##VIDEO ID:srIRCaIuWHg## how are you I knew that was good evening everyone and welcome to the Monday October 21st 2024 select board meeting we're here at 6 PM in the land use hearing room this meeting meeting is also being held in hybrid format um present this evening are myself chairman Jason perone Vice chair Dian Gale Burke Doug mgin assistant CEO naen sigoni and chief administrative officer Nicole Parker um start with the Pledge of Allegiance Mr Dei would you lead us United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you going off the meeting with public comments is there anyone in the audience that has any public comments sir D28 Hill Road s Mass just a couple things I'm a little confused with some of the Bing I'm seeing on the SL I get it sometimes but when you make me start looking good get so you got to comment on little do um last week's meeting or the week before whenever it was you guys had a lot of stuff go through it doesn't seem like you're asking about how much things cost and it's not a bad thing and I'm not against anything but the snowing thing thing you know there's a bonus involved because your insurances are high we went up a couple bucks I get it but I don't hear a dollar value to that and what worries me is and I know we deficit spend snow climb but believe it or not at the end of the day it's the town's people's money so it does matter whether we can deficit spend or not so I just think you got to be a little bit more cautious or we can change the format at every meeting you can tell Joe D how much you spent at the last meeting that wasn't in the budget and it will help us with our budget system that's all yes on thank you is there anyone else in the audience is there anyone on Zoom that is any public comments seeing more tapers we gonna move right on to new business first business T is item a is going to be appointment of Leon Moren to the call for medic anybody on showing up you know want Chief sent an email Chief sent an email okay packet um has any everybody looked over their packet this was in the new one it was in the I think last actually the other day I read it so it's just a letter yeah don't we normally have them come in and just just not a member of the call Force it's a PDM it would be a good idea but it's a member of the I thought you the last time okay so I'll make a motion to appoint Leon Moren for the call Force as a pan [Music] paramedic second roll call vote Jason Peron I than you I Doug M yes topic B is going to be the Springfield mrf contract renewal DPW Randy come on up do today how are you good so as you probably know we uh all of our paper blast recyclable that we collected the transportation go to the Springfield mrf um we're one of 65 communities that uh bring our our refuge there uh so our contract our current contract expires next June 30th uh so there's a so there's a uh Mur Advisory Board that's kind of tasked with um uh coordinating and um these new these new contracts so The Advisory Board met with d they're involved they're the owners of the murf and the current operator to negotiate the new contract contract and so I gave that to you in your packet the new agreement has a 2 and a half% annual increase over processing fees plus an initial 1% increase in fees which start July 1st 2026 uh the contract is good for five years and um I gave you all the numbers in the letter there is a meeting with the Mur Advisory Board tomorrow to kind of go over questions we may have about the contract um I you know I this is you know one of those take it or leave type typ contracts there's really no other options that we have to our disposal um some of the bigger cities have no volume where they can you know contract individually with with the vendors we're not in that situation and that's why we collectively with 65 other communities uh were in the in the boat uh for this contract so I'm kind of letting you know where we are where we staying with this um as you may know uh recyclables are Commodities value goes up and goes down every day um when I first started this job about 10 years ago we were bringing in revenue for recyclables we brought in about 15 to $20,000 a year um in Revenue now we're we're paying um right now rage bill is about $900 $900 to $1,000 a month for for for um paper and Plastics um the value changes every every day based on the commodity value and that's built in the contract um if you can believe it or not for a period of time right after covid we were actually paying more to dispose of paper and Plastics any order for trash just the commodity you know when Co hit everybody's uh buying things on Amazon right cardboard is everywhere there's no value to it so we're paying for disposal of all those items that has changed a little bit it's gone for the better but we're still we're still paying for these items and I don't see that changing so that's who we are um I don't know if you had a chance to review the contract but um I have a meeting with the mer Advisory Board tomorrow have I can pass along any questions that you may have I have a couple myself but any questions for you're at so you said it's about $900 a month for the SS our our current bill is about $900 a month and it's offset by whatever that's worth at the time or no that is that is the that is with the that's yeah so in the letter here I gave you our current pricing so right now we pay 10321 a ton for the items and the market value is $856 per ton so we're actually paying $20.65 per ton those are September numbers so I I can show also let in the letter I said over the last four years the market value range between $50 and $126 a ton so no Fe no no additional fee this year uh well a 2% two and a half% increase in in year one and then years two through five are an additional 1% on top so two the 105 across the board that's with the two and a half so that's what you're saying I just the way they I don't understand why they did it like this it's kind of confusing but they kept the two and a half% that we've had for the past in the current contract yeah and then they added 1% on years two through five in which we don't know what that is yet correct yeah I'm assuming it's just how they negotiated the contract I it's it sounds kind of funky to me but I think that's just what what they did but I'll ask a question tomorrow so I didn't want to sign off on that until we had an explanation of what that is they delineated it in their contract but they didn't what it is it's just new this year there will be an additional one% on the prior Year's charge so it isn't even actually a full 1% it's 1% of the prior year it says M right yeah yeah so I would what that I'll ask a question but I don't know I I'm like I said this is probably you know and if you do the numbers if it's uh two and a half three and a half three and half three and a half you know four times it's it works in Town's favor with this formula then you know two and a half then 3% three and a half every year for the next four years that may be part of the that was part of negoti just wait so it's not do until December 31st it's a we we can yeah I got this I want to let you have it right away uh know like you know like waiting on sitting on things like this um like I also have a meeting with The Advisory Board tomorrow so timing was right to share it with you thanks yes apologies any questions there dog um I just had one observation and one question observation was on the recyclables it's actually gone like 100% the other way right so what we were getting we're now paying it went from what we were paying to zero to what we're paying it's quite we're seeing that I've seen it in the private sector too in the commodity it's but we used to get money for the recycles and now you're paying a wallet all used to go to China China took everything from every country and then there was a China National store policy and they just stopped taking everything so that's but in the meantime new markets popped up other countries so there is a a market for it but not as robust as it was with North China and then what is do you know roughly what is the the strength of the 65 communities against a significant City like guess I know I you know probably not from a bargaining perspective you know if you you have the cloud of 65 communities is that equal to uh name the city yeah I don't know so there was something new in this contract which I'm going to ask about is the there's a tonnage fee adjustment so there's a baseline tonnage which has to be guaranteed amongst those 65 communities and that's 16,800 tons for the year so I don't know what a city like Springfield generates um but these 65 communities are most towns in western Mass anded in Hampshire County FR County Brookshire County minus the Bigg bigger cities sure they they because they negotiate the I think Westfield's a largest city they have their own negotiation Westfield I think West Springfield's in this but I know Springfield's not I think hoolio is not chicke is or there's some of the Cities do but not all of them I don't know what they generate but one question I will ask is you know what why Happ what do they where they bring in their items you know what how does this already compare to their contracts that I don't know and what was our ton that we brought last year oh good question uh we are about I want to say about 2,000 tons it's in our it's reported every year in our annual report it's broken up by item I forget exactly how many we how many we have that thing I want to say it's, 1600 for last of TP paper and a little less than for paper uh see so paper is 237 tons bottle and cans 148 so I was was up by 5 10 so combine about 400 tons a year and those fluctuate a little bit but not that much thank you next onein Andy so business and yeah I'll have a contract ready for next meeting so that's the only question you have is what kind of this 1% fee what is that for why with a broken o gu why y why not thank you next item is going to be item C on four to approve consultants for treasur collector and town work Nicole yeah you have you you have a um quote in your packet since um breaking up the treasure collector and clerk they are um requesting some guidance and some training spefic specific to their departments so again you have the quotes and then I have basically um you know not to exceed amount for the training for them we don't it's not set of course it would be set by you um I did this in my last town when we um we did something similar and um we combined the treasure collector and this firm came out and trained the entire office which I do not think that it's that um you know it's that was a brand new office I think uh these our individuals our employees have a very good handle on their tasks and their departments but they do have questions they they are new and they do you know they would are requesting some training and um if nothing else I'm here to support them right so I'm requesting that we you know set aside a a set set amount of money to give them training and then if we need to come back to you and say you know that they would like some more training um specific to this or specific to that or we didn't need all the training we didn't use all the money um there's approximately $10,000 left in the TCC reorg um there's $8,000 in hired service and there's $220,000 in a part-time salary of in our department which we will not be needing how much was that one the part- time 20 it's 23 technically and you've worked with this firm this firm before both of these that you were proposing here and the tasks that are listed on the treasure collector are those it's not things they're seeking or is that what they are suggesting as a starting no we had a consult with the firms and with I had one with the treasure collector and then I had one separate with the clerp and they went over things that they would like to see and if they could you know do you have experience in this do you have experience in that and they both had extensive experience and knowledge um and were willing to come out and do the training there aren't that many firms this is going to be a lucrative career for people I think once retirement comes around is coming out to the municipalities to help train them um so they're not cheap but they are you know I saw a huge difference and I think that um you know giving our employees the tools they need to you know do a great job in their respective departments is um is important and so I'm advocating for that where's Gilbertville it's okay sorry and how many days hours how many what do you anticipate is this working with this is what we would you know this is where would the not to exceed I don't know exactly how much they need I don't know their exact level of expertise or experience versus what they really want to learn um I think again I think they're both doing an excellent job right now so I don't know that they need you know 50 hours or you know a month of training they may know more than they think they know yeah and and they may just be not you know not as confident and comfortable in their knowledge and just some reassurance from people with extensive experience I tried for months to find an actual town clerk training facility and even um Christy went to a conference for days and there weren't any so again these retired clerks are going to come back out and they're gonna they're going to be consultants and that's going to be the wave of the future it's extremely hard to get Municipal Employees right now in this climate or any [Music] employees I have no problem with training they're key positions we need that oh absolutely Mr M I don't disagree I think we I I would be very judicious with you know as we as we step it in to see you know set a a small Baseline and and bring someone in for a few hours and see how it goes and then you know have a wider discussion around you know what that might be because um what was the amount that was left in the account in the account for the consolidation or transition 10 I don't know he's not completely done yet so um I think he's pretty much done you know I think there's just a couple loose ends that they're doing um because I've been watching that all along that was really where I was hoping to get most of it appropriately from that account but um you know with the windows and things like that it costs more so um well plus there's there's maybe some more work in the assessors too right so to get all that square was thinking did you don't know I mean um I they know what they're doing and that they don't know our employees but in my experience with them I think they know a lot more than they really you know I don't think they're going to need quite extensive training but how many hours it's going to take how how fast they absorb it how fast they you know can uh communicate and get all the documentation and all the training materials and you know whether it's what what happens annually what happens by anually what happens L um in each of the Departments um chrisy was asking some questions the other day about um I can't remember some of the things that are on here um Gateway that's some you know that's important that the clerks need to get on the State website and do that in um Town meetings and warrants and voters registration and those types of things so well if you look at the treasure if it's a 4our work session call it plus travel it's 850 for the 4 hours times you know they do it for six weeks maybe and see where it goes yeah I mean I I would I was thinking you know either not to exceed $3,000 in each of their departments I don't I think that's going to go pretty quickly but that will give us a really good idea on what else they need yep so 850 Time 4 there is so that'd be four 4 Hour increments would be right about there so you could do it that way for 30 days and see and then I think we really feel you know I'll meet with the with the department heads again and see how they feel you know where gauge where they are and I mean it's not like they're starting from zero they have a grasp on a lot of it yes I I I started basically from zero in my last s and it was $50,000 yeah I can't see it being and I absolutely don't wouldn't even be nearly half that that was just for Treasure collector but I was creating an entirely new office so um so that that somewhere around there I guess would be a good ballpark to start it you said 3,000 total right now no I was gonna say each each each each we good with that I'm okay with the number butes that make sense do you think yeah I kind of had just about a thousand dollars less but I I see where you're coming from I think you know obviously the the The treasur Collector had a bit more experience as the assistant coming into the job and then we split the role with the clerk being new I I think you know certainly we should have make um you know somewhere between three to $5,000 as a start you know deference to any attorneys in the room it's less expensive than an attorney so um you just want to make it 5,000 between the two for yeah and then we can always come back in front of the board and see how it's going and say hey this is the best thing since sliced bread or I didn't learn a thing and then we can go from there absolutely sure and it you know it's within the budget that we already have allocated given the breathing room we have on the on transition so so you want a motion to approve these two service providers sure I don't know that you necessarily need a motion motions are always good oh if we don't well we'll make a motion to approve Mass munin Sarah Hunter and Ryan witos for training for the treasurer and clerk Treasurer collector in the town clerk with a cap of 5,000 did we just say 5,000 to start and then we'll evaluate from there perfect thank you very much I'll second it subject to I'm not going to pretend I know all the purchasing rules for vendor selection if they're on a state contract that we're able to hire them direct or we have to do some other you know RFP type of thing or RFQ to for this I don't know it's it it's low the amount first of all the value right yeah and um this is is definitely this is one of the exempt not if we're going to this is right up your alley this is you got one of your certifications side that's why I'm saying in deference to it I seconded the motion and I and I would take all of the um responsibility for that right call j i Doug M yes [Music] on the agenda is G be all right we're actually gonna we had a scheduled 6:15 start time if I'm not mistaken for the master plan did we not I was I was just going to speak to that it I don't know if if Mr dowy has others coming from the planning board tonight or if we can pull them into the agenda dck singer just [Music] but this we don't want to forget this isers no no hi thanks for coming hi everyone The Voice from God it's Diane so Point your doign right the charge oh yeah we can do that too um unless you don't was on there I'd nominate him but you should do it exactly he not here shame on for missing a meeting telling him that he's on it and there's no question about that um whether we want to do that to the rest of the committee um I would uh I'll I'll nominate um Dave Spina for the planning board position on sub I will second the nomination of David to the I will be looking a motion to approve that is that ours or yours uh we've already vote we you already we didn't actually we didn't actually vot we can right now we'll do a roll callot Michael already on d i okay all right that's good theirs so I'd be looking for motion to accept their recommendation right do we need it's not even a joint appointment it's their wanted to make sure to say about it I guess it's a great choice if I may because you know Dave served on the on the master plan advisory so served well other thing we're talking about is the charges that Dian wanted to talk about have you guys gone over all Dian stuff and Jessica stuff and the most recent thing from Diane was the on this is it this afternoon we got it the um impation commit roles and responsibilities look like a nice shorten down bullet for bullet point Vision did you have thoughts suggestions I know you had thoughts and suggestions we got that thank you so I'm mared to any of it just that's pulling from what you supplied and from my trainings with the regional planning that this would be encompassing not only what we're asking them to do but how we're asking them to do it and what the the limits kind of of what we're asking them to do you a little guidance additional specificity for some of like the report contents and good yeah sh yes I think um I think having more detail I think yours is a good sort of upper level and then having filling it in with more detail is the way to go I mean I to me [Music] um really there's only um I want to say two maybe I guess three things that I care about which is um I mean I think I see the committee as a um as someone who can take the laboring or and get stuff to um the the boards um because they a lot of the board I mean I'm speaking to the planning board but I'm sure others are in the same boat where they just don't have the time to proactively do some of these things and so if stuff comes sort of you know um partially B to us it's a lot easier to take those on and moving forward than it is to sort of create stuff a new so using them as a resource which I think is Incorporated in both J and Dian yep um I think the reporting is important because I see them as a bit of a check and balance on making sure the master plan is implemented um the one thing I didn't see in here that I just would raise for consideration it's not sort of a um huge thing for me but it just strikes me that they probably should have some role in uh which I think I seen in Milton maybe Milton had a little bit stranger setup where they had like a 10-year charge I think and were and then sort of figure it out after the end of 10 years right I'm not sure I would agree with that but I think what was incorporated in theirs was the idea of um the implementation committee sort of offering opinion about whether the master plan needed to be updated right um I mean that's should be farther down the line but assuming this is being set up as a committee that's going to persist um I think that that's something that you may want to add um I I think that's in there to some degree and Jessica's she pulled out the recommends changes if necessary sorry and the mission of the thing did you also have something in there about updates to the plan do youall that something reassessment of things every three years um recommended changes if necessary to the composition makeup and or Mission charge of mission charge that's this Mission but that's that's more this in particular yep I mean it's longer term but I do think they should have some reporting on that I mean topic because put an end to their terms because it would be Ono and I to me I would think there would be another advisory another mpac based on feedback from the mpic if we needed to make a revision a major revision to the master plan and like I said that's probably much further down the line I don't think you would do anything for 15 years but you would like to put that in say in five years should be part of their if this is their charge I mean I think that should be part of their charge to sort of say hey we should you know is the rest of it doable at that point or like say 15 years down the line say okay you know we should really start looking into updating this because we've accomplished you know either most of it or we've accomplished stuff that really can be accomplished and we're sort of at a standstill I mean that kind of thing they'll have a better pulse uh better you know budget for an early I mean no but it depends on where no he's not wrong because really ideally you should have a master plan every 10 to 15 years right and probably at the middle of that you should probably be introspective and go is there anything we should update now that we're we were way off on the 2040 plan this is really where we should be going or it is going and we need to adapt the plan accordingly and then 10 years out because you want to get it done in 15 10 years out you start having a discussion around doing it this is exactly what well we went a little bit longer than 10 years on the last one right um but there was discussions for three or four years budget wise to get you know some of the money a portion at town meeting to start the master plan process again and we got it into two allocations plus a grant plus um you know other sources of funds but Pioneer Valley also does have um funds available for projects that you can petition them for and try to apply and get a grant from through or from them for something for a minor update to your master plan and or the town could just go ahead and you know we take a look at something that was in the master plan that we we all decide that that was a great idea impossible to execute but we better off to do something else I'm just making it up okay there's nothing saying we couldn't do that and vote to adopt it in the same manner that we adopted the master plan in the first place right um as a revision to the master plan but and then when you go to the whole you know the whole big Spiel where you do an impa and you have you know 10 or 15 people on it and you meet you know for more than a year um that's a much larger Hill to climb but I think that you know part of the mpck is going to report back that this you know hey this is a great idea but it's impossible because water flows downhill right you know that doesn't that part of the master plan didn't work out the way we intended okay part of the reporting is the progress Andor barriers y periodically we could State what those periods are at five years 10 years and maybe it's just part of the reporting yeah it is part of the reporting but maybe it should be fall out either either in either of these charges to say okay you know report back you know revisions to the master plan itself it' be one thing if you just don't do something that's in the master plan just doesn't happen it doesn't work out every Master plan's going to have things like that that fall off right 100% I look at even look at our ones from the 60s okay stuff happened stuff didn't happen the one that wasn't adopted in in the late 90s right that happened that was in that plan that did come about but and then other things it's going to be this will be no different it's not for the lack of trying or lack of good intention it's just the way things you know a plan is just that and it's got to be uh able to be changed the other couple things just to and these are less about this but just looking forward is um well one about this is I don't necessarily agree the one and Jessica's about requiring people who don't serve on another board Commission or committee um to be on it I I don't think that that should be a a a um definitive uh disqualification I mean it may be something that's sort of a tiebreaker but um I for I mean two reasons one is I don't one you're now um narrowing the pool significantly of people who could be on there and uh secondly you know I just don't think that there's no there's no real great difference between someone who is on a border committee there's no reason why they are sort of focused on some topic that topic alone versus someone who's not on it who's coming on this thing they may very well be focused on one topic and one topic so it doesn't I I think they can be equal I think it should be just dealt with you know as the names come up versus a a Prohibition that is in a charge um it's I I don't think that section is we've already determined its composition however I did want to say that I think one of the things I didn't put on here is that they may recommend that they need more members because I looking at all the others they were really skinny except for Milton which has five everyone has more way more yeah so again I mean in their first annual I would like that kind of recommendation from them is that enough to to do what you get your feet wet with is that enough to carry on agre and I I mean the other part of it is I still as I've said before I still think this should be an independent committee at the end of the day but it's still this is sort of the trial period of how this goes what is needed how it plays out and then yep and I want them to be independent but I want them to know what they're being independent about which is why I was pressing for this y some kind of form for you all to know what you got to do so you're looking at what after a year kind and reassess everything I think you can always do that to be honest with you and I just think um I think it should just be within a year after the first year we really need some yeah and I and I don't you know I think this is a compromis a compromized empe as far as it's you know who it reports to and what and I think we'll operate this at arms length right they're going to go and do their thing I I I hear what Jessica's saying I would if you if you wanted to if with a reference towards well I would just say you wouldn't there can be no obviously there can be no more than one select board member because then we'd have a select board meeting just by because there's only three of us but there could only be one planning board member there should and no more than one member of any other board or commission should be represented on this board on the M right so we we have one from conservation right serves on two or three other boards too but he was a key key player in the impa hence why he's on the on the M pick I would say I I think that's fine but if suddenly we had out of the you know two public folks you know other folks on this thing that we had two conservation people I don't think that would be good for the board and not picking on conservation I just think named the board so maybe that that would be the the driver there I think that's fair I think that's fair I mean but I think it also just looks out in the watch right if you have bunch of candidates you're not going to select is in all likelihood not going to say let's take the three from conservation put on there right I mean so it probably Narrows itself back that makes perfect sense um I just want to clarify what I meant by prioritization facilitating the prioritization that is among in my mind that is among all I don't know how many part 138 parties no I'm sorry yeah lead action items 138 but out of these 587 actions there's some overlap and I hope that this committee helps them coordinate similar projects like speed limits and the business district and how they want to slow that down so one isn't going off doing this and another one is at a different time going off doing that and nothing ever comes together the way it's planned to come together comprehensive attack for a comprehensive outcome kind of that's what I mean by prioritizing among all of those groups IE I mean I would assume that almost the number one thing for the committee once they are reach full composition is to just sit there and go through all whatever number there are in next GL by probably by section and say let's rank these right let's let's put these and and find like projects and and pull those together because we've already seen one commission want to go and do their thing without consulting with anybody else in the plan is what I'm saying no correct I mean I think they could prioritize things and then look to see whether and and this document is to go to all of these other people so that they know that you have the responsibility to do that and not object to it was that clear what I was getting at in there or do I need to spell that out a little more in that one that's identifying the synergies is who's the common players and things and how can it be done together and then prioritizing what gets get done with those common things is that clear enough in there or does that need to be spelled out no I think that's fine well he heard me say it so he knows yeah I you're trying to make sure you get alignment from everybody if they're all hidden five different actors or whatever it is a number of different folks you know with one you got you got big her of cats there exactly like I mean like I said I just I my feeling is you get them together they prioritize things they look for the synergies and then they probably send a memor around that says this is what we see and let there be feedback right and so and then you can kind of get this you know um everybody has to buy and I don't that's to me I'm not hon it want I would do it do we need to say that they have the authority to call meetings because I don't think anybody has really addressed that between you mean to call like the planning board into a meeting no to call a meeting I think that's inherent sub committees have the right to yeah absolutely I I mean to call in other players here of all the responsible parties I'm not sure I would necessarily go yeah I would imagine that they create like said an initial memo of here are our first steps this is what we were observing yeah and then come and present it if necessary to a particular board if there's questions if needed but I can't imagine trying to coordinate 5 person EMP schedule and then trying to demand other boards come to you no I mean I think it that rarely becomes a problem mean obviously to show off never never in theow our Medics um no no no it's never I can't think of the time that that's really uh we tried to well we did try to get the building Spector World building Spector show up to one of our meetings introduced but um other than that I don't think I can't think of a time where you've said no and you can always show up at their meetings 100% And then also that's part of you know I think buy it in to get the buy correct and if you need to go to another meeting you know maybe I don't know how often this and we didn't really establish Cadence that'll be up to the mpic to establish a Cadence of of meetings but let's say they meet twice a month or once a month in the summer I don't know but per perhaps one of their meetings they they might move their meeting to a night that that board that they want to meet with is meeting and have their meeting before or after the appointment time just to make it convenient for for all involved rather than you know like you guys are are you meeting tomorrow no no no not this week well I just saved you a trip Mr D but you know what I mean if you're you know you had to come in tonight and you were in last week and then you met the following night right yeah so stop it glad we had glad we had this chat um but you know what I mean so they can they they could be flexible with that you know because I think there is going to be a ton of interaction with other boards and there's going to be probably meetings where you may have multiple boards get together you know the coordination Direction yeah to talk about you know longer range things that are going to be impactful to say you know can't even pick it out but you know zoning and other bylaws that may may need to come in front of town meeting at in at some point in the future so all right anything you want in there no anything else nope so how do we marry these together so I I'd make a motion to have Diane and and Miss Thorton get together and come back with a Consolidated statement for us to adopt make that motion second it was going to be my suggestion but I didn't want to take lead on it I mean you guys are pretty if you really read these they're pretty close that's exactly what I see and we didn't do these together coffee meeting you know or some other coffee establishment I think between the two of us we can get that done in 10 minutes whereing them participation trophies yeah you get doing the work huh doing the work I know how you these are so close I mean it's not like you guys have you will not have a flight fight at the flag po tomorrow at two this was the point meeting any no we weren't supposed to do it just get the things figured out you guys talk about I wrote down your comments I got that well make a date okay all right thank you congratulations you know happen when you showed up and got nominated works the other way Dave but everybody agrees that we're telling suton that he got nominated 100% absolutely textex I was gonna say I'll text them thank you so we're g to go back inform me that Mr Moren is on line and I see the chief here Chief you put on Mr morly apologize for the confusion um Mr Mor was supposed to be online from 6:30 this evening had a commitment earlier on and I was unaware that the hearing that just happened was not the first thing on the agenda which you little mix up there so my apologies Le's on now I understand you vot but I fig to do worthwhile while he's available to get to me hey guys how's it going good yourself sir ah not too bad R run all around you want to give us a little input on yourself and why you want to do the pum call stuff so I am uh been been in fire for about five years work over in Westfield as paramedic um love what I do looking for some side work guys they're conveniently close got a good Department host a lot of training so all that seems to jve real well with me and the people I have met that do work with you guys are great and I guess about me uh I got four kids been married for 12 years and I got a dog and you work in Westfield now yes okay so all all positive things no recruiting out of our department sir what are you guys talking about you're pulling our guys that's okay all right okay all right that's good Mr Moren thank you for for zooming in and getting letting us to get to talk to you quickly absolutely thanks for having me thank you alrighty you guys have a good night as well make a motion to ratify our previous vote I'll second that roll call vote Jason per i d Doug Mogan I we also have to do the appointments of the pole workers I want to d add that no recruiting thing in there it's [Music] important thank you Chief you guys have drill tonight so do this as an Omnibus can't we just read the list like we do the others so right we're we're going to be looking I'm going be looking to make get a motion to appoint the following people as election officers for the November 5th 2024 state election we're going to have a warden Juliet Mason assistant Warden Paul Conley assistant ward in Sandra oranusi poorer Veronica Conley coworker Carol wfin coworker elain bu buard coworker Terrence Mish coworker Kirk Sanders cooworker sander Heap cooworker Harold Heap coworker Ronald Bennett cooworker Bruce Mason cooworker Albert R Rano cooworker Deborah Rano cooworker Daryl sack coworker Kathy ly coworker Kathleen fishbach coworker Mark madrew coworker Mary madrew coworker Karen Sho pker Karen Deo P worker Jessica Thornton P worker rosalin Terry po worker Susan Gillan student poll worker Jackson Phillips student poll worker Khloe Phillips student poorer Brena Holly and student pole worker Maggie Dickinson make a motion to appoint the pole workers as red off Doug Mogan will second the motion we call vot Jason por i d i Doug Mogan yes can I ask a question why why did we do that I don't recall ever doing it and we this year we made it a we didn't maybe Chrissy didn't know I didn't know I don't know Chrissy said I need to get them appointed before I get it I just I'm just asking the question so we we guess kind of be consistent yeah maybe we could save 200 bucks and ask answer the question I don't know but you know I mean it was just seemed like we just changed the policy this year on we didn't reappoint all the the folks and then we just did this I maybe it's for elections and you have to do it I I don't know that why I was asking any employ employe work uh we didn't read the names of all the yeah right all the employees these are Town employees for at least for the day they're poll workers they're gonna get paid so I don't I don't know okay it's all good I just when I was reading my packet I was like I I maybe there's an election rule to do it shame on us we never did it before now make a point get a definitive answer regardless um old business we already take care of a Item B is to appoint Daniel Fernandez supervisor of buildings and grounds we had obviously his interview last meeting so um I'm assuming everybody was in consensus on him as far as well I was Mr Mullen yeah making a motion to appoint Dan Fernandez as the supervisor of buildings in grounds second roll call vote Jason Peron i d i Doug did no Randy DPW Solid Waste analysis so over the summary you would ask me to look into transitioning to Cur curbside pick up for trash and well I did this analysis maybe five years ago kind of a high Lev review and I updated that uh with what you have in front of you I came up with you know basically five Dent options um first option is to keep our current structure right we have uh our trans stations open to Residents you know if they choose to go curbside there are several vendors private vendors that they're there for that service uh option two was to transition our curb site collection through a third-party vendor so we would contract we would develop an RP we would contract with one vendor and they would be through the town uh they would collect trash recyclables um curbs ey from all all all residents um and at the same time we also keep our transation open for all of our recyclable items that we don't that's not normally collected through curb site option three was to transition to curbside collection but by Town staff we would have our own staff our own equipment our own vehicles that would collect the recyclables and deliver them to a facility and then also keep our transation open for all those what I call hard recycle items uh option four is to kind okay Town step taking out stepping out away from from the trash business um we would leave it up to the homeowner to coordinate with a vendor to collect trash and recyclables and Tra um through a third party vendor themselves but we keep we would keep our facility open for the harder recycle items then option five is a basically R of trash business entirely so every resident is on their own um so I gave you um like said this is a more of a high level analysis looking at the cost of each option and I did that on this table here kind of can compare options to each other um I don't know what uh you want to time in where you're at well you got option two um cost to the third party vendor 680,000 what is that source is that really a quote from someone that assuming $200 a year in a contract yep so I talked to a couple of our neighboring communities who have that that option and uh their their cost per household is $200 per household per year for pickup average so I I I basically put that towards our we have um 1,950 households in town so they use that as a build in their tax rate like on your tax bill they're using that rough number as a cost yeah that's that's a that's a cost of the town right so they would just it paid out through the tax rate correct the residents aren't paying anything extra out the tax bill I get it understand basis yeah yeah that comes out to 3,400 households which makes more sense we have 3,900 in the master uh I'm sorry 3400 yeah I look different number here but this year so this year we had 1950 households with a sticker yeah so yeah total house is 3354 bilities and what's the population of the towns that you asked uh Long Meadow East Long Meadow have a good context over there they're probably a little more Suburban than sopus so our may be a little higher than them just because route from house to house maybe a little longer and then that's their pickup but then you also have refug fees that's in addition to the pickup or is that the recyclable refug fee no the town that's the trash and recyclable fees so we own the trash once we collect it we the town own it so we have to dispose of it that we talking about today the so the pickup is is they don't so we get a will we have through this option too we would have a bill to our third party vendor for trash pickup say it's gr public okay and then we also have a they're going to pick up the the trash and recycl recy and they're going to bring it to a facility yep um and that facility will build a town per ton of recyclables so the vendor is the vendor is literally I'm sorry yeah that's it's not included they pay that themselves yeah we we pay we own the tra we pay the tra directly okay yeah so right now you can see our rest rest bill is $270,000 option one right so that's only about half of the Town yep so now that we're my question that increase 200 okay would it double well it's about 55% of our town is on as part of our transportation now right but would it this would not include anybody who would be in eligible to I don't know that it would exactly double maybe I'm I'm off on my like apartments and condos and those places that already have trash pickup they they're not they don't get a dump sticker so they're not in the number and they wouldn't be eligible for this type of arrangement anyway unless we worked out something as part of a greater contract that they could pay into to do it right m same thing with you know commercials not in this is just houseal like you know the apartments and condo complexes and stuff that they're not those households are in our number but they wouldn't be part of this program yeah maybe we're rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and they're small numbers but when you get down to Brass tax they're not small and in other towns I see they have their name on the trash B well they do an aan but aan picks up their own right that's town they I believe their own town does so we have to buy we have to buy the bins so the bins uh we can go we can discuss on Siz long mow they had to buy them as well you could buy them yeah yeah and you have some available if someone loses it or they get lost uh but the cost for a 96 gallon cart is $62 the cost for a 60 gallon cart is 55 almost $56 and the cost for a 30 gallon cart is $52 so we would assume every household gets two carts and then we also got to pay there's a $3 per cart sticker signage so that's on top of the I gave you that's the recycling trash recycling containers with $400,000 that's in option two and three that's what that is the carts themselves of the 1900 year to date 1250 of those were seniors you got to think their Refuge is kind of small so again splitting hairs but the refu might really be 200 when you get full families in there as well I don't know it good point the half the stickers are senior stickers thereabouts right y um more than but that only implies that only one person in the household has to be of that age to qualify for a senior sticker and more and more you've got larger families living with one older relative moving in with them or others coming home to live with them that drive that number so I'm not 100% sure I buy that plus minus that yeah that it would be a significant decrease in trash yep do they charge the different rates for the different sizes or no it's just one set fee regard this different size of what the containers yeah the containers are are bury they they I guess we would decide that set right just and a little bit of research some places do do a little bit different where if you are a smaller one person household and your trash is x amount you only gets I so I just was curious if whoever the ones you talked to do a different I think most yeah most towns have the 60 gallon for trash and the 96 G body's the same I don't know if it's different and I know like it's really no different as far as price but in Westfield you have the different sizes barrels B based on your household and how much trash you [Music] create so you're the DPW guy how do you feel about all this what are you thinking I mean I like our current setup I think it provide options for residents if you want curbside it's available there's several vendors out there that uh provide the service this came in the mail maybe a month ago yeah you know I don't know if you this look familiar but you know 30 bucks a month for uh trash weekly and recyclables bi-weekly that's $450 which it's probably a startup cost you know Buy in cost but there the rates I se from other other vendors are5 $600 a year but if uh you're want to save some money and uh you don't mind bringing the trash and recyclables to the transash station that's option for you as well so I like I like not really an option for some people who can't do that who can't get there so it's not an option for everybody necessarily and some people are forced to pay more for outside service because they can't get there physically or or whatever reason workwise out of who knows so it isn't available to everybody as much as we'd like to say that it is if they can pagle it but physically some people can't um um one option could also be contracting it out and not keeping our transfer station for hard to recycle and where would that go would that go through the third party vendor problem is there's very few vendors that pick up those things on a household household basis if you go to Westfield I think they have a bulky waste day right you get sticker for similar to here you still have a depending on what you're bringing per per sticker charge which is significantly more depending on the item you're bringing there at the old transfer station and you know it's it's still a still a cost but it's not open all year no you can certain you have bulky ways that you can do there's certain things that you can bring but you like here you can get a sticker at any time and drop off a um a refrigerator a mat or a propane tank or whatever so y um yeah like brandy said I know just in talking about dumpsters and whatnot in the construction world the other side then it become problematic because you see somebody start throwing oil or anything that's not supposed to be in there you're going to start getting fines and whatnot um we collect a lot of recyclables too if if you compare what we take in or we can take in versus other towns we take in as much as the larger cities you know in terms of mercury products Electronics to tires oil and we take almost everything you can think of the only things we really don't take that sometimes do are uh styrofoam which there's no cost to styrofoam it goes on the trash it weighs nothing um we have it cut cut back on paint because we've had issues with paint getting in the oper and creating a mess and we've recently had issues with oil um some contaminated materials getting in our oil drum so we're looking at options for that we take a lot of stuff I think residents in town do appreciate that um a lot more than more tals do take I wouldn't want to lose that well I I just know from my years on across the border that you know one of the things we have here you know we have the metal bin that you can throw stuff in anytime there's only like you said there's certain days of the week you can go and it's you know it's one dump off spot where they get the the loader and they sort through the store so that's why I understand what Diane's saying but I'm kind of of the mindset just just to leave things alone if it isn't broken don't fix it is it a people of the town question which would they rather pay for outside service or is this something they would rather have the town do for that price many people complain we don't have Town curbside trash pickup do they need to know how much it costs Andis definitely put this information out if people are asking you know we can put this out as a comparison we can go right on the website if people are interested you know there's been some discussion you know regarding this topic or we can do an informational meeting or something if we want to do something for seriously entertaining this stop to play devil's advocate for one moment I think there's half the sentence that's usually set that's usually mentioned around the fact that we don't have residential trash pickup and nothing to do with and you know I use the transfer station that me and chairman dty are usually the last two guys there on Saturday um but I think a lot of people say our tax rate is X and we don't even pick up the trash and it doesn't include water or sewer or this or that or the other that's the other half of the sentence it's not the fact that we don't have trash they're questioning the value of their overall tax dollar so we're not going to solve that tonight obviously but that's something to be cognizant of as you know as part of the discussion like that $38 a month that's that's actually very that's a reasonable price compared to some of the others that are out there they're usually you know almost double that for some of them um and it's a convenience item and and there is there's something to be said for that people pay for convenience all the time for different things right people have food delivered people have delivered you know this is more pickup but um I I'm I'm not disatisfied with the arrangement I do hear what Diane's saying is that there is a certain population that can't literally can't get trashed to the transfer station and I think that's a a topic of to be discussed um I know I went to um Mass Municipal probably five years ago and I think it was Republic or one those one I'm like hey can you come and give us a price to just take the whole thing over right we'll give you the keys you we have to talk to the town and everything else but it was a great you know because we had heard the same same ask and and the numbers weren't much different than this and there's just no way to the other thing I'm going to bring up is that I know when West Springfield did it they got sold the bill of goods and then five years later when the contract ran out it almost doubled sure so you know I'm I am I kind of think I'm me and Mr Mullan might be on the same thought thought line here where you know it's the the residents something they're ultimately interested in you know really I'd want to hear from them but I'm not inclined to change anything at the moment I'm certainly wasn't hoping that I think there needs to be some kind of presentation to the available to the public to know what those options look like and you know down to this is how much it would cost on the average tax bill if we did it this way that's that would be the ultimate number so people know we looked at it and asked their opinion on it and if they if they all come back and say yeah I'm willing to do that then we have to rethink that and consider it so I guess you could finish the sentence and drive this back the these thank you for doing this Randy is take these numbers put it on the tax rate and tell people it's going to cost you this much a year divide that by $38 and figure out if we're ahead or behind and then I think in some kind of presentation 100 but that's be straightforward math right questions the older I get the more I realize that the answer to every question is a math problem it is and this is exactly one of them because the numbers are disperate but when you really start to bake it down and go okay you always say cup of coffee a day if I hear that one more time in my life but you know here you say this is going to be a total annual expense of 1.4 million plus 400,000 this one's going to be a million plus two million to start it up okay do the math you know put that you know bond out that that two million and then you know put 1.4 in the budget divide that and say this is what it would be on your tax rate you know we could be surprised where people say fine if the current five 70 goes away and I'm responsible for getting my own trash from this guy for 32 bucks we might be surprised to hear the majority say they would prefer that to reduce their taxes whatever it would reduce and yes but and I'll echo my uh one of my predecessors on this board because we do carry a good chunk and we you know this comes up every now and again we carry a portion of the transfer station on the tax rate for absolute health reasons you need to have PE a place for people to bring their trash right if you don't have options or you're going to force people into something like this you will find trash in the woods you will find burn barrels you will find all kinds of different ways people will dispose of your trash and Randy is 100% correct we you know the recycling of the the Mercury and the uh smoke detectors and batteries and so on and so forth and I'm you know curious to see how it goes with paint because you know that's you know it it makes a mess if if if it isn't cared for correctly but it if it were dried it should be able to be tossed away the problem is it's not always dried and then it makes a big bloody mess but um I want to make sure that we're not you know we don't end having a problem with people dumping paint up there there's been times when I've had to go in my professional capacity people will pull up to the dump and literally dump a l right in front of the dop you know it's all over the place I there's a really solid reason why that transfer station exists and you know to do what it does and you know we do so we do cover some of the so and so some of the cost is on the tax rate you know we talk about it every budget season it's not a secret um I think it's a bargain I mean com for what I pay to bring the the U you know my household trash once a week or every other week to the transfer station for and and I do not yet qualify for the senior rate so I'm paying the full price price um I I think it's an absolute bargain I think we do have to look at what you can do for folks that can't I was going say is there something something we can is do you know of anything Nico is anything where we could look into take people's go to people's houses and take trash maybe not necessarily that but something along that lines where we could get a larger Town Supply barrel and then we figure something I mean never never heard to look into it I don't but just to boil just to keep the discussion moving along I would somebody needs to take this and kind of boil it down and say this is what the impact on the tax rate for all of these things would be and add the existing picture in there because the subsidy on the transfer station is as part of the budget calculation we know those numbers so you could take the number of stickers we sold and then we know the percentage of senior and non- Senior so we know the revenue side we know the subsidy side can just add one more you know option it's really option A which is or you know it's option one flushed out a little bit so is that something you could pull together some presentation and is it something we can put in a stuffer with the next what's the next thing we're going to do do that or we could you know this would be one of those things yeah you could do that and just have a link to it from the did you say from the town form stuff it into the census forms I don't see a problem with that but you know with the thing that says you know this has been asked a number of times we'd like to we also did something with the can was online did we not if I remember right wasn't there a wait was it it was kind of an that was that was the stuffer in the stuffer as well actually it was but they posted thought there was also an online that was a survey we done surve do it that way we did it online and on paper we did both y so you know that's some that's something that we could we could announce that not next week just uh we're researching okay so all work Nicole on okay and of putting this in the more readable format with some numbers associated with the tax rate impacts or tax rate tax rate and then you want to have a survey also on the like so so we could have a document with a with the information and the bill stuer and then we want your input here's a survey on the website any interest yeah do that or even just to you know maybe we could create an email box for it yeah so that you could take that you know now which I guess which option are you looking I mean we I give you I'd like to see the data in in the in that format just first and then say okay this is what it would be on the tax rate so people can actually because this is this you know it right it's 38,000 a month right simple but if we say okay we're going to increase our Municipal services to include you know pick up your trash and then people get there tax bill and it's $700 more a year what part of that is a tax increase what part of that is full-time ALS what part of that is a trash what you asked for yeah but and what you passed the town meeting in the budget too right so that's really you know before you bake it into the budget because then if you go to town meeting and they approve it well then then that's you know legislative legislatively set the policy of the town but I I think there's plenty of people back to be got it and people said okay this is going to be you know 40 bucks a month I can pay or it's going to be you know $60 a month on my taxes well becomes a pretty easy decision and then you do and you know Dian I do hear what you're saying about the the folks that can't get there and you know perhaps there is some other a lot less money that's true too like even we were talking about the bulky stuff right yeah the bulky is kind of interesting because there's probably more people that can't get their bulky stuff to the transfer station that can get their trash to the transfer station true so maybe there's something that can be thought up for that that would be a whole lot less expensive to do on some kind of infrequent basis um oh you mentioned it you know I'm not talking about picking up household trash because that a regular you know you know that that could be done but you know for those that cannot physically get to the transfer station because of you know the lack of a vehicle lack of Transportation blah blah blah Maybe you know rather than going implementing townwide trash pickup maybe we could figure out a way to figure out some other solution for that well that veryexpensive if we do something on the website then that can be another question can you get there even if you even if you don't use it why don't you can't you get there what are your barriers there blah blah blah so okay thank you for at least looking at it and yes thank people will be surprised at the answers I'm sure problem appreciate it all right item D of old business hsic highp speed internet committee IMA Mr moglin thank you Mr chairman so high speed internet subcommittee met week ago Thursday finally got a quum together of the of of most everyone on the on the committee and there was we have a couple things coming our way and we have a couple uh points for the the select board to consider so the board took a motion and um the motion was for the the select board to put forth a warrant article at the annual for the entire bonding necessary bonding amount for the project not to borrow the money at once but to authorize the town to go and do that borrow the reason being and that's first and foremost we have the numbers um the numbers tell us that we're very very close to be break even with the absolute worst case scenario and I'll say that cup of here's that cup of coffee thing again right but with what we estimate to be the worst case scenario for the Make Ready cost at about $4.4 million um if the Make Ready costs are significantly lower or or lower than the $4.4 million than the and and at the take rate we're estimating the project would be you know not a burden to the town so we'll have a better idea of that number when it comes back from we've completed all the poll applications they're in that you've seen the folks around doing the poll surveys you know slow moving cars all over town they are looking at that to complete the Make Ready estimate so what they're saying is okay town and and I said this to this this board I've been telling the the high-speed internet sub and they're they're uh also saying the same thing is that once we step off you have to finish you cannot get cold feet you have to go and do the whole project and you know the analogy that keeps coming up is the sewers right it's a very similar situation if we go and do two fiber hoods and then decide that oh boy this is not going to work out or we don't think it's going to work out and the town meeting then does not authorize the future funding to finish the project then the project is doomed and you're going to be on the hook for you know at least you know what you bonded for and what you built out and that service will have no hope of ever covering its cost because you have a significant startup cost just to make ready work alone is $4 million you know somewhere we're in that hunt for 4 million bucks you'll never you'll never dig out of the hole um so their suggestion is to go ahead to town meeting for the bonding authorization to allow the town to borrow up to and I think the indeed Max indebted indebted number I can't say it's 15 million bucks right um and it will never you at the peak amount of borrowed that's where it'll be you're never going to borrow that all at once you're going to borrow it over the course of construction you'll borrow construct your fiberhood and then you know move on to the next and you'll have multiple fiber hoods I think there's 18 of them you know in under construction at at a various amount of time um the second suggestion is um that the town establish if we're going to do that if the board will vote to do that that the town that this board then recharter um or recharge I guess is the appropriate word based on what we did tonight recharge the high-speed internet sub um with some some kind of governance over the service now MLP sorry to become the MLP well that's that's a subject for this Bo right we're we're the we're water commissioner or we're not water Commissioners we're sewer Commissioners Road Commissioners we're dog hearing officers are we the deao MLP yes should we do we want to delegate that do we want to make it an appointed board or do you just want to have an advisory subcommittee for that for some you know a board that's going to meet on some regular basis to advise the select the MLP on things that they need to be doing or should be doing hear complaints take Kudos whatever and then there's also going to be at some point there's and it's in the in the number there is a budget to have some administrative support in the town to support the project now most of it's you know is outsourced the billing and and yada yada is all outsourced but there is certain other other tasks that will need be undertaken um lastly is a probably another group of town officials because it involves multiple departments um needs to get together and figure out we're going to put a Hut I have my idea but obviously buildings and grounds and the Police Department fire department I have to be party to that because it's going to be on probably near their Turf and we have to make sure that you know we're not having handed and just go hey I'm G to put this here um space does it huh how much space does it have it's it's not large it's it's smaller than a shipping container type of thing so it's it it's actually probably half of one um ins size the um we talked about this a lot with the provider at whip City because we have space that we could probably put it in somewhere in the fire department or even Town Hall the issue is is that you need to be able to get at that facility 247 365 and if the chance of them needing to get at that facility at a time when our Public Safety people are busy is high so therefore you can't say oh we'll have it at the fire department because there's always someone there no they're going to be out clearing roads or dealing with whatever the aftermath of the event that led to them needing to get into the Hut at an inopportune time therefore it makes sense to have it externally externally accessible by our contractor without giving them access to the fire department or town hall or whatever um same for DPW if there's crap going on they're in and out of the yard as well also true and DPW is not really an appropriate location uh for the fiber Hut this we want to be right here in the center there's multiple access Avenues to get on and off the fiber from here um and and there's a couple other things there's also um well they have a generator there too but the nor it's too far north okay it needs to be on the campus here okay that's the short of it well since we just talked about the numbers and what it actually looks like can we talk can I ask a question on the numbers before you or were you that's what I was going to ask just has anybody taken a look at I mean if this $15 $15 million Bond what's it going to cost us in the shortterm on the tax rate well before you get there let's talk about the 15 million on your presentation here the the poll survey said is in the poll applications are in process is that the same as the poll survey yes believe so and that is 60 Grand here it says right the poll survey 60 Grand is what uh Nicole had and I go and put Nicole on the spot but we've what have we it's probably around 50 yeah with spent that we have spent spent on the applications and the and the work so far expected 60 we probably spent 50 and from that that's the older presentation from around 2020 right the big thing the big surprise not which is not at all this is the 20120 stuff which one I don't I can't even see that part sorry oh that whole thing was 2020 yeah this goes back a bit so well that'll explain right surprise that's not a surprise is that the cost of the project is just about doubled that's what I was goingon to say so where are you getting 15 no that's exactly well that's like I said worst case estimate that was a a a bad case estimate preco oh everything's about double and what our numbers are showing us after we met with our okay we had a team that didn't involve myself that crunch numbers and came back to the board then they brought whip City back in to go over the numbers that we came up with that was those three different scenario and numbers that and you know we were talking about this take rate and that take rate and this amount of work and it it really comes down to your plus or minus 50,000 bucks right and and you go okay if the Make Ready is not 4. 4 million you're on Easy Street and by the way the indebtedness part is not it's meant to be 100% paid by users of the service this is not something that's going to make money for the town but it's not going to be an expense to the town people it's supposed to be paid back from revenues from the service hence why our price is where it is right because it has to service the debt right the did I answer your question are are you answering his question so milon 15 million on the borrowing will not be in the tax bill is what you're saying no it's just like it it's almost going to look like an Enterprise fund it looked like the water because you're gonna borrow this as you need it as each Hub each fiber Network fiber hood but you said once we start we got it finished but you got you got to go all the way you cannot be I I I probably use some other less public analogies about this right but you can't be a little pregnant on this you're once you're in you're in and you have to finish because if not you're doomed as far as it will be it will be another tax rate it all assumes your take rate is accurate yeah and then I and that was the survey data was from it goes back to 2020 but I you know everything that told us that really hasn't changed you know the options in my opinion can I just give you my observations on that up they know that in 2020 you had 265 results out of 7300 registered voters technically users that's 3.6% response that said o over overwhelmingly they said yes um for whatever reasons they use it that's pretty low to say I'm not comfortable and I've told you I'm not I don't feel comfortable with that 50% in in my experience in my prior life that was tough to get 50% really tough and then I had mentioned how many of those are seniors that they don't care they don't even know what you're talking about and are never going to move off of what they have is the cost to the the it'd be a cost per resident to bring it to the house right that was another question I had are the drop costs included in your 15 million or is that totally separate there's a there is a base number a minimum that town yeah but there's certain there's going to be some houses that it's gonna cost I can guarantee it's gonna cost more you know what I mean because and you're on your own for that right we're gonna come so far or we're gonna you know we're say look we'll do this but this this is what the installation's going to cost and you get a credit of this against it you have to pay the rest if you want the service like guess the high internet itself is like you know it's something that obviously everybody wants it's just like not true well not true and you're right not everybody want wants it but I would have to say in this day and age I did hear Mr mowan talking about I mean it's it it has become a necessity in some ways but again you know internet has yes you make the analogy with the sewer it's like this is I'm I'm like teetering on the edge it's like it's because then like I said you said we don't get 50% take rate we've started and then we're paying for 75% of that 15 million bond is going to be subsidized which city cities Tak in 50% in their in Westfield right their rates a little low they're getting north of 50% and their newer fiber hoods are are above that their rat's lower but the asri in full disclosure their rate is lower um and some of the other towns that whip city has done I don't feel are comparable they walk around with their take rate our take ratees 96% well you're the only option so that's not really fit right we are a served Community right talked to Lanford Mr Lanford well that was one the state money came in and they you know they they reain State money down on that project and did it and now people are they have no choice if you want internet here's your one phone call we're in that boat right now with' Comcast can I touch on that for a second again in my previous life we were Comcast was the only option because the towns only licensed one provider are we still in control of Licensing those providers can we open it to other providers I think we do so there's there's two two parts that's unpacked I looked at that when we first started the high-speed internet there is no limit anyone anyone wants to come in right now and construct a fiber Network in the town of Southwick you're more than welcome to do it anyone can do it okay one of the reasons we finished the poll applications such as it were was that once you start making Rumblings about it other private entities may come in to try to do it um and then it starts moving people around on polls and if you only have a certain amount of capacity on polls you end up making it you turn it into an arms race no one has we we reached out to two at least two other companies during covid and just uh just after to have that conversation and said here you go let's do it I even offered it to whip City like guys can have it knock yourself out you have all the revenue you can have everything no Taker and a charter or whatever historically they will not come into a town that's served by one other but our contract that we have um first of all the the M uh internet is largely unregulated in the town the cable franchise we have is non-exclusive we just renewed it I know we're going to be renewing it again it seems like we just renewed it we did a three-year deal it is completely non-exclusive okay anybody if Charter wanted to show up tomorrow and said we're going to do this they more than that my first year on is when we did the the cable thing and that was I remember I asked that same we talked about I know we did talk about it so for fact why can't we get anybody else they you know I understand wh city does not want to come in and take that space they really can't from because they're they're they're a quasi governmental agency they really can't bond 10 million or 15 million do to construct something out of their town the all the other towns they either got State money or they bonded their own to construct and now and whip cities the operator of their Network which is exactly what we're proposing to do okay and the other thing that we've they're looking at um and we still have some questions and answers to come back on is just technologically right things are moving along like a g you know gigabit symmetrical um and a bit of marketing speak to be very honest with you if we went you know we can support more than one gigabit with the fiber we're putting up proposing to put up actually can go up to I think close to 10 there's no need to go for that expense right now to offer that service you you will offer it to some businesses that will pay an outside uh amount of money for that bandwidth um but from a residential use it doesn't make sense from a marketing perspective there's some benefit to offering like a two gig service because the other comp the other company in town offers a gigabit down service that's not quite that and it's way less on the up um and so for those that need significant bandwidth on the upside there is not a great adequate other option um business customers have some options right now because they do have some Fiber options but for residential there's not much of an option but you're I I listened to each of your meetings and I'm trying to hear reasons to convince me that this is something I would do and they're not able to do that they said at your last one that most people aren't going to notice darn thing no on the up for the customers that need it it's it's an absolute benefit for the customers that don't need it you you won't really you it will not be usually impactful this net is going to be cost driven um and reliability driven and it's going to drive it's going to drive competition heck it's driving some competition now you've seen the mailings I mean somebody brought it into the highspeed internet meeting right now if if the if the look I'm not a government guy right I'm not a big government person if if we didn't have to do this to provide this utility to a keep the incumbent in check and B provide a very reliable service um I wouldn't be wouldn't have been doing this for the last five plus years um as far as involving you know this whole highspeed internet thing this you know internet connectivity is is is a utility as important now as water and electricity um and I think you need to have more than one purveyor of it in order to keep the situation competitive people are looking at that and and looking at having fiber internet as a requirement when they're buying a home and if and if it's not there they're not going to buy it they will pay more money for a home or they will locate in a place that has you know you know gigabit internet or better so you know and and what from what I see on the technological Horizon I don't see anything supplanting um you know fiber or wired I think you know the wired infrastructure we have in town is it's older Comcast has been doing some work on that infrastructure but they're a long way from replacing it um so I I think that the best course of action for the town is for us to do it I I'm confident that it can be paid for by the users of the system but I also think from a town perspective that we need to commit to the entire project such that it'll enable the project to have the best possible opportunity for success I definitely think we need a more current survey WID a pretty widespread survey a pretty good Outreach kind of thing like if we don't get responses try to get them to validate 50% okay and I don't think it should be done with a marketing spin it's got to be factual what it means to you it means if you still want to watch the Disney Channel you're going to have to pay for service outside of that this is not all encompassing because a lot of people do not understand that they think we're replacing Comcast bundling and we are not nope no if there's no difference that the average user is going to see that truth has to be said not assumed that people will know that okay well I and I need I I said I mean I guess I'm looking for some disaster scenario numbers I guess would be what I'm looking for I think that's that's that's we need to we need to shore up the 50% assumption if 45% come back I'll say okay plus or minus we'll probably get there if 30 come back I'm I'm struggling I'd have to agree on 30% you know again like you said talk about 15 if we're you want 20 million for roads on top of this yeah that's the first thing people have asked what's that that $15 million Bond what's it going to cost me and that's like I said ultimately the the the design but that was also if was that the design of the sewer you know we're going to get that's but that's the scenario I mean and you know separate topics right if we don't do I mean there are two separate topics I'm just so first thing was the sewer analogy was okay we we have we've got 50,000 bucks 60,000 bucks into this project right as far as the the work that's been done so far we have the arpa money we have a $250,000 Grant but that does not get the project but what happened was town meeting voted twice to form an MLP and it was overwhelming and it was overwhelming at the special and it was overwhelming at the annual that those two votes were taken um but I would wager that the vote to to do the design of the sewers on powdermill road was probably also overwhelming the vote to then $600,000 the vote then to go and construct said project was overwhelming the other way which you basically got rid of that 600 Grand that you spent because it was that sunk money but we're also in a point now and I think this is the the historical lesson to look at from the sewers is we have 800 users on the sewer tomorrow it's going to cost $15 million to come down College Highway or up College Highway to do us a relatively significant project to connect a significant number of users but you your to your point you can divide 15 million by anything you want it's never going to cover its cost not that it would be intended to but it's not gonna come even Guta close this project on the other hand if we if you go for and authorize the expenditure the of the borrowing for the entire project and you complete the project and we bring it in within budget the revenues will sustain the system and retire the the debt that's and that's the only goal of the project right obviously provide high-speed internet y yada yada but it will in over the course of the time that the debt is outstanding the revenues will be sufficient to retire the debt in 15 or 25 years when the when the all the debt is retired and you look at it and go we don't want to do this anymore you go okay it's paid for right the the taxpayer wasn't on on the hook for a red Penny if the town's people still want it great you continue to operate you still continue to take in Revenue um or in 25 years from now I will not be on this board I have no idea what internet's going to look like and what that technology is going to bring it for your home perhaps it will be some satellite based thing or some other technology that we don't even know yet to bring that service in and it'll look like a copper phone line and you'll be like who needs that but that's okay because the debt was paid for and it was retired so the taxpayers aren't on the hook how many years is this supposed to be to complete it's probably going to take three to five years to complete and we're probably two years from starting based on where all the other poll stuff pole work is right now so to an I'm gonna ask that question as well because I know again across the border they're just finishing up some of those last sections now and that's they started when I lived there and that's six years ago yep in Westfield you mean and actually they started before that yep so they didn't have the same that's what I'm trying to understand they ran out of money no I they didn't I think what they did was they they did a pilot I and I give West whip City Fiverr a ton of credit and the City of Westfield you know I'm I'm not the first I'm not the biggest fan of Westfield but um in this instance they were way out in front and they were super smart well the problem is and the reason that is is because it's they're like you said they're a pseudo quasi governmental entity already had it they know what doing to go into the business of providing internet and considering it a utility just like electric and gas and saying this is what we're doing this is the future we're going to do it and by the way now they Tak in their act on the road and they're providing that help 23 commun I think now oh yeah and they're they're moving they're out down the cave now and and but yeah and those revenues are helping them retire their debt in their own system faster and they're putting you know million dollars worth of turf on one of their you know their ball fields that they're bonding for a lot of that is revenues that are coming from these other communities and it'll be from us too right but I'm not going to build up I'm not going to build a fiber Network and have the town of Southwick operate a fiber Network we don't have the wherewithal to do it when I don't want to get into the into that buiness I don't want to be in that business so you you subcontracted out to have them operate it but kudos to them but they also did not have the intestinal fortitude at when they first did it to commit to doing the whole town they said that would be nice it'd be great they still had some very dense areas that they haven't approached and the reason is multi-tenant is always a problem i' I've been involved in enough other things in my outside life that multi-tenant is always a challenge for any utility there no different in the city of Westfield versus New York City um but they're getting there and they're finishing up the town and they're also taking in you know revenue on the business side too as they connect businesses to this service because it's symmetrical and it and and it has some advantages to it but so I've seen those three rates bounce around too the the 87 and the 85 82 we were playing with it and I don't think we we get a statistical number from the number of surveys we would get um based you know we price elasticity of demand is a thing right if we offer this service for $29 I guarantee you I'll get you 100% take rate we I'll lose our Shir right because we're going to pay whip City about that amount of money per user per month right at at $69 you're going to get a high percentage at 79 89 and we're around 80 something to $90 a month right and we you know the committee wrestled with that number as to where we want to be to satisfy the debt a lot of it's going to D be driven off the Make Ready the Make Ready is going to tell you everything you need to know as to what the costs are gonna be just looking at and when did you think that was GNA happen we're waiting to have it come back but we I mean we we we're pretty confident after talking to whip City that and the other thing we need to do is site where the Hut's going to be so that will cost that out too um because you need to get the generator power over to it and blah blah blah um but the um we think in preparation for a May time frame for town meeting to authorize the bonding we would have that make ready number and if by the way if it came in at $6 million we don't have to put a b we can always you know wipe those articles right off the off the warrant and not bring them to you know it wouldn't bring them to town meet because and I'm making up to six million it's untenable the system can't possibly pay for itself because you know the numbers we're at right now it's it's very very close and did did you have business rates included in they had those calculations they spiked in a few I don't think it had enough but I didn't want to again it's I know know how many exactly businesses make up such a small percentage of our tax tax base you're not going to charge them 20x the residential rate so you can't you know even if you get them it's going to be it'll be nice incremental Revenue but it's not going to subsidize the whole service because it's just not enough my my thought was how are you going to get the businesses to say you run a business out of your home are you going to be called residential and pay that I don't think I don't think we're going to split that here I think you go and you you know you go to the you know the businesses in town that want this service and it might be beneficial for them to have it versus what they have right now and if they take it that's great if it's a business that has a l you know that they could then bring some stuff in house that's in the cloud now because they don't have the bandwith to do it on Prem or this gives them a redundancy option that they don't have today that they now have that's great and you can charge accordingly and there's other services that you can put on top IT services that get put on top of that um that certain businesses need that you know or businesses need that residential customers don't need this is just by sheer numbers this is a residential service I don't know if you went into mdus like are they going to have separate drops is it going to be to the unit they have the and again separate density tough those separate charges make a difference right but those but again it may be where you go into let's say you pick Captain Fowler right you go in it's an option for everyone in Captain Fowler but each one is is a connection right they don't oh yeah they don't it's not one for Captain fer and 400 people get on it no no no it's probably going to be that's what I mean that's going to be two fam and those yeah the MD you know all the dwelling units even you know the two fam in town count as two yeah I just was looking at because we have that cousin boy my my wife runs hers and the the two gigo thing is the 120 so when we're looking at and that's new pricing relatively new pricing because the gigabit was $120 until recently and you know there's we saw it we saw it leading up to the town meeting we've seen it of late as we get closer and closer to moving this along and it's not it happens in every single town where they're trying where someone's trying to do this the incumbent drops their price for the period of time in which they're trying to do it if they're successful the the other option goes away and then you see it guess we're both kind of like we need more information well so we need the survey to I mean I like I said I'm reluctant to say today that we should put this on the town warrant until I get we're a long way from that we're a long way from town meeting right we're we're here we are in October right I know but but that's where the where the high-speed internet subcommittee is as far as and I I completely respect their thought process behind it because I was I was leaning towards we we just proceed and wait till you know we get these numbers and then we proceed but they brought it up as as a discussion item and at at toward the end of the you know end of that meeting and I'm like it makes perfect sense right if when we first started this way back in um it was before 201 20 before 2020 was there was no real require there two requirements were that it not be a burden on the taxpayer and be that we cover the entire town no one is left out of this it may cost somebody some a pretty penny to get their service if you're three4 of a mile off the road but that's that's a different topic but it we are going to pass by every address that's available in the town so it is available to everyone and secondly that it not be a burden on on the taxpayer okay we've been working on that premise so if we're g and so that has a cost to it if we just said hey we're just going to go up and down College Highway we'll pick up Fernwood Birchwood where it's real dense and sorry you folks in the west you know you're on your own because we can't you know it's going to be very expensive at at on some points to get there that's a good point the survey should probably somehow be geared to those intended locations somehow keyed with a we an a survey and to a person they left their phone number and email to let me know when I can sign up I know it's a low number right but it was crazy the data we got back because we didn't really I didn't want to have we didn't want need to be necessarily Anonymous but people will gave us their because you get their IP address and everything else but you you know we got here's my phone number here's where I am you know how quickly can I get on this thing and you know and I you know you saw the vote at town meeting we'll go you know I I think the high-speed internet subcommittee is done their work is complete ask you are they just waiting to get back this yeah I that I mean the two there there's a couple folks that have a lot more technical ability on this and they are looking at gwn and other initials that are new to me as far as fiber technology and two gig and 10 gig and three gig and whatever the fiber is good for 20 years whatever we're going to put on the polls It's The End equipment the at the residential end and at the at the hut so they're going to continue to talk about that and figure it out because there's a cost Adder for certain pieces of that equipment if you're going to go to the I I forget what they call it some other letter before gon to get the two plus gigabit service versus one gig there's a there's an incremental Adder to that um and they'll have to figure out if that is going to provide an adequate return in in the form of the take rate to to make this thing go around but I think that they're we're we're done I mean as far as making a recommendation to the board and the board their recommendation is the math says it works if if the take graders everything if the Make Ready comes in at that and you're right you know that the the the take rate is always important because no one signs up for the service it's not going to make any money but I I you know someone's gonna have to figure out you know way to compose a survey and I you know I'll be glad to assist in that or you know if you want recharter the hsic to them now survey the survey the town again or figure out a better way from our town homepage to do it um to get people to do it to do the survey and come back um and I don't think you and I don't know how you go you know can we accumulate survey questions and send them to Nicole and then we can regurgitate them and say this makes sense this doesn't as a starting point 100% because I would like to go out and ask some people and [Music] what are the questions they have could always have an informational meeting as well we could do that we I'd be glad to do it I and just that's because fun we can have wh this came up online and the first person's name guess whose name showed up on it that's Mr moglin so there was about this highspeed internet and because the that comparison came up about the sewer and all I and and I'm like I'm not answering this and then you your name came up I think it would be a great idea every come I mean yeah I mean L talk about it and we'll bring the whip city folks we have you know we have an IMA with with whip City for this thing so that that part's done like they did the heavy lifting on that you know we reached out to a couple other companies and I'll tell you D I had a couple conversations during covid with a couple CEOs of fiber companies and said look here's our town I you know I am but one member of a board but I'm pretty certain that if you said you were going to come in and wire up the town of s Southwick would we sign an agreement with you I say I would think so because then we wouldn't have to you know and I offered the same deal to whip City they could not do it and the others would not do it I was going to mention in the in the previous survey you had of 265 in one of the questions on there for reasons why they would switch 148 responded 115 of the 265 said it was because of Monopoly or only one option so a lot of people just don't like that not the price not the service in fact they said the service in in was actually very good and to your point and quality were very good coming out of you know right after this was done we went through right which absolutely turned that business on its head which is why we need a fresh survey I think people have lived with it now because you know Co you know and you know I said you know we I Comcast has taken a lot of crap from folks in town as part of this process but I will give credit credit is due um you know when covid happened and all of a sudden their bandwidth just turned on its head where used to be commercial bandwidth is being used during the day residential bandwidth is at night and then all of a sudden residential it just goes off the hook right and our service has been very reliable it always worked it we we have not had a problem with that it's been fair you know Fairly reliable over the years the issue has been always the pricing of it and it continues to to go up and up and up now all of a sudden but to your point of that survey which what we see it is all of a sudden we we start talking about this and we get mailers to our house or we get promotional pricing for two years for this and and so and we check out and we say okay I guess not Comcast you know really is okay in the end and we're gonna just not do this and then there goes your rates again because now they've got you back and they have you so there is there is a certain aspect to that life changed after that people use it differently now that survey could reveal 90% in favor of the thing and a lot more responses so so I guess we will yeah come up with some questions in a week or two or get them to Nicole in a week or two you can have somebody compile them and we'll just form the questions because there's a survey plat we actually did it with like I we didn't use we didn't have access to the town website at the time when we did it so we did it with you know Survey Monkey or one of those things I paid it out of pocket to do it just to to so that we had a good platform to get good data and um but now we have the town platform that we can do the surveys on and there's all kinds of things you can do with it can also H the social media page and the public outre or what you call what do you call it information have a public information 100% definitely you know the survey during survey just said people get more information they and they'd be maybe less I hear a lot of especially since the sewer thing I hear a lot of people very tentative I mean I want I want I would hope one of the one of the bits of information again I don't want to Market I don't want to Market I want to tell them what is being offered and what the impact is if it fails should be enumerated somehow 100% risk is on their tax bill you know and talk for an hour but I think you know one of the things I found peculiar when I first started going to town meeting when I moved here was like a water issue would come up for bonding we're going to bond $600,000 for this that and the other and I'm thinking to myself H I don't care I'm not paying it you know what I mean at first and and and I'm too person in that room is thinking the same thing it's got to be paid for by the water users from water retains earnings and they got well why do we vote at at town meeting was because if somehow the water department spends themselves into Oblivion those those bonds are going to be paid by the taxpayer right so that's the exact same thing you know you know not to mislead anyone the goal of this is 100% of the revenues go to you know servicing the debt and AC and Orr retain earnings for future expansion enhancement of the service and by the way last thing is never ever ever ever as long as I'm I dare I say alive but certainly involved with this with a town get involved in anything to do with content if you get involved with content so anyone who's listening or watching this it says oh well this is going to replace contact so I can Comcast or whatever so I can watch Disney plus absolutely not 100% this is only providing you an IP okay it's almost like eversource delivers the wire to your house you can get someone else to bring power to your house the the supply side this is exactly exactly exactly the same thing if the town ever God help you if the town ever decides to get into content why content is controlled by a one of the big cable companies or B the media companies and let them fight it out in the street if you get in involved in that you will go broke yeah don't do it so we've always said that from the very beginning I it's said again tonight this is not a Content thing this is just providing the connectivity to the internet from the dmark and I just want to say you guys did a fabulous job it was a very engaged committee every one of them knowledgeable and there were sever people the same stance as Diane and I that were like we need to make sure everybody knows everything and and I think you saw like even and everyone on that you know and again I said it before but it's worth it you know thank you to those fol folks that served on that subcommittee till till now um every one of them was brand new to serving on a border Committee in the town of Southwick which was huge even for back you know for back in uh 2020 or 2019 when we first started this endeavor um but they put in a lot of work we had a lot of opposing viewpoints we had one person who's you know very involved with this stuff in another community so they they've been a huge Resource as far as advising and what works and what doesn't work I had a contracts guy from the medical business who's you know almost you know looks at the worst angle of everything which is exactly what you need and then you know you know another person came says like this doesn't work this math doesn't work okay well keep looking at it and if it doesn't work it's not going to work we're not GNA put the town on the hook for something so that's where we're at so kudos to all of them and I appreciate that you know the the the patience and and leeway that this board has given that that subcommittee to kind of do their work and come back to to the the full select board to at this point but I think at this point short of we figuring out if we're going to actually I I would heed the recommendation of of them and put yourself in a position to be successful and if you don't just heed the warning of what we've seen with other projects that didn't um didn't go that way I mean I think you know I'm not I'm just gonna say my opinion is the is that eventually regardless of the initial rate I think you're going to see a lot of conversion um based on what I've seen even in my previous residence a lot of people were like oh I'm not switching I'm not switching then they find out this the product they're getting and and the the value they were getting so I think we just my my goal is just to make sure everybody knows exactly what we're doing and and they're well informed and I'm not teetering on theed just scared so survey community Outreach meeting info meeting at this point we do not need to move this to the town meeting warrant article no I'm they're proposing that we're ways away from starting from opening the warrant for the annual yeah okay all right all right so today was discussion yes this was a report surve Action from the high speeded and this is prview of this board from here okay right all right so we've covered that I think extensively and we to well definitely um six minutes or six minutes six minutes item six is gonna be the minutes we need to acknowledge and approve the Open session meeting minutes from October 7th 2024 I'll make a motion to approve those minutes from October 7th 2024 second roll call vote Jason Peron i d i Doug Mogan yes we need to acknowledge and approve the executive session meeting minutes from September 23rd 2024 and executive session October 7 202 that was the 23rd great is that your yes now it's perfect that's why I'm reading so much better now thank you good in the skills I'm just reading the care okay I will make a motion to accept the executive session minutes from September 23rd 24 and October 7th 2024 Doug Mogan will second roll call vote Jon I thank I Doug mlin yes we need to acknowledge payables warrant number 2510b dated 1015 2024 in the amount of $1 15,629 we also need to acknowledge payroll warrant number 2508 dated 108 2024 in the amount of $289,600 before I forget um I'm going to have we're going to jump back quick but I think does anybody have any new new business oh new new business new business now and is there anything under old business that we didn't cover that anybody yes okay yes Doug you went first uh reminder that Mr Neil Parkin is here next week visiting from South Wick England um I want to thank the Southwick Historical Society for the walk with Spirits this past weekend once again they arranged perfect weather for that event so I don't know how they do it I didn't get to visit amaso this year oh well it was even better this I got one thing to learn for next year too now there um and also huge kudos to the Southwick Civic fund our police and fire departments for just a Fant fantastic Farm parade that was uh also on Saturday with pretty full sleep in town on Saturday it was crazy day but um you know that's such a great Community event um benefits the animal shelter too um it was so great the you know to have a the number of folks that came out for the parade itself but then the number of folks that lined the streets through from the from the center down like they went further down towards town hall probably closer to the hot dogs yeah well you know thanks to them for doing all that and you know but for the folks that came out to enjoy it it was great and um you know it really makes you know makes the community when you have events like that and they come off so well and they're well organized and you know a lot of a lot of planning goes into actually making them seem so smooth so kudos to all of everyone you know you know that get involved in in organizing that and I I don't like to thank individuals because I always forget someone and then I get a angry phone call later so I'll just thank everyone now many people um lastly kind of under old business is there was discussion at our last meeting and there was at public comment um about the a potential need to call a special for sometime between now and the end of January I'm wondering if we can't have a discussion with the land owner to see if they would be amendable to to delaying that delaying that delaying either amending the purchase and sale or giving an extension on the purchase and sale to avoid a special if it's a literally a one article special right now I don't see us having any I personally don't know of anything else that is of pressing need that would call the need for us to have the expense um and effort in calling a special for that one that land's been there for a long time and I'm totally supportive of the Endeavor I'm not to do anything to subvert that um unless there was some other article that would be of super importance to get on a special I think we can we probably would be successful reaching out to the the current owner to see if they'd be willing to wait until after a May town meeting for a vote on that that would certainly be worth asking it can't as as they say Kan STM was on was on my I know there I was GNA say I know there was there's a ton of things that are hanging right now that we could push to get done for special why push and drive ourselves exactly and then you know there'll be one more and one more and one more but it drive you know and I think for any other any other items that may be coming like you know even this you know we talked about the high speed and you know my opinions on anything that's subject to debate or discourse should be at the annual you know this would this would not be one of them this would be worth it if we already had a special coming up and we could get this done or we had five things that says oh we you know I've had a couple people ask well why do they want that piece and they said well it used to be part of the actual farm and but you know most people are especially in souck are very supportive of those types of things so yeah again I'm supportive of the project CPC is going to vote already did vote on it they've got a couple things to tie I was trying to figure that there's some weird angles on it and I think that was the you know the timing and then there was a conservation restriction this that and other I this will give everybody a chance to get it the out you know and I don't know who would be responsible to to reach out to the the land owner and you know and and also to Lee um to explain what we're thinking here and if it's a non-starter look we'll call the special but if it if it's something that can be accommodated we should really consider it no that's it for me gu can you draft a letter and the chair can sign to send to the land owner call just call yeah I mean they are still having a problem with the survey because they're having problem finding the pins Etc I'm in the email chain back and forth from um the who's responsible for the survey the land owner or the Historical Society hisorical I know who's actually I'm sure probably the it's usually a combination of both if you're selling usually it's worth a question so they'll usually do a survey out of administrative funds that CPC has because the town is going to own it they're going to want a fresh survey and a fresh print so they know what description and you have to have it accurate so I guess we're saying the poll can reach out to the land owner and see if that's a possibility we need to Res sign anything just let me in thank you okay was that it is it for me thank you very much so yep STM was one of mine on that um whether we do an STM or not do we want to have russan Anderson complete the application to CPC for the engineering work for the building facade do we want to have him go forward see I'm glad you brought this up because I know under Carl I was under the impression that this thing was already in the works so other than just just a planning people terminated and agreements terminated and it didn't get finished so we saying yes we want Russ to move that forward to I would say yes if we need any appliation motion then I'm looking for it if we do or not we need a motion for that allow him to go forward with the CPC I would let's do I'm looking for a motion to allow Mr Anderson make a motion to have Russ Anderson complete the CPC application for the approximately $100,000 engineering study and plans for this building's facade restoration that's the rest ratio second roll call vote Jason Peron i d i Doug Mogan yes and um lastly I would just want to call out the Civic fund for pulling together the trailers going to North Carolina which makes me very emotional thank you for all your work on that people I was crazy it still is I thought Vermont was crazy watch well that was just a small section that was nothing yep I hope they all I I hope they need second round and I just want to thank the town of southw for responding yes absolutely and I have nothing naen Nicole no thank you and it looks like at that point we have to go into executive session so I'll be looking for a motion to go executive session to go in executive session pursuant [Music] to Mass General chapter 30A section 212 and three and chapter 214 section 1B labor Council litigation matters and strategies for political bargaining with ke Union Coalition fire I DPW non-union staff and clerk Union upseu executive session Master Law chapter 3A section 212 and 3 chapter 214 section 1B and exception two move to go in executive session to conduct collective bargaining sessions with non un personnel and to not to reconvening open session to go into executive session we conduct contract negotiations with non personnel and to not to reconvening open session declare that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the body into not to reconvene an open session exception three moveed to go into executive session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining and that the chair moved to go into exec session to conduct strategy sessions and preparation for negotiations with non-unit personnel and to not reconvene an open session move to go into executive session discuss strategy with respect to litigation and that the chair declared that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the body into not reconvene an open session chapter 214 section B A person shall have a right against unreasonable substantial or serious interference with their privacy super Court shall have jurisdiction and Equity to enforce such right and in connection therewi to a damages I'll make a motion to go on Executive session as you have declared that was the motion uh I vote J I thank I all right