##VIDEO ID:OUT9AGObOSs## call the meeting to order you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge algian to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all good evening welcome to the Monday August 12 2024 meeting of the Westport Select board under Mass General Law chapter 38 section 20f this meeting is being recorded um I wanted to start um the meeting uh by acknowledging the passing of Ken Nicholson Kendall G Nicholson 79 of Westport peacefully passed away on Monday August 5th at Charlton with his family by his side he was the husband of Linda Nicholson they were married in 1970 and had just celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary Mr Nicholson was born in Fall River um and had lived in Westport for over 50 years he was a veteran of the Cuban Missile Crisis he served his country in the US Coast Guard he was a retired firefighter for the town of Westport a profession he began in 1973 he also volunteered his time as a Boy Scout leader and with his therapy dog the late Casey I bet a lot of people remember him with Casey um at the C Council on Aging the macomer school in the area nursing homes he'll be remembered as a loving husband father and grandfather so our sympathies uh go out to the Nichols family I know um I really like talking to him because you he always you Casey was there and you go talk to Casey and he was just a a wonderful man and I'm I'm I'm sure his family is going to miss him do we have anybody else want to say anything just that his family's committed a lot to Westport he has a son that's on the police department and a son that's on the fire department so they continue to serve the town we appreciate it yeah thank you um a couple of um announcements um the uh on if you go to the town web page you can see um there is a posting for wind turbine debris removal um there have been parts of the wind the vineyard wind um accident that they had um has been washing on Shore and they're asking that the public please not touch the material but um there are a couple of numbers to call Vineyard wind is at 83369 5768 you can find that on the web page but please don't don't touch um the debris just call the call the number to have somebody come out um and then I uh was asked to mention I think it was um there's some changes moving they're moving some things around at the transfer station um the bike drop off for the bike walking committee is going to be moving down the hill um and then also the Boy Scout can redemption are moving down the hill so you look on that for their new locations but there um in the coming weeks at the transfer station is there any other acknowledgement or recognition Okay so we have a public hearing including a request from the shellfish Advisory Board does any want to come forward I mean service director want to come forward somebody want to come forward um so we have a few topics you can have a seat the first topic is a request from the shellfish Advisory Board to make the following changes to the rules and regulations exclusion of oysters from the current shellfish permit and create a new license for oysters with a $200 fee oysters shall only be harvested from a boat no waiting north of pig Bridge area bb415 and reduce the oyster Daily Harvest from three Westport baskets to two so that's what the posting said do you want to introduce yourselves and then tell us uh my my name's uh Ronald savaria I live in 19 Shirley Street and I'm the chairman of the shellfish Advisory board so one of the reasons we want to have a decrease in uh the amount of oyers you can take and create a license over the past three or four years it's gone from like maybe four or five you know local people uh shell fishing for oysters and now there's at least nine or 10 when when the RO is open so it's really getting overfished I have um this Chris Leonard Christopher Leonard uh marine services uh we have the yearly reports that we do um for the shellfish Department Department the waringer department the Harbor Master department and what we have here is we have a shell fishing log and we will go out and check commercial fishing um several times a day to see who's out what they're catching um and in that log at the end of the year we then say we put together in our um yearly reports uh just for instance we're just looking at uh December 202 2 uh around 312 baskets of commercial oysters were harvested in Westport uh and that's pretty much the going rate with a a value of oh somewhere $18 $20,000 um year 2020 year 2021 is pretty similar to that uh then we look at the report from 2023 and for commercial oysters we are up to 816 baskets so there is a big demand for oystering specifically in the area of hicks brbd and north of hicks Bridge commercially um I can say that this is an area that is supported naturally we have purchased oysters and planted them up there but we don't do it every single year um and we let Mother Nature run its course I talked to uh Mr Fenley who who runs uh the oyster operation in Westport and I asked him how how long do you think that it would take for a natural spat to then get to a mature oyster and the answer was somewhere around 5 years so we would rather be on the side of conservation in with this influx of increased fishing on this area that is not a relay area we do not plant 5,000 bushels of oysters in this area we let Mother Nature do its thing we try to help out where we can but we just feel that we would rather be on the side of conservation as opposed to take it all and then deal with it and so with these uh yearly reports we do have that evidence that it is being um fished more than it has in in the past and so we want to just be on the right side of things okay um so we have several topics for them but on this one from changing to increase to separate oysters from the Shelf make that a special license right and then with a two basket um instead of three Daily Harvest correct and we are talking specifically about commercial licenses um I'm just looking at the agenda um it it's just saying um a a new license for oysters it should be a new license for commercially harvesting oysters sorry that's just an oversight um I would like to say because I did talk to a person today in the the select Board office who had a concern about the family license and we do not not want to have a change in regulations to a family license this is specifically for commercial um commercial harvesting so so under the section 4403 here where it just says oyster license $200 you're suggesting it should be commercial oyster commercial shellfish commercial oyster harvesting license yeah okay yes all right any questions on that anything on that right what's what's the pleasure of the board I'll entertain a motion to approve this request to change second any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous so then the next section here is a u request from the board to increase the following fees so resident family schal up yes go ahead um I'm sorry to interrupt we we had this what was put through in the fee hearing um that we had earlier I'm not sure if it was before the year turned to 2024 um but these are all current prices right now now so I just I would I would request that that no action be taken on this because we've we've already we've already done this I didn't see the all right so we're skipping over B skipping over B you yes yes that is already yes thank you are we doing C yes okay so um can I just I'm just going to uh go back for one more thing there was another um in in my conversation with a um a resident of Westport today that we wanted to just make sure that the the weighting and harvesting of oyers from a boat would be in area 4.15 exclusively and that you would be able to Wade for oysters and other parts of the river the reason that we do not want waiting north of hicks bridge is because we do have uh two ancient oyster reefs that run parallel with the natural unmarked channel that is north of hixbridge cuz we don't Mark a channel north of hicks Bridge through the Harbor Master department so we have some bottom there that is rather Rocky where the oysters are located um but we also have a lot of mud and muck and the fear is that if you are out of your boat and you are tromping around you are just pushing good oysters in some locations into the mud um to the point of no return um so we just want to make sure that the no waiting is specifically for for the area of BB 4.15 north of hicks Bridge uh exclusively everywhere any other location it would be acceptable but I just wanted to clarify that because that was a concern um from uh somebody uh today not only with the family shellfish permit the also to make sure that that was specifically designated for that area yeah I think I mean I think what you have in 45 44516 here I think it May pation slightly different but I think yeah a little bit but I just I just wanted to clarify that in in case they're watching just to make sure that it was noted and just to make sure that we're clear on that okay thank you all right C so request from the shellfish Advisory Board to approve the application request of Christine feny 658 old Harbor Road for a transfer of shellfish aquaculture license for Gooseberry site number three comprised of 25 acres do you want to tell us what this is about um we had um Mr Fenley the the patriarch of um the Fenley family uh passed away and um we would like to keep uh the license within the family uh I've talked to other locations um whether it's cudy hunk uh specifically that uh the oyster uh the aquaculture licenses would remain in the family until the family would then return the license to um to the town this area in particular is offshore you need to have done your homework and have a infrastructure that's put in there you're not just going to go out in your rowboat um in Buzzard's Bay and start up a new operation you need to have that infrastructure um in dealing with the Fenley family and all of the families that are we have 81 Acres of aquaculture in Westport um they dot eyes cross T's and the division of marine fisheries actually uses Westport as a a pseudo model for how to operate an Aquaculture farm so without having any violations in needing to have a massive infrastructure in this location to keep moving forward um we believe that is only reasonable to keep the license within the family well the note I have from Jim says that he was the that that um Miss benley was the only applicant yes so we went through there's a waiting list for these locations we sent registered notice to all the people on the waiting list to see if they had any interest in this site they did not have any interest in the site so family was yeah so we're going to continue it with the family corre and yes okay is there any questions or discussion on that one oh I'll move it second all right so we have motion to second to approve the uh application request is there any further discussion I forgot to say this is a public hearing so anybody from the public have anything should have asked that before all right all in favor I I that's unanimous all right anything else Chris going on uh it's just we are in the heat of passion right now um if we can get through um shellstock Shell stock is going to be this Saturday Saturday Saturday the 17th you can uh get tickets on um event prite uh and local businesses within the town um so we're going to we're going to plug Shell stock and um please come out and it's to purchase shellfish to be planted within the Westport River um other than um isn't there a roof outside of your uh your Shack is it still there there is yeah well yes yes we we have a a new um a boat Barn that is that is uh pretty close there um but we can plug Shell stock I can also thank uh the board for allowing the banner to go across Main Road uh it's very helpful for us to just try to fund raise bumped out Sumer Market yeah to fundraise um so yeah that'll I'm going to get in touch with um the highway department to take that down as as soon as we're finished there and um right now in the Departments we're just trying to get everybody home safely uh we have um planted around 1,200 bushels uh in the shellfish department and in the harbor Master Department we are just making sure that everybody has their Waterway user stickers right now if your boat is in Westport waters for more than two weeks you do need to pay a Waterway user fee um so we're just trying to keep the peace and and once uh once Labor Day hits I'm ready to high five anybody that wants to high five so you know it's just a but it's a constant we've we've had multiple calls uh it's a 247 job always uh for me I'm the the point person that if there's a problem in somebody dialing 911 uh I'm the person that lives a mile away from the boat and then can rally everybody to go out there and and help save and and anybody that might be in trouble out in the water so right well thank you for what you're doing thank you Chris right thank you do we have a status on that sit we we get the status on that roof there's an older building that is fallen into the water down at Westport Point the building inspector has made numerous attempts to contact the owner and he's still going through that process I spoke to him today we may have to take an additional Step at some point and uh do an assessment of the building and and try identify funds to remove it we cannot get the owner to do it so the owner still hasn't stepped up yet we have not heard from the owner okay thank you whose property is that leech Eve leech um so uh we're on to two license and permits we have request from the Holy Ghost Club at 171 Sodom Road for one day liquor licenses at 179 Sodom Road for the following days Sunday August 18 and clam baale from clam boil from 12:00 to 5: Saturday August 3 first Elvis concert from 4: to 8 Sunday September 15 class reunion from 12:30 to 4:30 so we do we have received a favorable police recommendation on all those move with the police recommendations I will second any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous um so appointments and resignations um we have these are 25 25 or 2025 appointments so we have cable Advisory Board request for for one-year appointment for Josh Brum Carrie Cuna Bob dalor Renee kokan and Donald crudus you doing them individually do you want to do them all at once whatever you want all right let's do if anybody wants a hold on something say hold we'll do this all together um historical commission three-year appointment for William Kendall energy committee one-year appointment Walter Barnes Brian knp Henry Ritter Max kenberg Manny sores internet advisory uh board for one-year appointment Shauna te Keith Novo and Kathy lanyard move them all second is there any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous we have a request from Bonnie Shel Library director to appoint Amy mados say assistant director post the principal clerk position and post the maintenance specialist position so is there anyone here for that sorry sorry I didn't recognize you so do you want to um tell us what's going on here you want Jim to or do you want to introduce yourselves first oh I'm Bonnie struble I'm the library director and this is Amy madas who is currently a principal Clerk and we would like to be assistant director okay do you want to tell us what's going on here do you want to summarize for us please sure so Bonnie moved up to the director's position last month about five or six weeks ago um so the assistant director position is vacant um they would like to move Amy M up to that position um we also have if she does move up there would be a vacant position in the principal Clerk's position and the maintenance um specialist resigned last week so that position is now vacant as well okay so um Amy mados was uh the was she she was the principal yeah okay so she was the principal Clerk and part went through this a union position right say went through the proper Union procedures and all of that okay and then um then you're asking to post to principal clerk are you asking for um just internal posting or do we want to authorize you to post external if you don't get any applicants if we could do both I I do think we'll have applicants internal but it's a 7-Day posting internal all right so we will be looking all right so let's do these one at a time so the point Amy mados as um assistant director Amy's been there a while right Amy how many years I can't remember it's that long Amy's mother's a westbo high graduate 40 years ago or whatever go ahead just a question um are there education requirements for this job similar to the um Library director's job yes they are yes and she meets those requirements yes okay she's been on a few years I think eight full-time and eight years seems time and 11 since she started part time all right there's nothing else I'll move all the what we doing it one at a time position first okay I'll move second um all in favor I I that's unanimous all right and then to post we want a uh motion to post the principal clerk position internally and then if no applicants to post it externally so mov second any discussion all in favor I I and then M the maintenance position is that also Union all right yes it is Union all right so the maintenance specialist position a motion to appoint or to post internally and then externally If no candidate so move second any discussion all all in favor moving things along all right anything going on the library you want to tell us about um we have the atwat Donell Trio coming they're a folk band from waran Rhode Island and they will be here a week from Saturday and um I can't remember the time so go to our website and it have to you're not in competition with shellstock you're the week after yes should be no competition okay great well thank you thanks have a good day you um 3C appoint Michael buard as Cemetery foreman and to post the laborer position Jim you want to tell us about this one so Michael buad is currently the U Cemetery laborer he's been acting as interim uh Foreman for the last three or four weeks uh he had also acted as or stepped up as interim for Foreman in the past on two occasions I believe um I'd recommend that he be appointed to this position as a foreman he's done a nice job down there um the staff is doing well and we do need some more grass cutting but besides that we we seem to be catching up so through you Jim is there a probationary period or just uh it's a union position I believe it's three months that um three months standard probationary period all right we don't have anything I'll move them second is there any discussion sorry I probation period I believe is 6 months mon he has three months to determine whether or not he wants to go back to his old position exactly all right thank you how are we making out with with um hydraulic licenses and stuff in there so we have one that has got their hydraulic license a hoisting license and uh Mike buad has committed to getting his hoisting license as well and that would be a condition within the six months that is part of his job descriptions any further discussion all in favor I that's unanimous we have a request from Michael burus to uh to appoint Cynthia kakit and reappoint Roger manard Jim whiten and Bob daylor to the short-term rental committee no move them second is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous we have a request from Michael burus to amend the short-term rental committee to replace the Board of Health member with an at llarge member to be selected by the planning board and I think this was because their Board of Health expressed that they didn't need to participate right corre so they we're not like removing Board of Health kicking them out they didn't want to be on the committee anymore um is there Jim made a note that we should have the final say yeah so they would make the recommendation and the select board would make the appointment similar to the other appointments yeah okay so we're just we're just um this motion would just be to amend the committee to replace a Board of Health member with an open at large not point someone specifically second any discussion all in favor I I'm recusing myself from 3F so Steve can take over okay uh do we have to read the list because I don't have that my my drive keeps going up all right thanks all right f is a request from Kristen St Stenson town clerk to appoint the following election workers Republicans Amy lton Marilyn Simmons Paul man Karen warme Paul trial marjerie Pavo Doris barar Evelyn Mercier and Nancy Cook we're going to do it individually as a whole you want to just do the Republicans is it now all right anybody want to move the Republicans I'll move we have a second second second any discussion s on all in favor I are you recusing recuse from everyone okay Democrats stepen Anderson Steven mcginness Moren Murphy Diane manard mayard um Merlin topen Claudette bison Carolyn Baker Yvette lalt Eileen Monro Wilfred St Michael gay Gillespie almerinda tenera Dennis vza Barbara marott Dennis Ward backup only an Maguire an Halterman Colin Bole David P valkovic Mary L Simco Nancy Beal Teresa a Valena Ronica bua and Irene Silva that's the Democrats Mr chair I move those Democrats to be appointed we have a second second second discussion hearing none all in favor unenrolled Patricia Souza Jean Maguire Diane fory Beverly search D David L Lima Janet shop Kershaw Carolyn Cooper Reginal Des shanes Denise Tui Joan Hopkins Edward Reese Phyllis MTZ Beth colowit I believe backup only Carol bordon Dawn Gamble Janice stelis John gford Lisa dormis Lynn Anderson Marine Boris Megan shuel Michael maram Peter Campbell Richard kala and suzan M deck DEC anybody want to move these this is the again this is the unenrolled um so move all in favor I there you go you're back in business thank you all right I'm we have an action item action 4A request to approve the nanit bay Wheelman bike Road Race I'm assuming um Sunday September 8 2024 um it says because of the low number of riders and the different routes the police recommendation does not include details they did give a favorable recommendation overall okay so it's favorable overall but no details is there anyone to talk to to this all right is there any discussion no we'll go with the police recommendation move it second any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous have a request from trip milikin to dissolve the agricultural open space trust fund council is there anyone here to talk about that you want to give us the background on that Jim yes so this committee was set up years ago and I believe there were two authorizations for borrowing over the years one for 2 million I'm not sure what the previous one was they've used those funds to off some some of land Acquisitions uh to offset some of the costs with CPC as matching funds with some other conservation restrictions but those funds have run out I believe there is a a token in the account but it's um it's actually not in the account it's just the authorization to borrow it if another project came up but the amount in there is not sufficient to uh cover any projects so they've recommended the commission the agricultural open space trust fund has recommended that the commission be dissolved question how do those for the remaining money how do those functions get absorbed so it was an authorization to borrow up to the 2 million they borrowed the majority of it um what we've done in the past or the U treasur has done in the past is they've done an article removing that authorization whatever the balance is um so if we have if it's 50,000 she could do an article next town meeting um reducing that authorization by 50,000 and it cleans up the books it looks like in the in the letter it was 83,000 500 but it's not like money sitting there it's just an authorization to borrow is there any other comments or questions all right so we do we are in receipt of a letter from the um committee chair that they all unanimously agreed to dissolve the the group I suppose we won't force them to me I'll move their request second any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous um C approve the license to enter and use real property between the town of Westport and the nooke hall Association Incorporated so this is um this is the Hicks Bridge Landing ramp um so my understanding is that the Town Administrator is uh recommend that we pass over this is that still true that's correct we don't have an agreement at this time all right so we don't have an agreement to approve so you are working with uh you're in negotiation right we still discussing it right now um they're looking for an easement they're now looking for temporary agreement but we're still we're still working with them all right I think um if it if it become so my opinion is if it becomes clear that you can reach an agreement and that we don't want to wait until the next meeting we could call a special meeting if that's helpful I know the public is interested in that okay um D we have a request from Matt arendo Board of Health director to elevate the Animal Control Officers hourly rate from 20 304 to 2525 and to post the position of part-time Animal control officer for 20 hours per week at 25 per hour have Matt arendo director of Public Health and Tanya Ryden the chair of the Board of Health yeah good evening thanks for having us um so yeah we here to make a request to post the um and get the approval to post a part-time animal control position and set the um salary for the part-time animal control that's going to be um our first request so the uh the animal Control Department has been operating with only one full-time officer for several years which means the town does not have 247 coverage specifically there is no coverage on Tuesday and Wednesday after 4 p.m. and every other weekend the burden then falls to the PD to respond to the resident calls and in cases of dire emergency request backup support from New Bedford we did receive additional funds to hire a 15h hour a week part-time Animal control officer in FY 24 but due to due to the Limited hours and lack of benefits that resulted in no one willing to take the job so we initially agreed to eliminate the additional funding in our budget um uh talking with Jim about this um for fy20 5 though we did move some of that into the overtime line however the finance committee suggested we submit a revised request which they um endorsed at town meeting and it was approved at town meeting so that is our first request and we're looking to hire a part-time Animal control officer at $25 per hour 20 hours per week which equals $226,100 per year but we're already in August so you know we're not going to obviously use all those funds this year all right so let's take these um separately so the first request is to um Elevate the animal control officer's hourly rate um so the Animal control officer was in the salary study right that correct yep it was and what was um and it was found to be at the low end of the salary yeah I think he was actually just below the low end of the salary yeah and this increase would put them just above the low end just above the low end of the salary range from the person from that wage study that we did okay and right now he's the only Animal control officer that's correct we're proposing to bring him from 2304 to 2525 an hour okay just on that are there any is there any questions or discussion on that part and the budget your budget because it's is it within the current budget that you have already appropriated from town meeting we'll be able to cover that yes yes okay all right anything on that one let's take that one separately so I'll entertain a motion to um increase the Animal control officer rate second any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous all right so then the part-time Animal control officer so you posted previously for part-time animal control and I think you just said it but I just want to underscore it that um we didn't get any interest in the position right we didn't get qualified candidates what's our history of posting for the parttime yeah we posted uh last year for uh $25 an hour um but only at 15 hours a week and the feedback we were getting from the people we interviewed was it wasn't enough hours and they wanted benefits they wanted to have the ability to get sick time and um vacation time and all that so and then this went before the Personnel Board right and what did the Personnel Board recommend so so the personel board we went before them on July 16th um and they voted uh unanimously to support that proposal okay so I know um and it so In fairness Jim wrote notes for us that we have so um the um the con the the primary concern that I would have is that um for across the board we do not give benefits to part-time employees and so if we were to hire someone on at a part-time status but gave them benefits I think all this is not a union position so we could negotiate it separately but I believe it would make many of our Union employees part-time quite unhappy and I'm really concerned about the impact that would have on the rest of our similarly situated employees so that's really my biggest concern and then I'm also kind of concerned about I mean it seems like 25 is still on the low end for animal control but um I'm not sure if it's is there a reason it would be the same rate of pay as someone who's been in a full-time capacity for several years well we're proposing to elevate Nick a quarter higher 25 cents higher all right so that's my concern with that but I don't know what is the rest of the board think well I I share you concern as well because I think that U it's a it's a sticky Wicked and slippery still if we start putting somebody with a benefit package outside of the range of benefits that we are offering through uh collective bargaining and in our own individual contract with employees now if there's an attempt to try to uh equalize the uh imbalance in the salary structure period which we said I would have no problem with the the increase in the rate but I I would have a problem with with Benefits being a part of that calculation was it previously posted at 25 an hour what was it posted at it was yeah previous uh yes we posted a position higher than what the income it was making the last time I looked back we we posted that 25 an hour for 15 hours a week okay I what I don't know what do you guys think can I ask a question I just um I I thought the benefits were anything o over 19 hours a week were benefits if that's only for Union that's that's for everybody non-union as well yes so so you're saying the 20 hour a week employees get benefit 20 yes well so that's why we have people at 19 to 3 hours 20 up yeah so you're right if it was 20 that we fit the which is what you're proposing however I think a 15minute difference is going to make a very large difference to the people who would be concerned about it that's the issue and it's not just vacation sick time it's also health benefits which is not included in their budget and hasn't really been budgeted in the overall health insurance account either so we'd be paying 63% of their health benefits if they if they elected to take health insurance so I can just add that's a Sticky Wicket we faced we couldn't say come here and ask for $27 an hour at less and and we might H be able to hire somebody without benefits at 27 $28 an hour but then the discrepancy between the full-time so you know we were trying to um yeah you know meet the need that the town has expressed they want another part you know another more Animal Control coverage yeah um so we that was our best um calculation yeah I just I'm struggling because I we need to get candidates right so um but yeah I'm concerned about that most the transfer stations low and so do we um I mean we could we could approve um something less than that or something different than what they're proposing and we could try again to post or we can go with what they're proposing what do you guys want to do Madam chair I'm I'm okay with the dollar amount me that's 25 I understand the same but I'm not in favor of the benefits so I'd be willing to make a motion with just the increase salary for this position that we so to post a part-time Animal control officer at $25 an hour for 20 hours a week or 19 and 34 hours 19 and whatever does not include benefits all right so the N so you're moving to post the position $25 an hour for 19 and 3/4 hours per week up to 19 y yeah up two second all right any discussion on that okay all favor all I that's unanimous so good luck I hope you can get some people in there um we'll do our best we'll have to revisit I guess if it doesn't work out yes more um I did Tanya at the beginning when you weren't here I I I remember you asked me to mention something and I did mentioned about the bikes and the boy scout moving but I couldn't remember if that's what you wanted me to remind people about you don't remember either okay but I did mention the Boy Scouts and the bicycles are going down the hill down there okay yeah Gail's in the back to okay yeah okay I'll let the bike committee report they they set up a bike rack and moved already into the new poot okay all right thank you thank you we have bike in a minute not oh did you want to you're okay I thought you were going to the mic no no um f we have a request from the planning board for select board comments on the special permit application for jocing gambone for property located between 1421 main rote did I what skipped e Ross skipped sorry sorry sorry Ross I checked you off I checked you off prematurely please come we have a request from Ross Moran the Westport land trust to approve the conservation restriction to Wings Brook headwood headquarters off of Division Road assessors map 45 lot 15 want to tell us what this is about thank you as always thank you board members for uh working with us in this case uh we have a 26 acre piece of land that we acquired off of Division Road in December of last year um this parcel is the headwaters or a part of the headwaters of wings Brook leading into the east branch about 50% uh Wetland 50% Upland um it actually actually I brought a map if anybody I Wasing I'm not oh yeah sorry do you have so um you know it contains a portion of the trail that the Super Bowl walk goes on which is always a very popular thing every year we have several hundred people that do that uh and then we're currently in talks with uh the brewery to create a a trail from the brewery that goes all the way back there um to this particular parcel um so in this case you know this parcel uh provides a great Community benefit as well as uh ecological and conservation benefit uh as a part of the acquisition process we are required to convey a conservation restriction to a qualified organization per Army Corps of engineer permitting um and so in this case uh we are conveying this conservation restriction to the Buzzards Bay Coalition who holds conservation restrictions on freshwater streams all across the South Coast uh again in this case the town doesn't have any interest um like we do sometimes when we partner on CPA projects or as Jim mentioned earlier a open space projects um so the role of the select board is to uh uh affirm the conservation values and Community value of of the conservation restriction okay thank you any questions okay where was this located yeah let me I brought a map because I realized I didn't send Paul a map actually somebody from public wants to see it's right there but uh so in this case it's uh the red parcel on this map right here and you can see all of the green land is protected land already including some land that we already own and the breweries right here that public Trail for the future would come right across this all the way into this red parcel right here and back to the brewery so it extends an area um you know already that is uh certainly very well protected okay what's the pleasure of the board I'll move it second any discussion all in favor I I that's jous thank you very much sorry for overlooking you earlier now we're on F request from the planning board for select board comments on the special permit application for josn gambone for property located between 1421 Main Road and 1435 Main Road Westport Mass assessor map 84 lot 21d um so this is just a this is for a common driveway special permit to service two lots we don't typically make comments on things like this but we can if you have any anybody want to any comments you want to send to the planning board if we have them been doing it we sometimes do sometimes usually for the bigger subdivisions that are more controversial yeah I'm with that but something like this we probably should say nothing all right so nobody has any compelling need to agreed all right G request to create an offshore wind advisory committee so I know there's some people here for this so I just want to be very clear the only discussion we are entertaining tonight is whether we should or should not form this committee and maybe like what we should task the committee with with uh doing and who might be members of the committee so just want to be super clear we are not talking Pro or con wind one way or the other we are talking about Pro or con a committee um to advise the select board on the Wind so um we talked about about this on a previous bless you thank you we talked about this on a previous select board and um one of the things we asked um Jim and Paula to do was to reach out to some of the Committees we thought might have an interest in participating in a committee like this um so we sent out a note to um to see if anybody had any com any anything that they wanted to say about it so we were thinking at the time possibly a select board member a planning board member conservation member fincom climate resilience Economic Development were withth and shelish so we sent out notes to them we did get some comments back for some of them I don't think anybody said they did not want to part so I think um planning and conservation um had said that they would participate and then climate resilience said they were going to meet in De in September so I think the first thing we want to talk about is whether we want to form a committee at all so um when we talked about it before I I didn't really think there was a compelling reason to create the committee I didn't think there was an urgent reason to Comm create the committee um because we don't have any proposals from any offshore wind companies there's really nothing to advise on right certainly when there is a proposal we would need some advice on I personally changed my mind when debris started washing up on the beaches of Westport um that show that clearly we have an interest in offshore wind um even if we don't have any proposals right in front of us and so um we did uh Jim was in contact with vineyard wind what was their cleanup plan you can see we have um a memo from the Jim created you know since our last meeting about how to pick up the debris but for me it made it a little bit more urgent that if someone's going to be talking to Vineyard wind or getting updates from any of those companies that are out there it seems like it should be a committee to me to do that so I don't know does how do let's just talk first like does anybody think we should not form a committee for that it's needed okay all right so we're g so we're we're does anybody in the public want to speak just very specifically to know you should not create this committee okay you can go to the mic it has to be very specifically yeah yeah okay you have to go to you um go to that mic right there yeah and introduce yourself please so Jean frano pacin from drift Road um so actually but my we have like six committies right now that are advertising like vacancies and half of them I don't even recognize the commune names on the list of all the commities that exist in Westport and you know we are impacted by this offshore wind but to me it's like a it's a board of Selectmen type of like if there's any representation from Cape wind or whoever like that it should be Board of Selectmen I don't know why we would need an extra committee when we have a hard time finding positions and vacancies and stuff like that and all these discussions have been we've been you know we've had a long long history of conversations about wind and wind farms um and it's always been kind of like the border of Selectmen all right thank Youk you just to be clear the committee would be advising the board of Selectmen so the committee is not making decisions instead of the board of Selectmen any decisions would be made by the board of the select boards maybe quite a Frank question so is the committee like internal to like with existing committee members of other committee or is it like you're going to have some vacancies for like well we haven't talked about it yet but I would assume we're going to have at large members we we haven't got top Point yet can we just can you let them know the list we have proposed yeah so the one so they don't have that oh they don't have in front so what was previously proposed which we can change is Select board member planning board Conservation Commission finance committee climate resilience e Economic Development Westport River Watershed Alliance and then someone from shellfish or a representative from the fishing Community I personally believe we need several atlarge positions as well if we're going to do that really specifically on yes or no we should form this committee go ahead really specifically a question please Brian pontolillo drift Road um you've talked around what you would charge this committee with i' I'd like a more definitive answer when you say they will advise the board on wind what what does that mean that's not really yes or no should we form this committee but but I think where you're going there is what would the committee do right so I actually we actually have a um we haven't we haven't talked about you can just to kind of answer the question we um I we haven't talked about what we're charging the committee to do but it would be advisory we know that it's advisory committee we're not seting authority to anybody we will talk in this meeting right now tonight or tonight we will talk about what we're going to charge the committee with do I didn't know that I I thought this was that you would ask for people to only you got to go to the you got to go to the microphone no no you can go I'll let you talk more broadly later right now we're just talking about yes or no we should form a committee okay but you need to go to the mic when you're talking all right hang on con you got to go to the mic yes we really need to form this committee you don't want to you don't want a good reason why I go ahead okay so um I read the memorandum where uh Vineyard WN had stated that they brought somebody over and they picked up four pounds of turbine debris and so that was a cleanup effort I went out there the evening after they had supposedly been been and I picked up um and this was a couple of nights this was two different nights um a lot more debris uh so I think I thought that was kind of disingenuous and I'm afraid that that's the kind of um that's the kind of response we might get if we don't have a group of people that are really ke into this and paying close attention I want to show you one thing Constantin please don't make a mess these are dangerous materials that you should not have been picking up no please do not this right here so all of this is mostly the plastic foam pounds of it this right here is a fiberglass Shard and when it breaks down and when it breaks down you can't see it in the sand at all and it is sharp because I was stupid enough to try to pick it up very carefully and I got it all in my fingertip thank you con I'm going to I'm going to cut you off so the the the board here was all seemed to be in favor of creating a committee and you are suggesting it's a very good idea if we create a committee so I don't really think we need to talk more about that unless somebody on the board would like to address more welcome to come up and check it out all right no I'm no we're no like I yes or no I should we form a committee that's it no so I would say no saying no I'm saying no but like I'm just trying to move this conversation along right because the next part of this conversation is what should the group do and so I will give people more chance to talk but we I like we say so my my question respectfully is if we say yes we form a committee you know the committee is like is the committee like they're not like these interactions of how to deal with this is is is the responsibility it's not the responsibility of a committee it's like this is public responsibility of the select board yes or the Conservation Commission I'm not sure which exactly but all right so it seems like we're generally in favor of forming the committee um I had um uh I said I was going to write up a potential charge of the committee and then totally forgot and Craig reminded me and then I went and Googled offshore wind committees and net has one um net has an offshore wind work group um they have a really nice website at actually um that had a bunch of information on it so I asked Paula to um to print off theirs so that we could use that as a starting point to kind of give us some idea if this is what we wanted that group to do so most of this page is like the membership but I just want to because you all wouldn't have had this but if you if you Google nant Tucket Mass offshore wind group there's they have a bunch of information um but I'm just going to read the little excerpt that I thought would be a good starting point for our conversation um so under the what we do says local governments and property owners have rights to be consulted on projects and policies that affect their interests including impacts on their cultural and environmental resources the offshore wind workg group's mission is to help represent the best interest of the island to wind developers seeking to build wind farms offshore Nantucket along with our legal counsel our Advisory workg Group meets and consults as needed to assist Town leadership two evaluate local environmental economic or visual impacts determine appropriate project mitigation measures to offset perceived and assessed impacts including through section 106 review process and negotiate for tangible Community benefits such as through a community benefit agreement offshore wind mitigation trust fund or other Economic Development arrangements as our standard in off wind industry for impacted communities so nenta is a little bit different I think nenta does not have a no they have a select board right they have a select board so um so the I it's very specifically an advisory work group that meets and consults as needed to assist Town leadership which I think is the appropriately how we use advisory committees here right so I think I I really like the part where we're looking at environmental economic and visual impacts because there's there more than one impact to look at appropriate mitigation measures um so if there were to be proposals coming before us that we would want to look at that and then how to negotiate should something come in front of us should how do we negotiate benefits I know that there are some people who want Westport to say we do not want wind under any circumstance and there's some people are like yes we Embrace wind in all its way shapes and forms it's my opinion that West doesn't need to take a specific position but that we should be monitoring all of these things and looking out for the interests of Westport and all those things so that's what I had now Craig I know I sent this to you in advance because I so I don't know if you had a chance to have any thoughts about it or not a lot but I think we we probably would have less concern with Aesthetics based upon what we're you know I I know that technically you could see something off in the distance but it doesn't have the near uh presence issues that that that n Tucket has but we may have other issues with respect to uh in the event that there was an alternative um transmission Route right now we are an alternative not the proposed transmission Route certainly all of the responsibilities related to negotiating a host City agreement a host Town agreement with them would be things that would probably make our job easier if this committee could go want to look at uh post City agreements for offshore wind facilities and their transmission facilities uh uh including substations and and in our case it wouldn't be a land taking but in some cases it would involve land taking plus what triggers that 106 looking at it briefly it's got to do with the histor preservation and whatnot so is there something I mean is it so I so I gave my opinion that it should not be a anti-wind or pro-wind it should be advisory um but I just want to make sure that that's like the consensus of the board too that we're we're not pro or con we're advising and I and that would be my biggest concern is that it should be a balanced Committee in terms of community interest and if it becomes an advocacy commit committee for or against or in a different direction that we limit terms to one year appointments and that we have the ability uh to vote on each um Point annually so if the planning board designates Somebody by example and I'm not trying to cast dispersions that becomes an overly an advocate or disruptor yeah that we could refuse their appointee yeah because it's I mean I mean uh I I I sometimes spend too much time on social media reading posts and um I try not to respond but the reality is this is a Hot Topic and people are pretty passionate about this and even uh there was a a pretty good story pretty level story done done this week in New Bedford light and when you go through the comment section on it it was deadly I mean people are calling each other names and stuff like that so um you know I think we have to be very careful because this is a very volatile uh topic right now I hadn't thought about the one- year appointment but I agree with you actually because we once someone's been appointed to a committee they can't be removed or it's very difficult to remove someone from a committee once they've been appointed so the one-year term kind of um limits limits them or at least gives a someone who's being particularly problematic a way to not appoint them again yeah the other so if we added one at large it would be nine you would mention a couple but I I think this should be like I'm on the climate resilience committee which has like feels like way too many people on it it's actually really hard to get a quorum on a very large committee but I feel like this is one where we need a lot of different voices and I I like this one is one two three four five six seven eight and I I'm not sure the one at large is enough but like I don't know I don't know what do you you have thoughts like like the gentleman said I mean maybe we'd have problem filling a couple we could try at nine and then increase it if we needed to but it's a stop well I know that n's a lot of people Nine's a lot and um and maybe some of these people like maybe finance committee doesn't think they need to be on there I think they probably do but um it like what about Economic Development you think economic Mari already already mentioned because he's a a which we call it um not Electronics a utility specialist that he'd like to be involved cuz the numbers now the one the one on here that is not at so all of these are representatives from other Town committees right so but the one that isn't is Westport River Watershed Alliance so I actually think they're a valuable partner to participate in this conversation but um that one is not a town committee already do we have thoughts about that mam chair yeah I have no particular thoughts on that that sounds good to me I have another thought to relay and that is first of all there's eight of these positions here yes he was saying plus one at large plus one at large would be n got to nine yeah I know but what I'm going to recommend is I don't see any need to have a select board member on this committee because they're going to be advising the select board and I don't think it's necessary I think it's just it's not necessary and I'm not sure about the fincom either and then that would reduce this to six then you could have and I think we should have at least a couple of at large members I agree with you so I would Envision maybe six from committees and three at large for a total of nine I'm not really hung up on the number but I do understand numbers that are too large are problematic and you don't want to have it too small either so that's my view on that at large members we should have say at least a couple mam chair well generally like we find out every week it's good having a select person on because they report every week as laa on let us know what's going on and keep us up to date uh they also a little more familiar with the rules try to keep things under control uh but you know I I I'm not up for this committee unless we were stuck so doesn't matter to me if it's a select person well I'm willing to serve as the select board member of of the committee but um I think most of our committees do have for that very reason right because you have like a funnel into it um I don't know if anybody else I didn't mean cut you off but then if we have a legal question we've got a direct line to Jim to see if it's worthy to to dig deeper so it usually works out pretty good if we represent it but I I do so we haven't heard from fincom we have not so we don't know if they want to be on there or not I I think um I feel like this is the right group but I feel like it's like I hear you I I'd rather have I don't know I I like the smaller committee but I don't know who to leave out you know well maybe we just started at the nine and see if these these other boards do send somebody so planning boards spread out too it all the allthough those members are on different committees so so why don't we maybe what we do is we start out with these nine um and then the nine being the ones we mentioned plus one at large and then um we're not appointing anybody tonight so if any of these boards don't want to send somebody or don't think it's necessarily then we'll make that an at llarge position and then if we get a bunch of atlarge applicants maybe we'll talk to about because I mean he has a point we do sometimes have a hard time getting people to fill slots um but in this case though because so many of the members are already serving on committees it's like the same people over and over I think at large is important because you're getting you might get different voices that aren't on on these other committees yeah um all right so I think we're GNA I think what I would like well we're going to have some because I I'm sure the public wants to talk about some of this so so I think what I would like to propose is that we form a commit with onee terms with this representation that we give them this Nantucket model as a guideline so what we're asking them to do but then have them come back once they form the committee have them form come back and maybe res suggest their their mission or something yeah I I I wouldn't mind assisting you with writing the committee charge I don't think it would be um I I I I don't think I'm interested in serving at this time okay for yeah and people I mean they're open meeting the reason you form a committee is so that you're having an open meeting in public you can I'll let you talk about it so you have an open meeting in public right so people who aren't on the committee can still participate right so um so I would like to propose that that we start with start with this charge as the model and then ask them to come up with their own M okay anything else from the board before we go to the public go ahead I would have to agree that I'd be in favor of forming a committee um I I wouldn't again I would I got too much going I wouldn't want to be involved in it but um for or against offshore wind I mean basically it's there I mean whether they land here or not this situation that just happened and I know Steve was down there with the news so that's that's kind of the reason and keep it can keep the selectman a breast of what's happening the and if the proposals come through I mean that's my concern if they do hit landfall in Westport and then we can deal with that under the infrastructure type of stuff so no I agree oh we didn't put infrastructure committee on here but do you feel they're probably pretty well represented yeah I mean most of us are on economic development too so I think it it fit Economic Development better okay anything else from the board Madam chair Christopher Thrasher drift Road I Rise with grave concern uh when the direction this this conversation is taken I I have a serious concern with creating a committee without a charge upfront by the select board and when I see the uh the charge that you're referring to for the town of Nantucket and I see the words perceived impact what is on the desk right there is not a perceived impact that is a real impact that is happening right now on our beaches on our Shores God only knows what it's what effect it's having on our fishery stock it this is this is a real tangible thing that is happening right now the last thing I want to see this this select board do is create a committee made up almost exclusively yes one at large member but still made up exclusively of members of on other committees without adding more impact more uh individuals at large and tasking that committee to come up with their charge and if that charge ends up being just talking about a host agreement that may or may not happen if if there there's ever a chance to to actually to land a cable here uh that's just not good enough to be perfectly Frank that is a real impact this is happening today it's happening right now and I challenge the select board here to stand up and make a real determination of what you want this type of committee to do how you want to approach this in the future and how and and also here's a question I I I've seen it written uh Madam Sher you you had you had a comment that the uh that if the state decided to land offshore wind cables at horse neck Beach there's very little the town could do because the the uh State controls all the easements on on on Route 88 and again to be perfectly Frank that's not good enough I want to see a select board that will stand up to the state we were sold a bill of goods telling us that offshore wind would be a boon to our economy and it would be a a a catalyst for environmental change to to help our environment and very clearly when it's affecting our our fishing industry and clearly affecting our environment everything that has been promised to us thus far by the offshore wind industry has the effects have actually been the exact opposite and I challenge the select board to get serious about this because this is happening right now and it needs to be addressed right now not a committee just that's tasked with made up making up their own charge so I I urge you all to reconsider your trajectory on this committee thank you thank you for your comments so as I mentioned before we did not posted to take a position for against offshore win we're just talking about whether we create this committee so I actually think that the point of having a more well-crafted charge I'll get to you the point of having a more well-crafted charge like like Craig was saying is that maybe Craig and I or you guys can all maybe what Craig and I should do is take this as a starting point plus any of the input that you're giving us on um you know if if there's anything you know please take out this or subtract that maybe what we should do is Craig and I should go back and work on a more specific charge for the committee and um wait until the next meeting to actually form the committee and we could by that point um get some more input from the public uh we'd have a more specific charge to the committee that we could to to start with and then we could get more input from the public and from these other boards about whether they wanted to participate I just I do want to be clear the Town Administrator is in contact with vineyard wind right now okay so I I would like to get him some help and some backup so that he has many hats that he wears and it would be great if we had committee chair or somebody who could also be communicating with these wind companies to take some of the Lo off of gy so no one is ignoring anything but I do take I do think there's a solid point there that a more specific charge going into the committee might be might be a good idea well I I I think one of the charges should be um uh how offshore wind industry mitigates issues like this yeah it says determine appropriate mitigation measures is right in here it's definitely perceived fun perceived or assessed impact I think that's right in there I I I I'll make a motion I make a motion that we approve in in concept of the establishment of offshore wind advisory committee subject to um members of the board coming back at a future meeting with a a charge uh for such committee second okay and and and what that would mean is it would give the public the opportunity after a few of us have had a chance to put our heads together uh get some feedback and look at other communities because nantu is probably not the only Community that's doing this uh and and then come back with a um a charge that fits westport's situation um uh better and um then at that time the public can comment and provide input on that that charge as opposed to trying to draft the charge in the course of a discussion I think that's good well so yeah it just when thank you that was a motion yeah you it was seconded this is the discussion wait sorry I should have allowed open discussion for the slug cour before the public does anybody want to discuss that motion okay go ahead yeah so so no thank you for that um I if if uh if having a charge first right that's my understanding now so the vote is not about creating a committee the now it's more about let's have a charge and then come back later to to to create the committee is that is that did I understand that no we're creating the committee but we're coming back at prob ideally the next meeting with a charge for that committee so why can't we create the charge before creating the committee like so meaning like talking to off we're creating the committee but we're not appointing anyone to the committee but I guess it's put like I'm just procedurally like is it is is it required that a committee be like that the board says okay we appoint a committee and then in two weeks you know we're going to talk to uh different organizations and how they're dealing because you know there's a committee in then Tucket so it' be nice to see well what is it that the committee and you know more than just the Google search having those conversations of how they interact with the board of Selectmen and what's the expected results that in terms of advice as a as as as a board like what kind of advice are we looking for so to me it's like do we put the card before the horse I'm I'm not saying like don't do a committee but it seems that we're doing some like it's I don't know the item it's it seems to me that create the context and and and give the compelling this is a compelling evidence yeah we might need something you know like like this but but the charge should be coming first and and then item G comes later so I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to address that first and then I'll let you address it so we can create committee without charging them with anything in fact most of the Committees here in Westbard are created with very little right the the the challenge in the way that committees work is our five board members cannot speak in a quorum right so Craig and I can talk but I can't talk to any of the other ones about that same topic that you cannot have three people in on the same topic so what Craig is proposing is we have had a discussion in public with the opportunity to express hey maybe think about that hey maybe think about that so now two of us can or one of us but two of us can go off and craft a better committee a better Charter right so in in order to get the input from a diverse number from a group of people the only way to do it is to have a meeting like this that's a little messy where we're getting the input from all the people so I'm going to also let you say I I think you were agreeing with us but uh yeah yeah well I I'm agreeing like saying is we know we need to do this we've heard enough uh U oh concern or uh uh interest in doing this we don't even have a mechanism right now Vineyard wind comes in and knocks on Jim's door wants to talk to him we'd like to have a formal mechanism where we could communicate with offshore wind developers or any other parties in this situation we don't have that right now except coming into one of our meetings so that that's point one point number two is um we're going to be appointing people and we've get and today what we're doing is we've given a laundry list of of entities within the town we want to appoint people but as you can see only one person has been selected by those entities so because what I if I was one of those committees and some of them aren't going to be talking about them for another month is they should have more information from us about what they're asking members of their committee to do because they're already serving the town in some cases some of those same people will be on one or two other Town committees in addition to the one that's they're representing and so in this this area give them some information so they know what's what it entails and what their responsibilities are and based upon where we are now we can't do that okay well I guess makes sense constant um yeah I have a question uh procedurally in a way so Craig um you used to lobby for um Bas State win correct I was an employee of B State when seven years ago yes seven years ago and so it's been it's been a full seven years since you had any connection with any offshore wi company there's no conflict of interest here no I and matter of fact uh if anything it would be the other way around um Vinyard win uh won the contract that base State wind applied for in 200 well the contract awarded to B Vineyard wind was in the summer of 2018 so it's been six years and so you're not connected with with offshore wind at all all at this point okay um thank you um I I just want to um reiterate I it was I was the one that suggest suggested over a year ago that the town have some sort of committee um to deal with all the issues that were going to be confronting us at some point with offshore wind and that was right after I had read the entire construction operation plan for the vineyard wind uh Northeast project which named which um which Westport is very very much front and center in that and so that I immediately said are we going to get are we going to be able to discuss this in public so the whole point of one of the major points of this committee is to get it to get discussions between our town manager and the wind company and Vineyard win out behind clo from behind closed doors and into the public where everyone that is interested in this subject yay or nay has a chance to come to the meetings I would I have said it I have written you three letters now um I want to serve on this committee I have a wealth of information I have been studying this this subject for three and a half years pretty much nonstop um I don't think you're going to be able to find many people that are uh you know neutral about this subject and and and I agree I mean people are for it or against it and those people that are completely like neutral just don't know anything and so it doesn't seem like they'd be the best PE people to serve on a committee um anyway I I I hope that you will uh appoint me to this committee I know that I can bring a lot to it I have a lot of resources and um and I agree completely with your primary statement which is it's not a committee about should there be offshore wind or should there not be offshore wind it's a committee about how does this impact Westport and what all do we need to be aware of across the board yay or nay from all different sources um about the marine environment um about Fisheries shellfish what's going on right off of our Coast right now I know that it's been reported that a lot of people are hearing um pounding and um I think it's pretty sure that it is from putting in they're doing they're they're installing the wind turbine foundations for um for uh orad for revolution wind right now and we've got a lot of people that are saying what is that pounding so you know people just don't know and it would be good to be able to let people know to keep people informed what what's going on and Craig those the closest of those turbines uh Revolution win and they're going to be close to 900 ft tall are 15 miles from horse neck so that we will definitely see those I mean that is definitely will definitely impact but so I agree with you um this this needs to be uh just look at the issue from every way we can to keep the town informed to be ready should anything else happen that we that we're not just like picking up gar you know wind turbine blade debris on the beach and people are going what is this so thank you for deciding to finally um create this committee I'm very grateful I know a lot of people are and um thank you con all right anything else on the motion all in favor I I that's unanimous all right um so we'll be talking have that at a future meeting too um next item on the agenda is a request from Michael burus to approve the letters of support for the South Coast Bikeway Alliance and Westport bike walking path committee cross Westport shared use Trail Northern route I think we have visual aids for the yeah constant can we can we yes I'll take did you call all that in Constance you're supposed to call Vineyard wind the number on the website yeah but uh they're you know what are they going to do are they going to come to my house at least we'll delivery at least let them know it's in our town to begin with well you know I know that they've been picking up a lot of this on Baker's beach too this is just from a couple two or three night walks you know so there's a lot of it out there and but be careful about the fiberglass come on Gail boy yeah you sweep down it's all we need somebody get a fiberglasses visual aids wow you have like big visual aids do we have are these the same ones that you sent today well uh I updated it yes I did but I have I can refer my set if it's different it's not that different okay yeah we do have we have this in our packet right yes yeah but she's saying there's some minor changes some changes yeah some clarifications that we'll talk about so you don't necessarily have to um so hi everybody I'm Gail rodri Westport bike walking path committee also representing uh Westport for South Coast Bikeway and this is hi I'm Sandra madus I'm the president of the South Coast Bikeway Alliance and also a member of the Dartmouth Pathways committee okay I'm going to start our timing all right so this is the South Coast Bikeway Alliance Northern route it it is behind you um no we have it over here too oh good um and the uh we've been working on this for over a decade to Pro to Pro promote development bike ways Trails outdoor activities in town uh we will move to the next slide here this is one of our Westport bike walking path committee's wins this Mass Trail Grant we received in May and uh it's application that was submitted by the town planner we support our other Town departments committees including the bard of selectman thank you planning board thank you and the bike committee so we received $65,900 ,000 which 5,000 came from the U South Coast Bikeway Alliance and in addition to in kind service this project extends the current end of quick aan Trail to Far River Westport line to a safe cross Route in Route Six and now I'm going to pass it to Sandy can we just just you did a pretty good job just so people know it's the path along wupa that goes near the Ola pages through all Yeah by whites and goes through all some of four of them yes thank you for that thank you so like ale said we've been working on this for about a dozen years the South Coast Bikeway is a nonprofit organization dedicated to complete the 50 mile proposed um network of bike paths preferably a separate and divided PA Path Bike Path Bike um lanes and shos um connecting the Rhode Island border to Cape Cod and then Sandy you're going to keep going till slide eight sure um so this image here shows the Westport portion it's 2.1 miles it starts like uh Steve said at the wupa connector so at the Terminus of the quick aan River Rail Trail it will go um to Route Six and then cross uh Sanford Road Old Bedford Road and connect to Dartmouth at Highland Avenue in order to um to move Advance this this idea of connecting the three communities we didn't have a way to connect U Fall River to New Bedford there were several options there's four options um so we wanted to figure out how we could go about doing that I'm going to jump right down to this slide here um so we had a feasibility study that analyzed the four options are you moving the slides could you move that one to this I think is Jim moving Jim sorry oh Jim I'm on I'm just getting I'm prepped for my spot here but but she's on this one I jumped ahead yep I okay so we have um the South Coast Bikeway alliance with sured uh decided to do a feasibility study we approached the communities of Westport New Bedford and Dartmouth we applied for $10,000 of CPC funds in each Community which allowed us to hire sered to do uh phase one phase one um gave us existing conditions of the four possible Roots noted there in the the different colors um the lower route the the uh complimentary southern route the uh blue route is Route Six the brown route is the rail route and the purple or magenta is the northern route um the orange route uh is longer in distance and less expensive to build but you would not have a protected pathway you would be sharing the road um with the vehicles uh the route six rout the blue rout um Mass do is dedicated to to uh adding bicycle and pedestrian in infrastructure along Route 6 but it will never have the Comfort level of a separate and divided um pathway elsewhere in the community the rail route through the center of of our communities is still active unlike Fair Haven and matap poison and Maran which had the um advantage of having a retired rail bed we don't have that Advantage so the uh feasibility study analyzed the second phase analyzed all four roots and it was determined that the northernmost route was the preferred route uh there are two sections there you see the uppermost section that was actually an initial uh idea to go in the woods through protected properties but at this point we're asking for support for the old Far River old s Old Bedford Sanford Road um um route and it would be a separate shared use path as shown in those images now I'm going to pipe back in uh Northern scenic route further study these are conceptual drawings from the northern Cena Greenway funded by the Grant from bos Bank the bid is awarded from goodie landscape studio and the plan is in Westport o Bedford Road Dartmouth old Far River Road and New Bedford New planfield Road which some of you might know with the rail coming down that's a a transportation overl project uh we we're just going to show the three in Westport so this one is number one Sanford road which is north of Route 6 um there is uh this drawing illustrates how a shared youth path could be created along Sanford Road existing conditions are above conceptually in the image the white image above an 8ft shared used path is featured on one side of the road with travel Lanes staying at the same size and placement uh so we have three concepts we picked um the concepts that people would identify as unsafe areas so this is one number two is the Westport Old Bedford South of the 1959 uh 95 past that if you recognize o Bedford Road is coming out behind Whits and this is the intersection illustrating uh the right it's it goes to the right side now because of the 195 exit so those people are going 65 and we're going going to be coming to a stop so we wanted the bike riders to be on the other side and then the last one in Westport is the Old Bedford Road this is uh the bend so you might recognize in Old Bedford and you go up to on your way to Blossom and this is uh again uh one of the areas that they identified and this bike path is five feet One Way East and W and then 5 ft West um this is some supporting documents that uh I identified to support that and I just lost that time of my time go ahead keep going I'll just keep going I'll let I'll find it later so we we are considering for the supporting documents Westport complete streets so Westport has a complete Street priority plan and four of those priorities are in the northern section with its own funding so it's a little confusing but I want to be clear about the funding possibilities and and that would be separate with complete streets I identified some M uh master plan items that the town was looking to explore linking higher density uses in Route 6 with preservation of farmland and conservation in other areas uh in that was the update but in 2016 the master plan there there was a need to engage regionally in decision making working with sured uh and then I'm going to the next slide here uh the crashes oh I'm sorry I didn't finish about the C crashes so one of the maps was crashes and the benefits here for the bike in Westport would provide safe Crossings on Route Six um and then so the next one is Northern greenw uh uh Greenway takeaway a bike path would offer safe connections to rural areas propos higher densities along Route safe Crossings could be added as its currently High crash intersection at Sanford Road and continued to O bford and then I just gave some highlights bullet po points about what these key benefits are safe Crossing access to hotels Recreation opportunities connection to employers and these benefits together will make a significant Improvement in the town's infrastructure enhancing connectivity quality of life to the residents and then I think it goes back to you Sandy now so the whole idea is to connect our communities with safe Pathways for people to enjoy for recreation for uh employment transportation and um exercise uh so this map here shows where people ride now in this area with a heat map generated by GIS uh G PS um data so the green colored areas show where people currently ride so people are currently riding in the north and also down in the South Nobody Rides along Route 6 because it's not safe um so we're proposing a 14 mile path um Dart Miss section will be 5.4 miles uh Westport will be 2.1 and then the remaining in in New Bedford this will connect this pathway will connect you to a lot of recreational opportunities uh the natural lands from the bio reserved to um dnrt properties Westport Land Trust properties um for transportation you could get to the South Coast rail station at Church Street at the New Bedford end uh you could get to employers on font Corner Road and Route Six uh near uh the um Mass Dartmouth facility um so it has a lot of opportunity and it also um bike paths if you're not aware are are very good for the economy uh people do travel to different cities for vacations I just came back from the erri Canal Trail and that's what people do they go for a trip they take their bikes they ride for Miles they eat they uh stay overnight and they shop three minutes um so this I'll do the last I'll do the so we did receive uh support in Dartmouth recently from the select board um so they've voted to um endorse the northern Scenic Greenway as our preferred route through Dartmouth and they've also given us uh permission to further study it so we're asking today also um for that endorsement uh New Bedford is focused on a lot of Pathways in their community primarily North and South but this route will connect to their uh North and South uh networks uh as soon as we get to King's Highway Kings Highway is being redeveloped for the South Coast Rail and then there's Mount Pleasant Street um so there's a lot of opportunity in new bford they're doing wonderful things I think you're going to do this one and I'll do the ask oh so S no I did that one oh you did it oh wow okay oh I'm sorry I don't know she was she got aead up she did okay so this is the last where what the ask is uh we're asking please support development of a plinary design a regional approach would be ideal don't let the ideal stand in the way of possible and I just wanted to wrap it up with this we didn't expect route route 88 which is a state road with normal re regulations no bikes no horses no pedestrians but yet it became our first path in our town so anything's possible and uh Westport section would be immediate benefit to users as a standalone encourage neighbor neighboring projects bring people to our town in Commerce and I'm very passionate about the hotel whites and getting bike groups coming and staying there and then going to New Bedford and stay at their site there and then going to weham and Meandering through the town so it that's my My Hope about whites um Cy you're going to finish this because I I think you know a little bit more about that uh this one here is there another the fun yeah the last uh Northern yeah finally right so we're hoping to apply for further study of the entire route um but like Gail said section by section works as well um so we're looking for your support um to endorse the northern route and then Gail and her committee will go back and ask for support from the CPC Mass Trails grants require a 20% match uh to study the entire Corridor it's $250 to $300,000 so that's 50 to $60,000 in match the South Coast Bikeway is raising funds um we've raised funds before we've already dedicated the 5,000 um for your previous study um and we've also uh offered assistance to Dartmouth uh we have a pedal for the path ride coming up in September on the 8th um and we are ex ex um it's a free ride but we do accept donations um and it's going through Dartmouth Heritage uh it it will be following the new Dartmouth Heritage bicycle route which connects it's not an an onroad path it is a bicycle route that you would follow follow um but connecting the 10 villages in Dart but it's something that people will do for enjoyment and learn about their town where they live and the same can be said um in for a pathway in Westport so we ask for your support available for questions and specifically what you're asking for tonight is that we approve letters of support for this grant right so you're not asking us for money right now you're asking us to support the Grant I think Mike uh supplied it um yeah we have we have that we have a letter of support for the Westport and also one for Dartmouth oh is they were both I they were both for CP C funding and um we are looking at larger Grant sources atip is a new one the active Transportation infrastructure um program uh but we're looking at a a much broader greater region um with multiple um Metropolitan planning agencies applying and we really feel a lot of this can be done through those um grants and not really coming to the town very often to try to tap into things there's a lot out there so you're involved anything you want to add yes so we've been shipping away like they said for years and obviously we if we do the infrastructure improvements at least in the first section of uh you know from the town line up this is important while they got the road apart that we can move things forward um if the board supports it to go forward with the preliminary obviously we need to have uh neighborhood meetings so people know if we're going to we're going to be widening the road in front of their their place it could directly impact them we want to have obviously uh get that out there but I think the conceptual plans are great great to keep things going I haven't talked to the Francis lately but they were they were supporting us right along um because again like Gail said it could be some good comments for them some of the other Roots they mentioned uh besides an active Trail we're a little concerned with the safety this is probably the best route by going up old Beford and even if they come down Sanford it's a lot safer than going through the woods which a couple of the paths were and it was a concern um obviously this isn't on a fast track when we still got to dump onto Route Six it's got to be part of infrastructure uh improvements because we have no break no Lane at all when you get across the corner whites and that's what's been the delay for years so um and we do have a tip project too with which would be the safe is the recommended route that you doing the feasibility or the the the funding study on connect to the Trail it uh uh you mean wapa yes yes the starts the one that ends at um wh lean comes over to Pages behind the UMass building correct yes right kashan connects to that and then Far River did another th feet to extend to Westport line and then this is the the mass Trail Grant Westport line to um Route Six around Whit and then linol they put the pressure on us cuz now they went right to Our Town Line whereas before it was 100 or 200 ft down now they're right to the line saying you know but the good part about waiting so long is now we're we're more apt to get grants and whatnot so we don't have to pay for as much and if I could add um you'll mention this but I just want to make sure you you got it that with all these drawings um they were done with information that was gathered through from sured U GSI GIS studies um we maintained the center line for cost Effectiveness and it was determined that this pathway a separate and divided shared use path could fit without encroaching in the right out you know outside it's within the right away so minimal issues there if if any at all work and the second this followup study is going to do a flyover first um we have an engineer um on your committee and he said just the Dartmouth portion if my figures are right was like 65,000 for the fly over and that would get more detailed analysis of the existing conditions and the road widths to to Really lock in whether it's feasible if if there's some reason that the path has to be excuse me on the other side of the road um because of utility po or natural uh barrier um that would determine it and then from there after outlaying that amount of money and that study then we would go further um so it's actually a twep process in Westport it's not the the trouble that you know with the the stuff and Dartmouth about moving it from side to side right so so I would move we support the the preliminary and endorse going forward this this isn't locking us into anything it's it's moving forward and getting the uh more Tor shovel ready project second is there a motion in a second to approve the letters of support for the Bikeway Alliance and the Westport W walk path shared us Trail Northern route all right anything else any other convers all in favor I that's unanimous than for the work you're doing got a lot of passion in this thank you just it's all on our website you want to learn more yeah we'll put the link we'll bug Paula to put the link up there yeah sept the same day oh boy and they told us they promised us no traffic around town okay we're just in govern okay okay uh we have a request from Chris Gonzales the highway surveyor to approve chapter 90 contract award and no to proceed to pcket hot mix asphalt Inc 25 conquer Street pcket Rhode Island Jim yeah this is the yearly contract from chapter 90 funds that come down from the state they went out to bid in uh pck at hot mix Assa was the low bidder lowest qualified bidder so I'd recommend approval of the $916,000 contract I move that Z again is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous we have a a request from Kristen Stinson town clerk to approve the warrant for the state primary election on September 3rd 2024 November's getting a lot of attention but there is an election September 3rd 2024 for the primaries day after Labor Day um so this is just uh routine request for pres post it it's the normal locations It's Our Lady of Grace and the noral plac there no changes no changes I'll I think we can move it correct yeah I moved it second um any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous um K uh schedule oh you you were right it was on there that wasn't on the version I think K was K on the posted version K is taken off K was not on the posted version okay K was not on the posted version of the meeting so we're going to skip over that that's where you saw it though hand it on a draft okay is we're not doing okay um discussion 5A review appraisals for Pump Station easements for 833 and 1115 State Road um you'll recall we had um a meeting where we talked about uh imminent possible imminent domain and we directed um Town Administrator to go forward with the appraisal process for those two pump stations so you want to give us update on that so these two pump stations are in the easterly portion of Route 6 between Route 88 and the dmouth Town Line um one is at 833 state road and the other is 11:15 State Road uh we did direction of the board we went out for appraisals on these properties the engineering work has been done it was done as part of the original proposal that went along with the route 6 infrastructure project Waterman sua um those appraisals came in 833 state road the total was $5,150 that's for the permanent easements and there's a temporary construction easement as well the temporary construction easement would be for for three years only uh at 1115 State Road the permanent easement was $177,300 temporary easement $2,000 for a total of $199,300 um like you said at the June 17th meeting of the select board the board asked that we put these two pieces of property for appraisals um next step if the board chooses would be to uh put it on the agenda for an action item for to start the land taking process by having a domain so we had some very detailed documentation in our packets about this like 67 Pages or something um did anybody have any questions or anything they wanted to uh check in on about the appraisals he just talked about no okay all right so um that's all we had on that if there's no questions then I guess we're good so that's what the appraisals were 15150 for 833 state road and 1115 State Road was 19300 okay mam share yes I I just maybe this is enough curiosity A and B seem to be related at least in terms of a 33 state road so A is for just was just for us to get the update on what the appraisals were B is a request from Attorney Glenn ma um to discuss there's no action on there's no action so there's nothing to do on a we were just looking at it unless you had questions or anything okay so B we have uh request um from Attorney Glenn marck to discuss possible imminent domain taking of 833 state road I do want to note that nobody has voted to use eminent domain but that this was U the reason we did the appraisals is in case that came up welcome could you please introduce yourselves good evening uh my name is Glenn mock I represent uh Lori CRA sitting with me thank you for the opportunity to uh come in and talk with you about this um we're a little concerned first I would say is that Miss C is not opposed to the Sewer project um but it appears as though there has been a lot of thought um put into where the this pump chamber has been designed on her property um because we believe that there's another spot next door which would more appropriate for the pump station given that the property next door has got uh cell phone communication Towers on top of it and it's already burdened by this kind of heavy utility um equipment uh and moving it from this location on her property onto that property I don't think is a big stretch in terms of engineering because it's right next door and it's in the same general area in terms of of the topography top topography and elevation um so from an impact point of view it doesn't seem as though there was much consideration given to where it was cited uh and then I if beyond that if it was there was some other consideration uh as far as not being able to be placed on that other property which I'm not quite sure why there would be uh but even so on on her property rather than putting it up at the very front of the property taking it up the area that she uses in the lease that she has for her tenant that it seems as though the the location for the pump chamber could be moved back further on the property which would be less of an impact to her use of the commercial property so that's essentially what we wanted to talk about with uh with this board uh as far as I know there hadn't been before this any opportunity uh for Miss C to come in and talk about this location or and then given what occurred at the town meeting she was under the impression that the whole project had been dropped and then you know was kind of notified I think sometime towards July that you know oh there's some appraisals going on which didn't make a lot of sense to her uh given what was voted on at the town at the town meeting so the what the vote of town meeting was specifically whether to fund the project using a debt exclusion uh and then there were some easement or some betterment conversations so the project wasn't cancelled the project has never been canceled but it is not funded so there's no money to pay for it um I'm going to let I'm going to defer to Steve on the infrastructure oversight committee but the infrastructure oversight committee had recommended two uh uh eminent domain takings uh further up not the not these that we talked about today but two other ones that um were further along in the process we did appraisals we did the um the review of them these came up this were not recommended from the infrastructure oversight committee I believe a board member suggested we talk about this so a board member suggested we talked about this previous meeting and um this uh body uh agreed to move forward with the appraisal process now do you know anything about why this particular location versus next door like I'm not sure how that do you know I don't think we've looked at that Jim have we with kleinfelder or we didn't review it in detail with the committee kleinfelder did assess different properties in that area and felt that this was the best location here is uh two images from the street and you can see that we're where the UPS vehicle is that's M C's property and that's a pretty close location to where this pump chamber would go and then almost adjacent to the other side of the building that's in or the the picture of the building that's in her property you can see on the other side where this where the cell phone Communications are it's already burdened by these big towers yeah you know so elevation wise there's some type of a stream that flows through that area so whether you're 150 ft on one side 150 ft on the other side the tophy is not that different to think that it wouldn't work engineering wise and the fact that it's burdened by this utility seems to make more sense for me from an impact point of view now obviously that property owner might have some concerns about it but it's their property is already impacted by a heavy utility type application so I don't quite understand you know where's the justification for putting it on her property where it creates a larger impact than would be on this adjacent property can you guys pass that around so kind of a followup to your your your mention about the that the the article was for the payment of the of the of the sewer system as you read down through the article and there's there's several Provisions inside of it it gets down to a section where it says you have to read it in the context of the first part of it where it says devote to see if the town will approve and then there's the money and then there's SE several other items and the one item says that the select board or sewer Comm commission be authorized to acquire by gift purchase taking or otherwise any lands or interest necessary for the construction of the greater Route 6 area water sewer system so I understand the concept the idea is that have voted down the funding but I think it also pretty clearly voted down the taking of property associated with the project you could be right I don't know so that being the case I don't quite understand why there would be still movement going forward on on the potential taking of this property I I wasn't in I don't believe I was in favor of going forward so somebody want to talk about that no we just we just went forward while we had the money to get the appraisals and whatnot yeah so we had we had we had funding available to do appraisals now why we did appraisals on 833 and not whichever direction the other one is I that I don't know and Jim you don't recall like how did we come up with these addresses somebody must have recommended them so it was based on design right they need to be at the lower points of Route Six because that's SE is going to go gravity fed to these areas and they're going to be pumped up uh to a different location along Route 6 but Route 6 is fairly flat so that I'm sure there's some um leeway or Des design leeway to look at this property across the street or the budding property but when kleinfelder went out our engineering company that we hired um this was the property that they felt was in the best location based on the design so so it sounds like if we were to move forward forward with the process um that we might want to we' want to consider alternate locations right that's an option yep that would be an option if we Mo and if you do that I'd like to be involved in it because in addition of being an attorney I'm also a licensed engineer so I'd like to see some of the information that they've developed to identify this particular location on her property as being more appropriate than another piece of property is there um the client Builder reports all them like where where could someone find those I don't know Jim or Manny is that online any the plans are available we can get the plans I think I sent you some of the information if not uh yeah I think this is a copy of the plan that you sent to me um you know which shows basically from the stream on this side but doesn't give us similar information which I think would be useful to do a bit of an engineering analysis to make sure that it could almost be flipped to the other side and you know kind of confirm that as as a feasible option mam chair y so um Glenn so the Northwest Port SE and water that whole project from for River to West Park is what was paid for by the state and funded as phase one SE and water um and when the planning board was involved in that and Jimmy um I believe you're the one that between you and Bob dalor contacted kleinfelder to do the design contracted with kleinfelder to do the design um after the design was all complete one of the other Pump Station owners contacted me and say hey what's going on here so at that point the whole Design's complete I contact UM the Town Administrator and ask him hey but you know I I thought I was assuming that you know these owners were talk with like Kleinfeld whoever was was doing it so I guess nobody was contacted um I've had another Pump Station owner recently in in Phase One contact me Clarity though you're talking about the section that runs probably up to about 88 no that's that was that was some confusion and and and I again I'm I I wasn't involved in any of that that was um some of the kleinfeld's report they referred to phase 1 a phase C that was a that was a study that was done that um I did have an opportunity to review because was on the master plan Review Committee and I saw and that's when I had found out that they you know this is already the third study saying that we need SE and water down Route 6 and um so again like when I started hearing the concern I had assumed that Kleinfeld had spoken to so I did get in a meeting with Jimmy and Kleinfeld right after that first meeting because I'm like we have we you know we also have other people in that area that are in favor of the SE and water that wouldn't have a problem and probably a better location so at that point the meeting that I got involved in and it's probably the only meeting on any of design I was ever involved in and um we didn't really go over Lor's exact location but I kalos's location I did because um one of the other members on the infrastructure oversight committee owns a property across the street there's another property that you're probably familiar with um right on the corner of bav that probably would been a good location so when when I spoke with Kleinfeld and like you know why can't we just move this well I'm not sure Jimmy how much have we spent on the engineering design we spent over a million dollars maybe closer to $2 million on overall design work okay and and by the time when I got involved and and I I know you know I'm familiar with your work and I know you work for the utility company so they had already been to the point that um the you do utility company has already designed the service to these pump stations that's how you know that takes some time that's how far long it's gone so I I was really kind of like surprised that no pump you know no no Property Owners had been contacted prior to this design work but I I mean I got the Town Administrator maybe the chair of the infrastructure oversight committee might have a little better idea on that but I don't know why well I guess I question how far along the design really is because Jim and I talked briefly and indicated that there was some survey data and some other things I asked for that information and doesn't know doesn't seem as though they're really that far along that they've gathered on the ground survey data so if if they don't have on theg ground survey data on the parcel there's no reason why they couldn't do it on the neighboring parcel you know and you know this idea that distribution electric is available for powering the substation I do a tremendous amount of work for eversource energy on transmission electric and while I don't work on distribution electric the distribution electric is in the street and whether they connected in front of this building or that building on top of the fact that I'm sure that there's there's a a high amperage and voltage service that goes to this location with these antennas there would make it even easier to get the kind of power that's going to be necessary for the pump station so I guess I would I would like the opportunity to to have a uh a meeting with the engineers so we can review this before it goes too much further and and we can get some specific input on this um so certainly before it goes any further sounds like that we have a little bit more uh that we need more information because we want to be in Cooperative situations with the neighbors right we don't want to be at odds with neighbors so um it sounds like we before we did go any further which there's no proposal right now that we going any further um that we would you we need to look at Alternatives so my recollection though is the reason that we voted on this in the first place because you asked for these addresses to be put on there so it's it's possible maybe you just didn't realize which addresses when no no no it's it's 100% the other thing is this project notice of intense so as far as how far along the engineering is on the on the route 6 Northwest Port Su Water Project it's 100% complete it actually went out to bid and we got a bid on it MH okay but unfortunately nobody in town has followed up on grant money to get it paid and that's when they went to kind of prematurely try to go to town meeting to do a debt exclusion and do a the job has been fully it went out to bid it's fully designed it's out to bid and that's when I realized when it was going out to bid that's when I realized that they hadn't been contacted none of the pump station people have been contacted and you know with all due respect the fact that they had gone that far with design and hadn't contacted Property Owners I I think it's shame on them and and that shouldn't be held against my client I agree you know Jim so so we had worked for years on on the first section of Route 6 between Fall River Line and Route 88 we had met with the property owners for the two pump station locations a number of times we discussed it a number of times we got close um I think it was last January or February and the project for some people changed you know I think there were different opinions but we were looking at the first section and then in January went from Route 6 to 88 from all of a sudden from Route 6 to dmouth so we had not had a lot of discussions we didn't have any discussions preliminarily with those two Property Owners until we knew that we were doing the whole section and as soon as that happened we reached out to well I think uh Lori reached out to us but she attended a number of meetings and caros attended a couple of meetings as well so as soon as we were aware that we were doing or going for funding for the whole project um they were involved in the process so so right now we don't have any action in front of us right so there's no action to proceed there's um you know it but it's possible there could be right so I hear what you're saying that if we if we go any further that you want to be involved in the in the conversations that are going on and I think that's totally fair I think we would want to involve you so I'm not sure if there's anything else that you'd like to discuss well I guess I just want to have a better understanding is if if if there's no intention to go forward at this point the appraisal have been done so beyond doing the appraisals there's not going to be any further work done on these properties or um you know action in terms of an order of taking or anything along those lines if there were going to be a further action then we would have another meeting and we'd have to notify you and that kind of thing wouldn't I mean like I don't know the notifications for all of these project plans but certainly if there was going to be an order of taking there would be notification to the so along those lines there's going to be a tremendous amount more survey work that's going to be done so perhaps before that's undertaken mam chair so all the survey work has been done um also Jim wasn't there a grant appli for um for this year for that section the second section of SE where do we stand with that the $5 million Grant uh to the federal government that's been applied for but I haven't heard back okay um so what about a water bid that just went out so they we have them later on the agenda we do have um we did get the bid back for the macomer loop and it's on that so I just have a I I have a question for that that you know the mark being an engineer we we'll understand that um so that again we this whole s project has gone out to bid and it came in substantially lower than kleinfeld's report um which which I the same thing has just happened with the with we're calling the Mable Loop well the Mable loop I don't know maybe Steve you can help me on this but so you know this past grant money that was out there so why we were in the process of of um this route 6 SE water project um some public weals on along Route 6 detected um past so there was a grant that was applied for and and pretty much about the same time I was in a meeting with I think it was maybe long-term building committee and the superintendent said something about the M school and you know we' we've got some other areas in town that same Situation's happening and um so that's kind of I believe that's how the ma humble Loop came into play but but that went out to bid what was it Friday when did that go out to bid the bids were open last week Fray okay and um so we have something we're going to award that contract now no but we got the results back in the time but that goes right by Lor's property so one of my questions is Jim on that on that so what did they use for plans to bid from where it ends on Route 6 to Washington Street they use the same plans the same design work for that West Port sewer water so those that's the water's already designed the sewer is already designed and unfortunately the town of Westport is moving forward with the water before the sewer for for for whatever reasons I I mean you've been in you know not as long as me but normally you put sewer infrastructure in before you do water there's also plans for Mass Highway um the Culver next to lores they have design work they're getting ready to move forward with with stuff on mass Highway um Mass Highway contacted me um we had an issue um that you're involved in down with another um property owner further on down the road and when that was inundated with stormw from Mass Highway and and I contacted Mass Highway um they told me they have a whole drainage design for Route 6 that they're looking to move forward with so there's there's a lot more stuff coming on on Route 6 okay surely you're not disputing that should we move forward with um the next step and what would be involved in the taking then we should at least look at why this location and whether there's the location in close proximity might be better are you saying definely not I mean unfortunately that it slipped through the again that would be my that would be the just told me so right happens he's gone so so I think you're right I think we need to evaluate whether there's another suitable location nearby because certainly even if we chose your location even if we decided there wasn't that's information I think that the public should know before the government does a taking of land right that's a serious thing so I I think everybody here is like okay it seems reasonable we we don't do this on the scale but like we do this with telephone lines telephone polls all the time you approve telephone plls they say they want to put it here The Neighbor comes says hey if you scooch it over a little bit then we can put the driveway in here and we're like okay let's go back so I think this is just like a bigger scale of hey if you moved it a little bit over is that possible and that's what you're asking I think that's fair I think we all agree that that would be fair we'd want that information before we did anything dramatic so um I'm going to ask certainly we're required to advise you of certain things of notifications of the Butters but um if Jim and and if the infrastructure oversight committee can just be sure that you're in contacted in things I think that's what you're asking for now which I think is fair yeah but we also wanted to make sure that it it wasn't going forward without a little further discussion about this and you know because there's there's a couple Alternatives it it's could possibly go on this other piece of property and if if there's a legitimate issue why it can't go on the other property it could possibly be put further back on on Mame property in which case it wouldn't have as much of an impact and wouldn't change the design parameters that much other than just repositioning the location for pump chamber and the generator and the other facilities very reasonable to evaluate those okay okay do you have an idea when you think any of this might occur so we can get an understanding of when we think we might be back to talk about this further or we haven't even voted on the water yet that's like like Manny said that's the first phase um and if we're going to do any kind of taking like we're talking about we'd probably take it a town meeting anyways but right now it's not in the foreseeable future he's talking about a grant B Could Happen okay is it possible to get a copy of the materials that were that were submitted by the appraisal I think so yeah I give youil you the whole whole appraisal okay I'd appreciate I I think Jim could you Pro possibly maybe get Glenn the whole cat file on the project so he can see see what the whole thing is and maybe the contact from Kleinfeld so you could you know because I this is what I I at that point I mentioned because when when Mr Ferrera had the same issue I'm like we got Property Owners nearby that would be a better location it's the same thing um unfortunately the town spent a large amount of money can it be moved I'm sure but it's you know I think some of the people believe that the sewer water project is not going to happen so it's not a big problem but um it's all designed right now and if if there was some way that that Westport we we weren't short that much money to finish it we got the best bid we were going to ever see just like this water the water just came in way under what we got and there's probably enough money to continue to the water for the complete project that's designed right now with what we have now we have Grant in that would take Su in phase two we haven't asked for a grant for phase three but I'm not aware that the water creates any kind of problem for taking contract again I'm getting confused and it's confusing to people too because that's how the confusion phase one soon water on Westport was from Four River the dth and then we came up with the idea when looking at kleinfeld's phasing in their study said listen we don't have so we don't have the money so we're going to do contracts as we get the money so was never that we're not going to put the sewer all the way to the end of Route Six to dmouth line it's we don't have the money to get there and and obviously the voters voted that they don't want a tax increase to do it so one of the other things under the water that's coming through right now everybody needs to understand that it's coming down Route Six they're going to have crib starts put in front of their house they don't have to tie in they're not be in charge the betterment because it was all with grant money and that's what what the infrastructure and the planning board is trying to do with the SE to to get it in front of these residents that need it and if they want to tie in cuz you know we we get in all these commun they don't want to tie in I said but the other thing is there's also a report need to move on no well there's one more thing that's you know M Mr Mar's kind of an expert in this field too so there was an environmental study that I did bring forth before all the Selectmen that mass Highway did on the groundwater contamination on Route 6 MH and I read I read it I don't know if anybody else has read it but did present them all to at town meeting and in that study it said that the groundwater is contaminated and it is migrating into the aquaa so that's that's where our need is to get this water main all the way down Route 6 buy all these properties and these residences and and that that will eliminate the public health threat we still have the environmental threat that we need to eliminate in this and she appreciates that is willing to work just want an opportunity to be heard thank you one thing I just requested can I get the plan and profiles as well for the designs because then that has the elevation information as well not just plan view but also profile packet okay okay thank you thanks thank you thank you um so the next item is discussion um for the use of the old high school and the site visit so last week we um excuse me can I speak oh yes okay my name is Carlos for yeah the microphone I want to S you where is low is I don't have nothing against Wen so going down Route Six okay my biggest concern I spoke to Jimmy already about this I spoke to Min about it my biggest concerned they want to put I own 165 ft Frontage they want to take 30 feet 35 ft Whatever It Is by 50 what's the limitation in Westport to build something on West for on land you let me know so you want to make sure that you you're still in my question isage the frontage on the property in Westport is 150 ft Frontage you take 50 ft of my front Lees me 115 feet if I decide to put a big building in what do I do I don't have nothing against the se you guys can take the saw ship it all the way back like she says okay what what I see they did this designer because I met with this appraiser this AA went to my property with me and I said where do you want to put this why next to the telephone pole with the power is oh it's 50 30 something feet this way by 50 yeah you guys all right take the front of my property away go in the back or go go emerals bus he on the committee right Emeral bus on the committee of the water and sewer go on the church across the street they probably could use the money that's my biggest concern I mean I want the same situation that you give to them when you send anything out certainly yeah yes that's my biggest concern about this stuff you want to put the water in so right but why want to put the water first when you have to dig the whole laneway and the sewer has to go deeper before you can put the that make any sense R water all the way to Washington Street and then not put the sewer that don't make no sense we're going to waste all kind guys going to waste all kinds of money people don't want it either you guys want to make all kinds of money waste that money doing that going to do it twice we got to work that all up like this is people don't ltra buildings they don't want any of that right now there's lot to be done big meetings yeah and I I think it's totally fair to want more information if there's suitable Alternatives yes sorry that I didn't call on you earlier uh okay so the use of the old high school and the site visit so we had a site visit we were all there we walked around saw the place um need to know what Ralph said so um and I think um I I what I dug up so I guess first of all anybody have any Impressions from the site visit or anything that they wanted to talk about put of work needed but I you know depends on R I think the I think the whole thing has a lot of potential it's just a matter of how much money is going to be involved in the potential right so um we've talked a lot about so I I went and pulled up the slides these are from Christopher's three slides which I didn't we didn't print for everybody but um from the long-term building committee's recommendation so um the long-term building committee recommended that the select board take appropriate steps to immediate medely develop a strategic plan to renovate the old high school building for municipal use now I completely agree with that and believe we should charge the long-term building committee with developing a strategic plan to renovate the high school for municipal use so that's my opinion we can talk about it the next steps that they had um were um evaluating all existing Town building so conducting a assessment of all the town own properties evaluate the current condition usage potential future needs and then create upto-date renovation estimates so the cost necessary for renovation detail cost for HVAC electrical Etc and assess the financial implications and then they like their last step was prepare a debt exclusion ballot should that be necessary so it's my opinion after having walked through the long-term building committee that I think we should follow their recommendations I think we should develop a plan we should which would include evaluating the town buildings and creating an up-to-date renovation estimate I also believe that we would need um like you you just kind of said U what did Ralph think I think we need input from the code compliance officer KP law and our insurance representative um before we moved forward so in addition to these things I would add Code Compliance um legal and Insurance well I would say we can't give them a charge until Ralph says it's feasible we're not going to have them working and Ralph says can't do it well so what I believe so my understanding is that the code compliance officer wouldn't tell you yes or no you can do this they would tell you if you do this you have to meet these codes or no you don't have to meet these codes so I don't it's not whether you go forward or not but it would probably significantly impact the price tag right because he's going to say if it's a change of use where they got to bring up different codes and use of the facility that's all so go ahead there lies the the the the Crux of the situation is can we do something similar to what you suggested on on on exploring the uses that would um uh prevent us from getting into a CH a full change of use situation so so you might be right maybe the first step is Code Compliance the Cod compliance issue and what what what what are the parameters when we if we if or when we violate the the current change use so my understanding is that Ralph defers large building decisions to someone other than himself is that true yeah he usually gets a in fact he always gets a code compliance company to come in and tell him what upgrades have to be made when you get into the larger buildings it gets very complicated as far as um triggers that it items that can trigger additional work um yeah right so it wouldn't be R it would be go forward is that going to cost this money obviously we we have a code compliance report already um based on a change in use of the building moving all municipal offices over there and I believe the Council on Aging uh we don't have a specific Code Compliance report based on moving one office over or two office overall or the annex or the annex the annex because I I think if you're going to be looking at C compliance and what we're doing at the annex maybe you know the the Annex Building the old old school they did exactly the same thing turned it into minicipal building what we're trying to do with the high school um so I I think if we're going to do an evaluation of the of of the old high school we need to do an evaluation of the annex in this building well okay so that's two different things though so the the one thing is would we trigger Code Compliance um significant costs associated with code compliance if we move municipal offices to the old high school right so that's one question is if we move town hall to the high school does that trigger what what required changes would we have to make or not maybe we don't maybe maybe it's not a change of use because it's still municipal government right so so that's a pretty big question about the Code Compliance issue about whether we're going to trigger that if we if we move and I think that's one question now evaluating the other buildings that we're not changing use of these other buildings yet um but we might if we move over there right so I think I think if we were going to go through cost associated with moving you're right I think we do need to evaluate which was why I was in here evaluate all existing Town buildings I think that's necessary but I kind of I I'm kind of liking what you just said like maybe we need that code question first like are we going to trigger code changes that are s or what would they be because I think that matters a lot to how much work we make this committee do just to find that out we're getting to the point where the buildings starting to show lack of use you saw it in some of the rooms you see it in the auditorium and people want to use the auditorium but the AC isn't on all summer and that controls the humidity so that's why we need to figure out what he wants to do because we need to know what we're going to do with that building it's it's going to turn into you know a lot more expense if we don't do something soon well I know you two are on the Comm but what do you think about that getting the Code Compliance way and is it the right time to do that I'm new I mean one of the things that we W through is we had some we had offices that were just recently changed changed into classrooms when when they had the problem with the with the middle school so I mean those are existing offices over there they just converted them and use them as classrooms I mean the amount of space that we're looking to um immediately use like moving the building department in there that could facilitate this whole move over the next few years coming out of the annex the square footage I think I think they could coincide with with the school committee and the admin over there there's enough offices that you got the you get that soon as you walk into the entrance the the nurses station I mean the the issues that they have at the annex would would h meeting patients there I mean that that that room looks like it's ready to go so I think but I think from my perspective I wouldn't approve anybody moving anything until the code compliance officer weighed in on whether we would trigger code changes or not our attorneys weigh in on whether they think we would be violating and our insurance company would ensure it because I would hate to be in a situation where we move there and then something happens and now insurance is like we didn't know you were doing that like I I we can't move anybody in there without knowing those three things and probably more um even if you're going to move in rapidly and you didn't have to do a single other thing you still need to know I would need that to approve it so you have valuable information perhaps I'm sorry wait wait I I got the board first go ahead yeah not to cut off Mr Thrasher but there's another component to this too and that's the town meeting empowered the select board to spend $200,000 on a feasibility study which included other buildings a project manager I think that that was with your words and we have not availed oursel to that yeah uh whether or not this whole idea is is a good one to begin with I just don't know I'm not saying I'm against it I'm saying I don't know we have the report from the utile company that's in online on the longrange building committee there's a lot of information there but there have been some questions about that would it really cost $30 million to retrofit this building what happens to the other buildings of course utile had other ideas like senior housing and so on and so forth any event a lot of information and this would be a big thing for everybody in the town of Westport so I'm I'm a little bit curious as to why we're not we've not been interested in doing that to give us the answer to the question is this feasible and here are some of the things maybe you need to think about that you haven't thought about well to be fair to the committee they they recommended so before we were like what should we do should we demolish it should we renovate it should we sell it right so they were they looked at like however many six or eight different options right so they recom recommended that we develop the plan for municipal use now we haven't agreed to that yet and said yes please go ahead and develop a plan for municipal use so I think that's where we are is like what do we want to tell them to do next well yeah but the committee could have said we would like to spend the money on the feasibility study yeah had that been brought forth personally I would I would have been amendable to that because that gives us more information and but that this is not the second guest by any means but that was not done so regardless of who the select board has the authority that the the uh long-term building committee didn't have the authority to do that in the first place yeah the the town warrant the article was specific to the select board yeah uh so that to me is would would answer a lot of questions for not just us but for the town and and there a lot of people people who have varying views on this they're confused they don't know what what it's going to cost I don't see anybody in the mood right now to spend $30 million if that's what it is on an an excluded debt measure I I think that has no hope uh I'm interested in what the cost is of retrofitting this building which I mentioned at a prior meeting which would be large enough to take over the functions of the annex and wouldn't need the annex when that solves the annex problem which you have articulated a couple of times correig all of us have and all of us have articul ated our concerns so I I'm lobbying for doing that to get not to delay this because the time is clicking away here we saw the building and it's deteriorating and it's not getting any better it's probably going to cost more my my concern is that a consultant might come back and say it's the 29 million is off the board now it's 50 million I'm pretty sure that's what they're going to say but I'm one but but but we have a feasibility study we had a feasibility study that was done in 2020 like what what and you know what what I I agree we should use I actually think we should use this money to go forward and do these things right to to go evaluate the town buildings to come up to with a with a plan like I think we should use that money to pay someone to help us do that but I guess are you thinking we need a different feasibility study or well I'm questioning your your label of what we have as a feasibility study now you talking about the utile stuff that's on page there were two there were two well what's on maybe we should maybe we should let Mr Thrasher answer is that okay sure can you answer that first prefer Mr because utile or U whatever they pronounce that was hired by the Town Administrator with the approval of the board of Selectmen at the time yes okay and it I don't know what the right title is I didn't I didn't look at it as a feasibility study it had options Oh no you're right it had the it was the high school reuse study from 2022 the high school appraisal from 2022 and the code analysis from 2023 and the Adaptive reuse analysis 2020 so you're saying that the Adaptive reuse and the that the 20201 the Adaptive reuse is the one I was thinking of um but you're there was also the utile one in 2022 well we went ahead for me to answer we went ahead with the article we put the article to meeting knowing that this already existed so we obviously must have had common thought that this wasn't enough to answer the feasibility question possibly I don't know well that's that's that's my view I'm just expressing my view I'm only one person here but I'm saying that I don't have enough information in front of me to make a decision as to what is feasible what we should do and what we shouldn't do I don't know and I want more information I don't think the U goes that far and all that other stuff okay Mr fash thank you Christopher Thrasher drift Road chairman of the long-term building committee although in this case I am just speaking as as a concerned citizen here first of all nice to talk on on happier subjects here uh so to Mr Brewer's point I I absolutely agree there is not enough information as of yet and that's actually been one of the one of the serious issues that I have had in trying to evaluate is this a good idea or is it not there's there's uh between the studies that that looked at the Utah study looked at very specific uses very specific scenarios as opposed to a a wider a wider variety of whether it you say not having the council all on Aging as part of it or and it also included demolishing part of the part of the the structure without rehashing the the arguments uh and and uh comments about this building over and over again it it just some people say that the building is dilapidated we should sell for scrap and call it a day and some people say we can go and move in tonight obviously the truth lies somewhere in the middle what I am asking uh this the select board to do is to give the long-term building committee a specific charge to create such a strategic plan and by doing so utilize the the Appropriations that have already been voted for in town uh in town meeting for the the uh uh for the purposes of having a project manager because this there are so many different options there are so many different things that need to be considered in order to actually get the information where we can make a sound decision uh it it's going to require a project manager and frankly the uh the committee didn't really have that charge last year and it was a situation where we had not only uh a lack of a well-defined objective and also Mission creep both at the same time so I'm asking I'm asking the the uh the select board here to to make a specific charge of the long-term building committee my suggestion is that the again the Appropriations be utilized again uh to to get a project manager uh to work in conun in conjunction along with the committee to actually evaluate all of these different options I think that the Code Compliance aspect is is absolutely a crucial aspect but I think that that can be done alongside uh the rest of of this evaluation but again the key is the appropriation is has been made from town meeting it it's going to require project manager being hired to oversee this so Madam chair CHR did did we not hire a facilitator we hired a facilitator and this goes back to the original question of the charge of the committee because what the facilitator then focused on was what should we do with this building evaluating the options uh to to uh evaluating the options whether again sell uh re rebuild whatever and I don't want to nothing else well I'm just saying that's the problem we it's it's been a continual analysis par what I what I what we need is an actual charge to here do this get a project manager you've already got with the money's appropriated let's get some details let's get the the figures so that we can actually make a sound decision because I absolutely agree with Mr Brewer we do not have enough information and that's what I'm asking the select board to empower either and frankly you don't need the long-term building committee you can indeed you absolutely have the authority to do it to do it uh without the involvement of the committee certainly would hope that you would involve the committee but the point is let's let's start working on uh working on getting all this stuff together and and it it's going to take more than just a volunteer committee to do this it's going to take a a professional project manager to lay out all of these all of these issues I completely agree the the beginning was should we sell it should we keep it should we sell part of it should we keep part of it like there and and the committee went around a lot so now if we zero in on we want to use the building for municipal use how feasible is that right that's what you're talking about is what is the feasibility does it make economic sense to repurpose that as so now it would be more specific charge like hey the municipal offices moving over there what would it take right so I I absolutely think that's the right path now my question though about the Code Compliance is I think you know if I think that's maybe that happens with part of the whole feasibility study but if we can get that answer I I don't know I don't know what the timing of study like that looks like maybe to to me if I may Madam chair as as an attorney I can already tell you what your answer is going to be from any Co code compliance officer the answer is going to be it depends it's like I heard from every every law law professor in my life right and and that's why I think it needs to be part of a holistic approach with the project manager at the head of it to actually lay all this out because I I again Mr Brewer hit the nail on the head I don't know if it's a good idea I don't have numbers to see whether it's a good idea so that's say like bottom line let's let's we and we've we've locked we've talked a lot about um when we do the trade-offs in terms of change use we're talking about classroom uses but there's a lot of square footage yeah and acreage using for athletic fields for gymnasium and sports activities and so if you begin I mean you could take an entirely different look at that picture and say we're not doing a subst Cal change when you look at all of these other uses that aren't uh mostly educational instruction because if you look at the square footage of that uh site including the building there's a lot of square footage that's used for things other than education youth youth sports leagues baseball leagues and go on and on so is the right is the right Next Step then to put together an RFP for for uh the feasibility yes study that that I mean would I don't know how like how we would def Jim would need help with what are we T what are we putting together in the RFP right so what would you mean well this is the way I thought it was going to happen we were going to look at the building and see how bad off it was and then move from there get an answer from Ralph I thought we were going to get an answer from Ralph Next Step would be you could work to your project manager but basic steps would be probably do a tests and see if people are even going be able to go on the building and look at the mechanical before we even stop playing we already saw the the water heaters are disconnected and and boilers are open blah blah blah so we got to start off with just the basics because that if is that school even going to make it through this winter and I thought that's how we'd go from there then you want a project manager do the basic stuff that isn't going to cost us we can do our directly self do the air test make sure it's safe to even be in the building before we go crazy coming up with numbers cuz once they start taking stuff apart you don't know what you're going to find so that's the basics just tell us what we can do with it first if you're saying we got to do the proposal then go forward with the proposal but we need to move but I think Mr Thrasher has a point though like C compliance say well and like what you just said it's kind of complicated it's not just change of use it's like some of these are this gu go ahead so the Code Compliance we have a full report right now but that's based on municipal offices Town Hall Town Hall Annex Council on Aging moving into the building there you go based on 2023 based on all those ju is going in at one time it would trigger different code compliances and that's where the $30 million came in okay if if different if it's done at different stages Code Compliance may be different um but if it's an allout use for Town Hall the annex Council on Aging are moving in there we have a report right now that's been done by a code compliance so-called expert and he said that if you do that it's going to trigger these things and you're going to have to make a number of Improv m to the building what could you just clarify Jim what's it going to trigger if we do what so there can we move the Annex in there without that he didn't look at right just the annex office no he just he looked at all the municipal uses as a whole and based on that based on cost based on change in use based on a few other things that's when all these other things got triggered if we move in a smaller proportion it it it may be different it it would be different I don't know to what extent I I think we need to look at that pop because I I think to save the building that would be our first step get the Annex in there get our building inspector in his office in there he can work on all the future moving on that that's the other beauty of the building it's it's large enough that that we could have another project to move councel and an agent in there while we're still occupying it and do this in phases you know like like as the money comes available I mean we got a grant to redo the heating system here I mean nobody's asked for a grant over there to fix what we need to do over over there we got we got issues right now where it's costing us money every year to run this building we we we're still occupying it and I mean I I hear a lot of things but what I hear from the public is they want to keep the building and and we need to keep the building so so I just the conclusion from this report um says unless a very limited scope project occurs full compliance with 521 CMR the installation of sprinklers and an increase in bathroom facilities are likely interior finishes must be brought into compliance as does egress illumination exit signs and fire alarm system construction type and egress are satisfactory so I guess it just depends on the scope of the project but I also think that you know a phased approach moving in is is still a big project and you so I I don't know so I guess I'm I mean I'm leaning towards we need the feasibility analysis but I also kind of well feasibility moving to town hall and exinia is a stop see if we can do it so so Jim what piece what information do you need or what help do you need to put together an RFP for the feasibility I just need to know what the goal is I guess what the charge is is it just to move the Annex in there um then we would look at things where would you move them you know how much space would they need what type accessibility issues would you have for the public that are going there um technology but that's not wa but but you want more than what you were talking about dick was more than yeah feasibility as to the the totality here the effect that it has on all the other Town buildings that's what I'm looking for Is it feasible that's another way of saying is it a good idea but it's not just idle conversation it's based on the following facts that's why I think the project manager might be the person or people who do this to say this is what you have to consider if you do this this is like chess which I don't play you move that there and the whole board Chang you take that pawn out it's different this is what's going to happen here you start moving the annex that's that's going to have a domino effect other things are going to follow from that and you may regret that later on now you L because that wasn't the right move had we known it at the time I we I want I want somebody who's expert in this area to say this is what you're undertaking and these are the ramifications of it it's truly a feasibility St that which is what it says in the in the article that's and I don't think Utah gets us St far and and Utah was looking at different uses we could we could at least narrow it down to the feasibility of moving municipal offices to that location right or the feasibility of not doing it it's you see to me it's all open I don't I don't know what the right answer is I really don't I don't have a I don't have an agenda here I have no agenda I don't know what I'm doing therefore I want to have a feasibility study of people saying this is Brewer here's what you got here's what you got to do you take you take on a project like this this is what it means to the town and here are the moving Parts I don't know that okay well we got the 30 million if I may Madam chair the last thing I will say is just to underline that point if you do another feasibility study with a very specific onetime scenario and that's it we're going to waste another year it needs to be a holistic overall feasibility study that includes not just that building but all other Town bu buildings as well again the money there from the appropriation project manager seems to be the way to go in my opinion so I think so I think that maybe maybe where I am at is there's two potential P here so one is do that do the feasibility study evaluate all the town buildings get an upto-date estimates um look at talk to them about a phased approach if we were to do this over three to five years how how might we increment that in or what or should we increment that in or whatever so I think you're right the whole project all the town building involved let's go get an RFP out to do that so someone probably needs to help Jim but um let's get an RFP for that I also think that there are a lot of people who think that we can just move in soon and move like you just said move the building inspector over there tomorrow right before we move the building inspector over there tomorrow I want to make sure from Code Compliance and legal and insurance that we can do that maybe you should look at that and leaving them at the annex if we can leave them at the annex the only reason I'm asking because like evaluate the annex right now before you decide that we already occupying it is not the same thing because right the annex needs a lot of work this building needs a lot of work there's absolutely no doubt in my mind we need millions of dollars of Ren in fact it's one of these studies millions of dollars renovation in these two locations like I agree with you but we're here it doesn't cost any money to State this year's budget doesn't cost any money in this year's budget to stay here right moving changes things there's money associated with the cost of moving itself there's cost of you know the changes that you have to make there's some money now maybe not big money if you're only moving a few little departments it might not be big money but there's it's it's it's making a change it's easier to keep the status quo to make a change which is why we have falling down buildings that requiring millions of dollars of repair right now so there's not it's not as simple as hey it would cost more to fix up this building cuz we're not going to fix up this building except Band-Aids here and there as we as we do that this building's going to be a tough sell the annex is easy I mean it's not the same thing how much of a gr did we get for the heating system here yeah this 00,000 this one's going to be a tough sell it's it's you if we sell the building you need to have an improved heat system we should this is a very historic building of which I find fascinating is so many people so many people are so obsessed with the history of the high school this is a historic building we Haven mentioned built by the WPA it's like the town symbol and everything like I don't think you know maybe we want to do something different with thisum it might be a great museum or something I don't know but but if I think that if there is a desire if Mr Sor specifically because you're the one that keeps bringing it up if you want to move the building department over there then get me the code compliance officer saying it's okay and the lawyers and the insurance company saying it's okay and they you got offices open now charge Ral with that get no not charge Ralph with it Ralph has his job and this is what his job is he's okay well he can do the Cod compliance part but he's not going to do the other part well then it's Jimmy's job to ask well you can put a proposal together specify fory what he wants what you want him to do right now I'm saying that with this whole thing is the whole the whole reason we did this is cuz we've been kicking a can down the road there was $200,000 appropriated but we don't have any money for anything but that $200,000 appropriated is still sitting there so now we still want to go back and spend that we already see we have a need and we're already we're occupying the building now we're talking very minor to move move the annex over there fine prove it prove it that it's very Min it's not my job to prove it I'm bringing it I'm telling you what what my constituents are tell me and I'm telling you now if you don't want to you want to just keep doing studies that's fine no I don't I want to sell I been on the record since 2018 as wanting to sell the building in 2018 I wanted to sell the building I have been consistent ever since I am not putting together the proposal anything and I was also also during that are making something happen master plan Review Committee and I know what the master plan Review Committee wanted everybody wanted to demolish the building and put housing there okay now the people that are still using those fields all summer we we've they've been coming in they no the town does not want to get rid of the building right people didn't want to go people didn't go there other people here that do no that's fine I I it really doesn't matter to me I'm just saying what I hear from people want to move over to that building for municipal offices great and I and I keep here we don't have any money so I don't know why we want to keep spending that $200,000 we've studied it to death we can ask Ralph if we can move in let's stop the bleeding at the annex I I I think we should put together an RFB and then we can do we need do you need a vote of the board to put together an yeah you don't I don't think no we can put together an RFP and we can vote on whether we want to proceed so would the RFP be an RFP just on what it would be to move the annex there no why not no we just we're talking that's our immediate need that's our immediate need right now move the annex there I think I think the the full one of the things you have to explore is phased in approach mhm and and I I agree with you man I would start with the annex because it I've i' spouted off about that I think at least once a meeting for the last two meetings so not going to do it again cheapest rent in the region for the businesses there all right so we need to give them a charge a business please put together an RP for feasibility looking at all the existing Town [Music] buildings possibly a phased approach for that whatever else dick said because it was pretty smart well I do think we have a little housekeeping so this is not we're not charging a long-term building committee with this task no okay so it's now a select board task under the leadership of Jim per project managers whatever and and I do think this we shouldn't be studying this Forever by the way we want to get finan finale people who are going to work for us we got to understand we want to move ahead here we we need help and know so I don't I agree with man we've been studying this for a long time but in in my view we haven't really answered the question is this really a good idea in the first place I'm just saying I don't know maybe I'm the only one on this committee that doesn't know but that's the way I feel I'm being honest about it and I won't vote for it unless I know no I don't I don't know I mean we you know how much it's going to cost and how we're going to pay for it so do we need a motion for Jim I don't think no Jim just said he could do so you're going to proceed with that I I will present some type of our proposal to the board and you guys can give me directions as if it's the way you want to go okay that's good that okay with you so far yeah important I'm for I'm for whatever personally I'm for whatever brings action um I will say I have had requests from members of the long-term building committee to convene a meeting and I if there's whether it's to give more uh more food for thought for for Jim on on to create the RFP or whatever or if there's going to be a charge going forward I I would just like uh something from the select board if possible uh for what what the committee's next steps are uh even if that's to do nothing right now that's fine I just yeah so I think I mean I think the general consensus is we want to kind of keep exploring moving the municipal offices but if you want to wait if it depends do you want to give input to Jim while he's grafting the RFB then please feel free I'm sure what my thought would be I would prepare kind of like a flowchart say these are the options and if the board agrees with it then we would go through the op good idea that sounds good so I think there's you can give them my update but I think that after that will be more that's fair enough absolutely like I said I'm I'm for whatever is going to bring some action here so thank you okay okay anything else on the old high school or the site visit but I did make one error that K was on the agenda K was on the posted agenda it wasn't on the one online let's go look online is is it it wasn't on the version I looked at is there more than one version on the [Music] on the one I copied was the one that was online when you sent out the notice and K is on here okay all right so we should go back well so K the K that we skipped over which we're not going to take action on because the people who might be interested in this are gone well this well no this is the first this is the other one but this says recommendation to the next meeting anyway all right so K yeah all right so K was on there sorry so this K was the scheduled the order of takings for the pump station easements for 35 and 287 State Road does anybody know if any of the people that were here were interested in 35 or 287 State Road I think we defer to the next meeting I think we should def that's the recommendation before anyway yeah I agree all right so so the next meeting we'll put the same item on so we're not going to put the taking order at the next meeting and give a courtesy email to Mr Mo and uh the other gentleman yeah please make sure 35 and 287 but also 833 and 11:15 are notified that we're going to talk about the order of takings just for the first two though right yeah Ju Just for the first two we don't have enough yeah Status because they they wanted to know but they want but let's make sure they're in the loop okay Madam CH yes could could you also get a a copy of the of the full set of plans all stay in the plan in the planning board and selects so that these people when they come in they can see what's going on I thought the planning board has a full set I don't know I requested it but I I haven't seen it but I I'll follow in the water one too I think they took that full set the other day yeah well I did request that at a bid so I haven't been there yet we'll be there tomorrow so I will I will check just say we've requested significant am amount of information from client Felder as they wrap up these contracts we want a full package of every all the work that they've done in in CAD format and I think you would mentioned a different format that's usable so that they're working on they working on the waterline contract that's why they haven't got it to us yet okay good they are working on that so the thing on on the on the waterline contract too if if you get that that that CAD file because there's also um highways should probably get a model built for that I don't know you know this country contractor that got the bid um what his capabilities are but and how this stuff's going to get laid out and how it was in the contract I mean when we review the we could probably review that contract to planner board but how they going to move forward and and did we get a bid I might be jumping ahead of myself but did we get the bid for the inspection yes two companies that submitted bids all right so let's go into the TA report because I think he has some them all right just the Westport storm water mapping we're still working uh through the planning department in Buzzard Bay National estuaries project and the highway department as well has been working with um uh interns with Mass Maritime and the buzzes Bay National edary project to locate our existing storm water system and map it out um there is a website you can go on and kind of see where these things are these are not being mapped exact you know but it it's there for illustration purposes so that we can determine um different watersheds and and where these Outlets are from the catch basins they're also doing water quality testing at the outlets to see if we have any elicit discharge uh the cab uh program Grant repair program select board member Dutra mentioned I think at the last meeting uh that application Grant application is available it'll run through uh June 20th of 2025 um and uh the Housing Trust office is open on Wednesday if anybody has any questions it's first come first serve so don't wait until June of 25 because you could have some proposals coming in the next couple of months um let's see the Mac Loop the past water grant I just put some additional information in there there was a press release last week from the uh Healey Driscoll Administration Westport received $4 million out of the $17 million that was available there's only one other Grant in the state that was larger than Westport and that was $5 million all the other ones were like a million less than a million some $100,000 so we're very fortunate to get that that contract went out to bid we opened that bid last week and uh the bids came in probably about 20 25% lower than the design estimates came in about $3.1 million with engineering cost inspections and um change orders were probably closer to the $4 million but we have the $4 million Grant and we have another just over a million dollars with uh Bristol County APPA funds that we can use for that waterline contract so we'll have to look to see if um we want to extend the water line in different areas and where streets might be beneficial once we get the contractor on board I just sent him a um notice of a ward went out today so we should have a contract before the board hopefully at the next meeting Pro did we vote to proceed on that yet to award it we have not awarded the contract yet no that'll come here I just gave them a notice that they were the low bidder um and there there were there's um there were um add-ons to that right so so so you were talking about the so it came in under under what we already had but we can extend that contract right so we went out for a base bid which would have been Route Six in Osborne Street and then we did an add alterate that was Road and that was included in the 3.1 total so even with the ad alternate we were under the estimate so um and Jimmy that that that Loop that helps with water quality one of our problems that we have on Route Six so I think um on however the bid was written up too any any usable monies should be used to extend it to Route Six so down Route Six we can head towards Forge Road and that direction and and hopes of uh looping into maybe beting and head towards the high school at some point in time um do we have any other you know like again this was a past Grant um and I guess Roger is the Rogers the project manager for the S route six se Water Project we had that other issue up on Sanford Road with with p and we got the we got the problem at the at the fire station with P are we looking what are we looking into more grant money so we can keep this work rolling so we can put another bit out next year if you're aware of any grants let us know and we'll take a look at them this past money was actually Opa funds that they channeled through so this was the remaining Opa funds from the federal government that the state had to use um immediately you know before they had to be obligated by December so that's why this money was available I don't know how you know there's not going to be any more funds after December so unless they reappropriate or appropriate new funds for this there may not be as much money available um but if if you're aware of any let us know and we'll take a look well I I did I did that consultant that reached out that we said he could he could find us on a very had a very limited scope and um you know we still haven't been able you still haven't given him a shot oh no I did I I reached out to him with the inspection contract I sent him notice I I sent him the packet he did not b on the packet yeah I don't think they're not really an inspection type of contractor um or I should say consulted so the town hall remediation plan uh we do have some contamination for some old oil tanks that were in the ground years ago um we're still under review by the state it's being monitored by uh Campbell Associates um the report basically kind of says that it's improving slightly um but they're going to have to continue monitoring so and this could go on for a while Campbell's rlsp for the mass contingency plan y um he's here he's also with the uh the transfer station as well now what about the fire station now with the p contaminations and stuff P contamination they tested the well at the Briggs um Briggs Road fire station a couple of months ago they had elevated levels of P I think at 29 I think the level they're looking at is 20 they were going to retest it I don't have the what're about the Sal and stuff too I haven't heard about the Sal I'm not aware of the salt um yeah I can check if there's something out there with the Sol the town hall Annex well we did get approval for Mass D the water quality testing was done um the pumps test test was completed uh they still want us to monitor it for a few months to see if the treatment is that we have a small treatment system there for the water they want to make sure that that's working properly Hicks Bridge Landing um Jim I just go back on the annex so what what's the treatment system for so we have like most Wells here in Westport we have I think it's high iron and maybe Mages Mages hibridge Landing um we're still working we we're still trying to work with the uh the owners of the abing property to see if we can reach a temporary agreement on an easement or licensing agreement until we can get an easement in place they have concerns and we haven't been able to address all their concerns at this point I'm not sure if we're going to get that licensing agreement so it may be closed off for the rest of the year but we are still working on it um wind turbine debris we discussed that I think quite a bit I will say I did receive a call today from Dana rero who's one of their um know public relations people and uh she said that they've been out on the beach collecting debris over the last couple of weeks slowed down the last few days but there was one day they collected 30 lbs another day 8 lbs I think another day six PB so they have picked up quite a bit along the beaches here in Westport again I I think on that too we like Steve you're you're out there with with the news reporters and I think we need to get it across to to the public and and you know coming in with pieces of fiberglass picking it up I mean they they they really need a look they put it on the website right away I mean what else just for information you don't want to pick the stuff up don't pick it up don't pick it up don't bring it to town don't throw it yeah don't throw it in a meeting you can you can check on the town website there's a number you can call there's a uh web page that you can uh enter the information on and they'll come and pick it up if you can't get a hold of anybody call us and we will we will follow up for you that's all I have okay um minutes were the minutes in our F was one more thing Landing bench and parking um I spoke to Jeff bull he had requested it' be on this agenda but I did not make it for this agenda so it'll be on the next agenda on the is it the the west side of uh Hicks bridge on the west on the north side of the road there's a small Landing um and they would like to add some parking move the stones back so that uh you could park maybe three or four cars along the side of the road as well as put in a bench where you could sit it's actually a beautiful location um he's currently looking to see if um they would require or recommend to the select board that they require Hicks Bridge passes in order to park there still looking to make sure that you know because it's in the road layout not the uh Landing that that we can make that work so hopefully for the next meeting we can have more information on that and the trash if you're going to create a place for people to hang out you need to get rid of the trash cuz it's bad enough with the playgrounds the barrels everywhere thought we didn't put barrels at playgrounds by Centennial everywhere I mean people go there they change diapers and whatnot yeah know but I thought that we didn't put the barrels there anymore because that very problem I don't think I don't think we're put trash actually a neighbor was plucking Weeds last time I was there trying to make it look better B sentennial um so the next item was the minutes but I don't see the minutes in the packet were the minutes in the packet I mean I found them you found them okay maybe I'm just the only one that didn't find them and my drive is been tough too I don't know what's up with it um so how how are you at the minutes um the minutes actually reflect my Recollections of the money which I was a curcum which so so you've got um July 8 July 22 and August 6 yeah August 6 I did not read but I saw them someplace um but there wasn't much do you have them no no I don't have them yeah I didn't have them either I don't have them we hold off to the next one let's let's wait I was having a problem with my drug bringing up files to well I'm having a problem with the dry period but I got to talk to Jim about that all right probably talk to Paul should be more helpful now Jim will be very help I was just no I I can find him but I'm good with I also have but just to ass sure that the the other two when you when you read the ones that you read were great right they were great okay all right we're going to skip over the minutes right now um report on the bill warrant Madam chair yes uh I was a little bit surprised when I found two two my work products in the package one was from 26 and the latest one last week was 89 but I'll ask Paulo was so we didn't approve this one we a we meeting it's because of the three- we thing yeah the one that we we had to redo and I back the next day it was the prior one right okay all right then that explains it all right so it's a three- week thing so first one we don't have to approve these but it was $726 it was $4 million in change uh nothing unusual all in all order that's in there for your review and then last week was a more normal $2.3 million and everything there was in order so you're all good thank you okay we have liaison committee reports and suggestions for future items so Craig I think we've are um with the uh we are looking for a grant for an RFP for um uh land procurement for the affordable housing trust we have not um drafted an RFP and circulated yet but um we've also heard from Buzzard Bay um Habitat for Humanity that they are looking at some potential um properties um in the Sodom uh Road area they've been advertised of some land and so um they sent that to us or asked us to consider a possible partnership with them but if it would be done it have to be done in conjunction with an RFP so we can't get but but there are guess the long the long and the short of it is we're we're going to be looking for potential land uh that could um host both um affordable units and um maybe other mixed using that another developer third party could be a partnered with or we're looking at a smaller development we did over on Sodom Road where we had two duplexes um that were uh done in collaboration with habal Humanity so that's where we have thank you dick um the uh I'm looking at all my committees here and we haven't met in in a number of them because for one reason or another they don't have L meetings like the Council on Aging the next one theirs September and I'll report on that but what did take place is the annual meeting of the Bristol County Commissioners to approve their budget and what we're interested in for the most part um is Bristol agie and Bristol agie had a 7.4% increase in their budget and um that was actually improvement over over last year where they had a big increase and I made the finance committee aware of this so they they're fully apprised there's nothing there out of the ordinary the this can all be explained but it was a little higher than I would have liked but I'm hoping that levels off now going forward so that took place and I actually voted for it um and the other committees that I'm on we haven't met so that's my report is the auditor scheduled for another time yeah well he he couldn't make it so he's I think he's on for the next one Jim is he yes who uh roselli oh okay sorry a it the reason I asked is I was going to say we should have Jennings in one of these days to update us on diamond that was going to be B of my fi you done that yes I'm done um what about me what's that oh I'm sorry I thought you went last sorry we go um so uh there I haven't really had that many meetings but the um there is a meeting of the school building committee this week um which havn't met in a while so um School building committee on Thursday um and then I just want to remind people Westport Recreation has some really great summer things and one of them is the Thursday evening concert concerts um but they have I think it's Saturday movie nights and a lot of programming so go check out Westport Recreation okay now and it's past SEL when vorts banned I think this week isn't it Brian vorts banned and on Thursday I think that they're going to dodge the rain I know um well on that topic too we've been getting some complaints on all the signs on every corner and when I'm looking it's mostly Recreation and now it's the artist but I got a call um and I talked to Chris Gonzo he said he's been having people complain to a lot in the horck road area but they're starting to gather on all the corners again and like I said he's getting complaints I said we'll take them down CU if they don't belong there unless it's the town function but Jim I I don't know if you should talk to them or whatever but I don't think we still have a policy but it's common we've got an election in a couple of weeks so there'll probably be more popping up but I know he just said it's getting real bad again yeah just I mean just to kind of say that a different way you can't post signs in a public roadway so if your signs are in a if you're if you're in the road layout then and you can't post signs here so that means you have to put signs on someone whose property who you have permission to be on we do have made exceptions for some of the town events like I think the artist one we made an exception for and we granted yeah I I think people can't really read the reins to be honest with you unless the one like Briggs Road you're sitting there with a light you get time to read it but it's so small people but I think you're right too though like once people see signs there then they just keep putting signs there so and then they you know they're complaining about um Charlotte and 88 now they're really putting up more signs it seems like every every week There's a banner now there's another sign put there that's the state layout but I don't think anybody's paying attention so anyways I just said I would bring it to the board's attention while you're driving around if you notice it you think it's a problem um yes I I was down the beach checking it out and I and I got a cost to to get interviewed um I went down to see if it was as bad as buad with with just so people know I think it was 02 or something the buad um barge let out like I don't want to get sued I think it was 98,000 gallons of fuel and when you went to Horseneck and you went to our beaches it red and it was a Sheen across the water and it was on our beaches that's the I guess if you have to say this good part that's the only good part about this is that you can pick it up but the shards are horrible I mean the Aquatic Life I'm concerned with but um you know I I envisioned it being a little bit worse but it's it's still not a good situation uh on sered I got put on the SEO which is now the uh Metropolitan planning so I'm on the regional for that so we could probably get more stuff done um Gail left but they're excited about continuing the bike path so uh we've been busy and hopefully things good things can happen we just got to get the that section together the Narrows are area and see what we're going to do we we hit a lot of the points and stuff that I'm on um however I I think for on the future agenda I think we need to look into um possibly discussing a project manager for um extent the continually move forward with this water main extensions um I mean this is I mean this was great that we got this Grant and we we've this has been needed since I mean when did it go in first in 88 was the the early 80s right yeah but that was an emergency but yeah that's what well that's what this is right now so he F can be done with filters but still we need it I don't think we're going to have the what happens with the filters and CH filters you still have to test them um and as when you have a Municipal Water Supply that's how you fix it so I I think we need to we need to move forward with um with uh continue looping this water main to get a water quality in Westport so you know I know Roger was a project manager for the rout six sewer and um you know I S suggested you know I guess I didn't follow the right procedure through when I went through um Mr Brewer on the situation on Sanford road but I think we need to look forward to um hiring a project manager that kind investigate that next Loop you know probably Crossing 88 and coming out on Sanford Road and you know pursue more grant money it anything else okay um do we have any comments or statements from the public okay um mam chair one one more last thing again I just for the Public's point the water main again there's no betterment the water Main's going by these properties nobody's being forced to tie into this this water there'll be a curb stop in front of your property if if you feel that it's necessary for you to tie in you'll be able to tie in thank you um do we have any topics not anticipated we are going to go into executive session we'll come out of executive session only to adjourn we will not conduct business after the executive session I will entertain a pursuant to the provisions of Mass General Law chapter 38 section 21A where the chair declares an open meeting will have a detrimental effect to a discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining the Westport permanent firefighter Association local 1802 B discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining Teamsters Local 251 the approved minutes of July 8 and July 22 2024 so move St Richard Brewer second that a motion I Manny I I sha I Richard Brewer all right we're Jour or we're EX