good evening welcome to the May 20 2024 meeting of the Westport Select board under Mass General Law chapter 38 section 20f this meeting is being recorded um just a couple of Welcome comments we our next meeting is um scheduled for two weeks from today on June 3rd um and uh we do have an executive session on the agenda tonight but we're not going to come back after we're just come back to close um the regular meeting there'll be no uh meeting after the executive session I want to call out a couple of um important dates that are coming up this week um the Board of Health is sponsoring a talk on the impact of the opioid Addiction on May 22nd um that's at 6:00 pm at the Middle High School um so the they have some clinicians talking about the op opioid crisis on the 22nd um this weekend is Memorial Day so we have a number of events coming up for Memorial Day on Saturday May 25th um there's a ceremony at each of the memorials throughout Town um starting at 9:00 a.m. at the BFW 9:15 at the American Legion 9:30 at latesa Square 10:00 the Fontaine bridge and 10:15 at Westport Point um so we travel through all of those you're welcome to come to all or any any um of them there will be sounds of gunfire so people should be on the alert um then on Monday um we have our I didn't check the weather but um we have our traditional um Memorial Day ceremony um on Monday May 27 um if the weather's permits there's a parade that starts at 9:30 at the Town Hall just a short ceremony at Town Hall and we all walk up to the cemetery and then there's some remarks that are made at the cemetery about 10:00 a.m. um in case of inclement weather they will have um in the town hall Annex so Wednesday the Board of Health Saturday we have the refling and then Monday we have the Memorial Day parades is there any anything else we should note before we begin okay so the first item on the agenda is a public hearing we have a request from Robert mcalla for a six-month seasonal trailer permit for recreational purposes the property is located at 165 East Beach Road assessor map 76a lot 48 is there anyone here for that request Jim is the paperwork all in order yeah everything's in order this was a transfer of property they're going with the same plan that they had on file so there are really no changes just change in ownership I'd recommend approval okay and discussion from the board there's a public hearing is there anything from public see none make a motion to accept the request we have a motion a second to approve the request is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous I do want to note the absence of um Steve pette so when I say unanimous I mean four one absent um the next item we have is under license and permits we have a request from the Westport River Watershed Alliance for a one-day all alcohol license for their annual Gala August 10 um from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. being held at 2:36 Fisherville Lane um Jim you want to give us the recommendation here sure this is the yearly event um happens just about in Jun every year um they do different locations we did get a police report uh the police have a favorable recommendation on this event I'd recommend approval any discussion I move approval Madam chair second we have a motion and a second to approve the one day license there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous or with one absence we have a request from the Coastal Wine Trail of New England for a one-day wine and malt license for their annual Farmers Market Festival June 15 2024 from 11:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. being held at the Westport Fair Fairgrounds Jim you want to tell us about this so this is an event they've had the last couple of years as well um I don't believe there's been any issues I do not have a police report on file with this one and it may have been that uh poll is out today so I may have missed it somewhere but I don't have it with it so I'd recommend if the board does approve that they just approve it subject to a favorable recommendation from the police department thank you there any discussion move we approve I second it with the favorable recommendation moving approval subject to subject to favorable recommendation from the police department okay is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous for one absence um we have here's now we have a request from Ronald savaria chair of the shellfish Advisory Board to approve the resignation of Dora at milin and to appoint William Chase to fill the position on the board Mr Chase is here um I do have a question um when we have vacancies on boards do we give time like if I'm totally fine with Mr Chase being appointed tonight I'm just wondering if we usually give notice or something the notice we've been given recently last at least the last year or two was just putting it on the agenda noting the vacancies um if it's an elected position we've been given the 30 days okay but for the appointments we have not not recently anyway okay um so why don't we take this separately so can I have a motion to accept the resignation of dor Mullin so move Madam chair second any discussion all in favor I I unanimous for one absence um and then we have a request to appoint William Chase to fill the position on the board do you want to say anything you don't have to I'm asking if you want to if you if you do you have to go to a mic but you don't have to if you have any questions to me i' be glad to answer them you have anything he comes highly recommended um from The Advisory Board is there any discussion M chair I move appointment second Mr Chase so we have a motion a second to appoint Mr Chase any discussion all in favor I I that's un for nothing welcome thank you congratulations we have request from Chief done welcome Chief good evening Madam chair name is the board even had a nice weekend I'm here before the board this evening to uh respectfully request a contined offer of employment for two Westport residents as you're aware we have uh several openings police openings in our in our department we had a written exam as well as an oral board and two candidates stood out amongst the arrest from there we had a second oral board um a background investigation a psychological assessment as well as a physical assessment so if it pleases Madam chair in the board I'd like to just introduce both candidates very briefly so Justin Dila uh is a graduate of diamond Regional Vocational Technical High School is currently employed as electrical Apprentice he currently resides in Westport with his wife uh with one child and expecting another one on the way so this is Mr D Silver and then I have Andrew Sila Here Andrew holds a bachelor's degree from Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Mercy management and he's currently employed as an armed service technician with lumus armed service and his spare time as a volunteer of the new Emergency Management he resides in Westport as a graduate of Westport High School um I'm not respect I'm not requesting any additional funding this is merely um replacing open positions at this time so I'm respecting asking asking a contingent offer of employment um this is pretty much the last step in the process once we get the K off of employment we can then secure seats in a Regional Police Academy which is highly competitive thank you thank you anybody have questions for we taking these together or separately um I don't do you want to do them separately or take I don't care we usually do them separately we can do them we can do that one a time um so Justin do is there anything you want to say I'm just very grateful for the opportunity okay Andrew anything for I can't wait to work for the town okay I think we're good well I like to move I'll do it individually Mr D Silver as full-time officer you have a second second any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous with one absence Madam chair I recommend Andrew silver as full-time officer second any discussion all in favor hi hi that's with one absence welcome aboard thank you thank you very much thank you m you have um you have a couple more on this yes I'll be here I have one more oh sorry yes so we to go um we have uh Kelsey carvalo yes full-time EMD 911 dispatcher yes it be a short open we have open one position e 9111 dispatcher position and this is merely replacing that position okay any discussion I would move appointment Kelsey carvalo to full-time EMD 911 dispatcher second correct any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous with one absence and we have reappoint Michelle Donovan as full-time officer and Sarah Pico as full-time officer yes Michelle's currently a detective and Sarah is a school resource officer in our department what the pleasure of the board I'd first wonder if any of the candidates are here this evening Michelle and Sarah I believe they're not here okay I move the Michelle Donovan as full-time officer second any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous one absence Madam chair I recommend Sarah Pacho I move as full-time officer second any discussion all in favor I I with one absence I think that was your list did you have anything else I have one more with uh the gift account that request that deputy chief I'm going to it's okay with the board I want to take this out of order so we can get the chief go all right so this is um 4H um so 4 is a request from Deputy police chief Robert rebella to establish a comfort Dog gift account so I've read about this on Facebook I'm super excited so can you tell us about so uh just a little historical perspective Madam chair so officer Kyle Fernandes came to me and he had his own dog and he was willing to train the dog in his own time um and with the services of Eric lender who I'd like to publicly thank um provide services um to train the dog so um officer fanes achiev a certification with his dog Barry um and they've been throughout Town providing Comfort Care to the schools um hoping they get bar to the senior center we've already had several requests um for businesses in town and I think this is just a tremendous uh Community engagement program between the police department and our community this program this gift account was just merely to supplement um any bills that Kyle offes May Ur or ramp for the dog to get to the into the cruiser um or food so that's what this gift account is we're looking to establish and deputy chief rebello did a great job kind of outlining this document thank you and um Jim can you just it look like you consulted with the town accountant on this yeah I did check with Nicole person Town accountant she said that they um we could set up the account and that it wouldn't be an issue okay and then it would work like the we're going to get some from the veteran service and the Council on agent right would accept the donations into that account yes they do have some other accounts in the police that do not come to the select board so we're still working on that whether or not they have to be approved by the board as well okay all right thank you anything any discussion so we not approving we don't have to approve no we need to approve setting okay I move that this uh that we establish a comfort Dog gift account second any discussion all in favor I I that's sh Mr one Happ anything else going on in the department you want to talk about we're just looking forward to the Memorial Day Parade um being there for that and um you know if when you like to have Barry here one evening we'll be more than happy to have officer f um showcase Barry I mean he's one of the more popular people already people one of the more popular employees of our department so at any point You' like to meet and greet with him by all means we'll have him here great thank you thank you for the thank you yes um make appointment dates for new cars oh yes you do the what should the appointment dates be for the well no it's it's contingent on their offers right for for Justin Andrew yes for Michelle Donovan and Sarah Pico they're currently officers so this is just merely reappointment all right for them so they should already have dates established okay um but for Andrew and Justin the dates would be um when they graduate the police academy which would be um early next year okay thank you and what about um Kelsey carbal uh the appointment date if it could be today that would be great or or or whenever the appointment in the near future Jim can you when they going to start when she going to start she probably already started no no she has not she's not um I can is there a way I can get back to somebody Monday that's fine perfect thank you okay is that all right with the that's fine okay do we need to vote on that again or we all agree I don't think so that's a routine thank you Bob for keeping us in order there thank you madam Sher thank you thank you Chief thank you um we have a request from G Patterson to appoint Joshua Brum as the town representative for the citizens for Citizens board is there any here for that Jim do you want to tell us about this one yeah um I guess it was Ron Costa has been the appointee for a number of years and um is unable to serve this year um I've spoken to goth Patterson he's requested that the board making a new appointment this year for a new member um he's talked to Josh Brum and Josh is interested I think he'd be a good candidate so I'd recommend approval okay I move we point point Josh PR that position second is there any discussion all in favor all I that's unanimous with one absence we have request from the housing author authority to appoint Timothy Kon to the community preservation committee Timothy is here did you want to say anything you don't have to I'm just asking hi Timothy Kon I appreciate um the opportunity appreciate the Housing Authority putting trust to me and hopefully the board too as well um with that being said I'll do everything I can to uh to honor the the town and and the boards that I sit on thank you thank you Madam chair I move that we appoint uh Timothy Kon to the community preservation committee second is there any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous one you guys are welcome you can stay or go it's it's fine we won't be insulted if you okay it's it's not that common for people to stay after their appointment okay um we have a so I see Mr salvin down there we approved your liquor license if that's what you're here for the Watershed alliances liquer license we approved not yours um okay we have action item 4 a so this is a request from the Council on Aging to accept the following donations totaling $575 $50 poly dly tax help $100 Mary Hicks social Day program scholarship $100 Sharon martori best use $5 Melinda St Jane Outreach $10 Gloria Bosa Outreach $200 Louise Samson best use $10 Nick selier taxel $50 Walter R rioo best use $50 Nancy baru Russo in memory of Tilly syia Silva mam chair I move that these donations be accepted second is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous with one absence we have a request from Curtis geckle 258 Brion Point Road for permission to park cars in front of his property on the road the evening of May 25th 2024 um it has received a favorable police recommendation Jim do you want to tell us about this is there anyone here for that so uh this was a request they're going to have a party at uh 258 Brion Point Road um I'm actually have two dates here I email it says May 24th but on all our correspondence it's May 25th um says TW the date is May 25th Saturday and not Friday sorry about the confusion um so May 25th we do have a police report from Sergeant melow he's been out to the site um and he is it's a favorable recommendation he said there is area to park in the grass on the side of the road uh 12:00 noon to 12: midnight he said it should not be an issue he will notify the patrol officer on duty that day to let them know that um there will be some parking if the board approves I move approval subject to the stipulation set forth in the police report a second motion is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous with one absence we have a request to petition the general court for the passage of special legislation authorizing the issuance of an all alcohol beverag liquor license not to be drunk on the premises package store to Gulf resources 634 American Legion Highway Westport Mass you'll recall that um town meeting voted to authorize us to request the special legislation um so we have a letter in the packets that makes the request is there any discussion what's the pleasure of the board Madam chair I I move that uh we petition a general court for the passage of the special legislation described here in second is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous with one absence we have a request to authorize the Town Administrator to move forward with compation easements west of Route 88 do you want to tell us a little bit about this Jim yeah so the design of the route 6 water and has been going on for a couple of years now that first section is Advanced more than the rest of it that's that area between Fall River in Route 88 uh we had two locations where pump stations would be located one would be at 35 um State Road and the other would be at the meatworks property um further east on State Road um the properties have been appraised easements have been shown on a surveyed plan um the ready to be taken if the board so chooses and I'm just looking for direction from the board whether to move forward with this taking or whether we just put it on hold there would be some benefit to taking the property obviously if you ever do do sewer at least a 35 State Road that's probably a location that cannot be changed very easily if at all the other one at meet works you could possibly get another location there's Opa funding that's been allocated ated from Bristol County to do the takings it's about $54,000 to take those easements for both those properties we have been in contact with both Property Owners um while neither property owner has come out and said they agree to the takings they have not opposed the taking so I don't have an official stance from either one so um so my first thought when I saw this is why would we need these takings if the project um hasn't been authorized to move forward yet and it sounds sounded like the one one of the benefits of moving forward now is that we could use this arpa money that we we' already kind of planned to do this we're ready to do this and we could use the arpa money to pay for it um I know I'm hesitant to do anything to advance the the sewer part of the project um given the recent vote but I don't know have have you talked about this on the infrastructure oversight committee well I I have a couple questions on that okay um so the vote that that just happened um so obviously the vote is in the ballot and in town meeting decided that they don't want to borrow money for the SE and water um the taking on the these two easements I mean why wouldn't we include the other two easements the other two are as far Advanced disase um we don't have the survey plans done we don't have appraisals we could I mean I thought we were working on that in the infrastructure I mean I actually saw the plans that we we couldn't move the last one because it was already they already had the plants back from the utility company so they the they did the design plans but they never did the land taking plans um and we did not get it appraised it was ready to get appraised it was ready to go and why didn't that happen town meeting voted against it so I mean this was long before town meeting we were working on this it didn't happen that's where we are okay mad chair could I please finish you can okay so the other thing is what you know legislative spending for next year on contract two um where's that standing right now the grant that we just applied for I don't know we haven't been awarded that Grant I I understand we didn't be awarded but did we apply for that Grant yeah the planning board applied for it okay well now why didn't they apply for it for contract three I don't think Jim's in a position to answer why they didn't I'm just I'm just asking cuz I thought it was you I'm just that's why I'm asking asking these questions I mean the the grant money that we're going to we're going to move forward with the water in contract 2 can we can the public know what we're doing with that cuz you're not looking at the pump station in contract two but you're looking at the water in contract two because we have some grant money for that yeah and the water goes beyond contract two right because we have the macum loop as well it actually extends into contract 3 right so what's our plans with that well I believe we're going to move forward with the water right we have the $4 million Grant we have a um question here for the select board the next agenda item to transfer some money around to no which is good cover some of the additional costs so I I think that's a great project and I think we should continue to move forward and that's spend the now are these basements necessary for the water project to advance no completely okay but so how do we move forward with the water what's what's our next what's our next step with this we're going to go out to bid um we need the contract from the state and from so didn't we just go out to bid yeah you can't use that bid for this work okay so when why is that it's a different contract it's different work it includes uh gford Road Osborne Street that were not included in the original bid so but that would be an amendment to the notice of intent for phase one sewer and water for town of Westport no there's no sewer project on your proposal right now just water oh I mean there is a SE project we we put it out the bid we just town meeting voted again borrowing money to build it I mean the state and the federal government are giving us money for the design we've used oper money for the design of the SE and War we okay I mean I don't I I mean you are the procurement officer so if you believe that we can go out to bid to install the water in contract two and three of Westport SE and Water Project I guess yeah we can't use existing bid documents those are those were bid separ but but the funding that we got what was that for I mean are they going to use the design from that from yeah they will use the design for that section of the water line that's in Route Six okay so when who paid for that that was paid through um Senator Rodricks and it was also paid using some of the APPA funds okay and that's same thing that we designed Sean water for Route Six so we're going to use that but we're not going to we're not going to use anything we can use the design I mean we're not going to redesign I'm just little I'm confused Jim just if you could just make clarification well I think the topic before us right now is about these is taking for this um easements and so can you like help us understand I understand like the next topic is what you're talking about understand how it relates I would certainly move to recommend these two easements but I would also move to recommend the additional two easements Madam chair I I have different questions here this we're not exercising eminent domain evening this comes later I see that down below in the explanation that Jim provided to us but I'm curious as there was no package in the file on this item and I was curious as to who the owners are of these properties and have they been approached to sell the properties to us to receive an offer to buy it or has that precluded and I guess I need to know more than why and again we're not voting on The eminent domain tonight but there's a lot of questions here in that regard that I have can I just ask a question under under our packet under 4G there's appraisal 35 State and 287 state is is that the ement information yes okay so they're didn't come in late that came in today they're mislabeled in there so um 35 State and 287 state are under 4G in the file and we have I have one other one other question well well wait we haven't we haven't finished with yeah I haven't had the opportunity to read these I didn't realize that was it was in there it was mislabeled obviously but in this information does that answer the question as to who who owns the land and whether we have approach them to acquire the land and I'm asking the question why do we have to take it by eminent domain uh is there resistance to it and we're going to exercise that at a later date so we'd want to take it by eminent domain regardless of whether it was a a friendly taking or not um it gives us clear title to the property and addresses those issues so there's some benefits to doing it by imminent domain um we've met with both Property Owners of there uh we've met with 35 State Road property owner um we've discussed it with the uh meet Works uh group they have not said they're in favor of it or opposed to it um but they both seem willing to work with us whether or not they agree to the price of the appraisal has not been determined at this point mhm okay um but anyway that will be determined at a later date and if the people have objection they could appear and voice their opinions yeah okay that's that's really what I was interested in okay so so Jim is there any other way to acquire these pump station locations other than eminent domain yeah you could request them to transfer it to this to the town so sell it to the town you you believe that that's that's you can do that I do it would require a town meeting uh eminent domain taking for sewer and water projects can be done by the select board any other type of land transaction would have to be approved at a town meeting okay so the select board can't authorize this yes so the the one at 35 State Road that would be to replace the existing pump station that is now in service yes okay and the one the next one would be at meat Works which is needed for meat Works to be tied into the that's right okay and then the one at the bread and cheese Brook that would have all the environmental benefit we're not going we're not going to put this on it right now well that's up to you I mean no I I made that Mo I'd like to move that we do all all pump station locations at this time so you're moving that we authorize the Town Administrator to move forward with four pumping station Lo yes is there a second second Madam chair have a question on this that the second the third and the fourth pump stations are not posted here can we take action on well there's no the addresses aren't posted for the other two either so the posting is the request to authorize the Town Administrator to move forward with Pump Station easement it's west of Route 88 are those all four of those west of Route 88 yes they e of Route 8 well one of them that you want isn't West 88 right no they both west of 8 or all four west of 8 well I'd like to make an amendment to change that that included all I I think that would be prent to include all pump stations if you would like to change the agenda we'd have to table it I don't believe that's I don't believe that's changing the agenda that's that's an item that's on the AG agenda and we just making a modification to it we didn't specify the locations we didn't spec is the the only specification says west of Route 88 I thought I heard they're all west of 88 no not that was just so they they deliberately put West to 88 cuz all they want to do is get to meet works and they want to replace the existing Pump Station okay so they don't want they don't want to do the one at bread and cheese Brook the bread and cheese Brook hasn't been survey plan hasn't been completed we do not have appraisals for that so we would need funding are you sure we you sure we don't have appraisals for that J yeah I'm POS that was never appraised I'm positive so can I I have a question so the the motion is to authorize the administrator to move forward can you explain exactly what move forward step would be so I would meet with Town Council and we' go through the actual taking process uh have him develop other the documents that had come before the select board I'm not sure if it's a public hearing or not but whatever that process is uh we would stop that process so the this would be to prepare for a future vote where we would take on the um so we're not doing the taking tonight we are getting you are working with Council doing the things we need to do to authorize the taking at a future meeting yes okay so and then the motion that we have right now is for all four is there any other discussion well Madam chair I still have my issue is still the same with the other two that that has not been noticed here it's an open meeting L question so if I had not in favor of this it would be mainly procedural that we haven't had that opportunity uh to to notice it now the wording is Eastman's west of Route 88 I mean that gets us partly there but I I'm a little bit troubled that we don't have more specifics on the other two uh and I would be uh not inclined to vote for this tonight I'm just telling why I feel that way and I think we it's really a procedural thing but I think we need to adhere to that eminent domain is a very serious issue I've never been involved in eminent domain issues with other towns but I have observed them and they sometimes can take a a bad turn so to do as much ahead of time is is appropriate and I have no issue with the the two that that have been noticed in my view so but the motion includes four that's my that's my problem I'm just saying whenever I vote this way I'd like to explain why I voting that way but at a later date with the full information I might be inclined to vote in favor of it but not tonight any further discussion yes so one thing that and I guess we we'll try to clarify this in the next infrastructure oversight committee meeting so the only way I believe the only way is by Ament domain so what happens is is the pump station is taken by Ament domain if the if the owner doesn't agree with the inent domain they can appeal it and all what the appeal does is whatever they are awarded it's the appeal the amount cuz we've already spent the money on the design on the pump stations in these locations so and that's why when I don't know three or four months ago when I was involved in that meeting with you and Kleinfeld um and we discussed this because one of the owners at the last Pump Station had a a a request to move it in a different location and that's when we had found out that all the design from the utility company had been complete and everything was already complete and then that's the reason that had done that way that was the the best location to put it in and and the only way I believe the only way but if you can get that clarification from Town Council for us please if there's another way I believe even if if they offer up the land the only way for sew and water project and the select board is authorized to do this without going to town meeting since we there was a modified motion I believe I seconded it I'll withdraw my second okay so with the the motion for four does not have we don't have we have a where are are you withdrawing the motion for four I'm not withdrawing the motion okay so we motion for four do we have a second for the motion for four okay so that go ahead he second he withdrew his second so we don't have a second so there's no motion would you like to make a different motion no no anybody else I move that we approve uh the easements uh authorize the Town Administrator to move forward as specified in the agenda with the easement west of Route 88 correct as specified in the agenda yes okay Madam chair for clarification the two pumps we're talking about how many pumps are west of 88 two the two okay then that my earlier objection now is obviated okay sorry seconding the motion I will second all right so now we have a motion in a second to move forward with the two Pump Station easements west of Route 88 is there any discussion on that one yes so wa I think did you were you talking yeah I I my my concern is we have to be very studious about this issue it's been somewhat controversial and I don't want to be accused of doing something or changing the rules or or or uh trying to manipulate something or manipulate the process even though that was not the intent of the motion that was made that could be an inference that would be made and so I think think we stick with what was in the agenda as posted thank you okay and and once again I'm I'm not I'm not in favor of the way it was posted in the agenda and I would not be able to I'm going to vote against it but that's you know the way I feel on because this this basically is kind of what I'm looking at is the way we you know it was changed to go to town meeting and just the economic benefit of the SE and water in contract one and we're not looking for you know to anything about the the public health or the environment with these two pump stations so if you know and then then then you know we had talks that it's going to take 10 years to get down to your neighborhood so I'm I'm not in favor of just voting for the two Pump Station so I'm I will vote against it I will also vote against it I think it's too soon to ask um I think it's I think the voters have spoken very clearly that they need more information on the sewer project these Pump Station if the pump station for for water I'd be for it because I I think we need for but we don't need them for the water part so I'm I just don't think that I think the voters have been very clear that they are cautious of the whole sewer project I think an eminent domain taking is kind of not appropriate at this time but all right any further discussion yes I'd like to further discuss that so go ahead once again it is for water it is necessary for the sewer for the pump stations then maybe you should go for it again it's not doing anything it's that all these two pump stations there's already an existing Pump Station in contract one that's handling all the economic development of it the only reason it's being changed and this new pump station's being installed and a new line all the way to for river is take to to take the capacity for North Westport sewer and water that's why it's being changed and it's being upgraded so to upgrade contract one pump station and not have any thought of doing contract two Pump Station or contract three pump station is kind of at this time that one's not even needed because contract one's pumps existing Pump Station could handle the 144 customers in contract one and there's no need to move forward for economic benefit however for the the health of the river environmental and public that's why we need s and water in contract too any further discussion okay so we have a motion in second for the authorizing to move forward with the two easements all in favor I I and opposed n no so that's uh two in favor to opposed one absence the motion fails um would we like to request that this be on the future agenda with a different wording yes Madam chair I'd like to request that we we put on another agenda for all four pump stations second I don't think we need vote on that we can all in favor all right that's so we'll go on a future agenda sorry M General the V again to to um to put this on a future agenda previous failed because it was it failed because it it was a tie it was two to two with one absence with Mr Sor and I opposed thank you okay um for E request to reallocate Bristol County American Rescue plan act area funds from the macomer neighborhood water sewer and water design and information technology upgrades to The macomer Loop and Route 6 waterline construction project $648,500 uh from Bristol County ala they granted an extension till the end of September uh to get the funds obligated um I met with them about a week and a half ago asking about the it um application and what's happening as we're getting further and further away from the pandemic it's becoming more and more difficult to assign these applications to pandemic related activities um so they discourage or we're trying to discourage us from applying for $100,000 for the it uh they didn't say we wouldn't get it but they they said it would be difficult to get um so what I'd like to do is move that 100,000 that we had previously talked about from the it as well as $548,000 that we had uh put aside uh for the muman neighborhood design of sewer and water and put that towards the um installation of water uh for the mcumber Loop Grant so we're getting a grant for $4 million preliminary estimates are anywhere from4 to $5 million this would give us some flexibility in in the grants and make sure the funding is there as well as if if the bids coming low we could always extend the water line down one the side streets or uh make another connection so it wouldn't go to waste and it would allow us to obligate the money and meet the Bristol County uh requirements as well so um we had hoped that with the sewer project passing then it would go down far enough to hit this neighborhood that we could put water and sewer at the same time in the neighborhood right but now um with the uncertainty of the sewer going down that far um we still want to put the water in we have a very large Grant um to put the water in so you're trying to just move the money um from the water sewers for that neighborhood to just the construction or yeah from design of water and sewer to Construction Construction of water sewer and then um um the it and then Shi the it money over yes okay is there any discussion on that yes I think this is great and and I I will vote to approve this um I just a little bit on the on the discussion um I mean this does help with the public health Threat all the way to Washington Street um all of and there's many Wells all along Route Six that have numerous contaminants and one of one of them is is s there's a lot of the wells are contaminated with salt we had a lot of Wells dry up during the previous droughts so I think this is great um I just you know it's going to also give us fire service to all of those businesses down there and so it's going to help with the with the public health and it's going to help with the fire service those people are going to get also be provided with cheaper insurance rates because they now have fire service in front of their houses um so I think that that's great that we move that money in that direction I just once again still have a little bit of I don't know confusion on on how we're going to do this but um because we did file a notice of intent for sewer and water down Route 6 and now one of the things up after the town meeting when the notice of intent went out for um the Muma neighborhood you know there was a bunch of talk on Facebook that I thought we stopped this project um so we did file a notice of intent for the mumber loop so what is the D number for that notice of intent is it is it an amendment to the original notice of intent on Route 6 or is it a whole new notice of intent it's a separate notice of intent okay so but we already have a notice of intent for the water down Route Six that we do okay okay there any other discussions so what's the pleasure of the board Madam chair i' recommend approval second is there any further discussion so we're voting to re allocate the money as described all in favor I that's unanimous for in favor one we have uh 4 F request to approve the community preservation act Grant agreement for the Westport Historical Society at 25 drift Road um Miss Slade sent her um condolences that she couldn't be here is there anyone else here for that um do you want to tell us what this is about uh Town town meeting appropriated through the community preservation Act $110,000 for the old um Schoolhouse on drift Road for some of the repairs that they've been doing previously and this would allow them to do additional repairs i' recommend approval this is the grant agreement is fairly standard for these projects um I don't see anything out of the ordinary thank you any discussion Madam chair I recommend this be approved second is there any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous with one absence we have a request from Dana Stewart um who's here you can come Recreation director to dispose of the playground equipment at the annex playground and to hang the banner promoting the summer concert series from July 11 to August 29 welcome Dan good evening how are you all we're good what what can we do for you tonight so um investigating trying to follow policy um that other Town departments have done when there is any equipment um that is deemed not usable anymore by a specific department or the town um I learned that it's proper to give a letter of request to um dispose of that equipment get permission from the board um so in the letter that was provided um to you all I explained that um we have AJ pottern sons all lined up to do the demo and prep work um for they demolish the old playground at the annex um the estimated date for that is June 1st um and then they're going to be prepping the land for the new playground to be installed um So within the letter I just described that the recreation department um just wants to probably keep some of the swings um there's a brand new wheelchair accessible swing we're hoping to utilize in the new playground structure um and then just for safety sake we thought we'd keep some of the swings because they don't take up a lot of room to store as well as those swing um chains um but then other than that um the rest of the playground can be disposed of however a lot of people in town are very sentimental about this playground and I've received multiple requests for different people in town wanting certain aspects of this playground if we were uh to allow that so as part of the letter I included that piece that um I had just thought well if someone in town wants to say have the dinosaur or someone's several people request the the dinosaur riding toy some have requested the elephant riding toy and then I had one person interested possibly in the sand structure in the sand um saying it's kind of um sentimental that to them so um my proposal with that is if we let a Community member take something in turn can we ask for a donation of their choosing to um come to the Rector Department to then be used toward the funds for the new PR grounds so I wasn't sure if that could all be included in the letter or not I don't think we can do that okay um we'd have to make it fair for everybody um we will be going I think in the next month or two um having an auction uh for a number of vehicles in back of the um highway department and we could have them take pictures of those as well and those could go on the auction page and anybody that wanted to bid on them could bid on them when is the auction happening we haven't scheduled it yet but we're hoping in the next month or so well then it would just be a matter of like um should can the highway department help move some of the pieces that community members have been requesting for they be stored near the vehicles I suppose I think we could do that okay okay and really we're just talking about the dinosaur of the elephant and I think that other larger I don't even know what to call it sculpure my kids are in their 20s it's been a while yes yes so um Jim what do you recommend if if they if we want to let them have dispose of some of this property what do you recommend is a way to do that so I I would recommend that the stuff that is not valuable the select board vote to allow us to dispose of that which we will do um the other stuff we will put up for auction and we don't need a well I guess the select board would have to say that it's a vote to say that it's Surplus property we can dispose of that through the auction could those um items that are sold in the auction go toward the costs of or help you know with a few of the costs of the new playgrounds or no I don't believe so I believe it goes just into the general fund I don't think we have a mechanism to so we'd have to track that separately and then try to shift it to Recreation at at another by another means yeah Madam chair I I think that's a good idea and probably maybe if you ask Highway if they could go in and remove all this stuff before they start the demo instead of letting the demo contractor take it store with the stuff he's got and you know you'll probably get these PE these people will bid on it if they want it and just let them know when it's coming up for auction I think that's a good thing if the highway department would be willing to help with that that would be wonderful um AJ Potter and sons did say they can demo it and then also the highway department commit then take it once it's like pulled up um so we can do it that way too if needed for sure so with then the appropriate motion here be to authorize to declare would we need to declare some Surplus and then authorize the Town Administrator to work to auction the with what is what do we need to do here two things I would say the select board has to um approve the the um older stuff as disposable so we can dispose of it and allow us to um declare the remaining small pieces as Surplus property we we put those up for auction okay do you get that Bob enough close enough okay we have a motion to that a motion to had effect I'll second the motion to that effect is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous and then you also had um a request to hang the banner yes um we've been running the um summer concer series through uh a grant that we get through the Westport cultural Council the Helen e Ellis Grant as well as we asked for a Nal um fee of like $5 um per person or 15 for a family no matter what the size for people to attend our summer concerts we run the summer concerts um I think this is the fourth year um yeah I believe so um and so we run them through uh for eight weeks through July and August um it's been very popular enjoyable for the community to attend these and I usually try to have a banner on the fencing where the playground is with the playground situation as it is I thought it might be nicer to then put a the banner over main road to help advertise this as um you know the with the timeline of the playground and all the rain we've had it's pushing things back a bit um anyway just to help advertise that event so Paula does coordinates all these banners because we get a lot of banners in the I know I'm totally fine with that Banner but do you know of any conflicts or should we just Paula will work I recommend approval and if there is a conflict then we'll work it on okay okay I recommend approval with the hanging of the banner yes subcribe second is there any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous with one absence anything else you want to call out um I can just let the board know that we're very excited for the new playground to uh be installed and um you know things are happening although at a slower Pace than I would have liked because of the rain um we are talking myself and the Recreation Commission about plans for the playground up on um gford Road the bis playground we have started to ask for designs and quotes from playground companies for that and um so the beginning of that has started and we're very appreciative that we were able to get some funding through the CPC and town meeting um and then we may be approaching um or looking into other grants approaching other businesses for additional funding so the wheels are in motion and we're excited to maybe have a new playground up there as well and then um I saw on social media that you're signing up for summer programs yes so we're this is um the most camps we're offering since I started working over five years ago is this summer so we have weekly camps at the annex gym happening we have weekly tennis camps at the Westport Middle High School happening and we also have camps um called nature camps over at Westport Woods that one is only a 3-we camp but the other two camps I mentioned are every week throughout the summer so we encourage the public to register and they can visit Westport w.com to do so um spots are filling up fast so we hope that everyone can help take advantage of this and I'm pleased to say we have a lot of college students who are from Westport who are interested in being counselors and I've set up um at least six to seven of college students and a couple um um high schoolers too um who are 16 or older so it's going to be really nice and I think uh the community and the families will enjoy it the kids will have a good time thank you thank you for coming thank you thank you so next item we have 5A and the discussion on Hicks Bridge Landing people here talk about that so we have Michael burus the town planner and Je from The Landing Commission and I don't know someone from GCA as the little champ it's all good welcome so Jim you want to tell us this is about or one of these guys going to tell us I think they can update the board started back in 2021 um realized that there was probably public money coming along to do major construction projects and the reality that the boat ramp at Hicks Bridge Landing is seriously threatened that final section of it has been falling into the river for over a decade and the parking lot itself has been storm water washing into the river for probably five decades uh creating a variety of Environmental probably so it seemed like this might be a good time because the loss of the boat ramp could be described as westport's Washington Bridge if that fails uh so we started with some Design Concepts talked to a bunch of people involved the Harbor Master then went after a grant in October of 2021 with the mass SE Port count Council which we received in order to do engineering we went out to bid we hired GZA glad to see you again they came up with a first plan which we did not like because it did not optimize parking and they understood that and went back and have at least two more iterations of plans that optimize parking for cars but again primarily for trailers um so we are we've had a public meeting we have been in touch with any group that will come forward with Concepts and we are at a point of close to I'm not sure what you call it final draft perhaps I would call it preliminary thank you I'm not sure of the exact terminology uh so it is time because as this board may or may not understand this this is really the select port's landing and the landing commission has taken this on as sort of a favor to the select Port because you're concerned the public be able to continue to use the boat ramp at the landing and we're concerned about the quality of the river and with sea level increase the continued usability of the parking lot so this addresses all those aspects along with the shellfish industry which is pretty important to Westport because that parking lot is used year round even though the floats aren't in uh the new design will make it a much better more accessible ramp for handicapped people there is special funding from the disability commission for this and we will be going after grant money related to that along with grant money related to every other part and we expect plenty of help from GZA on that um so we're just at a point of wanting you to look at this and if you have any questions otherwise we'd like to start ahead with the grant writing part of this looking forward to construction who knows when we'll get the money um that's where we are and there's a number of other things things that need to happen as well before we get to that construction period to has go to get permitting at the planning board and has to get Conservation Commission permitting as well so GZA will also be assisting with that um and so that that actually is all covered under um the grant funds that we have received for this project and so that's if you see on this project schedule those Grant funds will take us to um that bid documents phase and then at which point we would have to find other sources of funding to actually begin construction I just add that the you know the plan that you do have it's prelimin it's a preliminary plan it's a concept that we've developed with the town and the and the stakeholders and um some of the design investigation work I guess that we did complete today uh was the topographic survey and the the land survey uh to develop this space plan the existing conditions plan and then we also uh performed a geotechnical evaluation initially uh just to see if that would affect the location of the ramps the docks and whatnot to develop the concept and then we stopped there and basically just worked on the layout the town and the stakeholders to get to this concept still a bit of work to do to advance that this this layout into a drawing set they can be permitted and then go out to bid and that's all L out the schedule budg end it on so approaching the select board tonight looking for not for the select board to make a vote or anything like that but just kind of like a tcid not of approval yes this is headed in the right direction or no there are some red flags here that need to be addressed obviously we wouldn't want to advance the project too far um if you all had some serious concerns with it um not be a very effective use of money to have to go back go back and redo work I would note also that it turns out that for many decades a pretty important part of the Hib Landing the entire almost the entire exit ramp is on property which the town sold to the nooke lodge Association many decades ago and they didn't realize it we didn't realize it I'm assuming that you didn't know uh so we are in negotiation with them about whether that will be an easement or a purchase so we can actually be building on land that we actually have legal access to so this that so this ramp on I'm not really great at reading these diagrams like some of my colleagues are but so this kind of sort of where the current exit ramp is is like you're not changing the that ramp part is roughly where it is today right right the exit ramp would be exactly where it is today but if you kind of look at the dotted line that goes through the blue section there it's not ourl okay oops and then what kind of can I just want to ask the what kind of surface is there on where all these parking spaces are pavement it's actually pavement I was wondering how you're getting these cuz I think one of the you got a lot of like what I would call kind of tricky parking but this is all going to be lined pavement right there's concern about whether this is permeable realistically Road pack is about 95% not permeable and if you have dirt which we've had for decades it gullies as soon as there's a rain event and washes into the river and now there are little sand bars which we hope to be able to excavate so that we can effectuate this design uh by Paving it we can push the water back toward rain Gardens and treat the water before it end enters the river and also raise the entry the top of the boat ramp so that as the sea water comes up over the next 30 plus years it won't flood at high tide thank you you'll see on the I'm sorry you'll see on the the storm water the conceptual stor won layout we're we're also trying to capture this I believe there are two outfalls on the hick Bridge Road yep that discharge onto the parking lot right now so there's we added a stor Water Management feature with the toll the slope to pick up that water to prevent erosion and scour the parking lot and then we're proposing to extend the outfall Beyond The Beach area uh to prevent that scour also um the sizes of the storm water management ponds that are shown have been estimated uh based on Paving the parking lot so we did do a preliminary calculation on that so we were order a magnitude correct with the size that you see there dra to so on the financial part where's the money coming from more specifically you said grants I guess State local Federal yeah there's a cport Economic Council Grant um that is $76,000 and there are two ear marks um both of which were for $50,000 um so this is all coming from State funding sources this is just design this is not construction and I may one two questions so on the seat Port Grant is that something we we will get I mean we ly to get that we have to we hope to we have to go back to them well this this The $76,000 seport Economic Council grant that was I just had extended um through 2025 I believe 202 I'd have to check the I don't have the contract in front of me um but it was that was just recently extended we're working on getting the ear marks extended as well so both these three funding sources are have all been received we just have some work on on the Contracting um because the the contracts were signed 2021 for some of them so they're coming up to expire so you know but we have that money pushed out but yeah we have that we've reive okay then the construction what's the cost of that what's the timeline on that and where does that money come from wherever we can find it okay let's take this in smaller pieces so what would be the expected start things go well uh in the the design in the negotiations with the Masonic temple um when does the construction when does it start and how long of a process would that be yes to me I mean I know you don't may not have all of this right now it's hard to know there's a lot of plans that have come before this town that never get built but but you'd be ready to go out for bid the end of September is that what I'm reading here with the current plan you go out for bid on the beginning of September that's the goal and the permitting timeline on that schedule is always inlux um we will have to go to the CMZ at the state level also so there may be some more time and then all the way up to the bid documents is paid for with current grants we already have in hand right right I'm seeing these totals add up to about 57,000 so if we have the 76,000 seport Council Grant and you get the Amendments that you're seeking that alone would cover this the design yes there's on so from the the grant funds that we have received there's unbudgeted funds there's $60,000 that we have still to be able to spend okay even with these projections and incurred costs okay so in essence assuming whatever you need to get for approval for extensions of the grant periods you have the money in hand to go out toid bid right right right to get bid documents ready to go out to bid right right we don't have any funding source right now to do the construction right right the construction they don't have funding okay but you're trying hoping to use the more advanced design documentation to go after additional we go back to the seport council we'll go back there's a number of different particularly because this ticks the number on Coastal restoration on handicapped access on sea level income increase there a lot of potential funding sources did you have one yeah yeah mam sh um so the the grant funding that we have for the design now is there any Town match for any of that um noort there was a match on the Cort Council can we use the ear marks for the match and then we can do that right that's good oh I I think this is it's a good idea I mean obviously um we need to P once we have the design you can't pursue those other grants to build it until you have a design this solves some serious issues that we have there with storm water and confusion with parking and I mean it's storm water is the biggest point I I like it um I'm just a little bit concerned on on what happened with this this exit ramp here when it was transferred before and I we looking to pave that in this whatever we're trying to come up with with them mhm obviously we've had some talks with them already are they yes in agreement to maybe give us an easement to get out that way is any kind of we years in negotiation was that land sold to them or I believe it was for a dollar and and did we have any kind of easement in that when that happened there is nothing in the town records that I've been able to discover and in discussion with a number of older Masonic Temple members because there was a lot of construction that went on at the same time to build that there was an enormous amount of fil that used to be a gravel pit it was much larger before all that construction occurred there is nothing I've been able to find on paper anywhere and there's no nothing in anyone's particular memory about this but how long have we been traveling as a town out that and did we have a stop traveling off that once when it was discovered last year they wanted to make the point legally that it was theirs and they put up a fence for two days but how long have a we we never stopped using it since it's been a landing right so it's like I don't know 40 50 years way before my time did can we get some kind of legal determination on that JY before we move forward with a design and maybe not be able can we affirm that we have a right to get out that way and we can move forward with this design I can have to do a on it yeah I think that'd be prudent yeah we've looked at it pretty hard and they seem Cooperative um because they are concerned about liability um so well we still have a little bit money left in design so if we're going to have a problem it would be it would be nipp it in the bud right now I would hope so okay anything else gu on construction duration for this project once it does go construction four months is and then it might carry over into another construction season uh just to accommodate site restoration Sal Marsh restoration okay just to Circle back on that question but that that put the landing out of commission for a whole season there's timing about fish in the river and GZA is extraordinarily skilled and knowledgeable about that and we've already spoken with the Shelf commission and yeah it's going to be out of there there's it's going to be out of commission so that people will need to shift other locations during that period but the big concern is if we lose the landing the boat ramp completely this will be dramatically more expensive it'll take dramatically longer to fix that problem we want to get on this before it fails completely okay thank you I think I think I'm not hearing anybody like saying no don't go forward so I I think directionally I think you're fine I don't think there's major concerns here something I would say the last time I met with this board you launched the idea of assigning a select person to The Landing commission particularly since this is really the select board's landing and not even ours that never really happened I'd like you to consider doing that at some point I'm going to come to some of our meetings or someone who I can brief so that you have more of a sense of what's going on here and at the other places of public access to the water because there could be other things slipping through the cracks and I think it's important that the town know and I think these meetings are more viewed than ours although I've been surprised people say oh I saw you on TV Jeff really does anybody want to volunteer to be leison or we want to think about it and get back i' be willing to volunteer okay so Mr Brewer is volunteering to be your liaison great so you can work through him thank you you may have a better candidate however unless somebody else wants to do it very you volunteer thank you okay there you go anything else uh no that's it all right thank you thank you for the work you're done thank you thank you call always hooks me up um so next item on the agenda we just want to review a few select four policies and see if we need to refresh them or get rid of them um we did talk about um a couple of these in um an executive session but I want to talk about it in an open session so the first one on theend agenda is the department communication policy so this is dated April 2nd 2018 um and it kind of outlines a communication policy for the Department um I I think there need to be a couple changes but I didn't mark it up in advance so I'm just going to try to remember what I said so the first section is Department communication to the board of Selectmen so this is departments talking to us and um what we had said in the policy is that department should communicate to us through the town administrator um it says we prefer a monthly summary of the workings of the department um we haven't gotten we haven't had much success in a monthly summary so I think that might be too frequent I would like to propose that we ask for quarterly summaries from the Departments but I believe very strongly the department should tell us what they're doing we we the town accountant the treasurer collector the police department I think they they report to us and we get very little so my thought is that we should amend our policy to make it a quarterly summary um but I don't know we're not getting the reports so Jim do you know if there's like opposition or is it just we haven't been asking I know when we when I was doing the quarterly reports this was back years ago it wasn't seemed like we would just kind of filling the I'm sorry that the monthly reports I think the quar reports be better or we could invite them in you know uh kind of revolving every quarter or so and get a couple in just to kind of update the board yeah so maybe like um maybe we tell them you come in once a quarter or you give us written report once a quarter I go ahead I think a written report once a quarter but we do a rolling um presentation because we we can get jammed up just on that alone yeah if everybody had to come in here make a presentation so maybe maybe what we want is like quarterly updates but maybe once a year we'll cycle through all the Departments yeah every other meeting we have the department come in something like that I like that um so I want to I I guess I can suggest but that I would like to suggest that we amend that and we'll look at this we'll vote on it again after we amend it but um the um request from boards or committees I had to remember why we did this so at the time that this policy was created there was quite a bit of controversy specifically between the select board and the Board of Health um where the departments were requesting information from the other department the other department wasn't answering them um there was a lot of confusion there was a lot of like there was a lot of pointing fingers going on and so we said that if departments are getting a request from another department that they should log that so they should log it and they should say what actions being taken I don't know know that that's necessary anymore and the reason is because believe it or not it's only six years ago but email is much more prevalent now and so you have a history already of you have an email that you sent to somebody requesting information um so I'm not sure that you actually need this record keeping and I'm not sure they were doing this anyway right um so I I think I I don't think we need this other section anymore but I don't know what if do you guys have different opinions yeah Madam chair I I think that's a good idea but if we if we specified that it was being done via email now so that they I mean when you you put it yeah so maybe talk about maybe reword this a little bit so that the the record of the request is and it makes it easier for everybody you know it's it's how everybody communicates now yeah maybe a reminder that um emails between departments are public records and so they're required to be retained so I don't know um I didn't think about it until you just trigger me but um I'm going to make sure we're doing the proper email retention for to comply with public records so maybe we rework this one to be um to be the I still think it's important that I I the other problem that was going on here at the time was that um the uh the select board was making a lot of Demands on on other boards um but it wasn't the select board doing it it was individual members of the select board acting as if they were representing the entire board and I think we need to be really careful about when we're communicating as a citizen asking for information and when we are a board making a request um I think this if we can rewrite this a little bit just talk about the the request of Department should be put in writing and if they're transed by email so that we have a record of the time stamping Etc I think we can change that anything else on that section then we also have Town reports um the town reports it says here the the report must be provided to the select board no later than January 31st I don't know if we always meet that but um how are we doing with the town report this we got it out on time this year it well Madam chair the uh this is the annual Town report the annual Town report yeah that's uh in a byla required to be available for the next um annual town meeting so the January 31st is ahead of that I think it's a good idea to do it earlier than later because we've gotten into difficulty in the past as you know this year got there in time about a month before the town meeting so we just want to keep that in mind that the law is not requiring January 31st if we wish to make it more stringent than what the law requires then we should do that well but to be clear the the law requires the final report to the citizens by that time right so this is a policy that would enable us to get the information from the Department sooner so that we could compile the report right that's why it's earlier so that there's time to compile yeah but it might be good just for general knowledge here to say that the board of Selectmen no later than January 31st of each year in preparation for the final report to be distributed a month before the or something like that whatever the bylaw says that makes sense all right and then the second part here is the uh select board communication to departments so um this is um communication between the select board and a department needs to go through or include the Town Administrator um once it's about the chair Town Administrator should go through the chair um but we want to be really clear there's sometimes I'm individually asking for information I'm allowed to do that but when it's the select board requesting something that needs to go through the Town Administrator it's super important that the Departments know what is an official Act of the select board and what is an informal Act of a select board member um and then departments receiving a question from a board member should if if it happens out of cycle then they should notify the Town Administrator so this would be for us to use a lot of caution and communicate like if we're requesting contracts or requesting files something like that we go through gy and then if they get a request from us um they should tell Jim that's the essence of what that is so anybody have concerns about that the the thing I um don't think is very clear in here that maybe we'll add a little sentence about is um this is for official select board business obviously we're citizens we interact with the Departments all the time and pay our taxes and such so um this would be for official business well that that's a good point there are numerous interactions I can think of some uh that I have like to sign those warrants I come and talking to people yeah um it's quite normal and pain but yeah here we I we need to was ever going to be described to write it and say what we we mean here yeah I'll take a Sab at on drafting the amendments there and distribute them anything else on the communication policy we should be including okay um then the next one is the agenda and meeting policy and actually when I asked about the agenda meeting policy all I meant was um what time to request agenda topics um because there's been some confusion about that so the um the website says and this is what I think it's a good thing that the request to be on the agenda by 400 pm on the Wednesday before a meeting we have to post the meetings on Thursday so we need requests to be on the agenda in writing prior to Wednesday preferably with material relevant that would relevant for the board to consider but when I asked for the meeting policy um you found this from 1983 yeah doesn't have a date on it it it says the following Board of selectman meeting policy was amended in 1983 to include the following so um now that I've looked at this I think this probably needs a rework um for one it says that we meet weekly so I'm super glad we don't meet weekly anymore actually um some of them are still pretty valid that the board in control of the agenda that we authorize Jim and the secretary and the administrative assistant to put routine matters on those are fine um we entertain issues is I think some of this just might need a 21st century revamp here it should also reflect our present practice if if we find our practice to be agreeable because right now neither the secretary nor the assistant they don't really put it on the agenda they they list it and then we have a discussion and it's ultimately approved by the chair to be posted so I'm guessing back in 1983 we didn't have a Town Administrator and we had a three person select board so we probably need to look at the current titles and responsibilities and make those adjustments as well yeah I think I think this one I didn't look in super detail because again I thought it was just agenda items and writing by 4M on Wednesday but now that I'm looking at this it it because it doesn't also reflect the idea this we have remote meetings and we're authorized to do that or the fact that we have videos of the meetings um so I think I think this is one that kind of just needs a regroup so we can I can take a look around and see if we can get a sample that kind of see if you have like a little modern little more modern than this one maybe some have more modern policies here well then okay then then there's the posting this doesn't say anything about posting so we post uh the official posting places down on the entrance as opposed to the uh the website it's it's we talked about that be when the previous town clerk um that was saying that putting the meeting agendas on the calendar was a courtesy rather than the official posting and I I think that there's a policy that we the board can interact can act saying that the official posting place is the town website and and the town hall Bolton board is the courtesy right so could you please look into what we'd have to do for that I believe it's just the vote of the select board but I can check yeah yeah I have something in the back of my mind say also has to be believe it or not approved by the Attorney General the posting has to be approved by the attorne the selection of the place where you post has to be approved if you're going to change it and maybe it's just a letter I don't know but I that came up once before before Jam time but I can think of no reason in modern times that the the website is where people go to see they don't go walk up to town theall anymore um so so then we'd be able to email that would be considered in writing by that date and and it would go to to the town ad Ministry Ator and then CC the chair would that be that's what I would say is that um and really it doesn't have to go to gym so much as it has to go to Paula but I usually would request Jim and Paula and the chair is what I would do and and I think this actually it ISS um the person or entity making such a request is um puts in writing with specificity and in detail the topic so it needs to be enough information about the topic to have have an adequate discussion about it but yeah we technically we through Jim and the chair but Paulo is the one we actually do it sorry Jim I'm assuming find find by me so really the most important thing is it goes to the chair I mean the chair could direct it to whoever needs to get it done but okay way clear up a lot of stuff I still think it it really should go through Jim CU he's a Town Administrator the staff here works for Jim yeah they support the board yeah and and again uh we rely upon Jim to sort of coordinate the administration of town government so and you know there are exceptions that may involve the chair of the board itself that Jim wouldn't be the appropriate person to discuss I think I think you're right Jim Jim and Paula and the chair is who I think they should go to yeah but I I'm thinking it's important that that we have at least two and one of them needs to be the chair um okay anything else we should think so we I think we need to think about the remote topping I think we need to look at um the posting of the meetings we're only in charge of our own agendas we're not in charge of anybody else's agendas except maybe the Committees that report to us yeah that I'd have to check I think if we change our actual posting place it would impact all committees yeah that I'm not concerned about that I think it's just the right thing to do for the the public but okay all right anything else on the policies there's probably other policies we should unearth from the 1980s but there's a book that's stick a poli I have it in my home office all right anything else on policy okay town meeting review Jim do you want to kick this off um Mr Brewer asked that we put this on the agenda so all right so maybe we'll let Mr Brewer kick us off yeah well I thought this was just a sort of a healthy thing to do we've had a town meeting with a lot of items on it and the question that I always come away with is what action items are next for us to take uh take upon um the uh and and some of it may be just some monitoring uh although obviously Route 6 we discussed Route 6 tonight in a different context including Opera money and so on and so forth so we've already done that by Dent of that item there another one that's important to a lot of people uh is the short-term rental um in effect since technically shortterm rentals are illegal um they renters could be subjected to a ceasing assist order and before that were to happen there should be some rules in place I mean I can see that having a lot of implication and potentially inflammatory implications for a lot of people we've we heard the the comments from short-term rental property owners and we basically uh by if we enforce this we put them out of business before the town was allowing it in spite of of the bylaw an interesting thing about the bylaw is I would be interested in knowing how that bylaw ever was passed in the first place and I don't mean that in any disparaging way I mean was that it looks to me like an oversight because it it reads off the top of my head is that if it's this is not mentioned here then therefore it's prohibited so therefore it wasn't mentioned short-term rentals that is and therefore they are prohibited of course we never enforced the law and it's a little more exciting than that because we're collecting money the state's collecting money and the town is collecting money so it's this is a uh The Quagmire if you will so and people this is a lot of I get a lot of questions about this and still do it's uh it it seems we ought to move on this or I guess it's the zoning board of appeals I don't know Mr Baris has made comments about it but and H the rental season is upon us you know shortterm occur all year round as we know so this is an item that needs action because of the failure uh to enacted what would have happened had it passed is it wouldn't be illegal anymore it' just be restrictions it would be managed and there were you know was it two days you couldn't have two- day rentals you couldn't have less than two day rentals if I recall hence the discussion was five days yeah it eliminated like weekend rentals and it was a lot of that um so this one is it's like a hot potato it's somebody's got to get their arms around it and I think the board of Selectmen should just make sure those who have to get their arms around it can get going on this and give us some direction here yeah because I think you're I think you're right I don't think people really understood although I do think Jim tried to Jim whiten attempted to explain this that if we didn't vote to pass that law at town meeting they were all illegal um I know I don't want to spend a lot of legal bills making something legal that was legal you know yesterday and you know tomorrow it would be expected to continue so I'm concerned about if we start issue cease and toist about the legal Quagmire we're going to be in well should we invite the zoning board of appeals and the planning board into a meeting to talk about this and if it means creating some sort of a I mean I know there was a process that came up of these um proposals and it was um and there was consensus about as a result of that process but based upon the discussion at Tom meeting there were a lot of stakeholders who weren't aware of it or had a lot of issues with it so I think we have to revisit that process or or redo it on some level so that we can address the issues raised at town meeting well I wonder if there's some way we can put a Hiatus on enforcement or something like what's is there a mechanism looking at Jim as many years as the planner is there a mechanism for us to say you know don't get like while we were going after the still let people continue renting in July I CH I just um so when was the date of the that bylaw oh I don't know uh was was it a long time ago was it 10 years it would have been the probably one of the original bylaw I mean that's technically how Z zoning is based right you permit uses and those that aren't permitted are not allowed so was that 70s 80s at least at least look where it was because I I mean I'm too getting calls off the hook on this you know and most of them are like some people that have been doing it for Generations yeah so I I think one of the questions would be especially to the zba would be pre-existing non-conforming uses you know um so these people that you want to give them a cease and assist but they probably have a claim against a pre-existing non-conforming use and before we start enforcing stuff on them I I think in in inquiring legal fees and more work for uh zoning enforcement agent we need to look into that the very minimum and I and I think Jim whiten was trying to address doing again we didn't educate like we should and yeah so I think what's happened to date is rentals that have been problematic have been brought to the attention to the building inspector by the neighbors and those are the ones that have um received enforcement I don't think there's been any attempt to go out and at least at this point but those people those other people after they read this that concerned because those were the calls that I got they put them out of business their family's been doing this for 100 years and it's interesting right because families I mean some of communities along the river along the ocean have been renting out weekly rentals for as long as I can remember um I don't think nightly rentals was a was a thing until recently but weekly rentals monthly rentals have always been going on here in town so so who would be the inforce like what if if we were going to say no they're they're not legal anymore is it the zoning enforcement officer that would site them r as zoning enforcement officer would have to issue the cease and assist so um what's the mechanism to put a Hiatus on that or something like we there's only really one way to do it now would to create a a moratorium um which is a zoning approval just like any other zoning thing you actually create a moratorium for a year or two while you study it and develop zoning bylaws um so there's really no easy way to do it um you know we we have one zoning case that's gone before the zoning board of appeals and the zoning board um made a determination that that use was not permitted under the zoning we could get another one that goes before the zoning board under slightly different circumstances that um may be permitted um there's a recent case in Massachusetts that kind of indicates that these are commercial uses and not residential uses um so I think right now and that's what the zoning board based their decision on was that if you're doing it short-term rentals and it's a commercial use then it is not permitted um and then this question is what short term is it a weak short term is a month shortterm it's it's a legal nightmare it's it is it is so um it'd be an enforcement nightmare as well um you know we just don't have the staff um to go out and enforce you know 160 170 ceas and assist that we know of um yeah so so I I mean I kind of like what you're saying like I think we need to get the right people together to talk about I I think we probably do need to have some sort of moratorium or something um in place just so we get something more solid did did you say that we're already collecting money on this too absolutely room tax guess we're double dipping I don't know so the state collects the room tax the state collect eventually comes to us but we're not knocking Ono so yeah no but we the the major rental companies report to the state of Massachusetts right and then that's how we know and then they say we get whatever our percent is 4% or something well yeah uh if I may it's 99.7% the state gets 5.7% and the town gets 4% and that's required by law and it's this is interesting if you're a short-term renter and you're following the law you have to post in your property I don't know if this is constitutional a plaque that has on there that that we are conforming to the law of the state of Massachusetts regarding rentals and apparently I don't know if they've ever enforced this but the tenant has the right to separate check they can't include it in the rent uh but anyway I I the interest full disclosure I did do we have I have a rental property I haven't done a short-term rental in a while but I had to comply and send the money in and uh then we get the 4% back to us I checked with Sue one day to find out that we get that is Le I want portion of it to come back to Westport which it should be so it's a pretty uh clear thing and uh there's a lot here that but it's funny because you got all these rules but yet the state is collecting money too so apparently they didn't didn't have any problem with any zoning B problem and I guess we didn't either all right so let's get the whoever it is that we need to get together and maybe look at what we need to do to to pause or just not enfor like what what's our best go forward here while they sort out a better short-term rental and then I think we do need to do a better job informing the public about like you be careful what you're voting for because it's not what you think right um so yeah I don't know see if you can get the right people figure out who the right maybe Michael or somebody has a or the CBA maybe they have an idea the best people I will say the zoning board planning board they spent a considerable amount of time on this last year um working with um both people in favor and opposed that work with Town Council uh they had a number of public hearings on it they had a number of workshops there was plenty of opportunity to people give their input um yeah Conant yeah sorry yes um um it was disappointing also that it was so far down on the agenda I do believe that it probably would have passed if it had been earlier on in the evening but people just left because I think that people are concerned about short-term rentals when they are done in a way that's just sort of like a party house nobody wants to live next to that but uh there was a very it was a small but very vocal group of people that were that are short-term Runners are airbnbs and um so I'm I'm hoping that we can I think this this is important for other zoning bylaws as well to move them up a little bit in the evening because they're some of the most important things that we pass and talk about as a town they have amaz you know repercussions for decades so hopefully the next time we go at this maybe we could move it up a little bit so there'd be more people there to uh Express their opinions on it but but yes the zoning board and the planning board spent a lot of time on this and many meetings where they listen to input from um you know a lot of different people so it was just that this group of people did not like what they heard and they wanted to do what they've been doing and weren't at all willing it it seems to me I was there for the conversation to make any adjustments in kind of how they've been going about it I just want to ask you so you're a member of the zoning board of appeals right have you guys um since town meeting talked about um how to how to you know what to do about this in a public meeting I'm just wondering if you've addressed it yet no we haven't okay all right thank you okay so that was short-term rentals from the town meeting followup were there other items on the town meeting followup uh nothing specific I mean there are number of things there that Jim always is monitoring because is the some action we have to take moving money around different accounts whatever was approved um no those are the two that I had in mind but I think as a general practice that to just have a debrief is is good even if there's not much to talk about in future years one that kind of surprised me was the um the opioid conversation and I think it's I think that one was because we didn't do a good job explaining what the article was um because I I think a lot of people were concerned that we didn't know how the money was going to be spent but we didn't know how the money was going to be spent because that is not what the article was about the article was about shifting it to a special account so we could be very cautious about and track what it was spent on so we weren't actually voting to spend any opio money we were voting to account for it in its own accounting bucket so that we could track it more closely and I don't think people understood that and I think we had a hard time because we had a discussion before the meeting this all about uh I I think I agree with you I think the the big issue there was the presentation yeah and um and we sort of I mean we had a meeting where we went through the entire agenda but that one didn't stick out as much as it did the meeting just before our meeting just before town meeting yeah and that was because it didn't stick out to me because it was just routine accounting transactions that don't usually get a lot of attention because that's what and we we put the routine accounting step up front in the agenda because it's like can't run the town unless you pass it but I mean to the point of the previous speaker here those are also the ones that aren't really that controversial when going to pass um but yeah that one I think we didn't do a good job of explaining I think it was the attorney that didn't do it the attorney the attorney didn't yeah any other ones that kind of stood out I'm sure the infrastructure oversight is going to go talk re replan and rework that um I I'd like to just one more thing on that like what while we're here and moving forward with the discussion with the water um that the public knows and understands because those that was the questions that was was coming up on it that this water man that's been extended from where it ends pretty much where um elderly housing is to Washington Street is going to be extended and same thing with the maal loop which I believe I haven't seen a plan but it's going to come up give it down oddborne and back out into Route Six that all of those houses that it goes by will'll get a water service a gate in front of their house at no cost there's no betterment for this at all and um and and the taxes won't be raised to have it done I mean they they will be respons responsible to connect to their house from the property line in but that's a lot better than trying to drill a new well in a contaminated area and and they're not being required to tie in right that'll be their option well well one of the things is cuz one of the places we got the VFW um I believe it makes it to the VFW the V VFW has a public water supply um they uh they got a grant for a treatment system for the VFW they spend which I'm want to find I'll find it out this week how much it cost them to test that public water supply I didn't ask them specifically but I've asked a couple other businesses and in a range between $6 and $7,000 a year to test that water so if we once just just to BFW you get the water service in front of them and you tie it in that just what they spend in testing for one year is enough to connect them into the water service so I think the public needs to know that and that'll that'll be done that they will not raise any taxes and they will be not charged to better it 20 years from now when they have failed septic systems they have to spend a lot of money to build their septic system and they say why don't we have sewer here say refer back well one of the things with that is you know they they you know the borrow of the money for the sewer was was declined um I don't think it really declined the whole project but we'll Once We Run The Water by there um there will be other departments that will knock on their door for they're doing it now for the septics so we'll see it okay anything else on town meeting okay Town Administrator report to the offshore wind and uh Westport oversight uh the Bureau of ocean Energy Management held an informational session last month at the Westport Middle High School to update the residents on the status of offshore wind projects in this area um Vineyard Northeast offshore wind is proposing a point of interconnection with the Grid in Eastern Connecticut um there was some discussion about tying it in up Route 88 at this time that is not included in their current bid um but they haven't ruled it out for future um projects they left the door open whether or not that happens I I don't know I guess I'm bringing it before the board tonight just to put it out there that at some point you know we should really have somebody that's uh more involved kind of overseeing the status of these wi projects um there's a lot to it um there's a lot of meetings there's a lot of informational sessions uh there's a number of different projects and currently I'm not tracking them um so at some point it may be worth while establishing some type of advisory committee that would um you know look out on the town's behalf either for or against um these types of uh projects but somebody that can at least keep track of it on a regular basis yeah I I think we should put on a future agenda maybe and either next time or the time after we should put on an agenda to create an advisory committee specifically for that and now we got a letter from um missgee about um volunteering to serve on the committee but I think we should put it on a posting to create the committee and then um seek people so we get some interest probably elimate some of the constituents that should be part of it so yeah maybe some thought about fishing interests as well as um environmental organizations so that you're going to cover the the range of opinions yeah I think that's a good idea I just like to say thank you for making that suggestion I do think it's something that we need to have um in a more public domain so that citizens and everybody can feel that they are um a part of it and and hearing getting updates as to uh where we are with that so uh i' just like to say thank you for that and hopefully we can um the board can put the committee like that together I do want to underscore there is no current bid proposal that includes going up 88 that but that doesn't mean there won't be one in the future there's no current when can I ask a question here when you say bid proposal what um uh who are they you're talking because this has already been bided and leased um I mean I've read the entire um construction and operations plan which is like 700 and some pages and we are front and center throughout the whole thing Westport so there's two it's always been put forth that there would be two um cable connections not one it was never like we'll do one or the other it was because such a huge project it's about 160 uh wind turbines and it's way far out so it's the one that's the farthest out and they have uh one cable coming from the um oh what would that be um the West Northwest piece of the of the lease area and then they which would which they have coming right into Horseneck Beach and then from the Southeastern piece of the of the release area they have a cable line Corridor going into New London or around that area so it was always throughout every piece of the cop um proposed as that it would be a to that they would have both of these cable corridors and so I was at the um of course I went to the the library and and talked to people and I also was on one of the uh bom Zoom meetings where you you know where where you were making a statement about um your comment your comments about it and they gave uh about an hourong presentation and on both of them that I went to the bom uh the the bom um person that was heading it up had a u a diagram over here and you know and it had uh the cable Corridor for Connecticut and the cable Corridor for Massachusetts I.E Westport and she said everything over here on the left everything that you see is part of this construction operations plan is part of this plan so I just um I mean I'm not saying that you know that I mean I don't you know but it's just weird it's just it's like we're hearing one thing from um from a couple of the Reps and yet if you read the cop and you talk to the people at bom it's a they say something totally different yeah all I can say is from what what I've been told is that the connection going to Connecticut is maybe it's more advanced than the the connection going if there is a connection going through Westport I can tell you we've only been approached once Mr Brewer and myself met with a representative of the Wind F this goes back 3 or 4 months ago and it was just a general discussion the town has not been approached that I'm aware of in any official capacity of um lines going up and down Route 88 or crossing town property um so I yeah again I think it's from what I understand they left the option open but I don't know how far Advanced that is at this point yeah based on the reading that you've done you're probably I'm sure you're more knowledgeable than I am about it so it could I just the town has not been approached on any of it okay right so but we'll talk about uh creating this committee um again I mean I'm I'm definitely in favor of creating this committee and one of my concerns are they're building this out there right now right yeah I mean it's under construction right offsh they haven't started no they haven't it's not it's not been approved it's it's through they're going through the scoping and um process and then looking at they'll be looking at a draft environmental impact study the the it it's a it'll take another few months probably I don't know five six months to actually go through the entire environmental impact statement um and then at the end of all that so there's two more opportunities for public comment and then after that b will make a decision and basically after they've made that decision um then the company is free to start but they have not started any construction yet but the very first thing that they usually do is uh put in the cable Landings so whatever cable Landings they're going to put in they would do that first um before they started more than likely before they started with putting in foundations so I I mean I think that would be more of a reason for us to get a committee sooner than later um and you know hopefully like people like the Watershed would have a representative on it because you know people that are out conservation something like that yeah we think we definitely should think about who we think should be on that committee because I think because I don't you know I don't think you know we can stop it but I we got to make sure that the environmental impact if it does hit westport's cover well it could happen real fast I mean so I think that putting together a committee and keeping everybody a breast would make it so that people would feel that they it didn't just happen behind closed doors and then all of a sudden it's it's happening which I think would probably not be good for the town but um you know because so much of it is on State Property it is um it is difficult um in terms of where Westport can weigh in thank you anything else on that okay Bristol County ARA Bristol County op right mention mentioned this before on last last meeting the select board signed a letter requesting extension of time to obligate the funds and that was granted till uh September 30th which gives us a little bit more leeway and flexibility to sum with the contract um the old high school um the school committee meeting held on Monday of last week the 14th or Tuesday the committee discussed as a cost-saving message um measure um closing or moving out of the old high school which would mean that the high school would back over to the town um this was not budgeted for it was not expected um it does impose a number of project um issues with the town not only budget wise but Manpower wise resource wise I don't have anybody that even knows where the boilers are over there so if um we all of a sudden have to be responsible for the building uh I'm hoping and I think we'll be able to work with the schools so that at least they maintain or uh share the responsibility to keep keep the uh Building open and operating um I think it accelerates the timeline as to what uh decision has to be made with this building um we just got an email back from them this morning and we had asked about some of the issues that they're having over there they're having issues with the boilers right now um they're talking about they shut they actually shut the heat off a couple months ago um so so that's going to have to be addressed um we have termites in there now so that's a $25,000 extermination that's happening as soon as the um after school program gets done it's like any building if it's not being used on a regular basis throughout the you know things tend to deteriorate a little bit quicker um so so know so we were not invited in advance we had no Advanced knowledge that they were going to be discussing this at the school committee meeting um once we were alerted to the fact that they decided this uh Jim sent a whole series a question to them primar a lot of it was budget related we planned the budget assuming they were going to be in there and taking care of some of the expenses um I don't think they volunteered to give us the money that we allocated for the build upkeep either so we'll have to work that out Karen Rouse from the finance committee also tacked on a bunch of questions um about uh related to this so I actually think we need to do two things so one I think we need to refer this to the long-term building committee I don't know if there's a meeting scheduled yet I did speak to uh the chair Chris as he said he's looking to schedule one in the next couple of weeks okay so I think I think we need input from the long-term building committee um based on this new information and then I think probably after that committee meets then we should talk about um the implications on the budget and and what we're going to do about it does that make sense okay one question so Jim did they say they were just going to absorb those offices into existing buildings yes yeah and then they're doing it for a couple of reasons at least that's what they explained at the meeting um they short administrative staff in a couple of the buildings and this will help with the overlap and help them cover some of that with their existing administrators they also want to continue to use the fields I mean I've been on the record saying we should sell that building a long time ago and that they should move their administrative offices to current facilities and they said they couldn't so apparently they have found a way um but we'll look for input on you know what to do whether this has any impact on the timing for the what to do about the school um town I'm sorry town website we've gone out for proposals on the town website to update that this is through a grant through uh Senator Rodricks that we're going to do this work we had 14 proposals we now it down to three we're going to be interviewing those companies this week and hopefully get that started uh the next next month or so um Cemetery expansion Highway Department dug a number of test pits over there last week um the preliminary results were were favorable um at least better than we expected especially with all the rain that we've had over the last few months um so we'll be setting up a meeting with pal engineering over the next week or two to see how how we can um what those areas will accommodate based on the water tables and the soils this would be the areas just north of the existing sites where it's wooded to the east of the existing garage couple of other things um just you're aware there's been work being done down at Horseneck Beach State DCR is um widening the beach road that runs from baker's Beach to East Beach um so they've been down there with some large trucks and excavators uh they're widening the road from I think it's like 10 or 12T they want to widen it to 20 ft so they doing that they're also looking to replace the fence along Bridge Street um from the boat ramp up to uh bakas Beach um conservation has been out there I think conservation has requested that they attend their next meeting to give an update to make sure that they have all that permits uh that are needed online permitting Mike Baris has gone out the proposals um they've interviewed a couple of companies I think we have it now down to one um hopefully get that before the board in the next next meeting or meeting after for contract approval um this would be mainly we'd start in the building department planning and then kind of expanded through some of the other other departments um the annex uh the well was dry this morning they had no water over the town hall Annex um we're not sure if there was a leak that ran all weekend that uh dried up the the well um they shut the water off this morning um or shut the valves closed this morning and uh didn't seem to um recoup any of the water throughout the day so uh Samco is going to go back there first thing in the morning to see if um we can get water in the well uh they did move a Portage on should be there in the morning but that's not ideal the employees can um we're working with the employees to to kind of address it we're hoping that the well will regenerate itself overnight and uh provide water in the morning it's happened a number of times in the past where the toilets it's Sandy typ water and it clogs up the fixtures in the in the men's room and and U toilet fixtures so sometimes it'll run all weekend run the well dry but normally it recoups fairly quickly this time it didn't um the only other thing that came in on Friday was 40b application for Pine Ridge one question not Jim so you're saying that the well probably ran all weekend it like a toilet or something like that it's happened before I'm hoping that's what happened now um but when they looked at the looked down the well Samco looked down late this afternoon they could see the well pump and they couldn't see any water so that's how about how about um how about the debox on the septic system cuz we had that back up into the daycare over there last year a couple times that would be a separate issue I'm not there's been no issues with that at this point um and if it was running all weekend we didn't notice any backup so um what happened in the past and you're right there was some backup in the bathrooms when the water was running all weekend that wasn't the case here did they did they do a Title Five report when they did that when that happened that I wouldn't know okay and like I said a 40b uh 38 units they'd be I think single family units up off of um I think it's called leg Drive um was the they proposed a golf course there years ago off of Route 177 just west of Route 88 um so this is a preliminary sighting application they submit to the Board of selectman and the board of selectman has 30 days to comment they're going to have a site visit a week Wednesday at 10:00 if anybody's interested um and then board does have any comments we need to get that up to the state once they get that then they will file with the zoning board of appeals for the permit approval who's bringing that forward Jim who's who's bringing that forward um I it's the owners of the property uh Paul cussen is involved and attorney Brian Cory is involved as well thank you anything that's it okay so we have the minutes from May 6 and May 7th how do they look Craig they look fine to me I reviewed them uh when I got back this morning and uh they they reflect my understanding of the meetings so I move approve um would that be both of of of both both things second is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous for one absence um report on the bill warrant Madam chair I don't know if this was included in the package but regardless um there was a routine review $2.1 million nothing jumped out at me I made a note that it was a usual array of Bills payroll and so on and so forth so that was concluded in order thank you um we have liaison committee reports and suggestions for future agendas man um I the so again back to se and water I mean I'd like to put a suggestion for a future agenda is um the neighborhood up where we have the letter from the DP from Our Lady of Grace Church if we could get that on agenda and discuss um what we can do to help those people up in that neighborhood okay maybe maybe present the d report should it be for the infrastructure me or for the select board well for the well since the select boards the um a water Commissioners I think we should maybe get involved in that yes sure and the infrastructure oversight committee is our Advisory Board that's why I was asking so but you're think just straight to here not through infrastructure first I I I did try that through infrastructure last time so that's why I'm presenting it right now okay all right so we can put that on um in two is two weeks enough time to prepare whatever we need to prepare yeah okay anything else um dick uh just one mention regarding the counil on aging and my role there as lay on um they recently completed a strategic plan it hasn't been made uh we haven't discussed it yet it's going to be at the next meeting in June to go over that um but the board of Selectmen select board should know that there will be two uh renewals of terms that are expiring one was filling the vacancy of I'm trying to remember who it was because there were a couple of um vacancies but in any event two of them will be coming up and at the next meeting the the council will uh need to uh come up with a a new chairperson uh the existing chairperson wishes to step down from that but but wishes at the same time to remain on on the council on agj which is fine so they will uh get busy on that but that'll be coming the chair chairpersonship won't be coming before us we'll be we'll be dealing dealing with a couple of uh appointments they should be routine in the near future and that's it uh aable Housing Trust the only thing that I'm sitting on right now I know I I've been volunteer for some other committees but I haven't been invited to anything yet so uh we're not meeting till this week so I'll have something to report on next meeting okay um for me the climate resiliency committee met last week um we got a really good detailed report from the Agriculture subcommittee and the health subcommittee so um the I I forget how many subcommittees we have now it might be six or seven um subcommittees are each compiling their individual reports and then they'll be put into one big report for the select board um with an executive summary so probably throughout the summer we'll be getting the reports from each subcommittee and then compiling it so hopefully by you know by fall we're talking about having a report out um I do think the AG agriculture also had a presentation at the Grange um on theirs that was pretty well attended actually um and I believe that's available on video that I heard some really good things about that one and then the health one the health was pretty interesting because it really talked about um disease vectors as one they first thought something about heat um management for uh for like the elderly and the com compromise was going to be important but really the disease vectors with the breeding of mosquitoes was really a high on the health on the health threat thing um so uh there'll be a a full report coming out from climate resilience but uh probably not until fall there was a school building committee meeting scheduled which I did not attend did you attend I did that was uh last Wednesday um still working through some of the issues um we have the gutters around the edge that we're trying to get the contractor back the aritech on board that just to make adjustments to those um identify the final numbers on the punch list as well as some warranty issues um we're getting there there's going to be a meeting I think uh next week where we're hoping the contractor as well as the architect um agree to either do the work or agree not to do the work so that we can move forward so Madam chair so the building committee meeting did did you have any discussion on the septic system up there no okay um are you aware of that we don't have a certificate compliance on the septic up there yeah You' mentioned that how about a how about a um asilt we do have an asil okay how about the abandonment of the tanks on the permit as you stated those haven't been abandoned yet so well there's there's a there was a permit so they never took out a permit for the septic that I don't know I know no I I I have a copy of the permit um they haven't taking out a permit for the septic and it states right in that those tanks needed to be abandoned under that permit so that's just my concern as it was supposed to be done under that contract it wasn't done and that permit is also expired so I don't know how we're going to address that now as a town all right so we take that back to the school building um so that was it for me you have any comments and statements from the public we don't have anyone left from the public I there's um was there any topics uh well so actually on the boards and committees uh vacancy list the boards and committees um are all coming up in about a month um so June 30th a lot of appointments will end so we do want to hear from the Committees um whether people want to be reinstated um there's always opportunities to join committee so if you're interested in one it doesn't show currently vacant Reach Out and um we can probably find a way to get you on um and anything in the under 48 hours so I've mentioned at the beginning of the meeting that we're going to go to an executive session um we will come out of executive session only to adjourn this meeting 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 fire providers Association local 1802 B discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining West uh Highway Department askme Council 93 local 1701 discuss strategy with persective collective bargaining Westport Police Association um discuss strategy with respect to negotiations with non-union Personnel suan Bron the treasurer collector and Carol frus the veteran service officer and to approve the minutes of May 6 2024 Madame chair I Richard Brewer make a motion that we Mo to Executive session for the reasons stated I Craig du just second that motion is there any discussion um all in favor many so as I I shanz I Richard Brewer I Craig Dutra all right we are in executive session