to the flag the United States of America and to the repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all good evening welcome to the Monday June 17th 2024 meeting of the Westport Select board under Mass general chapter 38 section 20f this meeting is being recorded um by way of Welcome comments I I just want to mention we do have an executive session at the end of this meeting we're going to come back into open only to adjourn there'll be no further business after um we leave executive session um I want to uh send this like board wants to send their deepest sympathies to the Le family with the sudden loss of a 27-year-old uh Mike Le um I know there was a it was a big support in the community I didn't know him personally but I can see from people remembering him how much he contributed to the to Westbard and to the community and I know his family is U really suffering with loss did anybody want to say anything about Mike appreciate Le's family are my neighbors and been our friends for 20 or 30 years I know them well and I express my condolences for their family is there anything else we should mention before we we going okay um we had a special recognition this uh this afternoon but um the officer involved got called away so um we're going to pass over the uh award um for officer chob and we'll do that at a later date um the first the we have a public hearing on the agenda this a request from the Verizon representative um can come forward we have a request from Verizon New England and eversource to install five jointly owned poles along the southwest side of Highland Avenue in front of 182 308 364 and 390 Highland Avenue and in front of the vacant parcel ating 398 Highland Avenue to the north and there's a note here from Town Administrator that we did discuss this previously um but I think they mov some polls so does the representative want to come forward and tell us what's going on good evening Tom Stanton Pike Electric for Verizon and um these five poles of for the solar project on Highland a we're trying to get the uh the spans of poles um they're close to 200 ft and we're trying to get those uh spins cut down so when they uh run the new conductors they'll uh they'll be able to handle it and was this I might be remembering this wrong but I think that autter had some comments and asked to make some changes are those the changes that you made yes we did make a change in uh I talked to uh both homeowners and uh we made the change and hopefully uh everybody's happy okay so this is a public hearing does anyone from the public have any comments you can set to my yes my name is tiberio sardino I own the property at 308 Highland Avenue one of the with location of one of the polls I got a a question about why does it have to come down and only five polls because most bows are about 180 ft apart which is the same as what's there presently um and why can't the why can't they tie in right where they right where they are they're about a third of a mile down on the other side of the highway yet they have to cross the highway and go down Highland Avenue for what purpose you know I I thought electricity was omnidirectional if you have a a residential solar system it goes right back through your through your feed your feed line to the right where it is um so my question is what's the purpose of those five poles and why is it coming down that far and where does it go from there sir can you do you have the aners to those question you can't answer it I talk well I'm going to hear it we've already discussed this in the back I'm not going to answer for ever Source um I'm a telephone engineer I'm not an electrical engineer um this was the root that was uh designed by urce and uh they asked Verizon which is the maintaining company in the area to set polls for these five polls um okay that's all the information I have do you know about the polls because the relationship with Verizon but that he's asking an electric question see correct yes does anyone on this board know the answer I think we don't know the answer and the poll the poll that's on my property is the last poll in the that they're requesting how come it's it's like if they were going to be going all the way down the street to to do this um I could see it but you know five poles in a I think it's about a mile in a mile in a 10 down to Route six is is there any harm being caused to you by the new location of the post well it's uh I don't know just my concern is you know why what what's the what's the necessity of it what what uh what prompts them to install five more FS so I don't think anyone here most of them are 180 ft apart anyway yeah so I don't think anyone here can answer the why part of the question other than to assume that they must need it or they wouldn't be trying to install it true right but why can't they tie in directly across the street from where they are I'm assuming they would have already looked at that but I don't I don't know did you have any that simple question is is he being in inconvenient are you being inconvenient sir by this I I don't hear well sir are you being in convenience by this um well it would uh uh bar any uh how what what is the the ordinance on distance for driveway do you know that sir how far if there's any driveway restrictions in your polls I have no idea no we we don't uh we try to uh accommodate uh residents so they can obviously make the swing into the driver yeah these these poles do they exist on this side of the road now say again do these poles exist on this side of the road now and they're just shrinking them up well yeah there's one there's one on about well 90 ft from the new location and there's one right at my neighbor's near my neighbor's driveway the existing I'm BR the plan it looks like I'm reading the the it looks like in the plan there's two poles already there and you're putting one in the middle putting they putting one in the middle correct yeah and is that two locations that you're doing that just how many po are five five and are they all the same there's two poles and you're putting one closer that's so they're putting they're bring 90 ft AP pot rather than the 180 which is what what's going down the street well one of one of the things is on this for solar they they have to upgrade the service because it's high voltage and the poles are the poles are taller so that might be one of the reasons um that they have to do it but that solar facility is in dmouth and it might be because it's crossing the street and it might be a pullback you know it's probably an engineering reason why they have to do it it's not just just to do it but that whole pole Line's going to be upgraded all the way down um they're just adding another pole in then five sections oh there's really nothing I can do about I'm just just wanted to know why is the big deal they do have to upgrade cu the existing hles won't high voltage I mean regardless of what I say or whatever do they're going to go there anyway so but you know it' be nice to know why this this BR has to approve it right so that's why I think Mr Jer was asking are you being harmed in some way by these polls that's because they moved the polls originally because some I don't know if it was you or someone else has suggested that it was kind of going to cause a problem yeah how have they located the polls cuz Verizon news goes up for a stake have they located the polls so that he can see where they are I the last time I was here with the two customers um that was the same job yeah same job I went out and we moved that's why I'm here again because of that poll because I we we had to have another hearing because we moved the pole and the neighbor didn't have didn't come to the hearing because he didn't think he had an issue so uh so but they will be stay before they're set yes well maybe I should just leave my question in the air hanging you know up with a PO don't have the answer I I you know I still don't understand why it can't tie in I mean I'm not an engineer but because electric is as omnidirectional once you put it in it goes well again I'm assuming they must need it I'm assuming they must need it or they would to be in pressure with the pressure is less yeah so right did you have any other comments no that's about it thank you is there anyone else that has comments what's the pleasure of the board Madam chair I move that the uh installation be approved second so you have a motion in a second to approve the poll requests is there any discussion all in favor I I any oppos that's unanimous thank you thank you um next item is discussion with the Personnel Board and gov HR classification and comp ation study discussion so can I ask the Personnel Board to come forward the Personnel Board want to come forward did you end up with a quorum or no uh no uh Madam chair we did not so the Personnel Board will not have a formal meeting tonight this meeting was posted uh for this evening for the presentation but we uh lack a forum so we will not call our meeting to uh to order okay thank you so do you want us do you want Jim to introduce it or you want to introduce we'll have Jim uh Jim has had uh quite a quite a bit of uh contact and is really been the main driver in a lot of the information so I'm going to let Jim um take over from here all right I just want to call the um so the select board members this wasn't filed under three in the files it's z00 it's not document all right go Jim can you tell us what this is about so last year town meeting approved funding for a wage study wage classification compensatory study for the town employees um it's approved last year we went out for proposals uh ghr govhr USA was the uh company that was selected to do the study we have Katie Lee here from gov hrusa that can give us some more specifics on what the proposal is there's a the final draft report that's in front of the board tonight uh still have the opportunity to make some changes if the board chooses um she's going to present tonight and um it'll go to the Personnel Board after that we wanted to get it to the select board before we went any further Katie Lee is participating remotely and um Katie can you hear us can you guys hear me okay yes yes yes yes okay good all right thank you all right well good evening everyone um I don't know if it's uh 92 degrees by you right now but it is 92 degrees by us and it's 5:00 in the evening so I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings um but thank you for having me this evening I'm just going to go through a uh quick presentation and then give you an opportunity to ask any questions to kind of tell you a little bit about what our classification and compensation processes with gov HR and what we put together for the town of Westport so I'm going to try and share my screen right now and uh let's see can everyone see a uh yes see we can but we're not you're not in presentation mode though I'm not in presentation okay it says I'm it says I'm presenting hold on just let me try one more click and see if that'll do it does that do it we can see the document we can see the document but not the presentation mode so you might be sharing the wrong window okay let me try it one more time because it it's telling me I'm doing it so let's try again all right how's that better is that good yep okay all right all right well again thank you for taking the time this evening and uh we will just get started so a little bit about the outline of the presentation um I'm going to talk a little bit about the scope of work job evaluation process propos classification plan um compensation survey uh proposed Compensation Plan uh future implementation and administration of the plan and then just kind of leave some uh time for questions uh the the study that we did for uh Westport is a classification and compensation study so classification is what we refer to as the internal analysis the job evaluation process uh and what that does is it consists of uh we do study preparation and project meetings I worked with both uh Jim and Cindy on many of these meetings on many occasions uh we work to determine a set of comparable municipalities we distribute information to employees and then we conduct the job classification process um we did a compensation uh and uh benefit analysis for this particular uh study and then we put together draft and final report presentation so for the job evaluation process I just want to talk about uh that quickly so that is again the internal classification piece and what we do is we distribute a job analysis questionnaire to the employees and all the positions that are involved in the study and so we looked at 75 positions uh and we evaluated those positions and created a classification structure based on nine factors and the nine factors are uh education work experience decision- making and independent judgment responsibility for policy development planning of the work of others and others within the organization um contact with others supervision and that is direct and indirect working conditions and use of technology and specialized equipment so again the job analysis questionnaire goes out to all of the employees who are in positions covered in the study uh and then from there we actually uh meet with each of uh we meet with at least one employee in each position um so the positions were evaluated based on the information received by the town through the job analysis questioners and also as a result of the virtual interviews that we did with the employees so uh Team of gov HR uh Consultants meets with at least one employee in each position to get a better understanding of the information collected in the job analysis questionnair uh as well as um the job descriptions and so forth based on that information we develop a classification plan which basically puts all the positions within buckets or salary grades uh based on those nine f factors so this is this is basically your internal Equity system so it's ensuring that like positions based on those nine factors that like positions are grouped together in similar classifications or salary grades in some instances I think only one instance we did recommend the use of a new job title uh I think it was a Borman position and we're seeing a lot in the market right now where uh they're calling them four persons instead of four men and then table one in the draft report uh shows you the classification plan which consists of 14 grades or 14 buckets of positions now at the same time that we're kind of doing that internal job classification process we're also doing a compensation survey um and so the survey uh collects information from comparable communities on the salaries that are um paid and the salary ranges that are paid in those communities uh within Massachusetts we use uh an established set of eight criteria because we're able to use we're able to collect this data on communities on a consistent basis through the Department of Revenue so the criteria that we use include population uh income per capita equalized assess value per capita total assess value tax levy total budget state aid and then proximity so we we take uh this information and we establish a group of light communities and it's based on kind of how they score in those particular areas and how they most compare to Westport so the comparable communities that we ended up with are listed on the screen here um and with those communities we were able to send them out a salary survey and collect back the data uh in addition we were able to pull data that we had on file so uh at the end of the day we really had a great set of data uh that we were able to use for the Westport analysis when it came to establishing the compensation structure not all communities were be able to collect so much data so I considered it to be uh a really successful survey process so when we do the survey um how we do it is we select a group of Benchmark positions uh because this survey did have 75 job classifications so we didn't necessarily collect data on all 75 we selected a benchmark group uh and then we sent out the survey with descriptions so that the communities that were responding to us could match up the positions in Community uh with with our uh with our survey uh and then when we get that salary data back we also review it to make sure it's appropriate if we have to request more information from the responding communities we do or if we think that we just don't have a good match we take that information out of the data collection process um typically salary ranges are the preferred method for uh doing a salary survey and using comparable data however we also collect actual salaries if salary range data is not available now we did collect this salary survey data uh in uh couple of months ago so I guess that would be kind of like a fiscal year 24 data so I just want to highlight that too because I know many communities have just transitioned or will be transitioning into fiscal year uh 25 so the proposed Compensation Plan for uh Westport the rates are calculated at the 50th percentile of the comparable Community data and I want to just talk a little bit about what 50th percentile means so when we get all the data back the 50th percentile is basically right in the middle of the market so that means that 50% of the communities are paying higher and 50% of the communities are paying lower uh you never want to really go uh below the market uh because obviously for recruitment reasons that may not be in the community's best interest however 50th percentile is a good solid place to start um and so when we calculated the proposed Compensation Plan we used that 50th percentile uh data what we ended up with again based on Market data and the and the information that we collected from the comparable communities is 14 recommended grades broken out into four pay bands uh grades 1 through five are the administrative technical band grades 6 through n are the supervisor and advanced technical band 10 and 11 tend to be directors and Senior managers and then 12 through 14 is the Town Administrator and the public safety directors and again what we do is we kind of look at that data when it comes back in and the data kind of shows us where those natural brakes are for establishing these compensation bands so all of the proposed grades have a 40% range spread from minimum salary to maximum and uh grades 1 through five have what's called a 6% gradation all of the other bands have a 5% gradation and what the gradation is is basically the difference from one minimum to the next so the difference between the minimum of grade one and the minimum of grade two is 6% whereas the difference between the minimum from grade six to grade seven is 5% and again that information is based on what we see in the market and trying to set those compensation grades close to the market as possible as far as implementing the recommendations um what gov HR typically recommends is that if an employee is currently being paid below the recommended minimum that that employee should grably be brought to the minimum as soon as possible uh because if that's kind of the market minimum then that position might have been paid below the market uh employee who employees whose compensation Falls within the current uh or within the recommended ranges uh there's really we really don't recommend that you have to do uh any changes to that because they're already being compensated within those ranges and then if any employees are falling outside of the recommend range recommended ranges or above the maximum what we typically recommend is that employees are maybe their salary is kept at that level until the salary ranges catch up with them which may be within the next couple of years or so as far as future administration of a classification and compensation system uh you know once you have a structure in place uh you know the town will receive from us the compensation guidelines on how to set up new classifications so if a new position is approved and it needs to be uh scored and placed in the classification system that the town will have the ability to do that we also Provide support for up to one year after the study is complete so we can always help with that as well as far as maintaining a compensation system you know now that the town has a set of communities that they know that can be considered as comparable uh we recommend surveying those communities on an annual basis just to find out what they are doing you know are they adjusting their ranges what type of Po increases are they given and that are they given and then using that information to decide maybe how you know Westport wants to proceed with that information and so uh that's really the end of the overview of the process so uh what questions do you have for me about the process or the or the report we can jump into the report if there's questions about the report K this is Dick Brewer I'm select board member I hope you can hear me uh I can hear you what what were the major findings of the of the of the survey in addition to what you've already talked about in the structure and the the the bands and the salary ranges yeah I would say that the major findings were that the town is currently paying at about the 50th percentile of the market which is a good place to be uh you know in some situations we've actually run into where communities are paying below that and so you know obviously that that's not as good of news um and then there were a few classifications where they might be slightly below the market I think there were a handful um maybe maybe three or four I'm trying to remember off the top of my head um but overall I think the town I think what the findings are is that the town is in a good spot and that they're paying uh paying close to the 50th per for most positions thank you Katie one of the things I I found in reading your report you had indicated that um a town the size of of Westport and basing it to some of the uh comparable um uh towns of its of its size have a dedicated HR person whether that be full-time or part-time you've indicated in your report also that that's recommended that the town you know even for a benefits supervisor Ben benefits administrator we really don't have a dedicated person for to keep up with any of the you know new federal regulations regarding workplace and Etc so is would that is that included also in your findings that that it's recommended that we include some type of professional in our in our staff yeah I so that's that's a good point that you bring up so one of the things that I was a little surprised by when I started working on this study was that there wasn't like an HR kind of point of contact Jim did a fantastic job in organizing the information and getting it to us on time um but normally with a community uh with the town your size we typically do have like an HR point of contact um so I think that that might be something valuable that the town might want to consider in the future as far as support you know now that you've taken the steps to have a structured classification and compensation system uh it would be nice to have someone that can help you maintain that moving forward in the future so even that administrative uh you know the piece that I showed on the previous slide future administration of the plan you know that would be nice to have you know a a human resources professional who could kind of help you with that on staff so Katie um this is shaa so I'm looking at page 21 of the report just as an example and I'm wondering if you can walk me through how to read this so we have a position um recommended title change we have skill level that you talked about the grade level recommendation that you had and then you have a 50th percent out of salary surve survey and then a current salary range so can you talk about how I should be thinking of these columns here sure uh let me go back to sharing my screen again you said you're on page 21 page 21 is just one of them that has a table Yeah okay while you're looking yeah while you're looking for that I would I would agree this table was much more difficult to read rather than the individual job listings that you have later in the report uh because there was a it seem to be a lot of current salary range data missing in this so anyway I I agree with shaa that this one is a little bit more you can walk us through it please yeah I'll let me walk you through it because okay so the First Column is obviously the position title um and then the recommended position title and the skill level uh the range of the skill level so that has to do with the classification ranking that that I was talking about and then the recommended uh new grade uh the 50th percentile survey data what that is is that's reflective of the dat data in uh the the appendix at the back with all the salary survey data that we had in there so if you were to tab all the way to the the appendix at the back and look at say you know the director of Public Health and look at the 50th percentile this is the information that you would see there as far as uh what the the minimum and the maximum was uh were at the 50th percentile of the data that we collected now the current salary range that one was a little bit uh tricky for Westport because not all positions have a current salary range and from a human resources perspective when we're talking about a salary range that means the minimum and the maximum and even sometimes a midpoint of kind of what the pay structure is and that's what we are recommending through this process uh in the last two columns are the proposed salary range minimum and maximum so the reason I think that some of these positions do and don't uh it's my understanding is that some of them you know they're uh you know maybe on a step structure and say you know the minimum is step one and the maximum is another step uh or maybe they fall within a different classification and they classification structure and they have a minimum and a maximum but not all of the positions did have a minimum and a maximum well but what they all have a current salary though so where how am I reading that is that the proposed salary range that you have the the current employee salaries are not listed on this table but in in the in the later tables they are okay if you goat in the later tables they are so that that's why this I found this confusing so we'll just take you mentioned director of Public Health we'll just take that for an example you showed the 50th percentile AR range there for the 50th percentile and what the proposed 50th percentile is which is much higher than what you show to be the 50th percentile so I don't understand how to how to relate why 50th percentile in one column is different than the other so uh what we're looking at when we're looking at the proposed salary range uh is like a is an average of all the proposals within that grouping so uh it's not a specific range per position it's for that grouping oh for that grade 11 for that grade 11 yes okay correct grade 11 the proposed range is 84 through 117 uh grade 10 the proposed range is 80 through 112 and again kind of going back to uh and I believe this is on the next table uh for each of these bands uh so for administrative technical we start start with um you know a minimum of 40 40,000 and a maximum of 56 and then we have a 6% gradiation between each of the grades here so from 40 to 424 is a 6% gradation and so on and then a 40% range spread so the reason we do that is it's not always going to be a uh a perfect match to the market but there's consistency within your grade structure so this grade structure has consistency of a 40% range spread even though that that 40% range spread may not match perfectly with the market but when you go to uh over to the other appendix that's when you get the granular data data per employee correct so we can really see where the outliers are specifically once we go to the right those tables right there that you're showing on the screen now right which you're starting on page 40 okay so this has all of the very granular as a perfect word uh data for that we collected in the survey process I mean you can see from this Administrative Assistant one we really did get a lot of great data for your study um so and this is a this is another table that's a little confusing to read because we have the minimums and the maximums and then at the top here like on the bottom section first we break out the percentiles by range and then the bottom we break out the percentiles by average actual salary so You' got kind of two different things going on there so yes it's it's it's a lot of numbers okay now there were one or two positions in here that going into these tables once again that were considered edited what did that mean so I think it was the uh Health agent may have been one one of them that you've had had it in there twice uh because it was edited yeah so for that that's a great question um so when we collect the data back we clean the data so what that means is we kind of review it and make sure it looks appropriate and so what we were finding when we were collecting this health agent data that a lot of the matches were not good position matches they were you know maybe their health agent positions were structured differently than Westport so uh what we did is we removed some of that data in the analysis but we like to show all of the data collected so the first tab here that does not say edited is all of the data collected and then the second tab here that says edited as you can see those blue ones are the ones that we kind of took out uh because we just didn't feel that they were uh a good match to the position in Westport and we did that we kind of went through that exercise with all of the all of the data that was collected okay and my my last question I seem to recall in discussions with uh with Jim and myself there were a couple of positions that it was difficult to flush out because some included incentives and some did not that perhaps the communities that reported did not include incentives and and we did or vice versa that theirs included incentives and our our base rate did not include incentives for example mostly in the um uh Public Safety area uh where there are different gr gradations depending on certifications Etc yes yeah so there there's also you're you're right there's a note in the report on that as well okay uh that that um when we ask communities to send us their salary data we only ask for base pay um and so what we have reflected here is base pay however if there are incentives uh that information is not is not included in in the analysis we we we we try because there are so many variables out there with collective bargaining agreements and stiens and and incentives that we try and stick to base pay so that we're comparing you know Apples to Apples so to speak um just so that we have a consistent across the board because it can you know when you're starting to look at multiple communities it can be it could be very complex depending on what kind of incentives stens they have in place right right thank you any other questions from the board Madam chair I would just indicate that the you know the Personnel Board has not had an opportunity to also uh develop any additional questions and we will probably come back to you uh the Personnel Board will come back to you with our recommendations based on our findings on this and we can have further meetings in the future as to what to do with the information that's in here looks like we have a lot to work with so so I understand then the process going forward is exactly what you said you will you we're going to base this is a presentation today it's going back for Action to the Personnel Board they will make recommendations to us we will e uh review and make any adjustments that or or Corrections or uh recommendations going forward before implementing this or right okay Katie this has been very helpful okay anybody yes please let me know if you have any other questions or need any other information is there anyone else the board that has a question is there anything from the public go to that mic the question one would always ask is is there anyone being overpaid I'm not sure if you heard that Katie so he's looking are there any outliers about where we're overpaying it looks like we're are there any well I think that uh I you know there may have been I don't have that information right in front of me it was kind of like the people that were under the minimum and over the maximum there might have been a handful it does I mean just glancing through here it doesn't look like it it looks like it's like what you said most of them are like in the middle right yes like again I think that was the that was kind of the good uh the good story behind it is that the the town is paying at the 50th percentile uh and so that's a good place to be as far as uh Market competitiveness you want to be you know you want to be competitive so once this is is the final report we'll post it publicly so this is the draft that we're looking at right okay correct you're still looking at a draft uh because if there are any edits to the report then uh we will absolutely make those all right thank you um um Tanya Ryden I'm chair of the Board of Health um just from a boots on the ground perspective uh we have several positions that over years have been unsuccessful in filling because our sort of informal survey of comparable salaries is we're way underpaying so does that um you know how how do you react to that I guess so Tomy this is like an 80 page document here and I'm not sure are they was one of the Physicians the the agent the agent and the director are included in in this I'm I'm concerned in particular about animal assistant Animal control officer definitely in here and uh transfer station uh driver the Animal control officer is definitely in here just looking at it yes and think the assistant we look like we're paying below the range on that if I'm reading that correctly yes okay that would be consistent with our experience um and then I don't see assistant anal control in here but but that would be where we'd look at the bands right this this is where you'd look at the band and say this position fits in this band and that's where the range is so we'd have to look more specifically yeah I'm just if the overall conclusion is that the town is paying adequately it just feels like our experience is not consistent with that because we can't recruit successfully well I I mean talking about the process like we we've already um set the budgets for FY 25 FY 25 right so um we're the Personnel Board is going to go react to that they're going to make any of recommendations but I would say say that um maybe maybe as employment agreements come up then we certainly look at that but we don't have any budget change we wouldn't have any budget changes till the next year understood I'm just I I I think it's also important to note that we're not just comp competing against other communities but we're competing against the private sector you know so this is not going to include salary ranges perhaps in the private sector that are difficult more difficult perhaps to compete with okay well that that the survey only includes other communities right so so that sort of suppresses the correct okay or CH or changes you know what perhaps what the marketplace is so Katie do you want to talk about that about the competition with the private sector like how do you factor that in uh so one of the things that we could do is we do have um a salary survey tool that we subscribe to called called comp analyst and uh for some positions what we could do is in those cell res survey data sheets at the very back we could add some comp analyst data uh for private sector organizations within your area now the challenge with that is that sometimes public sector positions do not translate over that well um and I hear you talking about Animal Control positions which may or may not uh we may not be able to data from from comp analyst uh but it's something that I could definitely look into for you if you'd be interested in adding that to this process well we're just going to put words in Tanya's mouth here but I think she's thinking that some of the equipment operators I know CDL and hoisting license things like that those are the ones we're concerned about mostly I think oh okay I'm sorry I thought I heard animal people yeah you did but but also the CDL the we have the CDL and hoisting licenses we're finding that difficult to fill those positions okay so I guess that might be the equipment operator the special equipment operator right we can have we can have a conversation about that Katie anything else anything else from the public all right so you have a lot of work to do Personnel Board I heard you are you a fully staffed board um as of June 30th we will be short of members so if there's anyone uh interested interested in uh joining the Personnel Board Um send a letter of interest I would say send a letter of interest to Paula uh Paula here at the select select board's office and she will get them forwarded um to me it's helpful to have uh some background in Human Resources but not necessary um we welcome anyone that's willing to put in the time uh you know we need people to attend meetings yeah so anything else before you I thank you thank you Katie thank you thank you personel board the next item we have thank you we're hanging up on you now Katie um the next item we have is a request from the Heron Center 179 Legacy Lane for an entertainment license for their summer solstice Music Festival Friday June 21 from 6:00 to 9: Saturday June 22 and Sunday June 23 from 9 to 9 um we do have a favorable police recommendation in the packet I believe I saw and um they've uh we we did talk to them about starting the process a little earlier they advertised for this without without having all their permits lined up so if they're going to do this next year we just hope they get them in earlier but otherwise they're all the all the paperwork is fine is there anyone here from the her okay go ahead Craig I going to move approval but you should hear a presentation did you did you want to say something you don't have to but did you want to say anything unless you have any questions okay okay so we have a a motion to approve yes second does anybody have any questions or comments good Jim that's all set with the building inspector I thought there was some Zone stuff no they have the tent permit um they were still questioning some of whether or not they were going to have a food permit they were work from the Board of Health but they were aware of it so do we need me make it subject to or is it good just in look I think we're good well we only the entertainment license yes okay any other questions any comments from the public if you're going to talk you have to go to the microphone you don't have to talk curious do I have to have a traffic um the police did not rec the police um are recommending that people uh police board or the police report they basically they the police report basically said you have plenty long laneway there and you could have parking off the street so just make sure people aren't parking on the street but they're not they didn't requ detail okay all right so we have a motion a second to approve the entertainment license all in favor hi and the oppos that's unanimous good luck enjoy your enjoy your your Festival um for B we have a request from the Bayside Restaurant 1253 Horseneck Road for an alteration of premises to add outdoor seating outdoor alcoholic beverage table service um so they're looking for approval for that that outside seating area um that they've been kind of using it like that under Co restrictions but this would make it more permanent um they they did receive a favorable police recommendation because um they're going to install barriers like a more solid barrier than what they put previously so is um all the paperwork in order is there anything else we should know about this no there's just two approvals they're coming under the new regulations that allow them to do the outdoor seating they'll be coming back again to all to their premises to just um kind of correct a couple of things that have been done over the years so they'll be coming back before us for a public meeting public hearing next month I believe right and if I read that correctly they they did receive um positive they they made there was a he public hearing they made some changes the abutters made comments they made some changes to their plan I saw the abutters wish them well and it was approved by zba I believe right yeah does anybody have any questions on that one all right what's the pleasure of the board move approval second do I have a motion a second to um approve the alteration of preise premises for the alcohol alcoholic beverage table service is there any further discussion is there anything from the public all right all in favor I that's unanimous good luck you hope to see you down there thank you um we have a request from the Holy Ghost uh 179 Bottom Road for one day liquor licenses for a bunch we have Sunday June 23rd from 12: to 5 for a fundraiser Sunday June 30th 4 to8 for a family party Saturday July 13 4 to 9 for their annual Feast Sunday July 14 11 to 5 for their annual Feast Saturday July 20 1 to6 for a birthday party Saturday July 27 3 to9 for the third annual Mike Hanley Memorial and that's it um and we did receive favorable police recommendations on all of these was the pleasure second do have a motion a second to approve the licenses or any discussion hold on the uh annual Feast do they still do the March do you know uh since Co yeah they used to March down the road we used the march with yeah they do it from St John's but I'm not sure what the details are about that all right yeah we used to get a nice little invitation so just curious okay anything from the h all in favor I I that's unanimous and we have a request from The Bakers Beach snack bar llc at 75 Bridge Street for a common Vic Jeweler license this is a yearly renewal was it not just not on our list before yeah they usually they do it it's seasonal so they it's seasonal so they hold off seasonal application I usually call them and be like okay you really need to do this now so so the paperwork is second so we have a motion in a second to approve the common license for Baker Beach snack bar is there any further discussion all in favor I that's unanimous um we have uh 5A to review and appoint fy2 committee and position appointments there we have an attached list for the Committees um I did have a question on um on two of them before we go down the list so the um it's been pointed out to me so in the economic development task force and the infrastructure oversight committee there's a very large overlap of the people that are involved in there and I'm wondering how those of you who are Shing on that board on those boards are feeling about um the makeup whether they should be where they should continue as they are or whether there might be opportunity for changes there um well Economic Development right now with the main thing is the uh Farmers Market but if we do ever move move forward with the infrastructure project Economic Development would be more important uh to help businesses move forward uh I like to keep them separate uh in case we get a commission and we can uh we can move on to the infrastructure and go on to the U the commission type thing but if you so you're keeping them separate but right from practical perspective they're practically the same right so you have Mory May stet Manny sorus Christopher Thrasher are on all of those WM and is Ben Walmart he's not on both no he's just uh he runs the farmers market yep okay and the infrastructure oversight committee are the two of you select board Representatives or one of you um or is one of you uh at large do you know that's full to be sure but I'm not sure may you want isn't there a problem because you got you know with all the respect the two of you are like blocking out U these two committees because we can't put a third person on yeah because then we're we're basically we we have Quorum within those within those bodies and my understanding is that least practice has not been to put a majority of the board on any one committee L it was a committee of the board well I was wondering if if we intentionally put two select board reps on the infrastructure oversight committee or if that was if that just happened and same with economic development I'm just wondering do we know whether those are actually select board appointments or were you on them IC development I get on that one while I was on the planing board and I and I certainly would be willing to um get off Economic Development and let Steve take that and if Steve was willing to get off the infrastructure I I'd be willing to go on economic development since I've served on a number of Economic Development boards in the region why we bring the bring the regional perspective so what I my recommendation I would like more information on those two commit committees about the actual makeup of the Committees so about whether they're select board Representatives on like like our like I I want to know like like if you happen and I'm saying this for you all but it's Christopher Thrasher also say Christopher Thrasher's on the finance committee and school committee now right so is he a school committee rep is he fincom rep is he at large I don't know we can find out the make up I think he's getting ready to get off so my um so the the next meeting of our committee is July 8 or something it's two weeks off right July 8th right so um are there meetings of either of these scheduled before July 8 no Economic Development we only like quarterly anyways if that so we could we can put that off it's not a big deal we'll just hold off on our next meeting till you decide any so my preference is to I I would prefer to have more information about the makeup of those two committees like how we formed them with the representatives there and then we can talk about um you know if because like if we appoint an outlar member of the appointed select rather to me that's different and I just want to understand that better so those were the two committees that stood out to me like that um but are there any others I I think those those are the only ones that we're appointing tonight so I would prefer that we pass over the economic development and infrastructure oversight second all right all in favor all we have one opposed just keep in mind Farmers Market every weekend and that's sponsored by economic bill that's all yeah so so we'll put this on can we please put this on the July 8 agenda is it July 8 July 1 July ju July July the Gap because of theid I didn't know that so the so the July 8 so as long as those committees don't have to meet before July 8th that shouldn't gives them l l those committees and I don't know for all the exact positions to be announc with you and also I'm not sure the um the length of the term are these one-ear terms if you can find that out pa so the the the makeup by are onee terms these are one year terms okay all right so we're going to pass over those um but for the others um can I have a volunteer please to read please yeah so what do you want to do you want to skip economic skip Economic Development and infrastructure oversight okay we're just going to do a hold on there's any yeah if you have any that you want to put a hold on stay hold all right Commission on disability Martin Costa Richard Grundy Susan Sherman community service officers Steven D kovar Jr Michael Kelly Amy Lyn schmidley Maggie Noosa Raquel Rodricks Michael Rell David Aruda Brian D soua Michael bordon Richard Rodricks Eric vas Julius Rosario Valerie bellie Community preservation committee John J Bell Dale Weber e911 Paul Duhan skipping lifeguards Michael Crudo headguard Emily daao uh lifeguard col train GLE Anton boxler Dan bonss Brandon madas Luke madas leado hatchel Marcos Dutra africano abstain Andrew Dunn Jake fi KH Dragon these are alternates alternate Charlie Vernon uh Sweeney Hunter Quin Quintel Avery VES Recreation Commission kimbley Lio Reserve police officers Francois Neer Thomas PL Samantha Maguire Antonio sodio David Lee Johnny Pudo David Simco John J Bell Michael Sylvia West sport Watershed Council Steven WAP West sport Community TV reporter Taylor Perry was that the only one that um John Mendes was asking about I know that kind of came in late there were two the other one has to go to personal board for okay so the other one hasn't gone through yet okay so um I will that I will entertain a motion to approve that slate with the exception of Marcos D aico we'll vote that one separately so second all in favor I that's any knows that's unanimous and then um I'll entertain a motion to approve Marcus D forano as lifeguard so second all in favor I I and the opposed and one abent so that's four in favor one um we have a request from the Westport free public library Board of Trustees to appoint Bonnie streble as Library director and to approve the appointment agreement um there's a note here is there anyone from the trustees who wants to come for there's a note here from the town administrators that um the library trustees are an independently elected body so technically they make the appointment but we still need to approve is that what we don't need to approve but I I think it's good to good point okay give the bus and yes all right welcome you want to introduce yourself I'm Laura Bennett I am the current chair of the board of Library trustees and we have gone through quite a process finding a director can you get closer as you as you might know um just turn it down if you could the mic down to you yeah there you go thank you sorry we've been searching for months we've very um we've been pleading to the town and the town has answered that call to raise the salary and in the meantime Bonnie who has been the assistant director in the child librarian for some time after 17 years of the library decided that yes she could take on the challenge and we are just all thrill that she is willing to be the director and here is Bonnie Bonnie anything you want to say um I'm just very excited to take on the position I've been doing it for the past two months now and it's going well and I'm very excited so do we need to a motion to approve or anything or is this just informational I would suggest the motion to approve so second is there any discussion anything from public all in favor I I that's unanimous congratulations thank you very much and we brought Flyers okay excellent so when are you taking are you taking books yes we are through the end of August okay anything else okay you're summer activities summer activities at the library exciting stuff busy down there yeah we have the New England birds of prey on next Saturday on June 22nd and we have the pawsome pets photo contest um going on now apparently we're collecting photos now and be on display at the library July and August excellent so get those pet photos in and then you have some story time um activities so they can find this all at westport-weston item request to sign the employment agreement between the town of Westport and Susan braon Treasurer collector so we've been discussing these in um Executives that one session so has that been final that's been finalized with u sub and the standard three-year contract for the um standard employee increases yearly increases as l department in again i' recommend approval I'm over second is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous we have a request from John mcgreen to release the town chapter 61a first refusal option to purchase the property located at 21 Kelsey's way um the property is being sold and we have the right of first refusal and it doesn't the town the various departments have inquery right and nobody is interested in obtaining this you recommended to release I recommend release second is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous we have a request from Deborah Weaver Westport River Watershed Alliance to hang a banner from June 23rd to July 13 promoting their summer concert on Saturday July 13th oh but I think the kids one was up there that can replace it right they have one up there right now has one up there right now but then that one becoming so so PA we can hang two signs right and so we have the farmers market one going up and then we have some others yeah this one will be going up this and then the next one is for Chris Le to get it so it's all it you coordinate it all okay all right so this one's for the Watershed the Lions Banner for the summer concert on July 30th and we had a motion did we have a second second any discussion all in favor I water L have River day next weekend I think we already approved that but what river day at the head next weekend I think Saturday that's the one that's hanging right now is it is it um we have a request from Chris Leonard director of marine services to hang the banner promoting the August 17 Shell stock fundraiser everybody mark your calendar August 17 move approval second put it in the que is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous um we have a request from Massachusetts housing for comments on proposed 40b time Ridge Estates located on the west side of Westport Lakes Road um do you want to tell us what this is about this is a 40b application that was fed with Mass housing um these are applications that I don't say they exempt from zoning but they bypass some of the zoning regulations and they'll eventually be going for the zoning board for approval they asked for preliminary comments from the select board um we put a packet together for the board and it has some of the planning board comments when they had a similar proposal that was filed with them they had comments from their review engineer as well as staff comments so we included those in the letter um these are just preliminary comments the actual be will be done by the zone owning board when they do the official filing which we expect within the next month or so so just um to summarize some of the ones in the letter that you said um that they're already going to be considered to to the planning board um they previously apply for a special permit for independent living and site plan approval and some of the design concerns then um are still valid so they would like the applicant to discuss that um it's on a lot that is part of the definitive plan of Westport Lakes um it appears Lots Associated development have not been released from the Covenant so it's part of an original subdivision um because the lots are part of the original subdivision additional shity might be required um they understand the capacity of the school system is not a determining Factor but the town would like to see an analysis and then a clarification on the interior V is there any other comments just some technical ones that went through the planning board that we attached to the letter um so so Jimmy who made up this letter the letter in front of you I drafted for the board I didn't get a chance to review it I'm sorry about that but I was okay um so this is this is a request for so that they can get the eligibility letter for Mass housing I believe that's that's correct could we could we have that r letter read into the meeting if we're going to approve it I didn't get a chance to review it just let hear that sure um this is to Michael Bisby relationship manager Mass Housing Finance Agency My Dear Mr Bisby the project was reviewed at the June 17th meeting of the select board and the board offers the following comments uh number one planning board comments dated May 22nd 2024 attached the applicant previous appied to the planning board for a special permit for independent living and site plan approval many of the design concerns identified in the board's peerreview engineer by the PE board's peer review engineer are still valid for this project and those comments are attached number three the proposed development is on a lot that is part of a definitive plan of Westport lakes and Westport Mass it appears that the Lots associated with this development have not been released from the Covenant these lots are part of the original subdivision and Property Owners may be required to maintain the existing roadway and utility system number four because the lots are part of the original subdivision plan additional shity may be required by the planning board to cover the cost of completing the existing roadway and infrastructure number five the town understands that the capacity of the school system is not a determining factor for approval of this development but the town would like to see an analysis completed showing how many students could be expected to attend local schools number six the town would like clarification on the interior road is it the intent to keep this private this being an affordable development what provision Visions are being made by the developers to offset future maintenance costs associated with the road drainage and septic system on number seven this proposal shows lots approximately 10,000 square ft which may not be sufficient to support private Wells and nitrogen loading requirements these lots are also significantly smaller than the 60,000 ft Lots required in the residential zoning district and we attached the I attached the uh comments from SW Co review engineer for the planning board as well as the um Town planners comments the May 22nd 2024 there anything in addition to all that you want to forward seems a pretty comprehensive list okay so do you need so we're we're not we're not making any request to add anything so so do you need a motion to approve the letter yes so so second good any discussion all in favor I I any oppos we have a request to approve year end Department transfers I'm going to ask you to please read pleas look yeah go ahead all right request approve let's do sorry let's do them one at a time and see if there's anybody wants to talk about okay uh first request is $475 from the Police Department Personnel Services to fire fire department General Services that's correct yeah do you want to tell us about the long so they're looking to do a crack they're going to do crack sealing over over to the parking lots for fire in the police station the police department is doing it for their side and they had some additional funds so the fire department can complete the crack ceiling of the pavement on the side of the complex Chiefs in the back too if we got any questions anybody have questions on that one anything on that one okay you want to just lump them all together or vote individually yeah let's talk about them separately but then we'll vote them all together all right second is 25,000 fire department overtime to fire department equipment nothing on you want to tell us about that one Jim there's a whole list of um expenses that the fire department is looking to use that $25,000 for uh tires for the vehicles additional equipment it's in your packet thank you need more detail we can go through more any other questions on all right we move on to the large one $28,495 Police Department Personnel Services to Police Department General expenses and we had a list of uh stuff in our packet what talk about okay chief you want to discuss evening everyone speak Deputy Chief and the I asked him to come in case I uh forget something or he can add something very daer with your fancy ties thank you thank you so yes we understand it's a big number and that's why we here this evening um everything we're asking for is a need not a want um I can just go over the the reason in FY 24 the police department has a surplus in Personnel Services due to three full-time offic positions remaining vacant throughout the fiscal year along with two retirements in January 24 and one in April the budgetary transfer is needed to cover unticipated expenses related to our police building Cruisers new unfunded e 91 mandate systems and compliance with public records law additionally to support our goal with 31 full-time officers we need to acquire necessary equipment to properly outfit them uh I believe like I said the the 91 mandate it's now on the town for the uh calls to be recorded we before with the state regarding public records compliance we have uh police cruisers and body W cameras and we need software in order to be in compliance with our public records requests as well as we know our station's 5 years old um just some minor maintenance and so we don't have bigger cost down the line and like I mentioned our goal is to be at uh 31 police officers in FY 25 and we need some necessary equipment in order for this so this is why we're here this evening regarding this transfer so the chief was um gracious enough to sit down with me like a week ago and review in great detail what these were for and I was concerned that we had so much available in Personnel but as you just described we had open positions that we that were unfilled that's why we had so much there and I also really comfortable with the um the items that he's suggesting that we use are onetime expenses so they're they're not like ongoing operating budget type stuff but they're very necessary for the department so I think that this is an appropriate use of of I think it's an appropriate transfer and just what addition thing I couldn't fit it in this little narrative I wrote but we were also short at least one dispatcher throughout the year and at some point we were short two dispatchers throughout the year so that was also another reason regarding Personnel anything else on that move approval well yeah do them all together all right other questions all right next one is 17,1 $1,186 40 for election registration Personnel Services to election registration General expenses Nicole on a couple of these here but uh it's a there's a mailing that needs to be done that hasn't been done like three years um so this is mostly for like Postage and postcards and uh things like that so um Kristen would be here but she's on vacation okay question okay all right next one 2,500 debt retirement interest campground to debt retir Bristol agie obvious okay so this one so the Bristol agie payment for their for their uh their school their msba project came in a little high um so we're just moving some money from interest to principal to cover the the deficit we didn't catch it until after town meeting was uh the warrant was closed or we would have put it on town meeting warrant nothing else all right moving on to the next one $2,769 Library Personnel Services the library General expenses any back up on that we good left I think it was because um we don't have an assistant director right now so there's extra money um and she I think she had list of things that uh they to purchase with the um the excess in their personal uh Services line it's mainly supplies and just Library materials yeah okay last one 23,000 Reserve fund is Town Hall Annex General expenses so this is to pay for the well that was just replaced last week um coming in around 14 $15,000 and we still need some engineering and testing which could be another $155,000 we're getting additional pricing on that we're hoping we can bring that in for less but this would cover us to this this year and we may need a small transfer the beginning of next year if we can cover it with local um Department funding any question on that we got an engineer on board to take care of that or we so I just got a price from um a company that's um used at the schools um and I want to get one more price before we we okay it the well itself was installed um they currently have uh plenty of water but the well driller did say that um the type of material that he he drilled in he believes this is going to be a temporary solution um I asked him what temporary meant and he said it could be a couple of weeks it could be 5 or 10 years so um I think what we're going to do with the uh engineer when we get them on board is we're going to look for an alternative site so at least we can have it if something goes bad with this well we had to keep this within 50 in order to avoid some of the permitting um if you keep it within 50 ft of the other well um the pering process is much easier um much quicker so that's why we did that um but at some point we may have to go another location is it permitted the well we have it permit for the well we have a I don't want to say emergency permit but we have emergency authorization from asep to use the new well um we still have no drinking water but we can use it for the restrooms we have a bottle of water there now once we get this engineer on board we'll have to do a 24-hour pump test and we're waiting for the results from um the appendix A8 test which was done last week that should be in hopefully within next day or two I had a question regarding the well since they have removed all of the uh recreation equipment the playground equipment is that area at all considered a potential for drilling a new well before they put all of the new equipment in is this the time to look at that before it's too late we we looked at it briefly I think we could put it outside the fenced area we had to we could put on the edge of the parking lot there's also possibility in back of the basketball courts we could put it so I didn't want to find out that the equipment gets put in and then it's a good point we did consider it there's no good no good location no matter where we put it we're not going to have the full protective radius but because it's a replacement well they do give some leeway as to um where you need to put it okay good thank you I mean Jim was that similar to what happened at the new high school similar but a little different right the new high school they wanted um a new conforming well um so what reason is that for what reason is that so because we're expanding the the use um I think we're expand I don't know the exact reason my assumption is because we're building a new building um we're expanding the capacity of the well that we needed um they were looking for a fully compliant well this is a replacement so there's some exemptions as to what's required anything else I'll entertain a motion to approve the year and Department transfers as Des s is there any further discussion all in favor I and oppos that's unanimous thank you Chief then deputy chief thank you um we have a request to approve a 3% cost of living raises for non-union and non-employment agreement positions there's a handful of positions that are covered by the Personnel Board rather than uh Union contracts Jim you want to tell us about this so we probably have what about about 15 positions we have a number of positions that are are not covered by um current unions um and they're not covered by contracts and some of the employee agreements that we do have with a few of the positions such as the director director Board of Health Council on Aging Treasurer um veterans agent IT director uh accountant they have Provisions in there that they get the same increase as uh the general employees do or the employees of the town so this just kind of I guess certifies or or clarifies that um that the 3% is what they got and that's what they would get and this is um what was budgeted this is what was budgeted I second so a motion second any discussion all in favor I oppose that's unanimous we have a request from the planning board for comments regarding the application of James Burke Burke 5 twin for property located at 146 State Road assessor map 3 Lots 44A Westport managed for major site plan approval to construct a new garage for a motorcycle restoration shop so this is whether we have any comments to send along to the planning board regarding the motorcycle restoration shop anybody have anything okay so there's no comments there commercial z um we have a request to sign the local Initiative Program compliance certification for 20 winds or Drive Unit 16b in Westport you want to tell us what this is Jim so this is a sale of one of the units in the um one of the affordable units over at the uh across the street at the Village Condominiums I believe yeah 20 Winds of Drive Unit 16b um bridge bridge and what are we what are we approving here we're saying the local initiative compliance certification so we're signing that we're compliant basically um as they transfer for one property the owner we just have to certify it's in the statute that the town has to review it and certify that they're in compliance and are you recommending approval I am it's a stand it's the same standard form we've done numerous times throughout the is second so we have a motion a second to um approve the program compliance certification any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous um now we have a request oh sorry request from the infrastructure oversight committee to proceed with acquiring easements for future pump stations at 35 and 287 State Road I just want to be clear there are two agenda items here tonight the first one is to proceed with acquiring the easements for those two locations the next one would be um to proceed with a pro appraisals and easements um at two other locations at 8:33 and 11:15 so the first conversation we're going to have is about proceeding with acquiring the easements at 35 and 287 state road so um Steve did you want to tell us what this is about yeah it might be better for Jim to explain I know he's got his paragraph here just because he's more into the s sure so we had the oversight committee meeting um last week or the week before um but these are the two pump stations one's at 35 State Road one's at 287 State Road uh the 35 is right near the Four River Line and 287 is meat Works um these are in the first section of the route six se Water Project I guess in between the four line and Route 88 um we have plans drawn up for these easement plans taking plans that were done as part of that first section um both properties have been appraised the appraisals are in your your packet for both of those um they're ready to go we've I've met with the owners for both of these properties um and again I said this at the last meeting um I don't have formal agreements where they're they're ready to move forward with these but um they're not necessarily opposed um if if the board is inclined to move forward with these these two easements I would suggest that I would work with Town Council to have them draw up an agreement and hopefully um the two owners would agree to the um easements or the takings uh with the fee that was outlined in the appraisals if that's done then we come back to the board of Select minut at a later meeting and the board would actually uh make an order for the takings we would sign it record it and then compensate the owners for those um two properties in accordance with the appraisals have funds for that yeah so Accord according to the um documentation we have um the 35 State Road easements is about $44,000 and the 287 um State Road is about 10 thou not quite $10,000 so this is 54 about $54 $55,000 total and where's what's the source of the funding so right now we have an application at the Bristol County app APPA and we have that application has been approved by then so that funding is available if we move forward with these two Takens do the infrastructure oversight can you have a recommendation yes we move these 12 so you're recommending that we approve these yes um so I have a question so um are these um pump stations required for water only or are they required for sewer sewer so they're required for the sewer project but not water and is there a particular reason why we need to do this now before the sewer project is funded rather than waiting for the funding of the sewer project to be because the funds are there uh we might lose the funds if we don't utilize it um and it would be needed down the line if we do it so in other words we don't want to lose the funds that are sitting there we asked for money we receive money and we'd like to utilize it to the project so this is the AR you're talking about so the arer Mone expire soon right we also have Grant funds uh we could use some of it correct Jim for the uh for the next spring so we have the oper money for the um for the taking for the taking um we have project Mone we have 900 I the $78,000 ear mark from uh from the federal government um to do construction um where that gets constructed I don't think it's been determined yet all right so we're also pursuing grants further grants we want to continuously pursue grants so that we can certainly so my concern is the sewer project is roughly eight roughly $9 million of which we have $1 million funded already and we need approximately 8 million more dollars to fund the sewer project right so I appreciate I I'm hopeful we'll get more grants and we'll get more grant funding but at the moment in order to proceed with the sewer project we need funding for $8 million that we don't currently have in hand right and so I'm trying to understand I appreciate that this $555,000 there's some benefit to using the arpa money now um to pay for that so I appreciate that but if the project doesn't go forward then these are these ements have no value and that's my concern like so we're predicting that the sewer will eventually pass and we'll need this but if the sewer project doesn't get funding then we would have spent $55,000 and really don't don't need it well for most of the grants want shovel ready projects and it's another step toward uh getting a grant uh we can move forward especially if somebody drops a big project they don't finish it we can jump in line lot easier if we're ready to go um so that's why I support it the upgrades aren't going to get any cheaper if we're if we're ready to go it certainly would help us at least in that first leg um I think it's important especially the first one um you know and be ready with the easement in a second ask you a question no you have to go to the L you you you can you can ask a question but we're going to talk the board first Rob get in line and then and then you can get in line afterward can can you can you uh explain to the board how how much money we've spent on this design already yeah we probably $1.7 to2 million on design for water and sewer along rout six and and the vote that we've had that was exactly what was that vote that was the vote not to raise taxes to build this correct the vote was to not raise taxes the ultimate goal is not to waste the 1.6 million on the design my ultimate goal is not to waste $9 million we want to make sure we have a really good solid plan for that kind of like a redundant Broadband okay kind of kind of like kind of like the the thing I've learned in my NBA program you cannot count sunk costs you have to count future costs not sunk costs but I do appreciate that it's a valuable project well the future cost is happening right now with all the failed septic systems on6 and the business like networks that was just about put out of business last year because they couldn't afford the waste um that Cor every business down there needs a septic system there's 144 businesses that will be willing to chip in for that and there's there's 14 residences that are right that's going to go by and I think what the board should do right now is recommend that we take these easements and let those that let those residences that are there know that when the sewer goes by them they don't have to tie in and there won't be any cost if they do want to tie in other than their connection fee and that's what this board should vote to do well the action before us is whether to to acquire perceive an acquiring one of the steps in that process anything else from the board before we go to the public M yeah yeah I on these two as opposed to was coming up next there's a quite a harmonious relationship between the town and the property owners to where they're amendable to discussing this further with the the hope of reaching an agreement we understand your earlier comments that until those Property Owners agree we would not have an agreement so there's two methods right the select board has the authority to take the property whether they agree or not um ideally we'd like them to agree and it's considered a friendly taking right that's the preferred method but it would be up to the selectman at that point whether to do an order of taking um and they would be paid compensated in accordance with the appraisal once the property's taken they would have the ability to challenge the appraisal amount or the compensation they wouldn't be able to challenge the actual take so can you just clarify so um the the the action that's requested now is to proceed with acquiring the easements can you talk about if we were to acquire them by imminent domain what did that process look like like is this is this authorizing us to go forward by imminent domain or would that take other steps that would come before us so so this is authorizing me to proceed with trying to reach an agreement with both of them and if not it would come back before the board for any domain all right so this would be it would allow you to enter into negotiations with the property owner so so to Mr Brewer's point we're not we're not assuming by this vote a hostile posture with respect to the second property owner we're basically assuming we're authorizing the town administrat to continue to negotiate and taking and at some point in time that is unsuccessful then the decision to do a quote unquote hostile taken would then come back for separate action by this board right anything else from the board before we go I just one thing I I I I agree we need that the vote taken was against raising taxes for a project that was banded about at 31 million we're talking something very different here and we we also have to be mindful of the fact that we we've had some opportunistic money coming to oper you know we probably won't see that again for for some time and that we do have the opportunity to start uh making incremental uh progress towards having something that is necessary in L six which is watering Serv thank you I'd like to just add that it's necessary for Lo West not just for6 and this is this is a trump line that was designed to accommodate all of those residencies that have that issue and this was the first step and and to say that we're not going to move forward with the project after we spent that kind of money I mean I I think the people that voted against it were not against the project they were against basement the taxes as they forward well I look forward to the committee presenting a proposal that would put their minds at ease about raising taxes or not raising tax that's why we need to keep the committee in place I don't have any problem keeping the committee in place um more yes um Madam chairman my name is Mari May I'm the clerk of the infrastructure overs site committee and I would ask the board's support for this uh this request for these two easements at 35 and 287 State Road uh 35 is at LF France as you know and 287 in state road is um at meat Works which which desper uh needs sewer um I'm well aware of the political push back um at the Town ballot and the annual town meeting I know a lot of the push back had to do with taxation townwide taxation betterment tax ta ation but there is a plan a foot to try to finance this first section of sewer uh with with uh earmarks Federal ear marks and as you know we have a $1 million earmark from representative keading that we hope to get maybe in the spring of 2025 my contact at his office says it's probably good for 5 years and we have another initiative a current filing with the uh the senator Mary's office for senatorial earmark they're bigger than representative ear marks we're applying for $5 million so one and five would be six and that would I think largely pay for section one of the sewer project that we had planned it's not going to go into neighborhoods it's primarily commercial out of 150 edus in that section I think 142 are commercial there're just a few houses and hopefully we wouldn't be charging any betterments to those houses much less a townwide townwide tax this would be primarily a an economic development project in midal I mean we' we've had serpent reports and we've had um other reports and um there is development that can take place which I think is is good development that can take place there uh they not going to be any shopping centers they not going to be any any malls or or whatnot and I just think that uh this is a baby step you know getting these two easements uh they're already arranged it's not going to be eminent domain it's going to be a friendly taking as far as I know and I ask your board's support for them thank you thank you you didn't stand up but you kind of raise your hand first so you want to let Carrie go or go just the set the record story all right so this is Carrie hi Carrie um Mar you picked up mik but then you didn't put it back I should have used this I'm sorry um the residents voted no mainly because of the cost hooking up and the betterments um we they're not against sewer they don't want to pay for it hearing these things these things should have been told sooner that you know you're not going to go into the neighborhoods that was a big concern because a lot of people are on limited incomes not so much on R six but just the surrounding and they don't that's the that's it it's the cost so so jimy can you answer this on on the past Grant the M Loop that extends the water all completes all the contract to for water um right up to Washington Street right into contract 3 um how large is that Grant and how much is it going to cost the residents when that goes by their house so we have a full million P Grant uh we have another 500 to 900,000 in Bristol County Opa funding and we still have a couple $1,000 left from anont from Senator Rodricks which would pay for the installation of the water line on gford road to the Maca school and then on Osborne Street back to Route 6 we would also be able to extend the water line on Route 6 from its current Terminus near the Housing Authority property easterly to Washington Street um at this time we were not planning on any cost to the property owners it's the hookup and then the bill for the rest of their life to be clear though the Mac project that we have right now is for water it's water that doesn't that we are not charging betterments for that there would be hookup fees but there's no requirement to tie in and there's no and we have funded it's funded in a neighborhood right so but this particular topic that we're talking about right now is whether we should move forward with acquiring the easements that are relieved to the Sewer project okay so so do we not need do we not need sewer well second I need sewer I don't have a sewer project in front of me that's funded well do you do you know what's happening to those people with their you know we're not talking about we're not talking about SE and the maer loop we're talking about okay so you're saying the trunk line that was West North Westport SE water that when the D came and we did the report with the D we told them we were moving forward with this so that these people wouldn't incure the $70,000 cost for their septic systems okay I think you're Ming me for being Ile to this project I support this project but I'm also listening to people you're interrupting me you're also not we have to listen to the people who had concerns about the project and I think it's really behooves the infrastructure oversight committee to make people feel more comfortable with it because I heard a few things I heard people are afraid of how much it's going to cost I heard people say why should I have to pay for that I don't live there and I'm not going to benefit from it I think there are very good answers to those questions I think there's very good case to be made for this project right now the only point I'm making it it is not funded and so my concern is about spending this money right now for a project that is not funded that's it that's my concern okay did myy not mention about the Congressional year mon last year we have a million dollars in funding what what's proposed for next year we he just said he said $5 million you said that yeah that would be lovely if we had that Grant right now if we had been awarded that Grant right now then I that would be a different okay well until you ask I didn't you know that's why we that's why we got a shevel ready project Madam chair please clarify what is before us right now before us right now is whether to proceed with acquiring the easements for these P stations okay than I think we're getting way of f thank another thing set number two is they didn't want it developed the North End and this will directly lead to development well again so Mory also you know that's what what they've been pushing for the economic development the businesses yes but the residents don't want it I I understand I understand but the trunk line the benefit to the residents they so what I want to hear what I want to hear right now what is the benefit of approving these easements rise now M Riv it's the next step is the next step it progresses the project it progresses us towards a more shovel ready Pro okay did you have anything else car no no no there were more words in the question when we voted at town meeting it wasn't just can I fin can I can we Finance it there was other things there about the taking and you know if it was voted down so could Jim could you get clarification on that on the question that was voted down because it did it did say things like you can use other funds and we were a little bit confused about all of it so we will we we let's skip clarification and ask the infrastructure oversight committee to clarify what was voted on what was voted on was the funding by debt exclusion I know there's a lot of questions around that I know there's a lot of questions around that so we can refer that to KP law to get a better assessment of what we actually voted on because I believe that all we voted on was whether to have a debt exclusion for that project no and and and the and the betterman speaks yes sure yeah so I just wanted to tell you where the resident what they're thinking they're looking at this they voted no they're wondering why we even have democracy seriously all right thank you sir Rob the whole thing got sted because of the maltt of the river the protection of the river there's a p problem at the tip of the river residents Waring about whether something's going to be developed or not developed you would take that issue to the planning board even before happen so that that isn't the real issue looking at the businesses that are going down Route 6 Oriental Pearl elra Plaza they all need sewer systems the fishes are being stored in a heavy impact right on the property and so in reality it's not a healthy issue to have that I and so the plan of the SE was was to clean the thing up getting back to the finances we do have a project you just heard them we got $6 million coming you don't have it in your pocket at the minute but you promis the money so we have a pro you know we have a project we have the opportunity to take up four stations now when we go from meat Works to Four River that's all about building apartment houses that's not going to help the M of the river and we'll help the reservoir in the backup Reservoir we got the opportunity to secure the four pump stations when you talk to the people that are along the rout 6 area 95% of them approve sewer those that don't want to tie in don't have to tie in the project that was just proposed here has no betterments to it that means if it goes by no the sewer doesn't have any either right now have talking back for right and so 95% of the businesses approved the sewer going down Route 6 95% of the kids in this town approved the clean up of the mouth of the river and also the money that has been spent on engineering was bowed from the kids that are in this town all right so we're right now we're talking about approximately $55,000 from arpa money and moving forward with these e right talk about that's going to be a must because the money's already promised but I say tie the four of them up you know when when the kids borrow when you borrow 300,000 against a kid today we're borrowing 10 bill million dollar a day we owe a trillion dollar every 90 days like to Mr J's point we can't revisit this water and project like at every single meeting on every single count right right now we're talking about these easements so s you're in favor of the easements all four of them now if we just secure two easements it's the month of July June right yes that's the month of the the mass Grant Works to be filled out and submitted we we not filing a mass works is why ain't we we don't have a we're not we're not cross talking here so we we're going to we're going to we're going to address only the issue at hand Mr I think we need to limit discussion to the issue before us no that's been that's been the whole problem with it limited discussions that's why nothing's on the right track Madam chair can I just say one just a minute I just want to only about yeah I just want to put it on record that we oppose this thank you yeah Manny go ahead so so again we're limiting to this but however what what I am hearing in the neighborhood and on the street is they weren't at they they they didn't understand what it was we went before them saying that it was a $34 million project the bid came in at 21 million we're sitting on like 14 million without even asking we're not sitting we have $1 million in hand like you can't count like I really appreciate the hard work that's going into all these grants I think that it's phenomenal job of all the people that are spending there their time I support the sewer project because of Economic Development the environmental impact and just Public Health right but right now you have to fund the project and we can say you cannot you you have to have it in your hand before we have a million dollars in hand we've already spent up to two but right now we have we have an opportunity to advance the project or to not so just on that topic hasn't the Federal government approved billions of dollars for infrastructure and doesn't this qualify for infrastructure the the committee is looking at a lot of Grants a lot of what the federal government has approved is loans mean a lot of communities are grabbing really favorable loans so they're very favorable loans that we can get but loans have to be paid back and so you still have to have a way to show how you're going to pay back Lo but isn't the government granting that's what that billions billions of dollars is above do you want to talk about that I it's not okay my probably knows the answer for time I just want to reiterate that this um this project for sewer from Fall River to basically 88 can be a standalone project it it doesn't get into the area where the neighborhoods are you have no fear there's no fear of a betterment there's no fear of a taxation here the way we're planning this it doesn't it goes you know where the go-kart places it doesn't go anywhere near the neighborhoods it's 90% plus commercial it's an economic development project second of all 54,000 is just a little baby step but and I really encourage you all to support it thank you thank you I'm just going to ask you to be limited in your okay well I just want to add to what Mar just said about the economic development so what's going to happen on this sewer when you know what they're going to charge these commercial they're not going to just let them tie in for free does it have anything to do there's going to be yes the sewer and the Pump Station so that pump station that Mew works is going to tie in they're going to have to negotiate a connection fee and they're they're commercially to tie into that so it's not a better it's a connection that Economic Development anybody that wants to tie into that sewer that now belongs to the town of West boort will commercially will have to pay and the the select board does have the ability to say we're going to vote and we're not going to charge any residents anything for this so no we're not we're not talking from the audience all right so I will entertain a on this so what's the will of the board second so we have a motion in a second to proceed with acquiring the easements for the future pump stations um is there any further discussion all in favor I nay says four in favor one opposed all right so then the next one is um request to proceed with appraisals and easements for the sewer pump stations at 8:33 and 11:15 state road so this these are not as far along in the process so these we the the previous ones we already had the appraisals back so this is to proceed with with the appraisals and the easements is there anything we should know about that one the um the two that we just had we had appraisals done we had the plans already drawn up um and we had funding from Opa for the actual takings for the appraised values these we do not have them appraised yet so that'll be about I'd say10 to 122,000 for the two appraisals um and then we would have to take the property uh for the appraised values tough to estimate but I'd say anywhere from say 40 to 70,000 for the two properties so this is just proceeding with the appraisal so we know how much that was and what's the cost of the appraisals you the appraisals would be about $10 to 122,000 for the two appraisals okay so this was infrastructure did not push for corre we we didn't push correct so we did not so the infrastructure committee did not okay so this one it just came up because Mr Sor asked us to put it on the agenda all right so do you want to talk to it yes so once again the $1.6 million that we designed because because when we got we have had negotiations with the two property owners and them pump stations um we did at one point say that we were going to put them up to get them appraised all at the same time which probably would have limited in our cost instead of trying to do it again however it it it helps in the future one of the things and one of the one of the land owners was like well why didn't you put it here well it's already designs things designed it we've already gone as far as to the point where the utility has designed going to it so this is just again it's another step in the process and I mean when they ask those questions the owners were there and they asked well what's the appraisal going to be they wanted to know what that was they they still don't know it and we still we're going to refuse to do it because I guess when it went before you know I heard the finance committee say it's been that's 10 years down the road I mean when the D comes to town it's not going to be 10 years so we have a we have a fully designed we want to pursue grants every year so that we can continue to extend the sewer and the water and not just say oh we're going to wait 10 years to do it we've been studying it for 20 years we've spent we're well over $2 million and and we haven't got a shovel in the ground yet what's the recommendation of your committee Steve we didn't put this forward we put the first one did you did you not recommend it or you didn't discuss it we discuss going for all four we decided the first two with the credit uh just sticking with the wording here to proceed with acquiring easement that to me sounds No is um proceed with u appraisals and ements oh was there a different version than what I have I must have the draft request to proceed with app oh it says appraisals and easements yeah well yeah this for the record this I was reading from must have been a draft but anyway it's essentially the same in that to approve this would allow moving forward on acquiring the easements and the appraisals and the appraisal part is necessary to bring the property owners to the table to have what I would hope would also be a harmonious engagement that wouldn't require eminent domain uh now so I just want to be clear on that and if it includes proceeding with the easements I would be opposed to but if it's simply get the appraisals to to determine property value to further discussions and negotiations with the property owners that I would in favor of there's an important difference here it's not semantics yeah so I guess it would depend what the motion is if we have one anything else on the board before we go to wait I think correct I Mr R could you make a motion to that effect did you want to move that not at the present time okay may I would like to make a motion to that effect what to move forward with obtaining the appraisals so that we can further negotiate the extension of the sewer say so you're moving to proceed with appraisals for the sewer prestations at 8:33 and 11:15 yes and not okay one thing I like is there a wait is there a second for that this is just for the appraisals correct we're all clear on that if it's just for the appraisals I'll I'll second okay go ahead all right cuz also this next pump station is right at the bread and cheese par so that's the environmentally sensitive area and it also gets so this first leg was basically all economic development is 14 people residences on here that need that need the service this next way is major environmental impact and it takes it it gets the SE Within Reach to all of those neighborhoods that have the end aseptics that you know once this is there now you can pursue grants to move the water and sewer into those neighborhoods anything else from the board uh um I want to point out a major difference between uh this action item and the previous action item and that is the previous action item was supported unanimously by the infrastructure oversight committee 6 to nothing because we hope we have some visibility on funding to go forward through Federal earmarks the current one is is section two and three and we have no no visible path forward also in contrast to 35 and 287 state Road where the U there's they're not controversial there's not a bunch of issues there are issues with these other two locations and we've had one of the owners come before us and really plead not to not to put the pump station on her property which was that so we're not having cross from the audience so anyhow I just wanted to to point out those two distinctions between the current action item and the previous one thank you I I would also disagree with nor on that cuz I've spoken to both on this and they're both in favor of the Su however well they're not here for now okay just going on record that the residents in the North End don't want any of this social media is a different it's fair enough at least one person who has other people around her can't speak yeah I'd just like to mention uh if we end up stuck with two pump stations those two pump stations will accommodate the other two pump stations that will be getting down the road it's an engineering question but yes yes it's all it's already designed the the 40 by 30s is that what they are they' designed it so that it'll all work right yep yep so when we order the pumps up for those pump stations they'll be big enough to accommodate the other two if you want to so Madam chair this whole this whole project for this first phase and is redoing an existing line that runs the for River had it just been for the economic development to 88 the capacity of that line would be adequate and the cost would be extremely less than it is now however the design of Route 6 phase one sewer from and water from for to dot line is to accommodate the Northend residence that needs septic upgrades all right any further discussion on this one so we have a motion and second to proceed with appraisals um for these at 8:33 and 1115 State Road all in favor I and the opposed so that's unanimous so we're moving forward with appr appr on that the funding source would be the ear Mark or local funds um I think that's where where what are you recommending I think the ear mark would be the easiest way to do it all right so do we need to we've already voted on it do we need a new motion no I I think just another motion to to uh authorize funding from the from the $1 million E mark So second any discussion all in favor I I anything else to clean that up okay all right we have a request from Denise bashard to approve the third year leases with the present tenants we have tenants a lot of people don't know this the town Farm North Department um for to Patricia Susan which is for 10,200 per year is $835 per month and the town hall Annex basement um Kimberly nashille doing business as kont Nursery School 6,300 per year 525 per month and Jim you want to just tell us about these yeah so every three years the town goes out for proposals and people can submit proposals for these two properties the town Farm North apartment as well as the town hall Annex basement um these applicants had fired I think last year the year before and they have a three-year lease but the select board has to re-approve the lease every year so um they qualified for the project uh last year when the proposals went out and I'd recommend that the board um permit the yearly lease going forward Jim we ever uh discussed or looked into the impact to the weth having extra people in the basement it's something we might have to think about the impact we're having yeah we we could look at it I think it's yeah I don't know we'd have to look I mean therez a lot of little kids do use the facilities a lot all day so all right just something we might want to look into for the future it's going to be cost effective and the impact of excess water so this is year three of the three year yeah I that's what I'm saying for when when it's up same thing with the with the apartment house we'll have to look at uh that's not the fair market uh rent right now around here so move approval second so we have a motion a second to approve um these leases is there any further discussion all in favor that's oh sorry one oppos um we have request for approval of the community preservation committee agreement with the affordable housing trust any El this is yes so this is the year the funding that town meeting approved for the affordable housing trust and the CPC has a standed agreement that they they sign with the trust in the uh select board I'd recommend approval so second um Craig do you have anything are are you affordable housing trust uh yes I'm the chair um I think we still had one um item in that agreement that we uh still is on theol it doesn't affect the agreement okay so we have a motion a second to approve the agreement is there any further discussion all in favor I I that's un we have a request to sign the employment agreement between the town of Westport and Carol frus the veteran service officer she going to get OT for sitting here for two hours waiting for anything add on that so the last select board meeting we met with Carol um we discussed the the agreement and um she's in agreement with a one-ear agreement um consistent with the with the uh standard raise and there's an additional um $1,500 in that as well for that first year I recommend approval I'll move we have I'll wait for a second second uh we had the Flag Ceremony this weekend she was there the whole time and the veterans couldn't say enough nice stuff about her and they'd be really mad if we didn't keep her so yeah I heard from Justin latini for sure yeah Carl did you want to say something or you are you just there in case we have questions okay I I don't need to say anything unless you want upate my department I I do have a question though uh Cindy Brown chair of the Personnel Board we have some fuzzy lines about what positions need to be subsequently approved by the Personnel Board so I you know you read the Personnel bylaws you'll you'll be dizzy I mean trying to really determine an employment contract such as the veteran service agent the treasurer collector we don't always see those after the fact so they don't really come our way and there's always well does it go to the select board first or the Personnel Board first or it's very unclear in the in the current bylaws um so we need to come up with some way that's consistent one way or the other because we're not seeing a lot of them so like the library service director tonight uh the library director was appointed I have no idea whether or not they have any intention of coming to the Personnel Board for formal approval of that or whether there was any indication from you know know your board that the Personnel Board had already approved it so we've got a big gap of communication here and I'm not saying it's anyone's fault but it it's just the way it's kind of evolved over time some positions come some positions don't so um I don't know if perhaps Our Town Council can interpret you know I've had discussions with Jim about this and positions that have a Employment contract act may be exempt but yet some of them do end up with us so I get confused he gets confused so I know we gave you a lot of work to do with that wage study and and making recommendations but I know I would look for like a recommendation do we need to make changes in the Personnel bylaws to make that more clear so I think Jim do you have any thoughts about that yeah if we could make the Personnel bylaws a little clearer that would be great right I mean I think we're we're he and I are always confused about what what to do in in general anybody with an employment agreement goes directly to the select board and does not go to the Personnel Board the Personnel Board generally handles positions that do not have employment agreements and not Union and so send any salary increases or changes in the job description all job descriptions I guess go to the Personnel Board but employees that are not part of employment agreements and not part of unions um any changes go to the Personnel Board first and then through the I think we should kind of button up too why do we not have employment agreements with people like maybe that maybe that's right or maybe that's not right I don't know right because that if using that you're down to support staff because almost everyone now uses an employment contract right a lot of the support staff is Union so right so it comes down to principal clerks you know the I guess the Animal control officer you know but I mean it comes down to a very small number of employees which I which I don't know if that's the intent that's the intent but it seems that that's not really true should this be yeah I think not the item of discussion tonight I think we oh I know but it it came up because I know it's I know it's a tertiary uh item it came up because of the of the contract so I think we're going to refer that back to I just bring that up because it's something else that need to add to the confusion of of where we stand with our Personnel all right so I think we we'll have ask you to the Personnel Board to keep working with Jim on that to make some proposals going forward did you have any comments on the um employment agreement with Carol fredes no I'm sorry I don't I I certainly wholeheartedly support her and all the efforts that she does she works very very tirelessly to get the job done so she she deserves anything any recommendation that you've made for so you keep adding that work you'll never get that other person you need jeez um did we have a motion on the I believe I made it right second all right any further discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous Carol do you want to just give us like a really brief update what's going on in your department um sure so right now June I'm in the middle of the chapter 115 recertifications that we have to do every 6 months June and December we currently have 30 cases which is about 36 people with you include the the couples that are married um getting ready to get the veterans gathered for the Fourth of July parade I just came back a couple weeks ago we had our annual vso Statewide vso conference um that was very educational informative uh just plug it along thank you again good job this weekend thank you um oh we have a request from the highway surveyor Chris Gonzales to approve the chapter 90 202024 roadway Improvement project request applications do you want to tell us about this yes so this is the yearly uh Street program that Highway surveyor puts out contract each year uh they're using chapter 90 funding there's also some Opa funding involved in this as well um they are looking at uh main road from drift road to Hicks Bridge Road main road from the cemetery to Adamsville Road uh Main Main Road Adamsville Road to building to address number 820 uh Main Road shallow White Road to the old high school so the majority of main road is included in this contract uh Hotel Hill and uh drift Road from hotel Hill to Main Road not going to do it in the some tough areas there's a lot of work and there's also uh striping and uh line painting as well involved in this contract I'll move second second we have a motion in a second to approve the Improvement project is there any further discussion all in favor I think that's unanimous um the Town Administrator report you got too many papers now was last time Town Hall inex well we talked about earlier that the new well is in they're still drinking bottled water until the test results can come back um they observe sand in the new well and uh the well driller said that he believes it's a temporary fix but temporary could be weeks or could be years so we working to hire an engineer to um assist us with the final permitting on the on that well and possibly look at another location going forward uh the old high school uh the old ad Administration is planning on moving out of the old high school over summer break uh they'd like to continue using the building for maintenance use it equipment and general storage the school department would also like to continue to use the fields for spring Sports we've been working with the school department over the past couple of weeks uh to develop a plan as far as maintenance of the building and cost sharings associated with the transition um this is going to take some time we don't have that finalized as of yet um I just note in here the work that uh the diamond students have gone to can I just ask a question on the high school so um are when they use the fields do they also need the restrooms or anything they haven't said it's a good question I I will check um yeah there's other things too that they've leased out um the gym for sports uh they used like some 400 kids last year that were using the gym for basketball so those things will have to be addressed as well going forward Cemetery work Diamond students had finished their project over at the um Beach Grove Cemetery um they've done quite a bit of work over there they they've redone the maintenance building they reshingle the whole building they put a new window in the front they put a new electrical service in they upgraded the electrical boxes they they built a um a break room uh they built a bathroom they tied into a new septic system uh they they repaired and uh painted all the gates around the cemetery they also did a landscaping for the uh Veterans Memorial there uh both years the last two years uh they've done some other uh tree trimming of all the tooo trees outside the the uh Cemetery at the end of last year um they've been great to work with they've done an outstanding job um they've had two separate class classes going through that project um Diamond generally enjoyed the project because on days when they were waiting on supplies they had other projects that they could work on on site so uh it worked out well for them and it worked out great for us there was no way we would be able to get this work done with the funding that we have so um cheers to the to the diamond students and and the professor is Town Hall monitoring Wells I just put a copy of the report in here we have a number of monitoring wells in the parking lot around town hall it was a spill years ago um the general um perception is that the wells are getting better slightly um they're improving every year um but not significantly so they'll have to be monitored continue monitoring going forward um I think that's it Cemetery just what while I'm on the cemetery um the they've been working it's been a difficult year with all the rain we've had the grass has just been growing extremely fast in all these cemeteries and when it rains you can't cut and when it rains it grows faster um so they are trying to keep up um they also have one of the members one of the workers just got their hoisting license so they are moving forward with that so things are are improving for the better over there and they doing what they can thank you that's it thank you um we do not have minutes tonight so we're going to skip over that one the report on the bill warrant Madam chair the uh the report was not included in the package and that was simply a matter of timing that um the warrants were not ready until Thursday afternoon Paula was out but I do have a copy here I I can leave with you but uh it was fairly routine u in terms of amount the reason for the slowness was this is so-called School lump sum that they do every year and please don't ask me what that is but it's a collection of odds and ends and that usually takes more time to to pull together anything everything was in order and there are grants and school lunches for example that's part of that issue so it was $2.8 Million which is a fairly uh ordinary uh bi-weekly number and all was in order so that Mees our thank you um so now we have liaison committee reports and suggestions for future agenda items so we start with nothing new to report from the board of Housing Trust did you have a did you go to the um opening the habitat for human yeah it was very nice and we are um um very well uh was a great ceremony um there are the two families that uh get the benefit from this uh outstanding house and they uh basically exceeded um all of the um what you call it the home efficiency ratings in terms of the the uh the insulation and all the other stuff so it it was a feel-good event um we had um U Representatives uh from um the Habitat for Humanity that were volunteers on the project um in addition to the staff from habitat of humanity and um you you know we're now looking to move forward uh with additional projects not only with habitat of humanity but some of the vac and CR Poots those identified uh as potential for um I don't think we have anything of milk choke size in the near future but uh something of smaller scale okay thank you dick uh only one thing to report the audit committee met and uh we had a report from town auditor Anthony roselli he was not in person but came by way of Google meets and it was a good report and uh for example what the words we're always looking for is no material weaknesses and there were no material weaknesses but it was even better than that CU he went on to say that there was were no other deviations of any kind great cooperation from the staff so a clean bill of health uh we went over what is called we used to call it the management letter now it's called the governance letter governance letter um list a number of things we can improve upon and nothing there of serious consequence at all but those will be the subjects of further discussions now typical of this uh select board every year after we hear from Tony roselli at the audit committee he comes before us either in person if you recall he was in person last year this year it'll probably be remotely um we don't have the dates for him but I was going to offer to him with the approval of the chair uh one the two July dates which are either the 8th or the 22nd that will all likely to be a remote uh presentation and that's usually very quick and just goes over and kind of says I just said only in more detail so that's my report okay the um infrastructure advisory committee met there's a um challenge that we can participate in for um internet speed um but the require the um what it takes to participate in the and the challenge was kind of unclear so we're meeting again on Thursday where we hope to have more information about whether um we can get um other PE the public to sub basically you run your internet speed test and submit your results um we're particularly interested in people who have B results um to figure out what that is but um we'll know more about that on Thursday all right and before I forget my daughter is due around Fourth of July parade so if I'm not in I hope people excuse me I've been in it for 40 years so uh there's a possibility I might not be in it um today I got stuck in traffic behind one of the South Coast rail test I put it on my Facebook it was too big to send the I first tried sending it to the board and other committees but it's too big of a file but it was weird seeing a tea train coming through our area um and all the engineers were checking it out so they're still moving forward with that I know they just changed the dates on some things made it a little earlier on the bike and pedestrian committee we just found out we did get a a grant which would affect with pump station is we have a move forward on that corner everything hopefully would come together with uh having the bike path continue from for River too I will send that to the board once we uh figure out the ins and outs but again that's good news as far as uh doing some safety improvements there um see if I can read my own writing um what else did we have uh cable uh cable committee Irene is stepping down she will not continue so it be nice if we can send her letter Renee duor is at least going to be the temporary chairman uh so uh that committee is going to be a little different without Irene sending us a I think we got like six emails today so it's going to be different without uh without her going forward uh that's the main things at this time thank you well we pretty much covered my stuff on the infrastructure but I just had a question on you on in advisory committee um so we you know voted to approve Opera money for the $250,000 Grant um for I believe that that's construction this construction of the West Loop exactly where's that going I don't have that right in front of me but it'll be in the contract that we're asked to approve okay I mean it's I I heard it was down tickle Road it's on the West Loop probably down tickle road I don't know off the top of my head uh cuz I just remember remember during town meeting that this was for a municipal building so is this constructions for our own internet business is there grants to serve underprivileged um areas in our community like SE water there's points for that too but so this a gr we already have have we looked have we looked into what the cost is going to be by you know there's no cost for us to have Municipal Wi on the utility gos but when we become our own internet business has anybody looked into to what the cost is to have that wire you'll recall that we presented that to the select board in December it's around $20 million to get the whole town we are looking into funding mechanisms that would include a public private partnership and we're looking at Grants so we don't have a project in front of us right now um but what we're trying to do is extend with grants specifically targeted for fiber because the mass Broadband Institute has a lot of Grants money out there just like arpa um so we're trying to get loops in that will extend the service and it would be more valuable for the town so that should we pursue a public private partnership we have more assets to bring to the table on the contract so that's what we're trying to do we're trying to extend with grants in the underprivileged areas where we can get them because we qualify and um then we're going to have to build up we do not have enough funding to fund the entire to the home broadband no could could we for the next El Mee find out exactly where that this contract's going be built no there's no contract on the table right now or you're talking about that when the contract comes before us for approval sure will I'm not sure if that's ready yet I'm just concerned CU because that neighborhood that you're talking about has a has a real need for water and I just think we should be pursuing water grants in that neighborhood I agree we should be pursuing whatever Grant we should be getting we just have somebody who volunteered to submit a grant if people want to volunteer to submit other grants we could really use grant writers you have to go to the mic is there a reason why you can't get all the grants you're I I kind of got the impression like you're either or but no right okay that was my question whoever wants to write a grant can write a grant we happen to have people willing to write these grants no I I had put that proposal before on someone that told us they could get us the money for some water in that neighborhood where the water is contaminated but I I just if you have something to propose to the board please bring it on a future agenda item please suggest an agenda item and provide appropriate backup material and we'll discuss it he Al uh I should give Michael Baris props to on that Trails Grant he did all he did all the work on that just want to make sure you he gets credit we s very prolific gr Riders around yeah all right um so that's everything from the board are there any comments from the public we reminder we have a lot of vacancies a lot of um committees expired at the end of the uh at the end of June um so if you're interested in the committee even if it doesn't look like it's open please please come forward we'll get that tomorrow um just a reminder since we're not meeting July 1 we're meeting July 8th um there is a Fourth of July parade um so please plan to attend it's on the 4th of July I think they usually line up starting at 9: and the parade kicks off at 10: so um there's no pre- registration just line up yep so line up at um um the 4th start lining up at 9 all right anything else yeah just we could just add uh Jim because it's a new Chief you just make sure we're going to be on top of the heat wave too because we're going to get a zillion complaints that people don't have stickers and they're going to be parking everywhere because people will be coming from everywhere it is during the middle of the week so hopefully that's going to calm down but it is a holiday so some people have it off some don't so uh if it's going to be whatever 100 Wednesday we're going to get inated everybody's going to be attracted to the water not only that we're like 10° like I was looking at the map in adoro is like 95 and here we're only supposed to be like 82 yeah so yeah it does it makes we get pretty SL okay um anything did we have any topics within the that we already handled the appointment was the one I knew about we have one engine on duty which would be executive session okay all right so I will entertain a motion 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 Westport permanent firefighters Association local 1802 B discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining the highway department ask me Council 93 local 1701 C discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with Westport Police Association we will not be approving minutes and we are adding um what is we're adding a discussion of the injured on duty from the police department and everything and then come into to open and we'll come in open only to close so move Ste Rich Brewer second a roll call vote hi hi sh hi hi Craig all right we are signing some of these e