good evening it's April 16th at 6 o'clock um I'd like to call the board of Selectmen meeting to order um roll call please TR present pres deranian present um please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance United States of America to The Republic it stands nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for [Music] all all veterans pass and present those are First Responders and those in service we appreciate your service uh one point3 uh the meeting is being recorded and will be uploaded to the YouTube channel um Chairman's editions and deletions um I loaded up the agenda today so I don't have you guys have any no I I think I can talk about it dur um L on but I do want to talk about something with the unitel span okay okay yep um 1.5 uh review and approve the meeting minutes for 36 2024 um so I'll entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes for 36 2024 so moved second moved and seconded any um any discussion on those I didn't see anything all pretty straightforward I didn't see anything either I have no red marks or blue marks on so all those in favor yes [Music] you're coming up my friend okay I know I'm a little late I just no you got two more minutes my dirty clothes off get a quick KCK check I'm clear and here we go thank you for doing that for us yeah well they're local Ticks by the way we were not a town Talent we have a town and first policy first absolutely all righty so 2.1 discuss and vote on an agricultural commission um posting with jiman and you have the floor I don't have much other than I'm coming in front of everybody to give everybody a good Insight the reasons why we need an Agriculture Commission you know some of the benefits of it on and on it goes we had the commission functioning and working I think it was four years ago I became overwhelmed with that I was doing conservation full-time eps my farm and I just couldn't keep the the it going I couldn't keep the wheels on since of retired I can commit the time to it I've spoken to um a good many people who are interested in coming on board as commissioner so I have a good field of people that you know want to be involved in it and um on and on it goes from there I think everybody knows that we're right to farm by La and town so we need to work with you know our agricultural field I see some of these reasons why we need to do this is to a with um another one of my Commissioners on conservation we want to involve more of the younger kids in the whole agriculture field bring them up through the ranks I would rather see Old Farm properties exist and maintain in farming and not be brought by fishing game to be put into a setting where they're not going to be used as agriculture you know it it's I've seen a lot of property um go under fishing game guidelines and um we have a lot and there's a lot of restriction in being able to use them use any of the land for agricultural purposes once our agricultural base is gone what do we have houses to look to to grow food on um Park areas that have grown F the fields are going fow with a lot of them that fishing game has purchased I mean I can mention a good amount of fields I was farming for years now no longer being used restrictions and they're they've gone to F there's trees growing in there I get it I'm I'm all of my my wildlife and my my environment but we need to have an agriculture base it's an important thing you know and I think there's a lot of people in town that show a lot of interest in the agriculture world and we have some beautiful farms in town that are that are doing well you know so I guess it's I don't want to take up too much um of everyone's time I just would like a little input back from what what my select men feel what what are your thoughts on it each and every one of you on an individual basis more than willing to answer any questions but I think everyone knows where I'm going with it with what I'm my property with you know we're doing garlic now a large amount we now are doing maple syrup and um the next thing we're looking at we're going into um grapes to grow for a Vine I've been a winery so it's all good um the work that I've been doing on the property it's not easy it's very expensive it's but you know what if you have a love of it and if you love your town and your agricultural base it's a no-brainer we've been here since 1959 and um Joe you've known me since I was about that Paul oh on it goes so I can go on and on with this but I think the basic essence of it is all pretty much on the table where we're going I think when you go down West Meadow Road more than any Street in townzen it's it's a beautiful agricultural Mile with the work that dicks Market is doing over across the street Charlie Ross back the reation and the re Rebirth of the farm Craven Craven Jimmy Craven field which is all coming back and you know being restabilized brought out of a earth removal into active hayfields again which is a beautiful thing you know Billy May sen is I think looking down and going good to see you boys to taking good care of that I don't want to see a bunch of solar Fields being put in on agriculture property either that 1.3 Meg solo field is I understand the green initiative all for it but there's a place for everything and that right in the middle of that agriculture field is not the place enough said please questions thees yeah um so I just want to understand the main purpose is to get people more involved in agriculture or be to set Town regulations on what and how it will touch base on all of that Teresa and other words it's going to be educating the people in town it's going to be working with the existing farmers in town which I have a list of everybody ready to go there's a good group of I don't think we're going to need any posting to bring a commission together I'm going to be able to do that right away we have to post any yes ma' is how do is it going to work hand in hand with conservation and are you going to stay on both or yes ma'am okay I can't leave conservation it's that's you know I'm 16 years into it now you I'm going to stay with it and keep going with it and they work hand to hand to hand it we will absolutely it is something that is a no question conservation is you know agriculture agriculture is Con conservation if the farmers don't respect the water the wildlife all in all everything we're doomed we all have to work very very closely together it's a paramont and I will keep and I will make that you know a part of it so I think Jimmy what you're doing bringing it back I believe when I first got on that first term is right about when you steep down on the agricultural there just was too much going on for yourself I think it's very important that we as a little town keep the agricultural stuff under control get people to understand it be able to know what's going on as you said bring the younger kids up going into some of the Farms the rossback foms your farm the shepherd's Farm there's several of them that if we lose that Little Mom and Pop farm setup around this community we're going to spiral out of control and I just want to say thank you very much for stepping up to the plate again coming back I think you will be able to pull it off and make sure that we are well protected as you do with the rest of your board on the conservation and you got my blessings outstanding so I um I know it was just after you got on when I got elected and both you and I and Veronica talked about making sure that we needed to get the agricultural committee back up and running that was something that we talked about like three years ago was yeah it was important to be able to you know the the what Townsen is all about that's part of what Townsen is all about I mean there it's the farming is is a very big portion of it yeah um the uh the right to farm I think would be a ni way to allow the rest of the residents to understand what that means because a lot of people have their own interpretation of what that means there is there is a great deal of misinterpretation as to what that presents and that's why the commission will be good to inform people as to why we're here and what the function of a commission is yes you know we're not there to help people put a farm stand up we're not there to help people develop Farms we're there to inform people of what farming Community has available to them in towns and under that setting of Agriculture you know let's utilize it like the I like your your ideas in regards to um educating the youth um I think one of the most important factors that we see right now in society is that there is a huge emphasis on trades and um things like agriculture for for uh jobs and the prior youth I think that's equally as important um and I'm a bit prejudiced because my grandparents are farming people so yeah I've I've always been I've grown up that way um so I think that that's um equally as important um so I've done a little research and I've talked over with the Town Administrator we don't really have to reor uh reestablish it's already there correct um so we would we would basically to post for it yep we just need to post for it um so the individuals involved that want to get involved they just need to do the um uh volunteer form volunteer form Y correct and put them all together and then once we get those in um then we can uh um how are we going to do this here we're going to call a meeting once we get um yeah we put it on on an agenda to do appointments I think we'd have to treat it because the the commission is basically defunct at this point in time we'd have to treat it as the like the the um the charter contemplates the initial setup which is is um no fewer than three members shall derive income from farming forestry or agriculture-based Enterprise in town since we have to have at least three people and the other two members shall be interested in farming and um at those initial appointments two members shall be appointed for three years two members should be appointed for two years and one member should be appointed for one year so we have to just sort out we have the five the five that the board s what terms how we're going to appoint those terms the board itself would then could have set up a meeting and set up vote for chairs and vice chairs and that sort of stuff correct correct but I am so everyone understands I will be somewhat particular as who we're going to bring in on the Commission in agriculture I want the knowledge to be brought in this is something I've spoken with Jimmy about with you know several Commissioners are going to be working with the younger kids 4 introducing them to what farming is what their interests in farming is does anybody want to go to Stockbridge can we get some some money available for Grants to get some kids educated in doing it we have some very educated individuals in in our town Stockbridge educated I mean I have DCR ready to go with me fishing games on board with it I mean I've reached out to everybody they know I'm getting it ready ready to get it going again they go go Jim whatever you need we're there to give you a hand just call upon us we would just need to make sure that we had you know whoever's interested get the um uh get the volunteer forms submitted in and then we can we can sit down separately before the meeting yeah we'd probably put it on it's probably not going to be it's probably not enough time before the meeting on the 7th but the second meeting in May if if we post it this week seems like a reasonable amount of time to to set up the 21st the 21st of May would likely be the time we would put it on an agenda and there's there's some phenomenal Talent out here you know I have Steve at Dicks Market Jimmy whatever you need in once again another individual Stockbridge educated in agriculture business and etc etc those individuals are real helpful and I want a lot of other stuff I want people to understand that our forestry is every bit of important in agriculture our agricultural forestry people look at a forest what's agricultural about that every bit in Port is an open hay field or anything look what I'm doing with the 5 Acres I just developed in from Maple Sy that's forestry and that's forestry agriculture we're deriving a product from the forest so that's why I'm working with the Department of interior my property is split up into Agriculture and agricultural forestry so I have my fingers in both and I'm educating myself on on both those ends and I have two individuals in the forestry um world and they're ready to to work with us you know Mass forestries like Jim You Spa on with that and another thing Townson should look at is our forest areas to have an overview few of them to have them cut for the money for the trees to have them C down and get them healthy a lot of areas that I see in town are becoming overwhelmed than not being cut on a regular basis and there's money that can be generated from that and there's also the ability to keep those forests healthy that was like an agenda item for the first AG commission yeah it is well and and that's going to allow us also to be able to have sub subject matter experts in that field so that when something comes up in front of the board we know that we can we can you know ask for the help absolutely and there's a lot of good expertise out there um B pel with um DC agriculture he's you're going in the right direction Bravo with the garlic and you know and doing grapes he's he's real interested in that and that's why I got a rep coming out next week to do a complete overview do we need to have you post it yeah I think there would just be a vote from the commission to authorize the posting for the AG I mean the vote from the board to authorize the posting for the agricultural commission so moved second any discussion all those in favor Mo yes yes okay we'll get that posted and then and I wanted to bump one other thing that I'm I'm in the big fight with right now invasive invasive species Vining and stuff I got a we've got a big area across the street on a govern's property they were aware of I'm working with them um that needs to be dealt with or we're going to have common re taking over Ash Swamp area and we cannot have that fishing game is aware of it I've spoken to the Stewart he's he goes what do you mean need Jim keep me posted we'll work with you yeah there's a couple other species that that's been concerned Bitter Sweet multifloral um I just got done close to 11 years fighting that one strip now that is in Maple production clearing weeds and everything I'm working now with Gary with the pro the farm next to me I just put in two um permits so we can now get in there and attack it George and humg govern who Ms the property across from me um they said Jim whatever you want we'll work with you tell tell us what you're going to need in this regard we're there for you all right so we'll do what we can to get you up and running and then we'll let you and we'll reach out to you to let you know the date and time of the when we're going to be appointing folks outstanding okay anything else no did I go on too far want educate the people did it seem businesslike and everything was pretty good yeah nobody's nobody knocked over anything on the table so we're good yeah so far so good outstanding I I appreciate you you know well thank you for your service to all the other boards in the time we need all just starting now that I I have no no job anymore to go to I'm just going to start hanging out down the tower a lot more careful what you wish for know have to startop catching cada right aren't they supposed to be no we don't worry about those we worry about tips right now that's the big thing my word thank you Joe thank you CH thank you our friend fromation next meeting I hope to consistently right at every meeting well I'm usually online but they asked me to come into the office online isn't as good to S GNA do my best to be sitting right there thanks Joe thank you got can you drop a sign up in front of the old tractor if you want can't talk about that yeah can't talk about public meeting can't do that in in in this building listen I'm a farmer I don't know all that stuff okay thank you sir thank you thank you thank you appreciate your service and your help all right we can jump down to 3.1 um we are going to reappoint town properties committee members um these are members that are reappointed every year at this time right yes so I'll entertain a motion to uh reappoint Laura shiffon Donald Hayes Kevin Smith William Martin Julie buers Vicky Tidman effective 4124 for a turn to expire 6:30 2025 so moov second any discussion on that we do have all of their um applications in here so I think we're good to go all those in favor CH say m yes shank yesan yes town properties um we want to jump down to 4.1 set election day uh and vote on exemption to vote by mail want to talk about that yes so this is as we discussed at the last meeting um um in the event that there is a subsequent override ballot question needed uh this would be the vote to set the date for that subsequent um election date and also to take a vote to um uh authorize the clerk's office to not preemptively send out vote by mails to every registered voter we could still absentee vote absentee but we wouldn't just we just save the money from the thousands of dollars of cost us to S our preemptive ballots I I just want to make this very clear what we're doing here because this obviously confusion as to what we're doing we're set this in case we need another ballot question for the override if the other towns don't pass and we have to be we're not doing this if it fails here just to come back and do it again correct well not necessarily no it we're doing this if for some reason the overrides don't pass in Townson yeah and the school budget comes back and are we still need an override this would be to set a different number for a subsequent override that's what I'm getting at it's a different it would be a different number so it ain't like we're voting the board saying we're approving to go forward so if they don't vote for that money tonight in that meeting at that election well we're just going to put another one try it again it's for a specific reason that we have to come back because they've changed the numbers to do it again Bel lower whichever it is yes want to make that very clear yeah I mean there's a few things that could happen this would only be needed if for some reason there's the the the override fails in Townsen and the school budget somehow gets passed with a number that we we don't have the funds to fund um so either the other towns declined it and the school budget comes back at a lower number or Ashby and pepp will pass the budget and we have to come up with another way to fund the the amounts that we need to fund in in our budget but it's it would only be used if for some reason the the override doesn't pass in Townson on the 22 so this is where I want to make sure I'm not confused not the town absolutely me so it passes let's say the override passes at the toone on the ballot it's already passed at a special Town Mee corre so we have overed for the X amount for no for two votes nooba and North M correct but now it fails to pass in Ashby and peo Peppo so we don't need as much money as we override can we just reduce the figure or do we have to vote both on a ballot and a thing well if that's some that's something that I a bridge that the board of Select would cross if and when that happened you have to make a determination as to what to do with the budget given the fact that the override passed but if the override passed in Townson we would not need this subsequent election date okay this is only if for some reason the override fails and the the budgets are such that we still need funds via an override to improve the budget so my my thought in this too also Teresa is that I don't want to bootstrap us right so that we don't have any options so if there are things that happen this is going to allow us another option to be able to move forward right if we don't have this we're going to be scrambling and it's it's gonna actually it's going to cost the town more money and the reason why we have to vote on this today is because the state statute that authorizes us to to uh exempt local elections from vote by mail requires that you do it 45 days before the date of that election so if we're going to have that election on on June 11th which is the date that I would be proposing we have to have that vote we're not going to have another Board of Lightman meeting before that 45 days of run and all that all the the um all all the the vote about the exemption for vote by know just to make it very clear is generally in the state we have to send out if we allow vote by mail we have to send out ballots to every registered voter regardless of whether they request them or not and that's a very expensive proposition so um exempting us which so the the the election next week has been Exempted so people didn't get ballots in the mail you still can come in and get a absentee ballot and vote absentee in the local election it's just that we won't be mailing them out to every single house registered voter yeah and I know that the board is in favor of having an exception of what my mail but I stand by I actually did hear from people and I I just I understand the savings and whatever and I don't think we need to discuss it but I'm not in favor of of having that exemption just make my stance clear so I think this would be ideally two separate votes the first vote would be to uh to if required set a subsequent election date for June 11th which is a Tuesday Tuesday June 11th so some second [Music] any discussion all those in favor yes and then a sub vote to um a vote to exempt the local the local election if needed on June 11th from the vote by mail requirements so [Music] moved I have a question so go ahead well if you if it gets seconded then we can do it in discussion before we vote a [Music] second discussion all right so just what you said about your concern with us being exempt from it do we have any numbers of how many people are really being impacted by us taking that kind of a stance so I'll be honest with you when we did this the last the last time we took this vote for for the town election for next week I did get a few numbers from the clerk's office I don't have them with me right now um I I I think that the total number of ballots that gets mailed out is in the thousands the total number of mail in ballots we get in a local election is you know not very many barely into the triple digits barely um and some many of those people who are voting who would be voting by mail would be eligible to vote by absentee ballot so they can just request an absente bot from the clerk's office they'll get mailed to them so by doing that saving the Town Money by not sending to every household the 9,000 registered voters in the town of Townson yeah it's like a the last time I talked to the clerk's office it's like a125 to do30 per ballot right and we have to mail out I mean for the few hundred people I get it versus roughly the thousands of dollars we're paying that we don't have we're struggling I I I think we're we're doing the right thing for the town trying to save as much money as we can and this is and again I want to make it real clear this is not something that that I have just brought up it's something that we came up from the clerk's office and we had had detailed discussions with the clerk's office about it we talked about whether or not we you know there was concerns about whether or not folks were going to be disenfranchised by it and based on the numbers in local elections the amount of people who who send in vote by mail in local elections is just not that many there's just not that many votes by mail that come in on local elections this is not exempting it for the presidential election for instance everybody's gonna get a ballot for the presidential election so this is just for this one specific election that we may even get two or three um and so um yeah this was this was something was the this this request came in in concert with the clerk's office and and based on her experience doing this for many years she doesn't believe it's going to cause a significant hardship to folks right and and I I just want to say that this is because of the financials and that that comes out of the the clerk's budget and it was not budgeted for right um so it would have to come out of other services within that particular department for us to be able to or some other we'd have to right we'd have to come up with they appropriate some other money from some other side of it if it came you know if it came from a decision just from the board I would say I would need to talk to the clerk but the clerk was the one that presented this to us before yeah this isn't our idea right so I want to make sure that that's clear as well this came from Kathy and Kathy and I had words about it but my and again I know where I stand on this but you know I don't want anybody that can't come to vote not be able to get their voted correct and is there is they can yeah they can get absentee ballots they absolutely not there's they can't just because they're not able to if they're according to Kathy if you're just not able to get out of your house that day you can't get an absentee B it's not I mean I I believe you can you can get an absentee ballot you can request an absentee ballot for almost any reason I okay and certain certainly if you are housebound you're absolutely eligible for noty okay you get cou weeks in advance time it doesn't mean that day yeah I mean you know that that's you it's this is merely an effort to try and S save the kind of excessive cost for the of the mailing okay any other discussion no all those in favor J say Jo Shan yes to sixer okay so I'll let the clerk's office know that's June 11th tentatively right tentatively this is hopefully it won't be necessary um but in the event that it is I will talk to the clerk's office and and talk to the the school districts um if and when it becomes necessary to to set the the um ballot questions for sub election that would be we have the vote so if we need it we okay thank you Eric um 2.2 review and approve Tesa one day special license application for an event on 5 524 so this is a um a one day you can come on up Jim oh see Jump Right In scared pushing you right under that bus bobia so this is an event it's going to be held at 42 Mason Road correct it's quic Meadows okay um and we got all the particulars with your application um two things that I would like to see um we need to see uh an area that's cordoned off that you're going to where the liquor is going to be or is this just for beer in line or is yeah we need to see a roped off area where the the liquor or the beer and wine will be and then the area that people will consume it they can't be walking around in general that's something that the the um Police Department we give that to the police department so that you know if they're called out there they know that that's the area that it's supposed to be I think it states it does it I did in my messy like this is our first time doing this so I unclear on you can see you can look if you look we're putting it between the the soccer field so that's what they submitted anyway so and then we said we would put tape around it or um James said he might put Snow fencing up yeah just as long as that they know that that's a contained area for that um I'm okay with that I didn't see that picture copy of that no that can that's I'm sure Sabrina has it all in her stuff um the conditions as we have it this is for the board um uh the license has been would be issued um for a gathon event for Tesa on the premises of Squan quick Meadow 42 Mason Road West Townsen um on 55 2024 in a rain date of 519 correct correct um a to 400 p.m. and is to be secured um section that alcohol is confined to the licensed secured area as outlined in provided uh in the provided schematic but that's a pitcher so we'll change that um licensing must stock um beverages within the licensed area leny must purchase alcohol from a wholesaler importer manufacturer lcy um you can't purchase it from Package Store basically uh attendees cannot travel with alcohol alcoholic beverages outside the licensed secured area the licensed secured area is a defined area of the event the lcy is uh responsible whether present or not for ensuring that no disorder disturbance or illegal illegality takes place or in a licensed premise in on a licensed premises and the lensey is responsible whether present or not for enforcing the serving capacity um of no more than 200 gests okay um so do we have um whoever is going to be serving is tip certified so Jen um her we submitted a copy of hers the only it expired but she's getting it renewed on April 21st so that was the only okay so that needs to be submitted to um yeah I'll have it I have it through my company yeah okay yeah so if it pleases the board I'm going to put eight that we receive a valid tips certificate okay yeah because this we have it but it's going to expire it's expired so right but you will be the person that's responsible correct okay so eight would be to receive a valid tip C certification for responsible server uh any other just I mean it's part of the tip certification any anyways but I want to make sure that we say that anybody appearing under the age of 30 should be CAU it I think that's part of your tip certification usually I think it's 35 now yes yes I'm old it was 30 but then young yes it is it's part of that okay never mind it's not needed than if we have a well she knows she has to do it's my day when they asked me for it but any um and I think I think true people love to get C it's a beautiful thing as I'm concerned I just had it done recently warm and fuzzy out that um so I don't have anything else well the way that it's look stationed off that I saw in the picture the children aren't going to be allowed in that area right correct so it's between the soccer field all the other events with all the children's games is on the field this is so basically nobody 21 can go away right I just want to make sure yep it's a whole separate area right and then if there's any any issues the police will come out and they'll probably come up and talk to you just so you know no problem sign up do this do that um so anything else any other conditions you guys want to oh yes we need an insurance certificate here right well it's the um but she said if I sign it then I have to pay for it right away and I didn't want to pay for it without knowing we got the license so so you have to submit it up right correct I can put that in a condition if you want so I I just like I said I didn't want to pay for it and then have it makes the license get denied and this is that they sent right that is is that a binder yeah quot to that yeah so all they have to do is say okay put it in effect and all their coverages are right here yes so I think just get the updated one submit it the file okay and that would be number nine submit insurance certificate for date specified okay all those in favor Shank has sex great thank you yep good luck guys thank those those um documents and then they're good to go okay [Music] all right uh next item is 4.2 first reading for um the Personnel policies what we talked about before so I'll entertain a motion to um approve the Personnel policies Amendment regarding fractional employees if you could be so kind sure so um there's an amendment to the Personnel policies um it's in the the SharePoint there's two parts to it the first is actually a a clerical error that we're clearing up um in one part of the personel policy that says the probationary period for all new employees is one year another part of the personal policies is the probation area is six months so the the first section is to change the definitions of opary period the definition section is incorrect it says six months we change that to one year okay and then the second is article two under 18 holiday it would amend the section that starts with full-time employees to state full-time employees comma part-time employees and fractional employees as defined in article one would be eligible for the following holidays and there's a list of holidays and then it deletes the following section that starts with part-time employees it talks about different holidays for part-time employees and the fractional doesn't we're including that in that section so that's all we would need to do is is do those two amendments to correct the issue about fractional employees and as we discussed last time this puts it more in line with the way the union employees are treated this only applies to non employes so we can consider this a first reading and then we'll put it on the next agenda for a second reading and and vote on the thank you for taking care of that for us sure um 4.3 review and sign letter of acknowledgement to fish and wildlife um as we had talked about in our last meeting um it was a um discussion with an cigan from the Department of fishing gagnet gagnet fishing Wildlife um that uh there was a uh an individual in town that was selling their property to um the fish and wildlife and um she had asked that we submit a letter of approval um or that the town didn't have any issues with it um and at the time we didn't have any issues with it we still don't have any issues with it as far as I know um but the letter is Dear Miss gagman this letter is to acknowledge that the towns and board of Selectmen received your correspondence of March 4th 2024 indicating that the Department of Fish and Game or Wildlife Fish and Game according to her letter Fish game was considering the purchase of private land located within the town of towns and specifically Lots with the assessor map numbers 3640 and 35141 the town does not object to this transaction and appreciates your ongoing partnership with the Department of fishing gain sincerely for um chair of the board of Selectmen so um if do you have a motion to approve the letter to send out some second uh any other discussion um should we have the date we voted on in there or it doesn't matter she just asked for a letter she's not looking for a vote she just no I'm set thank you anything from you John no good all those in favor yes Jose shank yes ceran [Music] yes CH do you have I don't you amount land an acreage number that was if that's going to fishing game is a bu is it it is dat buts um land that they already have okay and okay and it it was I want to say one was 45 Acres I I can find it I I had it pulled up on the on the toer so we got it was a private sale it had nothing to do with us one of the lot size is 29 Acres the other lot is 42 Acres so it's about about a little over it's like 71 Acres total okay I just now was on it's the West property if that is that is correct there's there it's it's there's two lots that were owned by the lastest which I am familiar with okay which were these chapter 61 properties I don't believe private so they didn't have to inform us or anything before they [Music] took it was being held under under a 61 after I did a public picture twice to get the information and when I check the assessor map I believe it's categorized on the text as yeah I apologize it is these are Under the assessor been they are chapter 61 so have they been cleared what they needed to do well I don't think the transactions as conation commission we would receive notice that the town has interest in purching purchasing the properties that would I think that would happen when the trans the transaction hasn't gone through so they were they were still contemplating purchasing and they had it usually would be CC conservation all boards correct but all the way down through but I think this strikes a point is to where we are with conservation now what they will do with that 61a it will not go into agriculture for things but if it's in 61a doesn't the town have first refusal correct chapter 61 means at the time of sale so when the S is goes through there's a there's a they inform the municipality and say this is happening so as the time when we met with Miss gagman the sale had they weren't the sale amount is no so that is that a I'm asking out of ignorance is that a loophole where they don't have to tell you what the sale amount will be until I think last so then you can't allate the funds well I I don't think there I don't know that it's a loophole I don't they don't technically they're supposed to know inform us of this but they don't need because it's a private sale they don't need approval of the municipality to do it the chap that that's a when the when fishing game acquires land they have to notify us it doesn't have anything to do with chapter 61 when chapter 61 transfers title there's a separate requirement that they notify the the the municipality and it has to have the the the terms of the sale but their notification was under a separate requirement under the fishing game that they notify me requiring land point being were we offed first option on it because if I go to sell my property but that doesn't happen but that doesn't happen until there's a s they not require to offer it to the municipality first okay they were if you were going to sell your land yes you could do a pns corre and at that point in time they have to notify the town but until you do that pns they town has the first refusal of it because it has been in agriculture for x amount of years and I have to pay five years back taxes bring it back out of 61a to be able to sell it but the town has the option to say well you were in agriculture for all these years we're going to buy this property and and maintain it as agriculture in town the town has the right of refusal but I think it I think we're confusing about what the trigger of that is because I don't the trigger of that is until there's a purchase and sale agreement between sale of such yeah correct all right I'm going try to help clarify this I I was involved in a piece of property that I bought such as this is going down it was in 61a and once they wanted to take it out of 61a it had to be offered to the town first so I had to they had to come to the town say was selling this land in the H we want to take it out of 61a this is what we're asking do you want to buy it and if they wanted to buy it then I couldn't buy the property they would and then it went on that's what I went through when I bought that piece of land correct so I'm just I want to make sure we don't do the wrong thing here we need to verify it to be sorry to throw but there's no there has been no delineation of sale that's what I think triggers what you're talking about I think we're likely to get that notification relatively soon but but the fish and game operates on Cycles so that they have to put she was talking about there's one in the spring and then one in the fall one in March and there's one in September yeah where they put forward their programs for things that they want to purchase and that's when the funds get allocated and when they start start working on the sale so my anticipation is that that you will be hearing from the wests sometime soon once it comes up to a where they're negotiating a sale that's when we'll find out about it but now the first option of refusal but I I will verify all this with the assessor's office because they're the ones who are the experts on this yeah and they're the ones who you know yeah check I just would hate to see another piece or an organization that has a stronghold on this community that is he essentially choking us that I have to agree with Jimmy because not only do they take that property out of an agriculture setting they also have the ab they don't pay taxes on it either well I I want to pull the discussion back to what the discussion is about and the discussion is about the letter um that that we were asked to to send when it when Eric has a um has the details on it then why don't we sit down and talk about it because I think it's important that we we flush out all of that appreciate you talking about it it was on my yeah and it is relative because that's the reason why I know I understand that and because it's a private sale and it really had they were approaching us to let us know that that's what they're they're looking at so it wasn't it wasn't and I think we all should respect the fact that if it didn't go to fishing game they could go to a contractor and a bunch of pretty houses could go two well that I'm aware of as well so or you go to a nonprofit that also doesn't pay taxes or we could have Deep Pockets in agriculture and we buy it and F it that's there you go so without further Ado I'm going to move on move on we got that one uh 4.4 um discuss potential Greenville Road zoning warrant article who's coming up so this is and just to let folks know we we put this on there was a um a question from the gentleman own's property Mr tosy tosy yeah um uh regarding whether or not the board would be willing to put on a warrant article like this and I explained in because we were closing the warrant for the special town meeting today um that if he wanted to make sure it got on he should put forward a petition because that's the only way to ensure that we get on the board could say no and then it wouldn't be it wouldn't be on so after this was this agenda was put forward Mr Jersy came in with the required 100 signatures and they've already been certified by the cler's office so that process has taken place you can kind of let the board what you were so basically what we want to do it's um a piece of industrial land right in front of the landfill there's an exist residential house on it I want to convert that house to residential I want to put a house behind it and maybe one the act the actual easement for the dump is on my property to the left of the easement is where the other houses would go everything to the right is Wetlands it's not agriculture I can I show you no tomato plants no it's all good than apprciate that but um it's less impact than what's gonna otherwise I'll go on metal building which I've done and there's all residential houses to the left and to the right of it and across the street so a couple more houses I think would be less impact than a um steel building with more traffic uh trucks and equipment so I want to get on the special agenda there and see if I can uh convince the town to uh say yay instead of Nay so I just want to start um did you ever bring this forward to the zoning board and see if they would make a change or do you what go right to pet petition um just the zba can't change it from industrial resol they can't you have you have to do special town meeting I tried that okay but so you did thankk you they could certain circumstances okay so I guess I just got a couple questions first of all I strongly believe person owns a property has the right to do what they want to do with the property y that is your right I just my only thought would be we don't have much industrial land in town correct problem we hear all the time Town meetings we got to get more business in town because we got to get everyone wants their tax rates down so and I understand that so I know there's the big industrial piece before the dump the dump is All pod industrial and all this is all the way up there's several industrial pieces of property with residential houses on them with residential but they are industrial I get that you know what I mean but it's an ideal spot for years everyone talked well that's a perfect when you say tax base there's no there's no difference in tax base so three or four houses probably going to generate more tax base in a one steel building in my opinion but I don't know the no and I get that I I understand that I'm just my question would be you know do we have to change it or is there a way around I mean I just hate seeing losing industrial land that's the problem we got so little of it Community I I I put up a metal building and you can't see a house from it and the people that were against me was amazing they didn't want it there yeah took me two years to get permited yeah no and I don't I not here to once again it's I don't know what the right answer is there you know they don't like it either way you damn if we do damn if we don't you know what I mean but you know I mean that's what we deal with all all the time no I get it trust me and the thing of it is this is the right way to do what you did that way it kind of my opinion for me I think it's better I don't have to have my hands involved in this you put it on you know what I'm saying and someone can't say well the board of selectman did that again you know uh I mean if there's another way around it um I don't I don't know it I don't you know because you want to kind of put a few houses in there well yeah my daughters wants to put one in there and um if I'm going to put one for her I'm we not going to put a building next to them might as well put a couple more if I can I haven't tested so I'm not sure what I could get you know so and just a um procedurally speaking because this did go through the petition process it is on the special time meeting warrant that's we're going to talk about next it's already it's there because he got the 100 signatures so and this is the process I see it as as a a democratic process they they ATI petition they got the proper signatures and I you know as far as yeah let the town vote for it but I will say I I agree it's our only it's our only last industrial portion of it but um I it's in the hands of the voters so and you do you have a schedule time for the planning board no um I do have a question from the chair of the planning Lori did you want to have input Lor you're muted if you're Lori why would that go to planning board as opposed just to um building inspector if it's broken off the way it's supposed to be why is there uh an issue with planning board I I don't know why you would go there no no no for for a zoning change it needs to go and the planning board needs to Aline as to whether or not they they would approve The Zing change I'm sorry about that I was having trouble with my um computer I'm I'm not speaking as the planning board right now okay I just have a question in in my mind which I thought is different than what you're going through right now and that is if you have commercial or industrial property my understanding is that you can by right use it for a lesser um impact or whatever if if you change it to residential that is actually easier to get than industrial or commercial so if you wanted to use it and somebody else knows different on the law please let me know know but you can it doesn't mean you wouldn't have to go through a public hearing or get your permits or anything like that but my understanding is that you would be able to get your residential permits so that's all I wanted to I I bring that up because I've heard this before so um you might want to just look into that part of it too because you may need go ahead would that have to go in front of the planning board before I even went for town meeting to get your approval to go that no if if you're by right um and you sound I mean I from what you said so far I'm thinking that you're um like approval not required like an anr lot do you have enough Frontage for the three lots or whatever you're talking about 1540 feet so you would you would go before planning but it would be for an an anr lot so if you and would make that application for approval not required or an anr lot and that would go through you'd have to have all the particulars you need if it's approved by our staff our administrator and land use that it meets all the requirements for a anr then basically planning board just looks at it and signs off on it because there are no requirements from planning board but that it meets all the requirements needed for the anr when you say the anr cents you mean Frontage and setbacks basically y yeah basically so so I would still have to go against for town meeting in front of town meeting or not no I am I do not believe so but um because of you were told to get the petition I would find out from somebody but in in my I'm not an attorney but to my knowledge you can go for a lesser use you do not need a zoning change to to go residential hey lii I think I can help you with that a little bit I think you may have been on remember back when my I bought my property on Main Street that was industrially zoned and we were going through the process and they said if I got that changed to and I wanted to keep it commercial but if I just wanted to use it as a house I could do lesser use without doing the special town meeting that we did so I think you are correct in saying that if he meets the setbacks he meets all the frontages he can go in there break this up however many Lots he has because it's less of use as residential versus industrial yeah and the only thing about that is once you go to a lesser use you can't go back NOP so in other words you're not going for a a change of zoning you're going in you're going to get permits and a lesser use but once you use the Lesser use you cannot get the commercial industrial back again so part of this land is 6.5 acres is a an existing residential house on there wouldn't that be already considered less of use than the industrial shouldn't that be under that category yeah well it's not in my opinion and from my experience but again I'm not an attorney so I'm just telling you what I know from my experience oh you're right so just looking at the zoning ordinance now it's got industrial districts and permitted uses in the industrial district and residential is not listed as a permitted use so it's doesn't appear as though according to the zoning by law the industrial part the residential is not permitted in an industrial commercial under commercial under commercial let's see there's a couple of different commercial districts yeah got downtown so in a downtown commercial District you can have a detached single family in a neighborhood commercial District you can have a detached single family in an outline commercial District you can have a detached single family family but in an industrial district it there's no permitted residential uses in an industrial district correct so his question is and I agree with him is that he already has a residential house in a a um so that's a pre-existing non-conforming use right so it's not I that one lot would be pre-existing non-conforming you can maintain it as residential so it's expect to go forward so it's 6.58 CU why could if I could meet that Qui oh I couldn't take a piece of my industrial Frontage exact to make that work yeah there you go so I believe it just based upon the bylaw you're going by the right the right route to put it in front of your that being said what we need to do is is it's already on the special you put in the petition it's on the the special 10 meeting we can sit down and have a conversation with um The Building Commissioner and the planning staff and make sure that they have the same you know feeling about what you need to do to get what you're looking for but we want to get it on the because you're always take it take no action on it that night yeah if you just if you just if we fig figure out that hey you can just do this just can put residential on it then what we'll do is as Joe said just move to take no action on a the town meeting and then they'll just drop it but I I agree proced you should put it on there you should put it on so you can okay talked to so far in town hall just Janet and um Kathy okay okay that's basically what was Janet's take what did she Janet's take was he she read the same thing he read and she said you can't do it yeah that would be my take on the industrial different from commercial yeah commercial industrial that's what you know it was industrial we changed it to commercial only for the reason we ever wanted to change the property we can it's less of use like always said right so um am I already res presential now or on pre-existing that's industrial so you you've got two properties they're both industrial one of them has a pre-existing non-conforming residential use on it which means it's legal and you can keep the residential use there there's nothing we we don't your grandfather did basically but I can't do anything you can't do anything on the other lot or you can't put another house on that existing lot because that would be expanding 250 feet to 51 so right you know you can't get two loots out of it you know what I mean so I need the other piece so I think the way that you're if you're looking to put a residential on everything the I I think that the safest thing is to go the route that you're going right and then we'll we'll check for some reason there's a difference of opinion we'll let you know and we can we can drop it before take and this this will be something I'll know a couple week or so prior oh yeah I mean I can talk to the staff I can't talk to them tonight I can talk to them tomorrow the day after and and make a deter try to make a determination we I think we should I'll entertain a motion to um allow the Greenville Road zoning warrant article some second any further discussion all those in favor she say yes yes CH deranian yes so you you work it out with Eric and then if it comes to the point where you don't need the warrant article then when we get to the warrant article we'll just say that withraw it take no action yeah take no action and this is special town meeting right not town meeting this this they happen at the same time yeah go before time it'll be before time meeting yes it'll be at the at the the one of the we'll be one of the last things of the special all right okay great good thanks for your time all right thank you good luck with that thanks hopefully we can help you and guide you in right I hope so I want you yay Joe oh yeah I believe people have the right to do their do their thing man we got to abide by our rules and move on yeah that's all thanks again yeah all right good job 4.5 um vote on the special town meeting warrant [Applause] articles so so the special time meeting tentatively currently has 15 War articles on it the special the special um the first one is a kind of a standard article the one about reports vote to see if the me will hear reports of the boards and commissions the reading of the reports yes um so the second one then we have a series of free cash articles um the first is um uh the the the town The General insurance cost for the town was underfunded last year because we didn't have the final numbers when we went to set the budget um so this is not an increase that we didn't know about but it wasn't in the original budget numbers from last year so that's $1,457 so talk about that in the budget yeah um the second I mean the third warrant article is we had a request from the Board of Health to set aside funds for um uh uh housing relocation in the event that they need to condemn properties um so the amount that we put in was $5,000 because it would be in a special time meeting warant article that means it could just sit there until they used it it wouldn't go away after a particular year so it would allow them to if if they were required to to to um relocate someone for condemnation purposes this would Prov we have had situations where we would have had to use that and it would be advantageous for us to put that in the fund and do it this way as opposed to putting it in their budget because the budget would automatically go back go away have to vote every year but this way the 5,000 will just sit there until they use them yeah um uh article four would be um uh 2200 to supplement the election budget for next year so as when we talked about the budgeting the clerk's office requested an increase in her budget basically doubling her budget over fy2 24 because of the presidential elections and the amount of Elections that they're anticipating in fy2 so in an effort [Music] to not put that as part of the general fund budget that you know comes out of the T out of the taxes we would be taking the portions the increase out of the um out of free cash and her general fund budget request would be reduced by so on here is 22,000 that's actually changed to 20 um before I post it on here that's because I want all those mailed out by the president it's gonna pay for all the mailing all about gonna pay the I want and I talked to the clerk about this and she understands why we would reducing her general fund request by 20,000 and putting it into it and this this way in the event you doesn't spend $20,000 it will stay there and it will be there the next time she has a you know a large election requests we don't have to reappropriate when we have an extra election in the year right um the article number five is to see if St would appropriate $5,000 for the Conservation Commission for Education Outreach and training um the Conservation Commission had put in a request as part of their general fund budget to set aside some money for Education region training on an annual basis um because of the budget situation that we're in we're going to put inside $5,000 in a special time meeting Warren article so they could use that but it would also sit there so if they didn't use it all one year it would roll over to to whenever they used it so they spent 2500 one year they could still would still be there they wouldn't have to come in make another request they'd still be that money until they spent on 5,000 and that's that dollar amount they requested well the the the original requests are for $88,000 I believe is that right James yeah 82 or 750 something like that yeah so the 750 I think was just a carryover from the previous no it was pretty it was like because I kept saying 10 grand and we went through it all and ended up being 87 something my question I have if it's okay with the chair U is this F only going to be used for education Outreach um could we in the future uh request more funds to start to build fund that we could use to buy a piece of property or to um maintain properties sure the other thing is maintaining the properties we have so there's a couple of different things so the first would be this fund would be set up for whatever we put into the special warrant article for its purpose so what's what I've listed in the warrant article is for Education Outreach and training yep if you wanted to put another thing in there but it would just be for that $5,000 um the second thing is there is there does exist a conservation trust revolving fund that is funded by as I found out forestry proceeds from conservation land so there's no funds in that now but if the Conservation Commission could could identify partials that are under their jurisdiction and enter into a forestry contract to you know to selectively you know to have forestry selectively cut those properties the funds the proceeds from that would go into that revolving fund which has a much broader ability for the Conservation Commission to use right your spending isn't limited now you have a lot of conservation restrictions that are under your control correct conservation properties yeah yes so but a lot of them are postage stamps right can't do anything with we can't even sell them to a Putters because they're part of the open space requirements correct um but yes old Meeting House Park was is conservation oh I have absolutely no idea that's an excellent question because there is a fund associated with that property that's separate as well MH yeah so we don't we we try so there's been a lot of questions of what can we use this there's a trust fund there too in the listing so we're deviating from from what we're here for that is something to yeah that's something for you to look into though because you do have an existing revolving fund yeah so but the idea for this the idea for this $5,000 is education not rec train that's what the $5,000 is for and we don't lose it if we don't use it all that's thank you Eric yeah it's taking a lot a lot of work you know we talked about this back and forth a little while so I appreciate you doing that for us well there's also I agree with Conservation Commission and training I think that's really important there's also certifications that are involved in some of your positions and that is funded I actually think there's a line under the Conservation Commission general fund well that's what I'm looking at here that there the WPA fund is no there's something else about that there's a lot of different things and I'm so fuzzy with it and I because the WPA we can drop for our yeah but that has to go into the to the budget budget okay and approved by the budget it's a funding item or wa training I'm probably butchering this too yeah because I get five different answers some days for training you're talking about yes because you have in your budget $500 for training yeah and that that training is is not just for no that was so there are trainings that are outside of Mac which is mass assciation Conservation Commission um so there's other training um avenues that but the idea would be this you guys can designate how that $5,000 you want to spend in those buckets that Education outre and Training and it doesn't go away after the year you can you can keep that there one of the items that we had was um dues and fees because our do for MCC have gone up there's also other professional or organizations that we want to become part of that will have a year renewal right so you have Professional Services you have $500 on dues and memberships you have $500 as well in your budget and some of these other classes that are available to go to I've utilized in the last few I've been sent to two classes at Walden Woods I've been sent to several classes and claiming in and uh they exceed what you could ever possibly learn it and but having doing it this way with the 5,000 you be able to decide in your board that you can go answer your question TR the the $500 that you're seeing and I sent you the budget worksheet that we did internally with what was requested um from the staff and myself in the commission um and what was submitted to Eric um and I believe the $500 for the dues I know the $500 for do SUB uh subscriptions is a carryover we requested originally $1,000 yeah because I think uh storm Water Association is $220 uh we're not members of the national for uh Watershed I think we did no we're not that's just a donation but you still want you know you still have to account for it well your doing membership is that is consistently over the past one two three four years has been 500 your training has been has been zeroed out except for this year this year you're asking for $500 that's all I was saying so with with a special with 5,000 you have now a pool of money for training that the extemporaneous training outside of what you normally do on a on a yearly basis so you'll have a yearly basis training and then extra money to be able to do that we're getting something anyway I'm I just I don't want to you know drag out your meeting and I appreciate everyone talking about it um you know we're in a special area we had a meeting today with Mass wildlife it's a very big thing in community outreach is one of the biggest things we struggle with yeah so if you communicate with us yep we take care of it and there going Pi that money treat tomorrow she needs me there I reach out to Teresa and she was responsive um you know Joe our pass is on everyone all trying to work together yeah thank you that's if the more information we have the better decisions we all can make it that's with agriculture works with conservation conservation with agriculture we work all of these all right article six Eric article six is the $1,000 for the historic district commission they had put in a request to also do some training some materials and supplies including they wanted to try to put up some signage around the Agri the historic districts f um so rather than put that in any budget article put not same thing we're doing just to put it in a free cash article um I suggested that to them so I'm glad they're moving forward yeah they came in said the CH and told that was the best thing to go forward with um article 7 is this is a special time beinge Warren article that we had for a while for um workers comp and vfas inured on duty claims um uh it's for $5,000 there was a a $5,000 warrant article like this for a long time and then it got zeroed out so we're just reinstating that article so what's it for just to keep on hand in case someone yep keep on hand in case we have to pay the vfis claim do we have one that's outstanding Sabrina um not sure have one before yeah but this is kind of going forward to make sure that we have those funds in case in case of emergency um uh the article eight is uh the $66,000 for the purpose of paying for CDL training for Highway Department staff as we discussed when we were talking about the highway department colle bargaining agreement um article 9 UM is $14,500 for the purpose of Contracting with a consultant to assist a bylaw Review Committee they came in and made that pitch to The Board of selectman about getting a consultant um I think there may be some there may be some changes to that proposal because I did look at the proposal that that came forward from uh the The Entity that had did made the initial pitch to The bylaw Review Committee and I'm not sure it encompasses exactly what the town's looking for but this at least would give them some funds to try and find to consult them and do what they're looking for which I think is to do some sort of substantive review of some of the bylaws um article 10 uh this is a a request from the fire department to appropriate $35,000 from ambulance receipts to fund the equipment of the heavy rescue um uh for that that new truck that we just got yeah the new the new used truck that we got yes and so new to us yes um yeah so that's that was our request but that would not be coming from freash that would be coming from Ang's receipts um article 11 is uh a snow and ice transfer uh this number is going to change because unfortunately this number was before the snow that we had on April 4th and I C more now so we'll I'll find out from uh that the the payroll and expenses for that are going to be on the warrant um for tomorrow so we'll have an updated amount for that okay now we increase increasing it for fiscal year 25 decide on that we in the current draft of the budget there is not an increase okay um just because of the other budget challenges that we were looking at that was not increased but that's something that we thought about um and then the um uh the article we disc the article we discussed the the zoning bylaw for 39 Greenville Road and zero Greenville Road um to go from industrial to residential so that's something we just talked about then there are three um real property articles uh the first two um are as a result of the rfps that we signed off on for the old Central fire station and for the old Harbor Fire Station this is to have town meeting formally approve the 50-year lease with the um uh Townson Fire EMS relief Association because the the timing of that lease that obviously requires vot um and then uh Article 15 is the uh article that we discussed about 1821 Road and just getting authorization from 10 meeting to oh there's 13 and 14 right two different yes 13 was for um the harbor old Harbor and 14 was for old sent okay just to clarify that y then 15 is the is the 181 Road um this is would all be um subject to a review by Town Council so I would send this out to Adam tomorrow after the board approved it in in generalities we get the numbers obviously finalized and then um have it reviewed by you say you okay with that yeah Joe I'm good anybody have any you know just what we talked about so yeah we' just be looking for a vote to um to close the special town meeting um warrant and approve the work articles as presented so moved second any further discussion just looking at one thing I thought on I dropped that on you all those in favor yeser okay all right so that's special time right go to the annual to that was a different agenda number was yeah that's 4.6 yeah thank you Jen thank you guys for all your service and your work keep it up I say the same to you three too for all your your work thank you it's easy okay so laughing at me the annual town meeting um there are a lot of um procedural ones in here that you you're going to see repeated from the last meeting so the first one is uh to authorize the board of Selectmen to appoint all the town officers that is a a standard one that's in every um uh in time meeting the second one is to hear the reports of any committees boards or commissions that's again a standard one article three is the revolving fund articles so these are um the revolving funds um including the three that were created last year for the police department the the last three firearm licensing public record request in detail and there increases that we talked about too and there are some increases in here that we talked about um and so those I've sent out the the information to all the the boards just to make sure or the the Departments to make sure that we were having appropriate levels of of request and so um I believe that is finalized um um what is currently Article Five um is the um the operating budget it's likely to be article four you have article three is the revolving funds then you have a blank article four so I think I think the operating bu which will be article four others will have to be red I apologize just checking um so this is the the the number the numbers in yellow are the numbers as of today they may obviously might change before the the final um setting of the budget that's the final uh uh sum of the budget um uh we are waiting on the final number for the water Enterprise I'll be working with Melissa and Dave on that this week um so I should have that relatively soon on the transfer for funds the non general fund line items um um the functional segments the section is accurate as of today um and then underneath that we're going to add the ominous budget which it's just a it's a separate document that we're talking about tonight functional s under Highway and streets is the decrease because we got the additional funding so we're able to decrease or why is that decrease so much no that decrease is because last year we put in we had $150,000 in Paving money okay and that got taken out this year taken okay thank you um so The Debt Service if you look at The Debt Service the other one that a significant drop um that is only temporary because we haven't taken out the borrowing for the second fire engine yet so when we start borrowing for the second fire engine and the ambulance which we anticipate doing next spring in FY 26 budget we going to start paying on those debts and so that amount will go up um so that's a temporary temporary dip in the in debt service and then the ominous budget which is the the next article under the no this insurance po right here so you got insurances all right 7.8 now I see we're putting extra money in because the budget that was submitted on the estimates from the insurance company we're not still in that same kind of a dilemma we're going to get an estimate and then whack us more or have we got other people bidding on this so what are we doing with no so so last year when we set the number for the budget last year we hadn't gotten the final numbers from the people that we had asked to bid on the budget number on the on the insurance number so we had that number before town meeting but the budget didn't reflect that number so we but there wasn't a there wasn't an increase during this year that wasn't budgeted for it was a number because I remember we had this conversation that you know there's other people that were bidding but this company came in a little bit less the original company so we went with them but it was an estimate and then I see we're giv more money now because the estimate was more money than the estimate they presented no there the estimate was not more money than the estimate their their estimate is what we got build but that amount was not when we set the budget that amount was on in the budget the budget carried over a level funding from from insurance from the year before so this is just the increase from one from FY 203 to FY 24 um in this case we've already so we don't have the final numbers for insurance at this year we have two people who are submitting Insurance proposals but I don't have numbers from them so the number that's in the budget is just me and basically I added at like 7.5% okay to the insurance amount but it may be different than that and so we have to make a determination as to whether we try to change it at the last minute or whether we just ride with the number that's in the budget and understand that later on the year we're going to have to either have extra money if it comes in last or we have to kind what we did last year right we we stayed with what we had in the budget knowing that we didn't have the final numbers um so I did build in a slight increase over last year but I don't know whether or not that's realistic or um okay so article six is just the majority vote to to to transfer free cash if necessary to balance the fisc of year budget I don't anticipate at this time needing free cash to balance the budget but we could keep that in there as a catch um article seven is to fix the salaries of the compensation of elected officers that's um because the for the town clerk salary um article eight is and I'm getting the final numbers from Dave but this is a vote for on the Water Department budget yeah that's last year's number those are last year's numbers so I I don't have the final numbers from Dave yet I'm last year Year's numbers either for the budget or for the the um the transfer so those numbers are going to change oh yeah they will I was going to say I remember that number from last year I don't think year they're doing a good job over there we say that article nine is the voted on Capital articles so this does look slightly different from the last numbers that that t had submitted because one of the items that was put in the capital plan was a lease for Highway for a cat and after checking with Katie those funds were actually allocated in the cap in the capital in an earlier Capital plan and that money already exists so we don't need to borrow it again this is less it's like $133,000 less than good good was proposed um do we want to get that money to fire um no comment um uh the the next article 10 is um The Prudent investment rule we had a discussion about that amongst the board earlier about putting this on the warrant uh this is the the um uh the general law that was passed by the legislature that allows us to invest um uh accordance to um uh uh accordance to what the state has called The Prudent investment rule which allows a wider range of Investments for municipalities than were previously allowed otherwise we were only allowed to put things like in savings accounts and Banks which weren't earning interest in all um article 11 is the peg access receipts we do this for the first three quarters of Peg access receipts every year uh that again is not is not a final number we don't have the I haven't I haven't gotten the third quarter numbers yet um we should be getting relatively soon because that's January through the end of March um and so we should be getting those from from Comcast and once we get that deposit from Comcast we'll have the final update this is just a carrier last when you put a note in yourself I want to talk to you about something like that too for Peg access but again this is something we do every year um the tag access transfer is something that's regular um article 12 is the $5,000 that set aside for the town's 300th anniversary 2032 that's something Town's been doing every year for the past little while to build up some funds for that celebration AR 13 is another article it's for um funding the periodic inspections of the assessors they put this on the annual time meeting War every year um then we have General bylaws and adoptions um article 14 is um a change in the term of uh the Council on Aging um uh the only change is at the request of the Council on Aging I believe that's correct Sabrina they put in this request to change the term from four years to three years so this would be changing that term for all the numbers um Article 15 is um changing the fee uh amending the fee section under the roads bylaw um and that was submitted by the planning board um so that one is remember from the planning board and I'm going to put a description in here we don't have the description in for this quite yet um uh then we come to zoning bylaws and adoptions which require two-thirds vote article 16 is amendments to the regulation of accessory Apartments um so that was also submitted by the planning board I am again I'm waiting for a description on that I think Beth's G I think Beth has already sent them but I haven't to this document yet article 17 is the fees for large scale ground amounted solar installations um again this was another one submitted by the planning board um article 18 is a deletion of the outdoor lighting provisions of the zoning bylaw um and so this would was submitted by the bylaw Review Committee um so proposal that they came forward with to delete those Provisions that's different what they had the last meeting but I'm sure okay no I mean so I did get this from Beth today so um uh I can check with her to make sure that the language is correct this is all going to be subject to review by Town Council I know that he's been looking at the bylaws from the planning board and the bylaw Review Committee but he's obviously going to look at the entirety of the of the annual and make sure that there are so but if they I know they had been working like the last five or six meeting about the um uh escaping M thing of the outdoor lighting um if it would have to be I mean they would have to have it available now right this is this is all you have or how does that work if if they still presenting it to Adam to see if it can come on the ATM they have to wait till the next one or is it too late are we closing it if we vote on it um tonight so the the the bylaw Review Committee had a series of proposed bylaws that they had come to the to the board with when they we had our joint meeting liting and one on um sound right there was a noise one but the I haven't received any finalized versions of those um and so I I I asked Beth today for the ones that were finalized and the ones she came with were these ones so my question is if when we vote on this today what to assume we're going to do do they have to wait to the next meeting to those or is there a way to amend well so let's think about this the the on on the 7th is when the the the town meeting is so we' have to have it posted the warrant has to get posted on the 23rd we have a meeting on the 23rd so it's I mean we tended to have a meeting scheduled at early in the morning on the 23rd yeah I just think keep adding stuff to that just going to get crazy I mean if this they all knew what the time frame was it's not here this will voting on and the discussion move on yeah we can't just say well let's just stretch it another week yeah know everyone knows the rules as far as I'm concerned this is what we're voting on to close this Sabrina did you get anything else from the B Review Committee from Beth I'm checking now yeah I'm checking just to make sure I didn't miss anything because I I knew that there were those other proposals but I never got finalized versions of them so um it doesn't mean we can't they it send um versions to the planning board I could certainly put it we certainly put it in a placeholder we know that they had had a tentative bylaw that was for noise we know that they had a tentative by law for outo lighting yeah but they were working on it so to us I can have a I can put a placeholder in here and just if we don't get a finalized version just delete it before the with both of them to make sure the language is right and I think Adam advises them to uh do one final check with the planning board that's the last meeting I had with them so so if you put in two placeholders then we can close then we can um take it out on the 23rd we can take it out on the 23rd why don't we do that okay put into placeholders for those possible um zoning bylaw changes and then if if we don't get them by the 23rd meeting then we'll we'll take them out Del yeah Adam might might have to advis them against it too so that might be why I'm saying this well I'd rather air on the site of C so okay I agree just trying to see I just want to make sure that you know okay so I'll talk to Veronica sure she's up to dat with you know what I didn't get it here's I'm realizing what's the the issue was Adam sent over something back in March about a noise bylaw so it looks like we have a always file off from Adam but that's the only thing I have from Adam so yeah let's keep it let's keep it open okay I'll double check with Adam and make sure that he's that those are the versions that he's already approved that way I don't want with their they're they did a lot of hard work on both of those so I want to make sure we keep them on there there a placeholder for the second one now placeholder for noise and a placeholder for another outdoor lighting by cuz I know they were talking about two of them the deleting of the Gen Del because I remember that in that meeting they did talk about the addition so so I don't want it to come down that just the deletion goes through and all that work they did in the general doesn't get so then we can just vote on those articles with those two placeholders so I'll entertain a motion to um approve the annual town meeting warrant articles as as discussed so Mo second any further discussion all those in favor say mo yes CH shank yes cheran yes thank you Eric for that the other big one today this will be a simple one uh 4.7 discuss budget for fiscal year 25 how would you like to tackle this one yeah I mean so so this budget has a couple of relatively minor changes um uh the treasurer had asked to move uh some funding from their uh equipment rental line in into a training line for the treasure collector it doesn't change the total budget number just creates a separate line and lowers the budget number for equipment rental um and and the only other change was as we discussed the removal $20,000 from the election office line so other than that the line the the lines do remain the same obviously you know we can continue to look at the budget as we have in the past we can change it up so so the very end so once again I'm going to go right back to the same thing with facilities okay that $115,000 was put into that account I get it you said that Gary says he's okay with you know he can do his budget he can change things around just to kind of get moving I get all that but if there's $15,000 in that budget that really shouldn't be there it should be taken out of that facilities account and it should be put back in the general fund I mean I don't want to see a $15,000 amount in an account that is supposed to be working and doing certain maintenance on buildings that not being done I would not be doing any of the residents the right Justice if we allow that if the money was $115,000 that was put in there taken out of a different account so that the maintenance of those buildings was being done by the facilities and it's not being done that money needs to go out of that account I don't care how you cut the pie you just can't give somebody $115,000 increase in his budget for doing nothing on those buildings I just that's only my opinion I'm only one but there was $15,000 do you know what line that went in that was about four years ago that that was done okay and the money was taken out of the fire department budget and put into and back in them days and and I was on when that was going every day our budget change money was we Chaz you remember this we were good $200,000 the next day we're 500,000 in the red but it was an absolute thing that was done I think you can talk with the fire department they can verify it they can tell you the exact line item that it was taken from but there's $155,000 that was taken out of the the fire department budget to put into facilities to maintain those buildings they're not being done that money cannot stay there if you want to keep it there go for it but I wouldn't vote for it and if we're going to be good stewards of the money of this community we need to pay attention to these things so if it was I I we would need to see exactly what line item it went into um because I I don't know if it was for building maintenance I don't know if it was for Professional Services now I think you and I may be wrong but once again you know every meeting every time we talked about the budget it changed yeah but I thought it was to go into Building Maintenance that's what I thought too because it was I think think at that time it was there was 15,000 in there he needed 30 I think that's where we are in them years 30 30 right and it went up a little bit each year yeah but that 30,000 I'm pretty sure is the line that they put it into I don't know what line they took it out of but for me I mean so I'm I'm looking at so I'm just looking at at at the the the I have a file for the BOS approved fiscal year 2021 budget um and it shows fy18 fy19 F20 and FY 2021 um and in in the the you know the expense lines fy21 was identical to fy20 and fy20 was was $20,000 less than fy19 um their budget line was 20,000 less because they took it out of their budget and put it into facility no the other direction I'm looking at the facilities line facilities in 2019 had 213,000 in 2020 was 194,000 and 2021 is 194,000 so there's no increase in fy19 20 or 21 that would account for our $15,000 being dropped in there it appears I I obviously I'm not the only one you're going to know where that money went is the man that no longer sits in that position but I'm going to tell you I think what we need to do is I I think through the chair tell Eric whatever but I think it needs to be documented what line item it came out of out of the fire department what year what date and where it went and it just needs to even if even if the fire department is accepted and they got their budget is good I don't want $115,000 extra in a in a in a an account for facilities that really doesn't justify to be there but I'm I'm just saying based on the documentation I have that never that didn't happen between fy18 and fy21 So based and again all I'm looking at is the budget documents that I have um I it's obviously not the annual Town reports so I could go and look at those but there's there's no evidence in the line items year-over-year that indicates that that happened in those years now I can look may let me look and see if it happened between fy21 and fy22 because this is the fy21 budget let's see what do fy22 look like so the fy21 and again I'm talking about non salary line item was $194,600 $99,100 in FY 23 it dropped because the Professional Services were was removed for the the Landscaping so it dropped down to 176,000 so I I just it's not clear to me based on these I think you get a clear record of what it is reach out to the fire department they have the records of it know exactly what day what line item was taken from and that needs to be addressed so why don't we look at the fire department and then have them tell you those numbers try to zero in on that and then we can send it out to the board after we get those the verification I can absolutely check with fire um but there are on I'm looking at the um the bva for it and there's when it comes to um facilities repair and maintenance on the building um there's a lot of money spent on that but there's on grounds grounds keep keeping and supplies is what we're talking about correct maintenance what it was supposed to been maintenance yeah well there's still $8,400 on that granted we're coming into our season but we'll address that in another um agenda item um I'm not and I'm good but I just that when that was going on it was really a bad deal because they were just it was a joke it was moving money around it was wrong and I just think the fire department if they can balance their budget without the 15,000 that's fine I'm happy for them but I don't want to see an extra $15,000 sitting somewhere so if we can look into seeing where the 15 if it went out in one and went into the other if we can have a document I'll try to find any information I can about that I did I did just look through the documents about the fire there doesn't in the fire budgets between 18 and 21 there doesn't see it doesn't show a dep of any $15,000 just again all I have is what what I'm looking at on the computer screen that building just down the street pick up a phone and I would call down there speak to Mr grimly because he knows exactly when he could probably give you the ex date time and when it happened I'm sure he could I'm sure he could um anything else any other questions about that budget I mean I know that again there are some numbers that are still not finalized we we will hopefully before the next time the board meets we'll get some some of these numbers you know more final but the vast majority of the budget at this point is locked in mhm it's an 8.8% increase a lot of that is salary from our negotiation and insurance a lot of that is the school is the schools yes and that's the you know the it's hard to it's hard to to overestimate uh because they've got an 11% increase on 55% of our budget so and while we're talking budgets I just want to clarify something that's out there in the world it's posted everywhere I don't follow Facebook much but we need to clarify something right now that the board as a de us we have not lost a million dollars out there there's no million dollars missing so I just need to clarify that if anyone's read that on Facebook or any of them post I do Facebook there is not a million dollars Miss just need to verify that and clarify that there never was a million dollar there never was a million doll missing so everybody in the town that whatever they want to do they want to read Facebook they want to do whatever they want don't believe what certain people are posting that we're a million dollars in in the hole look at me you've been involved the that um I do I want to discuss I just if you know and you might know Joe um there's like a 26% increase in the fire uh for new equipment but he explained that when we were talking about under Capital why that doesn't Capital he's always put his vehicles under this budget and not under capital and he hasn't got them aligned up yet the way he likeed to have them lined up so this year he has to replace more Vehicles than he normally do yeah okay I just want I forget what he called it but there's a re something about plan he has a plan just like you do in it it's it's as things go um age out then they need to be replaced but he he chooses not to keep put this under Capital because that's harder to vote for he rather just have it yeah okay correct it thank you so if you could look into that one thing um you and I will have several conversations between now and then in regards to the budget I'm sure so we can move on Eric yes 4.8 uh review and approve forestry forestry contract um I can speak on that really briefly yeah um I did find the submission from the BW committee I believe I believe that was the final version okay I can't we can say we'll we'll take a look at that fin since she's jumping back just can you look at above our signatures you have April of the Year 2023 that needs to be updated to 24 on the on the on the warrant the warrant apologize thought I caught all those okay um so is with respect to the forestry contract this is a um a contract which the affordable housing trust had um investigated to have um some forestry work done on partials that have been transferred to the trust control um I worked with Adam and his another attorney in his office to review it um there have the opinion needs to be signed by the board of selectman as well as the housing affordable housing trust um uh and so this is a this is kind of a reasonable contract it's already been reviewed by Town Council um that would allow us to to retain a percentage of the let me rephrase that will allow the trust to retain a percentage of their earnings from the the The Cutting of uh some partials that they own um and that would go towards furthering mission of the trust so just earlier we said so this theost that come under here are different than the p p can't speak today that would come under conservation correct and it's it depends on which these have been veted to the trust by the town whereas the town can put um Parcels under the Conservation Commission control but the ones under conservation wouldn't be Ina correct no this is just this is just a there were there were it went from town properties town properties then um gave some to the Housing Trust some they they have conservation other you know others they decide that the board of Selectmen um just like the article for us that we want to split that one property so that we can sell it um and this was uh uh this is in order for us to or the affordable housing trust to sustain um their budget so they're going to Forest um a portion of what they have so that they can then have money to be able to continue to do the work that they're doing okay thank you very much so we would just need a a motion to uh authorize the signing of the forestry contract as presented so move second second any discussion all those in favor she say yes yesan yes um I have a signature page with both the signatures on it you have signatures okay yep never mind on is there two spots on there or just one there's one of them that had two spots I thought that just had one but I haven't looked at in a few days a lot of the last couple of days um and I do want to say I want to thank the affordable housing trust for everything they're doing they really um doing a great job of making sure that they're sustaining themselves and taking care of the property for Town um 4.9 review and sign letter of resolution for adoption for the National Fitness campaign uh this is for the um uh the new fitness um that we had voted on seems like years ago uh but uh it does take a while to to appropriate funding um this is a resolution to adopt and allocate funds for an outdoor Fitness Court as part of the 2024 National Fitness campaign um we had a generous donation from them um and we have um appropriated majority of the funds to be able to meet what they needed um there are a couple of other things that we um I shouldn't say we the the recreation department is looking into uh but as far as um us it's a resolution and I assume I read the whole resolution Eric right yes okay so at a meeting of the board of Selectmen held on April 16th 2024 wherein the following action was taken whereas the town of Townsen town towns and Recreation Department has submitted a Grant application to National Fitness campaign for participation in their 2024 initiative to install and active uh activate outdoor Fitness courts in 200 cities and schools across the country and whereas the town of Townsen Townsen recreation department will accept a $50,000 National Grant from our NFC Grant committee and Statewide partners and provide a local match in the amount of 78,000 to promote and Implement a free to the public outdoor Fitness court and whereas the town of Townsen Townsen recreation department will secure supplemental funding as needed through Community sponsors which will be made available and committed to this program for the purchase of the outdoor Fitness court and whereas the town of Townsen will commit to construction and launch of the outdoor Fitness Court by the end of 2024 calendar year and whereas the board of Selectmen believes the out outoor Fitness Court as an important Wellness ecosystem that supports healthier communities commits to funding fundraising to participate in nfc's 2024 campaign and will earn local and National recognition as a leader in providing affordable health and wellness now therefore be it resolved that the board of Selectmen will collaborate with NFC to implement the outdoor Fitness court and make Fitness free to community residents and visitors respectfully towns and select board so do we have to do a vote on that yeah I think that should just be a motion to um approve the resolution so mov second moved in second any further discussion so this grant is it's a trademark product right it's um and I I know that the product it's a 7 Minute Workout uh it's the way I looked at it it's designed more for adults um but the I'm just curious but I'm sure kids can do anything on anything right yeah it's it well the initial design is for adults yes okay however it can be adapted to um that was my question for younger sets and I know that I've had discussions uh within the recreation department with their Commissioners and they do have certain things let's say for summer summer wreck they're going to have okay so don't have to take that adult version that's 7 Minute version that they typically offer we can have an adapted version for children okay thank you that's something that I I'm sure the uh the rec department will will be able to um to work out and again we've been working on this for three years all those in favor CH say mo yes Jo sh question 10 discuss and finalize the selection of a company to conduct an ADA evaluation of sh properties under a new Grant agreement that would be you where yeah so this is actually really exciting um the town was approved for uh an ADA transition plan Grant from the Massachusetts um office of disability um uh the total Grant amount was for $110,000 to do an ADA evaluation of a bunch of different town properties including um open space properties uh we put that out to bid we got two qualified biders that came in the low bidder was NP NorthEast Independent Living Program um Lawrence um they uh their bid was actually for uh end up being for slightly over $51,000 um so significantly less than what we our grant amount is which is great it's nice to have that happen for once um uh and so uh there's a copy of the in the in the SharePoint there's a copy of their uh Grant approval um I mean a copy of their bid and then there's the ada8 grant summary that Jess had put together real quick um so this would lead to an assess ment of all the town-owned properties buildings and land um to complete our Ada self evaluation and transition plan this is very important because it's it's the last remaining piece for our open space Rec and Recreation plan which we need to have before the state can will approve our open space Recreation plan which is a significant hindrance right now in us being able to apply for Park grants which are the open space large open space grants they get you have to have a valid open space plan in order to apply for those grants so other grants that we have we because we didn't have an adaa plan um we weren't able to apply for them I think we're is it there's another housing choice I think is another one that we would be now eligible for that we've been working on building the criteria for that yeah so this is a this is really important this is actually a company that I'm familiar with they did an Ava evaluation um uh for a bunch of buildings in L when I was there um and so you know I'm familiar with the person who uh was the lead on this and he did a really good job when he worked with L so um we just be requesting the uh the the board to approve a contract with Northeast Independent Living For The $ 51,1 1958 and authorize me to sign a b the board once we get a final second I was ready I don't all those in favor say shank yesan yes I'm glad to check that one off because that now opens up the door for several other things once we get that completed um that we've been working on for a couple years now um 4.11 Surplus request highway department and regarding the payar plow truck so this is just a relatively straightforward um there's a a plow truck that is in really bad shape this the one that's thrusted all out the bottom believe that's the one um and under the gas and the the clutch it's all you can see the road Jimmy is ready for this truck to no longer be used so he's requesting um that this payar 5,000 P truck uh be surplused well entertain a motion to Surplus the highway department payar plow truck so Mo second any discussion all those in favor Cas yes CH yes 4.12 mandatory referral from the planning board this is uh for 108 to 112 West Meadow Road um I don't know if you've reviewed the um storm water man management application um just because I was on planning I reviewed it um do you have any comments on that um we can do either no comment or make a comment how would you like to proceed I just always like to defer to the planning board okay I mean you were on the planning board you have a better knowledge of what that says so what would your opinion be um I personally there's a couple of things that I would would question when they do the um when they do the hearing uh but I do believe that the um planning board will be able to flush out those so um I have full faith in the planning board to be able to carry out their duties so so no comment okay because I do not want to figure out what the difference between Stony and very Stony so I'll just put no comment no com yeah defer to all right planning board for Point 13 review discuss overtime balance of Highway superintendent um that had a you put the letter from Jim there the email yes oh just the letter okay this is what we had talked about before that we had exhausted in that last um surprise storm yeah surprise we can say um that did put him in overtime status and he's requesting to have that um what was it $666 and $60 cents 60 cents I was a little nervous about that total yeah I would never never I would change my hours yeah no way would I accept that check um but if you don't have any issues with that I'll entertain a motion to approve that over time for James so moved second any further discussion all those in favor yes Jo yes yes thank you Jimmy for all the hard work you do for us um 4.14 review and approve agreement for Greenville Road land fil with Weston and Samson Engineers Eric I think that's all you sure this is um pretty straightforward this is just a renewal um by the Board of Health of the environmental monitoring agreement between the Town West and Samson for uh the landfill they had it for the prior years and um this is um just a a renewal request with u moderate increases over the over the two years and this would be effective when we sign it or effective when the last contract ends because of the date so left lank yes so it would be effective as of today they still haven't done their monitoring for fy2 24 yet okay um so that's why that's in there it's it was budgeted so that there's funds budgeted to cover that amount and there's and the The increased amount is also budgeted for next year so would just allow them to do their monitoring for the end of the fiscal year because we have reporting requirements with the state and the federal government I believe for the the landfill monitoring so we would just be looking for a motion to approve the agreement for the environment monitoring so moved second any further discussion all those in favor say mo yes yes chanian yes uh 4.15 Surplus request facilities regarding the lawn Mo um no this is not deju yeah we already done that we already been down this yeah well the but wait there's more wait there's more more yeah um there always is so as the as the board last time um uh deferred on uh approval of the Surplus because of concerns about they not being Mower and not being a plan to have a uh an appropriate mower for the town hall so so Roger uh worked with Rob um to um see whether or not uh they could find an appropriate uh uh location that would offer trade in allowance for the existing moer towards uh a a newer more appropriate mower for the location and they found one so they they found um uh Roger came down with this truck took the mower down to the place um I think it's in lemonster it might be in Lunenburg I'm not exactly sure uh where the person took a look at the mower um and and gave a generous tradeing allowance towards a new mower um this there's a Delta of $1,100 um between the tradein value of the existing Mower and the new mower um that Rob is funding out of his existing budget there would be so far as concerned this is just a back door wave coming back at us well no and and I I've investigated exact details on this what this will be is that this equipment now is more negotiable here but he can also use it next door and over here any parcel that any parts of this that is in there it's a smaller mower it's a zero clearance or whatever the terminology is what make it do we have any any any Ledger on this thing um let me see the the the let me see what I I believe that they emailed me something so do we have numbers what we got for trading because now we're going to spend $1,100 more dollars yeah $4,000 in trade for the existing Miller and this also comes with the with the Delta there's going to be a bagger there's there's other attachments that go on it as well and I I again just to be just to be clear I did you know this this was vetted by both Rob and Roger as to whether or not they thought it was an appropriate Mower and thought it was an appropriate trading value I think Roger actually Twisted the guy's arms to get us a higher tradein amount than than otherwise so um they coming in now is because this offer was given last week was it yes and they he wanted it before the season started so this is why I said let's put it right on the um agenda and take care of it so may a motion to the Surplus list so move one second any discussion yeah I would like to know a little bit more about what we're doing we we're we're trading in a 61 in Ferris deck mower which just last year I sold my us when I sold my house I got $5,000 for it used not as big as this this is a bigger deck mower I see this this is twice the deck mower I sold as a used one I think $4,000 for that is cheap you know what I mean I really do if this is the way we're going to go we probably should have done a little I get Roger works very hard he does really good but I I think it could have been sold for more I think you just put it out in general public out there You' get more than 4,000 can certainly do that I mean the board can say we're Surplus it we want you to put it out on municip bit and see what we get and we could set the Reserve at $5,000 or $6,000 like we did with the town car and see if we got that yeah and I don't want to screw up anything that you guys got planned to do here but I just think that 4,000 is low but that's only my opinion I have nothing planned I'm just saying that this is this is what was you know they he had put up for Surplus and I wanted to make sure that we were doing something with it that was well what what gets me okay just really a thorn in my side when it comes in front of us and he asked that he wanted a surplus it and we took a stance as a board we weren't going to do that and then three weeks later it comes back in a different version that's not that's not the way to do it it just isn't well just to be fair when the board acted last the answer was we're not going to do this now because there's not a plan for how you're going to get another Miller so don't come back to us until you know how you're going to get another mower we're not leaving that up in the air right and that's why they went this route was because that's what they heard from the board that we need to have a plan to have another mower because we don't want there to be a complaint that there's no way for you to mow because you sold the mower you had now you don't have a new one you don't have any money for it that was the that was the Genesis of the reason why it went this way was because that we heard from the board and the facilities heard from the board and I heard from the board that we're not willing to do this until you tell us how we're going to be mowing this summer we're not going to leave it the chance you're going to find a mower or not going to you know magically try to try to find money then to come up to find a mower so this was a way in order to facilitate getting a mower so that there's an answer certain for the town as to how the mowing is going to get done in town hall this summer that's we told them to find another mow they found another M so now they what are their options for this m they could trade it in which is like what we tried to do with the town car but that was valued at over $10,000 so that that couldn't be done so we put it out to bid and that didn't that didn't go that great right I mean eventually we got B no we got we we we put it out to bid we got I thought we had to redo it like a couple of times we said we put it out to bid and I set the reserve too high we set the reserve too high we didn't make the reserve so I had to put it out again and we sold it for you know for so that's an so that's the option or just take the money and run that we know it's 4,000 sure I was saying do it like set it at 6,000 see if we can get 6,000 if not we set it 4,000 three 5,000 4,000 I think we problem we might have with that is in if the mowers not being used or we sell it and he doesn't have another plan so just it seems like it's Rogers put a lot of time into this well and I agree and I would trust what Rogers opinion is and if that's the case we're going to be guaranteed I'm Mo move on and I I appreciate your your your thoughts and feelings in regards to this because initially that's what my thoughts and feelings were is that it came back but then again I thought well this also allows um this lawnmower to be able to do that over there and cemeterian Parks doesn't have to come over and do that and now are we guaranteed that his assistant can drive this m that is a completely different question that's completely like well we're GNA get a mo we gotta get one that just not one person can drive again that's not something that's within the discussion about the Surplus and we we especially because you and I have talked offline about that sort of issue that's not something we can discuss as I don't think we can discuss that without having a separate agenda item to discuss that that's a separate issue it's a Personnel issue that I think we well what if we know what we're going to get for a m we know what we're going to trade in well now let's bring it back around and say okay let's have this thing so that we don't get this Mower and we're right back at the same square that any employee can't drive it only this one person so maybe we need to be looking don't buy something that's really limited us who's going to use it yeah I mean I think the challenge with a with a slot like this is residential a residential mower is not really sufficient if you're talking about all this acreage right like that's that's the challenge that we're running into and um I I am I am I hear what you are saying that's a one of the things that we we talked about in the facilities budget was adding in some extra money so that that Rob can have laborers see and that's okay I'm good I'm I just leave that one on you guys vote on it I ain't voting on it because we're just we're creating ourselves a nightmare here what what are we doing we're gonna add more money so he can have laborers so he can do it come on why don't you just shoot ourselves in the head that's good I'm good with that I'm not gonna I'm not stressing myself over that it's it's it's a no- win situation right there so I'm only looking at the Surplus and I'm only looking at the fact that we do need a lawn mower to be able to mow Town property and that lawnmower is going to be able to do here and over at the heart Library um and it will relieve staff from the cemeterian parks that actually come over here and have to do over there going to do the Backlot too yes y all those in favor say yes Joe shank yes J uh 5.0 Opera projects so um as folks are aware of we um were awarded a mass Trails Grant to do the uh s rail trail connectivity project it started to put a sidewalk basically starting at the Harbor Church going down towards South Street and doing the intersection of South Street um when we went out to bid for that project it came back as significantly higher than the grant amount plus the arer money that we had um so we were in a situation where because that's Mass do right away we reached out to mass do to see if they had any kind of flexibility part of the problem was for Mass do they say when you touch an intersection you got to do the intersection so you had to do the handicap ramp on one side you have to do the handicap ramp on the other side and it increase the cost over what we got awarded in our Mass TR Grant so the upside is um Jessica Anda reached out to mass trails and they're optimistic that if we put an application for an amendment we can get additional money from Mass trails to cover the difference between what the bids came in and what our grant amount plus the AR money we had set aside for us it's the rail trail Squan cook rail trail tell we put as much as we can put into this and they got to figure out where the rest of the money comes from they're they're open to it we just got to re reapply so we we we've worked with them really closely they've been really helpful because our engineer firm that we had had put in certain amount of expect expected costs for different things and the bids that we got in had some of those costs were exponentially larger than our engineering firm had anticipate um um so we explain that to the m to mass jails they understood they said you need to come back and and do application for an amendment here's the flip side um that requires additional match M Trails has a 20% match requirement um so um we've identified arpa funds that were in the storm water management line in arpa to transfer I believe it's $1,000 from that into the harbor um sidewalk Trail connectivity line in arpa to make up our match so we can meet the Delta between what we were given as a grant and what the actual bids came in so this reallocation form would be to transfer $111,000 from um the arpal line for storm water into the arpa line for the harbor trails and then we can contract that so that we would be able to to to well that this is the first step for us applying for that Amendment because we have to already have identifi the match funds um we don't have $1,000 in any other line sitting that we can say we put into APPA money into that sidewalk sofa so we had $50,000 that were originally Set Side AR For That Sidewalk so this would Jack that up to 61,000 so does this need to be a motion to reate needs to be a motion to reallocate funds from the storm water ARA storm water line into the AR Harbor sidewalk line so moved second second any further discussion all those in favor she say mo yes shank yes CH yes so we'll I'll talk to Jess and we'll put in the the amendment she will put in that Amendment tomorrow well it was disappointing when those bids are open that's sure yeah and the amounts that came in one of them came in at twice what we were what the the funds that we had set aside in the from the gr and that was the high one obviously the there was a they there was a an ad alternate to try to do um some different stuff along there and it was the the ad alternate for concrete was just that blew off the bits out of the water I still don't understand why they just they only have that two little small trestles I mean think how the sidewalk do they have an actual cost what is it costing everybody not just towns and but anyone involved what is that little 200 300 feet or whatever it is sidewalk what is that costing it's what the reason why it's costing more is because we only figured we could do that one side of the street but because of dot we have to do all and we have to go to the other side in front of shepherds where that that sidewalk there making us redo that too redo the whole thing so but what my point I'm trying to get at is why don't we go and say to the rail trail people extend from the church stay on a railed and continue down get right out of that intersection because we can't go behind the the Historic Society won't approve going on property owners along that way that are not allowing but they don't own it the rail trail is the rail trail I I hear what you say for 20 fight for 20 years I I I hear what you are saying and I I don't disagree with you but the the answer that we've been given is we're not there bikes can't go back there you want bikes they have to go out on the in front of the by 119 so the how soon can she get this in and how soon will we know we already have the amendment drafted we're just waiting for this vote so that we could tell Mass trails that we have the match okay so that Jess is gonna submit it tomorrow okay good Jess and Aaron are going to submit that tomorrow and then we will we'll be waiting to hear from them to you know to see what their their answer is did we vote on that yes okay oh 5.1 let's let's have Eric talk okay thec so um the first uh update would be the the amendment to the Constable policy um so there's it's in the SharePoint the proposed amendment to the Constable policy um uh it allows the select board to reserve the right to wave any fees associated with the application process um next simple huh yeah simple try to keep it pretty straightforward there's the full Council policies there but this just allows us to basically say the board likan can wave it whenever they want um and so that um vote on that right yes we just need to vote to the Second Amendment to the policy so Mo second any further discussion all those in favor say mo yes shank yes R yes so I've got a couple of different updates they're in the the document but I want to let you know um we got an update from John Paige regarding the towns and Charter um earlier this month which one from 2015 yeah um uh so the Senate council did compute the review of the charter they redrafted the bill and um uh they made some changes that are technical changes but don't affect the substance of the bill so the clean copy is supposed to be uh voted on by the Senate and then would need to be voted on by the house um we also got an update from rep Scarsdale basically providing the same information so the the the downside is we're running up against the time clock we they need to vote on it relatively soon or else we're going to run out of time in the session so they're optimistic that it's going to get done because this was kind of the last remaining procedural hurdle that for some reason the Senate decided to throw in front of this but I'm hopeful that this means that they're going to actually be able to take a vote and then it would go back to the house which would be a simple procedural vote for the house to approve it I just want to thank John paage for keeping for shepher um I know he's been checking on on a on a weekly basis and I also want to thank um representative Scarsdale for for she's going to try to get it push through for us to get it been working hard both um the other kind of important update for folks to know is that that we did get a signed agreement with North Middle sex for the summer wck program to proceed its balding and so that's been kind of up in the air for a while um I think the agreement makes sense um you know it's it's um uh it was it took a lot longer than I had hoped to get to this point but we did get the signed agreement on Friday so um that's that's a positive thing so yes now that the rec department is able to make plans and has dates and we're we're running and I think more importantly this agreement is not just for one year so it this is going to kind of the Frameworks in place to go forward without having the rec department being waiting every year to figure out what the school district wants to do so I think that's a positive thing positive yeah um let's see um I I think that's GNA be it for updates for today you sir talked a lot I think you probably don't hear me talk anymore I think that's it um all right I'm waiting for my document by .2 reports from board leaone leaon let start off with General government so the ma major one I kind of need your assistance with um is coming from the Conservation Commission so they reviewed the um letter um and the letter we received on April second um but it refers to a letter back in February that supposedly sent and said we had x amount of days from that letter um uh to respond about the upcoming herbicides being sprayed by unitel um and the reason uh that can for areas that respond they'll do manually and what they state is if an areas of Farmland uh a keeper of bees uh different type of things like that they should be able to respond so the Conservation Commission is working with them to make sure we haven't missed that deadline or we can get an extension of that deadline so we can give Town people uh a um time to to respond and I don't know if the easiest way is to look like it's on our battery road so like the water department should be made aware on aops farm he has bees on that farm I know for sure he has bees on the farm plus it's farm so if it's easier to just look at that map and identify people we need to reach out to and ask to TOA or put something on the web page and say look herbicides are being sprayed if you don't want it to be sprayed from the air and you want manual spraying go to a website and so I spoke I said to the Conservation Commission that I would bringing it up in this meeting and see if you had any ideas on the best way to make sure that we let the town's people know that this is going on and how they can opt out uh as best as possible un is UN they they're GNA do what they want to do no you do have the right to opt out and have them manually sprayed but we it's our they won't do anything unless we send them a list correct we have to gather that that's the board of selectman's privy to send that out I'm so I I'm I don't know that I've never heard of of that requirement from from unitel but doesn't mean it's not real um and I it wouldn't make any sense to me that a private property owner couldn't say hey but they would have to deal with that on their own but um but I don't see familiar with with that I guess what what they're asking is how do we make like the the the citizens of Townson know they who the Conservation Commission there two gentlemen that way he so my understanding um because I had take an issue with um um them spraying the U I forget what they called it but there's something to restrict the growth of the plants right within the and that's what they're doing again correct um there is I believe that um there is a representative from unel that does our area you know so we have the name of the representative we even know the form you you can use to to do my question is how do we get that information this is when Mr Gates made the comment about Outreach and and I agree to that um it would if this is a concern of the Conservation Commission then it would be the responsibility of the Conservation Commission to either um you know try to do a a target market to those particular areas where that that's on those Maps either send them a postcard or whatever send a letter um uh to let them know that they're on property that Unitil is going to be spraying and maybe include what Unitil put in as what pesticides using or what I forget what it's called something suppression growth or grow supression and I also saw maybe something on the web page with a link if they want to create some kind of flyer or whatever yeah absolutely and we can put it into on the same page or even just provide us with a a link or something like that so that we can we can just have the we link it over okay it over okay and we even thought uh that would probably be impossible you only allowed eight digits or whatever but like maybe even the street signs you know got these C form probably not going to be clear enough I mean we get enough blowback from the three o'clockish on this road Clos from dawn Sunrise is sunet is people drive yeah Is people driving all day long road's closed I know those signs are impossible um I I understand what they're trying to do and I think they're going to try to do something at Earth Day Too put it out there perfect yeah that's that's kind of how we approach it too and then um the bylaw I'm going to follow up with that because I really thought that they had that they had more so well no I think Sabrina found oh she found oh okay bring sluth yeah we'll just make sure that they're finalized that it that's it Finance you know Finance is something really tole uh elected boards um continued on working with uh continue with um the water department um the water department progress looks really good um there's been some uh um changes I know that I'm working with Eric right now in regards to finding out if the monies that that the water department receives from um the settlement if they can put that into a interest bearing account um to be able to um to use that um I know I've reached out we talked with MD when they came here I haven't heard anything from them have you heard anything um but I did let the one of the Commissioners know that you and I have talked about it I brought it up to MD and we haven't heard anything as that I think their General answer was as long as it's water related water would get it and then they can when they get the money they can they're allowed to do with it what is allowed ironically I think that prudent investor thing that's in the the downtown meeting might allow them to put it in something get earn more interest and therefore help us a little bit more yeah um with the rates but um you know I think think unless we hear something different I think that would be the plan yeah we've had um I know that I've been with looking at what other towns in our situation have been and we've really been way before the curve to get this because several towns in the area have been declined um to get some of the uh funding that that we've gotten um and we're very lucky to have the PE the right people in the right places to be able to get what we needed to and again Senator Cronin and Margaret scar were very helpful with us to to get that set up over the last couple of years um and they're still on track to have that all set um by November so that's a that's a huge thing um I know that I've worked with the recreation department uh with the what we uh the resolution that we talked about today um I've also U been working with the rec department to be able to um strengthen their their it footprint so they now have uh solid Wi-Fi over there we've put in a new rack and new switches uh so that they have a telephone number that works every time you pick it up instead of intermittently um and they're able to use their um some of their games on their TV for the kids now because they're they're more solid over there so um that I think is a big plus um I know that Planning and Zoning they're chugging right along both of them have had full agendas um I just want to say that all the boards that I've been working with it's very very nice to be as collaborative as they are uh the boards and and committees are talking to one another um we collaborate when we can in our meetings here and I think that's making it easier all the all the way around um I'm getting positive uh feedback from the community in regards to their um uh Communications and and their interactions with our boards and committee say that you guys you guys have got your stuff together and that's good to hear um so I think all of us are are doing what we can do to keep our our our boards going um Public Safety Joe um not a lot to report police department I think the only concern he has is I think Eric you've been involved just we got just be pay really close attention these concerns at town meeting how we're going to kind of maintain keep that under control that something doesn't go wrong there um other than that his Department's running real smooth things are good naturally every Department's complaining of their budget we're all doing the best we can on that fire department I think is done a tremendous job I I've had a couple meetings with Gary and um the new assistant chief I think he's going to be a he's going to be a home run for us he's a really well educated well knowledgeable of fire service that's really good far as the um building department Eric you and I have been kind of in the loop I think things are going really well um I think it's it's moving in the right direction I know there was a couple emails that you and I've seen that you're working with him on and other than that I think once again as you said it's really nice to see everybody working together talking and and moving forward that's the most important it makes it easier for all of us y That's it um I'll add to to that Joe um I know that with the fiber project that I've been working on um it it was very nice to be able to get into the police department get what we need to get done full cooperation from both the fire and the police and that's always been a struggle um but uh that it's nice to see yeah you want to come over what time all right and they're right there so I'm very pleased with how everybody's doing everything 5.3 announcements and Communications um go by what how it's Carol's live forever benefit and run um this is on May 31st uh from 5: to 8:00 pm um that's the benefit then there's a run on October 5th 2024 and that's 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. or so is um ticket cost for that is $15 for the benefit that'll be at what it Brewing Company in Westminister uh tickets for the Run um they're looking for sponsors um but we'll have this up in the website there's also Raffles involved in in that um uh so Heroes live run forever benefit and run um this is a Memorial Road Race in memory of the Templeton EMT Tracy barazza um the next one is the yard sale um Townsen 2024 Townsen wide yard sale i' people have asked me um when this is going to be it will be Saturday May 18th the rain date is the Sunday the 19th uh this is to benefit the kids country playground um they are looking to register more than 50 yard sales at homes uh with the registration you'll receive online publicity via social media flyer signs your location and description of goods are on the map spaces are available on Town Common parking lot $15 um there is a registration for and that also will be on the website for that next is towns and Earth Day April 20th that is uh this Saturday uh 10:00 a.m. to 3 pm it's at the North Middle sex Regional High School um the rain date is April 21st but it looks like it's going to be a good day on Saturday so um let's hope it's not as windy as it has been the past couple of years I spent the DAT trying to hold down the tent but there'll be vendors and Crafters um each spot is 10 by1 um the uh information is already on our website and uh there's not only vendors but there'll be other other things available um for you to be able to um to see fudge and popcorn and all that kind of stuff is available as well um I did tell um Stacy our uh director of the libraries that I was going to make this announcement today um she wanted to share the news that Kathy Hill has worked for the town of Townsen as a librarian for 30 years 30 years yesterday was her official anniversary she started on April 15 1994 um and she attached a picture um and the picture is adorable we're going to make sure that's up on the website as well but she's sitting at her desk with a big 30 behind her um and um there is also we're be putting up um there's a a survey uh which is a safety action plan in regards to um MBA uh the Mart um mrpc is doing a survey the survey we're looking for U public feedback and the public feedback link will be put on the website um this is in regards to any type of public transportation if you have any comments or concerns uh what your needs are uh the town has been providing Transportation on Mart from here to the fitzburg Intermodal um uh we'd like to know from the public what your thoughts are on it uh the ridership hasn't been that great um so we'd really like to be able to get some feedback to find out uh we did have a lot of interest when we did our last survey in regards to Transportation getting rides to the Intermodal was a big thing and we got Mark to agree with us to get Transportation there and that didn't seem to to have big ridership so we're asking anybody and everybody to go in fill out that application uh fill out that survey so that we have public input in regards to that um you guys get anything the only thing I want to mention is uh G uh V is going to be at Earth Day we just hope people stop by uh if they have anybody that needs to arrive they can grab the information from us or if anybody's interested in volunteering to drive a veterans you don't have to be a veterans but of Drive veterans to their appointment will'll have the information how to sign up for that um 5.4 the next meeting is going to be April 23rd at 11 o'clock is there could it be any earlier at all if possible I'll be here well just I know how Teresa feels about early she like what do you mean by early I am leaving for Iceland that afternoon I'm leaving afternoon so I mean mean we we could do it as early as as you know nine o'clock if you guys 10 o' I mean what time you it doesn't matter just you guys just know even if we do 10 o'clock I'm leaving to lemonster later on in the day we could do it at 10: and that way everybody time so you're not you know 10 o' is good that perfect thank you for that you make that change for me Sabrina and we'll get that agenda in ASAP um then the next meeting after that is 57 um is our regular meeting and then the special T meeting um 6m right then special we haven't set the time for the regular time meeting for the regular meeting it might be at 6 it might be at 5:30 depends on whether we have things we need to do we'll set that the 423rd meeting that should be a quick one we don't anticipate that paper going to keep the way we do it sometimes do it earlier I just want to make sure anticipating a very good Chaz and I don't have any place to go so maybe we'll just drag it out we'll get our ice cream now yeah we'll move it along trust me um okay I'll entertain a motion to enter into executive session pursuant to General first let's first let's do 5.5 5.5 review and sign uh I'll entertain a motion to review and sign payroll and bills payable warrants out of session so move second all those in favor she say yes yes cheran yes um now I'll a motion to enter into executive session pursuant to General Law chapter 30A uh section 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions with respect to litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares which he does in regards to the police Union arbitration and um adjourn from executive session so second all those in favor TR Mo yes shank yes CH Duran yes