to have um I don't want to say the respect but she just does not seem to be taking any of this seriously and unfortunately she doesn't seem to respect the gravity of this she does not respect the gravity of of of the situation she does not respect the authority of the town she does not respect anything other than what she wants to respect um she's got her two sports cars in the driveway she's got you know all of her stuff going on um I'm done with it I just I don't know at this point you can't drag her in and she's not going to come in I do not see that she's going to come in she did not come in right she didn't notify anyone she didn't come in second second time did she notify you today no she didn't notify me today but I did talk to her after the last last meeting meeting and she said that she was working on the 21st and she would be here today on the 20th okay oh she's not here so what are your options my request is that all of the fins be reinstated I know that um Jason none of them were relieved they were stayed for the moment right I do believe they need to be pursued whether we go with a a criminal complaint maybe that'll get her attention I don't know um I know that she just really the rules don't apply and that is very unfortunate for all the people in their neighborhood who cannot walk by the house we have not had an incident of neighbors calling with any issues not yet not yet but I don't think we really want to wait until this happens again unfortunately and I think at this point instituting the fines or taking them off the pause button so to speak I don't know maybe that'll get an answer I don't know I I I don't know what can you do with somebody that just goes hello so I'm going to leave it up to you guys I think we need to put the demand for the fines out okay my my opinion I don't disagree I mean we we were bending over backwards that's not the term you used when you saw me the next day it no it wasn't here's the I think we were more than fair I mean reasonable in this whole thing and I I was actually talking to Mr Parkin before the meeting tonight because you know these dog hearings are yes the worstest part so you were referring to me no I said one of the things I I really dislike the most about this job it's probably the most unpleasant task of being on the select board and 100% of the time ain't the dog it could be the meanest wildest animal but that's the owner's responsibility to yep if you have a mean orinary dog you lock it up and keep it an example we had a case of a dog bite that just recently happened the owners of the dog that bit granted the other dog came from a neighbor's property onto their house these guys were an electric fence but they dogs but they're the other people dog they're ready to put up fencing and this and that and the other thing because they're really afraid of this I'm like it wasn't your fault but 100% of the time it's the owner 100% of the time and so you know obviously we you know we had asked to have the young lady come in last meeting we we were understanding that she was busy and couldn't make it so she was going to be here tonight yep it's 6:30 I this was just you know we were going to cover this this evening she's not here I don't disagree with you Diane I think we put the fines back and if it go goes to the next level what is the time frame that the fines have to be paid week otherwise you can pick up the dog actually it says you can pick up the dogs in the meantime so we'll give her a week to pay and then if she doesn't pay if I'm back here next Monday you go get the dogs right um I would say at this point we go with the criminal prosecution for not paying I would do it that way yeah because we don't want the dogs because then we have to do oh yeah okay I agree with I would say give it a week tell her that you know yeah you can send her a certified letter because she obviously will not answer the door for me say she's got seven days from the date of the letter to pay her fines where it will go through the port system and they'll just lump them all into one and I'll have uh Sergeant or do take care of that part okay okay right very well okay thank you thank you I appreciate your time thank ACO benett okay and do we have uh Randy on yes Springfield mrf contract renewal Randy do you have anything to update on that this week uh so I had a a meeting with the Merk Advisory board on Tuesday uh one of the questions that the board had was there's a rate increase year one is 2% and then year I'm sorry year one is 2% year year two three and five four and five have a a 1% Adder on top of the 2% um the formula is a little little little wonky but s so I asked the question you know what's what's the for and and the response I got back was it just came up during the negotiations uh the the um the operator of the murf said that the 2% wasn't enough to cover their costs each year so he asked for a higher amount and during the during the negotiations there was quite a bit of back and forth I think uh someone's mentioned there was 18 or 19 proposals that went back and forth between the two parties and so what the proposal that you have in front of you is kind of how they uh resolve that that uh that issue so I hope that answers the question that you had but the 1% is on the prior Year's activity so they get to a catchup yeah yeah yeah basically okay and then a side question on that are these mrf fees the going back to the uh transfer station discussion we had last week is that part of the 270,000 um Refuge fees that you had on your models yeah that that includes the trash recyclables that we paid a dispose of is was built into that $270,000 number okay that's just year correct yeah okay all right thank you okay questions on that okay thanks Randy um so we held off on signing that so I I guess with that explanation we have no choice but to sign it even without the explanation we to sign it but at least asked the question still moved okay all right I think we voted that pending this answer but we'll roll call vote proba should second second motion yeah and roll call vote Dian GA I Doug mlan yes okay any other old business from you Mr mland just a couple covered most of them already um I do want to recognize the fact that October 28th is National First Responders day so thank you to our Police Department fire department our regional dispatch partners and uh last but certainly not least DPW um in recognition of national First Responders day 2024 um I also want to thank everyone who was involved with putting on the uh Trunk or Treat this weekend at Wally Park there had to be 600 kids there um it was just very well run very well done and uh the weather was perfect and a good time was had by all and um thank you for your Indulgence tonight with the proclamation for our friends from across the pond it was historic yeah I think it was great that was really great so it's it for me thank you um I just have in your this is your copy y this is the combined effort of Jessica thoron and myself on the master plan charges so you can review that and then we can hopefully put that into action next week and I'll leave a copy for Jason as well you have a copy yep um and that's it well actually I did have a question was there any updates on any actions regarding to North Pond is anything actually so no and I spoke with Randy and you know said are can we move the gate uh reconfigure the home parking but you know with he doesn't really have the Manpower either so we have to get together and figure out how we're going to pay for it and who's going to do it all um and so could we ask conservation if they had volunteers because I think the volunteers put it in in the first place okay maybe they can yeah volunteer again to move it around yeah I can certainly ask okay yes okay and anything else on that anything else moving on it no nothing else is moving thus far okay you mean you want to start you want to schedule public hearings for signage no parking all that kind of thing you want to me to get going on that I would especially the no parking I mean ry's got that process whatever we have to follow for that yeah y you sent it to me yeah we should start that process because it's going to take a while to get it all done okay we'll do and um Na anything to update okay then we can move on to acknowledge the Open Session minutes from October 21st 2024 we don't have any minutes Open session we got today no you did did you see those stuff I did I sent them back with corrections yeah let's like we get them back okay take care of them next week okay and we have no executive okay and then we can payroll warrant 2509 dated October 22nd 2024 in the amount of 288 8328450212 [Laughter] I make a motion to adjourn second call vot b i Doug Mogan yes